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When In Riyadh
Drudge is making a big deal of Michelle Obama’s decision not to hide her hair while in Riyadh with the President. Kudos to the First Lady?
Pretend, for a moment, that the story does not concern two vile people who would sooner spit on you than respect you as a political opponent. What should be the general rule in regard to diplomatic presentation, as opposed to diplomatic content? When in Riyadh, do as the Saudis do? Or dress and behave like an American, always and everywhere?
Also, this story is a far cry from the hubbub years ago about President Obama bowing to a Saudi leader. Did the President learn something from his critics? Why cater to foreign customs then and not now? Or are the President’s concerns irrelevant to his wife’s behavior?
Image Credit: Flickr user US Department of State.
Published in Foreign Policy, General
The president bowed when it wasn’t expected or required that he do so. He did that out of pure narcissism…. “Look at how humble and self-effacing I am”. But this with Michelle was the opposite, not doing what is actually expected. Could the motive have been the same though? … “look at me.” No I think she was making a different kind of statement, one which was definitely not motivated by narcissism.
How could she wear that outfit to anyone’s funeral, let alone that of a king, and especially the King of Saudi Arabia? That’s an outfit appropriate for an appearance on “The Ellen Show.”
As Krusty the Clown might say, “”I don’t agree with her inappropriate outfit policy, but I do approve of her uncovered head policy.”
Where is the woman in the bottom right picture?
That’s Madeline Albright.
What if, instead of going bareheaded to Riyadh, Michelle Obama had put on a headscarf against the bitter cold and attended the memorial service at Auschwitz ? Now that would have been impressive. It would have been impressive, even if she had afterwards joined the President in Riyadh, draped from head to toe, and had spent her time there hidden away, sipping tea with the harem of women now partially liberated by the death of the King. And I’ll bet some of the Auschwitz survivors could have used a hug from the First Lady.
This head scarf thing, including the eruption of comments on twitter, seems like a P.R. stunt as phony as the First Lady’s trip to Target. It’s lame.
Where is the woman in the bottom right picture?
AUMom
That’s Madeline Albright.
I’m still not sure the question has been satisfactorily answered.
Sorry. I missed the joke.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that one should only be polite to a point. Abusive customs should not be followed, ever, even at a funeral.
We are a civilized culture, that does not go out of its way to oppress women. The Saudi’s are horrible on this score (and towards gays). If they want us to honor their culture, then they need to get a real one, instead of some tribal nonsense that happens to have oil money behind it.
Their nation lives on a host: The West. It produces nothing new, contributes nothing, and would be nothing if a real Tony Stark existed to make their oil useless as they are.
I might go as far to say, I am happy if they are offended. They deserve it. The sooner we can find something besides Oil (go Lockheed) the better.
My wife and daughter just visited me in Saudi where I’m working. I warned then to get an Abaya for when we were out in public. I told them a head covering, ie scarf, was optional. After a couple of days my wife said, ” if you had ever asked me if I wanted to wear a face veil before this I would have thought you were crazy. But after having people stare at me like a piece of meat I would wear one if I had it”. Those kind of cultural norms can be very hard to buck.