Mrs. Michelle Obama in Saudi Arabia - charisma!

In 2007, I wrote about how impressive it was for women of the world to see Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sitting with Middle East leaders, sans burka. That was 7 years ago and now Mrs. Michelle Obama is exceeding expectations - sans burka encore!

Universally, women are drawn to charismatic feminine fashions. 
Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy is a world class example. In the 1950s and '60s, women didn't need a Fashion 101 course to instantly recognize the charisma Mrs. Kennedy held with the feminine (and masculine, too) psyche.  

Beautiful Mrs. Obama, sans burka, in Saudi Arabia

"Jackie" was like a First Lady paper doll. She complimented everything she wore, including sunglasses, babushkas and jeans.  

Likewise, Mrs. Obama commands the same charisma, with an obvious exception. Mrs. Obama's persona extends beyond the Oleg Cassini high styles. Her gender and race puts her at the top of the charismatic list among women of color in the world, who are decidedly not "Jackie".  

Mrs.Jackie Kennedy in 1962 - fashion for the ages, in Newport 

Rhode Island, in an Oleg Cassini silk gown

Although Mrs. Michelle Obama isn't the first Saudi Arabian guest dignitary, sans burka, she is the most beautiful.  And take it from me....Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern women are in awe of her fashion and leadership.

In Saudi Arabia....

There’s a lot of fuss over what Michelle Obama didn’t wear on a visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, to offer condolences for the country’s late King Abdullah, along with her husband.

Headlining a story on the First Lady’s choice to bare her hair, the Washington Post wrote, “Make no mistake: Michelle Obama just made a bold political statement in Saudi Arabia.” 

Bloomberg claimed that her choice of attire “quietly but forcefully represented women in a land that refuses to grant them many rights.”

It’s undoubtedly true that Saudi Arabia greatly impinges on basic rights for women. Saudi women are expected to wear long sleeved, full-length abayasand cover their hair with a headscarf. The country’s male guardianship laws keep them from moving about freely without a male relative, and women are further barred from driving.

Foreign women, however, are not legally required to wear the headscarf. Still, the U.S. State Department advises American women against going with them. “Women who choose not to conform to this dress code face risk of confrontation by Mutawwa [Saudi Arabia’s religious police] and possible detention/arrest..

Michelle Obama didn’t heed that warning, but she’s in good company. Neither did Secretary of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton.

No scarf for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, right, and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Hamad Al-Sabah in March 2012.

First Lady Laura Bush had tea sans headscarf with Saudi King Abdullah at Riyadh Airport in May 2008. (Looks to me like King Abdullah didn't have a problem with Mrs. Bush's hair cover!)

Even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) praised Michelle Obama on Twitter for “standing up for women”, by not wearing what he called, a “Sharia-mandated head-scarf in Saudi Arabia.” 

Thank you Mrs. Michelle Obama. You have achieved bipartisan and universal praise for your fashion leadership. 

Indeed, women like Mrs. Obama and others have made Saudi Arabian ladies more powerful than ever before, even as the Kingdom suppresses their equality. Just showing up sans burka (headscarf) and "presto" women control of the media! Saudi Arabian women are intelligent...they "get it".

Women Changing the Face of Islam

Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi woman to climb to the top of Mount Everest. Moharrak was the only woman in a four-person team called “Arabs with Altitude.” “I don’t care about being the first,” she told Al-Jazeera, “so long as it inspires someone else to be the second.”

Although  many voices of tolerance call for dialogue with the Muslim people and those who practice Islam, the fact is, the religion itself doesn't do much to support women.  But now,  the women of Islam are helping to support themselves.

Obviously, without women there would be zero Muslims, but women are not valued for their contributions to the culture. ( I write this from the point of view of having been in a dinner conversation several years ago, with a few Muslim paramedics, who candidly explained how they culturally experience sudden infant death syndrome among babies. A boy receives more aggressive life support than a girl.  This discourse is a tragically true story.)

Unfortunately, the face of Islam is usually male and stern.  This affect doesn't help to build tolerance when extremist terrorist networks within the Muslim culture are stereotyped as religious fanatics.  Clearly, 50 percent of the Muslim culture includes women, it seems like the world should see more of them from behind their burkas and hijab shrouds.  

Women can change the face of Islam. In so doing, they will improve tolerance for their culture and faith, transcending the stereotype extremist image.

Perhaps because of the international availability of cable news like CNN or social networking, a few Muslim women are cautiously attempting to be role models who will change the face of Islam. 

Some Muslim women like Malala Yousafzai, are trying to break out of the mold, as reported in Huffington Post.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/20/kick-ass-women-of-the-muslim-world_n_3624299.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Malala Yousafzai gave a stirring speech at the U.N. last Friday, her first major appearance since being shot in the head by the extremists in the Pakistani Taliban, in October, for her efforts to promote girls’ education in the country.

Yousafzai was celebrated July 12, her 16th birthday, which the U.N. proclaimed Malala Day. “By targeting Malala, extremists showed what they feared the most: a girl with a book, ” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a speech marking the event.

“They thought that bullets would silence us, but they failed,” said Yousafzai, wearing a shawl that once belonged to Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s first female prime minister, who was assassinated in 2007. “There was a time when women’s activists asked men to stand up for women’s rights. This time we will do it for ourselves.”

Another woman Saudi is making her statement in film.  Haifaa al-Mansour faced some unusual obstacles while directing “Wadjda,” a coming-of-age story about a young girl who plots to own a bicycle despite a ban on women riding in public. The film is the first to be shot entirely on Saudi soil, and, due to restrictions on men and women working together, al-Mansour often had to direct the actors and crew remotely with a walkie-talkie. Despite these challenges, Saudi Arabia’s first female director has said her country is becoming “more tolerant and more accepting.” However, the film will be available in Saudi Arabia only on DVD or television, as public cinemas generally are banned.

A woman climbing Mt. Everest is always an interesting story, but when she's also a Saudi, her accomplishment indicates social change towards women is indeed on the horizon.  In May, 27-year-old graphic designer Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi woman to climb to the top of Mount Everest. Moharrak was the only woman in a four-person team that called themselves “Arabs with Altitude.” “I don’t care about being the first,” she told Al-Jazeera, “so long as it inspires someone else to be the second.”

As the face of Islam women are revealed, controversy ensues. A 21-year-old Syrian woman caused a minor sensation in November when she posted a picture of herself on Facebook without the veil she wore most of her life. Looking right into the camera, Dana Bakdounis holds her passport with a note saying, “I’m with the uprising of women in the Arab world because for 20 years, I wasn’t allowed to feel the wind in my hair and (on) my body.” The post was briefly removed after Bakdounis received a flood of comments and threats, though Facebook later apologized and said this was an error. Twitter users created the hashtag #windtoDana in support.

These and other heroic women stories, some published and probably many more occurring "under the veil" are eventually finding their way into talk shows, social media and word of mouth communications.   Collectively, women will rise and shed the burkas of oppression and change the face of Islam for the better.

It's hard to understand how fifty percent of any group can remain oppressed for as long as Islam women have been wrapped in inequality.  Nevertheless, there's no time like the present to change this social gender stigma.  The Muslim culture, where extremists and fanatics hide, cannot thrive unless the negative stereotypes are improved.  Islam women seem to be awakening to this challenge. In so doing, there is hope for tolerance both within their own culture and certainly to the skeptical universe outside the veil.

Fashionably Bare Arms- Women and Power

Feminine Power In Those Fashion Arms!

Women and fashion are charismatic duets, but the recent history of bare arms gives women a powerfully salient social signal. Arms are respectable and exert authority. 

Throughout history, the exposure of any womanly body part has created fashion news, but many of the exposures were mitigated by modesty. Not so with arms. Our beautiful First Lady Michele Obama has lifted the exposure of strong and bare arms to "office sheik .  Her self esteem and boldness in sleeveless fashion has infused the arm, an essential appendage of the female anatomy, with renewed respectability.  

Arms are symbolic of holding and comforting as well as aggression and defensive posturing.  Arms are strong and soft at the same time.

Mrs. Obama follows iconic First Lady Jackie Kennedy, who also portrayed her demurely powerful arms, as this photograph shows:

And this stunning vision of feminine power in a sleeveless  Versace gown, elegantly worn by the late Diana, Princess of Wales

When women of the developing world are exposed to a female leader who they admire, they must be in awe of the power in these respectable images.  These women don't expose themselves to grab attention.  Women who boldly, fashionably and respectably bare their slender arms are sending message to all our female colleagues.  We are armed with the power to lead, and influence others to create a more beautiful and peaceful world.  

Unfortunately, many women in the world are victims of fashion terrorism. For zealous religious reasons, they wear black, head to toe burkas. These bleak gowns customarily cover their bodies like shrouds, before they're dead.  

It seems to me, in this age of international instant communications, the burka imprisoned women must eventually see what fashion icons like Michelle Obama are wearing.  They must see Mrs. Obama in pearls and sleeveless dress and wonder if they, too, can be like her.  Why not?  

Sleeveless fashion doesn't violate feminine modesty.  As a matter of fact, most sleeveless fashion attracts attention, without offending anyone.

Those blessed with slender or well developed arms have every reason to exhibit their feminine mystique by wearing sleeveless fashions.  In so doing, they can rise above the status of dedicated fashionistas.   Fashion boldness can inspire independence among all women, even those who live most of their lives wearing burkas. Sleeveless fashion can, potentially, infuse those imprisoned in ugly burkas to seek fashionable and powerfully lovely attire (and independence).