Barbara Walters Takes ‘Some Time to Enjoy The View’ from the Middle East

By Rima Abdelkader



The status of Middle Eastern women and their roles have often been undervalued and misrepresented in both the United States’ and Middle East’s mainstream television news media. In the former, their identity has been limited to the clothing they wear, misrepresented through on-air discourse and visually on screen and juxtaposed with the need for ‘liberation.’ In the latter, their identity has been limited to their domestic duties where few if not many female voices appear in domestic radio and television outlets.



These are just some of many perceptions of Middle Eastern women that were discussed and debated by female television reporters and journalists from the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran, in a New York panel discussion moderated by a female U.S. TV news journalist at The Museum of Television and Radio on Thursday, April 19th.



In a political, stereotypical context, the moderator could be seen as ‘one liberator’ and the panelists as ‘oppressed women,’ but this was largely not the case. The panelists and moderator spoke candidly on the need for advancement in looking beyond the hijab or veil and discovering shared needs in each of their host countries.



Let’s get real. This topic, predominantly, has not been on the agenda of TV mainstream news media in both regions although it has been frequently debated and discussed in both public and in private spheres albeit through Western orientalist discourse. This panel discussion, though a public sphere and did on occasion fall into this type of “us” versus “them” discourse, was nonetheless distinctive in its framing of these issues since it included representatives from the mainstream TV news media world from both regions.



It was moderated by ABC’s Barbara Walters and included an impressive panel of women, including MBC anchorwoman Muna AbuSulayman, Pakistani media specialist Tasneem Ahmar, McClatchy’s Baghdad Bureau reporter Huda Ahmed, LBC journalist May Chidiac, Al Jazeera English anchorwoman Ghida Fakhry, and Iranian human rights advocate Mehrangiz Kar.



Far from a kumbaya-type of social, these panelists, notably AbuSulayman, Ahmed and Fakhry, fiercely debated Walters on several of her initiated discussions on the perceptions of Middle Eastern women.



“Americans think of woman in Saudi Arabia as not having the right to drive and covered,” Walters said and questioned AbuSulayman on the perceptions of Middle Eastern women in Saudi Arabia.



Although not having this right to drive is challenging at times AbuSulayman explained, “it is not an inconvenience” as not having equal pay for women. She blamed the later on a male/female schism rather than a religious schism. On the subject of the veil in Saudi Arabia, AbuSulayman responded, “It is not about how much is covered, it is about modesty.”



AbuSulayman is an anchorwoman and woman’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia. She hosts an Arabic version of Walter’s The View in Saudi Arabia, labeled Kalam Noua’em (Arabic for “Speaking Softly”) that airs from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia.



Learning of this new TV program in the Middle East, Walters joked, “Perhaps, you have a similar exchange like Rosie [Rosie O’Donnell], then?” The audience laughed. (For those who may not understand this inside joke, Rosie is the new co-host of The View on ABC in the United States and has received quite a lot of controversy for her political views (For an example, click here).)



Divorced and living independently with one child, AbuSulayman does not fit the old/modern political stereotype of an Arab woman. Although she only lives fifteen minutes away from her family, she explained it is still a challenge for her given the harsh restrictions imposed on women in her host country. In her discussion, she referred to Prophet Mohammed’s (phuh) first wife, Khadijah, who she considers best exemplified an independent, Arab woman. At the age of 40 years old, Khadijah was both a widow and a businesswoman who ran her own caravan trading business. It was at that age when she married Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) who was 25 years old at the time and working in that business under her supervision.



Barbara then asked Ahmar, “In Pakistan, women are not ‘liberated,’ forgive me if I’m not using the right word. Is that true?” This question falls into the Western orientalist discourse I had mentioned earlier.



Ahmar disagreed with Walters on her description of Pakistani women and explained that it is more so about them being confined to domestic duties than liberation. “The men still believe that the women should not be allowed outside the home,” she said.



Ahmar is Pakistan’s Resource and Publication Centre on Women and Media director and said that in her country of Pakistan, “Women are being killed for honor if seen with another man.” She said progress is being made, however, and explained that four male witnesses are no longer required under Pakistani law to absolve women of alleged crimes against them.



In her work, she said, she tries “to sensitize the media on gender issues” to affect men’s thinking of women in Pakistan in hopes for change. She said she is a teacher and her hope is that her students will have different mindsets than those who currently hold misogynistic views.



McClatchy’s Baghdad Bureau Reporter Huda Ahmad, who asked that her picture not be taken for fear of retribution and imprisonment by Iraqi authorities, discussed her role on the frontlines in covering war and carnage in her host country. “Anywhere you want to write a story, you have to gain their [Iraqis] trust,” she said. Her main fear, she told the audience, is that her “name will be published by the militia and Al Qaeda.”



“One story can kill you,” and added that she and her colleagues “try to avoid the cameras” and wait for the cameramen to give them clues on when the camera is turned off, so they can pass through with ease.



When asked if she will return to Iraq, she answered, “My friend once told me that if I do, I would not live long enough to write the story.” The Iraqi citizens who are aware of this, she said, now get their news from the Internet and blogs.



AbuSulayman, adding to the discussion, said she does not watch television anymore, but instead watches YouTube. In Saudi Arabia, she said there are Internet cafes, which she believed is revolutionizing the way in which Saudi Arabians retrieve their daily news. Blogging, she said, is a form of citizen journalism and is growing in Saudi Arabia.



Iranian human rights activist Mehrangiz Kar, a visiting scholar of the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, discussed her role and plight living in Iran. She explained that she is banned from returning to her country ever since she spoke out for Iranian women’s rights. Her and her husband can not see one another due to Iran's resulting censorship, she explained. More troubling, she said, is that her husband is under house arrest for speaking on his and her behalf on camera.



“Promoting women’s human rights is impossible,” Kar said and added that “Women rights activists are working very hard through the Internet and email.”



LBC journalist May Chidiac, who lost her arm and leg in Sept. 25, 2005 in an assassination attempt in Lebanon, is determined to stay in her native country of Lebanon. “Even though we live in danger,” she said, “doesn’t mean we listen to our enemies.” There was shock and awe from the audience when she made them aware of her 26 operations.



On the subject of Middle Eastern women on Arabic television, Chidiac told AbuSulayman that she was shocked to learn from her Arabic version of The View that 99% of Saudi Arabian men are against having Arab women in the media.



Walters asked AbuSulayman why there are so many restrictions in Saudi Arabia. AbuSulayman countered that “there are mainly restrictions at the ministerial levels and at top positions in factories,” not in all employment levels. She explained that it is relative. She grew up looking up to her mother and her mother’s friends as role models as they were in top positions in the labor force themselves.



Fakhry responded to the generalization of Walters’ question of restrictions in Middle Eastern countries and said, “I think there is a tendency to generalize” [on the part of the United States].



On the subject of media, Fakhry thought it was “unfathomable” that Al Jazeera English is not shown in the United States. (However, worth noting, some of Al Jazeera English’s programming can be found on YouTube.)



Walters asked Fakhry, “Why is Al Jazeera International biased towards America?”



Fakhry responded, “The mantra of Al Jazeera International is to show two sides” and added that the network shows the “reality of what you see out there.”



Ahmad, agreeing with Fakhry, went further into the topic of generalization and told Walters, the United States government and soldiers only knew about the civilization of Babylon when they invaded her host country of Iraq. When the Iraqis learned the United States entered their country, she said, “At first, they thought they [United States] had information they [Iraqis] were not aware of.”



Walters responded, “We were ignorant not only in your country, but in other countries. We’re learning slowly but surely.”



Fakhry contested and asked Walters what is being done. Walters answered, “The big question is, what do we do about this?” Fakhry persisted, “That is not raised in the United States.” Walters then replied, “I can’t represent the whole media let alone ABC.” This is where the panel discussion became “a hot topic” as the cast of Walter’s The View would say.



These women, in the end, pointed out that what one fails to realize is that Middle Eastern women share the same need as any other woman: the need to affect positive change in their lives. Yes, there are differences in which they live their lives (from social, economic, political, educational, religious, etc.) and what ‘positive change’ may consist of, but that with which they share is relatively the same.



Following the forum, I asked Walters if she would consider having such a panel on her show, The View, in the United States. She answered that such a forum took much and energy on the part of MTR. I persisted then to ask her, then, why not have at least one woman from this panel share their views on the status and perceptions of Middle Eastern women in both media outlets? Considering that idea, Walters told me she may consider having AbuSulayman on her show given that she has an Arabic version of The View in her country.



Rima Abdelkader is a NY-based journalist and a graduate of Pace University in NY.