Arab Feminists Stun Southern California Audiences

By Pat McDonnell Twair

The American Friends Service Committee, which has been assisting Arab feminists to address the issue of violence toward women in their respective countries, brought 10 activists to the United States this spring to network on strategies to combat domestic crimes against women. Speaking in the Los Angeles area were Dr. Faika Medjahed, an Algerian dental surgeon, filmmaker and writer, and Leah Sawalha, a public health specialist from Amman, Jordan.

Dr. Medjahed spoke passionately as she described the all-out war being waged on women in Algeria. Explaining that her country is close to anarchy, with radical Islamists ruling most of the country at night and all but the capital by day, the dentist-turned-documentary filmmaker said women are the most vulnerable members of her society and, hence, are targeted first.

At an AFSC reception in Pasadena, the phenomenon of contemporary Islamic women choosing to wear the hijab (a head scarf which many non-Arabs refer to as a "veil") dominated questions posed to both of the visiting feminists.

"The practice of hijab has increased in Jordan commensurate with the growth of the Muslim Brotherhood," Sawalha explained. "I'd venture to say 90 percent of women university students and professors wear scarves as a political statement."

The fiery Dr. Medjahed said that in Algeria the hijab has become the "supreme obligation" for women. Those who don't cover up are subject to death by Islamists, who have killed more than 200 women since 1992.

"Peasant women who work in the fields aren't forced to cover, but in the cities women must hide behind the hijab," Dr. Medhajed asserted. "They are walking graves whose minds are entombed."

Asked who imposes the rule that Algerian women must wear hijab, she replied: "The fundamentalists. If there isn't enough employment for men, they say women are holding their jobs. If there is a housing shortage, they kill widows who are living alone to take their homes. They even blame the hole in the ozone layer on women."

"No matter what the problem, they say the solution is to veil women and keep them at home in the kitchen," she continued. "When we've asked the government to stop this inquistion, we get no response. During Ramadan, they killed the president of the feminist movement because she wasn't veiled while helping village women to start their own carpet factory. They killed a three-year-old because they said his mother had loose morals. They interrogate children in the mosques and schools and ask if their parents fast during Ramadan and if they drink alcohol."

Asked how Americans can assist Arab feminists, Sawalha stated: "During this visit, we've become aware of many myths Americans accept about Arab women. Maybe these myths are intended to keep Western and Eastern women divided, to make them fearful of what they don't know. But please try to stop these negative stereotypes of Arab women. We're neither stupid nor uneducated."

Sawalha smiled when asked if she thought the statement that American women are "liberated" is a means of alienating Arab women from their "sisters" in the United States.

"Unfortunately, yes," she said. "Jordanian women perceive American women as loose. Growing up, girls are told 'do you want to be fast and have several lovers and divorces like Americans? Your place is in the home.'"

Dr. Medjahed added: "When I first arrived in the U.S. and learned you have shelters for battered women, I thought such havens didn't say much for female emancipation. Then I realized the U.S. is probably the first country to say out loud, 'Our women are being battered.' You are the first country to ask your men to take counseling for battering women. What I'll take home with me is the image of solidarity among women. Before I came here, I thought of American women as robots. The warmth and hospitality I've encountered will remain with me forever."

A similar message was repeated when the dedicated duo spoke at the Santa Monica Friends Meeting building. Noting that she is risking her life to be speaking out in the U.S., Dr. Medjahed said: "Traditionally, Algerian women have been tied by an umbilical cord to Europe—not the Arab world. Now I've had the opportunity to meet many wonderful Arab women in the U.S. I've told the women from Palestine I hope they will never find themselves in our [Algerian] position.

"My message to the U.S. and to Amnesty International is to help prevent a people from dying as we are in Algeria," the prize-winning film documentarian continued. "Violence reigns in Algeria today. It began 11 years ago with the 1984 signing of the family law code that robbed women of all their rights. Terrorism is blind in Algeria today. Anyone can be blown up and has been in the past three years. Democracy in Algeria means anyone can die."

When asked about domestic violence against women in her country, Sawalha said the Jordanian Women's Union is a two-year-old grassroots organization that has a newly opened hotline for violence against women. However, she commented, it is not equipped to deal with issues of rape or incest, but rather with women's rights in the work place.

Dr. Medjahed said there are no statistics on domestic violence in Algeria. "If a woman complains, she knows her husband will divorce her and she'd rather stay married than be homeless. The problem is not raised for this reason."

L.A. 8 Hearings Resume

Security was heightened to elaborate proportions when deportation hearings for Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh resumed in March. Was it an effort to discourage non-citizen Arabs from attending or genuine security worries that caused plainclothes detectives speaking into walkie-talkies to refuse entry to anyone who didn't have a photo identification? Defense attorney Marc Van Der Hout arrived at the courthouse without such identification. Proceedings were delayed for two hours while he retrieved his identification papers. Many questioned this inasmuch as Judge Bruce Einhorn knows Van Der Hout personally and therefore could have granted him entry.

Judge Einhorn chairs a committee of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, but he twice has turned down defense requests that he recuse himself from hearing the L.A. 8 case because of his ADL connections. Friends of the defense didn't want to sound paranoid, but eyebrows were raised when a marshall ejected reporter Jane Hunter, editor-founder of the Israeli Foreign Affairs newsletter, and a staff member of the American Civil Liberties Union for moving in their seats when they leaned forward to hear Israeli expert witness Ariel Merari, who was not speaking directly into the microphone.

Arab-American Coach Leads UCLA

The coach of the Number One college basketball team in the United States is an Arab American of Lebanese descent. He is Jim Harrick, who led his UCLA team to the school's 11th national championship April 3. The UCLA Bruins' 89-78 win over Arkansas was its first NCAA men's college basketball triumph since legendary coach John Wooden garnered UCLA 10 national championships from 1964 to 1975.

Harrick has led his team to some 20 victories in each of the seven seasons he's been with UCLA. Few are aware of it, but both sides of the coach's family originated in Lebanon. His wife, Sally, also is of Lebanese descent. Harrick's name, in Arabic, appropriately means "active."

Shortly after the victory in Seattle's Kingdome, Coach Harrick talked on the phone to President Bill Clinton, who had watched the game from Little Rock, AR.

"We hated to do it to your Hogs, but we just had to," the coach said to the president, who has termed himself the Number One fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

King Hussein Visits L.A.

When Jordan's King Hussein paid a two-day visit to Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times covered his visit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center on page one of its Metro section, but alloted only five paragraphs to a subsequent story on the Jordanian monarch's address to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

It was 59-year-old King Hussein's fourth address to the LAWAC, and more than 850 members and friends heard him call for a new mind set on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict to replace the psychological legacy of war. Peaceful coexistence, he said, can only come about in an environment of shared optimism and interests.

During the question-and-answer session following his speech, the king was queried on why he signed a peace treaty with Israel before a comprehensive settlement with Israel was reached by Syria and Lebanon.

"If Jordan, for some unknown reason, were the last [Arab state] to ratify an agreement with Israel, who would care about Jordan?" he asked rhetorically. "No one has done more for the Palestinians and peace than Jordan. We've closed a chapter on strife. Walls have been torn down not only in Berlin, but between Jordan and Israel."

In response to a query about Jordan's position on Israel's nuclear stockpile, he said: "Our treaty is the only one to mention conventional and nonconventional weapons of mass destruction. We hope the voices of Israelis and Egyptians will be consistent. We want the whole Middle East to be free of weapons of mass destruction."

King Hussein was in and out of Los Angeles two days before the Academy Awards ceremony here. However, he couldn't avoid a peripheral brush with the O.J. Simpson trial. Among those in the World Affairs Council audience was Simpson defense team attorney Robert Shapiro.

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.