July 1991, Page 73

Arab-American Activism

By Catherine M. Willford

Bush Attends Kahlif Gibran Memorial Dedication

President George Bush cut the ribbon to open the Kahlil Gibran Memorial Garden on May 24 in Washington, DC, stating that the greatest bequest of the Lebanese-born poet "was the key by which we opened our own imaginations . " Mixing garden motifs from Western and Arab cultures, the two-acre site features a bronze bust of the poet, stone benches inscribed with quotes from his works, fountains, and three cedars of Lebanon. The park is situated on Massachusetts Avenue, directly opposite the British Embassy.

Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, the gardens' architects, are known for the design of the National Air and Space Museum, the World Bank and the National Archives.

Members of the Kahlil Gibran Centennial Foundation were pleased with the location because its proximity to diverse places of worship, including a mosque, a synagogue and many churches, is in keeping with the ecumenical spirit of the poet's work. The garden is intended to provide a "quiet space in a busy city where people of all races, nationalities and creeds can go to experience the spirit of poetry and enjoy the sweet repose of solitude in a place that celebrates a man who devoted his art to uniting humanity and elevating the human condition.

Kahlil Gibran has long been a popular poet in this country. More than 8 million copies of Gibran's book The Prophet have been sold in the US since 1923. At the dedication, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater mentioned that General Norman Schwarzkopf kept a copy by his bedside.

Glamour Article Confronts Stereotypes of Arab-American Women

The June 1991 issue of Glamour magazine featured an article by contributing editor Susan Edminston titled, "Arab American Women: It's Time to End the Stereotypes. " The piece profiled several prominent Arab-American women, including Terry Ahwal, assistant to the executive of Wayne County, MI; Jessica Daher, regional coordinator for the Detroit chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); Hoda Amine-Safiedine of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, MI; and Karima Bennoune, a student activist from the University of Michigan who was featured on the "MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour" during the Gulf War.

Edminston, based in Berkeley, CA, expresses a "long-term interest in the Middle East," and has been to the region several times. She originally intended to cover the reaction of Arab-American women to the Gulf war, but finished the piece the day of the cease-fire. However, Glamour Senior Editor Judith Coyne found that a story debunking myths about Arab-American women was "implicit in the material."

The article states that "having taken the heat of discrimination during the war... tired of being stereotyped and stigmatized, Arab-American women are ready to be known and, as United States involvement and influence in the Middle East grows, their fellow Americans need to know them. " The women profiled in the article discuss discrimination they and their families have faced in the US and media "over-generalizations" about the Middle East that lead to the stereotype of all Arab women as passive or submissive.

Glamour, one of the most widely read women's magazines in the country, has demonstrated sensitivity about Arab-bashing since August 1989, when it published "I Am Not a Terrorist" by Ellen Mansoor Collier, a Palestinian-American writer from Houston (reprinted in the October 1989 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs). During the Gulf war, articles on the conflict spoke out against anti-Arab discrimination in the US. The magazine has covered racism and multicultural issues extensively, themes that Senior Editor Coyne states "our readership has been open to and is interested in."

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has urged its members to "congratulate the magazine on this refreshing profile of Arab-American women. " In a recent letter to Editor-in-Chief Ruth Whitneycommending the article, ADC President Albert Mokhiber stated, "Glamour has made tremendous strides in eliminating the bevy of stereotypes and misnomers about the Arabs."

Israeli Occupation Protested

A demonstration to protest 24 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem was held June 5th in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. The protest was sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and endorsed by more than 30 other Washington, DC-based organizations.

Demonstration organizers expressed concern for the "untold misery of the 1.5 million Palestinians under the occupation's shadow," who have been subjected to torture, murder, arrest, deportation, demolition of homes and expropriation of land and water. They pointed out that, according to the Chicago-based Palestine Human Rights Center, over 900 Palestinians have been killed and over 100,00 injured since the beginning of the intifada.

Signs carried by the demonstrators called for an end to the more than $4.5 billion annual US aid to Israel, which funds the Israeli occupation and the growth of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

Catherine M. Willford is the circulation director for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.