My fellow women beware … in France you have no freedom of choice!

Yesterday President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed both houses of parliament and during his speech he showed his support to banning the Niqb (a veil which covers the face, worn by some Muslim women as a part of their Hijab). Sarkozy attacked the Niqab describing it as “a sign of subservience” that suppresses women's identities and turns them into "prisoners behind a screen."

What amazes me is that Sarkozy assumes that all women who wear the Niqab are forced to do so and he didn’t stop for a one minute to consider that may be … just may be some women wear it because they truly believe that it is part of their religion’s teaching and they are willingly following it.

I am a Muslim woman and I don’t believe in the Niqab but I wear a scarf on my head (Hijab) that was my choice and my belief. However even though I don’t believe in the Niqab I don’t think that anyone has the right to deprive a woman from her own freedom of choice. Every woman has the right to choose what to wear, what to believe in and how to express her believes in any way she wants and that goes for every human being.

Reading Sarkozy’ statement was really disturbing and reminded of how I felt in 2004 when France banned wearing the headscarf in public schools. What right does any secular government has to force their opinions on people’s religion.

Sarkozy claims that the Niqab is “a sign of debasement” … is it really? A study was done in 2003 estimated that about 15,000 - 20,000 women work as prostitutes in France. So which is more humiliating for a woman, covering her body as per her own choice or showing it off and selling her own flesh for money unwillingly.

Sarkozy refuses the existence of Niqab in France "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic." he said.

So, what about French Muslim women who wear the Niqab, they will not be welcomed in their own country anymore? How about Muslim women who are married to French people, are they going to be kicked of France and separated from their families if they decided to stick to their believes? Or will the French government put them under house arrest? Is France now going to dictate to people what parts of their religions’ teachings they should follow and what parts to discard?

I honestly don’t see any difference between KSA and France right now. KSA forces women to wear the Niqab against their well and France is forcing women to take of their Niqab and scarf against their own well. But you know what at least KSA never pretend to be anything than an extremist country while France claims to be a free open country when at the end it only want to impose its own values under the flag of neutrality.

The thing that is funny though, this whole thing is about women, yet women have no say about it at all.

Arab Media Forum Disappointment!

Yesterday was the first time for me to attend the Arab Media Forum. I had a meeting at the morning but luckily I finished just in time to catch the session I was really interested in attending; “Daily Newspapers: Crisis in the West, growth in the Arab World."

We have all been arguing about the death of printed media and the rise of digital and social media. Yet one year ago, The National newspaper was launched in the UAE and a couple of months ago Alrroya Aleqtisadiya newspaper did. In Egypt I honestly lost track of newspapers launched as every now and then I hear of a new one. My colleague just read that a new printed newspaper will launch in Oman. Does this look like a growth in printed media or what?

So I was really looking forward to the session hoping it would shed the light on the reasons behind this growth or proving the death of printed media, especially with the prominent media figures speaking and attending. I was expecting a great debate and a heated discussion among all attendees, but what a major disappointment I had.

The first disappointment was when I found out that the editor in chief of Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, Magdy El Galad, didn’t show up. I was really looking forward to hearing the opinion of the man who runs a relatively new newspaper that managed in a couple of years to attract millions of readers and to even surpass other famous newspapers in Egypt that have been there for decades. I still don’t know why he didn’t show up and no one even tried to explain the reason behind his absence as if he was never part of this forum at all!

The second disappointment was when each speaker simply recited his speech and you could see how most of them were backing the idea of printed media dying, then, and because apparently the whole forum was running behind schedule there wasn’t enough time for a good Q&A. Hence no debate or heated discussion =O(

The third disappointment was when I found myself coming out of the forum with no added value at all. I mean before attending the session I knew that digital media provides more freedom of speech and that printed media is dying in the west. I knew that social media tools like twitter and facebook are widely used in all aspects of life; business, politics, social networking … etc. So what’s new?

I hoped to hear those who believe in the death of printed media to tell me why I still have dozens of newspapers delivered to my doorstep every morning and why new newspapers keep launching and what are they doing to join the digital era since they believe it is arriving to the Middle East.

I wanted to hear from those defending the existence of printed media other reason than merely “A Man can’t enjoy his morning coffee without reading the newspaper and smelling the ink”.

I was expecting more from all the media figures at this session. I was expecting logical answers, I was expecting a discussion between the speakers to analyze the real situation here in the Middle East and discuss all aspects affecting printed or digital media. I mean why should I think that printed media is dying because a couple of people at the mall said they use mobile and internet to access news. Why should I believe that these examples represent the majority of people in the Middle East when I know for a fact that just as there are thousands of people who uses web2.0 and other technologies to access news, there are also millions of people who are still computer illiterate.

Why should I believe that printed media is dying because statistics show that users of facebook and twitter are over thousands when I know for a fact that there are millions who can’t even afford buying computers, yet can afford paying the 2 dirham to buy a newspaper.

The speeches given explaining why digital media was prevailing or why printed media is not dying didn’t provide me with the answers I was looking for. I think I was expecting a more realistic approach to the topic focusing on the conditions of the Arab world and not just speculations form some and reciting statistics from others.

Most of all what I expected and didn’t get was an answer to the main question which reflects the title of this session, “Why there is growth in the printed media in the Arab World when it is dying in the West”

So I ended up disappointed!

In response to: PR and the press: it’s over, but let’s still be friends!

I have been in the UAE for two years. For the past year and six months I have been working in PR and so far I enjoy it.

However, ever since I started I couldn’t help noticing that weird love/hate relationship between media and PR here. So many times I have read and heard journalists talking about how the PR industry is woeful and PR people are a mere hindrance to them. I kept quiet till I read today’s article in The National.

I really liked it when Tala was talking about the ethics of journalism and said “some of us...” I liked how she acknowledged that some journalists understand true journalism and others don’t. I just wish that she did the same talking about PR because, believe it or not, there are good PR people out there just as there are bad ones. I really don’t think that Tala met or dealt with every single PR person here.

I agree that PR shouldn’t be the journalist’s only source of information. But why not be one of many? I know my client’s business better than anyone, I know what they are doing, products they are launching, events they are holding, conferences they are attending …etc. So why couldn’t I be simply the source who informs you of that. If the story interests you then great if not so what’s the harm? As a journalist you follow the leads you have and see which one gets you the story, right?

True that my loyalty as a PR person is to my client but that doesn’t mean my job is to trick people/ media into believing wrong things or hide truth from them. I remember that the first thing I learnt in PR was to always stick to facts and if anything went wrong with my clients not to try and hide the truth because it always finds its way out, instead deal with it. So, stick to fact and don’t lie, does this sound like bad PR?

When I pick up the call to see why you didn’t cover a story, something I have done on some occasions, I simply want to know your opinion because I have seen you cover similar topics or ones related to the story I have shared with you. So, I simply want to discuss it with you and understand your point of view so in the future I would spare you the extra e-mail in your inbox, does this offer of a dialogue sound like bad PR?

When I send out a release I don’t expect you to take it as it is and publish it now, if it interests you, you could tackle it your own way, seek more info, compare the info I gave you with other resources. I don’t want you to take it just for granted. Does this sound like bad PR?

Honestly I think my only problem with today’s article was that Tala accused all PR people of being “too demanding, too clingy” and that “they are usually hired to burnish a client’s reputation, to enhance the client’s image, to “make them look good”.

I know that there is good PR and bad PR just as there is good journalism and bad journalism. I don’t think it is fair to generalize things in our life; I never did and never will.

Why is everything turning into Muslim Vs Coptic Issue?

Ever since the Egyptian government decided to slaughter the 350,000 pigs in Egypt because of Swine Flu and I have been hearing conflicting thoughts and views as some are praising the decision and others are fighting it and accusing the government of ignorance. Honestly, I was ok with that; after all you could never please everyone.

I still haven’t made up my mind regarding the rightness of this decision though. Sometimes when I read in websites like CDC about how Influenza viruses can be directly transmitted from pigs to people and from people to pigs, I say may be it was the right decision, may be it is better to be safe than sorrow. We already screwed up the Bird Flu situation, should we wait till we screw up this situation as well!

Other times when I read that there are no confirmed cases of transmission between pigs and humans at this point as per WHO and hear people argue; should we kill humans infected as well? I re-think the whole situation. I mean I know I can’t compare humans to pigs but they are still living creatures who shouldn’t be unjustly killed, not to mention the farms owners who will be badly damaged as well. Kinda confusing hah!

I think we can argue about this for ages but what I don’t think we can argue about is these ridiculous claims that I have been hearing lately that this decision was taken merely to persecute Coptic living in Egypt and how since Muslims don’t eat pigs then it was ok to slaughter them. I think this is so ridiculous and I really don’t understand why the f***does everything in Egypt lately is turning into Muslim Vs Coptic issue.

I still remember the old movies talking about the 1919 revolution and how Egyptians walked together holding flags and screaming long lived the crescent with the cross. How Sheikhs spoke in churches and Priests spoke in mosques. Was that just in movies or are those good old days gone?

From my part I have never felt that there were any issues between Muslims and Coptic in Egypt. Our neighbor is Coptic and we lived in the same building for 15 years and I know she is my mother’s best friend. She used to celebrate with us during our feasts and we celebrated with her during hers. I have lots of friends who are Coptic and we never had any issues.

I am not saying that Egypt is a LaLa land. There are some differences and sensitivity issues which unfortunately were created because of fanatics in both sides and people like those with their silly claims who are trying to create divisions, but I really believe that the whole issue is not as massive as some would like it to be.

Right now, I just have one question to those who claimed that the decision was taken to persecute Coptic; do you really believe deep down that the Egyptian government was simply thinking of a way to persecute Coptic and hence decided to kill all the pigs to make them suffer!

Honestly, I only have one thing to say to those kinds of people… GET A LIFE and stop this CRAP because we are sick of it and let us live in peace.

Remember… at the end of the day we are all Egyptians, we are one nation and Egypt is our homeland.

May the cross and the crescent live united longer and longer despite fanatics.

The $1,000,000 question …How many genders are out there?

All my life I knew that there were two genders; male and female, apparently however I was totally wrong and ignorant.

According to digg.com there are 16 types of genders that you have to choose from when creating your profile.

1- Guy

2- Girl

3- Dude

4- Lady

5- Fellow

6- Bird (Birdy Egg from Nest Ville – Oak land, signing up to Digg)

7- Chap

8- Grrrl

9- Gentleman

10- Damsel

11- Beau

12- Belle

13- Male

14- Female

15- Transgender

16- None of the above (Aliens who want to Digg)

See how ignorant I was =)

Funky Arab… Are we indeed?!

I have watched lately Jad Choueiri’s video Funky Arab, I read the comments on Youtube, face book and listen to people at the office arguing about it. To be honest when I first saw the video I was totally shocked. One of my colleagues said "I understand your shock but at least he is out there trying to do something to change how people, especially in the west, perceive Arab."

As an Arab, I for once am totally against labeling Arab as angry bearded men or women covered in black, but the question here is do I want to be labeled in the way Jad reflected in his video?!

I honestly don’t think that what Jad reflected has anything to do with how the Arab or funky Arab looks. I didn’t know that being funky meant wearing bikini, botox injecting my face, smoking and dancing around like a B***h, or wearing sunglasses at night and chains all around my neck. Is this really the kind of image I want people to perceive Arab as!

Some of the comments on Youtube accused those against the video of being uptight, shallow and illiterate. Well, like it or not people as Arab we have our traditions, heritage and customs, and it makes me sad to be accused of these things just for being proud of my traditions. I am sure by now you can guess that I am against this video.

To be fair there are some people who live and act the same way Jad reflects in his video and there are some Arab who fits the angry bearded man profile. However, between those few "somes", there is the majority; millions of Arab who are moderate, simple, smart and educated, Arab who are reasonable and not extremists. From this majority comes; my family, my friends, my colleagues, my neighbors and the people who live in my street and those I met in college. Why there is no one trying to reflect those Arab.

I don’t want to be labeled terrorist and I don’t want to be labeled B***h. I want to be labeled the way I am … a normal moderate human being like the millions who live on the rest of the planet.

Why do I confuse you?!

I have recently watched this amazing video The Happy Muslims Who Confuse You,by syndicated columnist Mona Eltahway, talking about Muslims stereotypes and how they are seen by media. The image you get about Muslims especially in the West is angry bearded men and women covered in black that are almost invisible in every way. Watching the video I realized that I too am judged based upon this stereotype image.

I am a moderate Muslim woman, I wear the hijab; I am not covered in black, but I have a scarf on my head and I wear ordinary skirts, pants and dresses with long sleeves and I work in PR. I never thought that being the way I am would confuse people till one day when I was having a cup of coffee with a journalist and he said “I don’t think you are wearing the hijab because you are convinced of it.” When I asked why would he think that he answered “because you are so open minded!!” The answer really shocked me!

Does being a Muslim woman in a hijab means I should be close minded! Does it mean I should stay at home with no career ambition or opinion about anything! Is having a career and socializing with people while wearing the hjab confuses people?

Islam has always been about moderation, whether in cloth, opinions, or behaviors. I have been wearing the hijab for the past 13 years and it has never hindered me in anyway.

I graduated from college, worked in media for 6 years and now in PR. I listen to music, read poetry and attend concerts like any normal moderate human being.

I discuss politics and literature and I attend conferences, exhibition and socialize with my colleagues and acquaintances like any normal moderate human being.

So why do I confuse people? For the same reason Mona mentioned; the way media reflects our image as Muslims. People are used to seeing the black bearded angry men and the women in black. True that those people do exist but believe me they are not the majority of Muslims.

I hope that more moderate Muslim men and women like Mona and the happy Pakistani in the video would help change people’s perceptions and end the well known Muslims stereotypes.

And I hope that the day will come when I don’t confuse you anymore!