i bet she got a free pass to the mission for sure - just to rub it in!UAE fighter pilot Mariam al-Mansouri shot to fame last week for her role in a US-led bombing campaign in Syria. While Americans hailed her pluck, for Arabs it's more complicated.
Christian Science MonitorBy Christa Case Bryant | Christian Science Monitor – Tue, 30 Sep, 2014.
Last week Mariam al-Mansouri, a F-16 pilot from the United Arab Emirates, was introduced to the world. Smiling out from under her helmet and hijab after launching air strikes in Syria, part of a US-led campaign against Islamic State, her image went viral.
For some Americans, she was a sort of Katharine Hepburn meets Amelia Earhart who had shattered prevalent stereotypes of Arab women. A popular Internet meme reads: “hey ISIS. you were bombed by a woman. have a nice day.”
Her mission has aroused considerable “you go girl” sentiment in the Arab world as well, from Twitter to newspaper editorials.
“This woman has overcome obstacles and challenges with her determination and capability,” mused @BoZayed_9399, whose Twitter handle uses a Gulf term for father, suggesting he has roots in the region. Another tweet mockingly contrasted her feat with a Saudi sheikh’s opposition to women driving a car, saying it would damage their ovaries.
But her role in an American bombing campaign in a Muslim country also caused tremors along another fault line: the conflict between so-called moderate and more fundamentalist schools of Islamic thought in the Middle East. On one side of the fault line, Ms. Mansouri is depicted as a traitor to Arabs struggling to overthrow evil dictators. On the other, she’s an archetype of Arab society advancing into the future, in contrast to the backward-looking caliphate declared by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“This is a symbol of the eternal conflict between modernity and backwardness, between goodness and evil,” wrote Egyptian-born scholar Mamoun Fandy in an Asharq al-Awsat column titled, “Mariam and al-Baghdadi … heaven and earth.” (Arabic)
[video]https://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/uaes-first-female-f-16-155848266.html?format=embed&player_autoplay=false[/video]
Others stand aghast at the fact that a pretty woman has so blithely killed fellow Arabs, and is being championed in the West for doing so.
“I ask God that you suffer exactly the pain that you caused to everyone whom you killed, sooner than later,” tweeted @missprestige888.
Ibrahim Abu Marasa, who identifies himself as a Palestinian web designer in Gaza, voiced frustration that Mansouri – who he refers to pejoratively – has captured such global attention when the “slaughter” of close to 200,000 Syrians and the “massacre” of more than 2,100 Palestinians in Gaza this summer failed to galvanize Westerners or their armies.
“The people of Arab nations whose armies work to help America and kill Muslims, don’t they feel ashamed of themselves? Don’t they feel like mice?” he tweeted.
Mice, with their little hideouts and penchant for stealing crumbs and cheese, are seen here as lacking dignity, courage, and self-reliance.
But perhaps the most vivid imagery came from @mohalwber, who spoke of Mansouri as a lioness igniting a fire for the sake of her country, not only referring to revving up her F-16 but also evoking an age-old symbol of protection in desert cultures. Debate over everything from the role of women to differing interpretations of Islam has stoked that fire further, but maybe that is better than sitting in the darkness of silent complacency.
Islamic State: Arab female F-16 pilot stirs debate in Muslim world
- Thread starter vancity_cowboy
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Why would the media trot her out in front of everyone to see?
They could have kept quiet about it and no one would have known any better.
Now all the fundamentalists are going to think is UAE are all infidels too.
There used to be a time when Nations kept this sort of thing quiet unless they really wanted to stir up a hornets nest.
They could have kept quiet about it and no one would have known any better.
Now all the fundamentalists are going to think is UAE are all infidels too.
There used to be a time when Nations kept this sort of thing quiet unless they really wanted to stir up a hornets nest.
“hey ISIS. you were bombed by a woman. have a nice day.”
Does it really make a difference who pulls the trigger.....
Does it really make a difference who pulls the trigger.....
Think so ? She's a Major, flying a 15 million dollar aircraft........that's a lot of investment just to "rub it in." She could just a easily have been shot down, bombed civilians, or been the the victim of any number of fuck ups that can happen in a combat zone.........then what ? If it was for the purpose of "rubbing it in" then they could have just had her do a walk on part and fake her participation, after all who's to know.
well, maybe they did - after all, we've only got some journalist's word that she flew the mission, and as you know the letters 't-r-u-t-h' do not appear in the word 'journalism' (if you forget about the 'u' that is
)on another note, based on the picture - i'd do her
seriously though, i suspect you're right. and i've got a lot of respect for anybody that's got the reactions, yet the discipline to reach the rank of major in a fighting air unit :clap2:
