{"id":5436,"date":"2011-03-01T07:48:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T07:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=5436"},"modified":"2011-03-01T11:07:13","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T11:07:13","slug":"queens-consorts-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/queens-consorts-etc\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens, consorts, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Queen Rania of Jordan<\/p><\/div>\n

A recent criticism in The Atlantic<\/a> of a glowing portrait in Vogue<\/em> of the wife of the dictator of Syria made me wonder about something which has sometimes crossed my mind. First, as an aside I have to say that the author of The Atlantic<\/em> piece seems a bit ignorant when he wonders suspiciously about the emphasis on the Christophilia of the dictator of Syria and his wife. Syria is ruled by the Assads and their hangers on, and this is an Alawi<\/a> clique, a heterodox sect whose Islamic status has traditionally been in doubt, and which integrates many practices and beliefs from Christianity. Since the 1960s the Assad family has been reorienting the Alawi identity to a more conventionally Muslim one (all the better to rule a Sunni majority nation), even getting an acknowledgement of Shia orthodoxy for the Alawi from a Lebanese mullah in the 1970s, solidified by the regime’s explicit alliance with Iran. But all this recent flight to Islamic orientation does not erase the reality that the Alawi do clearly have deep affinities with Christian practices and beliefs which would be surprising for Muslims (they almost certainly come out of a Jacobite milieu).<\/strong> No doubt the Assads played up this for the Vogue<\/em> profile, but it likely taps into a deep root of tradition within the dicator’s family which need not be feigned, and would be atypical for Middle Eastern Muslims. I think that needs to be entered into the record, as it softens the certain attempt to manipulate and makes a touch less crass.<\/p>\n

But that’s not the point of my past. Asma Assad is shown with her hair uncovered. This is the norm for her. Though we are always told about the growing trend toward modest of dress in the Middle East, I’ve always been struck by the fact that many elite women look conventionally Western. I recall for example Queen Rania of Jordan, who not only uncovers her hair, but regularly wears skirts which show her legs. But she’s not the only one. Below are some screen shots of google images which come up for the wives of heads of state of Middle Eastern nations. For some nations, such as Saudi Arabia and Yemen, a few minutes of searching yielded no photos or images of wives. The Sultan of Oman is long divorced, so that’s not an option. Below are the sets of pictures….<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Syria\"<\/a>

Syria<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n
<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/dt>\n
Egypt<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Tunisia<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Qatar<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Morocco<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bahrain<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jordan<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dubai<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Turkey\"<\/a>

Turkey<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Iran<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent criticism in The Atlantic of a glowing portrait in Vogue of the wife of the dictator of Syria made me wonder about something which has sometimes crossed my mind. First, as an aside I have to say that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[722],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5436"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5454,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436\/revisions\/5454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}