Dictators' wives: how the west is wooed by the pretty faces of tyranny

[awakejupiter]

Comments

[atomic_joe2]

Its doublespeak like in the Orwell novel '1984' isn't it? Think about it. In the 1980s when he was fighting Iran, Saddam Hussein was, in the words of Donald Rumsfeld, 'a son of a bitch but he's our son of a bitch', yet when he invaded Kuwait he was bad and everything he ever did was bad.

Same with the mujahadeen in Afghanistan. When they were fighting the Soviets, and being funded and trained by the West of course, they were the best thing since sliced bread. Post-9/11 they were the worst kind of human scum imaginable.

And Gaddafi? He was bad then he was alright then he was bad again at dizzying speed.

[wigglybob]

I really enjoyed this article. Someone was able to articulate why I feel uncomfortable of the glamorization of leaders in a dictatorship.

[blunder_buss]

I'm glad an article has finally focused on these women. Many others just don't take them all that seriously since they're 'just' the wives or gawp at all the expensive things they own rather than actually address what they DO and the people they profit from.

FFS I heard one idiotic female radiojockey talk about how Imelda Marcos and her husband embellezed so much money and it was awful but OMG THREE THOUSAND SHOES! What woman WOULDN'T want that many shoes!? *barf*

[tiger0range]

I never understood the shoes thing. There should be a DSM entry for it. Why hasn't this been studied?

[mirhanda]

My wild supposition about shoes (and I do suffer from it, although I don't even have 100 pairs, much less 3000) is that shoes are something that will look good even when you've put on a few pounds, or even when you're too thin. You can see your own feet pretty easily too. They are very forgiving. Who hasn't spent hours trying to find a decent bathing suit that you can stand seeing yourself in? But shoes? Almost all the shoes you try fit fine and look good.

[sarahofcroydon]

Almost all the shoes you try fit fine

Not for size ten funny-footed me :(

[carminaburana]

Well it's a double edged sword for many Arabs, especially Arab women, who are either ignored in the media or treated as caricatures. In some ways, the focus on these wives is the ONLY positive press Arab women get. The choice is we are totally invisible or we are stuck with inappropriately positive coverage of the symbols of oppression. Notice how there are no quotes in this article from any actual people from the countries mentioned.

I really wonder how Asma truly feels about what's happening in her hometown. She's pretty put of touch, but i wonder how much.

[marywebgirl]

Driving themselves around in a city seemingly permeated by secret police, she describes the joys of not having an imposing presence of bodyguards, delighting in how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, while being driven to dinner by the Assads, marvelled at their seeming lack of security guards.

Interesting. Not surprising, but interesting.