I stumbled across a blog by an American woman writing from Jordan. The title of the blog, “Terrorism Unveiled,” disturbed me to no end. Is she expecting to unveil terrorism from Jordan!! I mean, really, she seriously needs to re-visit her analysis!
One entry that I found particularly condescending and very upsetting was one entitled “not all camels and mosques” in which Athena (her pen name) says she was shocked to realize Jordanians go out at night and party.
Well, Athena, Jordanians do go out, they do party. They also fall in love, get married, go on honeymoons, arrange social gatherings and believe it or not even have barbeques. They also go to work, vote for representatives in parliament, write poetry, go to the movies, go out to eat, play sports, go on vacations and even surf the net. Believe it or not Athena, Jordanians are homosapiens.
I’m going to track back this post to give her a chance to present her side of the story.
Hubby,
Since I didn’t see much distinction in the tone of your wife’s post and the various responses below, I failed to bother myself with distinguishing much between who was saying what. Your wife strikes me as a lovely person, and I think she is doing good work with her blog.
Nonetheless, I’ll highlight one more time that I think you are being unfair to Athena, and that accusing someone of racism, hatefulness, and your–yes you, Hubby–generally smug attitude while then adopting a stance of self-congratulation at your superiority over Athena and her audience is a tad much.
Your pretensions to a lack of “baggage” aside, I think you bring quite a lot of baggage to the issue. Your writing radiates baggage. “Don’t cast stones in glass houses” and all that good stuff. That’s my main point.
(I’ll also point out that I am one of the bloggers that tracked-back to Athena, thank you very much.)
You have a very slippery way of writing, including your not-so subtle efforts at telling us how bright and broad-minded you are in the midst of waging thoughtless assumptions on other people. Also, you seem to substitute references to other writing for substance. As a frequent citer myself, it’s pretty obvious when someone is doing it to sound impressive.
Should Athena “take a few steps back and reassess her purpose and her agenda”? Sure! Who shouldn’t?
Are insults and hyperbolic accusations the way to make the point? Doubt it. Seems to me it is more about validating your own positions, rather than any generosity on your part.
As Scott Davis is your friend, perhaps you could have done the same with Athena…. If you read this post of hers, you’ll see that you may not have taken the right measure of her after all.
What is the purpose of posting “Hell Breaks loose in the name of democracy” and “Legally Brutalised” if women’s rights aren’t being violated? This is very interesting —enough said!
Those modern Jordanians
Athena, an American blogger studying in Jordan, gives a chilling example of the deep cultural roots of honor killings. Today I was visiting the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan and my roommate, we値l call here Sally, went with m…
Stygius,
First, please note that I never claimed to be an expert on the motivations of Athena. But I did look at her blog and I read her commentary from the recent past. Never did I say it was created for the sole purpose you suggest, only that now it is being used that way. Those entries speak volumes about where she is now. It is that place that makes me concerned, regardless of how she got here.
Second, I’d point out that I myself have taken that same journey. I came to the Jordan four years ago without sponsorship or connections. I came based on the same interests you attribute to Athena. But I came without the bias, without the rhetoric, without the agenda. And I think you certainly overstepped your bounds in your assessment of my comments. They come from just the right place: someone who has been there and is there still; someone who came from that same nation but carried none of the baggage, someone’s who’s experience could prove beneficial. My comments are offered in that vein.
I do not see how my wife drawing attention to her post can be construed as rude either. You can’t hold her to account for comments made after the post and I wouldn’t think you’d be surprised given your own feelings about Athena’s posts. These people are entitled to their comments just as Athena is to hers, perhaps despite our wincing at their personal nature.
My response was due to my experience in the region. I came here openly to learn more about the middle east after studying both it and Arabic in college in Washington, DC. I learned because I was not so quick to judge. In the end I found my wife, the author of this blog.
I am certain that Athena is at a milepost, hence my response: ‘change your path Athena.’ From the nature of the commentary that I read I feel she has sadly misconstrued much of what she is experiencing. Perhaps there are other things she says and feels that she doesn’t put here, contributing to its “raw” nature. But how can you fault me for highlighting problems in that “raw” calculus. Those raw feelings should not be discounted.
I only know what I have read of her. I’m concerned that she feels the observations she has made are more notable, more suitable for whatever audience she imagines for herself. You say hers is a journey. I’m making my comments based upon where she is now. I’ve seen enough to feel a sense of alarm.
Curiously, she notes the prism through which American activities are viewed in the Arab media, notably Al Jazeera. But she doesn’t seem self-aware enough of her own posting prism. I only ask that she take a few steps back and reassess her purpose and her agenda.
I didn’t see it on the reading list Athena, but perhaps you should peek into The Road from Damascus. When I read and reviewed this book for Jordan’s ‘Star’ newspaper I was knocked out. I benefited from Scott’s hindsight and developed a friendship. Perhaps she can as well and maybe, just maybe, you could benefit from my criticism here. More to the point, perhaps you can benefit from the posts in this blog and in the rapidly developing community of Jordanian bloggers that often exchange views here.
Finally, never would I call Athena an expert. But to those that call themselves her audience, I’m afraid her posts and her place on “the path” are leading many people astray. Has she seen who is doing trackbacks? To me, it is a real shame.
In defense of Athena.
First of all, Hubby doesn’t seem too familiar with Athena’s blog. She has been writing it for some time prior to going to Jordan. Her study-abroad in Jordan is only one aspect of her blog and her education. So to think that she has traveled to Jordan to “unveil terrorism” and decided to start up a blog to chronicle the unveiling is a gross misrepresentation of what she is doing.
Athena has been highly critical of many Islamic societies on her blog in the past. Some of it is arguably objectionable; and I have argued with her characterizations in the past.
At the same time, you need to recognize that she is at a milepost in a long journey. A young American student has undertaken an effort to expose herself to things fundamentally different from her upbringing. She is mid-way in an evolution that most people in our country don’t have the courage to undertake: to learn a language, a history, and a culture utterly alien to her. Her willingness to come to your blog with politeness in the face of your rudeness is emblematic of that. That is something worthy of respect.
So respect it. Anyone can cheaply accuse someone of racism. It’s an easy habit for mindless defensiveness; but not necessarily appropriate.
First of all, notice that Athena’s criticisms are of cultural practices she finds objectionable. That is markedly different from race, no?
Second of all, does she stereotype a culture? Perhaps. Unfairly? Maybe. Maybe not. But remember she is reacting to things new, alien, and challenging. She is interpreting an experience from inside the experience; and even if something seems unfair, she ought hardly be subject to the kind of patronization and name-calling y’all “tolerant” folks seem so committed to. Then blaming Athena for racism and civilizational clashes seems somewhat surreal.
Third, it is not Athena’s job to “tolerate” and so “understand” things she objects to that she can’t honestly critique it. She is not obliged to help a society rationalize away culturally-sanctioned violence.
Nor is she passing herself off as an expert (few bloggers do); nor is she responsible for how trolls wish to hold up her responses as validating their own prejudices (and I do include you). She is a young woman learning something new, and sharing it. It takes guts to go somewhere and learn about a thing firsthand; rather than read a book that one can then ponderously cite in order to dismiss a person’s experiences.
I think of a lot of Athena’s writing as being rather “raw”. I often disagree with her analyses of terrorism. However, I think her observations on pseudo-academia, not only in Jordan but in the United States, properly expose its hollowness. I admire her enthusiasm above all else, and her courage to challenge herself.
Athena,
Thank you for responding. I apologize if I opened the door for exchanging insults, because that was not my intent but really your generalization is very disturbing and extremely racist.
You said: “These people are living lies. All the women here are veiled, whether the physical fabric is covering them or not.
And the men are just as blind.”
I mean seriously, can’t you see that this is a racist comment, not to mention that is totally wrong. Don’t you realize that you are stereotyping a whole nation by your faulty, narrow-minded remarks.
I’m a very proud female Jordanian and neither me nor any of my sisters are “living lies.” My dad is not “blind” nor are my cousins (I don’t have brothers in case you are wondering).
Is this the image that you are sending to the West? Is this what you tell your friends and family about Jordanians? That they are living lies and are blind!
And people actually believe you! No wonder racism is on the rise and the clash of civilizations prevails! You really need to wake up and look around before you make such blatant, faulty and insulting remarks about the people hosting you and treating you with respect!
Athena,
I don’t want you to run away offended. I hope that Scooby’s attack doesn’t result in this. But I don’t think anyone missed your point/s. Most of us read the blog through and through. Some of those reading are citizens of the very country you critique. I think it would do you good to listen and consider their opinions.
You indicate you are doing some sort of “program” in Jordan. That is something that really merits clarification here because of the opinions you proffer. As far as I’m aware, no school in Jordan provides a “terrorism” course. And I’m curious about your motivations to study Arabic in Jordan, particularly when you seem so quick to judge and stereotype.
Your post regarding honor killing was the one that really irritated me. If you want to learn about this subject, go to the expert: Rana Husseini at the Jordan Times on University Street (part of Al Rai). She has been singled out globally, winning award after award for her coverage. Our dear Norma Khouri co-opted her work but was eventually found out. I hope you didn’t read Khouri’s warped tome and now consider yourself an expert or worse: a judge. Like much of the adult world, the topic is terribly complex. You’d do yourself a world of good to explore these pages and those of the many other Jordanian bloggers to get a better picture of the issue.
The real problem, Athena, is that you plopped yourself down in Jordan, pulled up your blog and considered yourself an expert. That is naive at best. I think you’d do well do tone it down a bit simply because you know not of which you speak. Perhaps someday you will but only if you open yourself to possibility and shut down this paradigm you’ve created.
But until then you stand as a misinformed prophet to some converted mass of who, your friends. You mislead them all. Yes, you have the right to free speech. But when that free speech maligns others, when it misrepresents their life, their deeds, their thoughts you are engaged in hate speech. And that, my dear, is not protected … even in the good old USA.
Athena,
I have visted your web site, and as a Christian American with European roots, I am sad to say you are a racist, straight up. You are an educated woman. You should be ashamed to stereotype an entire culture. You call yourself a feminist? A true feminist does not generalize, does not stereotype, and considers all people as equals.
Go pray to God because you have a great deal of repenting to do!
You seem to misconstrue my point. I didn’t think _I_ would be going out to party here. I knew it existed, certainly, but I didn’t think it would be something I would get to enjoy because of the family I lived with (which they did prohibit me from doing quite a bit) and because of program restrictions. My point was for some of the more narrow-minded readers to get a clue about the Middle East, a point which you missed by a mile.
You blog on topics that you choose, and I’ve been blogging on terrorism a long time before I traveled to Jordan. I’m entitled to my opinions. That’s the beauty of freedom and free speech, we choose to talk about what we want and we have the ability to have and defend our stances, something that I’ve found sorely lacking here.
I’ve been to social gatherings, barbecues, dances and the list goes on. I go with my Jordanian and Palestinian friends…surprised I haven’t seen you out.
And, Scooby, as far as using your language against you, it’s too bad you feel this way. I love the region and the people dearly. But frankly, it’s not worth my time to provide a rebuttal to your condescending remarks. Maybe you should read my next post up after the one linked.
This Athena needs to be stopped. These “Arabic language students” come to our countries, where we treat them like family and we teach them our language, only for them to come back and use it against us. The only reason she is learning Arabic is for her to get a job later with the State Department as a translator in order to do her part in the “war on terror.” Please!
She is surprised that we go out and party… This is coming from the people that gave us Jerry Springer, Rush Limbaugh and Rap music (if you even want to call that crap music!). With contributions like that to the collective global society, she is not even entitled to an opinion on us or our society.
You know, as long as we let them get away with this sh**, they will continue to do it. We need to check our guts, grow some cojones and do something about these ignorant white trash freaks.
Ok, I feel better now…