Sunday,
January 14, 2007
“Invisible Arabs" by
Italian Author and Historian Paola Caridi
The
ANNOTICO Report
Paola
Caridi attempts to demolish Stereotypical and
Homogenous views of the Arab world in her book: "Invisible Arabs - a
reasoned catalogue of the Arabs that we do not know."
BOOKS:ITALIAN
AUTHOR HITS OUT AGAINST WESTERN STEREOTYPES OF ARABS
Adnkronos International
January 14, 2007
Caridi moved to
"I witnessed the pressure the media placed on the Arab world and I saw the
ways in which Arabs reacted to this: On the one hand Cairo had to contend with
empty hotels and no tourists visiting the Pyramids and the museums; on the
other, Egyptians felt they had been fingered as guilty and tarred by the same
brush as the terrorists," she said.
"They felt as if the West so them all as
terrorists, as if Bin Laden had been elected their spokesman," she
continued.
It's precisely this stereotype of the Arab world that emerged from the rubble
of
Caridi acknowledges that Arab culture contains
contradictions epitomised by Is
l! amist mass movements. But
again she says the West has failed to make important distinctions.
"Al-Qaeda is one thing, while the Muslim Brotherhood is another,"
says Caridi explaining that the latter - a banned but
officially tolerated group in Egypt with branches throughout the Arab world -
is a sort of Muslim version of the Christian Democrats, a party which dominated
Italian politics for decades.
Caridi also argues that the condition of women in
Islam societies is not as bad as criticis in the West
contend.
"There exists in the Arab world a movement which we would describe as
feminist, a movement that includes women that wear the veil but who speak of
their rights and who stand up against oppression. These women have a non-sexist
interpretation of Islam."
"Of course from our point of view they would appear conservative because
they won't remove the veil, but they are not submissive," Caridi says.
'Invisible Arabs - A reasoned catalogue of t h! e Arabs that we do not know' is published by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli and will
be available in bookstores on 25 January.
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