Laura Bush meets dark matter

Laura Bush shows that she’s definitely not going to play the politically correct game (so far). Unlike Nancy Pelosi on her trip to the middle east, Laura Bush has not been seen wearing a submissive head covering (so far) and the contrast with the Muslim women is stark. She’s seen here in the fascist state of Saudi Arabia attending a breast cancer awareness conference. Links: LGF , Debbie Schussel, Gates of Vienna. [Correction--though it's somewhat confusing in news reports, evidently her first visst above was to not the fascist state of Saudi Arabia but to the fascist state of the UAE.]

Here she meets another Saudi (UAE?) woman. The pressure must be on to cover the First Lady up a little. After all, this is the land of dark matter. I’m sure Dumbya’s calling her up too–dress more Islamo, get on one of them there Islamo veils, girl. I have to admit though, Laura’s hanging tough; with that open collar she’s only about two inches from cleavage status.

Oh but we knew this was coming didn’t we?  Laura Bush with head covering (another link). This is in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, I guess I have to eat that sentence above (underlined) favorably contrasting her with Nancy Pelosi. And she’s certainly given up on that promising cleavage. What a change of pace! (though i must admit she looks quite beautiful in that pic below–angelic).

________dark matter descends___________________updates______________________updates

Update: Is this the look of dhimmitudeness? Evidently it is because the First Lady now defends the oppression of Saudi women–as their “religious choice.” See video here. Also check here.

Update: Laura Bush endorses tyranny. “Because she has no statutory power, the American First Lady’s actions are wholly symbolic. So when last week First Lady Laura Bush embarked on a visit to the Persian Gulf to promote breast cancer awareness in the Arab world as part of the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer, she traveled there as a symbol. And the symbolic message that her visit evoked is a deeply disturbing one.” This is incredible. In this single post we’ve gone from the First Lady, seemingly holding her own against the dark matter, then herself becoming dark matter. The article from the JERUSALEM POST [at the link] continues:

TO THE extent that women in Saudi Arabia are allowed leave their homes, they are prohibited from actually being seen by anyone through the rigid enforcement of Islamic dress codes. As the State Department 2006 report explains, “In public, a woman was expected to wear an abaya (a black garment that covers the entire body) and also to cover her head and hair. The religious police generally expected Muslim women to cover their faces and non-Muslim women from other Asian and African countries to comply more fully with local customs of dress than non-Muslim Western women. During the year religious police admonished and harassed citizen and noncitizen women who failed to wear an abaya and hair cover.” Perhaps it is because it is so offensive to the Western eye to see women covered like sacks of potatoes, the abaya has become a symbol of Islamic oppression and degradation of women. Although outlawing their use, as the French have attempted to do in recent years, is itself a form of religious oppression, the sentiment informing their ban is certainly understandable. The fact is that a free society should not be able to easily stomach the notion that women should be encouraged, let alone obliged to wear degrading garments that deny them the outward vestiges of their humanity and individuality. Due to the fact that the abayas convey a symbolic message of effective enslavement of women, Mrs. Bush’s interaction with women clad in abayas was the aspect of her trip most scrutinized. In the United Arab Emirates, Mrs. Bush was photographed sitting between four women covered head to toe in abayas while she was wearing regular clothes. The image of Mrs. Bush sitting between four women who look like nothing more than black piles of fabric couldn’t have been more viscerally evocative and consequently, symbolically meaningful. The image told the world that she – and America – is free and humane while the hidden women of Arabia are enslaved and their society is inhumane. But then Mrs. Bush went to Saudi Arabia and the symbolic message of the previous day was superseded and lost when she donned an abaya herself and had her picture taken with other abaya-clad women. The symbolic message of those photographs also couldn’t have been clearer. By donning an abaya, Mrs. Bush symbolically accepted the legitimacy of the system of subjugating women that the garment embodies, (or disembodies). Understanding this, conservative media outlets in the US criticized her angrily. Sunday morning, Mrs. Bush sought to answer her critics in an interview with Fox News. Unfortunately, her remarks compounded the damage. Mrs. Bush said, “These women do not see covering as some sort of subjugation of women, this group of women that I was with. That’s their culture. That’s their tradition. That’s a religious choice of theirs.” It is true that this is their culture. And it is also their tradition. But it is not their choice. Their culture and tradition are predicated on denying them the choice of whether or not to wear a garment that denies them their identity just as it denies them the right to make any choices about their lives. The Saudi women’s assertions of satisfaction with their plight were no more credible than statements by hostages in support of their captors. As the First Lady, Laura Bush is an American symbol. By having her picture taken wearing an abaya in Saudi Arabia – the epicenter of Islamic totalitarian misogyny – Mrs. Bush diminished that symbol. In so doing, she weakened the causes of freedom and liberty which America has fought since its founding to secure and defend at home and throughout the world.