Islamic State: Arab female F-16 pilot stirs debate in Muslim world
| Jerusalem
Last week Mariam al-Mansouri, a F-16 pilot from the United Arab Emirates, was introduced to the world. Smiling out from under her helmet and hijab after launching air strikes in Syria, part of a US-led campaign against Islamic State, her image went viral.
For some Americans, she was a sort of Katharine Hepburn meets Amelia Earhart who had shattered prevalent stereotypes of Arab women. A reads: 鈥渉ey ISIS. you were bombed by a woman. have a nice day.鈥澨�
Her mission has aroused considerable 鈥測ou go girl鈥� sentiment in the Arab world as well, from Twitter to newspaper editorials.
鈥淭his woman has overcome obstacles and challenges with her determination and capability,鈥� mused @BoZayed_9399,听whose Twitter handle uses a Gulf term for father, suggesting he has roots in the region. Another tweet mockingly contrasted her feat with a Saudi sheikh鈥檚 opposition to women driving a car, saying it would damage their ovaries.
But her role in an American bombing campaign in a Muslim country also caused tremors along another fault line: the conflict between so-called moderate and more fundamentalist schools of Islamic thought in the Middle East. On one side of the fault line, Ms. Mansouri is depicted as a traitor to Arabs struggling to overthrow evil dictators. On the other, she鈥檚 an archetype of Arab society advancing into the future, in contrast to the backward-looking caliphate declared by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. 听
鈥淭his is a symbol of the eternal conflict between modernity and backwardness, 鈥� wrote Egyptian-born scholar Mamoun Fandy in an Asharq al-Awsat column titled, 鈥淢ariam and al-Baghdadi 鈥� heaven and earth.鈥澨�(Arabic)
Others stand aghast at the fact that a pretty woman has so blithely killed fellow Arabs, and is being championed in the West for doing so.
鈥淚 ask God that you suffer exactly the pain that you caused to everyone whom you killed, sooner than later,鈥� tweeted听@missprestige888.
Ibrahim Abu Marasa, who identifies himself as a Palestinian web designer in Gaza, voiced frustration that Mansouri 鈥� who he refers to pejoratively 鈥� has captured such global attention when the 鈥渟laughter鈥� of close to 200,000 Syrians and the 鈥渕assacre鈥� of more than 2,100 Palestinians in Gaza this summer failed to galvanize Westerners or their armies.
鈥淭he people of Arab nations whose armies work to help America and kill Muslims, don鈥檛 they feel ashamed of themselves? Don鈥檛 they feel like mice?鈥� he tweeted.
Mice, with their little hideouts and penchant for stealing crumbs and cheese, are seen here as lacking dignity, courage, and self-reliance.
But perhaps the most vivid imagery came from @mohalwber, who spoke of Mansouri as a lioness igniting a fire for the sake of her country, not only referring to revving up her F-16 but also evoking an age-old symbol of protection in desert cultures. Debate over everything from the role of women to differing interpretations of Islam has stoked that fire further, but maybe that is better than sitting in the darkness of silent complacency.
