Letters

From the October 2003 issue

(Page 3 of 3)

Chuck Freund's article "Look Who's Rocking the Casbah" (June) touched on a fascinating topic, but I could not help but conclude that his evaluation of female sexuality in Arab cultures incorporated stereotypes and elements of Western bias.

Freund's analysis could have benefited from the excellent book Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, by Geraldine Brooks. Traditionally, sexuality in Muslim cultures has not been devalued and repressed as in the West. Rather, it is supposed to be strictly contained in the private sphere of the home. Women's sexuality has been fully acknowledged from the very beginning. Brooks' title comes from Muhammad's own remarks to the effect that a woman's sexual desire was nine times a man's. Hence Freund's claim that "a woman's enthusiasm for sex is considered suspect by traditionalists" is unfounded. I have seen Arabic movies where women at a wedding reception -- segregated into a room separate from the men -- sing bawdy songs about the pleasures the bride can expect on the wedding night.

Freund's intimations concerning "modernity" also hit on a topic accorded considerable attention in recent scholarship. Islamic societies are not anti-modern, but rather have been struggling to define their own versions of modernity as filtered through culture and tradition -- a project with considerable potential for contradiction and irony, particularly in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Todd M. Michney
Cleveland, OH

Charles Paul Freund replies: Female sexuality in Islamic cultures is indeed supposed to be confined to the private sphere. But the ideal is not sexual enthusiasm, which may threaten a man's control of his wife; it is compliance. Syrian novelist Ghada Samman catches the traditional view through a character who describes the ideal bride this way: "A maid by day, a slave by night, she'll be the ring on your finger which you can turn around as you wish and take off when you wish. And if you rub it, it will say, 'At your service....'"

Certainly, a traditional wife does not make such demands of her husband, as the female characters of Egyptian author Alifa Rifaat know to their sorrow. Last summer's Egyptian film Sleepless Nights features a frustrated wife who actually threatens divorce, one reason the film became a sensation. In any event, Samr, the flirtatious singer whom I described, was expressing herself publicly.

Teddy Roosevelt's Hidden Legacy

Michael McMenamin ("Teddy Roosevelt's Hidden Legacy," June) convincingly shows not only that Theodore Roosevelt had his own foreign policy, but that it was infinitely better than and antithetical to Woodrow Wilson's. What he does not say is that it was Roosevelt who enabled Wilson's foreign policy to come into existence.

In 1912, after failing to win the Republican nomination for president (thanks to party bosses who didn't want him), Roosevelt ran anyway, as an independent Bull Moose. This split the Republican vote and enabled Wilson's victory. Given Wilson's thoroughly destructive impact on the history of the 20th century and the likelihood that history would have been different and better had Roosevelt been president during the Great War, it is ironic that Roosevelt's biggest legacy is that he enabled it all to happen.

Michael Nollet
Melcher-Dallas, IA

What Next for U.S. Foreign Policy?

The impressive accuracy of the interview with me by Jesse Walker ("What Next for U.S. Foreign Policy?," June) was unfortunately counterbalanced by the title placed above it: "The Pacifist."

That term is not accurate, and it may confuse readers. My views do not fall into any of the types of "pacifism." Historically, most nonviolent struggles have been waged by people who were never pacifists. Many groups have chosen nonviolent struggle not on ethical grounds, but because they felt it would be most effective.

That means that future acute conflicts, including against extreme dictatorships, can be waged by people who are not pacifists, through skilled application of strategic nonviolent struggle. That fact opens new possibilities.

Also, my earlier book was mistitled. It is The Politics of Nonviolent Action, not The Politics of Nonviolence. My new book is titled Waging Nonviolent Struggle.

Gene Sharp
Albert Einstein Institution
Boston, MA

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