Interesting article in The New York Times on the way Oprah Winfrey has become an icon for many Saudi women. The story says that Oprah’s own life—rising from a poor and abusive background, dealing with issues like weight and depression, to becoming one of the most ‘powerful’ women on earth—provides these women with hope for themselves. The Oprah TV program, broadcast twice daily by MBC TV, addresses issues that get little public airing in conservative Saudi Arabia. Definitely worth reading the whole article.
Saudi Women Find an Unlikely Role Model: Oprah
KATHERINE ZOEPFDAMMAM, Saudi Arabia—Once a month, Nayla says, she writes a letter to Oprah Winfrey.
A young Saudi homemaker who covers her face in public might not seem to have much in common with an American talk show host whose image is known to millions. Like many women in this conservative desert kingdom, Nayla does not usually socialize with people outside her extended family, and she never leaves her house unless chaperoned by her husband.
Ms. Winfrey has not answered the letters. But Nayla says she is still hoping.
“I feel that Oprah truly understands me,” said Nayla, who, like many of the women interviewed, would not let her full name be used. “She gives me energy and hope for my life. Sometimes I think that she is the only person in the world who knows how I feel.”
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September:19:2008 - 10:07
I read the whole article and am glad that Saudi women are getting a voice. Along with the other off limit venues women have, the voices in this article are often drowned out by the privileged rich women who can leave the country or who have plenty of freedom already.
The most touching part to me in this article is how these women are looking for support from outside the country. That is sad! We as a people and as a country really have to at least voice our discontent and stop supporting repressive regimes. There is more that we can do and it is our responsibility to do it. Ignorance or pretending it doesn’t exist is WRONG!
I also believe men are oppressed as well. I would recommend loosens some of the ropes before the horses break free and go wild.
There are people who can have people like Luhaidan (who is in my opinion was wrong) quickly taken down because they are a threat to the ruling and wealthy but what about the people in the wayside who are forgotten but nonetheless are suffering. Why can’t these powerful people step in and take action? It really upsets me and makes me want to vomit.
September:19:2008 - 10:07
Oh and about Oprah…I used to like her a lot but lately she is not one of my favorites to say the least!!!
September:19:2008 - 10:07
Give me a break. Have all Saudi women forgotten how unjustly she treated Rania Al Baz’s issue ? Click on the following link and remember how Rania’s issue was exploited by Oprah’s producers.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=66540&d=7&m=7&y=2005
Oprah, Please Don’t Call Me Again
Essam Al-Ghalib, Arab News
JEDDAH, 7 July 2005 — When the Oprah Winfrey Show called me 10 months ago for help in producing a segment about Rania Al-Baz, I knew that Rania would be hesitant. She had stopped giving interviews after being criticized in the local press for going public with the near-fatal beating she suffered at the hands of her husband, Muhammad Bakr Yunis Al-Falatta.
“Oprah is the most respected name in American television. She is known the world over for her open, fair and balanced view on different subjects. Judging from what I have seen on her show, I feel confident that if you can trust anyone in American television, it is Oprah,” I told Rania.
Convincing her to tell her story to the world was not easy as she feared that the story would be used to cast Saudi Arabia in a negative light. When I discussed Rania’s concerns with Oprah’s producer in charge of the segment, she assured me in no uncertain terms that the segment was about Rania and other battered women around the world and not about Saudi Arabia. The producer assured me that Rania’s story was being used as part of a show about battered women around the world and the aim was to encourage them to come forward and seek help.
“You are being given the opportunity to address the whole world. You can talk about what happened to you and how so many rallied around you and stood behind you. You can talk directly to other women all over the world who have been battered and tell them they don’t have to take it,” I told Rania. “Besides, as you have become aware, there is a perception in the West that this is normal behavior in Saudi Arabia. Your story paints a different picture,” I added. At the time, Muhammad Al-Falatta was in jail awaiting sentencing and certain flogging; divorce proceedings were already under way and Rania had custody of her children.
After Rania finally agreed and when it was time to film the interview, she took great pains to communicate very clearly at every opportunity that wife-beating was certainly not socially acceptable in Saudi Arabia and definitely did not represent the country or our religion. Time after time, over and over, she made the point of talking about the good in our country.
After the tapes were sent to Chicago, I received a call from the Chicago producer informing me that the tapes had arrived and that she was very pleased with the results. “Unfortunately we couldn’t get them edited in time for the studio taping with Oprah and the audience, so we won’t be using Rania’s piece for now,” she said.
In February I received a message from the same producer saying that Rania’s piece would be used after all — in a follow-up to the first segment that was originally supposed to feature her. “We will be taping in the studio around the end of March,” the producer said.
Last week, someone mentioned that they had seen Rania Al-Baz on Oprah. After immediately checking local listings for the repeat, I called some of my cousins and friends to tell them to watch. After watching the first 25 minutes about happy women in different countries, I was convinced that I had misread the television schedule, and that the episode we were watching was not the one featuring Rania.
This episode began with Aishwarya Rai, and then moved on to Iceland, its glaciers and hot springs. Icelandic talk show host Svanhilder Valsdottir discussed social customs while offering Oprah Icelandic delicacies such as rotten shark meat and sour lamb testicles. When Oprah began talking about Belgium’s justly-famous delicious fried potatoes and chocolates with another woman, I called my mother and told her that I was sure that this was not “my” Oprah episode.
“This isn’t the type of show Oprah’s producer told me about. Besides, Oprah is taking us around the world to different countries showing us how satisfied women in those countries are. It would be totally unbalanced and unfair to shift to Saudi Arabia to focus on Rania. It would be as if what happened to her is what our women most enjoy about Saudi Arabia. Her story is not a happy one, and wouldn’t flow with the others on this program,” I told her.
I was wrong.
Rania, swollen, bloodied and bruised, flashed across the screen moments later, as Oprah explained what had happened to her and followed it with the usual unfair and uninformed diatribe that American audiences love to hear about how miserable Saudi women are and how free and happy American women are.
The entire original interview with Rania (a copy of which I still have here in Jeddah) lasted 64 minutes. Oprah used three of those 64. In the 61 minutes that were not shown, Rania talked about how wonderful our religion and our country are, and she discusses women’s rights and their lives in Saudi Arabia in a fair and realistic manner.
Rania and I were used by the Oprah Winfrey Show to paint Saudi Arabia in an unfair and negative light. When I called the producer I had dealt with in Chicago for an explanation, the warm greetings and enthusiasm to speak to me that had existed prior to the taping had been replaced by a hurried and impatient attitude that clearly meant, “I don’t have time for you anymore now that I got what I wanted from you.” I was referred to the media relations department at Harpo Studios and from them, I received the following official statement:
“Rania Al-Baz’s story was always intended for inclusion in a show that examined the different lives of women from various countries. We feel her story was presented accurately and we hope that her courage in sharing it with an international audience will help millions of other women around the world.”
A typical response that, much like Rania’s segment, seemed to me to be superficial and rushed at best with little, if any, time spent saying anything of substance, neatly side-stepping the real issues.
September:19:2008 - 10:07
Essam: I certainly understand what you’re saying. Rania, though, is not casting blame on the Oprah organization, saying that she was satisfied with the program.
Rania may very well have good reason to say that, but perhaps she has other, maybe not so good reasons. I have no way of telling.
September:19:2008 - 10:07
I feel that it was wrong to present Rania’s show with the others the way it was done.
However, after living and experiencing both lives and cultures I say hands down that yes American women have so many freedoms that Saudi women do not have and sadly that is fact not just an opinion.
I am not talking about sinful freedoms rather I am talking about basic simple freedoms like the right to take legal action against one’s guardian and the repurcussions of such and the list goes on. I do believe that things are slowly getting better but it is a big journey.
Also I attended a meeting with Hollywood producers at lumiere center next to Kingdom and they wanted to interview Saudi women. Well, guess what type of Saudi women they were talking to? They were speaking with Saudi women with HUGE wasta and privilege and they were going on about how great things were. I stepped in to give my own two cents on what I see and months later I was informed by a close friend of mine whose husband sister knew someone who was there that I was working for the US embassy and being a spy or something. LOL I told my friend if the US is going to cut me a check, I would be more than happy to accept it because I had 20 saudi riyals in my account at that point.
However, like I said I am glad these type of women are getting a voice!
September:19:2008 - 10:07
Curiously enough it is not a phenomenon that is limited to Saudi. While teaching in Yemen, Libya and visiting Syria continuing into S.E Asia, I came across a lot of women who looked to Oprah as their window onto American and thus Western culture. While admittedly it is a better window than violent Hollywood films, to be honest I find it a little frightening that entire cultures are forming opinions on America and thus the west using Oprah as a guide.
September:19:2008 - 10:07
I agree. The only ‘good’ thing is that it’s not the worst picture available. After decades of TV programs like ‘Dallas’ and ‘Dynasty’, or ‘Sex and the City’–all seen overseas on local or satellite TV channels–’Oprah’ is fairly innocuous.
Not necessarily representative, of course, but fairly innocuous.