Following the White House’s lead, far-right blogs have been slamming Speaker [tag]Pelosi[/tag]’s visit to Syria with some over-the-top harangues. But the real problem, apparently, is what the House Speaker chose to wear while visiting the country.
Wearing a flowered [tag]head scarf[/tag] and a black abaya robe, Pelosi visited the 8th-century Omayyad Mosque, shaking hands with Syrian women inside and watching men in a religion class sitting cross-legged on the floor.
That Pelosi would wear a head scarf was deemed so outrageous by her conservative critics, you’d think she’d burned an American flag on the steps of a Syrian mosque. Drudge got the ball rolling with a big photo of Pelosi’s attire, and the rest of the right pounced.
One wrote, “The Speaker of the House is not only going out of her way to defund America’s troops in Iraq and shake hands with leaders of terrorist states like Syria, but is now donning the garb of America’s enemies…. What’s next — a suicide bomber belt?” Another argued, “The anti-American propaganda this woman has given the very people who want to totally destroy us is immense.” Yet another said, “This picture disgusts me. What message is Nancy Pelosi trying to send?” Many of the right’s leading sites had similar comments and criticism, most suggesting that Islam is misguided for requiring women to cover their hair in a mosque.
Oh, conservatives, what are we going to do with you.
When Laura Bush visited the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, she wore — you guessed it — a head scarf. She did the same at the Dome of the Rock mosque. Was she “donning the garb of America’s enemies”? Did she “disgust” the president’s allies?
When the First Lady visited the Vatican, she wore — wait for it — a head scarf. Apparently, it’s still required of women visitors to the Vatican. Is the right prepared to bash Roman Catholicism for having the same traditional rules as mosques in the Middle East?
For that matter, Steve M. notes that “Pelosi’s own faith, Roman Catholicism, required women to wear veils in church until Vatican II — which took place when she was in her mid-twenties.” Barbara O’Brien added that she’s “seen photographs of Karen Hughes and Condi Rice with scarves wrapped around their heads hijab-style while visiting the Middle East.”
Look, this need not be complicated. When U.S. diplomats travel overseas, they’re careful to honor local traditions. Male diplomats know not to show Muslims the bottoms of their shoes. They know not to eat with their left hand. They don’t give unwelcome backrubs to foreign heads of state (well, most of them know this). Yesterday was no different.
Pelosi was a guest in [tag]Syria[/tag], she was visiting a mosque, so she honored and respected the practices of her hosts, just as other women representing the Bush administration have done under similar circumstances. So what, exactly, is the right so worked up about?
One wonders whether these guys ever get tired of being so wrong, so often.
