CRAPtastic

You may remember my coining of the acronym CRAP - Courageous Arab Reformist Personality - to describe the people who have made it a lucrative business to appeal to Western (and especially American) sensitivities by posturing as daring reformists taking on their countries' repressive culture. Typically, this involves adopting a position so out of touch with the realities of practical political activism for the only purpose of appealing to liberal Western sensitivities.

I have to say, this story in the Washington Post takes the prize for concentrated CRAPpiness, especially this unbelievable quote abusing the memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, whose death from a bullet wound during the recent Tehran protests was captured on video:

"Everyone is so shocked to see that beautiful young girl dying and looking so modern and secular," said Azar Nafisi, author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and a professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

Does this mean that if she had not looked "so secular and modern" the outrage would have been less?

Actually, that's probably exactly what it means. [Thanks, SP]

Comments

[saL]

its actually pretty common for humans to use appearance in order to better relate or empathize with others
its not a western phenomenon either

[Helena Cobban]

Excellent catch, Arabist! This reminds me of a discussion on democracy in the Arab world i went to a year or so ago, when Jackson Diehl said something like, "The US government should be quite firm about fighting for human rights in Egypt. Every time Mubarak locks up a liberal we should confront him vigorously." I pointed out that human rights are for everyone, whether we agree with their views or not... and he reluctantly agreed.

[arabist]

But would Diehl write a column about a radical leftist or Islamist who gets attacked?

[Helena Cobban]

Good point... But still, I did get him (belatedly) to agree with my point...