DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — For Enas Taleb, the headline sounded like a malicious coup.
“Why are there more fat people than men in the Arab world?” reads in bold, above a photo of the Iraqi actress waving at an art festival.
The Economist article reviewed imaginable explanations for the 10 percentage point obesity gap between men and women in the Middle East, and then cited Iraqis who see Taleb curves as the ideal of beauty.
“Big,” a now taboo word in most Western media, has been repeated six times.
The article sparked strong complaints on social media. Twitter users called him a misogynist. Local rights teams have issued complaints. Some authors were dismayed by what they described as degrading stereotypes about Arab women.
Taleb, 42, said he sued the London-based magazine for defamation.
While analysts acknowledge an obesity epidemic in the Arab world and its link to poverty and gender discrimination, Taleb’s case and the resulting uproar have shed light on the factor of physical misfortune that is deeply rooted but rarely discussed in the region.
“If there’s a student who goes to school and hears nasty, academic comments that bully her because she’s fat, how would she feel?””This article is just an insult to me, but a violation of the rights of all Iraqi and Arab women. “
The Economist did not respond to requests for comment.
The embarrassment of fats is offensive enough in the United States that when two sports commentators called some athletes obese in the air earlier this year, they were temporarily fired.
In the Middle East, according to the report, the convenience of fleshy women could help explain why the region has experienced an explosion of obesity.
But the angry reaction to the article — and Taleb’s horror that her photo was used to illustrate the length growing of Arab women — contradicts the repeated belief that being heavy is considered a sign of wealth and fertility in the region.
The globalization of Good-looking Western ideals through branding, television and social media has long resulted in unrealistic framework norms that distort women’s expectations of themselves and others in the Arab world, according to research.
In an upcoming study on Egypt, Joan Costa-Font of the London School of Economics said she found that while some older women in rural areas continue to surround women to be rich, “it’s not true that in Egypt being obese is a sign of beauty. “. . Western criteria are more relevant.
The demand for cosmetic surgery has skyrocketed in Lebanon. According to a 2010 study by Dubai’s Zayed University, around 75% of EMIRATI female students said they were dissatisfied with their bodies and 25% were prone to eating disorders.
And yet, many say obesity shame remains widespread and appropriate in the region, in the United States and Europe, where self-esteem movements have gained momentum and fueled public debates about inclusion.
“Our politicians in Lebanon continue to make these horrific and sexist comments about women’s bodies. If they are targeted, it doesn’t necessarily raise awareness,” said Joumana Haddad, a Lebanese and human rights activist.
Haddad noted that the new forays into women’s empowerment have provoked “reactionary discourse and anger” in Lebanese patriarchal society. Even arrogant public comments about weight can be deeply painful for young women who suffer from a lack of confidence and a pathological willingness to modify their bodies in search of beauty, she added.
“I’m a tough, angry 51-year-old feminist and I still weigh myself in every morning,” Haddad said. “You can believe how complicated it is for other people who have been less privileged. “
Ameni Esseibi, a Tunisian-born woman who overcame the social stigma of the first plus-size style in the Arab world, said the positivity of saddles remains taboo in the Middle East, even when populations are more overweight.
– Ahlain News (@AhlainNews) May 9, 2020
But, he says, there are symptoms that consciousness is developing. After years of ignoring vulgar comments about women’s bodies, Arabs are turning to social media to express their anger.
The description in The Economist article of men “locked up at home” to remain “Rubenians” struck a chord.
The Baghdad-based Heya Foundation, or “Ella,” which defends women in the media, denounced the report as “intimidation” and asked the magazine to speak to Taleb.
The Malaysia-based Musawah Foundation, which promotes equality in the Muslim world, said that “women in the region are building a collective discourse that rejects and denounces sexist, racist and grosophobic acts and their colonial legacies. “
Taleb, a TV host and star of the hit Iraqi TV series, said she still had no options to speak out.
“They used my photo in this context in a hurtful and negative way,” he said. “I am opposed to employing the shape of one’s frame at the price of a human being. “
His lawyer, Samantha Kane, said he had taken legal action, first sending a letter to The Economist not easy to apologize for “how serious it was done to (Taleb) and his career. “
Kane declined to comment pending the magazine’s response.
Taleb said she hoped her defamation case would serve as a “message” to women “to say, I love myself. . . to be strong, to face those difficulties. “
It’s a message that resonates in a region where women see opportunities opposite to them. Traditional attitudes, discriminatory laws and wage disparities, as well as inflexible standards of good looks, obstruct women’s advancement.
“Women don’t get the same wages. They don’t get high-level positions. They are forced to remain silent when harassed. And in the media, they have to be thin and beautiful,” said Zeina Tareq, director of the Heya Foundation. .
In Iraq, Taleb’s home country, where security is scarce after years of conflict, they are also openly threatened with targeted killings.
Iraqi journalist Manar al-Zubaidi said the misfortune of Arab women is not surprising in a world where “most media commodify women and turn them into objects of ridicule or temptation. “
“There is nothing to deter them,” he added, “except for ‘more and more campaigns and demanding situations on social media. ‘”
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