{"id":1761,"date":"2006-09-27T10:48:36","date_gmt":"2006-09-27T10:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/27\/burqas_fareed_z\/"},"modified":"2006-09-27T10:48:36","modified_gmt":"2006-09-27T10:48:36","slug":"burqas_fareed_z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/2006\/09\/27\/burqas_fareed_z\/","title":{"rendered":"Burqas, Fareed Zakaria and Women’s Mags"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I meant to write about several OTHER things today but an exchange on a women’s media list in which I participate struck me. I love VOGUE. I used to say that I only read it in the beauty parlor but really I read it \u2013 period. I am now hoarding the NYT Sofia Coppola\u2019s Paris fashion supplement to read this weekend. So I was fascinated by the fuss over Fareed Zakaria – whom my younger son totally admires and whose articulateness and cool perspectives also impress me- and his joke at a recent panel at the Council on Foreign Relations Here\u2019s part of the Huffington Post post <\/a>that started the conversation: <\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, Zakaria moderated a Council on Foreign Relations event featuring Afghan President Hamid Karzai, excerpts of which can be found here. Notably absent is an exchange that occurred during the question-and-answer period at the end, when Glamour journalist Shirley Velasquez stood to ask Karzai a question. After identifying herself as a Glamour reporter, Zakaria interrupted her, cracking: "Glamour? Blue burqa vs. black burqa?\u201d <\/p>\n

According to Velasquez, the audience erupted with laughter, and Karzai \u201claughed and said something about being grateful that finally an easy question was going to be asked.\u201d He should have been so lucky: Velasquez came armed with a question about the deplorable treatment of women in Afghanistan, noting that the U.N. estimates that less than half of school-age girls are actually in school and a whopping 70% of married women in Afghanistan suffer from domestic abuse.   <\/p>\n

Asked Velasquez: \u201cMy question, Mr. President is why have these conditions persisted and how is your government improving the lives of women\u201d Oh, ho ho, blue burqa vs. black burqa? According to Velasquez, Karzai seemed taken off guard by the question and responded: \u201cYour first problem is the source you’re using. The UN doesn’t know what they’re saying,\u201d and quoted stats were \u201cabsolutely wrong\u201d At this point, says Velasquez, Zakaria actually stepped in and warned Karzai, saying, \u201cBe careful Mr. President. Remember you\u00b9re on the record.\u201d.  Way to facilitate the discourse, Fareed. <\/p>\n

Karzai continued, maintaining that Afghanistan had \u201cgreat respect\u201d for its women, more than most other countries in the area. Wow, set that bar high.\u201d You can read the whole post \u2013 and a transcript here. <\/a><\/p>\n

I got kind of obsessed with the history of women\u2019s magazines, which I knew to include publication of many serious and mature writers for much of the past century. Here\u2019s what I said \u2013 and what I found in Wikipedia:.<\/p>\n

In fact, the late lamented Mademoiselle \u2013 and other women\u2019s mags, were outlets for great writers in the first half of the century \u2013 albeit often with male editors but editors who clearly thought women could appreciate good fiction and complicated ideas. <\/p>\n

Most men today have no idea of the content and influence of these mags (and yes I know Betty Friedan used the change in focus in The Feminine Mystique but I still think we need to remember the proud tradition of these publications.) Even Vogue \u2013 the queen of the old fashion books \u2013 has always carried substantial content. Most readers enjoy both the fashion and the substance when it\u2019s available. We just don\u2019t feel the need to tell everyone \u201cI only buy it for the interviews\u201d <\/p>\n

WIKIPEDIA: <\/p>\n

MADEMOISELLE was an influential women’s Magazine published by Cond\u00e9 Nast Publications. Its historically notable contribution to literature was that it published short stories by noted authors such as Truman Capote, which other magazines did not.\u201d Also, Sylvia Plath’s experiences during the summer of 1953 \u2014 as a guest editor at Mademoiselle in New York City and in deepening depression back home \u2014 provided the basis for The Bell Jar, her only Novel" One of the most influential artists of this century, Barbara Kruger Art director and image developer, creating works using Anchorage which was used in the magazine. <\/p>\n

LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL first published February 16,1883 as a women’s supplement to the Tribune and Farmer. The following year it became an Independent publication. It was published by the Curtis Publishing Company and edited by Louisa Knapp until she was replaced by Edward William Bok" in 1919. He published the work of social reformers such as Jane Addams. <\/p>\n

MCCALL’S was a monthly women’s magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of six million in 1960. It published much fiction, including such authors as Willa Cather, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gelett Burgess, Ray Bradbury, Jack Finney, Anne Tyler and Tim O’Brien.<\/p>\n

So did Zakaria overstep? I wonder how anyone can laugh over the humiliation of the burqa.  It’s almost physically painful to me to imagine.  And if you read What do you think? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I meant to write about several OTHER things today but an exchange on a women’s media list in which I participate struck me. I love VOGUE. I used to say that I only read it in the beauty parlor but really I read it \u2013 period. I am now hoarding the NYT Sofia Coppola\u2019s … Continue reading Burqas, Fareed Zakaria and Women’s Mags<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,27],"tags":[181,2520,2521,2526,252,2523,2524,2525,44,2522],"class_list":["post-1761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-current-affairs","tag-afghanistan","tag-burqua","tag-fareed-zakaria","tag-ladies-home-journal","tag-literature","tag-mademoiselle","tag-mccalls","tag-vogue","tag-women-2","tag-womens-magazines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4gBq8-sp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cynthiasamuels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}