Nahraf
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Baroness Sayeeda Warsi makes history as first femal minister in UK government.
Sayeeda Warsi's Wikipedia profile:
Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Barbara Kay: Spot the Muslim woman in David Cameron's new cabinet - Full Comment
Posted: May 14, 2010, 10:15 AM by NP Editor
Barbara Kay, Full Comment, immigration, Islam, Sayeeda Warsi, British politics
Sayeeda Warsi showed up for her first day on her new job in a lovely pink Shalwar Qameez with a matching dupatti, traditional Pakistani garb, and she made a charming fashion statement.
She also made history as the first Muslim woman to sit in a British cabinet. After many years in the trenches of Conservative Party politics, including a failed run at a seat in the 2005 general election, Ms Warsi, 39, a lawyer with a great deal of experience in immigration and social cohesion issues, was appointed minister without portfolio in Britain's new coalition government. She is sure to make an impact politically and culturally.
Baroness Warsi presents in her personal history and perspective the most traditional and the most modern faces of the current Muslim reality in the West.
The fourth of five daughters to a self-made Pakistani immigrant, who began as a lowly textile worker and rose to prosperity in bed manufacturing, the Baroness was educated at the finest of schools and is to all outward appearances English to the core.
But at the age of nineteen, she entered into an arranged marriage with a cousin from Pakistan, which produced one daughter, now twelve. Unlike many other young Muslim women, though, Baroness Warsi had been empowered by her western education. After 17 years, she divorced her husband and last year married again (her second husband's wife claimed she had been divorced without her knowledge and accused Ms Warsi of stealing her husband).
Ms Warsi earned her spurs as a critic of Islamism when she travelled to Sudan in December, 2007 in order to plead for the release of English teacher Gillian Gibbons, who was famously jailed for encouraging a student to name his teddy bear Mohammed. Ms Warsi was credited for speeding up Ms Gibbons' eventual release.
Britain, and indeed the entire western world, will now pay close attention to Ms Warsi's perspectives on controversial practices and attitudes many Muslims have brought with them to Britain. Ms Warsi has spoken out against such traditions as forced marriages and female genital mutilation, barbarisms odious to westerners, but which otherwise militant feminists have been shy to attack out of multicultural deference.
Ms Warsi obviously has clout on social issues, but she is not exactly a feminist's idea of a role model. In 2000, she earned the wrath of gays and was labeled a homophobe for opining that Labour's lowering the age of consent for homosexual activity was "allowing schoolchildren to be propositioned for homosexual relationships." (She later expressed regret for her choice of wording.)
So the baroness is a fascinating combination of the old world and the new. She is courageous. In November, 2009 she was pelted with eggs in a walkabout in Luton by a group of angry Muslim men for challenging Muslim traditions and supporting Muslim deaths in Afghanistan. Undeterred, she continued her walk with added security, later telling the BBC that the egg-pelters were "idiots who did not represent the majority of British Muslims."
Good for her. The Muslim presence in Britain has many problematic elements, which political correctness and a morbidly persistent attachment to the failed strictures of multiculturalism have permitted to flourish. We should look to the baroness as a potential heroine in this ongoing drama. She may be the one to break the silence on a multitude of ills within Britain's radicalizing enclaves, and by her example -- wearing the modest shalwar kameez in deference to the positive values of her Muslim culture, but speaking the words of an enlightened western woman -- embody the ideal marriage of east and west, and encourage others of her culture to follow suit.
Sayeeda Warsi's Wikipedia profile:
Sayeeda Warsi, Baroness Warsi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Barbara Kay: Spot the Muslim woman in David Cameron's new cabinet - Full Comment
Posted: May 14, 2010, 10:15 AM by NP Editor
Barbara Kay, Full Comment, immigration, Islam, Sayeeda Warsi, British politics
Sayeeda Warsi showed up for her first day on her new job in a lovely pink Shalwar Qameez with a matching dupatti, traditional Pakistani garb, and she made a charming fashion statement.
She also made history as the first Muslim woman to sit in a British cabinet. After many years in the trenches of Conservative Party politics, including a failed run at a seat in the 2005 general election, Ms Warsi, 39, a lawyer with a great deal of experience in immigration and social cohesion issues, was appointed minister without portfolio in Britain's new coalition government. She is sure to make an impact politically and culturally.
Baroness Warsi presents in her personal history and perspective the most traditional and the most modern faces of the current Muslim reality in the West.
The fourth of five daughters to a self-made Pakistani immigrant, who began as a lowly textile worker and rose to prosperity in bed manufacturing, the Baroness was educated at the finest of schools and is to all outward appearances English to the core.
But at the age of nineteen, she entered into an arranged marriage with a cousin from Pakistan, which produced one daughter, now twelve. Unlike many other young Muslim women, though, Baroness Warsi had been empowered by her western education. After 17 years, she divorced her husband and last year married again (her second husband's wife claimed she had been divorced without her knowledge and accused Ms Warsi of stealing her husband).
Ms Warsi earned her spurs as a critic of Islamism when she travelled to Sudan in December, 2007 in order to plead for the release of English teacher Gillian Gibbons, who was famously jailed for encouraging a student to name his teddy bear Mohammed. Ms Warsi was credited for speeding up Ms Gibbons' eventual release.
Britain, and indeed the entire western world, will now pay close attention to Ms Warsi's perspectives on controversial practices and attitudes many Muslims have brought with them to Britain. Ms Warsi has spoken out against such traditions as forced marriages and female genital mutilation, barbarisms odious to westerners, but which otherwise militant feminists have been shy to attack out of multicultural deference.
Ms Warsi obviously has clout on social issues, but she is not exactly a feminist's idea of a role model. In 2000, she earned the wrath of gays and was labeled a homophobe for opining that Labour's lowering the age of consent for homosexual activity was "allowing schoolchildren to be propositioned for homosexual relationships." (She later expressed regret for her choice of wording.)
So the baroness is a fascinating combination of the old world and the new. She is courageous. In November, 2009 she was pelted with eggs in a walkabout in Luton by a group of angry Muslim men for challenging Muslim traditions and supporting Muslim deaths in Afghanistan. Undeterred, she continued her walk with added security, later telling the BBC that the egg-pelters were "idiots who did not represent the majority of British Muslims."
Good for her. The Muslim presence in Britain has many problematic elements, which political correctness and a morbidly persistent attachment to the failed strictures of multiculturalism have permitted to flourish. We should look to the baroness as a potential heroine in this ongoing drama. She may be the one to break the silence on a multitude of ills within Britain's radicalizing enclaves, and by her example -- wearing the modest shalwar kameez in deference to the positive values of her Muslim culture, but speaking the words of an enlightened western woman -- embody the ideal marriage of east and west, and encourage others of her culture to follow suit.
