MENA: Fashion’s reforming role

When an Israeli official was asked recently about prospects for peace with Syria, he argued that Bashar al-Assad wanted to take his country in a new direction, although the how and where were still riddles.

Then he offered a curious clue: to understand the Syrian leader’s ambition, look at his wife and how she dresses.

Asma al-Assad is an elegant, glamorous former banker. She was recently picked by Elle magazine as one of the best-dressed first ladies, which puts her in the company of Carla Bruni and Michelle Obama.

So does this tell us that Mr Assad, who has already mended fences with France, is also about to cosy up to the US and drop his other friend, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad? Probably not, at least according to what Syrian officials have been saying. The strategic alliance, they maintain, is old and enduring and will remain so – peace or no peace with Israel.

Unsurprisingly, the Iranian president’s wife was not featured in Elle. I imagine she has little interest in designer outfits and prefers the same humble style as her husband, who is always clad in a modest beige windbreaker. In any case, who says a taste for fine clothes is incompatible with a militant, anti-western attitude?

Though the Israeli official’s theory regarding Mrs Assad is dubious, he takes his argument further, suggesting that the wives of Arab leaders are the projection of their husband’s messages.

Perhaps he is right in some cases. In Dubai, for example, the first lady is Princess Haya, wife of Sheikh Mohammad, the ruler, and daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan. She shares her husband’s love of horses and competitive sports, and plays a role in various international organisations, so she can be said to be projecting the image of a modern, outward-looking Arab woman.

The determination of the first lady of Qatar, Sheikha Moza, is also, in some ways, a reflection of Qatar’s ambitions. She is the driving force behind the importing of foreign educational techniques and, in true maverick tradition, she is seen as a power centre of her own.

But let us take the case of Jordan, where first ladies have been the epitome of glamour. Queen Rania’s promotion of better rights for women and her work on microfinance go hand in hand with her husband’s focus on economic development. But one of the most important aspects of their marriage is that she is of Palestinian origin. Yet, it would be dangerous to assume this suggests the Jordanian monarch wants to unite Jordan with Palestine. Indeed, he is desperate to see an independent Palestinian state established.

Compare Queen Rania’s profile with the invisibility of the first ladies of Saudi Arabia, which might suggest that their husbands have little interest in the place of women in society. But improving women’s lot has been a central plank of King Abdallah’s reforms – even if the process has been one step forward and two steps back.

What about Egypt? Suzanne Mubarak is among the region’s best-known promoters of women’s rights and presides over the National Council for Women. Hosni Mubarak, however, has far less pronounced reformist instincts. It took him decades to accept the necessity of radical economic reform and he has yet to see the benefit of political change.

So we should not read too much into the role of first ladies in the region, beyond the fact that they do improve the image of their often autocratic husbands.

The fact that Arab first ladies are becoming increasingly active, however, is not to be dismissed as a detail. In recent years, they have taken up a hugely important cause – that of women. Whatever their fashion taste – and whether they choose to wear the veil – they are helping to advance the debate over women’s rights. Less a reflection of their husband’s intentions, the Arab first ladies are a manifestation of an important evolution for women in the region.

By Roula Khalaf, Financial Times