Kristof, Dowd and the necessity of unnewsworthy news

This week while dutifully procrastinating from actual studies, I caught up on a little John Stewart and NyTimes. Ah warm fuzzies. When I last lived in Africa, I had no internet, no computer, no phone; it was as if I had actually traveled to another country. Actually, it was as if I had traveled to a different century. Well, that was Niger, and this is Tunis where the wireless connection is impeccable and the only hindrance on communication with the fam is the time difference. So here I can have my Colbert and eat harissa too (Will write future post on the food! Wherein will explain harissa, hot but yum!).

Well, after drooling over Paul Krugman and his painfully beautiful commentary on health care reform, I read Maureen Dowd and Nicholas Kristof. Kristof has done some fantastic reporting on Niger (he may be the only American reporter to have ever been there), so I am biased and I like him a lot. Dowd is a woman, smart, and therefore a feminist. So clearly I like her too (usually). But I was slightly deflated after reading their articles. Kristof relates this incredible story of a Yemeni child sold into marriage at the age of ten, who escaped her 30 year old husband who raped and beat her, and successfully sought a divorce. Wow, rock on little kid! That's pretty noteworthy and impressive. Then Dowd tells us that Saudi princes are arrogant and don't like Israel, earth-shattering. These articles show us what we already think we know about the Middle East and North Africa. Are child brides that common? I don't know, that's a genuine question. I would have liked to see some statistics in Kristof's otherwise great article, least we all think that every other 10 year old in Yemen is sold off as a child bride. Dowd makes some interesting points about the glacial, yet consistent pace at which King Abdullah is loosening the restrictions on Saudi women. Then she throws in the line, "Wahhabism, anyone?" What do you mean, Dowd? Would anyone like a tall glass of Wahhabism? No, and we get it, there are some pretty creepy people out there with strict interpretations of Islam. Uh, like some pretty creepy people in the U.S. don't have nutso ideas about the Christian bible and also marry teenagers?

So my concern today is, how does one make a news story about the many moderate places in Middle East/ North Africa? I have lots of cool stories about unmarried women in their 30s here in Tunis who have PhDs, can drive cars just fine, and are allowed to tell men to shove it, and many chose to do so, often. One of my Arabic professors, Samah, is one such brilliant, unmarried, and extremely pretty person. Another professor, Salwa, is the mother of two boys, perhaps in her early or mid-40s, and she loves to talk about how in Tunis women and men are equal but only on paper. She freely states that she's thrilled not to be in the Gulf but she clearly thinks that women in Tunis have a ways to go. Live, awesome Arab women, who don't veil (but so what if they did!), and speak their mind, are really opinionated, smart, bossy. Not all child brides.

Tunis presents another fun contrast to Dowd's article when she describes Saudi on Valentine's Day. So apparently in Saudi there's a "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" (dear God!) who made this enormous deal about banning red roses and teddy bears because they encourage relationships between unmarried people. (Which is just funny because a strong desire to have sex is what usually encourages people to have sex. Teddy bears have so little to do with it.) Well, you should have seen Tunis on February 14! I would have liked me a little crack down on all things plush and heart-bedecked. You know the line from Steel Magnolias, where they are describing how the church was all decorated in Julia Robert's "my two colors, blush and bashful." And then Sally Fields adds, "It looked like the whole altar was hosed down with pepto-bismal." Well, it looked like Tunis was hosed down with the same, pink and red everywhere! Hearts, teddy bears, pink and red polka-dotted everythings, and bras and lacy underwear in storefronts all across the city. Which really made me want some sort of control of all this immoral bad taste. Why is it that all the crappy American traditions are copied? Must you all wear skinny jeans, and why can't you blast John Coltrane from your cars? It wasn't just the stores either. I got text messages, many with sappy flower images, wishing me a happy Valentine's day from nearly all of my Tunisian friends -men and women! I kind of wanted to tell them that St.Valentine was a Christian martyr, but oh why spoil their fun? Okay, point being, in contrast to Saudi's looney-tune sex police, there are Arab countries that are way, way too into Valentine's Day.

My final non-news story that gives a glimpse into society in a way that glib comments about Wahhabism cannot, relates to one of the most awesome thing I've seen in Tunis. The other day I saw this little boy, oh about 7, run into a phone booth-shop and return with a little pack of a single sanitary path. He exited the little store front, holding pad in plain sight, and turned and trotted right past me, on his way home, I guess. I found this totally fascinating so I brought it up with my roommate who claims that this happens all the time. One, it's true that tampons are everywhere, in all the little kiosks on the streets, and at newsstands. These little kiosks and tiny convenient stores are everywhere and from them you can buy bread, water, light bulbs, phone cards and tampons. Clearly, the necessities of life. How often do you need a tampon? Often. Of course what of little boys buying them? So I asked some Tunisian friends about what was no doubt an extremely unusual occurrence. Nope, totally normal. "The kid's mom sent him out to grab a pad, what's weird about that?" this twenty something year-old Tunisian guy says to me. I am stunned. Nothing is weird about that here, because in Tunis apparently women having periods is considered normal. How's that for progressive? How normal do we consider periods in the U.S.? Well, I've never seen a little boy go buy a box of tampax for his mom! Dowd, Kristof, article on little boys going on tampon-errands for their moms in Tunis?

Incidentally, abortions are legal here and they cost about 150 US dollars. Birth control is available, and there are women's health clinics all over the place. Also, there are condoms on display at the counter in every pharmacy I've entered. Oh and I've mentioned it before, but I love it so I reiterate: female police officers, everywhere. So, please think about Tunis, and the red bras in store windows, boys buying tampons, before you go imagining that there is nothing but child brides and women who cannot drive from Morocco to Iraq. Tunis will likely not be in the U.S. news anytime too soon. Which, to be perfectly honest, is one of the reasons I am here! However, Americans (everyone) needs the type of news that is totally un-newsworthy in order to have a more complex and accurate view of a place.