On January 3, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot traveled to Damascus to meet with Syrian interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa. This visit comes less than a month after the sudden fall of one of the most violent regimes in the Arab world: the Baathist dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad.
A multitude of issues are on the agenda of Syrian-European relations, including regional stability, economic recovery, post-war justice and reconciliation, the refugee crisis, etc.
And yet Western media chose to focus on al-Sharaa’s decision to greet Baerbock with a nod and a smile instead of extending his hand, in keeping with Muslim religious norms. Western media pundits called the incident a “scandal” and a “snub.”
A Politico editorial went so far as to suggest that trivialities like shaking hands should become the new “litmus test” for determining how “moderate” a Muslim leader really is. In the name of inclusiveness, the Politico article implied that pious Muslim leaders like al-Sharaa should be forced to shake women’s hands – regardless of their religion’s instructions – otherwise it should trigger a “bell ringing.” alarm” in the West. The old adage “in Rome, do as the Romans” has become “in Syria, do as the Germans and French”.
As a Syrian American whose father was exiled from Syria for 46 years and whose family friends were tortured and killed by the al-Assad regime, I find the Western “litmus test” of Arab leadership loaded with contradictions and simply offensive.
I wonder where the media furor was when the British prince, Prince Edward, explained that he preferred non-physical contact with ordinary Britons trying to greet him? Should we offer grace when the motive is personal preference and anger when the motive is religious observance?
It is not surprising that Western media are trying to impose Western cultural values as a new litmus test for the “moderation” of Arab Muslim leaders. This is what he has been doing for decades.
As anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod explains in her book Do Muslim Women Need Saving?, there is an assumption in the West that “liberal culture is the acultural norm and should be the universal standard by which societies are evaluated.” Those who fail are the barbarians before the gates…”
The very characterization of Muslim religious norms as “extreme” is a symptom of a hegemonic discourse by which Western norms are masked as universal.
The bad news for those who subscribe to this view is that Western cultural values are not as dominant as they might imagine. Muslims and Arabs also have some freedom of action – the ability to choose to observe their religious values even when they defy dominant cultural expectations in the West – although we have seen a willingness to circumvent these expectations when t’s about British royalty, COVID-19 scare. 19 transmissions, etc.
The media’s focus on trivialities – like al-Sharaa’s attire or his personal mannerisms – seems banal in the context of the brutal repression that Syrians endured for 61 years under authoritarian Baathist rule.
Syrians have their own “litmus test” to evaluate their new leadership, such as the government’s ability to establish democracy and freedom, restore and improve civilian infrastructure, unite Syrians and protect constitutional rights, not to find out if male members of government shake hands with women. Syrians are urgently concerned about the ability of their new leaders to lead the country towards peace, prosperity and stability.
Half of Syria’s population is currently displaced and more than 90 percent of the Syrian population lives below the poverty line. There are extreme shortages of food, water and electricity. Unemployment is rife and the economy is in ruins.
There is also the trauma of living through a 13-year civil war and a 61-year authoritarian regime.
I don’t know a single Syrian family that hasn’t lost family members or friends to al-Assad’s brutal repressive regime. My childhood friends lost their father, Majd Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist and American citizen, when he went to pay condolences to his stepmother in Syria in 2017. A relative from Aleppo lost two teenage brothers to torture in the infamous Al-Assad massacre. dungeons. My cousin spent a month in an underground prison for distributing bread in a poor neighborhood in Damascus during the civil war. Family friends – like Heba al-Dabbagh, who spent nine years in a Syrian prison in the 1980s because the regime could not find her brother – have shared harrowing stories of torture.
After suffering for decades under one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships, Syrians are desperate for a fresh start, clinging to broken threads of hope. They may have faced unimaginable horrors – massacres, torture, systemic rape, repression and displacement – but they are not helpless victims. They have a clear vision of the future they want.
If Western media want to prove Syria right, they must introspect and recognize how their discourse and expectations may be shaped by decades of hegemonic bias. Instead of imposing a Western “litmus test” on Arab leaders, he should ask Syrians what they want in their leadership.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
