JEDDAH, 16 August 2005 â Rania Al-Baz, the TV presenter who became the poster face for abused women in Saudi Arabia after her ex-husband beat her almost to death last year, is starting a new chapter in her life.
| She looks a whole lot better in the photo in this article. You might recall the pic Fred ran of her shortly after hubbie beat the crap out of her. |
Rania is co-hosting Al-Arabiya satellite news channelâs morning program âSabah Al-Arabiyaâ for ten days until Aug. 24. Although she still has two more major plastic surgeries to do on her face to repair the multiple fractures she suffered from having her face brutally smashed by her ex-husband Mohammed Fallata, she is putting on a brave new face for the audience she loves.
âAl-Arabiya invited me to guest host this program. It will be a valuable learning experience for me even if it is just for a short period,â Rania told Arab News from Dubai in a phone interview.
She described the new program as a combination of news and general information targeting a new segment of the audience. She appears with a new look and without a veil, which some have criticized, but she feels that there will always be those who support and those who criticize. âBefore, I appeared on religious channels and I was expected to wear the hijab, but I normally donât do that when I travel even though Iâm proud of the hijab,â she said.
| "So please don't hit me!" |
She is eagerly anticipating the release of a French book in September entitled âThe Disfiguredâ, which showcases the lives of women in Saudi Arabia. Written by a French journalist as told to him by Rania, the book will be distributed in France and other European countries and later translated into Arabic.
âThere is only one chapter about the abuse experience I suffered. The book is a window for the French people on Saudi Arabia, life here and our culture. There has been a lot of misrepresentation and distortion about Saudi women and their lives here and I wanted to present a balanced view of the positives and negatives,â Rania told Arab News.
She recently appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show that raised much criticism by writers and the public here because of the truthful way it portrayed Saudi women. The interview with Rania was aired on Oprah recently as part of an episode on women from different parts of the world, but people here considered it unfair and biased because they said while other women were presented in a positive way, the woman chosen to represent Saudi women was an abused and oppressed woman.
| Gee, we westerners figured it out immediately. |
âIâm satisfied with the episode, I donât think that Oprah and her producers were mistaken,â said Rania. âI think we are too sensitive about anyone criticizing us and this is our problem. Oprah has presented many episodes before on abused women in the US and other parts of the world. The US is more advanced than us in terms of human rights. Yes, they have higher rates of crime but they accept criticism. Those of us who have traveled to the US, studied there or worked there, know that the American people are very warm and friendly and not biased, so we should not make judgments of people just because we donât agree with their governmentâs policies.â
| I think I've just found the chancellor for the Republic of Eastern Arabia, a 50-km wide strip of sand ... |
|