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Saudi Woman Running for Office in U.S. On the Riyadh Bombing
& the House of Saud
The Other War: A Look At the Role of Women in Post-9/11 Afghanistan
Voters in Inglewood, CA Reject Wal-Mart Superstore
Saudi Woman Running for Office in U.S. On the Riyadh
Bombing & the House of Saud
A day after a bomb killed up to nine in Riyadh, we speak
to Ferial Masry of Los Angeles who is attempting to become
the first Saudi native to hold elective office in the US.
She is running for the California State Assembly. [includes
rush transcript]
A group of Saudis allegedly tied to al Qaeda has claimed
responsibility for yesterday’s suicide bombing in the
capital Riyadh. Four people were killed and more than 140
wounded when a car bomb destroyed a security forces building
tied to the Saudi Interior Ministry. A statement by a group
calling itself Al Haramain Brigades, published by at least
two Islamist Web sites, said the attack targeted special security
and anti-terrorism units in the kingdom. The bombing came
just days after a US warning of a possible attack in the country.
Arabic language media outlets have reported in recent weeks
that there have been gun battles in several Saudi cities between
government forces and opponents of the regime.
For more than a decade, Osama bin Laden has attacked the
Saudi regime for allowing US forces to base themselves in
a country that houses the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and
Medina. Some analysts say that the Saudi regime is paying
a price for its support of the Bush administration’s
policies, most significantly the occupation of Iraq. A new
book by Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward alleges that
the Bush administration showed the Saudi Ambassador to the
US, Prince Bandar, secret war plans for the bombing of Iraq
as early as January 2003 and that the Saudis made a secret
deal with the White House to fix oil prices in an effort to
aid Bush’s reelection campaign.
Meanwhile, in a less publicized story, a well-known TV host
in Saudi Arabia says her husband has surrendered to police
to face charges of attempting to kill her. The case of Rania
al-Baz has opened an unprecedented public debate in Saudi
Arabia about the issue of violence against women. She is accusing
her husband of severely beating her, threatening to kill her,
and abducting their children. In an unprecedented move, the
TV host allowed newspapers to show pictures of her swollen
and bruised face and has had repeated surgery for 13 fractures.
Her case is the first time domestic violence has received
media coverage of this kind in Saudi Arabia. There has been
no official comment from Saudi police on the arrest or charges.
Meanwhile, in this country, a Saudi woman is running for
a seat in the California State Assembly. Her name is Ferial
Masry. If she wins, she will be the first Saudi native to
hold an elective office in the US. Masry is running as a Democrat
in a heavily republican district after she qualified for a
spot on the November ballot as a write-in candidate. And she
is up against sizeable odds.
During the primary alone, Masry's opponent, Audra Strickland,
spent more than a half a million dollars. Strickland is the
wife of the incumbent, Tony Strickland, who cannot seek re-election
because of term limits. Masry opposes the war in Iraq in a
district that heavily favors it. Her son, Omar, is an Army
sergeant serving in Iraq where he maintains a Web site in
Baghdad that includes a Web log that provides a running commentary
on the war. In an e-mail message, Omar Masry described how
one Iraqi wanted his mother to move back to the Middle East
and run for office in Iraq. Masry’s husband is a Navy
engineer serving here in the US.
Ferial Masry was born in the holy city of Mecca. She left
Saudi Arabia at age 9 to attend boarding school in Egypt.
Her parents wanted her to be the first girl in the family
to get a formal education. She received a degree in journalism
from the University of Cairo, then lived in Britain and Nigeria
before moving to the United States in 1979. She now teaches
history and government at Cleveland High School in Los Angeles.
Her campaign has also caused quite a stir in Saudi Arabia
where she says she could never do what she is attempting to
do here in Los Angeles. Ferial Masry joins us now in our studio
here in Los Angeles.
- Ferial Masry, born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. She is running
as a Democrat for the California State Assembly here in
Los Angeles. If she wins, she will become the first Saudi
native to hold elective office in the US.
The Other War: A Look At the Role of Women in Post-9/11
Afghanistan
While much of the world's attention focuses on Iraq, the
people of Afghanistan, especially women, continue to suffer
from President Bush's other war. The liberation of Afghan
women - one of the Bush administration’s stated reasons
for overthrowing the Taliban – has failed. Insecurity,
sexual violence and oppression continue to dominate life for
women in Afghanistan. We talk to KPFK's Sonali Kolhatkar
It was a day of mourning today in the southern Iraqi city
of Basra following yesterday's multiple bomb attacks that
left at least 68 Iraqis dead. Among them nearly 20 children,
whose schhol bus was blown up. Large crowds formed a procession
as the coffins of some of the victims were carried through
the streets of the city.
Meanwhile, fighting continues to rage in the western Iraqi
city of Fallujah. The US military says it killed 36 resistance
fighters over the past 24 hours, while Iraqi hospital officials
in the city are reporting civilian casualties.
The growing popular uprising against the U.S occupation of
Iraq is headline news across the world. But as much attention
is focused on the Middle East, little attention is being paid
to another country occupied by US forces. And that is Afghanistan.
The Bush administration has consistently labeled the invasion
of Kabul a success. But reports from humanitarian organizations,
United Nations officials and Afghans themselves paint a very
different picture - warlords dominate much of the country,
the Taliban is still a force in many parts, and the illegal
drug trade is flourishing. A wave of violence has claimed
more than 650 lives since last summer and general elections
have been postponed from June until September because of security
concerns and voter registration delays.
The liberation of Afghan women - one of the Bush administration’s
stated reasons for overthrowing the Taliban – has failed.
Insecurity, sexual violence and oppression continue to dominate
life for women in Afghanistan.
We are joined in our studio today by Sonali Kolhatkar host
of the popular Pacifica Radio Show, Uprising on KPFK. She
is Vice President of the Afghan Women's Mission, a group that
works in solidarity with Afghans to help improve health and
educational facilities for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
Last week Sonali interviewed Sahar Saba, a member of the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the Revolutionary Association
of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). She is one of the main
spokespeople, travelling all over the world to raise awareness
of Afghan's women's oppression and resistance.
- Sonali Kolhatkar, host of the popular Pacifica Radio
Show, Uprising on KPFK. She is also Vice President of the
Afghan Women's Mission, a group that works in solidarity
with Afghans to help improve health and educational facilities
for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
- Tape: Sahah Saba, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA)
Voters in Inglewood, CA Reject Wal-Mart Superstore
This month a coalition of grassroots organizations in the
city of Inglewood scored a historic victory against Wal-Mart,
thwarting plans by the retail giant to build a giant “Supercenter”
the size of seventeen football fields in the west of Los Angeles
County. Construction of the Supercenter would have represented
Wal-Mart’s first foray into the supermarket business
in Los Angeles. [includes
rush transcript]
But it was cut short when voters in Inglewood voted down
a referendum that would have ceded control over sixty acres
of barren land near the Hollywood Park Racetrack to Wal-Mart.
Had the voters of Inglewood approved the referendum, they
would have essentially granted Wal-Mart a retail village of
sorts, exempt from the city’s zoning, environmental,
and planning requirements. Sixty percent of Inglewood residents
voted against the measure, despite a more than one million
dollar public relations effort by Wal-Mart.
Although the company’s defeat at the ballot box represents
a setback in its plans to expand into Southern California’s
grocery industry, the corporation’s impact on supermarket
workers is already being felt. Last fall, some 70,000 grocery
clerks throughout Southern California walked out on strike
against the Ralphs, Vons, Albertsons, and Pavilions grocery
stores; after four months and 18 days spent on picket lines,
those workers agreed to a new labor contract full of concessions,
including steep cuts in wages and health care benefits for
newly hired employees. Although the grocery chains collectively
lost more than a billion dollars in revenue over the course
of the strike, managers declared victory in the settlement,
saying concessions from supermarket workers will allow them
to compete with Wal-Mart’s push into the grocery industry.
- The Rev. Altagracia Perez, organizer with the Coalition
for a Better Inglewood, one of the community groups that
successfully mounted a campaign against a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
- Renuka Uthappa, a journalist with the Detroit-based publication,
"Labor Notes." In this month's edition, she covers
the defeat of grocery workers with the United Food and Commercial
Workers union at the hands of southern California's major
grocery chains.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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