Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Around the World


 POTUS and FLOTUS visited INDIA this week.


 Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, descended Air Force one clad in a printed floral dress and coat by India-born designer, Bibhu Mohapatra, as she accompanied U.S. President Barack Obama to New Delhi on Sunday. 
Ms. Obama is known for her occasional preference for Indian origin designers. In her earlier visit to India in 2010 she donned designs created by Indian origin American designers Naeem Khan and Rachel Roy. 
Also this is not the first time the First Lady chose one of Mr. Mohapatra’s works. While appearing in a show ‘Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ in 2012, Ms. Obama had worn one of Mr. Mohapatra’s collections. Mr. Mohapatra hails from Rourkela in Odisha and is based in New York.
The designer tweeted the photo of the First Lady exiting Air Force One.

Later that day Mrs. Obama went with a navy print Carolina Herrera for dinner

Cant say that I am a massive fan of this skirt shape - but just going to stick with my usual that she can do no wrong in anyway, anytime.

 This was at a garden tea party the next afternoon, a perfect look all together for such an event. Who the hell knows what the Indians are wearing.

NOW!  It was the very next day that caused the internets to melt.

Cutting the India trip short, to fly to Saudi Arabia for the funeral for the late king.

 The new King shakes hands with the First Lady of the United States . the majority of the all male party did not.
 From TIME MAGAZINE : There is nothing quite as contentious as the headscarf issue when it comes to women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, at least where western observers are concerned. So when U.S. first lady Michelle Obama attended the funeral of Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh with her hair uncovered, social media lit up with both praise and opprobrium. “Michelle Obama shouldve stayed in Airforce One as a sign of boycott rather than flouting rules of another country 


#Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled” tweeted @Random_Arora. “She was a guest in another country &culture. She should make no judgements, but show proper respect at a funeral.2 #Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled,” wrote @MonaBadah.
The thing is, Obama wasn’t really flouting any rules when she chose not to wear a headscarf. While foreign female visitors to the Kingdom are expected to wear long, loose fitting garments as a sign of respect — Obama obliged with a long coat over dark trousers — the headscarf is optional. The muttawa, or religious police, might growl menacingly, but there is nothing legally wrong with going uncovered for non-Muslims. Doing so may draw unwanted attention, and the ire of conservatives, but most Saudis treat the headscarf as a sign of piety, or at least feigned piety for public consumption.
When it comes to women’s rights in the kingdom, the headscarf is the least of any Saudi activist’s worries. She is more likely to be concerned about the right to drive, the right to vote, the right to keep her children after asking for divorce and the right to travel, marry and work without express permission from a male guardian. So maybe if Obama had driven to the funeral herself, it would have been worth a stir. Instead, she did as several other notable female visitors to the Kingdom, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice among them, have done before: dressing respectfully without compromising their own personal sense of style. It’s not like Mr. Obama decided to don a thobe and shemaghfor the occasion


I don't know who the other lady is , but she is also uncovered.

Can you just imagine how loud the roar would  have been on FOX news if the First Lady had , like she has other times in the past, chosen to cover her head ?!?





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