Samantha in the Middle East

Of all of the Sex and the City characters, I have the least in common with Samantha. I don’t want to live my life sleeping around with as many guys as I can the way she does (though whatever floats your boat, who am I to judge.) And although she’s fun to watch, she’s just a little much for my taste.

When Sex and the City 2 came out, I was in fact not looking forward to seeing the film. The first movie was mediocre enough, and I loved the series when it was on TV…so why ruin a good thing? Besides the reviews of the movie were not that great. In fact, I was a little pissed at the fact that we would see these scandalously-clad women having a lavish vacation in the Middle East, where women’s rights are trampled everyday and most women live a life of repression and double standards.

For the record, I think Middle-Eastern women are not only beautiful, but also strong, in a way that only women who have had to deal with double standards and repression for centuries can be. I don’t see them as victims (though they can be victimized); I see them as survivors, stronger than most men.

So, when I went to see this movie, my expectations were, I’d say, around a -5. And you know, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would – although it was truthfully a bit over the top. But one scene will be forever etched in mind. When the girls are visiting a bazaar/market on their last day in Abu Dhabi, Samantha accidentally drops her purse and her condoms spill out everywhere. She’s then swarmed by a mass of conservative Middle-Eastern men judging her, getting ready to punish her for being a woman who openly likes sex. And what does she do? She rubs it in their face screaming something like “Yes, see, it’s for sex…sex, sex…” as she gyrates her hips. It was BRILLIANT!

I am going to make an assumption and say that most of us girls who grew up in the Middle East, felt a thrill and excitement, a feeling of sweet satisfaction, as we watched her flaunt her condoms and her sexuality in the faces of bearded conservative men who feel a woman’s only place is under the chador/hijab in the house. And not because we have a secret desire to be like Samantha, but because we have known what its like to grow up with double standards, grow up knowing that you are so much more limited than your brother or your boy cousins. Frankly, we are human beings who have a right to choose who and what we want to be in life. Some of us will choose to be conservative, some liberal, some modest and introverted, some wild.

We’ve come a long way, and have more equality than ever before. But make no mistake about it, double standards: very real - no matter if you live in the Middle East, or in Hollywood. We’re still a very long way from having full acceptance as equal human being. Maybe we won’t burn our bras or flaunt our condoms in a Middle-Eastern market. But if you ever doubted that there’s still a need for feminist ideals and a women’s movement, don’t.

And Samantha in that bazaar, that was perhaps one of the most memorable images of a woman’s liberation and demand for equality that I’ve seen in a long time.