Backlash against the Economist for a piece on obesity in the Middle East is rife. The Associated Press reports that Enas Taleb, an Iraqi actress, filed a lawsuit. reported Wednesday.
“If there’s a student who goes to school and hears mean comments and students bullying her for being fat, how would she feel?”Taleb said that he would sue The AP because of defamation. “This article is an insult not only to me but a violation of the rights of all Iraqi and Arab women.”
The article is titled “Why women are fatter than men in the Arab world,”It used Taleb’s photo onstage at an art festival as its featured image.
The article was published in July and explored the possibility of a Middle East obesity gap. Taleb and others have criticized the use of the word body shame to women. “fat,”Six times.
Taleb is referred to by the magazine as Taleb because it reports that curves are the best representation of beauty in the region. “Iraqis often cite Enas Taleb, an actress with ample curves (pictured), as the ideal of beauty.”
Many people are challenging the idea that weight should be viewed as a sign or wealth.
The Atlantic’s Kim Ghattas Appelled outThe “shameful headline”The article she says is “Sexist, misogynistic [and] orientalist.”
“Very disappointed in @TheEconomist,” journalist Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson WriteFollow us on Twitter. “The stereotypes here go beyond #fatshaming.”
Joan Costa-Font will instead publish a study about Egypt at The London School of Economics. “it’s not true in Egypt that being overweight is a sign of beauty. … Western standards are more relevant.”
According to The AP., Western beauty standards have long pervaded Arab countries and distorted their visions of beauty.