History vs. Herstory

Hello Ellen,

This week the memoir of Queen Noor of Jordan, the former Lisa Hallaby of Washington, D.C., debuted as No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list. The American who married King Hussein I in her twenties, converted to Islam and became the Muslim Queen of a country that borders Israel, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia is uniquely positioned to comment on the growing rift between the Arab (and Moslem) world and the West. As an American, she can speak in our vernacular and understands our world. As an Arab-American (her father’s family is Arabic; her mother Scandinavian) and a Muslim who has lived for decades in the midst of Middle East turmoil and at the side of a man whose life work was to solve the tensions of his region, she also appreciates the perceptions and aspirations of the Arab and Muslim world. In her recently published book, “Leap of Faith: A Memoir of an Unexpected Life,” she offers a bridge between those worlds: a rare look at life and history from a Muslim point of view in a language that is accessible to Americans. It is a remarkable achievement.

Yet, when CNN’s Jeff Greenfield interviewed her at the 92nd Street Y in New York, a program that was broadcast live on C-SPAN’s Book-TV, he actually took her to task for presenting the Arab’s political point of view. He found it disturbing, for example, that in her book she contended that the creation of the state of Israel (and the failure of granting independence to Arab states) was seen by Arabs as a betrayal of promises the British had made to them in exchange for their help in defeating the Ottoman Empire. Such an assertion, he argued, makes the acceptance of Israel’s right to exist more difficult. But would he rather that she had ignored the Arab perception of history simply because it is uncomfortable to the Israelis? Isn’t that the problem between the groups in the first place, that they see history so differently? Aren’t we better off understanding those differences so we can understand people’s anger and frustration? History cannot be changed but it can be acknowledged.

Even more puzzling, however, are those who object to Queen Noor’s choice to concentrate on political and social matters at all in her memoir. Shouldn’t memoirs be about personal details, they contend. Where are the passages devoted to her relationship with her chidren, asked Janet Maslin in her review of “Leap of Faith” in the New York Times. Where are the juicy details about domestic squabbles. She’s not a politician, so why is she concerning herself with politics?

I’m afraid that too many reviewers are disappointed when a memoir is not a dishy tell-all, serving up personal, intimate details. Placing a life in a political and social context — describing intellectual growth as Queen Noor does in her memoir — is seen as a cop-out. But I think it is just the opposite. What Queen Noor has done is infinitely more difficult — and more revealing — than relating a string of domestic anecdotes. She provides us with a picture of a woman who unexpectedly fell in love with a man who drew her into his political and social world. Hussein shared with her his struggles to bridge the cultural chasms that swirled around him and in doing so she received a cultural education like no other. In “Leap of Faith,” she shares that education with us and lets us see the world from another perspective.

Give me that over a navel-gazing memoir any day. 

Hi Margo,

Well, kiddo, I’ll give her this much: Queen Noor is a woman of strong conviction. It seems to be a personality trait, and as one of like bent, go girl, I say. But wait: Being passionate about a cause doesn’t make someone an expert. The personal story IS her story, and “Leap of Faith” slips when she forgets her job description, which can be summed up in a word: wife. This is not a sexist remark, but the truth. As a reader, I want to know about how she snagged the man who was, as she tells us, one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. (She would argue that he snagged her, but there’s an element of forced naivete to her account that I don’t find believable in such a smart and sophisticated woman.)  I want to know about their life together, and their children, and the larger family of Jordanians who suddenly became her children, too.     

I applaud her concern not only for the suffering of the Palestinians, but also about American obliviousness to Arab sentiment and the way we’ve used or misused our ties with Israel. This is rightly part of her story, but only as seen in a mirror and reflected back.  What she never seemed to understand while her husband was alive, and still doesn’t, is that there’s a big difference between being married to the king and being the ruler yourself. Apparently Queen Noor got her hands slapped for her meddling at least once. She says that, during the last Gulf crisis, the first Mrs. Bush sent her a message that she considered the queen a traitor. I knew Barbara had a sharp tongue, but if true, this is a doozie.     

With a war to remind us every day — not to mention 9/11 — it’s impossible to understate the tragic consequences of our past misjudgments about the Middle East. And if Noor says something that doesn’t conform with the Israeli view of the world, how’s that a surprise? But her historical and political analysis is grating and simplistic. For instance, she says the Israelis provoked the 1967 war.  That’s insufficient at best, and baloney at worst. We ought to send her a copy of “Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East,” by Michael B. Oren. A widely praised bestseller last year, it gives all the detail, including what King Hussein did and had at stake in that conflict. I don’t listen to Martin Sheen for my ideas about war, and I’m not taking my cues about what to do in the Middle East from Queen Noor.

In sum, she oversteps the limits of her knowledge and authority. 

Ellen, Ellen,

Since when does being a wife limit your intellectual commentary to romance and diapers? Just because Queen Noor was not the ruler of Jordan but the wife of the ruler doesn’t mean she’s not entitled to present her view of the world. I think it is incredibly narrow-minded to think that her viewpoint is worthless because she didn’t hold the reins of power but only shared a bed with someone who did. At the very least, the fact that she was an American who became the wife of a man whom the Muslim world considers a near-deity gives her a unique perspective on that world.

That, in fact, is exactly what I take her memoir to be: her perspective on a world with which I am not familiar and she has had intimate contact. People are never going to agree on historical facts — years of conflict between the Arabs and Israelis certainly have proven that. The best we can do is to try to understand the perceptions of others. To try to walk in their shoes. Queen Noor’s memoir gives us a chance to do that. I’ll listen to anyone if they say something interesting, informative, and, in Queen Noor’s case, perceptive — even Martin Sheen.