This Melanie Trump tweet - does she not see the irony?

[oberliner]

Melania Trump‏
Enjoyed talking to the incredible women working hard @GE_Saudi service center. Great strides being made towards the empowerment of women.

:large
A few of those women don't look especially empowered.

[trueblue2007]

1. none of the women look empowered. THIS IS AN AWFUL LOOKING PICTURE

i pity those ladies. slaves to men, never having a good life. my heart goes out to them

[oberliner]

3. Likewise

Saudi Arabia is the home of the most fundamentalist, most oppressive version of Islam in the world.

[Siwsan]

2. Judas Freaking Priest!!

I suspect that Melania does what she's told and not much more.

[Doodley]

4. Very ironic. And why no head scarf. Very insulting.

Link to tweet

[lunasun]

9. Lol the hypocrisy IOKIYAR Why are you making enemies Melania ?

[BigmanPigman]

34. Also hypocrisy with Jared and Ivanka flying on the Sabbath.

They got a rabbi's permission so it's OK if they do it. Everything is OK if THEY do it.

[Cha]

36. isn't trump making Enough Enemies for you, melania?!

[lunasun]

5. They don't look that excited about meeting with her either

[emulatorloo]

6. I sort of doubt Melania has ever seen her own twitter feed.

Seems more like a John Miller or Meredith McIver production.

[oberliner]

8. Good point

But she did pose for the photo.

[emulatorloo]

10. Indeed she did. Thanks for posting it.

A bit off topic, but I think you will find this thread interesting:

Trump supporters' heads, SCANNERS EDITION, after he calls Islam "one of worlds great faiths"
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029097850

[oberliner]

12. The RW Trump hacks don't even seem to be covering this trip

Their Twitter feeds appear to be about everything but Trump in Saudi Arabia.

[SunSeeker]

32. And for very good reason. The optics are horrible to the base.

They're afraid they'll react like Roger Stone just did.:

Link to tweet

I don't think Stone even realizes Trump curtsied to King Salman after the King put the medal on his neck, he wad just pissed off at the picture of the bow for the medal. Stone doesn't watch MSM news, and Fox sure didn't show the curtsy. In fact they ran a false headline that "Trump shakes hands with Saudi leader, doesn't bow as Obama appeared to do," showing Trump at the airport, not the medal ceremony.

Wait till his base gets a load of Trump's curtsy:

Link to tweet

[BigmanPigman]

35. Stone wrote "#Jaredsidea" as if it was Jared's recommendation.

It WAS Jared's idea to fire Comey. Does Stone dislike Jared, Bannon or both?

[SunSeeker]

39. The advisors all hate each other, like the pit of vipers they are. nt

[3catwoman3]

30. Striking a pose...

...is all I ever see her do.

[yuiyoshida]

7. Waiting for the President to get the idea that

Melania would look great in a Burka. Maybe he will buy her one.

[emulatorloo]

11. Pence would definitely go for that.

[Thomas Hurt]

13. Did they give the Mutaween the day off?

[sheshe2]

14. OFFS!

[uppityperson]

15. What strides! Only 2/7 are in full burqa.

[Doreen]

16. I have a feeling that what they say about Ivanka's speech being great and acting happy

about getting a picture with Melania is an order given to them by their men. How can Melania encourage them to be successful when she is not far from where they are as far as being respected from her husband. No matter how successful Melania and Ivanka might be it would not surprise them in the least if they saw trump treat either one of them badly because no matter how successful a woman in that country may be she is still under the tight rule of a man and if you really think about their success it is really the mans because they are only doing what they are allowed or told to do.

[Amaryllis]

17. Unlike her hubby, her tweets are probably approved before sending.

[mdbl]

18. Approved by who? Her husband?

Because that's how it appears - and that is the Saudi way.

[Amaryllis]

19. Ivanka, Jared, any number of teh dozens who went along on the trip. I dont think her husband pays

that much attention to her.

[MFM008]

20. When I lived I Libya

I thought the covered ones were all burned or horribly deformed....

[MFM008]

21. I was 5 at the time

........

[elleng]

28. Right, suggesting there was and probably is a lot more to understand

than mere appearance.

Thanks.

[Chemisse]

29. That kind of head gear leaves a lot to the imagination of a small child.

It's very creepy.

[dalton99a]

22. She's impervious to irony

and she couldn't care less

[progressoid]

23. Like how she was going to combat online bullying as first lady,

while her husband is one of the biggest online bullies.

[dalton99a]

24. Yep, that was a textbook example

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. All show. Haven't heard a peep from her about it since. But if she is sincere then

... then it is a dig at her husband: Back off!

[Leith]

25. Umm.... the Sign Behind Them?

TATA Consultant Services? It looks like somebody didn't think that through well enough.

Look at it this way: some of them have decorations on their burkas and two of them are ninjas!

[Squinch]

33. Tata is an enormous global company.

[elleng]

27. It is wrong to equate women's wardrobes with their empowerment.

One MUST understand their cultures.

[Chemisse]

31. You make a good point.

And I am fine with most of the garb. I have a lot of Arabic students who wear head coverings. They can be really pretty and stylish.

I just have a hard time getting past the burka. It screams out 'I am a prisoner.' Even if the women who wear them are on board with this on religious grounds, they have to be hot, uncomfortable, and physically and visually restrictive.

[oberliner]

40. A woman cannot travel, attend university, work, or marry without her guardian's permission.

To add some context.

[SunSeeker]

42. A woman in a burqa is not empowered. She is imprisoned in a restrictive, suffocating cloth sack.

No cultural tradition justifies it. None. The Koran does not require a burqa for women. Burqas are very different than a mere head scarf. A head scarf does not cover a person's face or obliterate their identity, impede their ability to see, or dehumanize them.

I can't believe a progressive would defend burqas and attack other progressives as being ignorant about "culture" simply for pointing out the obvious about burqas.

[oberliner]

43. Well put

Thanks for this post.

[spiderpig]

44. How can a woman navigate a flight of stairs in that thing?

Or cross a street?

Is this one of those time-travel tours back to the 7th century?

Melania must be renegotiating her prenup to go along with this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

37. A test of empowerment: how many men are those women in charge of?

(Given Saudi Arabia's attitude to non citizens, perhaps that should be "how many Saudi Arabian men are those women in charge of?&quot

[left-of-center2012]

38. What would happen if those women went out looking like her?

I'm guessing they'd be arrested and beaten by a cane.

[oberliner]

41. If they said they didn't believe in Islam anymore, they'd be beheaded

This is from April of this year:

SADUI MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH AFTER DECLARING HIMSELF AN ATHEIST IN ONLINE VIDEO

A Saudi Arabian man who posted videos of himself disparaging the Prophet Muhammad and renouncing Islam on Twitter had his second appeal against a 2015 death sentence denied earlier this week.

http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-man-sentenced-death-after-declaring-himself-atheist-online-video-591473