Trophy wives forever

The debate on the Egyptian first lady’s appearance shows that a woman will always be judged by the way she looks.

After the fervour displayed at Cairo’s Tahrir Square set a template for revolution elsewhere, one would have thought that the Egyptians believed in leading by example than blindly aping that set by others. We were obviously mistaken. With Mohamed Morsi, a leading figure of the Muslim Brotherhood, being elected president of Egypt in the recent elections, attention is now trained on his wife Naglaa Ali Mahmoud, and the idea of womanhood she represents at this crucial juncture in Egypt’s history.

For the record, and for purposes of a context, Mr Morsi’s wife — who has rejected the title of first lady as it is a western import and prefers to be called Umm Ahmed or mother of Ahmed, her first born son — wears spectacles, covers her head and shoulders with a conservative veil, is the mother of five children and has never been to college. Portly and maternal, her looks have been compared to that of a “peasant”: depending on the strata of Egyptian society one belongs to, it has resulted in eliciting either elitist disdain or a comfortable sense of trust and faith. Given that her savvy predecessor Suzanne Mubarak — smartly attired with well-coiffed hair — became synonymous with overarching ambition and greed, many might feel that a departure from that mode portends well for the country.