Hillary’s curse of the pharaohs
By Khaled Diab
Hillary
Clinton seems to suffer from the age-old pharaoh's curse afflicting women
seeking to lead a nation.
June 2008
Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic
nomination reminds me somewhat of Hat-Shep-Sut. Like the New Kingdom Egyptian queen, who
ruled as co-regent with her half-brother and then as sole ‘king’, Hillary has
been forced to play up her own ‘co-regency’
with husband Bill in her campaign.
Like the early years of Hat-Shep-Sut’s
reign, when she was trying to get ahead in a man’s world, Hillary has also
played heavily on her image as a ‘warrior presidentess’
– although the Egyptian queen, the longest reigning woman of an indigenous
Egyptian dynasty, went on to inaugurate a peaceful and prosperous
post-occupation era marked by a blossoming of trade, culture and science.
Unlike Hat-Shep-Sut,
who became one of the most successful pharaohs ever, Hillary seems pretty much
to have lost her bid to become the Democrats presidential candidate – at least,
this time.
How much of this is down to her politics and
abilities (personally, I prefer Obama’s performance)
and how much is down to her gender is a hard question to answer, but
In fact, the similarities between the two
societies do not end there. Ancient
On the political level, they both need
larger-than-life leaders. The Egyptian pharaoh was the living image of god on
earth – and the modern-day president is often referred to mockingly as
‘pharaoh’.
While no US president makes such an exalted
claim – well, there is an exception who believes he is divinely guided – the
American presidency is so elevated that it carries a certain halo of divinity
about it in the minds of millions of US citizens. Presidents – celebrated for
being the ‘leaders of the free world’ (i.e. gods or titans amongst mortals) –
are the anointed holders of the sacred flame of ‘freedom, democracy and the
American way’. Even the most disillusioned American voter may express a dislike
for a certain president, but the presidential throne is usually above reproach.
Of course, she is not alone in her predicament
of needing dynastic pedigree. Other countries around the world seem to be in a
similar fix. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Indian independence
leader and the country’s first premier, Jawaharlal Nehru. Prime ministerial surrenderer Sonia
Gandhi, wife of assassinated prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was also connected to the Nehru dynasty. In
neighbouring
In
Of course, it is welcome that all these women
have risen right to the top of the political game, changing the male face of
national leadership, even if they needed a little bunk up to get them started.
As a sign of the changing times, women are
increasingly becoming elected national leaders on their own merit, without
being the heirs of men. The first to do this was the formidable Golda Meir
in
Here’s to hoping the future will give many more
countries female heads.
This column appeared
in The Guardian Unlimited’s
Comment is Free section on 22
May 2008. Read the related
discussion.
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copyright of Khaled Diab.