Mimi Geerges Show Blog

Toronto woman pleads for husband’s release from Iranian jail

Mimi — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:46:15 +0000

Take a look at this article by Michelle Shepherd of The Tronto Star. You can learn more at www.freehamid.org.

For two years, Antonella Mega has quietly fought for her husband’s release from an Iranian prison, putting her faith in the Canadian government and Tehran’s courts.

But with a possible death sentence hanging over Iranian-born Canadian Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, Mega has decided to go public for the first time in the hopes of drawing attention to his case.

A case, she says, with unclear allegations about spying, and little chance of appeal.

“There comes a point where you don’t know what else to do,” Mega said over coffee in a Toronto cafe this week, alternating between tears and laughter as she recounted the last two years.

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Miss Manners on Wedding Etiquette

Mimi — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:23:04 +0000

“People are always asking me the polite way to do rude things - What’s the polite way to tell people at a wedding that you want money? Well, the polite way to ask people for money is to sit on the ground and put a hat upside next to you and hope that they give you money.” - Judith Martin aka Miss Manners

Sexual Slavery in Egypt

Mimi — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:44:32 +0000

Take a look at this January 7, 2010 article by Julia Duin at the Washington Times. Its absolutely sickening:

Coptic girls being abducted

Ten years ago, I was in Egypt interviewing Coptic Christians who described how persecution by Muslims had become a way of life for them. The situation is worse now because of increased abductions of Coptic girls, who are forced into a sham marriage with a Muslim, raped, forced to convert to Islam and separated for good from their families.

These are girls as young as 12 who are being grabbed off Egyptian streets. Photos are taken while the girl is being raped to blackmail her into converting, says Mary Abdelmassih, a Coptic activist.

“She’s told the pictures will go to her family,” she told me. “They’d rather die than have that happen.”

Today (Jan. 7) being the Coptic Christmas, this as good a time as any to describe how these kidnappings are at epidemic levels in Egypt and how the plight of these poor women has become Christian sex slavery.

Because local police are more often than not in collusion with the kidnappers, the families have to come up with enormous sums to get their daughters back. If the family is poor, their daughter is gone forever. The Assyrian National News Agency says very few of the girls who have been kidnapped since the 1970s ever get returned to their families and none of the kidnappers have been brought to justice.

For instance, after Myrna Gamal Hanna, a 20-year-old Christian woman, called her family Sept. 30 to ask them to rescue her from a forced marriage to a Muslim, her father and five other men showed up at her Alexandria apartment and rescued her. Instead of punishing the husband, police tortured Myrna’s family until they revealed where they had hidden the daughter. Then the family had to cough up several thousand dollars for those who had kidnapped the girl.

And last October, Samria Markos, a single mother living in Alexandria, said her 17-year-old daughter, Amira, disappeared while on her way to work at a plastics factory. She got a call from “Sheikh Mohammed” who told her Amira was converting to Islam. When she showed up at a local mosque to look for her daughter, she was told to keep silent or her 9-year-old son would be killed. The woman and her son fled the area. Amira has not been heard from since.

Many groups have criticized Egypt for this. On Nov. 10, Christian Solidarity International sent an open letter to President Obama reminding him of his human rights speech in Cairo last June and pointing out the Egyptian government’s tacit approval of this scandal.

And late last month, the Pew Forum specifically mentioned the kidnappings and pinpointed Egypt as one of the world’s most religiously repressive countries.

I called the Egyptian Embassy Tuesday for a response but got none. Judging from past responses, the government will say these girls ran away with Muslim men then claimed they were kidnapped to escape the ire of their families.

But Al Ahram, an Egyptian weekly, said in September that relations between Christians and Muslims in Egypt are at a “boiling point” over this. The latest trend, Ms. Abdelmassih says, is that women are being mined for organs, as happened to an American University student who was kidnapped two years ago.

“The kidnappers said to get back his daughter, he had to pay 600,000 Egyptian pounds,” she said. “When he protested, he was told both of her kidneys are worth more than that.”

Egyptian law forbids the conversion of minors to another religion but that doesn’t seem to apply to these hapless Coptic girls. Ms. Abdelmassih said the abductions are part of a campaign to Islamicize Egypt’s Christian community.

“It’s a business,” she said. “For each Christian girl who gets ‘converted,’ there are Islamic charities that give out money to the husband and the dealers who obtained her.”

• Contact Julia Duin at jduin@washingtontimes.com.

Mimi Launches TV Show

Mimi — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:10:58 +0000

Hello Everyone.

I’ve been talking about it for months, OK actually years, and its finally here. Mideast Journal is a half-hour TV program focused exclusively on issues related to the Middle East. And we all know there are many. Take a look at our website www.mideastjournal.org. I’m still trying to figure out how to get video from a DVD to a website. I’ll keep you posted.

Invitation - Event with Katie Couric in DC

Mimi — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:58:16 +0000

For those local to the DC area, you won’t want to miss this event.

Tickets & Info: Washington Link / (202) 312-1581 The American News Women’s Club 15th Gala & Helen Thomas Award DinnerTo Honor Katie Couric ~ May 20, 2009 Washington, D.C. (May 7, 2009) – The American News Women’s Club (www.anwc.org) will honor CBS Evening News Anchor & Managing Editor Katie Couric with the “ANWC Helen Thomas Award for Excellence in Journalism”, May 20, 2009. Helen Thomas will present the award in Washington. Legendary ABC-TV newsman Sam Donaldson will be Master of Ceremonies, making hay with a stellar lineup of “roasters and toasters” that includes White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod; Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee; CBS Senior Political Analyst Jeff Greenfield; Republican Strategist Nicolle Wallace; CBS Pentagon Correspondent David Martin; and CBS Evening News Executive Producer Rick Kaplan. The dinner, chaired by Janis Lamar, will be held at the Fairmont Hotel at 24th & M Streets, NW. The evening begins at 6:30 P.M. with a cocktail reception. Tickets $250/ Tables from $3,000. Proceeds support ANWC education programs and journalism scholarships for women. A native of Arlington, Virginia, who graduated from the Arlington County Public Schools and the University of Virginia, Katie Couric has come a long way since her days at The Cavalier, the UVA student newspaper. Her remarkable professional career began at ABC News in Washington, D.C. After jobs at CNN and a Miami television station, she came back to Washington as a reporter for the NBC affiliate, WRC-TV, where she won an Associated Press award and an Emmy. She joined NBC News in 1989, soon finding her way to “The Today Show” as a national political correspondent. By 1991 she had earned the co-anchor spot next to Bryant Gumbel. She would fill that spot for the next 15-years. Since her groundbreaking first appearance as the anchor of the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” in September, 2006, Couric has covered all the biggest news stories of the day. From the Virginia Tech shootings to live coverage of the war in Iraq to her memorable series of interviews during the last presidential campaign, she has been at the front lines. She is a role model for women in journalism everywhere, and the American News Women’s Club is delighted to honor her in 2009. #### The American News Women’s Club is a professional association for women in journalism and the communications professions. Founded in 1932 by women reporters and writers employed by Washington’s newspapers, today membership has expanded to include broadcast and freelance journalists, editors, professional writers, illustrators and cartoonists, and new media and public relations professionals. With women still under-represented at the highest levels of news editing, producing, and management, ANWC serves its diverse membership with signature newsmaker programs, ongoing professional development, and senior level networking. Past recipients of the “ANWC Helen Thomas Award for Excellence in Journalism or Outstanding Public Service” include Helen Thomas (1993); Catherine Filene Schouse (1994); Sarah McClendon (1995); Sam Donaldson (1996); Walter Cronkite (1997); Andrea Mitchell (1998); Larry King (1999); Jim Lehrer (2000); Al Neuharth (2001); Judy Woodruff (2002); Cokie Roberts (2003); Bob Schieffer (2004); Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee (2005); and Brian Lamb (2006).

MG Show Moves to New Slot and Adds Re-Airs

Mimi — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:53:34 +0000

“Your show is my favorite of all the XM shows I listen to going to and from work each day,” says Leland from Nashville, Tennessee. And this from Cindy in Morris Plains, New Jersey: “I now commute 1 hour to Princeton, NJ every morning. I drive from 7am - 8am which is perfect timing for your show. I just love it!! I look for you every morning but you are not on every day. At least I have you some of the week. Your guests are fascinating, the chat is great and I want more!!”

Many listeners have written to me with similar sentiments. But after the Sirius-XM merger, there was a bit of a shake-up on the new combined channel, “Book Radio.” The Mimi Geerges Show has shifted one hour later on Thursdays. Instead of 7am Eastern time, its now 8am Eastern time. So those of you who were forcing yourselves out of bed so that your morning commute would coincide with the show can now sleep in one extra hour. But wait, there’s more good news. Because of the show’s popularity, Sirius-XM has added re-airs into the week. If the Thursday morning slot doesn’t suit you, there are other times to catch the show. Here’s the schedule:

Tuesday at 3pm Eastern / 12 noon Pacific

Thursday at 8am Eastern / 5am Pacific

Sunday at 9am Eastern / 6am Pacific

I always enjoy hearing from listeners. Drop me a line through our contact page at www.mgshow.org/contact.html.

John Gartner on Bill Clinton

Mimi — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:37:15 +0000

Psychologist John Gartner came on the show in January to discuss his book, “In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Profile.” I found it fascinating. If you missed it, check out the archives www.mgshow.org/archives09.html. This is an op-ed piece that he did for The Baltimore Sun:

What should we do with Bill?

By John Gartner
December 3, 2008

It’s stunning how fast Bill Clinton’s stock plummeted - faster, it seemed, than the Dow Jones industrial average after the fall of Lehman Brothers. When Hillary Clinton launched her bid for the presidency, the question was: How would she deploy “the greatest politician in our generation”? Unfortunately, a few ill-timed comments caught on tape during the campaign transformed Bill almost overnight into the crazy uncle in the attic, an embarrassment to be kept largely out of public sight.

Early in her campaign, Hillary called Bill “the most popular person in the world” and vowed to use him as a “roving ambassador.” Now that she is a step away from becoming the nation’s top ambassador herself, the question returns: What should we do about Bill?
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Anne Lamott on the Election

Mimi — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:52:34 +0000

Originally posted on Salon.com.

From every mountainside

The miracle of this year’s Thanksgiving.

By Anne Lamott

Nov. 27, 2008 |I watched “Mississippi Burning” tonight to honor the election, the miracle. I use the word “miracle,” because you cannot get from the South in 1964 to where we are, Thanksgiving 2008. The grace of this is amazing. Grace is when God makes a way out of No Way, and it feels like that is what happened. Eugene O’Neill wrote that we are born broken, and that the Grace of God is glue. That’s how it feels, this miracle — and I was for Hillary in the primaries.

You can’t exclaim too many times, you cannot sing the anthems too many times: They will never lose their power. If you’re a nice Christian girl, you’re supposed to say that only Jesus’ blood will never lose its power, and perhaps I will get a shitty place in heaven specially reserved for the blasphemers, with only aerosol cheese and Tang at every meal, but I do believe it to be true.

The people of my church sang “Lift Every Voice” to begin our service on the Sunday after the presidential election, and people sang it from the very mountains, thrusting their fists into the air, clapping, clapping not to try to beat he devil, like the old saying goes, but because we already did beat the devil.

I am not sure I know any other over-informed, middle-aged white people who believe in the devil, but I do: There! I’ve said it. I believe in evil and the devil. However, I am not going to name names.

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Covered - From Head to Toe

Mimi — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:21:30 +0000

I was walking around the busy streets of Cairo this past summer slightly lost. I say “slightly” because I was sure I was at the metro station, I just couldn’t for the life of me find the entrance. I decided to ask. “Excuse me Madame,” I said to a small woman dressed in black from head to toe. Her face was completely covered except for her eyes - the niqab is a way for women to disappear in public. Unlike some other Islamic countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, the hijab or niqab is not required in Egypt.

I asked her about the entrance to the metro station, and she graciously offered to walk me there. As I peered between the slits of fabric at her eyes and listened to her voice, I realized that this is no short woman. I was speaking to a child. “I’m sorry, I called you Madame, but it seems that you’re quite young,” I said. She smiled (at least I think she did), and told me not to worry about it. “There’s no way you could tell anyway,” she assured me. During our short walk, I tried to learn as much as I could. It’s not often that I would be able to chat with a girl hidden behind a niqab.

She’s sixteen years old. She took on the niqab six years ago at the age of ten. She hadn’t even reach puberty. When I asked about her motives, she really didn’t answer my question, but told me that it was her decision. I asked her if it made her feel closer to God. “Of course,” she said, “this is the best thing.” I felt sad. How could looking like a black ghost bring her closer to God? Instead of asking her that, I decided on another question. We had arrived at the metro but I couldn’t let her go until I knew the answer. “How do you eat at a restaurant with your mouth covered like that?” Her little hand was gloved in black as she gestured. “I don’t eat in the street,” she said, “I don’t like people seeing me eat.” It seems that her quest to become invisible is complete.

Egyptian Taxi Drivers

Mimi — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:42:11 +0000

“Why do Americans hate Egyptians?” the taxi driver said, glancing at me in the rear view mirror. He wore a full bushy beard. A Koran sat conspicuously in front of him on the dash board. To be honest, I was a little worried about getting in when he stopped for us on the street. But it was late, and it would have been very awkward since he had agreed to our price. It didn’t help that he decided to take an unusual route to our downtown Cairo hotel. I thought it would be best to ask. He assured me it was longer but quicker. When he found out that we’re from America, he became quite chatty.

It was his first question and it took me by surprise. “Who told you that?” I asked him. He said that he had lots of friends who had travelled to the United States. They insisted that Americans hate Egyptians. “They’re liars,” I said oddly, offended by those “friends.” I translated for my husband and he joined the conversation. We told him that Americans admire Egypt’s history and that in any case, if Americans have issues with a country, its with their government, not their people.

Then he asked if my American husband was also a Muslim. “No,” I told him, “we’re Christians.” I held my breath wondering how he would react. “Some of my best friends are Christians,” he said. It was so cliche’ but he seemed sincere. Whenever someone is sick, he told me, they all go and visit him in the hospital, regardless of his religion. As Cairo, still alive and bustling at 11pm, passed by our window, our taxi driver put his index finger up. Violence between Muslims and Christians were fomented by “outsiders,” he said. Extremism has never been part of Egypt’s culture. We emphatically agreed with him. I decided not to ask him who these “outsiders” might be.

When we arrived at the hotel, my husband reached into his wallet and leaned over to my ear. “I’m going to practice some public diplomacy,” he said. I wondered how much money that was going to cost us. We wished the taxi driver a good night as my husband handed him double the fare.

The State Department can thank us later.