The Damascus med-school dropout has additionally had considerably of a sartorial makeover in recent times, swapping the Osama bin Laden-look for a neatly trimmed beard and inexperienced fatigues à la Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, or company blazers and chinos. “An individual of their twenties could have a special persona than somebody of their thirties or forties, and definitely somebody of their fifties. That is human nature,” he assured CNN on the eve of Assad’s fall.
However withholding his hand suggests one thing about the place precisely Shar’a is perhaps on the spectrum of radical political Islam, in addition to the boundaries of his latest modernization. It might additionally point out the restrictions he has to watch to be able to preserve his Islamist fighters on board.
Baerbock, for her half, has sought to make mild of the incident, telling broadcasters: “As I traveled right here, it was clear to me that there would clearly be no extraordinary handshakes.”
However reporting on political Islam through the years, observing how radical Islamists (or jihadists) work together with ladies when claiming to have turn into extra average has been considerably of a litmus check for this columnist. And a refusal to interact, to look a lady squarely within the eyes or shake their hand tends to be ominous in relation to inclusivity.
Other than indicating how actually average they’ve turn into, a handshake — or lack thereof — speaks volumes about how pragmatic a pacesetter is ready to be.
After all, many conservative Muslims consider unrelated women and men ought to by no means contact, and but exceptions have been made. For instance, when conducting diplomacy, a handshake — the fashionable customary greeting for international politicians and businessmen — is one thing conventional Saudi and Emirati rulers have been able to entertain. In 1987, Saudi’s King Fahd had no issues shaking then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s hand, understanding that the gesture conveys belief, or a minimum of a readiness to interact.
