The News Minute | September 30, 2014 | 01:23 pm IST
News about the first female pilot from United Arab Emirates, Major Mariam Mansouri, 35, was recently celebrated by the international media. She was part of a bombing mission against the ISIS in Syria last week. Major Mariam, who has been disowned by her family for bombing the “Sunni Heroes of Iraq and Levant”, is also one among the only four fighter pilots from UAE.
Just when the world was getting inspired by this young woman’s courage, Fox News anchors allegedly mocked the Major.
It began with Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was paying tribute to Major Mariam remarked on air- “Hey, Isis, you were bombed by a woman. Very exciting, a woman doing this … I hope that hurt extra bad because in some Arab countries women can’t even drive.”
After Guilfoyle’s segment, co-host Greg Gutfeld casually added - “The problem is after she bombed it she couldn’t park it”. This is when another presenter Eric Bolling dropped another bomb on air, “Would that be considered boobs on the ground or no?”
The channel and the show have since been criticized heavily for their comments which many consider sexist and biased.
Though Eric Bolling officially apologized for his comment on air last Thursday, many are still not ready to let go off the issue, especially some of the veterans of the United States Armed Forces. A group of more than fifty war veterans of America has now written an open letter to Fox News, opining that their comments on Major Mariam was unwarranted, offensive and also against the spirit that the military stood for.
The letter says- “ ….before you jump to the standby excuse that you were “just making a joke” or “having a laugh,” let the men amongst our number preemptively respond: You are not funny. You are not clever. And you are not excused. Perhaps the phrase “boys will be boys”—inevitably uttered wherever misogyny is present—is relevant. Men would never insult and demean a fellow servicemember; boys think saying the word ‘boobs’ is funny.”
The letter ends with these veterans apologizing to Major Mariam on behalf of the American public.