The Statue of Liberty Was Originally a Muslim Woman
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/statue-liberty-was-originally-muslim-woman-180957377/
The Statue of Liberty Was Originally a Muslim Woman
"The New Colossus" was actually born in Egypt
The United States has debated immigration since the country's founding, and the Statue of Libertya potent symbol for immigrantsis often invoked as an argument for why we should usher in those who seek safety and opportunity with open arms. A little-known fact about Lady Liberty adds an intriguing twist to today's debate about refugees from the Muslim world: As pointed out by The Daily Beasts Michael Daly in a recent op-ed, the statue itself was originally intended to represent a female Egyptian peasant as a Colossus of Rhodes for the Industrial Age.
That might be surprising to people more familiar with the statues French roots than its Arab ones. After all, the statues structure was designed by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel (yes, that Eiffel), and Lady Liberty was given to the United States by France for its centennial to celebrate the alliance of the two countries formed during the French Revolution.
The statues designer, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, was also French, but he found inspiration in a very different place: Egypt. In 1855, he visited Nubian monuments at Abu Simbel, which feature tombs guarded by gigantic colossus figures. Bartholdi became fascinated by the ancient architecture, developing what the National Park Service calls a passion for large-scale public monuments and colossal structures. Eventually, he channeled that passion into a proposal for the inauguration of the Suez Canal.
Bartholdi envisioned a colossal monument featuring a robe-clad woman representing Egypt to stand at Port Said, the city at the northern terminus of the canal in Egypt. To prep for this undertaking, Barry Moreno, author of multiple books about the statue, writes that Bartholdi studied art like the Colossus, honing the concept for a figure called Libertas who would stand at the canal. Taking the form of a veiled peasant woman, writes Moreno, the statue was to stand 86 feet high, and its pedestal was to rise to a height of 48 feet. Early models of the statue were called Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia.
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Thanks for posting this.
merrily
(45,251 posts)gobsmacked Benjamin Franklin, the Adamses, Thomas Jefferson and Lafayette, among others.
The idea--I don't care whose idea it was-- that the giant figures of Pharaonic Egypt have anything to do with Egyptian Muslim peasant women is even more mind-blowing. So is the concept that an Egyptian peasant woman circa 1855 with her face covered had something to do with liberty.
1855, was, of course, well before the current explanation that being covered this way is totally up to the individual choice of each Muslim female. Let's recall the purpose of this outfit is to prevent women from tempting males to sin (such as by raping women)!
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ccJHA8G6mbo/UyAsPxidOtI/AAAAAAAAEJI/z8Fp1Ob-vHU/s1600/1+Burka+Babes.jpg
Climate Abu Simbel http://en.climate-data.org/location/475742/
Also, I've seen Muslim peasant women in Egypt. For the most part, even today, they bear no resemblance to imposing colossi.
Speaking of which, a fellah, is a male peasant and Arabs, even the poorest city-dwelling Arabs, often use the term pejoratively, as some American might say "coarse, ignorant hick."
Transliteration of Arabic is always problematic because so many of the sounds are either rare or non-existent in American English. However, a female peasant might be fellahhah.