I don’t know how I feel about Christopher Buckley’s Florence of Arabia. I really enjoyed it as a piece of satire, but I have a hard time with the message of the book. The satire focuses on a couple of different topics: American dependence on oil, Islamic fundamentalism, sexism. It chiefly focuses on women’s rights in strict, Taliban-style sharia countries. On the one hand, I firmly believe that women should be treated equally—socially, economically, and legally—with men. But on the other hand, I don’t think I (or the Western world) have the right to tell other people how they should live. As a relativist and a liberal, I have never been able to reconcile this.
Buckley takes pains to have his characters point out ever now and then that not all Arab (meaning Muslim) women want to be “liberated.” It occurs to me, though, that everyone should be able to expect basic human rights. (Which begs the question, what are basic human rights? Well, the UN drafted and passed a Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.) Even though Buckley was trying to be humorous, and even though I really enjoyed this book, it makes me think unhappy thoughts, thoughts that are hard to put into words. Why are there places in the world where women are oppressed, abused, and not allowed to change their situation? Why are religions interpreted to create cultures like the Taliban?
I don’t know how he does it, but Buckley creates satires that work like they are supposed to: first you laugh, then you think. For days. And days. And days.