This month is the 100 years anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and to many historians is a direct link to the problems the Middle East is suffering from today.
In honor of this milestone I have given a few historical posts about this agreement with the hopes that it will help people understand what is happening in the Middle East today….that is if they are interested but most had rather bitch and moan than learn something.
Most of us know the men that were involved but few know of the women that played an amazingly important role in the formation of the modern day Middle East…
And this is why I am here…..I am becoming notorious with my historical perspectives……(he said smilingly)….
British diplomat Mark Sykes and French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot garnered most of the attention in the retrospective commentaries published around May 16, the 100-year anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Treaty.
Other pieces referred to their contemporaries, such as the British agent T E Lawrence, who led the Arab Revolt during World War I, or the influential oil broker Calouste Gulbenkian.
These Europeans sought to shape the Middle East, yet for every discussion of a European man who engaged in this endeavour, there is also a story of a European woman who both made this region, and was made by the region.
Jane Digby, Gertrude Bell, or Freya Stark, just to name a few women, led lives as illustrious as their male counterparts in the Middle East.
Source: The women behind Sykes-Picot – Al Jazeera English
Another tale of the accomplishments of women pushed aside by male counterparts…..sad state of academia…..where gender was more important than the facts.
Excellent post, my friend. The article in Al-Jazeera is quite thorough, and astutely written. Nice to see some of the lesser known parts of history…. Goes to show how embedded and automatic basic sexism is rampant in what is commonly accepted to be accurate recording, yet only acknowledges half the people involved in the events of the time, all male… If one reads most historical records, it’s hard to find any women even mentioned, yet, there was the same ratio of them alive the entire time the events took place…
Thanks; now I have a few new people to Google…. Freya Stark sounds like a fascinating character….
gigoid
I have written about Gertrude Bell on several occasions her biography was excellent….I know less about Digby and Stark….glad you liked it….chuq
Great Article chuq! I put off reading this because I wanted to give it my undivided attention and then my attention forget. I just discovered this in my old emails and finally truly read it and I’m entranced. I know something about Bell but the other two have eluded me and I’m got them on my list to look up when I’m bored. Again thanx for all your posts. ~~dru~~
There are some great books on Freya and Jane…..let me know if you need the titles and authors…..glad you liked it….chuq
Reblogged this on In Saner Thought and commented:
To help celebrate women and their contributions to history…..women helped implement the Sykes-Picot that divided up the Middle East. chuq