“U.S. student, husband among dead in embassy attack in Yemen”
Article Title: “U.S. student, husband among dead in embassy attack in Yemen”
Newspaper Name: CNN
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/18/yemen.american/index.html
Summary:
On September 17, 2008, bombers attacked the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. Among the seventeen who died was eighteen-year-old Susan El-Baneh from Lackawanna, New York– the only American to die in the attack. Just a senior in high school, Susan excitedly traveled to Yemen to commence with an arranged marriage. Susan and her husband were figuring out the procedure to bring her husband to the United States, and the two were killed in the waiting area outside the embassy. Susan had landed in Yemen only thirty days earlier and was expected to be home by December.
Susan had dreams of becoming a nurse and was to be very successful. She died during Ramadan, which means that she will go directly to heaven. The death of Susan came as a shock to many Arab-American students in her Lackawanna High School.
It is suspected that al Qaeda, pretending to be Yemen officials, carried out the attack. Susan is related to Jaber El-Baneh who is the seventh member of the Lackawanna Six and is on the FBI’s most wanted list.
Analysis:
This story likely enraptured the attention of Yemeni and other Arabs. A young, education girl with ambitions comes to Yemen to marry, embracing an arranged marriage. Many Arabs probably already respected her for coming to the country to get married and also for her lofty ambitions to be a nurse. The girl getting killed, however, adds another level of interest because she had been doing nothing wrong and was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. What probably sparks a little curiosity in the Muslims is that Susan was killed during Ramadan, which is the time when all those who die are thought to go to Heaven.
While this story does arouse interest in those in the Middle East, it is probably of more interest to those around the world. An American girl, only eighteen, is killed in Yemen. The fact that the girl is American brings the United States much closer to the issue. Also, Susan was related to the seventh member of the Lackawanna Six (who supported al Qaeda), which shows that everyone can get injured, even those who may have a connection within al Qaeda. Similarly, the fact that the girl who was killed belonged to an Arab-American family distinctly proves to the government that there is little differentiation amongst those who are killed.
However, the most fundamental part of this article is what is not written; while the death of an American teenage girl is tragic, it is how the government responds to this event that is important. People tend to sympathize more with young, intelligent women than with other people because teenagers and women are generally viewed as being completely separated from the bombing. This article might make the United States government start questioning, amidst other issues, whether or not the government should regulate who goes to the Middle East and for what purposes.
Filed under: Hannah, Week of September 19
