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Friday, April 25, 2003

By Sally Kalson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

In 1980, Egyptian first lady Jehan Sadat walked to the podium of a global women's conference in Copenhagen. All the other Arab women walked out, in protest of her husband's historic peace treaty with Israel, signed two years earlier.

	Former Egyptian first lady Jehan Sadat, left, greets Mary H. Grant,head of The Ellis School in Shadyside, which brought Sadat to Carnegie Music Hall yesterday for its annual symposium. (Martha Rial, Post-Gazette)

Last year at another international conference, a Palestinian woman approached Sadat, hugged her and said, "I hope we haven't missed the opportunity for peace."

Happy as she was to receive that acceptance after such a long freeze, Sadat said yesterday she considers the continuing war between Israelis and Palestinians an ongoing heartbreak -- especially since her husband's pursuit of a solution cost him his life. Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by Muslim extremists who opposed peace with Israel.

"Before I die, I hope to see peace between Israel and all the Arab countries, not just Egypt," Sadat said during a visit to The Ellis School in Shadyside, which brought her to Pittsburgh for its annual symposium.

"Bulldozers [leveling Palestinian homes in the occupied territories] will not bring peace to Israel, and suicide bombings will not bring dignity to Palestinians. Violence begets violence.

"My husband understood that Israel is a fact. He said let us recognize that and find a way to live side-by-side. He asked Syria, Jordan and Lebanon to join him. He knew you had to have the courage to ask for your land back through negotiations.

"The other Arab countries cut off relations and boycotted us. But my husband could not wait another 20 years to take back his land (the Sinai peninsula, occupied by Israel after the 1967 war)."

Sadat, 69, is known for her humanitarian work in Egypt. Born to a British Christian mother and Muslim Egyptian father, she grew up on Roda Island, where two branches of the Nile meet.

Raised a Muslim, she married Sadat when she was 16 and spent 32 years with him. As first lady, she established multiple programs addressing the welfare and education of women and children: the Talla Society, creating a cottage sewing industry in rural villages to lift families out of poverty; the Wafa We Amal (Faith and Hope) Society to help wounded war veterans; and SOS Children's Villages, which provide a family living environment for orphaned children. She also published an autobiography, "A Woman of Egypt," in 1987.

For the past 10 years she has taught international studies at the University of Maryland, although she visits Egypt often to see her four children and many grandchildren.

Supportive of the war in Iraq that deposed a dictator who refused to leave even after other Muslim leaders begged him to step down, Sadat nevertheless warned of Arab mistrust of American motives.

"I believe the American people want to help the Iraqi people have freedom and rebuild the country. I trust them. But most Arabs think the U.S. invaded Iraq because of oil."

The root of that suspicion, she said, is U.S. support for Israel at the expense of the Palestinians. Arabs see American policy in the region as one-sided, and when young people believe the most powerful country in the world is against them, it creates fertile ground for the recruitment of terrorists.

"I believe that if the Israeli-Palestinian problem was solved, there would have been no September 11," Sadat said. "A solution there will ease so much of the tension in the Arab world. That is the key that will change everything."

At the same time, she is sanguine about the roots of American-Israeli ties: Israel was the only Middle Eastern country allied with the United States during the Cold War.

"America will never forget that," she said, "and Arab countries have to understand that."

Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat missed several opportunities for peace, she said, and now it falls to Mahmoud Abbas to see what he can accomplish with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon still in charge.

Before her evening speech at the Carnegie Music Hall, Sadat visited the Ellis campus for an hourlong session with the upper school girls. At one point, she regaled them with a story about Imelda Marcos' visit to Egypt.

Touring the tomb of Queen Nefertiri from the 12th century B.C., Marcos gazed at the magnificent wall paintings of the queen's life and exclaimed, "Madame Sadat, that's me!"

Sadat replied, "No, that is the wife of Ramses II. You are the wife of Ferdinand Marcos."

Marcos insisted the paintings were about her every step of the way.

"I looked for all the shoes in the paintings," Sadat said to peals of laughter, "but there weren't any."

At the end of the tour, Mrs. Marcos whipped out her checkbook and wrote out a check for $1 million to restore the tomb.

"I looked at the check and said, 'Mrs. Marcos, you're right. It is you!' "