The "Shame" of Breast Cancer in the Middle East

This morning, Robin Roberts of the ABC News' morning show "Good Morning America" reported from the Middle East; the subject was breast cancer and how it affects women who are diagnosed. As most people know by now, Roberts recently had breast cancer surgery herself, and is currently under treatment. She is touring the Middle East with First Lady Laura Bush, to promote breast cancer awareness, and the importance of early detection.

In her live report from the Arab state of Abu Dhabi, Robin spoke with two women who are surviving breast cancer, and a doctor. They revealed that breast cancer is something to be ashamed of, and a big secret. Once diagnosed, they do not talk about it, and are very careful about whom they tell, or if they tell at all. Breast cancer is considered something God has given to them, and it is a shame. One of the ladies whom Robin talked with, said that her friends warned that her husband might leave her. "Men are all the same", she remarked, when commenting on the breast as a body part that is important to a woman's beauty and sexuality, and without which their husbands would no longer find them desirable. In a shocking admission, she said that other woman advised her not to let the secret out if she wanted her single daughters to marry. They told her that many men would not marry a girl whose mother had breast cancer!

Not surprisingly, hair loss has been the biggest stigma of breast cancer treatments. Middle Eastern women have always been famous for their beautiful tresses. In
accordance with Islamic law, married women must cover their heads, and reveal their hair only in their own homes. While going through chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments, the resulting hair-loss is a dead giveaway that they have been "tainted" with cancer. Moreover, it makes them unappealing to their husbands. It is the fear of losing their husbands, and being shunned by the community, that causes many Middle Eastern women to keep their breast cancer a secret, thereby going through it all alone. Or, even worse, many women do not perform the important self-exams and diagnostic tests that can save lives. They suffer in silence, and endanger their lives.

It was not too long ago that a female cancer diagnosis was stigmatic in the United States. My own mother was diagnosed with her first occurrence of breast cancer in 1976, at the age of 45. I remember her telling me not to "advertise" it. I also recall that many of her longtime friends didn't come around. One friend whom my mom knew since she married my dad 25 years before, , said "I haven't come to see you because I didn't know what to say". Indeed, in those days, cancer, and especially women's cancers, were "contagious", and caused women to lose friendships, love relationships, and even marriages. Then came American First Lady Betty Ford, television journalist Betty Rollins, and comedienne Gilda Radner, famous women who came forward to speak in public about their cancers. Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people participated in the Susan G. Komens "Walk for the Cure" events all over America. At each event were hundreds of women who have survived, or are currently in treatment for, breast cancer. They wear tee shirts and pink ribbons that scream messages of their survival of breast cancer,

Contrary to a common perception of the Middle East as backward, the area is extremely modern and medically advanced. There are beautiful state-of-the-art hospitals and brilliant doctors who are versed in the latest surgery and treatments for female cancers. The huge roadblock in that part of the world is the attitude toward women diagnosed with these cancers. When my mom suffered in silence over thirty years ago, people whispered the word "cancer", as if its mere uttering would cause an outbreak. By the time my mom's breast cancer reoccurred in 1994, it seemed as if every family we knew had at least one woman (or man) who had been through the same ordeal. It was no longer damning to proclaim "I have/had breast cancer". Some day in the Middle East, women will be able to do the same. Maybe some day in the near future, Muslim women in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, and all over the Middle East, can have their own version of the "run/walk for the cure". I would like to see pink ribbons adorning their burkas [traditional Muslim garments]. As a matter of fact, as for the hijab, the traditional Islamic head-covering, maybe they can design them in pink!