Newspaper Page Text
P«fe 22 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 10, 1978
Mrs. Sadat:
Til go to Israel if Mrs. Begin invites
me
by Trude B. Feldman
Special to The Southern Israelite
WASHINGTON, D.C.-“It
was a lovely white woolen shawl,"
Jehan Sadat said. “The note from
Mrs. Menachem Begin that came
with it explained that the shawl
was knitted by an Israeli woman
who had lost two sons in the last
war. I believe the gift was Mrs.
Begin’s way of saying she hoped
there would be no more war, ever,
“I can’t describe the feelings that
gift aroused in me, but I can tell
you that...I like Mrs. Begin
without even having met her."
“Would you like to meet the
Israeli Prime Minister’s wife," I
asked. “Would you go to Israel to
meet Mrs. Begin?”
“Oh yes,” the Egyptian FirSt-
Lady replied firmly. “If she invites
me, I’ll go.”
Sitting beside me on a sofa at
Blair House during her recent visit,
Mrs. Sadat was silent and
thoughtful for a moment. Then : she
added, in the exclusive interview:
“But, first I want to feej some Sort
of reaction from the Israeli leaders.
That's only fair. My husband is
trying to do his best.”
Almost as an afterthought, she
continued, “Maybe Premier Begin
is right when he speaks of what
happened before. But, let us look
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to the future. We want our
grandchildren and Mrs. Begin’s
grandchildren and everyone’s
grandchildren to grow up in peace
instead of living with the threat of
war.”
Jehan Sadat was only 17 when
she tnarried Anwar Sadat. He had
recejitly been released from prison
for knti-British activities, had no
job land no prospects. But Jehan
had'faith in the man she loved. “I
remember when I took our
engagement photograph to my
high school friends and told them I
planned to marry Anwar,” she
said. “They asked me. Ms he a rich
manT I said ‘no.’ They asked me,
‘Does he have a high position in
government?" 1 said ‘no.’ Then they
asked why would I accept his
marriage proposal.
“I told them 1 loved him because
he was an honest man. And he has
not changed since that time.”
Mrs. Sadat smiled as she
warmed to the task of enumerating
her husband’s virtues. “He is
courageous too, and tries to do
what is good for everybody," she
said proudly. “He wants to help
not only: his own people but other
people tbo. And he can.”
Twenty-five years of happily
married life have given the Sadats
three daughters, one son and two
grandchildren. Another grand
child is expected in May. The
Sadats have a special feeling for
children.
When President Sadat returned
from Jerusalem last November,
the family gathered around him as
he told of the letters presented to
him from Israeli children, as well
as drawings of doves, olive
branches and flowers.
“It was really touching to hear
him talk fibout that," Mrs. Sadat
told me, “because, you know
children are innocent, like angels.
No one forces them to do
something they don’t really feel.
They demonstrated their feelings
with their welcome and with their
drawings.”
But before that, Anwar Sadat’s
wife and children plied him with
questions about his historic and
dramatic fjight to Jerusalem. “We
asked him So many questions,” she
enthused. -J ‘What did you tell
Moshe Dayan?" ‘What was Golda
Meir like?" ‘What was the reaction
of the people?"
“We wanted to know each word,
and as my, husband answered, we
could again feel the warmth of
Israel’s welcome, just as we had
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seen it on television. But we
wanted to know more, and he told
us. You can’t imagine how
impressed he was with the Israelis,
and he felt they were under
standing!.
“Now, he is still optimistic. Yes,
Mrs. Sadat and grandchild
he still has good feelings for Prime
Minister Begin and for the Israeli
people.” «
At 43, Jehan Sadat is a beautiful
woman. Her face is clear, her
features even. Her complexion and
bone structure remind me of an
Egyptian Princess Grace of
Monaco. She was stylishly dressed
in a handsome blue and black
check dress.
Mrs. Sadat is not the typical
Egyptian wife, who for the most
part is content to meekly follow
her husband’s bidding. An avid
reader, she is eager for knowledge
and speaks with conviction. She is
enthusiastic and very ambitious.
She works to abolish illiteracy in
her country and has helped to
establish night schools and other
adult education institutions.
Her hobbies include tennis,
music and swimming.
Currently, she is enrolled in
Cairo University where she is
majoring in Arabic Literature. She
will graduate in June.
“I’m returning home a day
earlier than my husband because I
have mid-term exams,” she said.
“How does Mrs. Sadat cope
with her husband's world-wide
fame?
“It hasn’t changed our life
together at all,” she told me.
"We’re just the same. If I disagree
with my husband, 1 tell him so. He
may not like the idea of my mixing
into politics, but he listens."
Jehan Sadat believes that one of
the reasons she and Anwar Sadat
have such a happy and successful
marriage is because they are
different enough to complement
each other. She said that, while she
verbalizes her feelings, her
husband acts on his.
“We complete each other," she
explained. “When he talks about
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peace, he acts. For example, he
opened the Suez Canal as a way of
telling the world he wants no more
war. When he told the people to
come back to their homes in
Ismailia, Port Said and Suez,
everyone realized he did not want
any more war. He wants peace and
he shows it by his actions.”
She added that she tries to help
her husband by "not adding to his
burdens. He alfeady has enough
problems. I see to it that the
atmosphere in our home is calm.
We have a close family
relationship."
To her husband’s critics, Jehan
Sadat is an eloquent defender of
the peace initiative that many
people believe will win for him the
Nobel Peace Prize.
“I think he deserves the prize,"
she told me, “because he has done
something never before done in
history.”
Mrs. Sadat seeks to explain her
husband's initiative to as many
people as possible. "There are
people who say that he should not
have gone to Jerusalem, that the
Israelis will argue and will not give,
and that he will be sorry,” Mrs.
Sadat said. “I told them that when
you open your heart and act from
the heart, things will work out for
the best. I believe that.
• “1 also believe Prime Minister
Begin is an honest man. We have
confidence in him. But he must
also have confidence in us and
trust us He must feel our feelings
and give as my husband did. I his
is what we are waiting for now."
Jehan Sadat told me shd' was
exceptionally touched by the shawl
she received from Mrs. Begin
Significantly, it was sent after the
Egyptian President had recalled
his foreign minister from the
Kraeli-Egyptian talks in
Jerusalem, and arrived just as
President and Mrs. Sadat were to
visit the United States and Europe
“I sent Mrs Begin a^ letter
thanking her for her thoughtful
ness," Jehan Sadat said. “It was a
sweet gesture. I think she too
believes—as I do—that the word
‘war’ must disappear from the
vocabulary of the Middle East,”
Part of Mrs. Sadat’s confidence
in the future comes from the
strength of personal religious
belief. “1 believe in love and in
religion," she said.” A person
doesn't choose his religion. I didn’t
choose mine and you didn’t choose
yours. The important thing is that
all religion is from God."
Did the Egyptian First Lady
really mean she’d make a personal
visit to Israel if Mrs. Begin
extended the invitation?
“Yes,” Mrs. Sadat replied,
adding her own question, “Do you
know tyhy 1 didn’t go when my
husband went there last
November? First, I must admit 1
didn't fully realize what was going
on. It all happened so suddenly.
Also, my daughter was expecting a
baby and, as it turned out, the baby
girl was two weeks prbmature and
was born while my husband was in
Jerusalem.
“I even had the feeling she was in
a hurry to come into the world just
as her grandfather was in a hurry
to initiate the peace process. At the
moment she arrived. President
Sadat was praying at El Aksa
Mosque in Israel. We took that as
a good omen for the family and, I
hope, for the world.”
