In Kuwait, Islamists tried yesterday to force a new female cabinet minister to wear the hijab, the headcover that is a mark of piety for some. The minister refused to wear the hijab during the swearing-in ceremony at the Assembly. Normally they would have called for her to wear a burqa'a or niqab, the Zorro-style mask that women wear in Saudi Arabia and is favored by the Arab Salafis and their Afghan Taliban drinking buddies. As it turned out, they could not manage forcing even a paltry hijab on the tough lady.
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It is strange how the Fundies of the Arab World are publicly obsessed with a woman's public hair, and how secretly they are even more obsessed with a woman's not-so-public hair, but in a different way. This is a dichotomy that I could never understand- perhaps it has to do with a certain kind of repression which leads to a certain kind of frustration? Or perhaps they need to work out more- don't they still have Fundie boot camps somewhere (no, not necessarily the Afghan or Pakistani variety)? Maybe they should even walk to work instead of driving- I have noticed that many of them are sort of obese. Eating too much sweets and thinking of women's hair, all of it, the whole time is bound to make you fat.
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In any case, the Fundies are obsessed with women, and they spend much of their time trying very hard not to think of a woman's hair, all of it. They try to enact laws that deal exclusively with women and their appearance, especially the hair. Now it would be interesting if a law is passed forcing them to cover their shaggy beards, or in some cases their unfriendly visages. Often they call a woman's face and hair as ‘'aura’, an Arab term meaning something that is taboo and should be hidden and not seen in public- sort of like a person's private parts. I think many of their silly faces should be declared ‘'aura’.
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There are many serious problems that can benefit from releasing some of the energy of these Fundies’ frustrations: for example, the quality of health care in a country that spends a fortune on health, but all high public officials and important private dignitaries, rich ones, are sent overseas for medical treatment at government expense.
Cheers
Mohammed
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1 comment:
Hello Mohammed,
Thanks for sharing your ideas and reflections with us. I just read through a few of your posts and they are rather funny to read. In anyway they render a fully different picture from daily life and issues in the middle-east than what we are offered here on our TV-sets. I think that the majority of Europeans think that two things come the desert: oil and trouble. Your blog really adds a few dimensions to that narrow picture.
Hurray for this Kuwaiti women. I get some vague flashback: Am I right that Kuwait did not allow women to vote for up to a few years ago? Quiet a change! In the early 70's we had some radical women-right groups here in Europe that started to burn their bras, because they saw this a sign of repression. Perhaps an idea to burn some niqab's burka's? Plenty of oil around, so that could not be the problem.
BTW, I fully agree these shaggy beards should be shaved off. You do not want to know what grows and lives in beards,especially in those climates! Utterly disgusting. I can not imagine that those beards are Halal approved.
Additionally, just a question that springs to mind, may be very ignorant / silly, but nevertheless I take the risk of making a complet idot of myself. Why can't the Afgan or the Iraq population unite themselves and take control over their own countries? From the daily news over here we get the picture that both governments are weak and poorly supported by their own populations. Why doesn't the population organise themselves an alternative then? That is what I do not comprehend.
Anyway, just a few loose thoughts and a compliment for your blog!
Eggo, the Netherlands
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