The Clash of Stupidities

Mohar, I hope you meant that quite genuinely.....beej had a quite a point there! :)

Excercise control over women`s bodies (influencing female behavior and form not through competitive mating games but by decree and fiat), I always thought, was about forcibly maintaining stability, order, and inequitous ranking...but Beej makes a compelling case...it is also a key(fascistic) approach to controlling the future...

Keep women locked up (or, much better, teach them to love and take pride in being locked up), and society will automatically stay where it has always been.

Hey Shandana,

Enjoyed this thoroughly. Nobody has a monoply on stupidity and I guess the Muslim nation had to share some with the West. Just as it is wrong of the Mullah`s to insist on wearing the veil, it is wrong for others to insist that Women don`t wear it. Women who wear veils are as oppressed as those who wear miniskirts, actually the one`s who wear miniskirts are more oppressed (the daily shavings, the ingrown hair, ugh).

As for men`s ownership of Women`s bodies. What men want they get. What women want, they get. It is a win win situation, a negotiated equilibrium. Some men like them bare, some men like his woman covered, and women do what they need to get the kind of guy they want. Women who take the veil do so to send out a signal of values and behavioural expectations. Why do women wear veils in cultures where it is not a tradition is a more interesting question that you didn`t explore here. It could be as simple as wearing the veil to signal, `I am the marrying type, don`t fool around with me` Or, `since you are as primitive as a bull, I am going to wear a covering,` Or is it a passive aggressive response, `see here, I won`t won`t take care of my body, you make do with me as I am, Or is it to add mystique? Do Muslim women really believe they that have to be the moral fulcrum? Can it be that they just want some personal space? Are they sick of advertizing that uses the female form to sell everything under the sun? Or is it simply none of those things? Just a fashion fad as like jeans were in the 1960s. Shades of opinion vary--and perhaps clothes have never been as political as they are in today`s frantic modernity.

Rgds
Saima

Re: # 18 by bjkumar on December 4, 2006 12:26pm PT

You got it beej.

However thick skulled followers of Mullah Hindi will never understand it. They shall forever stuck in the ``raw pile of meat`` that you see after a suicide bomber does his evil deed.

``Our mullahs use women’s legs as a platform, presenting their exposure in skirts etc as a sign of the west’s immorality. ..``Conservative Indian commentators clip onto .....

It is said that French people were aroused by legs of table hence Table Cloth was invented.

Re: # 18

Man, you are deep :)

This is a very powerful article and very skilful show of combining Islamic feminism with a good portion of anti-Americanism to make some kinda point.

Since the beginning of time itself, women’s bodies have been used as representation of what stands for beauty in life. Therefore, such bodies have been the subject of countless poems and works of art – and not just from the perspective of the male members of the specie.

The fight over the “ownership” of women`s bodies shall go on. It is not over the anatomy. What is physical about the anatomy can be owned but what the woman’s body represents can not be – can never be. It is perhaps akin to that proverbial CD-ROM with proprietary software – you own the media – but that’s all you own – you never own the code that is ingrained therein.

The woman’s body is important for what it represents – the preservation and continuation of life – what symbolizes the essence of being a woman – and the only role in life that no man can ever, ever duplicate.

The woman’s body hosts life eternal for mankind and accordingly, mankind’s interest in it shall forever be of more than passing interest.

The selling of ``raw meat`` is a multi-trillion dollar industry around the globe. Only in cyberspace, out of 7 billion registered webpages, approximately 70% sell meat. On the softer side, no advertising agency would dare contemplate selling a product without raw meat in it, including medicines for male pattern baldness. So there are vested interests, to keep women naked, making them less sensitive to their modesty, or simply corrupting them to be a part of the consumer based production system. Is it a victimless crime?? You don`t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. All you have to do is to put yourself in a bobcat`s shoes (or paws), see if you can resist raw meat.

Ooook..another column of the friggin veil. Make up your minds my muslim brothers and sisters..once and for all. There is too much confusion about whether or not to wear the veil. I say, do it like the arabs do. Keep your bitches in burlap and make sure they use curlers for their unibrows.

Shandana -- you wrote a shandar column -- congratulations.

Freethinker if Akbar Allahabadi would have been alive today perhaps he would have written it this way:

Purday main kal joh a`aeen nazr chand beebiyan
Akbar zameen mein zillatt-e-quami sey ghad gaya
Poocha ke kub sey aankh pe purdah ye pur gaya
boleeN ke jub se aqkl peh mardo`n kee pud gaya

I don`t understand what Mulim women wants?
hajab in dance party , hajab on seashore. Date with hajab.
all lover of veils should push back to Sudia Arab.

Correction to my last post:
The word ``aql`` was misspelt inadvertently as ``aqk.`` Please note it.
Mohammad Gill

Einstein: Only two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity``.

I am not sure about the universe.

This article reminded me of the following verses of Akabar Allahabadi. I am writing them from memory so the accuracy of diction (particularly of the third line) is not guaranteed. Anyhow it goes like this:

Bey purdah kal joh a`aeen nazr chand beebiyan
Akbar zameen mein ghairat-e-quami sey ghad gaya
Poocha joh unn sey aap ka purdah kya huya
Kahne lageen keh aqk peh mardo`n kee pud gaya

Mohammad Gill

Interesting...but what`s your point?
Shouldn`t people be allowed to wear whatever they want but take cultural sensitivities into account too since every culture is different?