Islam, Islamism, Islamophobia, Islalalalalalala...
Seguine
http://www.ihrc.org.uk/islamophobia/
I mean, they want you buy *tickets* to their Islamophobia award
prsentation? Tony Blair nominated "for everything"?
Got to be a spoof.
Seguine
Special Dispatch-Saudi Arabia/Reform Project
November 14, 2006
No. 1356
Saudi Columnist: "How Did Men Succeed in Convincing Women to Transform
the Free Personality That Allah Endowed Them With Into Enslaved
Characters Wearing an Abaya?"
To view this Special Dispatch in HTML, visit:
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD135606 .
Saudi columnist Maha Al-Hujailan wrote in the English-language daily
Arab News on November 6, 2006, an article titled, "The Nature of the
Abaya," in which she says that the abaya - the black full-body robe
worn by Saudi women - is not simply a garment, but is rather a means by
which men confine women and impose on them restrictive patterns of
behavior.
The following are excerpts:
"The black abaya worn by Saudi women is a garment which attracts the
attention of foreigners - especially Westerners. In fact, the abaya is
now a recognized sign of our community. The older generation of Saudi
women - our mothers and grandmothers - did not know the abaya and have
only become familiar with it in recent years. Saudi women used to wear
a piece of material or cloth to cover their hair; once that was put on,
they then went to work - in the fields, at home or wherever - without
experiencing any ethical, social or religious problems.
"At present, the abaya has been transformed and has become a symbol
viewed by some Saudis in religious or social terms. In fact, some even
describe the abaya as an accessory which adds an element of mystery to
women. It allows men to imagine something beautiful and exotic which is
in fact very often unrelated to the reality beneath the abaya...
"We must not deny that the abaya is an exciting garment in many ways.
For instance, to outsiders and others unfamiliar with our culture, it
suggests a hidden mysterious beauty. Within our community, it functions
on both a religious and a social level, or it may be little more than a
burden for women not accustomed to wearing it. We have to be aware that
the abaya and the way it is worn have behavioral consequences that
deserve social, psychological and cultural studies...
"As elucidation, I will use an example from real life. Because of her
sympathy for Arabs and Muslims, Donna, an American woman, decided to
wear an abaya in an attempt to see how it felt and how it influenced
her behavior. She wanted to show sympathy to women wearing abayas,
especially after various incidents against Muslims in the post-9/11
world. She wore an abaya and walked along one of the busiest streets in
a major American city. She tried to be as normal as possible, talking
to people, laughing and behaving as usual. She said that she never felt
the abaya was restricting her or limiting her movements or her freedom.
"Among those who observed Donna, however, were some Muslims, Arabs, and
even some Saudis. The Saudis were upset by what they saw and told Donna
so. When she asked why, they explained that she was using the abaya in
an invalid way. She then became curious to find out what they
considered a valid way to use it. They explained to her that she must
walk slowly, must look down when walking and keep her eyes more or less
in front of her - no glancing from side to side, in other words. She
must not talk to anyone or laugh loudly and certainly must not address
any remarks to anyone lest they misunderstand her purpose in doing so.
"To say the least, Donna was astounded by their remarks and realized
that they were not simply talking about a garment to be worn but about
their perceptions of what an abaya symbolized. They seemed determined
to deny that a normal human being was under the black material. The
truth is that those Saudi men articulated something that the Saudi
lifestyle and customs have created. The abaya indeed covers a typically
weak and frightened character (a woman of course), who views herself as
a sexual entity confined in a well-defined space she can never escape
from. This is why the whole culture of the abaya imposes so many
restraints upon women. One of the restraints is that she must walk as
if her feet were hobbled and she was unable to move easily and
normally. Nor is she allowed to look around and observe the surrounding
world comfortably, as slowly or quickly as she might like. The abaya
has also contributed directly to preventing certain basic movements;
for example, she can no longer move her hands normally. Aside from
that, ordinary free conversation is forbidden and is replaced with low
and often unclear speech that makes little sense."
"The Abaya Makes Women Appear Humiliated, Submissive, and Blindly
Obedient to Men"
"The question that comes to mind is whether our grandmothers had to
deal with all these things or with the mindset that has produced them.
The answer - negative of course - can be explained by saying that male
culture has forced the abaya on women, colored it with certain
attitudes and used religion to buttress and support their ideas of what
an abaya is and how it should be worn and used. It all depends upon
selected religious interpretations, with the necessity of ignoring
others which fail to support or do not go along with the basic premise.
The abaya makes women appear humiliated, submissive, and blindly
obedient to men; and for men, it represents their sexual thoughts and
desires for women.
"But how did men succeed in convincing women to transform the free
personality that Allah endowed them with into enslaved characters
wearing an abaya? The process was not simply a mental one. It was a
combination of emotional factors which were cleverly exploited. Men
used women's weaknesses to make women believe that an important part
of the male-female relationship was the man loving the weak and
submissive elements of a woman's nature. He then named these elements
respect, honor and correct behavior. These do not exist objectively but
can only be explained according to the individual man's desire and
will - in other words, a totally subjective conception.
"What is strange is that women accepted the idea and were soon
submitting themselves to the prison of the garment, the walking slowly,
the looking only straight ahead - just to fulfill, it seems, what men
imagined the abaya to be all about.
"Women's imaginations, however, seem to have gone to work to create
new and more complicated garments which would confine her more than
ever before. The old abaya was a simple, on-the-shoulder garment, open
on both sides; nowadays women wear abayas which rest on their heads,
making them look like large walking crows. As for other abayas, they
occupy the wearer with keeping them wrapped around the shoulders, the
head and the face so that the woman can't move without worrying that
one or more of the bits will fall and she will stand revealed.
"This business of abayas is really of a piece with the Shura
Council's banning physical education in girls' schools. Women
taking exercise or having physical education does not fit with 'the
abaya culture.' The abaya confines; exercise does the opposite. There
would have to be some new male-oriented explanation to justify how
girls could play games and enjoy sports. Who knows? There might yet be
a new spiritual sport to emphasize the great gift given to women in the
abaya in which they use only their eyes and fingers!
"Many explanations and interpretations of the abaya seem to be part of
a strange phenomenon in which women enjoy being deprived of their free
will.
"More than a few women are apparently happy wearing the abaya and
burdening men with all that the garment suggests and evokes."
*********************
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