Oh, btw, had a brief but insightful conversation with an Arab the other day. My wife had had noticed all the local Arab men wear white, and the women wear black, and asked me why.
The guy I asked was dressed like most of them, in pure white ghutra (apart from the iqal (the fanbelt around his head), and had his wife (at least one of them) in tow slightly behind him who was in fullback abayya, as many women in the Gulf States wear. I had heard this was just "tradition" before, but wanted to get to the historical roots of it, and wondered if he had a different take.
At first, he just came out with the standard "tradition" reply, but when pushed as to the significance of the colors for dress, he replied to me (in a thick accent) "You [should] understand, white is the color of purity, it is clean, you understand?"
So naturally I asked why the women (in their male dominated society) traditionally did not wear white, but black instead.
Sensing I was setting him up and he was falling into the trap head first, he quietly muttered a minor arabic curse word under his breath, and walked off.
Quran:
Narrated 'Aisha:The things which annual prayer were mentioned before me (and those were): a dog, a donkey and a woman. I said, "You [Mohammad] have compared us (women) to donkeys and dogs.
That's simply mysoginy in its most primitive form, is it not?
I recently came across this:
Gang-rape victim faces lashesFrom correspondents in Riyadh March 06, 2007 01:00am Article from: Agence France-Presse
A SAUDI woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped and then beaten by her brother was sentenced to 90 lashes - for a meeting a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported.
In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, the 19-year-old said she was blackmailed a year ago into meeting a man who threatened to tell her family they were having a relationship outside wedlock, which is illegal in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.
After driving off together from a shopping mall near her home, the woman and the man were stopped and abducted by a gang of men wielding kitchen knives who took them to a farm where she was raped 14 times by her captors.
Five men were arrested for the rape and given jail terms ranging from 10 months to five years by a panel of judges in the eastern city of Qatif, near the woman's hometown.
But the judges also decided to sentence the woman, identified by the newspaper only as “G,” and the man to lashes for being alone together in the car.
Unrelated men and women are forbidden from interacting in public in Saudi Arabia, which strictly enforces Islamic Sharia law.
“G” said one of the judges told she was lucky not to have been given jail time. “I was shocked at the verdict. I couldn't believe my ears,” said the woman, who has appealed against her sentence.
The woman also told the paper she tried to commit suicide because of her ordeal and was beaten by her younger brother because the rape had brought shame on their family.
Fuziyah al-Ouni, described as an activist by the paper, said she was outraged by the case. “By sentencing her to 90 lashes they are sending a message that she is guilty. No rape victim is guilty,” she said.
There are severe legal restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia, including a strict dress code required outside the home and a ban on driving.
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Good to hear from you.