"Naked" Miss Afghanistan slammed (Shut-Up Burqa Boys, she lives in the Land of the Free)

AFP via Melbourne Herald Sun ^ | 27 October 2003

[Stultis]

"Naked" Miss Afghanistan slammed
AFP
27oct03

PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai's minister for women's affairs yesterday condemned Miss Afghanistan, as Vida Samadzai became the country's first woman in the post-Taliban era to appear in a bikini during a beauty contest in Manila.

"Appearing naked before a camera or television is not women's freedom but in my opinion is to entertain men," Minister Habiba Surabi said.

"We condemn Vida Samadzai, she is not representing Afghanistan's women, and this is not women's freedom."

Surabi said according to Afghan culture women should not demonstrate their worth using their "beauty or bodies" but by their skills and knowledge.

"In the name of women's freedom, what this Afghan girl has done is not freedom but is lascivious," the minister said.

The 25-year-old Afghan contestant, who lives in the United States, is the first Afghan woman in 30 years to participate in the Miss World international beauty contest being held in the Philippines capital this week.

The dark-haired, black-eyed Samadzai, apparently from a Pashtun tribe, was born and raised in Afghanistan but left for the United States in 1996 to escape the extremist Taliban regime which forced women to cover themselves from head to toe.

Under the harsh regime women were not allowed to work outside their homes or go out without a close relative beside them. After the fall of the militia in 2001, an increasing number of women left the burqa, or veil, at home and some took jobs.

The only other Miss Afghanistan was Zohra Daoud, who joined the Miss Universe contest in 1972.

[VOA]

Moreover it is a provocation to Moslem believers

The nerve of these beauty-contest people.
You'd think they'd learn that Shari'a law should be observed at all beauty
contests, after the row in Nigeria a year or so ago.
Everyone knows that observant Muslims have total veto power over what is seen in public.

(end sarcasm...)

[Stew Padasso]

If acting normal and having fun is provocative, then we are fighting a good fight.

"The display is immodest and makes of woman a mere sexual object."

When did Patricia Ireland start posting here?

[VOA]

These people have many problems, but among them is not pedophilia, at least not more
so than we see anywhere else.

According to a couple of articles posted here, "ephebophilia" has flourished in
Kandahar for centuries.
It generally manifested by rich older men showering gifts on post-pubertal teen males
and basically making them into well-heeled "punks".

IIRC, the Taliban put an end to the practice for two reasons: it violated their religion
and 2. too many of the rich, powerful warlords would get into nasty struggles
over the "cream of the crop".

I remember saying at the time "Those Taliban guys weren't all bad.".

[Thumper1960]

Patsy I wishes she were a "sexual object".

[Fintan]

I know beggars can't be choosers, but Miss Austria sure put some lead in the pencil, if ya get my drift...

[joyful1]

In a free society lots of people are going to do things you don't like, say things you don't like, and wear things you don't like. Deal with it. Yes, you can (and even should) deal with it, in part, by speaking or demonstrating against the elements you find most offensive, but you should not forget that these negative things are only among the consequences of a much greater good; that of freedom.

You don't need to convince me, I'm not worth it, I have no power. The One you need to convince is the Holy One. He is power. He controls all. He exists.

[Unam Sanctam]

Do you people realize that there are TWO sides in Afghanistan? There is the Taliban and Al Qaeda on the one side, and there is the transitional government, who are helping us fight them on the other. Does it not ever occur to you that there might be a teeny, weeny, smidgen of difference between these two sides, who are both Moslem, by the way? Nah, screw 'em all, they're all just moon worshipers anyway, right?

[Unam Sanctam]

I have no truck with the abortion-promoting Patricia Ireland.

[Unam Sanctam]

Thanks joyfull for speaking your mind.

[Stew Padasso]

Send her back to a good stoning, that will set her straight.

[Syncro]

Oh my goodness!

I vote for Miss Institute of Phenomonology.

Dr. Zoo, do you have any pictures?

[SarahW]

It's "sophisticated".

I've never streaked anything but my hair. And there was nothing immodest, in context of a beauty pageant, about a pretty girl in a boy-cut bathing suit.

We should scoff and scorn any culture that thinks girls should cover up "or else" (be raped, killed by brother, etc)...and never accept it and make sure it gets stamped out. Crushed. Ended.

[Unam Sanctam]

I do not and have never advocated raping and killing of women for that reason or any other.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Middle Eastern women are beautiful. I suppose dress is a part of the cultural norm but I just can't go for the burka and the stoning.

IMO, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan was gorgeous about 10 years ago. She's getting older but still beautiful.

[VOA]

Nah, screw 'em all, they're all just moon worshipers anyway, right?

OK, if you have to get a statement that goes beyond the beauty contest...
fortunately most of the Muslim world is populated by decent people who either
are not observant (or are ignorant) of what is in the Koran and Hadith.
Or they know what is in there, but by either good sense or inner virtue have decided not
to observantly carry out the commands in those books.

Actually, I have a grudging respect for the true believers. At least we
really know where they stand. The Muslim silent majority is what I really fear.

And let me say it clearly in case someone is logged on from Kabul: what laws Afghanis
have within their sovereign borders regarding their citizens are their business,
although most outsiders will always be repelled by the excesses of the Taliban era.
What goes on in other countries may diverge greatly from their point of view...
and they might as well learn that tolerating those differences doesn't mean
approving of them.

[John O]

You are not expected to live exactly like Mohammed

So why are their rules on such things as which hand to use when wiping one's bottom and such other nonsense?

[John O]

Should we exclude even the possibility of an enlightened version of Islam?

Yes. The truest islam that the world has seen for centuries was the taliban. The koran commands the islamics to be murderers and terrorists. The religion cannot be reformed and still be islam.

Ann Coulter had it right, we need to invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. That is the only way to fix the islam problem.