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For Cloaked Saudi Women, Color Is the New Black
Washington Post ^ | May 28, 2007 | Faiza Saleh Ambah

Posted on 05/29/2007 7:17:41 AM PDT by george76

Manal Fageeh never liked the abaya, the long black cloak she was forced to begin wearing at 13. She resented the fact that it was obligatory for women in Saudi Arabia, and the black absorbed heat in the often-scorching climate.

Saudi women have long been known in the West for their all-enveloping black attire, widely considered a mark of their oppression. But Sharif and Fageeh are among a growing number of women and girls here who are rethinking and reinventing the abaya to more closely reflect their personalities and religious beliefs.

The redefinition of the abaya mirrors the greater, though still limited, personal freedoms allowed in the kingdom over the past five years. A major factor in the change was the involvement of young Saudis in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Many people began to question the official Wahhabi ideology that was believed to have partly inspired the hijackers...

Saudi women bear the brunt of that puritanical ideology. They are not allowed guardianship over themselves and need male permission to marry or travel. They cannot drive or work alongside men and are forced to cover up with the abaya in public.

Since shortly after the first girls schools opened here in 1955, the abaya has been mandatory beginning in middle school. Until several years ago, members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the enforcement arm of the Wahhabi establishment, patrolled streets and malls with sticks, making sure that women were properly veiled, that men and women who were not related did not mingle and that stores closed during prayer times.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abaya; burqa; hijab; islam; jiddah; muhammadsminions; muslims; religionofpeace; rop; saudiarabia; saudis; sharia; sharialaw; wahhabi
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1 posted on 05/29/2007 7:17:43 AM PDT by george76
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To: george76

Stone the hussies.


2 posted on 05/29/2007 7:19:19 AM PDT by DManA
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To: M. Espinola

3 posted on 05/29/2007 7:20:21 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

This thread is useful, even without pictures...


4 posted on 05/29/2007 7:22:06 AM PDT by gridlock (How often must environmentalism have negative consequences before we stop calling them unintended?)
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To: gridlock

Thanks


5 posted on 05/29/2007 7:24:30 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: gridlock
Here's some anyway:

(Local = Pakistan)

6 posted on 05/29/2007 7:26:20 AM PDT by PissAndVinegar (yes....it's sarcasm)
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To: george76
As I understand it, it is NOT only Saudi Women but all women in Sharia Law Dictatorships. Make that read women under the slavery of Islam.
7 posted on 05/29/2007 7:26:25 AM PDT by YOUGOTIT (The Greatest Threat to our Security is the US Senate)
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To: george76

“We act one way in Saudi Arabia and differently when we travel,” she said. “As if God is to be observed only here.”

Which tells me they don’t really believe.


8 posted on 05/29/2007 7:27:34 AM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we write in marble. JHuett)
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To: george76

Color makes them easier stoning targets.


9 posted on 05/29/2007 7:28:43 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: george76

Too funny!


10 posted on 05/29/2007 7:29:30 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: george76
Now, like many Saudi women, Yamani unwraps her head scarf and removes her abaya as soon as she boards a plane leaving the country.

Sharif, the editor, called such behavior an instance of Saudi Arabia's split personality. "We act one way in Saudi Arabia and differently when we travel," she said. "As if God is to be observed only here."

They enjoy the freedoms of non-muslim countries yet do everything in their power (generally speaking) to destroy these countries and make them islamic...

11 posted on 05/29/2007 7:30:51 AM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: mtbopfuyn
Another favorite...


12 posted on 05/29/2007 7:31:20 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

Ladies, paint your chains in soft colors for Spring. It’ll perk up your slavery and lighten that ol’ oppression so you can almost forget about it for a couple of minutes during the day...


13 posted on 05/29/2007 7:31:38 AM PDT by SlowBoat407 (A living insult to islam since 1959.)
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To: 2banana

Apparently everyone on the Saudi plane goes western as the plane crosses the border ( at 30,000 feet ? ) and then goes Saudi on the return flight at the border.

The pilot must announce it ?


14 posted on 05/29/2007 7:34:08 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: kalee
Which tells me they don’t really believe.

Oh, they believe, alright.

It's just that their fallen pig-god isn't all seeing and all powerful.

Real Prophets climb mountains to be closer to God.
They don't crawl into caves to listen to the hissings of The Serpent.

15 posted on 05/29/2007 7:35:47 AM PDT by null and void ("Wherever liberty has sprouted around the world, we find American blood at its roots.")
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To: george76

What, a yellow shoe?


16 posted on 05/29/2007 7:35:53 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: george76
The pilot must announce it ?

Maybe. I suspect they can smell the freedom, though...

17 posted on 05/29/2007 7:37:18 AM PDT by null and void ("Wherever liberty has sprouted around the world, we find American blood at its roots.")
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To: mtbopfuyn
What, a yellow shoe?

The slut!

(I bet it's brand named after a Greek God, too)...

18 posted on 05/29/2007 7:39:37 AM PDT by null and void ("Wherever liberty has sprouted around the world, we find American blood at its roots.")
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To: martin_fierro

the burka band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW9oYzMhiF4


19 posted on 05/29/2007 7:40:45 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

Where the NOW gang and the feminists when you need them?


20 posted on 05/29/2007 7:48:31 AM PDT by D-Chivas
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