So I guess that means she isn't being "oppressed"...
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 ...
So I guess that means she isn't being "oppressed"...
That's what I've heard as well. In-flight alcohol service is also apparently affected by the location in airspace.
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 hijackersIt's hard to believe those words were printed in the comPost.
All the responsibility for "avoiding provoking lust" is on women. Men are free to do as they please. When an illicit affair occurs, it is always the woman's fault.
Why aren't American feminists attacking islam? </irony>
Change is coming from within for those brave enough to fight the oppressive systems. The first I heard of any resistance was in the 90s when a group of Saudi women conspicuously drove around in a car alone in protest of the prohibition.
Personally, I think if every fed-up Muslim woman would take a tip (or more than a tip) from Lorena Bobbit, this problem would end rather quickly.
At a mall on fashionable Tahlia Street recently, a line of young men trailed three fully covered young women wearing the niqab, or face veil, with slits that exposed only their eyes. The women, who had stopped to look at cellphone accessories, wore tight black abayas, green and blue contact lenses, heavy mascara and eyeliner, and strong perfume.
They were probably stoned to death shortly thereafter.
The only thing this proves is that they are frightened not to wear that crap in Saudi.
If we were to lose this global war, the liberal women would be wearing burkas and they would lose their right to vote, go to school, hold a job, drive a car...
The comPost editors must have been asleep :
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
ROFL!
How “disrepectful” of them, to make fun of foreign customs!
Since they are PART of the “everyone is =” crowd, wherein every nation is the same and every culture (except the US, which is inferior), and hence they cannot question customs or disparage them, they have painted themselves in corners.
Since they’ve basically said Moslem culture is “good” and it’s OK to do all these things in Moslem culture (how dare we judge!), they cannot backtrack on their approval of this foreign culture.
Moreso, however, it’s probably because their hatred of the US as a non-communist republic trumps any “love” they have for women. Attacking Moslems would implicitly be approval of “US” culture.
ping
Cut off a lot more.
Good one! :)
btt
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