The veil of 'American Liberation' descends upon Iraqi Women

[AGENDA21]

Iraqi university graduation ceremony



"Iraqi women did not believe in putting burqa. It wasn’t even in their dictionary. When we saw women wearing it, we said they were not Iraqis. They might be either Yemenis or probably from one of the Arab Gulf countries.
However, some Iraqi women believe in putting the ordinary scarf, especially in religious areas like holy Najaf and Karbala. Most women there wear the scarf in devotion to God or to follow the traditional teachings of Islam.
This no longer exists.

After the U.S.-led occupation to Iraq, religious parties brought by the occupier from neighboring Iran and from other countries imposed their own understanding of the scarf on the secular society. They started forcing women to wear scarves directly and indirectly.

Women, who joined these "religious" and political parties or trends, started the new trend of "religious fashion": Wearing Burqa and gloves to hide their faces and hands. Not only this, they started giving lectures to the newly joined female members to make them spread the idea of wearing hijab and burqa.

A colleague of mine emailed me a disgusting photo of how this issue is changing the shape of the Iraqi women who once were ones of the most fashionable women in the world in former cosmopolitan cities like Baghdad, Basra, and Mosul. I was so disgusted when I saw the photo. Inside me, I was shouting "Nooooooo. It shouldn’t be like this. We were not like this. Enough distortion and abuse to the women."

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m22738&hd=0&size=1&l=e

[annabanana]

1. Freedom is on the March!

Is this what all the death has been for?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. I went to a massacre in Iraq and all I got was this

crummy Burqa.

[onager]

3. Pressure for this in Egypt, too

(This is certainly not intended as a Thread Hijack, but this trend is actually happening all over the Middle East...brought to us by the Usual Suspects, religious extremists. Though $hrub's Big Adventure in Iraq seems to have accelerated it.

I can speak a little about Egypt because I've been here for quite a while, keep up with the local news, and actually live and work with Muslims every day.)

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt recently claimed...with a straight face...that it had "persuaded" no less than 70% of Egyptian women to wear the niqab--the Egyptian name of the total face veil, hand coverings, etc.

Bullshit. I've worked in Cairo and Alexandria, and I commute twice a day from Alexandria thru some of the most conservative parts of Egypt: little farm villages out in the Nile Delta.

I'd guess that not even TEN per cent of Egyptian women are completely covered. It's very unusual to see that, even in the villages.

Almost every Muslim female here, though, wears the hijab--the scarf over the head. Even that is a lot more...casual than in Saudi Arabia, where I lived for 2 years. In S.A., you'd see the Religious Police (matowa) screeching at women about their dress.

Egyptian women and girls tend to wear those scarves in a manner that drives religiously conservative men nuts. The scarves are very bright...orange seems to be a favorite color...and often beautifully embroidered or otherwise decorated. A group of women on the street wearing them make a striking and quite attractive picture...at least, they do until you remember why they are wearing them. (Full disclosure: I'm an atheist.)

One day I asked my Egyptian co-workers: at what age does the girl have to start wearing the head-covering? I asked because you see some very young girls wearing it, while you also see older girls (with obviously Muslim parents) who do not. The answer was that the decision was up to the girl (and her family, of course).

One of my friends said his sister wanted to start wearing it at age 10. Her parents sat her down and asked if she really wanted to do that. They thought she was too young. But she insisted so they let her wear it. Strictly my own opinion, but I think a lot of that is just the natural desire of kids to emulate their Moms. The way little American girls will play dress-up and illegally fool with Mom's makeup.

Oh, wearing colorful scarves is not all younger Egyptian women do to annoy their elders.

I've attached an article on the Fulla doll, a/k/a "Muslim Barbie." She comes with an abaya and her very own prayer rug!

Unfortunately, Fulla didn't sell in Egypt until the manufacturer gave her some...er, typically Egyptian accessories: skin-tight jeans and very clingy tops. Along with the head-covering.

In Alexandria, where I'm staying, it's not unusual for gaggles of high-school girls dressed like this to walk up and ask me to take their picture. (I often have a camera with me.) Again, this is a wonderful change from Saudi Arabia, where I could get arrested for taking pictures of females. The gals usually want to practice their school English, too, which is usually charming.

BTW, the Fulla doll came about because the Supreme Islamic Council in Saudi Arabia banned the Barbie doll, after they decided Barbie was "too Jewish." That will shock most of us, who thought Barbie was the perfect blonde shiksa. This may have been a garbled translation or something. The Handler family, founders of Mattel, are Jewish. So maybe that's what they meant.

Not that Mattel gets any points for cultural sensitivity...

Mattel markets a group of collectors' dolls that include a Moroccan Barbie and a doll called Leila, intended to represent a Muslim slave girl in an Ottoman court.

:wtf:

Egyptians joke that while Fulla does not have an accompanying "Ken" doll as a boyfriend, her accessories do include "several angry brothers."

:rofl:

This is rather encouraging news, though...

...a Doctor Fulla and a Teacher Fulla will be introduced soon. "These are two respected careers for women that we would like to encourage small girls to follow," he said.

And a Grumpy Atheist like me couldn't have said this any better...

"Syria used to be a very secular country," he added, "but when people don't have anything to believe in anymore, they turn toward religion."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/22/international/middleeast/22doll.html?ex=1285041600&en=72bb8cc089bf9435&ei=5090