It’s a hard job obliterating women from the landscape. People have been trying for centuries but it’s like weevils or mildew…there’s always a bit you miss and then before you know it – the big chomping jaws come through the wall and eat you.
The Saudis are struggling with this problem now, and they’ve decided there’s no help for it, they’re just going to have to cover up the eyes too. Otherwise – munch munch.
Saudi women with sexy or “tempting” eyes may be forced to
cover them up, according to a spokesperson for the Committee for the
Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the news site Bikyamasr
reports.Bikyamasr quotes a spokesman of the Ha’eal district, Sheikh Motlab al-Nabet, as saying the group has the right to order women whose eyes seem “tempting” to shield them immediately.
It seems inconvenient, because women will be walking into walls or holes in the ground or getting run over, but if you think about it they’re really not supposed to be outside anyway, so it’s ok. If they’re turbulent enough to insist on going outside they’ll just have to have their eyes covered up along with the rest of them.
They understand this in Jerusalem, ironically enough.
The segregation of women is nothing new amongst the ultra-orthodox community who itself lives segregated from the rest of the population, by choice. In the downtown Mea She’arim neighbourhood that’s populated by Haredi Jews, signs warn women not to enter the quarter dressed “immodestly”.
A woman’s appearance is “immodest by nature”, said a Rabbi who insisted he would remain anonymous for fear of “offending sensitivities”. “Our demand isn’t geared at oppressing women – the opposite. Our intent is to protect their honour and dignity.”
By announcing that their appearance is immodest by nature; funny idea of honour and dignity.
Well, why not have all the men carry these, problem solved!
A friend of mine made his own pair for the carnaval after Pim Fortuin was murdered, he looked quite like Volkert van der G.
His “costume” was quite a hit, but he claimed to have missed most of the party b/c he couldn’t see. 🙂
This makes me angry and sad. And I suppose if European countries ban the covered eye clothing for women, people will shout “racist” and “bigot.” After all, we must respect all religions, mustn’t we?
Well, duh. The pussy is dangerous, see, when it’s acting sentient. It’s a vagina dentata. It’s corrupt.
Except when the pussy is ‘jes sittin’ there waitin’ for ya. Then it’s a lovely thing to place on a pedestal (or in a porn). When it’s ready to just lay there and take it it’s a thing never-too-much-to-be-thrust-into.
But when the pussy tries at agency, it’s a foul/tempting/depraved/smelly/siren-song-singing/duplicitous/irrational/vexing. . .oh hell. Just remember the pussy is the menz’ property and it gets to just sit there waiting for menz to load meaning onto it. And never forget that “women” are merely conveyances allowing the pussy to
perambulate.
Christ I can’t stand the human race.
If they pass this silly law (and taking their past treatment of women as evidence,they probably will) I propose a protest, for summer, where we all go out wearing nothing but our sunglasses…and maybe some comfortable footware.
It’s men’s problem if they can’t control themselves. Let them wear blinkers, blinders, shades, tunnel hats, or blindfolds.
What Monado said. If the men can’t control themselves, it’s THEIR problem — women shouldn’t suffer because some jackasses can’t keep their eyes/hands/penii to themselves.
Oh, and “Junior Anti-Sex League”, anyone?
Like hell. No one with so much as a half-functioning brain buys that bullshit.
And even if your intent and motives were ‘pure’ who fucking cares what your goal was when the end result is an entire gender is being forced to live like second class citizens?
These disgusting assclams show the world how religion is clearly a man-made phenomenon. At least the Haredim are not hypocrites like the (always male)royals and elites in Saudi-Arabia, who ask to cover the evil female temptresses’ eyes, while at the same time getting wasted with prostitutes.
I would argue that modesty in this sense is an internally generated quality, that relates, largely, to how comfortable you are with your own appearance. Namely, it would be immodest for me, personally, to walk around without a shirt, because I’m not particularly comfortable with other people seeing that much of my body, but another person may feel perfectly comfortable wandering around completely nude (particularly, I suspect, if they are very fit).
The point being, by generating and perpetuating this idea that all of a woman, every tiny bit of her, is immodest, actually alters the perceptions of the women addressed in such a way. So when they dress in a normal fashion – i.e. the same parts as most other people cover covered – they *feel* immodest. It’s the same kind of thing as those celebrity magazines which push a certain kind of body type. Which perpetuates the behaviour just as much as any stick like religious police could.
@ Fin – so “celebrity magazines” = “police” then? Not quite the same powers of enforcement, I would have thought..
Did you see the last para?
“The announcement follows a report in the Saudi newspaper al-Watan that a Saudi man was hospitalized after fighting with a member of the committee that had ordered his wife to cover her eyes.”
So even here the power to oppress women is imposed with violence (we don’t know who started the fight, but only one went to hospital — and guess who?: the man who stood up for his wife’s right to see clearly in public).
“And the award in the category of Religious What-The-Fuckery goes to….
*opens envelope and raises eyebrows in feigned mild astonishment*
Ladies and Gentlemen,I’m afraid we have a TIE, between two pillars, albeit slightly opposed to each others’ existence, of this industry…
Wait, nothing new there. Suspense fail.
And after womens’ eyes are covered over, what then?
Some blindfolded women have too shapely a body in those full body coverings – they have to now sew pillows into the fabric.
Some blindfolded, pillowed women still have nice voices – they must be silent and learn sign language or write.
Some blindfolded, pillowed, silent women have beautiful penmanship – they cannot write anything anymore, oh, and they have to wear gloves because they’ve got nice hands.
It’s obvious, because of the burka, blindfold, pillow, silence, illiteracy, and gloves that these are women – they can’t leave the house.
And so on so forth, how can we stand by and call this country our ally when they’re in gross violation of basic human rights?
“A woman’s appearance is “immodest by nature”
Well, that’s that then. That’s the way AlLah, YWHW, Glooskap and Ganesh made them. It is the will of the dogs. Nothing else to be done but keep ’em at home in a darkened room.
I guess we won’t be seeing the arabic or hebrew translations of Lysistrata anytime soon
Rosie – On the other hand, precisely because media influence and social expectation and the like are not physically coercive the way the cops are, they can be more insidious. That’s certainly not to say I’d prefer to have the religious cops…
Weird random thought I just had – is there some “imprinting” mechanism in humans that helps young boys to recognise women? If so, what would the effects be on, say, their sexual instinct if the entire female population were covered up in black bags?
When they understand the value of progress, they’ll make some progress in the starved area of circumcision as an environmentally friendly alternative to cloth.
well, now the law that says women aren’t allowed to drive makes much more sense. you shouldn’t be driving if you are visually impaired, by say, a blind fold.
There’s a quote somewhere about how when people are actively doing what they know to be bad, you will be spared the worst of it and given respite, because their conscience may eventually kick in. But if someone feels they are acting towards good, it will never let up.
Religious justifications for the subjugation of women are usually framed as being towards good. In the Quran there is a statement that two men should be called upon to testify in a case of debt. If no two men are available, one man and two women should do. Why are the two women seen as a stand-in for just one man? Because, the verse unctuously continues, “if one forgets, the other can remind her.” The same applies to “protecting their honour and dignity”: it’s a clear move at disempowerment but because it’s couched in terms of protection and benefit those who sustain it can think themselves doing good, and never challenge their own views.
“But if someone feels they are acting towards good, it will never let up.”
The argument at the end of Does God Hate Women? in a nutshell.
Actually it is new. While the haredi community always had gender segregated schools and men and women were never even remotely equal, if you suggested 10 years ago that buses and streets should be segregated, even in the most extreme sects you would have been considered insane.
Or maybe not so much new as being pushed to new lengths? If schools were already segregated then that indicates it wasn’t totally new.
I remember reporting on the segregated buses from just a few years ago though, that definitely treated it as new.
We’ll be getting it here in the US one of these days, from the Dominionists and Quiverfullists and so on. Blergh!
It turns out that there is good reason to exclude women from public life:
Alternatively, one might conclude that mixed groups ought to be led by women, since they don’t suffer from this effect.
“Alternatively, one might conclude that mixed groups ought to be led by women, since they don’t suffer from this effect.”
As a min-maxer of some experience, this would be my approach. Unless the women are conditioned to do what the debuffed men want either way.
All so weird. It seems to me, as a guy, that I should at least be able to wrap my head around these kinds of relationships to women, even if I didn’t agree with them. But I can’t. I have NO concept of how that could exist. I suppose if you’re taught contempt for women from birth and then you finally find yourself attracted to the very thing you despise, you would get some serious disconnect. Your sexual desires would HAVE to be expressed through abuse. hmmmm. I may have hit on something…gotta go think
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