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Beware the curses of angels

Beware the curses of angels

  • Posted by Maryam Namazie
  • On November 15, 2011
  • 29 Comments
  • Islamic morality

According to the Islamic regime of Iran, you better beware if you leave your house wearing perfume….

This sign on the roadside says:

‘The woman who leaves her home wearing perfume will be cursed by god’s angels until she returns.’

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Thanks to Keyvan Javid, editor of Equal Rights Now’s Persian weekly, Alayhe Tabeez, for the photo.

 

29 Comments

Winnipeg Computer Local
i think there is problem with your browser compatibility.
Bert Veitch
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CWayne
Fereshtegane Elahi! My ass!!!
hoverfrog
It's still OK for men to wear perfume outside the house though, right?
    lordshipmayhem
    Apparently for the Angels. Not for me, thank you very much - perfume doesn't like me, as I'm allergic to it. (Gets out Scent Appreciation Pancake Maker o' Doom.)
      Winter Wind
      I'm too lazy too check, but I think the fundamentalists say that men are forbidden to wear perfume, just as they are forbidden to wear gold jewellery. These luxuries were marks of paganism in the times of early Islam, and they also were often used by males who were dancing boys and prostitutes. The whole not wearing perfume/jewellery thing is a reaction to a highly sexualised social and religious climate.
      Winter Wind
      Don't angels have better things to do than cursing people who wear Old Spice, or sitting on a gate making a note of who enters the mosque? How about feeding the poor, educating the underprivileged or warning people of natural disasters?
lordshipmayhem
As someone with an allergy to perfume, I guess I'm on the side of the angels here... Mind you, I think the same thing of men who wear perfume when they go out as I do women. And don't tell me that "cologne" isn't perfume. OK, ladies and gents, you think you smell wonderful. Being unable to breathe while subject to your biological warfare attack, I'll just have to take your word for it. Shower's over there, use plenty of soap. It won't bother me if you sit nude for the rest of the day, as long as you sit on a towel - maybe we'll get more work done without the stink on your skin and clothes clouding up the air.
Upright Ape
Ms Namazie, did you see the islamic debate PZ posted today? It was incredibly painful. The guy starts with the "cosmological argument" which proves nothing other than his own absolute lack of understanding of physics, then goes on with the claim of the koran being a "miracle". The whole thing has so many wholes in it, you could have mistaken it for Swiss cheese.
Ophelia Benson
I wonder what the woman gets who leaves her home wearing jeans and a jacket over a sweater. God's traffic cops reciting limericks until she returns home? God's mail carriers whispering bad jokes until she returns home? The possibilities are endless.
Cambrico
A good excuse to design oneself a god's angel and attack the woman in the name of a grand all powerfull being that needs a psicotic jerk to perform its curse. But obviously the grand all powerfull being loves you, or at least loves giving excuses to psicotic jerks. Cwayne is right. It could be funny as long as you don't live there.
    Maryam Namazie
    yes but people living under oppression also have a sense of humour and joking about the regime and its rules are a form of resistance too. And it also helps people to keep going. After all someone from Iran sent in the photo to the weekly alayhe tabeez!
      Cwayne
      I think if you live there the joking is more of a coping mechanism than resistance. My opinion though..
        Ophelia Benson
        Of course, Maryam has lived there, so she probably knows what it's like...
          CWayne
          • Nov 16 2011
          Of course CWayne is only a handle :)
        F
        Ridicule is an effective weapon.
        FlyingTeaCosy
        Isn't resistance itself a coping mechanism? Also, have you never heard of the value of humour and ridicule in undermining credibility?
          Maryam Namazie
          • Nov 16 2011
          True!
          CWayne
          • Nov 16 2011
          They may not be credible but they are certainly oppressing millions of people very successfully. As to the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg.. well, it was the egg..
        Maryam Namazie
        definitely both.
geocatherder
How about, "If you leave your house wearing perfume you could trigger an asthma attack in some innocent passerby?" Much more true (I'm such a sufferer) and a genuine appeal to conscience, not superstition!
    Cwayne
    Very true. But these people are idiots.
Cwayne
This is one of those stupid things that are funny because we don't live there.. in opression
Cwayne
Damn those stupid mullahs.
happiestsadist
And if you leave wearing lip gloss, you will be plagued by leprechauns. A peach/grey half-moon manicure? Better watch your ass for the inevitable kappas.
    julian
    Better watch your ass for the inevitable kappas.
    Only an EL 2. Manageable for a level 1 with some decent rolls but it'll probably ruin the manicure.
      happiestsadist
      But surviving an encounter with chips like that, can you really call it living? Pfft, throw a cucumber and sneak off in the other direction. (You can tell I like playing bard/rogues, can't you?)

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Maryam Namazie