Remember Calendar Girls when a group of women posed nude to raise money for charity? As a follow up to the photo of Israeli women who stripped in solidarity with Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, why not make a calendar of Nude Photo Revolutionaries in homage to Aliaa and also to raise awareness on free expression and women’s rights and against misogyny and Islamism.
As Aliaa has said on her blog:
‘Put on trial the artists’ models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression.’
If you’re interested in being part of the calendar, email me at maryamnamazie [at] gmail [dot] com.
Here are other acts of solidarity:
I want myself back, Iranian Sepideh Jamil
Tunisian Hanane Zemali [It’s her photo featured here.]
Thank you Maryam for bringing this issue to light. I am a man. I respect women. I look at provocatively dressed women with giddyness. I get sexually aroused by women. But none of that in any way means that I have to act on it because a woman sexually arouses me. The idea that woman have to cover their body so men wont lose control of themselves sickens me. This is a sign of a weak man trying to control a woman’s freedom. Also because the woman is dressed provocatively does not mean that all she has to offer is her beautiful body. Who knows what kind of intellectual conversation you may have with her if you could take your mind off her boobs for a minute.
Thank you again Maryam I am 100% behind your cause.
I may be sitting but this has my STANDING support.
I thought you should be told, someone found Sepedih Jamil’s real name, and she has pulled the blog fearing for her safety. Not a good development.
Oh no…
I think a good case could be made for men doing something similar. The female situation has a stronger element of discriminatory repression, but naked male bodies are also looked on shamefully in many countries. Christian Europe went through a very active period of censorship, and the fig leaves covered men and women alike. It’s a shame men don’t have the coordinated gender movement we see in feminism. It takes a lot of courage to swim against the current of society like that, even more so for the first person to do it.
This form of protest can and will be misinterpreted faster than you can say “feminism”. Just saying.
There’s a couple of issues already showing – such as pressuring (No, it’s not OK to pressure Maryam Namazie to post nude photos. Whether she makes this decision or not, it should be hers alone and either option is totally fine and should not be judged) Objectification (Michael B. – I’m looking at you), ridicule (The only media coverage you can count on would be along the lines of “Crazy feminists post !NUDE PICS!, nobody cares why”)
Sad but true.
I highly approve of this protest.
I think its better to feature Zemali’s photo. It is more beautiful and with face. The current feature photo doesnt look good on your page.
Btw, I support your move.
will do. thanks
why don’t you be the 1st to start ?
it is your idea and the best way to promote it is to start by yourself and get nude.
are you willing to support your invitation and poss nude .
i think this will be better pic to your page rather than using others pic.
if you are afraid or not convinced for posing nude why are you inviting others to do !!!!!!
Nothing scares religions more than an independent vagina. Israeli women who stripped in solidarity with Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy have slapped two religions together. Religion’ worked out a long time ago that shame and fear are a more enduring emotion than love – almost as powerful as greed, in fact. Guilt and shame as wielded by the religion is simply an embodied method of social control to increase and sustains their power. Religion is paraphernalia of customs and rituals. It is a regime of control through thought and habits.
You should join in, y’know show more than solidarity….
i think she is afraid to pose nude , that is why she is inviting others to do what she can’t do.