Forget breasts, cover those tempting eyes!

Posted by Maryam Namazie
On November 19, 2011
15 Comments
Islam, religion, Saudi, veil, women

The Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (yes, it’s really their name), can order women with ‘tempting’ eyes to cover them up. It’s not enough that women already have to be veiled, and flogged and fined for ‘improper’ veiling. There is still the little matter of the eyes. Honestly, the work of the Virtue and Vice squad is never done!

Maybe women could start dressing like this (from One Law for All’s Passion for Freedom):

Or better yet why don’t the Islamists just stop looking at us women!

(Above from Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis)

Seriously though, this is the same committee that in 2002 stopped girls from running out of a burning school and firemen and policemen from helping them because the girls didn’t grab their veils whilst trying to save their lives and the men were ‘namahram’.

Now you know why I say religion should come with a health warning like cigarettes – religion kills! Plain and Simple.

15 Comments

Arakiba

Nov 22 2011
Reply

"The time is coming when we can get completely rid of oil. After that, this medieval regime of hypocrise will be burned down to the ashes. Death to all “virtue committees” in the world!" Seconded!

User

Nov 20 2011
Reply

The time is coming when we can get completely rid of oil. After that, this medieval regime of hypocrise will be burned down to the ashes. Death to all "virtue committees" in the world!

Art

Nov 20 2011
Reply

Irony is that there is no end to how distant and obscured female body might need to be to prevent men from looking and thinking about it. But there is a fairly reliable, but politically impossible, option; let women go naked and provide protection that prevents any unwanted contact. Getting an eyeful while not being able to touch tends to calm the obsession for a time. A lot of people have noticed that a few hours on a nude beach tend to calm the unhealthy fascination with being allowed to see the human form.

Didaktylos

Nov 20 2011
Reply

This shows why all attempts to impose "modesty in dress" are self defeating. By covering something up, you are only drawing attention to what is being concealed. In order for something like this to work, both sexes would have to dress identically styles that completely obscured the wearer's physical attributes ... oh yes, and speech would require the use of a vocoder so that nothing could be inferred from their words.

Cynthia

Nov 23 2011
Reply

Didaktylos, there is irony here. As an American who lives in Saudi Arabia I can tell you, the extreme black full body covers do call attention to themselves, more than simple, conservative Western dress would. But men also wear a white robe and a head cloth. Part of the rationale has been for equality to exist in society without social and economic stratification. Yes, ironic. I also happen to believe the sandstorms that are common here had a hand in the development of the head and face veils. I've only veiled my face once, in a sandstorm. And wouldn't you know - I could breathe and see. I couldn't do either without it on, while being pelted with millions of fine grains of sand. Did you know that women are prevented from using their voices for the prayer call as they are too "sexy" and even cannot get on a microphone sometimes to ask a professor a question from a segregated room, for the same reason? So no need for a vocoder; just prevent women from speaking in public, sadly.

Stacy

Nov 20 2011
Reply

The answer is simple: Saudi men need to cover their eyes. With thick, thick dark cloth. Let 'em use guide dogs.

Paul

Nov 19 2011
Reply

So they've finally figured out how to get at the final vestage of women's exposure to... well, anything. One wonders what they could possibly find to turn their attention to next. "Women henceforth only allowed to leave the house packed into shipping crates, carried by a respectable man (pushing on castors also acceptable - if he hurt himself because of your selfish desire to go out you're liable to be punished). Experts say that simply covering the entire body in thick fabric clearly implies there is some sexy sexiness to hide, and sometimes you can see the outline of an arm or (le gasp!) maybe a knee. Three of them spontaneously combusted on the spot when questioned. The packing crate is now considered the only real way to protect women from the horrible burns they may otherwise sustain from exploding men". ...Or something equally insane.

Daniel Schealler

Dec 2 2011
Reply

"One wonders what they could possibly find to turn their attention to next." 1) Enumerate a list of all the differences between a woman and an Axlotl tank 2) Sort that list such that anything that gives women voice or power, or anything that might create sympathy to the plight of women, and move these things higher in the list 3) Start from the top, and work your way down until the list is empty