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These are improvisations: neither a manifesto nor a treatise because life is too complicated for either. Yet, I'm improvising as an Arab--Palestinian-- woman with a progressive point of view always under construction. I use these improvisations to think out loud, so never take any post as my last word on a subject but think of it as the beginning of a conversation.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

How Women's Bras Undermine the Muslim Nation

According to this article by Alaa al Aswani, author of The Yacoubian Building, Chicago, and Friendly Fire, a Somali woman was arrested and publicly flogged for wearing a bra. Her charge was that wearing a bra is un-Islamic because it is an act of deception and misrepesentation. (here is the news report in English)

So if you hear that Somali women gathered in the public square and burned their bras, don't be surprised and don't attack them for aping western feminists, who, rumor has it, publicly burned their bras a while back to declare their independence from male standards of beauty and propriety. These bra-burning Somali women will be just following orders of men who care too much.

Why a woman wearing a bra is problematic for these male guardians of morality? I'm glad you asked. There are two scientific explanations:

If a woman is wearing a Victoria Secret push-up bra, she makes her breasts more outstanding than they originally are, even from under a long, thick robe. The resulting cleavage can undermine the social cohesion of Somali society, distract men from their guns, and result in chaos and fitna. That cannot be allowed, you would agree.

If a woman wears a sports bra, one that flattens her chest and minimizes her wiggle factor when she walks or runs, she is denying her femininity and is trying to look like men. And we all know how dangerous that can be. Not only does it signal the demise of the Muslim family, but it can lead to the end of the human race as we know it.

This is why Kuwait already has a law that punishes men and women who dress and walk in a gender-inappropriate way. And in Sudan Lubna al Hussein, the pant-wearing journalist, was arrested, put on trial, and fined for her role in wasting the time of the men of the nation, busy destroying their country.

Somali morality police should be credited for going beyond the surface appearances of pants and shirts and for zeroing on the parts that matter. Today they are after women's bras, and tomorrow they will go for women's thongs and boxer briefs. So Muslim women everywhere, be warned. And behave.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Bekhsoos: A Queer Arab Weekly

The new issue of Bekhsoos: A Queer Arab Weekly is out. Take a look here.

This weekly on-line magazine is prepared by Meem, a community of lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer women in Lebanon.

While recently in Beirut for the Arab Feminisms Conference hosted by Al Bahithat, I was privileged to attend the editorial meeting when the previous issue of Bekhsoos was being planned. I was very impressed by the professionalism, intelligence, humor, and dedication of the young women who put it together. They gave me hope that a new generation of feminist and queer activists are on their way to make a difference, a big difference, in the future of Arab women and men.

Some may try to crush them with homophobic hostility, with close-minded accusations, or with the silence of indifference. But I have no doubt in my mind--and heart--that nothing will stop these women from their goal: a more just society that recognizes and celebrates sexual diversity, where sexual difference is no longer a mark of disease and shame.

It may be a long and rough journey till we arrive at that goal. But in the company of the wonderful women of Meem, it is bound to be a thrilling one!