2004-03-25 11:58:37 AM
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| Arabia |
| Saudi Woman Snarls and Shows Fangs and Claws -- Arab Men Cower and Consult Koran |
| 2004-03-25 |
| .... Thus wrote Saudi publicist Wajiha al Huwayder on the British Arabic Web Site Ilaf, which deals with current events. The title of the provocative article was no less biting than its content: "A call to Arab women: A single life is a thousand times better than marriage to a man in this miserable East." Up to about half a year ago, Al Huwayder had no reason to write on the Internet. She was an important journalist for the Saudi newspaper Al Watan, where with great daring she expressed her views about the status of women in Arab countries in general and in Saudi Arabia in particular. Last August, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah ordered that her work at the newspaper be terminated because she "damaged the foundations of the nation and wrote about issues not permitted by Shari’a" (Islamic religious law)." .... Al Huwayder therefore found a refuge in writing on the Internet, and from there she embarked on a major attack against those whom she defines as "the pathetic and emasculated men of the East." And this is what she writes: "Most Arab men have been emasculated since they were young. They have no power to give, and therefore they are incapable of granting a respectable life to anyone. There are no exceptions here, according to the rule that says: A person who lacks something, is unable to give it." From here Al Huwayder embarks, together with her female readers, on a journey around the Arab countries. "Let’s begin with the original land of the Arabs, Saudi Arabia. The most important characteristic borne by the men of this country is the impotence complex. That’s the reason why the most common medication among them is a drug against impotence. These men spend more money on its purchase than all the men in the world, in order to achieve the missing sense of masculinity. If we examine them under a microscope, we will see that they are pathetic ... whereas the men of the oil-producing countries were educated on the principle that states that they are the best, the only ones. Their foremost wish is the kaffiyeh and the akal [the traditional Arab headcloth and cords], after they have sat themselves down on a chair to which the title "Director" is affixed. They are afflicted by a chronic germ that has determined that guardianship (of a woman) is a sign of masculinity, and that without it their limbs will not be in balance, and their wives will not do well." From here Al Huwayder goes on to Iraq, where "blood flows as quickly as the flowing of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. And what remains of its men? The remains of a Nazi regime." And so on to Syria, Jordan, and even Palestine and Egypt - countries in which the men, says Al Huwayder, are pathetic and humiliated. They live in poor countries "but material poverty is no disgrace, the disgrace is their poverty of thought, which prevents them from realizing their ignorance when they link the honor of the nation to the blood of a woman." Al Huwayder ends her geographic survey of men without finding even one country in which there are men who are worthy of Saudi women or of Arab women in general. She says that in Saudi Arabia "there is nothing that should arouse in you the feeling of shame at being single, or regret about the years of solitude. The land of the Arabs is full of men who are losers, men who are not worthy of you or of your status. Is it logical that after a long fast you should break your fast with a meal lacking taste or smell, and accompany defective men all your lives?" Al Huwayder has strong words for Saudi women as well. In another article she published on the site, she accuses the women of having become accustomed "to laziness, to relying on someone else, and to waiting for the men to bring loot and gifts from "the hunting fields." ... |
| Posted by:Homer Simpson |
| #12 Doc and Anon1: You're both right, actually. Nice post Anon1. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-03-31 2:08:46 AM |
| #11 Doctor: Wrong, wrong, wrong. The men in Saudi don't oppress the women because theey are powerless and it makes them feel better. They do it because they can. And because they are encouraged to do so from an early age by all their relatives, their teachers and their clerics. Their society makes the cultural rules and they accept them. Saudi women would be the natural allies of the west. They have everything to gain by westernisation and democratisation of Saudi. Most of all they have everything to gain from a cultural shift away from fanatical Islamist fascism and towards a turkey-style moderately Muslim state. Being real for a minute, we cannot win the WOT by armed conflict alone: it is an ideological battle and we must win by crushing the fascist, repressive, western-freedom hating aspect of Islamist culture. The women of Islam are our natural allies and the sooner the State Department and the Pentagon realise this and begin a serious psy-ops initiative of cultural warfare, the better. Wahhabism treats women like dirt, and guess what? Women are human beings with brains. This is also the weakpoint of the bleeding-heart left. Try bringing it up next time they call you racist. They give not one jot of caring about the women treated like chattel slaves in Saudi for all their prating about human rights. |
| Posted by: Anon1 2004-03-25 11:23:56 PM |
#10 "...the most common medication among them is a drug against impotence... If we examine them under a microscope... Ouch! |
| Posted by: Old Grouch 2004-03-25 10:10:42 PM |
| #9 I think the problem is, while she may be spot-on with her criticisms of Arab men, it's that very feeling of impotence that causes them to so brutalize and oppress their women-folk: They need to feel they have power over something. And Islam has a long history of putting their women second. Forget "rights of men over women are equal to rights of women over men." Mohammed didn't respect women, and I don't think his modern-day followers do, either. |
| Posted by: The Doctor 2004-03-25 3:19:23 PM |
| #8 If you go to the full article you'll find an appropo ad. Something about a cucumber. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-03-25 2:10:44 PM |
| #7 gromky - This isn't generic anti-myn stuff at all. If you read it you'll find it's very specifically targeted criticism of Arab males and Arab society - which is based upon Shari'a Law, of course. She's dead-right, too, I've seen it first-hand. Does that soothe your soul a little? ;-) |
| Posted by: .com 2004-03-25 12:16:28 PM |
| #6 OP - are you the one who's been saying the way to "tame" Izzoids is through freeing their wymyn? You might have the problem by the short ones, heh, and Wajiha and friends could be the people who eventually prove the case! I certainly hope so! |
| Posted by: .com 2004-03-25 12:12:08 PM |
| #5 Well, let's not jump on the bandwagon of man-hating feminism just yet. Even if the feminist in question is bashing people we dislike. |
| Posted by: gromky 2004-03-25 12:09:10 PM |
| #4 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
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Posted by: Anonymous
2004-03-25 11:58:37 AM
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| #3 Oops - I was composing / correcting spelling etc and overlapped! Thx, Mike - good piece! |
| Posted by: .com 2004-03-25 10:31:00 AM |
| #2 Woot! Woot! This is one classy Saudi lady. And everything she says (there's quite a bit more at the link) fits to a "T" what I saw. I had, in my 2 tours in SA, a few wymyn "friends" - though the relationships wouldn't qualify in the West as being beyond acquantence or work associate. But for Saoodi, it was pretty big magic for an expat to actually have decent unabridged conversations with a Saudi woman. I certainly met none with the stones of the author, but then the ones I knew were still young - and hadn't been forced into a arranged marriage, yet. That's where the author's main point might fail: family pressure to accept an arrangement would be very powerful. Loss of face for the Patriarch (refusing to cooperate) would probably mean some very nasty consequences in the norm. Except where there was true tolerance, love, and respect - such defiance would be unthinkable or heavily punished, IMHO. The key impression I took away from Saudi was that wymyn who speak out / want to work / act independently are usually punished or confined (and shunned within the family) -- or if the males in her life were very very tolerant (that means connected and well exposed to Western ways, BTW) then she was treated like a favored pet - not taken seriously in the least. The way you would treat a child with an overactive imagination. I wish there was a link to her site - I don't see one. Thx for the post, "Homer"! She nails it. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-03-25 10:29:53 AM |
| #1 D'oh! This article was posed by me. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-03-25 10:16:21 AM |