The movie “Baran”1 is being shown on campus. Forwarding the message about the screening, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) President at our school added a quote:
“The movie is absolutely clean and only on rare occasions do you see a woman, and even then she would have her head covered.”2
I am not sure whether I should quote from his email on my weblog, but I found that very funny. Mind you, I am not making fun of religious people’s sensibilities. Obviously, everyone can decide on what sort of stuff they should or should not watch and I respect that. I favor the slogan “bikini or burqa by personal choice.”3 I just find it funny to see a young guy assuring everyone about the supposed “clean”-ness of the movie as related to women. Why didn’t he say anything about violence in the movie, for example?
1 Baran is an Iranian movie about Afghan refugees in Iran. It has had very good reviews. I might comment on it if I go see it.
2 The MSA President is quoting someone else, not saying this himself. Also, I have no idea if his intent was to be humorous or ironic. If so, my apologies.
3 I, however, do not get a number of people (usually men) who are obsessed with women, their dress and their behavior.
Yes, I notice there was no assessment of men’s dress in the film! I’m still waiting for blanket condemnation from the male Muslim world for all those Muslim boxers and basketballers whose shorts are definitely above the knee!!!
Also, considering that this is an Iranian film, wasn’t it obvious that female dress code would be enforced in the movie?
Sister Maryam took the words out of my mouth!
I don’t have a problem with people giving a rating to movies according to their standards, nor with the standards that they choose. What’s a problem is if they want to ban the movie if it doesn’t meet their standards.
My mother is somewhat religious (moreso as she gets older), but for many years I recall her saying something like
“These Mullahs! For them, all of the Islam falls on the women. How to dress, how to sit, how to talk…”
Which, from what I recall of the kutbas (sp?) of the mosque, was pretty much true. What I have always wondered — why are these guys so woman obsessed? My experience is more with forign born imams. Does it have something to do with the country they come from (Pakistan, Egypt, etc)?
My experience is more with forign born imams. Does it have something to do with the country they come from (Pakistan, Egypt, etc)?
That is to some extent true. However, I have seen similar problems with American-born Muslims (usually children of immigrants but sometimes even converts). It is usually more prevalent in the foreign-born population though. I think it’s part of the patriarchal culture there.
my parents are “eid muslims”-they don’t drink, but they don’t pray 5 times a day-but they have pretty strict ideas about sexuality in movies. they took me to the movie robocop when i was 9. my father noted, “very good movie for kids-except for the swearing” (for those who don’t get it, there are many scenes of chests being riven to shreds by automatic rifles in the film).
another anecdote, one time a white muslim convert was talking about how he explained why women prayed at the back of the mosque to his sister (who was still christian i assume). he noted-“the way we pray, it would be improper for a woman to be bending over and thrusting her bottom into the air, after all, a man could look up and see many women doing this. that would be improper.” of course-that begs the question-is it proper that women get a peek at the rumps of so many men???
OK-final anecdote. i have a salafi uncle who terrorizes everyone in our family-except my mom, who would regularly beat the shit out of him when they were little. one time he was raging about how some woman was wearing a black that showed the lower part of her neck and almost her collar-bone. my mother’s retort was, “and why exactly were you looking so closely???”
black=blouse.
Sounds like your local MSA is an all boys club. I would find it terribly insulting/revolting/disgusting to be told that I have to hide myself beacuse otherwise I’d make other people unclean. It
Sounds like your local MSA is an all boys club. I would find it terribly insulting/revolting/disgusting to be told that I have to hide myself beacuse otherwise I’d make other people unclean.
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Razib: Interesting anecdotes.
KO: It is an all boys + some conservative hijabi girls club.
Shock, horror! Muslim men are fixated on superficialities, and the main thrust of this is the way Muslim women dress…
Razib’s anecdotes remind me of a few similar incidents.
at the risk of intruding into intra-muslim affairs….
What I have always wondered —- why are these guys so woman obsessed?
1. repression. read that evil cosmpolitan perverted jew, freud. they are prolly all whacking off in private to dirty pix. freud said that whatever we seek to control, we really want to do.*
2. because how wimmin behave is the barometer of the cohesion of the society and has direct impact on fertility levels. when the chix start getting into britney spears, watch for birthrates to plummet. mullahs/priests/o rabbis/falwells don’t like this.
*which was not necessarily a criticism of repression, merely an observation.
Razib, are the “eid Muslims” the equivalent of the “twice-a-year Jews” – i.e., those who show up in synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? And is “eid Muslim” a common term?
Jonathan: “Eid Muslims” are definitely the twice-a-year-going-to-mosque kind. Not sure if I have heard this term before though. A majority of Muslims probably fall in this category. I recall a survey according to which about one-third of Muslims in the US go to the mosque regularly (I think their definition of “regularly” was once a week and not five times a day).
Diana: Generally true. The “Islami Jamiat Tulaba” [Islamic Association of Students], the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami [Islamic Party] (founded by Maudoodi and currently part of the alliance of religious parties), in Pakistan was famous for guns, violence, drugs, watching porn etc. while trying to get everyone else to not even watch Indian or English movies.
2. because how wimmin behave is the barometer of the cohesion of the society and has direct impact on fertility levels. when the chix start getting into britney spears, watch for birthrates to plummet. mullahs/priests/o rabbis/falwells don’t like this.
well-mostly true, “if you can not proslyetize, procreate”-as stated by ahmed deedat, muslim apologist. but, the drop in iranian birth-rates was partially due to propogandizing away from khomeini-era pro-natalism toward a “planned parenthood” philosophy by the imams. this turn around isn’t restricted to religions-stalin reversed the de-criminalization of abortion if i recall correctly, while deng reversed the pro-natalist exhortations of mao.
on “eid muslims”-i just kind of made it up, an analogy with “easter catholics.” my parents don’t go to mosque more than 3-4 times a year, and are sporadic prayers and fasters during ramadan and eat mostly non-halal meat. on the other hand-they don’t drink alcohol, eat pork, and send my younger siblings to religious instruction on sundays. so they are believers, but not devout in their practice.
as far s pro-porn fundamentalists-it isn’t the saints with self-control that need strict rules & regulations!
are the “eid Muslims” the equivalent of the “twice-a-year Jews” – i.e., those who show up in synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur?
Eid is more like christmas. Even the non-muslims celebrate it in some form or the other in pakistan. (they have a holiday, that’s reason enough to celebrate). Also, there isn’t any discrimination along the lines of, hey you’re christian you can’t come to the eid dinner. so it’s getting to more just a celebration.
can any one please tell a name of a movie in which women discrimination is severly shown .this is cos im doing a seminar on women dicrimination and i neeed to show it in my school.i hope you people will help me .thank you
I have studied the comments of many people.Most
of them are nonserious .
1 As islam ordered the Hijab for women,same it
for man to decline his eyes.
2 Any type of the movies are not allowed in Islam
in which the women are indulge for men and the
movie in which the men indulge
lerf