It's not very scholarly of me, but I'm going to assume that the Doonesbury page, in its 'Say What?' feature, is accurate both in its quotation and in the attribution of the quotation:
Many women who do not dress modestly... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes.
-- Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi
One has heard of the earth moving but one never realised this was what they meant. I guess that little earthquake here in Adders the other night was caused by the number of people rudely bonking other people's wives and husbands reaching critical mass and causing some kind of butterfly-effect electro-magnetic earth-vibration thingy. It was Friday night, after all.
Next time you see someone say 'Human rights trumps cultural sensitivity', this is the kind of thing they're talking about. Mind you, I wish I could say that one never sees this kind of staggeringly wilful, or wilfully staggering, ignorance wheeled out to support ideological oppression and the maintenance of social power structures in the West, but unfortunately it happens all the time.
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13 comments:
It never fails to make me laugh when I hear all the things us western sluts are responsible for. My partner is Muslim, and I have learnt a lot about his religion. Islam places great store in personal responsibility and accountability, and self control. I find it funny then that their men are, according to their own leaders, so weak that they cannot control themselves if they see a little feminine skin.
Its good to know I'm responsible for tectonic shifts because my skirt is above my knee.
He was talking about the predictions of a huge earthquake in Iran and Iranian women. But the point still stands.
You definitely still get these kinds of things in the West (wasn't it Danny Nalliah from Catch the Fire Ministries who said that the Black Saturday bushfires were a result of allowing abortion in Victoria?)
The difference is, fortunately, that we don't live in a theocracy where these kind of lunatics are actually in a position of political power...let us hope that we never do find ourselves in that position.
I just thought 'wow, kudos, their affairs CREATE EARTHQUAKES??'
Wow. They do things right in Iran, at least on some fronts!
S'pose the missionary position isn't acceptable...
*wristslap*
I was listening to excerpts from the atheist's convention on the radio tonight. They'd have a few things to say about the lack of scientific evidence for the earthshaking power of immodestly dressed women.
When I was a girl at school the nuns taught us similarly about the power of women over men's sexual urges, but they at least left the earthquakes out of it.
For them it all began with Eve.
Earthquakes, eh? So the earth moved and that was bad? WE women don't know our own strength obviously.
Commentor Epskee (above) can manage to laugh, but I am struck speechless by moronic pronouncements like the one you quoted, but my Victoria blogpal That's So Pants is not. Her view is worth the clickthrough.
Have you seen this response?
http://www.blaghag.com/2010/04/in-name-of-science-i-offer-my-boobs.html
I'd be interested in your thoughts. On the one hand it does seem like an effective way to mock the whole idea, and it certainly seems to have taken off (22,000 women signing up on facebook). OTOH, I realise as a (straight) male, I'm probably just a little biased.
shinudg - should perhaps be used in the negative in this context.
Just got an email from an Adelaide friend who is working in Aceh.
He has to buy a pair of below the knees shorts - because apparently men's knees are too outright provocative to Muslim women there and arouse passions uncontrollably.
So it's not all one way.
I'd say knees are just plain ugly and shorts are an abomination the eyes of the lord (me).
Knees? Goodness gracious, I had no idea before this that knees could drive a woman to distraction...
Thanks for the witty post. Made my day - even if the world-view behind that quote is rather daunting!
And these people are in charge of a country. Scary.
He really sees women as quite terrifyingly powerful, doesn't he?
Freud would have had a field day.
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