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Mosby

(16,168 posts)
Fri May 3, 2013, 02:59 PM May 2013

Topless Jihad: Why Femen Is Right

Since launching its "topless jihad" protests across Europe and elsewhere on April 4, Femen has stirred up a media maelstrom, with commentators, mostly Muslim men and women living in the West, taking to the airwaves or the Internet on CNN, the New York Times,Al Jazeera English, and the Huffington Post (and elsewhere) to call the group racist, classist, imperialist, colonialist, Eurocentric, Islamophobic, orientalist, neo-orientalist, cowardly, or, at best, naïve, and foolish. At least one of those opining veered into infelicitous nonsense: According to Ilana Alazzah, a Muslim activist, Femen's protest recalled "blackface," with its version of feminism "excluding women of all formats," even those women who "don't have vaginas." Another detractor, the Arab-American blogger Laila Alawa, contended (falsely) that the group told "Muslim women to sit down and shut up." The Canadian writer Murtaza Hussain, after noting, with apparent portent, that Femen activists are "mostly white Europeans," considered that their approach "reeks of arrogance." Even the usually balanced blogger Hind Makki availed herself of hyperbole, in announcing, on Al Jazeera English, that Femen "really criminalizes every single Muslim man out there." A "Muslim Women Against Femen" page appeared on Facebook, and a "Muslimah Pride Day" was proclaimed.

The overall message to Femen has been, in fact, nothing less than "Sit down and shut up." Your skin color and European provenance disqualify you from expressing views on Islam and how Muslim women are treated in the Islamic world.

Yet abuse perpetrated against women in Islam's name lies at the heart of the problem. Only occasionally did the critics note that Femen carried out its most recent mass protest in defense of 19-year-old Amina Tyler, a Tunisian aspirant to Femen who posted, on Femen's Facebook Tunisia page topless photos of herself, with the words, in Arabic, scrawled across her chest, "My Body Belongs to Me and Is Not the Source of Anyone's Honor." Among democratically minded folk, this would not be a radical proposition, if the method of delivery -- Femen's trademark method, involving slogans painted on bare breasts -- certainly is. In any case, Amina suffered mightily for her gesture. A Tunisian Muslim official called for her to be "stoned to death." Her family kidnapped her, beat her, and held her in captivity for three weeks, during which time they drugged her, subjected her to an amateur virginity test, forced her to read the Quran, and took her on involuntary visits to imams. Amina's aunt posted a video on line in which she called her niece "mentally ill," "unbalanced," and "psychopathic" for her "shameful act," which had injured her father's "pride as a man." On account of such wounded pride, there was good reason to fear for Amina's life. She was in captivity when Femen activists staged their topless jihad; a key slogan, whether chanted or painted on their bodies, was Free Amina!

http://m.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/topless-jihad-why-femen-is-right/275471/

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Mosby

(16,168 posts)
5. DUers are a little distracted today
Fri May 3, 2013, 03:34 PM
May 2013

The maybe hillary for president, kiddie guns and phoenix sucks threads are quite the distraction.

 

randome

(34,845 posts)
7. 'Right' versus 'wrong' should not even be part of the discussion.
Fri May 3, 2013, 03:45 PM
May 2013

No offense but you may be playing into the hands of the booby nannies by proclaiming it is 'right'.

If anyone wants to protest, who are any of us to decide they are not protesting the CORRECT WAY? They should receive our support. Period.

All this angst over topless women is WAY too nanny-ish to me.

 

stevenleser

(32,886 posts)
8. I agree, but...
Fri May 3, 2013, 03:50 PM
May 2013


You are going to be called all kinds of weird names like imperialist and neo-colonialist for daring to agree with furthering women's rights in Africa and Asia minor.

maxsolomon

(32,992 posts)
12. If it pokes a finger in the eye of Abrahamic Monotheism
Fri May 3, 2013, 04:15 PM
May 2013

And I use that deliberately to include all 3 variants, then I'm for it.

Monotheist misogyny is WRONG, even if it's internalized. God does not give a shit if s/he sees your hair, God is beyond concepts like Modesty and Honor. It's not the freaking Bronze Age.

Laelth

(32,017 posts)
14. I support their right to speak and their right to protest.
Sat May 4, 2013, 03:23 PM
May 2013

However, I am disturbed by the hubris of those who wish to dictate the norms that they believe should apply to other cultures.

-Laelth

Kurska

(5,739 posts)
15. Anyone who cares about the treatment of women in the middle east is a European Colonialist.
Sat May 4, 2013, 03:26 PM
May 2013

All bad things in those countries are to be ignored as they complicate the narrative of the west being the cause of all the world's problems.

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