Some of my fellow Americans are sure that Miss USA 2010, Lebanese-American Rima Fakih, is a Hezbollah plant, an effect of the liberal treachery that's handing America over to Islam. Some Muslims are angry that Fakih, who showed herself off in a barely-there bikini, is identified with their religion and getting positive press for it. She might be a means by which certain types of Islam, liberal in behavior, are celebrated, while others are pushed out of bounds. Who gets to decide which Islam is OK?
The sillier reactions have rightly -- and hilariously -- been put down by playwright Wajahat Ali, writing for Salon. But what do we make of the apprehension with which Muslims approach Fakih, unsure whether they should ignore, cheer, or shrug at her? Because it's hard enough being a conservative Muslim woman in the West. Especially when things like the French burqa ban happen.
Then along comes a pretty pageant winner, letting the world know that Muslims are "normal" -- and we are -- but her normal is, in part, bikinis, unreal beauty exploited to capitalist benefit, and the negative pressure it smacks down on women worldwide. Janan Delgado, writing for AltMuslima, gets the consequent stresses. My sympathies rush to reach my co-religionist sisters struggling to prove that piety isn't reactionary, that covering your head doesn't mean covering your mind.
Because pressures to prove we're Western come from two sides, right and left. Many on the rightest fringe just want us behind fences, but some on the leftest edges cannot fathom how or why religion survives in the modern world. (They might limit fences to religions, which is fine except that religions only exist in -- and on -- people.) How do we prove our Westernness? And why do we have to? Here I am, with a better command of English than most of the people who push English-only laws.
So Fakih could, with her descriptions of swimsuit normality, hurt those women who cover and contribute to and care for the world around them. They're already made to feel like their sartorial philosophy pushes them outside the fringes of civilization, anti-burqa laws bringing new meaning to "pro-choice." But then I think of all the women in countries that tell them what (not) to wear (Belgium, France, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, etc.), punished if they stray, and I'm confused all over again.
While I'm not so naive as to imagine that there is a pure, unadulterated individuality, we sometimes underestimate the great harm in being forced or even pushed to conform. Sometimes it's your family; sometimes it's advertising. (Are those equal forces? Capitalism, Marx would say, could kick traditional patriarchy's behind. In part by unveiling and selling it and making us feel socially acceptable only if we have it and flaunt it.) Wear "modest" clothes, dress how the stereotyped Muslim does, and you risk alienation, with the eyes of the world damning and excluding. Do the opposite, and you win the world's applause. (It works the same way, but backwards, in many majority Muslim lands.)
Very few issues can be easily condensed into right or wrong, judged by more clothes or less. Fakih will doubtless be wielded as a weapon, more often than not to tell women what they're wearing is wrong. For far too long, women -- or, rather, women reduced to their bodies -- have been the fields on which ideas, identities, and now corporations do battle. It's sadly ironic that feminine beauty incites so much ugliness.
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Ahmed Rehab: Miss USA Scrutiny Indicates Weird Obsession with Islam
Rima Fakih - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Michigan's Rima Fakih Wins Miss USA Pageant - CBS News
Rima Fakih - Miss USA : Members
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Rima Fakih - The Hollywood Gossip
Now, there's a sin if there ever was one.
Not too long ago, the blacks were target of such insults, and now some righteous religious n2tcases in the right have found a new target.
This beautiful young woman would have been insulted if she was wearing a head cover, and now is being insulted for defying the stereotype Muslim women image that is being fed through media.
Funny thing is that the same people who have the uglie.st comments about this woman claim to be such a good Christians. Truly sad.
Do you disagree with Voltaire?
“Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world”.
Voltaire French Philosopher and Writer. One of the greatest of all French authors, 1694-1778
Remember, I was the first. Fan.
Most of the other Muslims have entered this century, and I know it for a fact, since I have lived among many of them, more than you can even imagine.
And if the Bedouins love their radical version of so called Islam, they might as well stay in their regions and not come out to see how the rest are living their lives, Muslim or not.
I am not even sure why poor Rima has to even mention she belongs to any religion, perhaps due to her respect for family and fellow Lebanese, but it is time for people to STOP affiliating themselves, their merits and their mess ups on these ancient out of date religions. Fakih is not a Muslim, why should she ever claim she is one, she knows better about the religion and its views on her success in a pageant. I am not even sure how ANY woman could possibly associate with these MALE-ANTI FEMALE, written by men for men religions.
I was wondering for many years until I found Science, the TRUTH you test and the TRUTH that has no gender/race boundaries.
As a progressive I rather see women in claim their rightful power in the world through being doctors, professionals, CEO's engineers attorneys instead of solely based on their physical attributes. Wearing bikini is not a sign of progress, but being a decent human being is.
As far as I know, she already has a college degree, I guess that puts her AHEAD of 2/3 of all women in the world.
Then what is your problem? I really can't understand. I have several degrees and in scientific fields and I have NO problem showing skin at all. I go out with an attitude that you either LIKE IT, RESPECT IT or LOOK AWAY if you don't. My main reason for dressing up good when I feel like it is a selfish reason of dressing sexy and good for ME.
If a woman is showing skin to get attention (many women are primarily that way) then so be it. That is part of human nature, to get attention as a social animal. Isn't it more respectful or noble to dress up for one's self? YES. But who cares if someone is incapable of having that as the main motivation.
A woman who covers up BECAUSE of OTHERS is the same way as someone who SHOWS a lot of SKIN because of others. Both cases are rather sorry, but again, I go for beauty, and NOTHING is beautiful about the Islamic TENT most Muslim women use to cover up. NOTHING. And I love those traditional folk outfits of all cultures. But sorry, today's covered up women do not make me say " omg, so respectful'. I usually say" omg, this poor woman looks like having beautiful skin & hair, what a tragedy!"
More freedom to women everywhere. Inshallah!
Fanned!
I don't like bikini contests, because I don't think people should try to gain social status by showing off via physical appearance, as opposed to, you know, doing something good for society. For this reason, I would argue that wearing a full niqab in a country where most people don't even cover their hair is as much of an "attention whore" maneuver as showing off in a bikini.
Sorry you did not enjoy being on stage but you surely look great in bikini to have been selected.
Send some photos of that dreadful competition to your HP admirers, will you:-)?
I remember that you once wrote about how satisfied your partners have been with you.
You failed to mention then that at least part of the reason is that you are a beauty queen - or perhaps a princess.
I have been to Dubai, and to Saudi Arabia, along with Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain.
The treatment of women under Saudi law is certainly abominable, but even there, the standard is what we would consider "modest dress", generally with some sort of head covering such as a scarf. Burqas were common, but not predominant. Most of the women would not have been seen as out of place in a suburban US shopping mall.
On the beaches of Kuwait, women wear what we would consider a modest bathing suit, but one that wouldn't draw attention on a beach in California. In the shopping malls of Dubai, women were light, modest dresses. They are no more covered or concealed than the average man in Dubai.
Even when it comes to the burqa, the people objecting to its ban are not men. They are women who have decided to dress in a way that reflects their personal faith.
Oh, and just in case you're wondering about someone that has been to a number of Arab, Muslim countries. No, I'm not Muslim. (ELCA Lutheran, actually.) I'm just a retired Navy Sailor.
Respect for women includes respecting their ability to make decisions for themselves and stand up for those decisions. If a woman chooses to dress modestly, for whatever reason, I will respect her wishes.
The burqa is a symbol of bondage, not only of the body but worse - of the mind.
Holyheretic, have you seen the artwork by Banksy "How do you like your eggs" ? You must check it out.
http://www.banksy.co.uk/shop/images/shop%20large/howdoyoulikeyoureggs-.jpg
"Ads by Google
Hijab Sale Ends Sunday"
If Shi'as modeling, I'm going on Sunni...
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