Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
Aug. 16th, 2007 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellefliesAh... world travel: go to great places, see amazing things, meet new people, goggle over foreign newspaper articles... Yup, that's right, reading foreign newspapers is always fun. Of course, from my experience, if you're reading a foreign newspaper in say... the Middle East.. it's not so much fun as it is startling.
The article below has been living in one of my books for the past week, as I have been sorely lax in posting. One of the girls in my crew found it while we were spending two days stuck in Kuwait. Now, as a western woman, I'm pretty used to doing my own thing and screw whatever men think. I like it this way. Fortunately, I live in a country that lets me think and act as I see fit. Some, are not nearly so lucky, as the article below informs us. It's an... enlightening read...
by Dr. Sami Alrabaa
Kuwait Times reported on Aug 5, 2007 that the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education "has dropped its decision to create a new sex education subject for high school students and replace it with a traffic awareness subject."
Very often, children ask their parents how their siblings are made. Many Kuwaiti parents either never answer the question of simply say, "With the help of Allah, mama delivered them." How this occurs, children never know.
Sex is a natural phenomenon. Unlike many other religions, Islam and the holy book, the Quran discusses sex. The word "nikah" (intercourse) is mentioned bluntly.
When children grow up they learn that sex is taboo and sheer lust. Only men talk about sex and enjoy telling the vilest jokes about sex. Very often, women are victims in these jokes. For many Arabs, women are sex objects. First and foremost, they see only sex in women. "Ugly" women are condemned and discriminated against.
Here is one of those jokes which Kuwaitis and Arabs love to tell:
A man goes to the doctor and tells him that he has sexual problems. The doctor asks the man to come to the practice with his wife. The doctor asks the wife to undress. He looked at all the parts of her body. Then he turns to the man and says: No wonder you have sexual problems. You are perfectly healthy.
Fouad Al-Hashem, a columnist in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan, writes on Aug 7 that when he saw the wife of the Israeli President on TV, Al-Hashem excused the President for cheating on her and molesting his female staff. Al-Hashem enlightens his readers on why men cheat on their wives. He says before marriage, the woman cares about her appearance and looks pretty. After hunting a man, she neglects her appearance, becomes fat and looks like a monster. That is why men cheat on their wives!
Al-Hashem also tells the story of a woman whose husband was very jealous of her. To get rid of his jealousy, she deliberately began eating and eating until she became fat and ugly. The husband stopped being jealous. But another problem arises. The man is looking for another wife. Al-Hashem concludes, we love women, we cannot live with them, but we cannot live without them either. This is he kind of stuff we Arab men know about sex and the other sex.
According to a study by the American University of Cairo, lots of woman wear the head and face scarf (Hijab and Niqab) not out of religious conviction, but only to protect themselves from men's lusty looks. Some men force their female family members to wear the Hijab or Niqab to tell other men: these women are mine. Only I'm allowed to see them without these covers. I know what you think of women.
School children should be taught that girls and women are not only sex objects. They are first and foremost human beings. Sex education would help remove lots of cliches inculcated in the brains of men.
Women and girls are not only sex organs for the pleasure of men. They are also colleagues, educators, managers, physicians, professional people, etc. If boys and men were asked to put themselves in the shoes of the opposite sex, of women in general, they would not discriminate against them.
A Saudi friend told me, we Arab men do not know much about women. We do not know anything about their sex life. They are shy and we keep repressing them. We do not encourage them to speak up. Sex education would help change all this. Slaves were liberated. Not it is the turn of women.
Sex is not only lust and intercourse. Sex is a natural and essential part of our life. Both men and women have the right to enjoy decent legal sex. If Arab women were allowed to freely talk about sex, they would tell you about their ordeal in bed. Arab women are not allowed to enjoy sex and show that they do. Only prostitutes moan in pleasure. Only the man is allowed to enjoy sex, the woman has to lie down, endure ill-treatment, and serve pleasure to the man. This is oppression and discrimination at its finest.
As the weakest limb in Arab society, women dare not talk about sexual liberation. They would be branded as "prostitutes". Sex education might help alleviate the horrible sex life of women. Women have the same right to enjoy sex like man and discuss their sexual concerns.
We Arabs are not only suffering from political repression, not only the poor amongst us are suffering from material deprivation, woman are also suffering from sex discrimination and sex repression. When are women going to be allowed to talk about sex and sexism? Sex education at school is the right beginning. Both men and women would benefit from it. Hence, the decision of the Ministry of Education to drop sex education is simply wrong.
The article below has been living in one of my books for the past week, as I have been sorely lax in posting. One of the girls in my crew found it while we were spending two days stuck in Kuwait. Now, as a western woman, I'm pretty used to doing my own thing and screw whatever men think. I like it this way. Fortunately, I live in a country that lets me think and act as I see fit. Some, are not nearly so lucky, as the article below informs us. It's an... enlightening read...
by Dr. Sami Alrabaa
Kuwait Times reported on Aug 5, 2007 that the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education "has dropped its decision to create a new sex education subject for high school students and replace it with a traffic awareness subject."
Very often, children ask their parents how their siblings are made. Many Kuwaiti parents either never answer the question of simply say, "With the help of Allah, mama delivered them." How this occurs, children never know.
Sex is a natural phenomenon. Unlike many other religions, Islam and the holy book, the Quran discusses sex. The word "nikah" (intercourse) is mentioned bluntly.
When children grow up they learn that sex is taboo and sheer lust. Only men talk about sex and enjoy telling the vilest jokes about sex. Very often, women are victims in these jokes. For many Arabs, women are sex objects. First and foremost, they see only sex in women. "Ugly" women are condemned and discriminated against.
Here is one of those jokes which Kuwaitis and Arabs love to tell:
A man goes to the doctor and tells him that he has sexual problems. The doctor asks the man to come to the practice with his wife. The doctor asks the wife to undress. He looked at all the parts of her body. Then he turns to the man and says: No wonder you have sexual problems. You are perfectly healthy.
Fouad Al-Hashem, a columnist in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Watan, writes on Aug 7 that when he saw the wife of the Israeli President on TV, Al-Hashem excused the President for cheating on her and molesting his female staff. Al-Hashem enlightens his readers on why men cheat on their wives. He says before marriage, the woman cares about her appearance and looks pretty. After hunting a man, she neglects her appearance, becomes fat and looks like a monster. That is why men cheat on their wives!
Al-Hashem also tells the story of a woman whose husband was very jealous of her. To get rid of his jealousy, she deliberately began eating and eating until she became fat and ugly. The husband stopped being jealous. But another problem arises. The man is looking for another wife. Al-Hashem concludes, we love women, we cannot live with them, but we cannot live without them either. This is he kind of stuff we Arab men know about sex and the other sex.
According to a study by the American University of Cairo, lots of woman wear the head and face scarf (Hijab and Niqab) not out of religious conviction, but only to protect themselves from men's lusty looks. Some men force their female family members to wear the Hijab or Niqab to tell other men: these women are mine. Only I'm allowed to see them without these covers. I know what you think of women.
School children should be taught that girls and women are not only sex objects. They are first and foremost human beings. Sex education would help remove lots of cliches inculcated in the brains of men.
Women and girls are not only sex organs for the pleasure of men. They are also colleagues, educators, managers, physicians, professional people, etc. If boys and men were asked to put themselves in the shoes of the opposite sex, of women in general, they would not discriminate against them.
A Saudi friend told me, we Arab men do not know much about women. We do not know anything about their sex life. They are shy and we keep repressing them. We do not encourage them to speak up. Sex education would help change all this. Slaves were liberated. Not it is the turn of women.
Sex is not only lust and intercourse. Sex is a natural and essential part of our life. Both men and women have the right to enjoy decent legal sex. If Arab women were allowed to freely talk about sex, they would tell you about their ordeal in bed. Arab women are not allowed to enjoy sex and show that they do. Only prostitutes moan in pleasure. Only the man is allowed to enjoy sex, the woman has to lie down, endure ill-treatment, and serve pleasure to the man. This is oppression and discrimination at its finest.
As the weakest limb in Arab society, women dare not talk about sexual liberation. They would be branded as "prostitutes". Sex education might help alleviate the horrible sex life of women. Women have the same right to enjoy sex like man and discuss their sexual concerns.
We Arabs are not only suffering from political repression, not only the poor amongst us are suffering from material deprivation, woman are also suffering from sex discrimination and sex repression. When are women going to be allowed to talk about sex and sexism? Sex education at school is the right beginning. Both men and women would benefit from it. Hence, the decision of the Ministry of Education to drop sex education is simply wrong.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-16 05:26 pm (UTC)That part seriously made me cry. I was angry until then, but that just makes me so darn sad.
I have no words.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-16 05:32 pm (UTC)It makes so many of our problems look small by comparison. And just think, Kuwait is one of the more forward thinking countries in that area. *shakes head*