Yes why? What for? What does it say about you? What does it say about your countries? What does it say about your institutions? What does it say about your governments, your "culture", your "civilization", your history, your "progress", your "values", your concepts...? Have you ever stopped and pondered these questions? Have you ever stopped and asked yourselves ; how come? How come we are so advanced, how come we are so democratic, how come we are so great, how come we are so free...And how come we allow so much murder, oppression, abuse, go unaccounted for ? Have you ever asked yourself this question ? I was just listening to the BBC World radio. A report from Oxfam - and in your eyes that makes it credible - over 70 % of us Iraqis, no longer have access to clean drinking water. I say no longer have because I remember not so long ago, one could turn on the tap and drink. As simple as that. The report goes on to say that over 50% of Iraqis are u...
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http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2638979720071126?sp=true
You have said it yourself, Arab women are equally responsible for gender discrimnation in Arab societies.
To my poinion, we- the Arabs, have our own conceptions regarding sexual ethics. It doesn't necessary mean,however, that we have to accept the status quo. But female virginity ( and to a much lesser exten male virginity) is an essential component of our culture. The problem is that we still are too much attached to medival definitions of virginity.
For example, the Arabic tribes that went out of the pennisula had their conception of Islam and Allah(S.W.T). Later on, Arab merchants and scientists developed their conception of Allah and understanding of Islam. The same may well go for virginity.
Alas, Whenever I regard how hypocrytical and anti- Arab the international and even the Arab feminists movements are, I find the whole idea repulsive, basically because I can't see an Arab alternative.
What is really Ironic, is that women rights were one of the pretexts used to make the war on Iraq popular. Women rights movements played a malicious role in this regard. That is despite of the fact that Iraq had along with Tunisia the best laws regarding familly issues and women rights.
What is making me crazy, is that women in Iran get beaten up in the streets for not wearing Hijab the right way, yet all those feminists and women rights proponents, oppose vehmently oppose any attck on their beloved dog-Iran
Any news of the "mysterious" Iraqi author of "Thulathyya Al-Nafs" ?
Come to think of it, am not even sure it was a man...
Do let me know if you remember someting.
Keep up the stupendous work.
Lots of love.
Yours,
Fleur-de-Lys
I agree with your analysis. You have rightly referred to "historical context" and the different interpretations and attitudes vis à vis the issue of virgnity.
And I do agree with you that the concept of "sexual ethics" is very much present in the Arabic culture, whether muslim or christian Arabs.
However, you can't deny that the underlying, overriding almost chronic bias and double standards that characterize the male and attitude towards "virginity" and other matters of female sexuality.
Simply put, a man does get away with it. And the system does not really condemn it.
I agree with you that both the feminist movements in the West and in the Arab world have been abysmal when it came to the occupation of Iraq and the total silence of these same groups insofar the current condition of Iraqi women. It is a disgrace indeed. That is why, at least one of the reasons, I do not consider myself a feminist in the classical sense. The Iraqi experiment is not the only reasons, I also have some theoretical differences with Western feminists, and they are actually more than just theoretical...But I will not go into that-- here.
On another note, I found this article that may interest you.
On Iran and Israel. I urge you to read most of Trita Parsi's writings. I may not agree with everything but it does touch on the many points you and I had discussed in the past...
http://uruknet.info/?p=m39587&s1=h1
I am planning to write something about Western Women and sex, sun and sea...i.e in Middle Eastern beach resorts...lol
The link you provided is in the same vein...ButI do agree that the press and general public opinion is harder on the women than the men who go for sex tourism.
Thanks.
Hello,
You are really confusing me now. You told me it was a male author who lost his wife and kids in the Ameriya shelter- now you are telling it's a man. Layla sighs.
Can it be the following female authors
Layla Al- Attar
Souad Al- Attar
or Noha Al-Radee?
I am asking but so far nothing.
Regards.
The assertion that Iranians are helping Bush is unfounded. You certainly can say that SOME Iranians are collaborating in the Bush Organized Genocide of Iraq but certainly the majority is opposed to it. It is a pity that they (including me) do not have the guts to oppose Bush more forcefully but that is not the same as complicity in mass murder.
I think I mentioned quite clearly that it was a book, not a painting or a sculpture...you adorable would-be smart one :-)
As for the "sex enigma" (LOL), I actually recall having read that the author was male and suffered from that abhorrent deliberately inflicted devastation, but I would not be surprised if he had taken up a female nom-de-plume after that, possibly of his dead wife, daughter or relative, so she would live on through him and her name be famous and remembered - immortal, in a way... :-(
Mind you, that is just a fantasy of mine, but then imagination is all I have (left)...
So again, I beg of you: should something more concrete "bleed" onto the "great white space" of memory, please do let me know.
Victory and eternal glory to the People of Iraq.
Take care of your self...
Regards.
I already profoundly, totally and definitively despise my fellow-Westerners of the opposite sex - both for what they have done against/failed to do for my dearly beloved Adopted Mother and because of their notorious "eunuchification", or identity crisis, related to the all-encompassing process of decadence affecting the Western so-called "civilization" at this last (God willing) stage of its in-volution.
Now you have to come up with your new blog and shatter in a few merciless lines of crude reality the "myth" I had of the Iraqi/Arab men who I fantasized were all as full-blown revolutionaries resplendent in intellect and sensibility as your martyred President...
What is your "hidden agenda", girl, make me stay a snow-white rosebud for the next 20 years too ???
LOL
Especially the grand finale, where the lyrics read:
Dilegua, o Notte ! (Vanish, o Night !)
Tramontate, Stelle ! (Set, o Stars !)
Tramontate, Stelle ! (Do set, o Stars !)
All' alba vincerò... (At daybreak I shall win...)
Vincerò... (I shall win...)
Vin-ceeeeeeeeeeeeeee-rò ! - voice drops abruptly - echo continues in an earth-shattering explosion of triumph - a pale, sorrowful sun "raises itself" above Iraq's horizon in the distance...THE END-LESS.
I bet you like to play the dominatrix and make them crawl and lick up your Italian-made high-heeled shoes !
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
P.S. Forgive me, I NEED to vent some nervous tension every now and then...
Layla Al Attar as well as Souad and Noha Radhee also wrote pieces, short stories etc...
So am not testing...
Your book is mind boggling indeed. Are you sure you did not imagine it all up.
And I did suggest you go to the same bookshop and ask for it.
Will keep my eyes, ears, intuition, ESP,...open.
I say the truth.
I am aware that I will be lambasted for it...
I say Arab men. I did not say Iraqi, or Egyptian, or Lebanese...etc...
I did not say Muslim, Jewish or Christian....
I said Arab men.
I did not say ALL of them, I did not say a few of them...
I am pointing to overriding "cultural" trends, dynamics, belief systems...And YES they are very much at work.
A little piece of advice from me.
Don't wait till your 40 like my mother's friend.
And sorry for shattering your "myth"
Besides you have nothing to worry about since you have remained a white "rosebud", am sure on the marriage market, you are still highly valued.
I really thank you for the translation. I was totally unaware of the lyric's meaning.
Now I UNDERSTAND why I absolutely had to post that Puccini piece.
Would it be possible for you to vent your nervous tensions elsewhere ? Or do you need a pair of high heels italian shoes on your head?
No one sleep...
Even you, o Princess
In your cold bedroom
Watch the stars
Trembling with Love
And with Hope...
But my Secret is sealed in me
My Name no one shall know
No ! No !
On your lips I shall speak it
When the light breaks through...
And my kiss will dissolve the silence
That makes you mine...
Vanish, o Night !
Set, o Stars !
Do set, o Stars !
At daybreak I shall win...
I shall win...
I shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall win !
I don't consider myself as some "goods" to be sold and bought at the "market", so please keep your little digs for those Arab sisters of yours who play the macho-men's game.
I am completely another kettle of fish.
Do you know that old saying: "In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed is King" ?
Well, I say: "In the Regime of the Whores, the Hard-to-Get is a REBEL".
And a beautiful and proud Rebel is what I am.
Regards to you.
Are you trying to insinuate that I am mad by any chance ? :-)
Of course I am sure, and it has a great sentimental significance to me, otherwise I would not be "bothering" you with my continual inquiries.
I shall follow your advice and take a couple of days off to go back to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and see if someone at the Al-Rawi & Sons' Oriental Bookstore can help me.
But you please keep asking around and inside...
Thank you for your patience.
Yours,
Fleur-de-Lys
Am flabbergasted, truly...
I had no idea of the lyrics. They are simply wonderful.
Many many thanks for the translation.
Now, now, do you exercise a little self awareness...
Had you been a rebel in the land of the whores, you would not need to write online the state of your "white" untouched "rosebud."
As for my little Arab sisters, they have more resilience and more tenacity than any "kettle of fish".
Regards to you too 24 years old.
I am much obliged...lol
I will do my best.
Theres a fire at the disco!
check out my latest
As for the "rosebud" thing, it was in the context of an ironic comment on your mother's 40-year-old friend & Co. vs. the Arab narrow-minded men.
Besides, you know nothing about my personal story...
Take care of yourself and long live Iraq.
Regards.
Deal ?
Arab macho wankers, go and bury your heads in shame.
Would you be from Lesbos like her ??? !!!
she cares abt them n want them 2 grow up n mend sum of their mentality n behaviors so that gender relations in arab societies become more harmonious n satisfying.
dont u dare compare our goddess with that bilious zionist butch barabie ever again, or ill hire "hitman" 2 kill u too.
now fuck off.
as 4 that matter, u sound more like a show-off palm tree than a bashful rosebud 2 be honest with u...
not the best way 2 win layla's or any other true arab's esteem 4 sure.
coz u sound obsessed by him...
Where?
Iraq, Arab Nation, Planet Earth.
Pull your ostrich head out of Uncle Sam's ass and go see with your own eyes.
Good luck !
Oh. So it's a Master-Racist thing like Layla and Ali Hassan al Majid have?
Come and shine my shoes...good boy!
I heard that Mars maybe hit by a meteor very soon, go and duck will you and stay put--until further notice.
I hope you are the one who arranged al Maliki's one way ticket--to London.
Done deal!
However I heard that mojo is short, very thin and as a light as a feather...
Kindly have it delivered at my e-mail address (which you know) within the next 24 hours.
Waiting...
;-)
Always at your Service !
And I was referring to a meteor hitting your head soon.
Deliver what *dear* ? mojo?
you're the one supposed to do the delivering first not me. It' called exchange.
And if I have your email address then I assume you have mine too...
The video is hilarious, where on earth do you find those. I liked the text too. They are indeed a bunch of wackos.
I have not--please tell me about her.
It is (said to be) a new group or sub-group of the Iraqi Resistance, the first entirely made up of WOMEN.
Check it out on Roads to Iraq.
Between you and me, I must admit that my initial enthusiasm has cooled down a little, after I realized the patronizing, paternalistic, dare I say sickening tone of the JAAMI spokesman when speaking of his new female recruits.
God bless the Iraqi Mujahedeen for their heroic efforts on the battlefield, but they have yet a loooooooooong way to go (back) in many other "fields" of life...
Salam.
In truth I don't dare bother you at your blog e-mail lest you should feel uncomfortable and decide to "set sails" again and leave this "port" too like so many others...Heaven forbid.
As for your old address, it has been like a morgue for the last nine months...
Please e-mail me what is due and you'll have Mojo's head delivered on a silver plate at your home address in the "statelet".
I kiss your hands, Godmother :-)
What the f. are you on about?
What last 9 months?
I was not pregnant and did not deliver in a morgue either.
Keep off the booze, boy.
"Boy" says good wake to "woman".
When in the world will you get over that e-mail I sent you, God only knows...
Again, blessed martyr's wake.
I am getting rather irate with your mind games.
I find them not only tiresome but also quite boring and puerile.
This is not the first time you come along and say what you say.
You have used other pseudos in the past and ultimately alluding to some email or the other.
I don't know if you are aware or not, but I receive tons of mail daily. I can't remember every single one of them. Simply impossible.
Furthermore, you games lead me to conclude that you are just wasting my time for nothing.
I repeat what I have said to you on prior occasions, I always reply to my mails...
I reiterate again, should you want to contact me, you already have my email.
I shall ignore future comments from you on that subject.