Underwear Uproar in Saudi Arabia
There is an article today on BBC News (you can read the entire article by clicking here) on the underwear uproar in Saudi Arabia – that to buy underwear, women have to deal with male clerks. And more – there is nowhere to try on a bra to make sure you get the right fit! You have to pay, go to the public restroom, try it on and bring it back if it is not right.
One of the most amazing things to me, besides having only men selling underwear in Saudi Arabia, was the fact that the most amazing lingerie was in the most public windows. My favorite I-would-love-to-take-this-photo moments was watching abayed and niqabed women standing next to some of the tiniest, most sexy underwear you could imagine.
i know you think we are looser in the west, but you would laugh to know how restrained we really are. For the most part, we just don’t discuss underwear.
And have you noticed – in the United States, the mannekins don’t have nipples? I was shocked the first time I saw mannekins in Europe and the Middle East – the females had nipples! I had to look away! We are prudish in funny ways, in ways you can’t begin to imagine, and in ways we don’t even realize until we are confronted with our own what-we-think-is-normal.
I cannot imagine men in the ladies lingerie section. I buy all my underwear back in the US; I am too shy to buy underwear from a man! In Kuwait, they have females selling La Perla, very nice underwear, but most of the really good ready-made clothing in Kuwait is for size 00 – 2 girls – not for grown up women. It’s just easier buying my “unmentionables” discreetly on my trips back home. I carry a list. Most of us do. 😉
Here is the article:
Saudi lingerie trade in a twist
By Stephanie Hancock
BBC News, Jeddah
It would be bizarre in any country to find that its lingerie shops are staffed entirely by men.
But in Saudi Arabia – an ultra-conservative nation where unmarried men and women cannot even be alone in a room together if they are not related – it is strange in the extreme.
Women, forced to negotiate their most intimate of purchases with male strangers, call the situation appalling and are demanding the system be changed.
“The way that underwear is being sold in Saudi Arabia is simply not acceptable to any population living anywhere in the modern world,” says Reem Asaad, a finance lecturer at Dar al-Hikma Women’s College in Jeddah, who is leading a campaign to get women working in lingerie shops rather than men.
“This is a sensitive part of women’s bodies,” adds Ms Asaad. “You need to have some discussions regarding size, colour and attractive choices and you definitely don’t want to get into such a discussion with a stranger, let alone a male stranger. I mean this is something I wouldn’t even talk to my friends about.”
In theory, it should be easy enough to get women to staff lingerie shops, but parts of Saudi society are still very traditional and don’t like the idea of women working – even if it’s just to sell underwear to each other.
Rana Jad is a 20-year-old student at Dar al-Hikma Women’s College, and one of Reem Asaad’s pupils and campaign supporters.
“Girls don’t feel very comfortable when males are selling them lingerie, telling them what size they need, and saying ‘I think this is small on you, I think this is large on you’,” she says.
“He’s totally checking the girls out! It’s just not appropriate, especially here in our culture.”
Independence Day Sunrise
The sun is there, you can see it reflected in the clouds, but not yet able to break through the clouds. LOL, the weather report for today says “Clear.” We had one big huge lightning strike, and a little rain last night, and – at least where I live – there are a lot of big fluffy clouds in the sky – it is NOT clear. If these clouds gather together, it could get rainy again – not such a bad thing, but definitely a damper on Independence Day celebrations.
Is Kuwait going to have any fireworks – Independence Day or Liberation Day? I mean the official kind, the great big kind?
Barely There Sunrise
You’ll have to look closely, but the sun is there, hidden in the bands of smog hanging over the horizon today. The reflection on the clouds was pearly, and beautiful.
Although technically, the holidays don’t start until tomorrow, they seem to have started early for many. 🙂 Have a great day, Kuwait.
Lenten Challenge
In church this week, our priest spoke of the necessity of listening – and hearing. He spoke of how important it is to be fully present for our spouses, our children, not just listening with half an ear and going “um hmmm, um hmmmm” (ulp! guilty!) He also spoke of how hard it is to truly listen and to hear when our minds are unquiet, and we have a lot going on in our lives.
Lent starts with Ash Wednesday – this week.
I am tempted to give up extra noise for lent – to live a more silent and contemplative life.
Here is the problem – I love silence. I do listen to BBC when I am in my project room or in my car, but other than that, I don’t fill my life with a lot of noise. Silence is my friend. So for me, seeking more silence is not such a good thing, it is more like feeding an addiction. Listening to BBC is, for me, probably a good thing, keeping me more connected to the world, less in my ivory tower. It confronts me with problems in the world, and inspires me with people who seek to make a difference, even in a small way.
But that is not the point. The main point is to be fully present, to listen to those who are speaking and to hear the heart behind the words, and to love them as Christ loves us. I know that silence is not my solution, that paying attention is the real test. Focusing, paying attention – that is a real challenge.
It would be easier to give up chocolate!
Pale Monday Sunrise
This is it – slightly better than yesterday, when we couldn’t see the sun at all, but the small, continuing headache tells me this is a sandstorm, ongoing. When you are in the middle of it (for those of you not here) one day seems endless, two days seems more than you can bear. The very air you breathe feels heavy. I tell myself it is a mist, but my sneezing and itchy eyes tell me otherwise.
We call it sandstorm, but I know what sandstorm is like – in Qatar, a sandstorm has SAND, it abrades your face, it piles up in the roads, it is very sandy sand, an English Patient kind of sandstorm. Here, it is sand the size of dust and grit. Your face feels dry and tight and gritty, there are no piles in your house, but your feet leave tracks across the thin layer of dust, so tiny it seeps through sealed windows and the bathroom exhaust fans.
In the midst of a sandstorm, Count Almasy explain the different kinds of storms:
This is from library.thinkquest and is short and sweet and explains the differences:
“In a few minutes there will be no stars. The air is filling with sand.”
Dust storms are common in arid regions.They are not to be confused to be sandstorms. A true desert sandstorms is a low cloud of moving sand that rises usually only a few centimetres and at most two metres above the ground. Above this level the air is almost entirely free of sand. Sandstorm consists of sand particles driven by a strong wind. It is rarer in occurrence.
Where winds are exceptionally strong and large quantities of loose soil are available, dust storms may develop. These can reduce surface visibilities to only a few metres. Normally only silt and clay particles are carried in suspension by the wind.
A dust storm approaches as a dark cloud extending from the ground surface to heights of several kilometres. It can take the form of an advancing wall or a whirlwind and are usually short lasting, although some storms of up to 12 hours have been recorded.
Within the dust cloud, there is deep gloom or even total darkness as the sun is blot out. A large dust storm can carry more than 100 metric tons of dust – enough to make a hill 30m high and 3km across the base. Dust from a single dust storm is often traceable as far as 4000 km. After a particularly violent storm in Algeria in 1947, red desert dust, mixed with snow, turned parts of the Swiss Alps pink.
The onset of dust storms is sometimes marked by an increase in respiratory infections and germs borne by the dust particles appear to be responsible for outbreaks of cerebral spinal meningitis.
The Great Kuwait National Holiday Challenge
We have a wonderful week coming up – Liberation Day and Kuwait Independence Day, back to back. If you haven’t already made the trip downtown to see all the fabulous lights, go for it. There is also a house along Highway 30 (Fehaheel Highway) with a HOUSE SIZED flag on it, and many many houses with huge flags – it is a stirring sight, seeing so much love of country demonstrated.
Your challenge for this week: Go forth and show us what you see. Show us the faces, show us the lights, show us the celebrations. Show us the “arda” (I might not have spelled it right, the war dance done with swords), show us the children, show us the hooligans. Show us the weary cops. Show us the multiple facets of Liberation Day/Kuwait Independence Day.
The prize, as usual, is recognition by your fellow photographers, and photography connoisseurs. We vote, but the voting can be heavily influenced by mass manipulation and politicking, so the photos we share, we share for the love of the challenge. If you haven’t played before, it is easy.
You send your photo or photo to me, Intlxpatr@aol.com, 550 pixels maximum in any direction, and I will print them with your name. At the end of the challenge – I am arbitrarily saying March 7th – I will post a poll and people can vote, but the major part of the fun is taking the photo and having your photos posted so your fans can make encouraging comments.
Show us what you see this week. 🙂
La! La! La! (No! No! No!)
Re: Don’t Trash My Kuwait, NBQ found this adorable video from the Keep Kuwait Clean Campaign – looks like maybe 2003? (update: Oops, no, nbq says the ’80s!) Oh! These children are so cute! This song is so good!
Just in time for the trash-filled holidays coming up! La! La! La!
Walk-a-thon Tomorrow (Saturday)
The weather is PERFECT. There is no excuse – honestly – this is a wonderful activity!
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