Saturday, November 19, 2011

a woman posts a nude photo of herself on her blog, and Egypt goes nuts!

I've been wanting to post something on this for a few days now but have been hesitant since most of the facebook posts that I have seen contained a copy of the offending image (and I do not want to get in any kind of trouble - given where I currently live and work!)  ...then Nicholas Kristof comes to the rescue:


So a woman posts a nude photo of herself on her blog, and Egypt goes nuts:http://nyti.ms/vOPw6F . It's so sad, because there are plenty of things that Egyptians should be going nuts about, not least the way the military council is arresting and torturing people to stay in power. Earlier this year, from Cairo I wrote about how the army was arresting female democracy activists and subjecting them to forcible "virginity exams" as a way to humiliate them:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/opinion/27kristof.html . Now, that's a great reason for a conservative country to be outraged, but most Egyptians shrugged and said that the young women were probably hussies anyway. The issue died. I wish we could accept that what's really horrific and offensive isn't a woman who chooses not to wear clothes but rather a woman who is forced to wear a veil or burka. Your thoughts?

www.nytimes.com
Aliaa Magda Elmahdy had to expect outrage from conservative Muslims when she posted nude photographs of herself online. But liberals have been critical, too.

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