Your Eyes May be Too Sexy... in Saudi Arabia

It is often said that eyes are the window to the soul.

What happened if we had to hide them - our eyes, our souls, our selves?

Well, women in Saudi Arabia may have to.

Late last year, there was a push for women with "tempting eyes" to cover them.

In case you don't know, they already have nearly every other part of themselves covered. A young Saudi woman describes the clothing of Saudi women in this blogpost.

The blogger describes the different pieces of clothing (the abaya and the niqab) and their history (in relation to religion but also class) and the variations (black, earth tones, etc.) available for Saudi women.

She also discusses the reasoning for them originally and today: "to protect women from acts of disrespect."

Funny how that is done by hiding the women rather than educating or reprimanding the men...?

The Washington Post also discusses the issue of women and their freedom in relation to what they wear and how that affects their job and marriage options. That article even discusses whether women can have bangs or wear makeup!?!

As I sit here blogging, I am wearing makeup and rockin bangs with my face, arms and ankles fully exposed. Scandalous? Apparently it would be in Saudi Arabia.

But exposing your eyes scandalous? What is left to cover up? Are they just going to erase women from public life... just hold them captives in their own home???

The group that has the say so for whether that will happen and if women's eyes will in fact be covered up is the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. This article details what the committee has done and what they want to do regarding women's tempting eyes:

The CPVPV is Saudi’s Sharia, Islamic law, executive arm and was founded in 1940 to ensure Islamic laws are not broken in public, yet over the years, the committee has been largely criticized over its human rights violations.

In 2002, the committee refused to let female students out of their burning schools in Mecca for “not wearing the proper head cover,” which contributed to a large number of dead.

15 young girls died in the fire and dozens more were injured. The CPVPV men banned the firemen and policemen from accessing the girls as “it is not okay for girls to be seen without their full Islamic dress in front of strangers.”

Crazy.

BUT, that is their culture and religion and just because I don't want that, doesn't meant that they don't.

That is why I appreciated this approach from the Nude Revolutionary Blogger: she pushed not for doing away with their culture BUT to do away with the gender inequality. She called not for women to no longer wear the headscarf but for "men in the country to wear the headscarf in solidarity with women."

And what was the reaction...? She had to shut her page down because of so many complaints and threats. It seems the need to cover women's bodies is less about purity and more about power - power of men over women. 

I can't find anywhere listing the law as in effect so hopefully it never came to fruition. But still, the thought that this was/is an option to oppress women and literally hide them, their eyes, their souls, their selves is frightening.

Not to mention, how would they determine who had tempting eyes??? Yet another thing for women to feel insecure about - those with their eyes exposed in public have that freedom which is good but they would have that freedom with the knowledge that their eyes are ugly/unseductive.

Then, lets say they do have the pretty/seductive eyes, what do they do when their eyes are covered? How do they see? How do others recognize them? This comic presented the problem in a clever way:

Moral of the story: we are soooooooooooo lucky here to have all the freedoms we take for granted every day... even what we wear.

Also, we should pay attention to women around the world who don't have those freedoms. And we should do something about it... Here is the Nude Revolutionary's blog if you want to check it out!

Why Don't We PLAY More?

The art of play seems to fade with age.

I wish it wouldn't.

Babysitting I've noticed how kids don't need much to play.

Sure they have elaborate multi-piece, battery-requiring, noise-making, moving toys BUT those aren't their favorite toys. They may play with them for a phase until the newness wears off.

Then it seems they return to the classics like their building blocks, hot wheels, barbies, etc.

Better yet is when they don't even use real "toys" but instead...
Turn pots and pans into a drum set.
Or sticks in the yard into toy swords.
Or their blanket becomes a cape draped over their shoulders or a fort draped over the living room furniture.
Or a string of their mom's pearls transforms them into a runway model.
Or a cardboard box suddenly becomes a ship sailing the seven seas.

Imagination.

It's a beautiful thing.

And it seems to fade along with playing as we age.

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Thank God for my job.

It is keeping my imagination and play alive :) 

Though I am a college graduate, I am not stuffed in a suit in a cubicle in the grown-up world of all work and no play.

Instead, this is my job: http://youtu.be/TMs0faqeb5U 

And a short while later note the destruction in the middle of the floor and how our bunkers and shields had expanded: http://youtu.be/CRGfEOqq6AM

How did this happen?

Perhaps it was simply because it was well after midnight and we did have students there from the local military college so they are actually trained for war. But, mostly, I think it was just that mixed with imagination. And fun.

We all started PLAYING.

One minute we were sitting around chatting and the next someone discovered the box of foam darts that were freebies at the conference we were attending. Before we knew it, tables were overturned and sides had been chosen and attacks had started.

It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

There is something fun, no doubt, about a board game or sports BUT it just isn't the same as playing with your imagination.

Where there are no rules.
No structure.
No limits.

You just dream up whatever you want.

And it is contagious.

The dart war started with just a handful of us but by the end everyone in the room had joined in.

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The same thing happened last night.

Not a dart war but pure, unplanned play. 

Some students and I were hanging out after an event and there was a lot of leftover Conversation Candy Sweethearts from Valentine's day.

Let's be real, no one really eats those anyways, right? They're kinda like colored chalk?

BUT, you do eat them if they become part of a game where they are tossed into your mouth... which is precisely what we did.

It was a relatively subdued activity at first with just a few guys trying to toss them and catch them in their mouth. However, soon they started throwing them faster or farther or to different people.

Or after they'd already fallen on the ground. Then there was synchronized throwing and catching. There was a monkey in the middle of sorts where people popped in on a toss intercepting someone else's candy heart.

Soon, everyone became involved. And laughed. And smiled. Played. Had fun.

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I hope that wherever you are - in college, in the "real world," with kids of your own, whatever - that you don't get stuck being too serious. 

I hope you stoke your imagination and play a little everyday. 

Life's too short to be too serious. 

And playing is priceless ;) 

Southern Belle Feminist Takin' the Capitol.... tryin' out politics

On Tuesday, February 24th, I headed to the capitol... of South Carolina to shake things up.

It was a start.

And so empowering.

About 50 of us - mostly women  but a few guys as well - showed up bright and early at the State House to lobby against human trafficking.

You may remember my post explaining when Passion put it on my heart. But I didn't just want my heart to be heavy and sink - along with the urgency I felt to "do something now" as they had encouraged all of us in attendance while we were in Atlanta.

Fortunately, this perfect opportunity to maintain the pull on my heart and my urgency for action presented itself through some email correspondence with a former professor of mine. She welcomed me and another friend from Passion to tag along with her to lobby in Columbia.

I was slightly intimidated because I had never done this before.

But, ANYONE can do it.

Polaris project was there to give us a bit of training but most of it was simply us - strength in numbers - just going and sharing our thoughts with our congress people.

Some striking things the Polaris organizers and some SC lawyers shared with us were:

• People - especially in South Carolina - seem to think that slavery is a thing of the past when everyone lived in plantations. False. It is alive and flourishing today with more slaves on the planet RIGHT now than in ALL of human history. 
• South Carolina is a particularly ideal area for traffickers because we have so many highways, water access points AND (something I'd never thought of) privately owned planes and boats that utilized by traffickers because they are not as regulated as larger vessels where most authorities assume people are smuggled. 
• People tend to think this is just a problem for foreigners who just happen to be in our country. Ok. A) So what. They are still people and deserve to be fought for... this is a humanity issue, not an American or Indian or Thailand or (insert any country's name here) issue. And, B) This problem is affecting Americans. Polaris estimates that as many as (and probably more than) 100,000 native-born children are trafficked within our borders and most between the ages of 11 and 14. Vulnerable children on the streets or in broken homes and sometimes from just next door in a white, wealthy, suburban home. 

A poster we had that day

 

After sharing with our congressmen or their staff  in their offices as well as anyone looking important that we passed in the statehouse/elevator/outside/etc. (which I promise we tried to do in the least annoying way possible but some things are worth nagging over!), we headed to a press conference.

After that, we simply sat on the steps of the State House reading victims' stories. It was so powerful.

And we were all given a piece of purple duct tape to wear on our wrist as a visible reminder and a conversation starter for people held in "chains" whether metal or manipulation. However, one woman made quite a statement by walking around the grounds wearing a piece of that duct tape over her mouth, representing the silence of the victims that go unnoticed by so many of us.

The most exciting thing?

Before we left that afternoon, we heard that the bill (H3757) which had been basically stagnant since it was introduced almost a year previously, was pushed through the house and onto the senate floor!?!

Our voice was heard.
The victim's stories, names, and pain were heard.
Action was taken.
Change was made.

Now the fight is by no means over. However, SC was previously in the bottom 9 of the states to have legislation on this issue and if this is fully voted in, we will be one of the most comprehensive states in the nation.

So now we've got to raise our voices and the victims' voices to the nation.
Join me.
To raise YOUR voice, reach out to your own congressperson: http://www.fyi.legis.state.us/

And, maybe I'll head to THE capital next... Anyone wanna join me in DC?

Pretty legit with all the flags and everything right??? There was an open podium so we tried it out ;)

Help end human trafficking.