Profiling Yemen: 'From bikinis to burkas'

[LayZie G.]

Yes, yes, another burka story but this time, the profiling of Yemen is done by a Yemeni, a Yemeni-Canadian Professor from the GTA, who shares his intimate and informative background of Yemen with pictures as guide to understanding the transition from secular to ultra-conservative conversion of the Yemeni community through the eyes of his family. It is a long journey summed up in a page long column posted by the Global and Mail. (Canada's leading newspaper)

 

As for reading 'From bikinis to burkas', I only have 3 guiding tips to reading the the article:

 

1) Do not judge the author

 

2) Do not dwell on the man's sexual orientation as thats irrelevant to the subject of his discourse.

 

3) Do not dismiss him for he has had a close hand experience and he would known the history of his homeland better than the average joe.

 

 

Here are some praise worthy quotes from the article:

 

Yemen's new notoriety doesn't surprise me; what does is how all the warning signs went unnoticed for so long. I saw it in my own flesh and blood: An open-minded family defined by its love of arts and culture embraced hard-line interpretations of Islam and turned its back on social progress and intellectual freedom.

Our Camelot was the ancient port city of Aden. There in 1945 my father, Mohamed, then 19, wed the 14-year-old Safia, a shepherdess from Hadramut, a part of Yemen now known as the birthplace of the bin Laden family. With his high-school education and some support from my grandparents, my father started a small real-estate business in what we would call flipping today: He would buy old buildings, renovate and sell them at a profit, as well as renting some units to the British expatriates who “managed” Aden as a colony.

“The Brits brought order,” my father used to tell us. My sister Faiza talks of a cosmopolitan port where European ships would stop on the way from Europe to the Indian subcontinent, often bringing with them such coveted merchandise as the latest fashions or, more thrillingly for my then-teenage sisters and brother, early Beatles albums. For some reason, Yemenis especially liked Ringo Starr.

What followed were 15 years of exile between Beirut and Cairo. By the late 1970s, though, neither of those tension-filled cities felt safe or welcoming any more, and my father decided there was no choice but to return to Yemen – not to socialist Aden, but to pro-business Sanaa in the north, which was slowly making contact with the outside world after decades of insular, caste-based pseudo-monarchy.

My sisters' adjustment was more complex. Women were now expected to cover their heads and wear the burka in public, and walk a few steps behind their husbands, fathers or brothers. When I was reunited with my cousin Yousra, who had been living in Sanaa for more than a decade, I reached out to give her a hug, but she pushed me away and shook my hand instead, within the bounds of propriety.

As hundreds of thousands of migrant Yemeni workers in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Gulf countries were expelled in retaliation, many of them settled in Sanaa. A small capital city in an impoverished country, already ill equipped to serve its citizens, it cracked under the pressure.

 

Streets teemed with the unemployed, particularly young men, many of whom succumbed

to the Wahabi brand of Islam that the exiled workers had picked up in Saudi Arabia and brought back.

One of my brothers was actually suggesting that his eldest daughter need not go to university because

education wouldn't help her much as a housewife.

One of my sisters, who is in the 1975 beach photo, now works as a librarian at Sanaa University and wears the full niqab, covering her whole face except, just about, the eyes. One day, she followed me around town for half an hour, just for fun, to see if I would recognize her. I never did.

I think Canjeex and his fox rants would benefit from reading the below quote.

 

Collectively they have become television addicts. Satellite TV, featuring hundreds of channels from the Arab world and beyond, has taken over from reading and socializing as the main form of entertainment. Why? Because among the many channels you can watch are the more Islamist ones (Hezbollah's Manar TV, for example) that promote a rigid version of the faith.

Professor Al-Solaylee's Memoir

[Peacenow]

Very insightful piece. Everyone should read.

Two points that stick out really again and again is what leads to this. The lesson is poverty and oppression.

 

Governments that in these arab countries are very adept at blaming everyone else (Israel and USA) for their problems but their in power and for decades and their people are poor and oppressed.

[Cara.]

Have you passed the torch onto Layzie?

 

The parts that you didn't quote were more interesting LayZie

[Fabregas_Bruv]

Mashallah, I always love reading the stories of murtadeen(apostates), atheist khaniseen and former marxists complaining about how their countries(Somalia, Yemen, etc.) have become "wahabised" beyond recognition. May you perish in your anxiety and depression. Ameen.

[5]

Fabregas, Somalia hasn't been "wahabised", it's been basterdized.

 

I didn't read the whole article, just had a quick glance. One of the women isn't wearing a hijab, yet he writes:

 

"We reach a compromise. I can pose with my sisters and mother if they wear the hijab , or at least long sleeves and skirts. I fake a smile as my heart breaks."

 

He's fake!

 

In Pursuit of Truth (comments section) wrote: " All too often we hear the view points of the west, it's media and seldom from Muslims themselves speaking out about fundamentalism in their religion. "

 

Well this was exactly that. This was from the point of view of Western media, but it was trying very hard to come across as something genuine & from the POV of muslims.

 

NEXT!

[N.O.R.F]

Funny how these articles come out of nowhere when someone nearly blows up a plane! Everyone becomes an expert on Yemen overnight.

[Johnny B]

Originally posted by Fabregas_Bruv:

Mashallah, I always love reading the stories of murtadeen(apostates), atheist khaniseen and former marxists complaining about how their countries(Somalia, Yemen, etc.) have become "wahabised" beyond recognition. May you perish in your anxiety and depression. Ameen.

Such a Wahabi-compassion you show. !!

[Fabregas_Bruv]

Originally posted by Johnny B:

quote:Originally posted by Fabregas_Bruv:

Mashallah, I always love reading the stories of murtadeen(apostates), atheist khaniseen and former marxists complaining about how their countries(Somalia, Yemen, etc.) have become "wahabised" beyond recognition. May you perish in your anxiety and depression. Ameen.

Such a Wahabi-compassion you show. !!

Your opinion is irrelevant to me. ( As if the aytheists on this forum are a compassionate lot)

[NGONGE]

Originally posted by Norfsky:

Funny how these articles come out of nowhere when someone nearly blows up a plane! Everyone becomes an expert on Yemen overnight.

The author may be gay, secular and down right mercenary but he is Yemeni and is probably more of an expert than you or me. Having said that, he's not really telling us much. I mean, is he saying those sisters of his are likely to blow up planes or something?

 

P.S.

Loved LG's tips on how to read articles. Like someone selling you a dodgy house, she walks you away from the damp walls, the leaking roof and creaky floor and, instead, she walks you to the back garden (that is already full of rubbish) to show you a nice and blue sky.

[Johnny B]

Originally posted by Fabregas_Bruv:

Your opinion is irrelevant to me.

As much as your insults are to the others?!

[N.O.R.F]

Ngonge, agreed.

 

I was referring to the media 'experts' who have all of sudden popped up on our screens and papers.

 

LG waxeedu waa walaaq uun

[Fabregas_Bruv]

Originally posted by Johnny B:

quote:Originally posted by Fabregas_Bruv:

Your opinion is irrelevant to me.

As much as your insults are to the others?!

Now, JohnnyBadari, don't you try to play smart with me and try get me into a corner. Any insults or deragatory comments I make is merely collateral damage in the noble path of cleansing SOL from heathens. Joking aside, I haven't made any real insults here, in any case, even I did, dear Johnny Badari, is it any more deragatory than Peacenows constant insults or the very post you made in Ramadan mocking the breathe of Muslims in which you took the pisss out of an Islamic hadith? Is my lack of compassion any more than the two atheists who celebrated the slaughter of innocent tabliqi sheikhs a while back? Marka, Munaqfiqnimada ha ila so donan, and each unto his own, ya Johnny Badari, indeed.

[Baluug]

Yemen's new notoriety doesn't surprise me; what does is how all the warning signs went unnoticed for so long. I saw it in my own flesh and blood: An open-minded family defined by its love of arts and culture embraced

hard-line interpretations of Islam

and

turned its back on social progress and intellectual freedom.

Sounds like any "interpretation" of Islam = social regression to this guy. There's no need to read anymore from this guy.

 

Am gonna have to actually agree with Peacenow for once though he's right that Arab gov'ts do not have the word "accountability" in their vocabulary. It's easier to pacify the brainless masses by blaming all of their country's problems on the "evil Jews and Americans" than to have to answer for those problems themselves, and the people fall for it like the suckers they are.

[LayZie G.]

Ng, you can't blame me for looking out after nomads who constantly find themselves on the sidelines.

 

Because some of these nomads are known to take the subject out of the ballpark, I had to creatively bring them back into the field without causing too much disturbance.

 

Occasionally, we have people like 2+2=5, who run into center field barefoot, nothing to show for but ofcourse guards catch up to said individuals and ultimately toss them out the ballpark.

 

It is not enough that said people become burdensome and cause delays but they plainly admit to their errors, as in the case of the said individual, by saying:

 

I didn't read the whole article, just had a quick glance. One of the women isn't wearing a hijab, yet he writes:

 

"We reach a compromise. I can pose with my sisters and mother if they wear the hijab , or at least long sleeves and skirts. I fake a smile as my heart breaks."

 

He's fake!

This can not be nothing more than cantabarish. Had the said person taken the time to read the article, the said person would have reached the understanding that the author did infact say he had visit yemen on more than one occasion, which is why he provided the timeline but failure to read such detail does injustice to the author, especially when the said picture was taken before his last visit(highlight of prior visits, which is different from his last moments with his family in Yemen, which was the same time that he had last seen his flesh and blood), which means the picture and the above quote do not speak of the same day as the above character used to judge the author.

 

The very same quote used above, in which the author realizes that he was hit with the cold reality on that memorable day when it became evident to him that his family and him grew apart, is when his grief for his family started, coupled with the realization that their connection was ever widening and there was nothing he can do.

 

Imagine, a family member denying another family member the request to take pictures with his own siblings because the women didn't have the full burka attire? Nothing short of devastation

 

 

PS: Cara, I'm on a mission, you should know better!

[The Zack]

^Adigu do you go to google everyday and search for Burqa/Hijab/Islam/women just to find a negative article about those subjects?