Category Archives: Culture

Bahrain, Culture, GCC, Human Right, Saudi Arabia, WTF

Love and Marriage and Repression in Abu Dhabi and the GCC…….

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“The UAE nationals have been advised not to marry foreign women due to social, legal and financial complications which arise following such marriages, said a renowned lawyer. Speaking at the Noor Dubai Radio, CEO of Bin Haider Advocates & Legal Consultants in the UAE, said a large number of cases are pending before the courts due to such marriages. He pointed out that the young men marry foreign women not to make family but to get rich. But if the husband’s income gets depleted, the foreign wives create problems which lead to court cases……… He said a decree by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, fixed it at Dh50,000 which applies only in case of marriages with the Emirati women. While the marriages of UAE nationals with foreign women will be subject to what was agreed upon in the marriage contract with regard to alimony………….”

The potentates on the Gulf love to meddle in such private matters as marriage. The Bahrain royals are an exception for being less intrusive: they are too busy gassing, beating, and shooting their people (or throwing them in prison or handing them to imported Jordanian or Iraqi Ba’athist torturers). The Saudi princes don’t allow their ‘normal’ citizens to marry foreigners without government approval. It is seriously frowned upon. One can get fined heavily if one marries a foreign woman (or even a man) without royal approval. We are talking tens of thousands of Rials. But there is some hope: the man can always appeal to the king for an exemption (I hear he has a soft heart for true love, especially in cases of multiple polygamy). Besides, for true love there are always the Turkish novellas: I hear even the royals are attached to them.
The potentates of the UAE have been tightening the screws, really no pun intended here. (Really it is the al-Nahayan of Abu Dhabi that boss the others around). They have been trying to ‘regulate’ marriages and block citizens from marrying foreigners (mostly UAE men marrying foreign chicks). Other GCC states have also grappled with this issue; at least one regime has been threatening to form a government commission to look into these cases. This is one thing the GCC potentates can agree on: unify their marriage standards and laws. While at it, they may revisit the polygamy issue: the potentates and their Salafi shaikhs are experts on that (talking marriage here).
Cheers
mhg


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Culture, GCC, Human Right, Middle East Women, religious police, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Saudi King Orders: a Gentler Religious Police, Witchcraft and St. Valentine’s, Chopped Lamb Heads……….

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“A long, long time ago…….. On graduation day
You handed me your book …… I signed this way:

Roses are red, my love……  Violets are blue. 
Sugar is sweet, my love……. But not as sweet as you.


Roses are red, my love…….  Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet, my love……  But luck may
god bless you…..” Bobby Vinton


“The newly appointed general president of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh said Thursday that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah had ordered him and his fellow colleagues to be lenient when dealing with people and to show good will and respect to them. “The king gave me these clear orders when I went to greet him after my appointment,” he told local daily Al-Eqtisadiah in an interview. Al-Asheikh said King Abdullah advised him to always have a fear of Allah when tackling religious issues concerning the public and to treat citizens and foreigners with respect and leniency………….”

So the Wahhabi religious cops (Commission for Protection of Vice) are ordered by the king to be respectful and lenient as they harass people for trying to, or pretending to, have fun. (Actually having fun is very hard in the Kingdom and that is why almost anyone who can do so flies, drives, swims, walks, rides a donkey, or hitches a ride out of the Wahhabi utopia). I am puzzled by this, and I have a few questions:

  • Why do they need an order from the king? Doesn’t the kingdom have rules and laws and by-laws regulating how people are to be treated by the regime and its secret police and enforcers? Like almost every other country outside North Korea?
  • And what about people who talk politics and vanish in the prison cells of the regime? When will the “king’s” mercy touch them? 
  • Does this also mean that people who dabble in sorcery and magic, as well as people who deal with them, will not have their heads chopped off in a public square just before the Friday lunch? 
  • Does this mean the religious cops will not entrap people into offering or buying magic and sorcery with the goal of getting them sentenced to have their heads chopped off in a public square just before the Friday lunch? Just before the spectators head back home for a lunch of lamb and rice? [I don’t think Saudis eat bacha or pacha (boiled spiced sheep’s head) like we do in the Gulf and Iraq and Iran].
  • Is all this, as I suspect, a ploy to open the door for the unthinkable, the legalization of red roses next February? Maybe on this St. Valentine’s Day red roses and heart-shaped balloons will be allowed in the shops. Maybe the religious cops (the Haia) will be encouraged by the king to buy red roses for each other, for their wives, for all their multiple wives, even the very first ones who may be long in the tooth. Anything is possible.

Cheers
mhg


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Anti-Semitism, Culture, Iran, Muslims, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Turkey

Iran Clerics Declare War on Barbie: Ugly Sara and Fat Dara and the Jewish Doll……………

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“Iran’s religious rulers first declared Barbie, made by U.S. company Mattel Inc, un-Islamic in 1996, citing its “destructive cultural and social consequences.” Despite the ban, the doll has until recently been openly on sale in Tehran shops. The new order, issued around three weeks ago, forced shopkeepers to hide the leggy, busty blonde behind other toys as a way of meeting popular demand for the dolls while avoiding being closed down by the police. A range of officially approved dolls launched in 2002 to counter demand for Barbie have not proven successful, merchants told Reuters. The dolls named Sara, a female, and Dara, a male arrived in shops wearing a variety of traditional dress, with Sara fully respecting the rule that all women in Iran must obey in public, of covering their hair and wearing loose-fitting clothes. “My daughter prefers Barbies. She says Sara and Dara are ugly and fat,”…………..”

That last one should do it, seal the deal, seal the fate of Sara and Dara.
This is not the first time Muslim clerics have had Barbie in their dour sights. Every few years some mullah or shaikh or mufti somewhere in the Middle East, especially in the Gulf region, wages a brief war on Barbie. Maybe it is time for Mattel to create a more “Islamic-looking” Barbie? The Turks and Saudis have also waged campaigns against Barbie (but not Ken) in the past:

“Saudi Arabia’s religious police have declared Barbie dolls a threat to morality, complaining that the revealing clothes of the “Jewish” toy — already banned in the kingdom — are offensive to Islam. “Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful,” said a poster on the site. ……” USA Today

“Ceylan said that “We want to protect students from the invasion of foreign culture and that is why we have ordered the technical institute for girls’ education to prepare bags and T-shirts that are decorated with images of famous Turkish citizens.” Local observers observed that Ceylan’s initiative is very similar to that launched against Barbie in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the Nineties……….”

(I don’t think these clerics, mullahs, and shaikhs realize how old Barbie is: if they did, they’d be shocked, and their own wives would be in deep deep trouble).
Cheers
mhg


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Cinema, Culture, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE

Creativity in a Theocracy: One Iranian Film on its Way to the Oscars………….

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“Yet since his film’s premiere early this year, Asghar Farhadi has found success inside and outside his home country with “A Separation,” the film resonating with audiences who read it alternately as a deeply felt domestic drama and a finely crafted sociopolitical allegory. When the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, it walked away with the Golden Bear, the festival’s top prize, as well as awards recognizing the film’s lead actor and actress. The film, which opens in Los Angeles on Dec. 30, has gone on to be one of the most universally celebrated of the year. It was recently still running a rare 100% rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on more than two dozen reviews. It was a box office hit within Iran and was chosen to represent the country as its submission for the Academy Award for best foreign language film………..”
 
I find it interesting that under the repressive theocracy Iranian films have thrived. Arguably the best films in the Middle East over the past three decades have been produced in Iran, with many of them winning international prizes. I have always thought that is because film-makers, like all artists and authors, need to get more creative and more subtle in their messages under less open regimes. (North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the Taliban would be exceptions to this rule).


The Iranians may have some competition at the Oscars. My unreliable source tells me fhe Saudi government is working on a film about the life and times of their Mufti Shaikh al Al Al Shaikh. Meanwhile the al-Nahayan rulers of the UAE plan new film about their late father Zayed Bin Sultan al-Nahayan. The film may star Sean Connery or Abe Vigoda (assuming he is alive): one of them will play Zayed, the other his brother Shakhboot whom he overthrew and made to disappear along with his sons. None of the films will cover the loves and marriages of the two worthies.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Culture, Egypt, Salafi

Egyptian Cinema: What Next? Salafi Cinema?………….

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“The sweeping victory of Islamists in the first two rounds of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections after the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak’s regime raised liberals’ concerns over a variety of issues, on top of which was the future of the film industry under a conservative government. The debate between a prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader and a prominent liberal director served to give an insight into the aspects of the problem. Head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Film and Drama Committee Mohamed al-Naggar started with objections to the labels liberals sometimes give to types of films to distinguish between what is conservative and what is not. “There is nothing called a Brotherhood film or a leftist film or a Nasserist film,” Naggar told Al Arabiya’s Parliament Race. Naggar explained that unlike what many people think the Muslim Brotherhood are not against cinema and do not believe that it is against Islam. “On the contrary, cinema like any art is an integral part of human nature.” What the Brotherhood cares about the most, he pointed out, is the production of movies that represent the values of society. “We cannot reduce a movie into a couple of sex scenes because this does not reflect the reality of women in Egypt.”………”

Egyptian Cinema had its golden age during the 1940s, the 1950s, and the 1960s. It started to decline with the beginning of the 1970s. There have been a few good films in the past four decades, but most of the films have been lousy and I have avoided them. The golden age of Egyptian cinema was also the period of social freedom. With the advent of the Sadat and Mubarak regimes, Egyptian society began its descent into quasi-Wahhabi restrictions and decline. This was also reflected in the arts and in culture in general, from novels to plays. There have been some good Egyptian writers since, but nobody like Mahfouz, Toufiq al-Hakeem, Taha Hussein, among many others.
Egyptian cinema was not too far behind international films in those days. Great actors like Yosuf Wahbi, Fareed Shawqi, al-Mileegi, Hussein Riyadh, Omar Shareef, and many many others. Great comedians like Naguib el-Reehani, Adel Khairi, Ismail Yasseen, Mary Muneib, and others. Not to forget great actresses like Fatin Hamama, Fatma Rushdy, Hind Rustum, among others.
Look for the Egyptian cinema to decline further under the new regime, especially as it seems almost certain now that the Salafis will be part of it. Yet Islamic rule does not have to mean decline of the cinema: there is one example of the opposite happening. I think I will do my next posting on that.
Then the Salafis may want to bring Egyptian cinema to the level of Saudi cinema, meaning non-existent since there is no cinema industry or cinema theaters in Saudi Arabia (alles verboten).
Cheers
mhg


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Culture, WTF

Bon Appétit en chinois: Deadly Pussycats of Guangdong…………

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“The tycoon was famished, the hot-pot stew was bubbling, and the flesh floating in the broth was feline. But in the end, cat meat was not what killed billionaire forestry CEO Long Liyuan a few hours after he consumed the delicacy. It was poison……… In a case that would make even Sherlock Holmes lose his appetite and has triggered an uproar among Chinese animal-rights activists, police in China’s southern Guangdong province, notorious for its love of eating “everything with four legs except desks,” detained one of Long’s dining companions last week in connection with his death on Dec. 23. It appears the suspect, Huang Guang, the deputy director of a local forestry office, had led the tycoon and another associate to the restaurant after visiting a wooded area that was for sale. The authorities allege that once they had ordered the cat dish, Huang stepped away to make a phone call and then surreptitiously made his way into the kitchen. There he sampled the cat meat, announced it needed to boil longer and asked the restaurant owner to go buy some drinks while her husband was off buying cigarettes. Alone at the stove, Huang then dropped the deadly herb Gelsemium elegans, which grows wild in China’s forests, into the hot pot…………”

All I can say is: Bon Appétit.
(FYI : we are dining at P.F.Chang tonight, but there will be no red meat on the table. Not tonight, not for a few days. How about you ? imagine Machboos Gtawa!)
Cheers
mhg


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Culture, Middle East Women, religious police, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

Wahhabi Cinema: Blasphemous Performing Arts, a Cerebral Haia………..

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Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow cinemas (movie houses) to open. It goes against the Salafi Wahhbai doctrine of the country to have cinemas or theaters or dances. All types of performing arts and fine are either banned or seriously frowned upon. There is only one type of dancing that is allowed: that is when the al-Saud princes get together and swing plastic Chinese-made swords in the air as they “get down” to it. Then it is okay: they are filmed and photographed. They even once got George W Bush to join them in the ‘Ardha (he looked stiff, but then if it had been Tony Blair he would have looked dead). The Nabati Poets Diwaniyyia also allowed, but these guys don’t dance, although they do some acting. Another exception is the annual al-Janadriya festival which is not very festive.

There was one attempt in 2005 to start by showing only cartoons during holidays and only for children and women (apparently children and women are considered cerebrally equal by the Wahhbais although I know they are both much smarter than the men). More than two years ago (2009) there was another attempt by a prince to start the move toward opening cinemas. He started film screenings in two major towns. Rotana entertainment, a group owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, showed a film of its own production. That attempt was killed by a royal order (I think Prince Nayef issued the order), after the Commission for Promotion of Vice, the religious police (Haia) headed by Nayef, strongly objected.

Now there are new murmurings about Saudi cinema, or rather cinema in Saudi Arabia. In fact there is a Saudi fatwa against cinemas. It would be interesting how the Mufti and his shaikhs change that once they are ordered to do so by the ruling family. What can they say? That the king had a holy vision that it is okay now? That the crown prince dreamed of a conversation with Steven Spielberg or maybe Bugs Bunny that convinced him it is now kosher and halal? Sorry, forget Spielberg: Salafi muftis aren’t supposed o converse with Jewish film-makers, not even in dreams. Bugs Bunny, however, remains kosher, but only for men.
Cheers
mhg


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Culture, Economics, Human Right, Middle East Women, Saudi Arabia

Arabian Lingerie: a Royal Decree on Victoria’s Secret………….

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“She said that in the past she often bought the wrong underwear “because I was sensitive about explaining what I wanted to a man.” A royal decree issued by King Abdullah in June last year over the objections of top clerics gave lingerie shop owners six months to get rid of their male employees and staff their stores with women only. The ban on male staff is to be extended to cosmetics shops from July. “This is an order from the king,” Labour Minister Adel Faqih said. “All preparations are under way to fully implement this decision,” he said, adding that more than 7,300 retail outlets would be affected by the ban on male staff, creating job opportunities for more than 40,000 Saudi women. The labour ministry’s original proposal to allow women to work in lingerie stores sparked a storm of protest from the kingdom’s top clerics three years ago. They issued a fatwa, or religious decree, barring women from any such work………..”

With such ponderous weighty life-or-death national issues at stake, no wonder there is no time for such sully frivolous things like elections, eradicating corruption, and reform. Apparently the princes believe in reform from the bottom up (pun intended) and the real test will be if they allow ladies to sell the shmagh alongside Victoria’s Secret stuff. That would be a threshold. (Shmagh is the red and white Saudi head ghutra as opposed to the pure white that most true Gulfies wear or the many-colored that some Iraqis wear) . The motto ought to be: today the liberation of the lingerie, tomorrow the liberation of the shamgh. Would the regulation royal goatee (aka saksooka) come next?
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Arabian Peninsula, Corruption, Culture, Saudi Arabia

Arab Monarchies and Illusory Legitimacy: Oil and Opium, Mars or Uranus………

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“In many of the region’s monarchies, while the king maintains ultimate control, power is more diffuse and thus the top leaders are able to deflect some criticism. Monarchies have so far proven to have greater legitimacy in the eyes of their countrymen than have the faux-republics. That doesn’t mean that they are immune to unrest, as we have seen in Jordan and Bahrain, the latter though is anomalous in that a Sunni minority rules over a Shiite majority. But they are better positioned to manage it. Saudi Arabia’s unique status as the “custodian of the two holy places,” Mecca and Medina, also confers legitimacy on the kingdom’s rulers. As the birthplace of Islam, and with an official religious establishment recognized well beyond the country’s borders, the Arabian kingdom ultimately exercises authority through religion and through the ruling family’s alliance with the Wahabi clerical establishment. But the Saudis are not taking any chances, and throughout the region’s uprisings, the royal family has employed a combination of sticks and carrots to help ensure domestic tranquility. Saudi troops have been deployed in force to deter any possible unrest. Thus far, any domestic turbulence has been contained to the Shia areas of Saudi Arabia, far from the majority Sunni population areas……….”

Actually being in control of the Mecca and Madinah in Hijaz does not necessarily bestow any ‘legitimacy’ on any ruling clan. It is an illusion and propaganda being perpetrated by Saudi media and their friends. They conquered the Hijaz during the 20th century from the Hashemites, the traditional custodians who roots are in Hijaz. More recently, they decided to give their kings the title of “Servant of the Two Holy Shrines” for propaganda purposes. They get the legitimacy from their tribal connections (bribes and intermarriages) as well as the ruthless repression of dissent.

Many leaders and politicians and ‘opinion-makers’ show respect and deference to the princes, but only because they control huge petroleum resources and huge amounts of money that belong to the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the money, stupid. They may respect the old king, but they know better with the rest of the princely brood. Let me put it this way: if Saudi Arabia had the resources of, say, Afghanistan, then the U.S. and French presidents would treat the king just as they treat Hamid Karzai. Unless they liked to smoke opium.

In general most Muslims and Arabs know how corrupt and avaricious and rapacious they are. Many of their subjects feel the same way, but are afraid to express it. I can be wrong: it is possible that they are almost as popular as the rulers of Bahrain are with a majority of their people. You know how much popularity that means, unless you’ve been living on Mars or the Jovian planet of Uranus throughout this year.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, Culture, Human Right, Libya, North Africa

North Africa: an Amazigh Revival?………….

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“Najwa Alazabi has another first name, Tiarina, but under Muammar Qaddafi’s rule she could never use it. Tiarina is a traditional name of Amazighs, a North African ethnic minority also known as Berber, and expressions of the Amazigh culture and script were forbidden in Qaddafi’s Libya……… The Amazigh are the original inhabitants of North Africa. Generations of conquerors have slowly eroded the Berber culture and language, while conversion to Islam and the promotion of Arabic as the language of God encouraged assimilation. Qaddafi’s policy of strict Arabization struck a final blow to their identity. Under his rule, Amazigh names, cultural symbols, and their written language were all forbidden. Amazigh activists were routinely harassed and, often, imprisoned. The Amazigh make up approximately eight or nine percent of Libya’s 5.7 million, according to Berber scholars, although after centuries of mixing between Arabs and Amazigh, no one can be sure……….Today, their conception of the own identity can carry some contradictions. Many view their culture as both different and not so different from that of Arabs. Defining themselves in opposition to the dominant Arab identity of Libya could bring them trouble in a country known for strident Arab nationalism…………”

Don’t expect any real improvement of the lot of the Amazigh. Not unless they force the issue. The new leaders were fed from the breasts of Muammar Qaddafi and his regime.
Cheers
mhg


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