Good News and Bad News

I was lamenting the lack of good news stories this morning after reading this article about the female journalist in The Sudan who is to be subjected to 40 lashes (and a monetary fine) for wearing trousers. Seriously.

No we are not talking about *gasp* fugly velour tracksuit pants with JUICY written on the bum or even those hideous harem pants everyone in Manhattan is sporting right now. No. We are talking about this pair of "moss green slacks worn under a flowing top and headscarf" pictured to the right.


Ok so they aren't trousers Rachel Zoe would choose, they are pretty daggy but COME ON PEOPLE what kind of Godloving person whips another for their choice of pants? You all know that I am all for cultural sensitivity, hell I'm all for women wearing the bloody burkha if they choose, but really who is going to stand up to these ignorant bullies?

What kind of God gives a toss about fashion? Doesn't he have better things to think about? Is he that petty, seriously? I just don't get this at all. It really depresses me that anyone would think lashing someone for wearing trousers is something God would high-five.


So I sat here for a few minutes thinking about it and wishing we had more good news in our papers and then I found this article and I smiled and maybe just maybe I got a little teary.


Muffy here went missing 9 years ago when her owner Chloe was only 8 years old. The little girl adored her dog and she has slept on her bed right until she vanished. The girl, now 17 still talked about Muffy and was elated when she was told a few days ago that Muffy had finally been located some 2000km away after all this time.

Anyone who has lost a pet will relate to this story, even I had to blink back a few tears reading it.
Don't you love good news stories? Such a shame that we are so often told that good news doesn't sell. I love good news. I wish we got more of it. Don't you?




photos borrowed from the articles linked above.

France Tells Women What Not to Wear

Move over Trinny and Susannah. French President Sarkozy now tells women what not to wear.

He has come out in opposition to the burkha. He said last week that "The burka is not a sign of religion. It is a sign of subservience. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic."

The burkha is the name of the cloak like garment worn mainly by Afghan women. It is the one with the mesh area over the eyes and you mostly see it in this shade of blue:

cache.daylife.com

I am not sure if president Sarkozy is talking about the burkha or whether he is just using that word to describe any face covering garment worn by Muslim women. The niqab as shown here is a lot more common than the burkha and can be seen on women here in Australia, often in black.

ares-online.com

The BBC actually has a series of pictures describing the different types of dress worn by Muslim women here:

I am not a fence-sitter on this issue.


I feel very strongly that all people should be free to wear what they like.



Be it skanky mini skirts & uggs, burkhas, or sheitels & tiechels.


I am not intimidated or offended by women who choose to cover their hair or their faces.



Jerusalemshots.com



In Australia we are very lucky. Our government does not tell us what to wear. I do feel a great sense of sadness for women who live in other parts of the world where they do not have the same right I have to choose my outfits.


Yes since having my Tinker and becoming a new body shape I have no idea how to dress to look good and I tend to choose some shocking ensembles, but I choose them. Nobody tells me what not to wear. Perhaps they should, I might look better!


On a serious note, I’m disappointed and saddened that the president of a supposedly forward thinking country would make such an archaic statement. How dare he tell women what they can and can’t wear.


Yes I know France has long been the centre of style and what I'm wearing right now is probably a bastardised cheap version of what some designer sent down the runway last season in Paris, but I think Sarkozy is wrong, wrong wrong.


The argument many have adopted against this type of dress is that it isn’t a choice for the women. That they are being told to dress like this. This attitude infuriates me. Just because you do not like the look of the niqab why do you assume other women have been brainwashed or forced into wearing it?


Is it because our culture is all about looks? Why can’t we look beyond our own values and imagine a completely different perspective on appearance? Is it so hard to get our heads around the idea that some women do not want to be seen when they are out and about? Is it so hard to imagine? You might not agree with it, but why can’t you just accept that some women choose this for themselves?


So many people say it is because they are brainwashed. Muslim women are damned if they come out and say it is not their families forcing them because people then say they must be brainwashed. I find that really offensive.


I really hate tattoos. I can’t imagine ever wanting to pay money to have pain inflicted on my body so that I can be stained with ink. I know plenty of women who do pay money for this, they love their tattoos. I find it an awful concept but I do not think they have been brainwashed. It isn't something I could ever choose for my body so shuld it be banned on that basis? No.


I just think women who choose to ink themselves have different ideas about what looks good and what suits them. They want to do different things with their body, and I am so happy that our free country allows women to make these choices.


There are Muslim women who want to get about covered head to toe with only their eyes showing. So what? Their bodies, their right to choose whether to show them or hide them. Yes it can be confronting to walk into a shop and see a lady looking a lot like a ninja but that’s life. We don’t all want to dress the same. Alannah Hill gets about made up like a geisha doll in a frou frou nightmare, that can be confronting as well but it is her body so please let her clothe it as she sees fit.


I guess to me, wanting to tattoo your body is as foreign a desire as wanting to wear a burkha. I love that my society lets me choose. I wouldn’t like to live somewhere that didn’t afford women that freedom.



What about nuns in full habit? Nobody ridicules their choice to cover everything but their hands and faces like images of the Virgin Mary. Would Sarkozy say that the habit is a sign of faith or a sign of subservience by a victim of brainwashing? No. Never. Hypocrisy stinks.

What are your thoughts on this issue?

Transsexuals in Iran

"Negar"- BBC.com

These days I tend to watch light-hearted TV shows if I have time for television. I like the real estate shows we have here like Selling Houses and the other home makeover ones. Occasionally I'll watch Gilmore Girls, but mainly the only thing I get to see on 'the box' is Teletubbies.

So tonight was a little different. I caught the second half of a documentary on SBS called Transsexuals in Iran and it was about just that. I'm disappointed I missed the first half but I was downstairs battling with my dryer. It has been on the fritz since Friday.

Anyway it was a moving programme. The low down is that it is against the law for a man to dress and behave as a woman in Iran, so the state has the answer. Have your penis surgically removed. You will be issued with a new birth certificate and you will have a new identity card saying that you are now a female. Your family will most likely disown you, if they haven't already and the only job you will be able to get is that of a "temporary wife". A sex worker.

It was a really distressing documentary with a really sad ending. So much for my light hearted TV viewing. It got me thinking again about that episode of Oprah to do with children who want their parents and their communities to accept them as the opposite sex. I was not a parent when I saw the show and I remember being horrified with the parents on the show for allowing a 4 year old to say "that's it mummy I want to be a girl from now on" and then raising their son a girl.

Now here I am, a mother and I am wondering what I would do. The answer? I honestly do not know. I think now I have a lot more compassion for the parents than I did then. Before I just thought it was a lack of discipline and direction but know I realise that was a very ignorant perspective.

The whole thing is just so sad and depressing. One of the people featured in the Iranian doco was Negar whose parents rejected him as a man with female tendencies and then he had the surgery and they completely disowned him as a man without a penis but legally a woman. Negar said her mother and father had killed their love for Negar and following the surgery Negar's body had love removed completely. She said she would never feel any sort of love again and would devote the rest of her life to making money as a prostitute (the accepted term is temporary wife).

Did anyone else watch this terribly sad and moving show? Have you seen that episode of Oprah about the children with 'gender identity disorder'? What are your thoughts?

Heavy topic really. I'm off to tour a prospective preschool tomorrow morning. I've seen so many now but I think this will be the one. I am getting pickier and pickier, if this isn't right then I have no idea where Tinker will go because I have almost seen them all!