It’s Saturday Once Again

So here we are.  Saturday again.  Another seven days has passed and what have you achieved?  For me I can answer very little.  We had only one Open Home last Sunday and the hoped for offer hasn’t yet materialised.  My Real Estate friend arrived home on Monday after visiting Peru and Bolivia  and we spent the day in catch up.  Oh and buying her a new laptop as her one eventually gave up the ghost after about 8 years.  Tuesday as a day spent on database entering – boring but necessary.  Wednesday was good – we went to pick up Major the Afghan Hound from his breeder some 70 kms away.  So we made a day of it, having lunch at a little restaurant where we sat outside in the sun and listened to the river while we ate.  Thursday -at the hospice and Friday doing somemuch needed rubber gloving at home.

So now it’s time for Six Word Saturday –

And if you want to play along all that’s necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words – click on the picture on the left  or click here for more details.

Here are my six words –

NO MEN ALLOWED AT WORLD PREMIER

This was the banner headline in the weekend edition of the newspaper.  Apparently a local museum is to host a video display of Muslim women without veils.  What has raised the blood pressure around here is that no men will be allowed in to see the exhibition.   As you can imagine this has raised a protest from various sectors of the community as well as lots of interested and interesting comment.

The work is by Qatari writer and film-maker Sophia Al-Maria.  It is called Cinderazahd – For Your Eyes Only and features members of her family getting ready for the wedding of a cousin and shows them without their veils.  According to a NZ Imam “It would be inappropriate for a male stranger to see a woman without her veil, even in her own home”.

The wearing of veils by Muslim women has been a topic of conversation here for some time, as mostly we don’t understand this custom.  A spokesperson for the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand explained that a veil or headscarf moves the focus away from a woman’s appearance to her inner beauty.  She went on to say that the veil says to the world ” I don’t want to be judged for the way I look but rather by my intellect, my character and my personality.”  This then forces us to look beyond the facial attraction of a woman.

The Museum Director has apparently discussed the fact that men will not be allowed to view the video with the Human rights Commission and he is comfortable with showing the video with the restriction on men.  A spokesperson for the Human Rights Commission has said it advised the Museum that there was “an arguable case” for discrimination based on gender under the Human Rights Act.   However, the Commission cannot act until it receives a complaint from a member of the public.

Somehow the Race Relations Commissioner has also become involved.  He is quoted as saying it was up to the museum to decided whether to display the video.  “If there is a complaint we will explore it” he said.  Although how sexual discrimination falls into the spere of the Race Relations Commission is not clear to me at all.

I am sure that we shall hear more on this over the coming weeks.  I know that I shall make the 20 km journey to the Museum to see what exhibition o get an insight into the lives of some Muslim women.

And will we soon see/hear discussion on the many married Orthodox Jewish women who wear wigs in public as a sign of modesty?

Related articles

• [link] France’s New Minister of Women’s Rights Misses the Mark (slendermeans.wordpress.com)
• Understanding Islamic Feminism: My Interview with Vanessa Rivera (Nasreen Amina) Part 2, August 2012 (muslimahvoicesbafts.wordpress.com)
• Muslim Woman Veil Trend (socyberty.com)