Comments on: Syria: Petition Urging Men to “Cover Up” Launched

By: Nova Scotia Scott » Blog Archive » Syrian woman tells men, “Cover yourselves up”

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:23:23 +0000

[...] Syrian blogger Omniya is sick and tired of men saying that public verbal and sexual harassment is women’s fault for not covering up their bodies. She’s launched an online petition telling men to cover themselves up and not to stare at women. [...]

By: أمنية

أمنية — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:12:12 +0000

Regarding the first part of your comment: i totally agree with you.
i don’t believe that any gender should point to the other and tell him what to or not to wear.

but to put u in the picture: every time I walk on the street in Damascus , i see guys wearing fashionable clothes, vivid colours, having their hair done (3almodda) , and their chins with (sakoskeh) maybe wearing necklaces and so on. they walk in the street proud of their beauty and enjoying the pleasure of their youth.
and I don’t mind this at all.

but when I have a look at the girls , it aches my heart to see most girls in their 20th or 30th, wearing black or white coats, covering their heads , and still we are attacked on the streets, we are attacked on tv, we are attacked on the web pages.
by the way , they are totally happy to do this, coz they believe, the uglier they look, the happier Allah is with them! And the more they are helping the society to go on the right path.
when a man decides that he should follow God’s directions and fulfill his orders, the first thing he does is calling for women to cover up!

when a guy gets out of his house, after spending an hour before the mirror, there is no chance that anything would happen to him on the road.
but if a girl does the same, there is a great chance that she :
1- gets sexually harassed.
2- gets verbally harassed.
3- gets a shiekh on the road advising her to cover up.
4- gets eyes following her.

fine then, if we should islamiclly speaking fulfill the God’s order of women’s adornment, then men should do the same.
If a mother is to stop her daughter from leaving the house when she looks attractive, and tell her to go and change, then she should also stop her son from leaving the house when he looks great. Not waving goodbye to him saying( have a good time honey!!)!
If I have to see a shiekh shouting on tv calling women to cover up coz men are poor creatures and they got lustful easily, then I should see him equally shouting at men not to wear fashionable clothes coz this will coz girls to get lustful
l?!
If the society worked his mind to invent a dress code for women to wear in each country in the Arabs region , I think they should sit again and work their mind to invent a dress code for men.

as long as there are voices calling women to stop adornment, which is most likely lunched by men!! why they don’t first look at themselves !!
I’m not saying this is the right thing to do, this is my reply to them: a campaign for men to cover up!

regrding “it’s not all about porn fantasies and decadence!”
i don’t agree:)

Regards

By: Anas

Anas — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:51:00 +0000

@Cycads:
I guess you took the campaign too literally, I saw it as a way to show how absurd it is to blame the victims of sexual harassment for not hiding themselves head to toe while being apologetic about the actual perpetrators!

cheers

By: Razan

Razan — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:35:06 +0000

Totally agree with you, Cycads.
I think we should end the “approach” itself, not counter it with the same logic.
Here we’re actually enhancing it, only with a different target group. That’s not the answer if we truly wish to end sexual harassment.
I think we should aim into replacing the logic, and address the outcome and the core problem themselves: sexism and systemizing gender’s role in societies.

Nevertheless, I think Omniya’s petition is a good reaction to sexism in the Syrian society. i believe she is the third Syrian bloggeress to say something against it in the blogsphere, and my oh my, how much Syrian male bloggers need to read it.
It is good for many Syrian males in general who are either apologetic or in denial of the existence of sexual harassment in Syria.

By: Cycads

Cycads — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:40:47 +0000

I’m not sure about the campaign. Being both a Muslim and a feminist, I find it by making men cover up head to toe and lower their gaze, in other words victimising and stripping away their rights, defeats the purpose of the betterment for both women and men. As much as sexual harassment angers me and many, many women, it’s the not way to go. There needs to be some kind of sexual education in schools where teenage boys can learn a thing or two and some respect about women. Perhaps learning about what happens during childbirth or effects of STDs or something – anything really – to give men especially a reality check about sex – it’s not all about porn fantasies and decadence!

By: Amira Al Hussaini

Amira Al Hussaini — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:01:53 +0000

The pleasure was mine Omniya :)
All the best with the campaign.
And sorry I mixed up your name. Blame it on translating in the dark!

By: أمنية

أمنية — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:12:00 +0000

Salam Amira
i’ve just realized that the petition was added here.
i appreaciate your time in translating it.
i should say that your translation has done a great favour to the article.
i felt while reading it in eng that the vocabs used in here are more strong and convincing than my own words!
check it , i’ve got 4 sugnitures! and i’m really proud that there are four people who agree with me.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/21454/signatures.html

Regards

Anas: thanks again.

By: Friday Links — October 17, 2008 « Muslimah Media Watch

Friday Links — October 17, 2008 « Muslimah Media Watch — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:04:43 +0000

[...] Voices Online sheds some light on a Syrian woman’s campaign to get men to “cover up and lower their [...]

By: Sharks

Sharks — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:38:03 +0000

i totally suport Omniya on this!!! go girl go!!

By: Amira Al Hussaini

Amira Al Hussaini — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:23:30 +0000

You think so ;)

By: Solana Larsen

Solana Larsen — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:18:04 +0000

haha – yes, lets cover up the men already!

By: Amira Al Hussaini

Amira Al Hussaini — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:38:31 +0000

Thank you Anas for the link. And sorry about the name :(

By: Anas

Anas — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:48:42 +0000

Thanks Amira for turning the link I sent into an article..
just a little correction,
the blogger’s name is “Omniya” أمنية not “Amina” أمينة

By: Simon Columbus

Simon Columbus — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:46:56 +0000

Amina’s actually wrong when she says

“They actually leave their homes aroused, after spending their nights watching adult movies [...]“.

Fact is that in countries where porn is legal the rates of harassment and rape are lower.

(Still she’s of course right saying it’s the men’s fault, not the women’s)