Althouse: "Since women cannot bear the hot sun, why would they want to get a job when they can stay safely inside their homes?"

January 9, 2010

"Since women cannot bear the hot sun, why would they want to get a job when they can stay safely inside their homes?"

A young woman in Yemen.

42 comments:

dbp said...: Air conditioning.; 1/9/10, 7:02 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: A completely alien culture. Can't wait to see the mess the State Department makes of it.

No wait, already seen it in Afghanistan.; 1/9/10, 7:12 AM
Unknown said...: Unfortunately, the same kind of Committee to Promote Virtue mentioned in the piece allowed how many girls to die in a school fire because they weren't veiled properly? This is not something you want to emulate.

If they don't think women should work outside the home, that's their business, but this is the kind of Sharia the Lefties tell us (and each other) is no worse than the system we have here. Can't wait to see somebody like Katie Couric or Chrissy Mathews, after all their fifth column machinations to destroy this country, when they realize this kind of Draconic repression includes them.

The Lefties are so into, "Do as I say,..."

WV "ounoun" What is modified by an ouadjective.; 1/9/10, 7:23 AM
rhhardin said...: Hot sun is a modest euphemism for locker room humor.; 1/9/10, 7:24 AM
rhhardin said...: Work the night shift, when the moon is up.; 1/9/10, 7:26 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Children here are more conservative than adults. Abeer's family tells me of Yemeni children returning from Saudi-supported Wahabi summer camps to denounce their parents as "non-Muslims." But with about a 35% unemployment rate, and 75% of Yemen's population under the age of 25, there are few other activities for young people. Extremist organizations providing resources and a sense of purpose thrive

The Saudi's are NOT our friends...; 1/9/10, 7:34 AM
AllenS said...: What a bunch of pussies.; 1/9/10, 7:37 AM
Tibore said...: "Children here are more conservative than adults. Abeer's family tells me of Yemeni children returning from Saudi-supported Wahabi summer camps to denounce their parents as "non-Muslims."

Indoctrination of the younger generation. Where's today's Churchillian "Iron Curtain" warning? The West knows about the threat, but western governments seem like they don't care that it grows, let alone that there's obviously a provided mechanism to ensure growth.; 1/9/10, 7:38 AM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: As recently as a generation ago, all across Latin America the prevailing cultural norm was:

El hombre es de la calle, y la mujer de la casa.

[The man is of the streets and the woman is of the house.]

In practice this meant the man was out getting drunk, bedding drunken young women, gambling, whoring around and otherwise wasting his life.

The massive success of evangelical Christianity, particularly the Adventists and the Nazarenes, has really begun to change all that.

Most of the men got sober, stopped gambling and chasing skirt, and became devoted to their families. Formerly squandered money was applied to children's schooling (especially the daughters), better food, fixing the home, and saving money for the future. There is now an emerging middle class, even in many small mountain towns.

Unfortunately, the model is probably not adaptable to places like Yemen ...; 1/9/10, 8:10 AM
Anonymous said...: If, say, Ecuador or Malawi or Laos were going straight down the metaphorical doniker like Yemen is doing, no one in America would give a flying you-know-what. But because Yemen is Muslim, we're all piddling our panties in fear. What a nation of cowards we've become.

Peter; 1/9/10, 8:55 AM
Wince said...: I'm surprised Instapundit hasn't explored the link between the burka and Vitamin D deficiency.; 1/9/10, 8:58 AM
vbspurs said...: Oh, gosh. This reminds me of a blogpost I once wrote called "Kuwaiti dreams".

It was about my going into one of the many foreign "food marts" we have in South Florida, a Lebanese one. Just before I entered, what do I spy outside but an enormous, black, chauffeur-driven (chauffeur still inside) Bentley. It had that paintwork patina of utter richness which can only come from having no orange peel. It gleams like butter. Inside, was a young woman, around 25, rather tall but already with a double chin peeping through her flowery "chador". This revealed the face, but covered everything else that I saw. The day was absolutely sweltering, in the 90sF, and no doubt she was enjoying the Bentley's A/C.

I enter the mart. There was a small (5 foot tops), garrulous, shorts-and-sandals wearing man inside. His shorts outlined his johnson, in a very disturbing way. I wondered if he was aware of it. For some reason, I didn't put two and two together, but when he left the shop, he got into the Bentley -- clearly, he was the woman's husband. Such a contrast! He, showing off the goods to all comers. She, cocooned in puritanical luxury.

The shop owner revealed that they was just regular Kuwaitis, sent abroad by their government for medical intervention for their kid. The Kuwaiti government apparently gives each citizen FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS PER MONTH for expenses. The Bentley, chauffeur, doctor, hospital bills, accomodations, all of it -- paid in full for them.

That's some gomint cheese, boy.

Then the shop owner said, "It must be good to be Kuwaiti".

And I thought of the woman inside the Bentley, looking absolutely bored, reduced to wearing a total body covering whilst her husband didn't think twice of wearing revealing shorts. He could get out and chat, she had to stay inside, with no company, to "enjoy" the air conditioning, no doubt.

I told him.

"Listen, don't take this the wrong way, but we're talking about a man who has a baby in hospital, but who himself wears orange shorts, whilst his wife is wearing a carpet from head-to-toe in 100 degree weather, stuck inside a car almost like a prisoner.

All in all, I'd rather be a Lebanese shop owner, or a British expat woman in these United States. Even without a Rolls and $15,000 per month."

How easy it is to pretend you're free and privileged, when you're not.

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/9/10, 9:10 AM
Lisa said...: Perhaps if women weren't forced to wear unnecessary layers of clothing, they might be able to bear the hot sun. After all, they do in Israel.; 1/9/10, 9:10 AM
vbspurs said...: "Why don't you wear the kind of balto that has the pretty designs on its sleeves?" I ask. "Because then I wouldn't be invisible," she answers.

This is all kinds of sad.

I'm thoroughly depressed now, because not one feminist dares to raise her voice against this, let alone a whole movement.; 1/9/10, 9:16 AM
vbspurs said...: After all, foreigners are kidnapped in this country not to inspire terror, but to bargain with their own government for services.

In South America, most specifically in São Paulo, the NYC of Brazil, there are loads of kidnappings -- and not just of rich or famous people, but of ordinary folks. Family are contacted to ransom them for a few hundred dollars. If they don't, they get sent a finger or two in the post.

This happens in Colombia at an alarming rate as well, the kidnapped being kept in fortified ditches beneath dingy ghettos.

Just about everyone reading this, who didn't know of this, is probably recoiling in disgust right now. But not really fear.

Why?

This goes to the heart of the matter of what Bart and Peter said that we are not troubled by what goes on in South America, because somehow...it is a kind of KNOWABLE evil that goes on there. We understand it, and therefore, we think it can be controled at some point, even with foreign intervention.

But in Islamic countries?

I don't know about you, but they are so unknowable to me, that no amount of immersion will make it more familiar. In fact, I recoil in horror and distaste just thinking about the lives of women in Saudi Arabia, e.g.

I've travelled to Egypt and Morocco, my parents adding to that tally Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Tunisia but nothing can prepare one for the realities of the life THEY lead there, especially the poor who are not Westernised.

No matter how conservative we are, even the Mennonites in the US, we are thoroughly modernised. We have expectations of our cultures, governments and our fellow citizens. They have expectations of their religion, and that's it, isn't it? That's their anchor, the one immutable rock in the world. If you take away my religion, I'll still have all the other stuff, however empty I would feel without my Christ. But not them, certainly not in Yemen.

This may play some unconscious role in why we do not denounce the practises that usually would horrify the feminists, the leftists, the civil rights advocates so much, in our own cultures.

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/9/10, 9:40 AM
KCFleming said...: American feminists do not speak out against "keeping the meat covered" due to the nexus of multiculturalism and simple fear.; 1/9/10, 9:42 AM
former law student said...: Unfortunately, the same kind of Committee to Promote Virtue mentioned in the piece allowed how many girls to die in a school fire because they weren't veiled properly?

Reminds me of when American Capitalism allowed 25 people, mostly women, to die in a workplace fire because the management kept the exit doors locked:

http://www.interfire.org/res_file/pdf/Tr-057.pdf

Clearly American Capitalism is evil and must be stopped, because it leads to the death of women.; 1/9/10, 10:02 AM
bagoh20 said...: "The massive success of evangelical Christianity, particularly the Adventists and the Nazarenes, has really begun to change all that.

Most of the men got sober, stopped gambling and chasing skirt, and became devoted to their families."

I'm not religious, but it seems there is no secular tradition that can do this besides the force of a police state.

All religions are not the same though in this regard.; 1/9/10, 10:02 AM
former law student said...: because not one feminist dares to raise her voice against this, let alone a whole movement.

Because feminism is all about denying religious freedom?

if women weren't forced to wear unnecessary layers of clothing,
Like the Hindu sari? Covering the skin is paramount in all desert and tropic countries. It's only Europeans who believe that heat and humidity demand scanty attire.; 1/9/10, 10:06 AM
traditionalguy said...: A theme of this post is the iron hard misery caused to the captives in a religion of pure legalism with no atonement and therefore no mercy and no grace. Killing themselves young seems to them like an escape from it; plus it proves their reasaon for pride in their strength as compared to the weakness in those who forgive and love their enemies.; 1/9/10, 10:06 AM
KCFleming said...: The facts about Islam's treatment of women are too difficult to face, so fls yells 'Squirrel!'; 1/9/10, 10:09 AM
bagoh20 said...: "The facts about Islam's treatment of women are too difficult to face, so fls yells 'Squirrel!'"

And helps defend it in his own little way. Multiply that by the entire world's left and you get the abused wife being told to just accept it, for the sake of peace in the family of man.; 1/9/10, 10:22 AM
David said...: Wonderful essay.

The most worrisome paragraph:

Children here are more conservative than adults. Abeer's family tells me of Yemeni children returning from Saudi-supported Wahabi summer camps to denounce their parents as "non-Muslims." But with about a 35% unemployment rate, and 75% of Yemen's population under the age of 25, there are few other activities for young people. Extremist organizations providing resources and a sense of purpose thrive. After all, foreigners are kidnapped in this country not to inspire terror, but to bargain with their own government for services.; 1/9/10, 10:27 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: I could not decide what was worse- reading that drivel or watching paint dry. The only interesting segment was the quote Althouse put up.

I mean seriously, this is nothing more than a Phd. version of "What I did on my summer vacation while writing a paper on the sex lives of fruit flies."

That this tripe was published makes me wonder about the mental stability of journalism.; 1/9/10, 10:32 AM
Anonymous said...: The Noble Savage provides lots of material for gauzy literary ruminations about the "other" but little truth. This is now and has always been dangerous.; 1/9/10, 10:34 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Just because the Koran is silent on Vitamin D, doesn't mean it came from the Devil.; 1/9/10, 10:36 AM
David said...: Tripe? Nice to see you at your angry and disdainful best, Peter.

It's a good essay because it describes something. It gives us a small sense of how people act on a day to day basis. Any fool can give lots of high-falutin' opinion from high above the subject. It's refreshing to see someone write something that's more particular.

Peter, have you ever eaten tripe? It can be pretty good.; 1/9/10, 10:51 AM
Ironclad said...: This is about a war of ideas - and until the people in charge (D or R) begin to accept that - and the implications that they are going to have to confront the fundamentalist ideology that is fueling this mess, we are never going to get anywhere. The (secular) regimes in the middle east are skilled in riding the tiger that motivates these people by playing along and by making certain people disappear. The more "pious ones" buy off the real crazies with money for "camps" and madrassas to keep them busy brainwashing another generation.

While you can kill people, the only way it stops is to kill the idea - or at least the version of the idea that leads to the belief that only some have the "one version" of the truth. Someone is going to have to bell the cat - and until they do, involving ourselves in this place in any way is a fundamentally bad idea.; 1/9/10, 10:51 AM
Dark Eden said...: Its not that they are so unknowable or alien. Its that they are sending people over here to kill Americans too. If kidnappers from Sao Paolo were routinely taking trips into the states to kidnap regular Americans and sending fingers back, we'd be a hell of a lot more concerned about that too.

Suddenly its not the problem of that guy way over there, its MY problem.; 1/9/10, 11:20 AM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: TradGuy -- There are several more aspects in addition to grace and mercy, most notably the theology of suffering. The following is a caricature; that is, over-emphasis for purposes of illustrating something true. Amongst the major faiths, the theology of suffering is profoundly different from one to another.

Hinduism: Better luck next time.
Judaism: You probably deserve it.
Buddhism: Detachment, both emotional and intellectual.
Christianity: God suffers with us and wants us to use it for some good.
Islam: Revenge.

WV: diograi ... thanks be to God?; 1/9/10, 11:24 AM
Joan said...: Reminds me of when American Capitalism allowed 25 people, mostly women, to die in a workplace fire because the management kept the exit doors locked:

FLS can't discern any difference between carelessness leading to deaths and purposefully forcing young women and girls back into a burning building to die.; 1/9/10, 11:37 AM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Notice how so many violent ideologies have so much misogyny.; 1/9/10, 12:28 PM
Cedarford said...: ironrailsironweights said...
If, say, Ecuador or Malawi or Laos were going straight down the metaphorical doniker like Yemen is doing, no one in America would give a flying you-know-what. But because Yemen is Muslim, we're all piddling our panties in fear. What a nation of cowards we've become.

It is a prevalent Lefty theme. The ONLY reason why people attack enemy is out of FEAR...not dislike or common sense.
Thus the Mongol Horde was simply acting out of inordinate FEAR of agrarian societies...and the Nazis were all COWARDS that had a silly FEAR of Jews and Bolshevikism. Mao liquidated 35 million because they made him piss his pants.
And whatever America does, it is out of FEAR....save only the approved Nazi exception...where we acted Legitimately in Self Defense and in proper defense of Progressive Peoples...

Another stupid narrative.

The actual attitude of Americans towards Islamoids - past the 20% that are Leftists, progressive post-communist Jews, liberal Dems, enemy rights loving lawyers - is quite simple. It is not fear.

It is - blow up our shit and our people, we will blow up your shit and your people until you knock it off.
That is sort of presently thwarted by the above-mentioned sorts who are hysterically against any attack on Islamoids who want pure defense only. (And yes, joined too by Right wing hysterics who claim no inconvenience or collective loss of rights by the masses at the hands of Our Uniformed Government Employee Heroes is enough if it stands in the way of Perfect Safety. ); 1/9/10, 12:50 PM
Paddy O said...: "All religions are not the same though in this regard."

Indeed, though it should be pointed out that not all expressions of any particular religion are the same in this regard.

South America is a Christian region, so it's the place where the expressions Christianity can and should be blamed for the social realities.

There's a reason why the Pentecostals, Nazarene's, and Adventists are good at provoking real change. Making change like this, for women, for the poor, for any oppressed, for oneself, has to come out of hope that there is something better. And this something better is not about waiting for the pie in the sky. Each of those denominations mentioned have a very strong understanding of the present possibilities of life. John Wesley, who was key person behind many such traditions in Protestantism, was a huge believer in social works and personal responsibility.

If you see there's something more to this life, you begin to live in a way that reflects this hope.

What's sad is that so many just don't have that hope, even if they get their $14,000 a month or whatever. That oil money is going to dry up, and the region will be left no different than before the 20th century.

Fundamentalist expressions tend to emphasize a version of faith that really comes out of a lack of faith. There's a whole lot of anger, and demands, because the adherents don't really believe that the God they serve is all that powerful. He needs help. That reality brings a lot of existential fear, and that fear almost entirely robs whatever real hope was left. So there's nothing in this world that is worth it, and so there's nothing to lose in burning it up. And evil men, and women, take advantage of this loss of hope to hoard vast wealth, and wield unbelievable power over people who have handed off their identity.

It's really sad. But, at the same time, it's really dangerous, and isn't about simply giving more scholarships or saying, yet again, we're sorry for British colonialism, or that America has freedom of speech.; 1/9/10, 12:53 PM
David said...: "the region will be left no different than before the 20th century."

If a few more of them develop nuclear weapons, it might be a bit different. They should be careful what they wish for, given that they blow each other up a lot more than they blow us up.; 1/9/10, 1:21 PM
Paddy O said...: "The ONLY reason why people attack enemy is out of FEAR...not dislike or common sense"

Cedarford, I think you're right to see this as a faulty lefty meme as a general explanation, as it emphasizes more human vulnerability than human wickedness.

But, it's making a mistake on the other side to rule out fear for any such violence. You make a good counter list, but none of those reflect purely religious violence. And, for the most part, those are examples of violence that came out of extreme strength--the ability to assert a particular will on weaker neighbors.

That's precisely not the case in the Middle East. Palestinian violence and Muslim terrorism is not from a position of strength but rather a rather longstanding impotence. This impotence is especially enraging because of the vast, vast wealth now in the region.

The fear also isn't necessarily a fear of America, or a fear of someone else. Like I said, it's more of an existential fear of not having any personal identity and a fear of a wrongly understood God. This fear is, indeed, a big part of an very strong lack of fear of American and others in the terrorism. A guy who lights his crotch on fire isn't afraid of death or the guy next to him. His is a substantially deeper, more thorough fear, leading him to utterly absurd acts in order to assuage the burn within.

That's a dangerous fear indeed, because it's often coupled with extreme violence, whether in the Middle East or in the inner city. And, sadly, the only way to respond is to give a sharp, maybe even violent, "no" to such responses. Because such people are well beyond simple counsel or encouragement. They're trying to assert their identity and destroying others is a great way of doing that--maybe the only way they see as really making an impact.; 1/9/10, 1:29 PM
Cedarford said...: Joan said...
"Reminds me of when American Capitalism allowed 25 people, mostly women, to die in a workplace fire because the management kept the exit doors locked:"

FLS can't discern any difference between carelessness leading to deaths and purposefully forcing young women and girls back into a burning building to die.

Honestly, the dividing line is not so big as you would imagine. Every society battles elements that become so rule-based and anally obsessed with rules over common sense and public safety that they end up killing or endagering people.

King Abdullah ripped the Saudi Religious Police a huge asshole over what they did at that fire scene. Rules over people. Abdullah publicly declared the SRP had acted like a pack of idiots, and also used the occasion to not only demand they comply with public safety, but also as an opportunity to end some of the Religious Police's other odious acts widely resented by the Saudi masses. That they would henceforth have to face a legal and clerical review if they went over the line with beatings for trivial offenses.

The politicians and media ripped the owners of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory a new one over their insistence that they were merely enforcing good workplace rules for productivity and safety was also involved because women ducking out were not only shirkers but could jostle themselves or co-workers into the maws of belt-driven machinery, with horrendous results (though as was pointed out to the Rules-based idiots...not as horrendous as masses of workers burning alive because "rules" kept doors locked).

But let's not forget that Present-Day America, the new ossified judge-worshipping legalistic America where the vote of the People means little - is being killed by stupid rules. Rules that one by one mean nothing grave - but collectively, are killing our common sense, ability to get things done, even our safety.

1. Hundreds are alive because they ignored the "Rule" that only WTC security could order evacuation. The people that grabbed their coats and bailed as loudspeakers droned that the Heroes of the Port Authority had the plane crash "incident" well under control, no cause for alarm, everyone is to remain at their desks, and not clog stairwells that might impede "Rescue Heroes".

2. We call the person caught with a raped, blood dripping corpse a "suspect in an alleged crime" because the "rules" say we must...and will let him go free if the "rules governing evidence, search, Miranda" were not perfectly complied with.

3. We will let a road hazard that has killed 10 people in 3 years persist if a stupid environmental or contracting rule stands in the way.

4. Many 9/11 Depts have "ironclad rules" that they cannot give lifesaving advice to a caller in a life or death situation...they must verbally turnover the situation to a First Responder Hero while the caller is put on hold.

5. Etc, etc. Lifesaving drug? Not so fast. The people cannot get it for a decade or so while all the rules are waded through...

6. Conflict over rules? Well, that is for the Majestic courts and the Hero-lawyers to haggle over in leisure - even a conflict over rules that endanger people.

7. Toenail clippers, shampoo bottles, a demand your 8-year old kid's armcast be sniffed at an explosive detector 4 miles away at the other end of the airport and you miss your flight on rules-based stupidity? You know...you must obey! Or your name goes on a list.

8. Dozens of military officers interviewed in the Nidal Hasan investigation are saying he was crazy, unfit, even a high likelihood of being dangerous to his patients recuperation or to his comrade's well being. Why wasn't he flagged? The rules that could punish any speaking out! All the rules that let Hasan be a clear and present danger!

The Saudis & Yemenis have lots of company in America.; 1/9/10, 1:33 PM
former law student said...: carelessness

Does this sound like carelessness?

The exterior personnel door in the break room was the other door locked from the outside.

No, this is capitalism unfettered by government regulation -- a Randian ideal. As the analysis of the tragic tale points out: During the 11-year operation of the plant, no inspection conducted by North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

But all are free to make excuses for tragedies caused by their preferred value system.; 1/9/10, 3:03 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: FLS, read Donbas, or similar, and you can see how it is when the government is in charge and trying to eke out maximum productivity.; 1/9/10, 3:44 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: In other words, the issue you're writing about is an asshole problem, not a capitalism problem. The big problem is that if the asshole is the guy in the government, you will do what he says at the end of a gun's barrel, and there will be nowhere else for you to go.; 1/9/10, 3:47 PM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Peter V. Bella: I mean seriously, this is nothing more than a Phd. version of "What I did on my summer vacation...

That may be, but it's packed with information. It tells us how Saudi Arabia is spreading extremism, Yemen's problems, how friendly the people can be to Westerners; all sorts of things. The author is telling us about a country and it's complicated, that's how life is. Lots of the readers probably hadn't known much about Yemen until they read her article. I think she did a good job of distilling its flavor.; 1/9/10, 4:27 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Hell on earth.

We should fix that.

vw: parti. What women in Yemen never get to do.; 1/9/10, 5:13 PM