In Iran: There ain't no cure for the Summertime Blues

Equal opportunity oppressors - now they're going after the dudes.

Police to start crackdown on young boys.

With summer time heath (sic) reaching new peaks, the commander of Tehran Police announced new crackdowns, this time targeting mostly young boys wearing “perverted western dress and hairs cut according to “pervert western models”.

From the first of Mordad (the Iranian month starting on July 23) police numbers will double to confront immoral behaviour", Tehran police chief stated, quoted by the media.

Boys with shorts panties, dresses having “pervert western marks and hairs cut using western pervert styles would be arrested, taken to special police detention centres where they would have to give the name of the hair dresser who has cut their heirs (sic)using “pervert western patterns” before asking their parents to come for taking them away, the Commander said, quoted by “Aftab” news website.

If the boy has a “perverted western hair dress, the parents have to take him to a hair dresser to arrange his hairs “normal looking”. If he is wearing “perverted western dress”, like short pants, or dresses having “western pervert marks”, the parents have to bring with them “normal clothing” to be changed at the detention centre before taking their progenitor away.

Hoo-boy. There's more about the 'monkerat'(morality po-lice)at the link.

And not so fast there, Missy. We aren't forgetting about you! Government to put more pressure on women's covering. And it's like something out of a spooky science fiction movie.

During an ongoing exhibit titled “My Land’s Women,” deputy governor of Tehran announced, “200 new chador designs, 50 superior hejab designs and 60 new dress designs, which have all been approved by university professors, will be unveiled for female participants at the exhibit.”

Do the burka crime. Do the time.

Dinah has long called for the hijab/burka/niqab to be banned.

(And barring that idea, it should only be allowed to be worn in parades.)

Well, it seems like Geert Wilders has another idea.

INCARCERATION.

A right-wing Dutch lawmaker wants women jailed for wearing the head-to-toe Islamic robe known as a burqa, calling it a "symbol of oppression."

Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party has nine lawmakers in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, filed a proposal Thursday to make wearing a burqa in public a crime punishable by up to 12 days jail.

"The burqa and niqab are a symbol of oppression of women," Wilders told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said burqas and the niqab — a full-faced veil with only a slit for the eyes — hindered integration of Muslim women into Dutch society and also posed a security risk.

An Islamic community spokesman, Ayhan Tonca, called Wilders' proposal "totally out of proportion" and accused him of seeking to broaden a rift between Muslims and the rest of Dutch society.

Last November, the Dutch government said it was drawing up legislation to ban burqas, but that administration was defeated in elections the same month. The new centrist coalition of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has no plans to implement a burqa ban, meaning Wilders' proposal has little chance of becoming law.

Iran: 3rd phase of "moralisation campaign" to kick off.

Primavera - Botticelli

Going to the mountains? Or a park? Singing? Laughing out loud?

You're busted, buddy.

A new phase of the Iranian government's moralisation campaign is due to kick off on Friday, and "is set to intensify over summer" said police chief General Ahmad Reza Radan. "The third phase involves the cleaning up of our parks and of our mountains of immoral elements which prevent families from passing their weekends peacefully."

Behaviour in holiday spots, which is not in adherence with strict Islamic morality, will be punished. As well as dressing in appropriately, this could involve listening to music, singing or laughing out loud or walking hand in hand.

And don't EVEN be thinking of going to a promiscuous party.

140 young people, both male and female, were arrested during "promiscuous" parties organised in private homes.

Some interesting numbers from the article. Up to this point almost 63,000 women have been arrested for being "malveiled", half of them "business women" (uppity beyotches). 2500 businesses, internet cafes and restaurants have been closed down and over 8000 "offenders of public morals" have been arrested, 2000 remain in custody. 350,000 indecent and offensive CD's and DVDs have also been destroyed.

And how about this?

The news agency FARS, which is close to the Tehran government, also reported that some 175 'indecent' paintings and sculptures at Tabriz, the capital of Iranian Azerbaijan. Among those seized in a shop there was a reproduction of the famous Primavera by Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli which has near naked figures cavorting in a pastoral scene.

Iran: Festival honoring hijab and chastity...

A pearl nesting in its shell...

(or cover it and clam up, be-yotch.)

Iran's first festival to celebrate the Muslim headscarf and chastity, entitled 'A pearl nestling in its shell' is due to take place in Birjand in the western Khorasan region. There will be close to 200 talks and over 60 poetry readings, as well as 43 photo exhibitions and viewings of the work of 13 painters, as well as 5 multimedia installations. The event will close with a fashion show of more than five hundred garments which in the eyes of the organisers will show that chastity and elegance are not incompatible.

Philadelphia: Police can ban hijab

Although the Inquirer refers to it as "religious garb" in its headline. (FYI- the hijabettes are thick on the ground down in Philly.)

A Philadelphia police officer has no right to wear a head covering as required by her Muslim faith when she is in uniform, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The Police Department's uniform code "has a compelling public purpose," Judge Harvey Bartle III wrote in deciding against Kimberlie Webb, an officer since 1995.

In writing the opinion on the case the judge cited the department's uniform code, known as Directive 78, which maintains "religious neutrality" and the ruling overturns a 2003 EEOC finding that the department had "violated Webb's rights in barring her from wearing a hijab/khimar.

The police cited safety concerns, arguing that Webb could have been hurt or restrained by someone grabbing at her hijab. (I think that's one of the reason Muslim men are all for their wimmen folk wearing the things!)

It is not known if Webb will appeal the ruling. I'm betting she will...

Latest Islamic Whinefest - airbrushed hijabs

Teachers 'lack understanding' and 'demoralising' practice. Wah-wah-wah! I love this!

Muslim hijab 'airbrushed out of school photo'

A VICTORIAN Muslim schoolgirl had her traditional headscarf airbrushed from a class photograph in just one example of the discrimination Islamic students face, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

While the majority of Victorian schools support students who wear the headwear, some teachers needed more understanding of Islam, the inquiry into Dress Codes and School Uniforms heard today.

The Islamic Council of Victoria is urging the inquiry to continue to allow Muslim students to wear traditional religious items as a "fundamental right" to freedom of religious observance.

More at the link here.

Wear Hijab or face death!

Sonia Verma in Ramallah.
photo courtesy of Times Online.

Woman broadcasters told to wear hijab or face death.

There is no compulsion in Islam, but there is compulsion in Islamofashion. Evidently.

As one of Gaza’s most seasoned television news correspondents, Lana Shaheen has braved everything from Israeli airstrikes to Palestinian sniper fire to get her story. But in ten years of reporting from one of the world’s most dangerous war zones, she has never felt fear like the kind that gripped her when a chilling text message was sent to her mobile phone.

“You are without shame or morals,” it read. “We will cut your throat from vein to vein if needed to protect the spirit and moral of this nation.”

The threat was an excerpt from a longer letter sent by a radical Palestinian group to more than a dozen women television broadcasters working in Gaza and the West Bank.

More background on the incident here.

Video of brutality smuggled out of Iran

Iran Focus has been able to get a hold of video of some poor soul getting a serious beatdown (and really bad case of road rash) by the Iranian Fashion Police. His crime? As far as I can tell, he was wearing a t-shirt. Given the fact that the Iranian media have been instructed to not publish these pictures, I am going to put up every one I find.

About this vid:
The clip which was aired on Simaye Azadi was captured by a bystander using a mobile phone and smuggled out of Iran. Simaye Azadi said it obtained the video from supporters of the People’s Mojahedin (MeK).

They go on to add:
So far neither the European Union nor the United States have expressed condemnation of the government-orchestrated crackdown.

Click here to see the video.

Iran: Media told not to criticize Fashion Police

or show pics or videos...

As controversial pictures and video clips of the police’s treatment of "inappropriately dressed" women are circulating on the worldwide web, the National Security Office forwarded a letter to newspapers asking them to refrain from criticizing any aspects of the so-called plan to increase public security.

From now on, newspapers and publications will be unable to criticize the various aspects of a plan that has already generated much controversy by pitting police officers against women in crowded streets of Tehran.

In the past few days, several video clips taken by mobile phones have been circulating around the web: one is depicting a women being dragged on the ground by the police, another is of a woman getting kicked by officers, and a third shows a woman with a bloody face, following clashes with police officers at Haft Tir Square in Tehran.

Such pictures and videos have been circulating widely on the web, and are available at popular website such as YouTube and highly-visited personal blogs. The BBC reporter in Tehran, Francess Harisson, began one of his latest reports by showing one such clip.

More detail on the attacks at the Rooz link.

The Mullahs speak about the female condition

Iranian Mullah Hot-to-trot Hassani: If his wife's a donkey, I guess that makes him an ass.

From Gateway Pundit: What do women and mass transit have in common?

Quite a lot, according to Iranian Mullah Hojatolislam Hassani. In last Friday's sermon about the crackdown on Iranian Fashion Victims, the Islamic hardliner divided women into three groups--

The first group... he said are the women who are badly veiled who are like buses who everyone and anyone can ride.

The second group... are women who are wearing scarves without the Islamic overcoats; they are like taxis who only pick up certain passengers.

And finally, in the third group... there are women like my wife who are like donkeys who let only one person ride them!

Bonus fatwa: Breast feeding among adult co-workers okay.

Ezzat Attiya had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, saying adult men could breast-feed from female work colleagues as a way to avoid breaking Islamic rules that forbid men and women from being alone together.

In Islamic tradition, breast-feeding establishes a degree of maternal relation, even if a woman nurses a child who is not biologically hers. It means the child could not marry the nursing woman’s biological children.

Attiya - the head of Al-Azhar’s Department of Hadith, or teachings of the Prophet Muhammad - insisted the same would apply with adults. He argued that if a man nursed from a co-worker, it would establish a family bond between them and allow the two to work side-by-side without raising suspicion of an illicit sexual relation.

Sorry, boys. Before you go rushing off to the break room - he has since recanted.

Iran: Fashion police victim attempts suicide. Further crackdown urged.

It appears to be true:

A 21-year-old medical student at the University of Shahrekord in western Iran identified only as Farinaz attempted suicide on Monday by overdosing on aspirin after police had arrested and later released her for breaking new Islamic dress code rules. She is currently in a coma at the hospital of Isfahan. Under a new moralization campaign which kicked off last month, police can arrest women who do not abide by a strict Islamic dress code. Farinaz had reportedly not fully covered her hair with the veil.

While a greater crackdown is being called for by an official of the He man woman haters club.

“The actions of State Security Forces (SSF) against mal-veiled women are necessary but insufficient”, said Farahnaz Qandforoush, the governorate’s advisor on women’s affairs.The SSF should have decisively enforced the dress code over the past decade, Qandforoush told the government-run news agency Fars.“The inaction in previous years has led women and girls to start thinking that they can appear in society in any way they want”, Qandforoush protested.

You have to wonder where this is all headed.

More in the Hijab Wars - this time Somalia.

Well, technically they are the niqab, not the hijab...

Somali gov't forces begin to seize women hijab in Mogadishu

Security forces of the Somali transitional government have begun seizing and burning women's face veils in the country's capital Mogadishu in an attempt to stop insurgents from disguising them for the sake of carrying out attacks.

Residents said the soldiers were ordering women in burkas to remove their face veils on Wednesday but the operation was later stopped by their superior.

"Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women," Somali police spokesman Ali Nur reportedly said.

Somali news portal Shabelle News reported on Thursday a woman was injured when two hand grenades went off in the Somali capital on Wednesday where government soldiers were confiscating and burning face veils worn by women near the city's main Bakara market.

The Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) which was driven out of Mogadishu at the beginning of this year encouraged wearing of face veils by women.

Traditionally Somali women tend to just cover their heads, but in recent years burkas which cover the entire face and body and niqabs - a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear - have become more popular.

The Somali authorities say some of the SCIC remnants have been caught wearing veils to masquerade as women so as to carry attacks on government troops.

Muslim jeans: They're better to pray in...

And they're not just for Muslims anymore.

"It’s not just Muslims who are buying our jeans now," said Susanna Cavalli, chief of product development for the Italian company Al Quds. (Their motto: "We've Got All The Same Roots.") With a baggy cut and multiple pockets, the company’s new line of jeans was mainly tailored to cater to Muslims who want to stay comfortable while praying.

But Cavalli says Al Quds jeans are becoming popular among non-Muslims too."It’s a good fashion product, first of all. That means the spectrum of our audience is growing."

Project Runway: Heidi Klum in a burka

More dhimmitude from the world of fashion. I'm telling you, it's not going to be long before a Hollywood starlet takes the plunge and takes the veil. Pitiful. At least this guy has some fun with it - although I take issue with his RACIST claim. The last time I checked ISLAM was NOT a race.

From Arabisto: Holy Runway.. Heidi Klum in a Hijab

Someone sent a note to the Arab NY list, a local information email list I belong to, looking for "Muslim Fashion Designer" to participate in the next season of "Project Runway".

For those of you not familiar with the popular cable show on Bravo, Project Runway is a competition that pits fashion designer against each other with weekly eliminations leading to one winner at the end of each season. The show is hosted by Heidi Klum, the georgeous german super model.

While I am sure the intent of the producers to reach out and seek "Muslim Fashion" designer are innocent and sincere, I couldn't help but wonder what would this lead to. Is the inclusion of a Muslim designer a smart PR move to increase audience? Or is this a well meaning (albeit racist) attempt by the producers to prove that Muslims are capable of producing beautiful things (not just blow up the planet).

And why just pick on Muslims? Why not have a Project Runway - Religion Edition? Designers from various religions and sects can be represented. Oh the fun we could have. What Would Jesus Wear (WWJW)? Hey, Orthodox Women, check out the new hot sheets with pre-cut holes ... Buddhists can maybe mix some colors to orange... this could get very creative ...

Who knows? Maybe if we move the religious and secterian hatred from the streets to the runways, it might give the rest of us a chance to just watch it on TV and figure out who is the wackiest.

Pass the popcorn, kosher salt only.

Iranian Fashion Victims: 150,000 arrested. 100 to stand trial.

IRAN: 100 WOMEN TO STAND TRIAL OVER NEW DRESS RULES
An Iranian judiciary spokesman said Wednesday that 100 women have been ordered to stand trial after the first week of a moralisation campaign imposing stricter Islamic dress code rules. Alireza Jamshidi said the women were charged with breaking the law on the veil and instigating prostitution with their dress style. Jamshidi added that thousands of others stopped by police on the street over the past week for failing to respect the Islamic dress code would not be tried because "they were not covered by the veil properly, but not in an evident matter and not intentionally."

Iranian authorities said last Friday they had arrested 150,000 women for breaking dress codes in the first week since the new rules were implemented.Under the new regulations, women found guilty of infringing Islamic dress rules can be sentenced to jail.

More local color on the situation from Persian Journal. It states that 13 are being held for trial not 100 - but is dated a few days ago:
Iran president manages to connect gooz-be-shaqiqe, "again"


P.S. I'm still trying to find out what gooz-be-shaqiqe means.

Eek! You people in England are starting to scare me!

A model wears an outfit by Fashion East designer Louise Golden during her catwalk show at London Fashion Week in London, Monday Feb. 12, 2007. The designers are showing their Autumn/ Winter 2007/8 collections. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Dear Readers - Blogging has been light as of late. Recent political events have caused a vague depression to settle over my shoulders like a wet wool blanket. The depression weighs me down but the time spent away from blogging gives me time to take a longer view. This is a good thing. It also allowed me to finish my summer reading: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Until The Final Hour: Hitler's Last Secretary.

But Dinah is a perfectionist and the fact that she has been having a hard time accessing a lot of so called "right wing" leaning websites using her google based browser keeps bugging her. So as she was checking the LGF feed to see if it was working. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles. It was. Powerline is still in the crapper (pardon my Edwards' blogger potty mouth) as is some of my other faves, Right Wing, Hot Air to name a few. It's weird. Anywho. So Dinah saw this post about London Fashion Week. And you know Dinah and fashion. It snapped her out of her stinking thinking stupor long enough to post this.

Baby steps people.

(More on that stinking thinking business later...more islamofashion too!)