Interesting that they put her in a headscarf
God knows what they’ve done to Fayne Turney or threatened her with in order to force this “confession,” but it’s interesting that they put a bag on her head for the occasion. Interesting because it’s popular nowadays to claim that the headscarf is just an expression of one’s faith in Allah and Muslim identity.
Is Faye Turney a Muslim now?
The headscarf is a cultural quirk that far predates the Koran; it comes straight out of the viciously patriarchal society of the Arab peninsula. It symbolizes female subservience and always has. If the headscarf were just an expression of one’s faith, it wouldn’t be obligatory. If it were just an expression of faith, it wouldn’t be forced on non-believers. If it were just an expression of faith, non-Muslim British women would be allowed to appear on television in an Islamic country without wearing the stupid thing. If it were just an expression of faith, women not wearing the headscarf would be able to walk down the street in an Islamic country without risk of being assaulted or having acid thrown on them or being dragged off and raped.
Which is not to say, of course, that it can’t be an expression of faith, or that women who actually want to wear the idiot rag shouldn’t be allowed to. But it is absurd to pretend, as so many want to do nowadays, that the veil is just some value-free ahistorical badge of Muslim identity with absolutely no connection to the extreme oppression of women in traditional Islamic society.
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P.S. Note to neophytes: If you’re unfamiliar with my blog, rest assured that I loathe all patriarchal godbaggery with equal fervor. Islamic fundamentalists, Christofascist fucktwits, industrial-strength Chareidi men who beat up women on buses* — I hate ‘em all. This Sky Fairy shit has got to go.
*Hat tip to Foilwoman (and apologies for never getting around to blogging it properly).
24 Responses to “Interesting that they put her in a headscarf”
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Kaitlyn says:
Godbaggery I can’t rant about on my blog without pissing off my sister, but I probably will later on anyway because it’s my goddamn blog and she can take a flying fuck.
After last night’s Crossing Jordan SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS we had an argument and she huffed off to bed.
She doesn’t go to church services, but she does go to youth group. They don’t spend their time bashing gays and other religions, clearly, they are going to hell.
Anyways, she and I disagree on two big points, and we will never be able to rationally discuss it because her opinion is based in religion.
1 - abortion. Me - yeah, it’s not my body. Her - every sperm is sacred, if she doesn’t want the baby, she can adopt. I was fine with that until she said that she was morally right and that’s how it should be legislated, no abortions for anybody. And if I discuss it (you’re denying other people the right to choose what to do with their own bodies!), I’m fighting with her, according to mom, so we get nowhere.
2 - transgender/trannsexuals. Mom thinks a teacher at her high school is a guy pretending to be a woman. She’s very immature. She hasn’t seen the lady, but she wanted to, to see if the reports of muttonchops were true. becky said if the teacher was pretending to be a woman, the parents must be told because it’s “fraud”. And when I cried bullshit, she’s not hurting anyone, it’s her life, I got the same reaction about abortion and religion (I don’t believe and I “should” and when I ask her questions about her faith, I’m “mocking” her, so she gets bitchy.)
3 - gays, gay marriage, gay adoptions, and gay foster parents. Mom - gay marriage broke up your marriage. “So Nelda and all his girlfriends were really men?” gay parents hurt kids - no more than straight parents. And I said until they force every single parent (didn’t get married, divorced, widowed) to get married to a member of the opposite sex, even if it’s to the child(ren)’s abusive parent, they should shut the fuck up about ‘kids need a mommy and a daddy’. No, they need loving adult(s) - one parent, two married parents, a parent and a boy/girlfriend, aunts and uncles, whatever. Mom said they’ll never force marriage on the general populace, and I said, “Exactly! they just don’t want gays to be happy, out parents living with a member of the same sex.”
Becky - gays are icky, why are you always defending them, are you gay?
Last night, she said I was as bad as the killer in Crossing Jordan.
SPOILERS
The woman killed was a pregnant lesbian and her baby was stolen from her by her partner’s fundy sister, who called the baby a “project” and said that they wanted Anthony to be “perfect forever” and live with her and her husband, not with two women./SPOILERS
Since I thought that was disgusting, and a great time to talk about gay adoption and foster parenting, Becky thought it was time to tell me, again, that I’m every bit as bad as they are, because I’m “discriminating” against people who have different opinions.
“What rights am I denying bigots?”
“You’re discriminating against me and my beliefs!”
“I’m not denying you the right to marry, have kids, or hold a job! That’s what they do!”
“It’s WRONG! You’re just like them!”
“How am I discriminating against ANYONE?”
“I’m going to bed.”
Mom was silent, but she didn’t send me upstairs, we settled down to watch a rerun of Law and Order: SVU on USA. It started with people shooting at a school, and it ended with a dream the involved Sabrina the Teenage Witch and that ended with Mom and Wickett howling for Kaitlyn and Becky to get up at 6 PM. I’ve had two good nights of sleep this week. :)
Tuesday night, I fell asleep at 7 and woke up at 5:45 because Mom made me get up so I could take my morning meds on time. Same with today.
Much better than Monday night, when I went to bed Tuesday morning at 3 and woke up at 6 with Wickett on me.
I missed the Daily Show and Colbert Report Tuesday and yesterday, but I watched the rerun yesterday at 9, and that’s what I’ll be doing in less than 30 minutes.
That also caused a fight between Becky and I. “If it’s on again, why do you stay up late?”
Monday night, I knew if I didn’t watch it at 10, I might not get a chance to watch it again, because NCIS was on at 7, and I’d be at the crisis center at 9 and 1. Yesterday, if I’d gone to the cc, I would have watched it at 7. Same with today. But I’m not because the computer’s busted and I don’t think the docs want me doing the physical labor of sorting clothes. I certainly don’t, not with hot flashes and abdominal pain!
The crisis center is one of the best examples of religion. I’m willing to bet 99% of our clients are religious, whether or not they go to church. I know I’m the only volunteer who isn’t. The clients cling to faith as a way to help them through the bad times in their life, and the volunteers volunteer, not just because of their faith, but it probably played a part early on.
However, we have run into douchebag godbags - the minister of the church where the food bank is. He doesn’t want to give out food bank food to people living in hotels or to more than 5 families a day, or we’re ‘enabling’ them. They need food to live, most of the families have children, and Lois (the director, Catholic) says that some people abuse the system and will abuse it no matter what. Some people think because there are people who abuse the system, we should do away with it. Okay, do away with government funded police forces - after all, some are corrupt and they’re obviously not good at their job, there’s still crime. (Ok, the second’s based on arguments for private schools - kids are stupid, it must be the public teacher’s fault. And there are lazy teachers who don’t give a damn, but they did, at one point, but standardized tests and school administrations and low pay ground it out of them.)
My sister has a non-godbag view on (straight) marriage, sex, and abstinence only education. Our parents marriage was a trainwreck, she says she may never get married, but that doesn’t mean she won’t have sex. And she thinks abstinence only education is stupid.
However, she disagrees with the ‘theory of evolution’. When her bio teacher brought it up, she and some of her classmates started saying “We don’t believe in this, it goes against our religion.” My bio teacher said she didn’t believe in evolution, but I don’t remember us making a fuss over that, just the fact that she was a poor teacher. Evolution does not say that a monkey was your grandfather, it says a monkey is your cousin, we’re descended from a common ancestor, not the ones today. That’s why there are apes and monkeys today. We flipped a coin a few millienia ago and the winners got to stay in trees and go naked and have fun. And the losers got religion and civilization and clothes and no tree houses. :(
March 29th, 2007 at 9:47 am EST -
Kaitlyn says:
I actually think headscarves are beautiful, but that may be because Muslims are definitely a minority in Memphis, so they’re so different, they’re beutiful.
I do agree that no one should be forced to wear one. Christian girls had to wear as much clothing to protect them from the wandering eyes of men in the bad old days.
However, I do find the chador with veil covering the face downright scary, but that’s not because she’s hiding a bomb in there, but because I like to see people’s faces. A picture of the elephant man in his mask (bag over head) scared me more than a picture of him without. The KKK bit in “Oh, Brother Where Art Thou” scares me silly because they’re talking, but their mouths aren’t moving.
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Kaitlyn says:
Another bit of oddness from a religious friend. (He’s cooled off a lot in the last few years.)
Whe we were freshman, he asked to get transferred from the only Honors English class for 9th graders because we had to read Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
Not because it is one of the dullest retelling of the Greek and Roman myths, but because he thought it was religious propaganda and she was telling us to worship Zeus instead of YHWH.
And another religious friend - who’s still as strong in her faith as ever - had the stupidest blog post on myspace. I could tell it was an e-mail forward type thing. It was a prayer to god about prayer in schools. We canhave guns and condoms, and there are lots of pregnant girls (wouldn’t the condoms stop that?), but we can’t have our bibles.
Yes you can! You just can’t force others to read it. A teacher cannot lead a class in prayer. A teacher who is the advisor for a religious club can lead the club members in prayer, but not the rest of the students.
That’s it.
A teacher can have a cross on his/her desk. That’s fine. They just can’t preach to us.
Which violates some Christians religious beliefs.
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mythago says:
Now, now. The proper way to explode the heads of godbags is to beat them over the head with the parts of their own religion that point out the Sky Fairy does not share their penis issues.
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anna says:
Please write about the reintroduction of the ERA, Violet.
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simply wondered says:
at the risk of annoying people by being almost on-thread (first time for everything) the greatest obscenity is the really crap english they made her use for her alleged letters home. i mean what will her children’s teachers think of her? assuming they aren’t sacked for wearing the hijab, that is.
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simply wondered says:
and vi - how come you’re talking to neophytes? aren’t they just another dangerous religious sect?
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Violet says:
Kaitlyn, my wish for you is that you can get the fuck out of Memphis. You are drowning down there in Jebusland. Your sister may be hopeless, but you can break free! Just get on a bus and keep heading north and then east to the big cities. I think we should print a blue/red map for would-be escapees from Jebusland so they can know where to go, because of course there is lots of red up north too; you’ve got to head for the blue patches.
Mythago, sorry about that — you went into the mod queue because you used the p- word. I’m quite fond of the p- word but had to put in a filter when I was being inundated with erectile dysfunction spam.
Anna, has the ERA been re-introduced? I’ve been living under a rock and so I don’t know.
SW — in all seriousness, what’s the mood over there about this hostage situation?
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Kaitlyn says:
I’d love to leave Memphis, but I have $7,500 a year scholarship waiting for me at the University of Memphis. Instate tution and all.
My mom says I should keep my religious beliefs to myslef and not talk about them until college, because it makes everyone angry.
She got so mad last night.
She never goes to church, she never reads the bible, she’s not part a church group, but she’s a touchy about religion as Becky is. She must think that if I don’t believe in the Sky Fairy (I’ve never said used that name in front of her) I’m doing three things, which I am not. One - I am spitting in the faces of all who pray(ed) for me. Two - I have to believe in something, if it’s not God, what is it? “I don’t know!” “You hav eot believe in something!” She was crying, I was crying. She left me for two hours in Memphis that day she was so pissed because I didn’t belief in God. She made me call my cousin’s mother-in-law, a minister, and she prayed for me over the phone. I didn’t know what my mom wanted. This still makes me cry becaus I love my mom, but religion is such a wedge, and we’ll never agree and she gets FURIOUS. And three, I’m the antichrist.
yesterday, we got a ride to the library with my devout catholic grandmother. She invited us to captain D’s today - since it’s Lent, the only meat allowed is fish for Fridays. I asked her when did it change from all Fridays, because when she was growing up, no meat on Friday ever. She said the early 70s, under Paul the 7th.
Then I asked her what she gave up for lent. “Being idle - I have a job, I love it, blah blah blah.” Doesn’t that go against the whole purpose of Lent? You’re supposed to sacrifice something - candy, meat, cigs (heavy smoker, my grandma), gossip. So on April 9th, is she quitting her job and watching soaps all day?
I said I gave up religion for Lent. haha, get it? By giving up religion for Lent, I’ve broken the lent rules because I’m following a religious practice. I said, it’s just like when I say my new year’s resolution is to make no resolutions, haha contradicting myself?
Grandma said nothing, Becky said nothing.
I went on a ten minute bike ride, then called Grandma to cancel dinner, because I love riding my bike and we’d be eating and seeing a crappy movie (Wild Hogs) during the only cool part of the day. She didn’t sound mad. We have an icy relationship at best, I don’t like her.
Then I went out on my bike again, with wickett in the front basket, too, too cute.
I came home and got chewed out, and I can’t blog about this either because it will just prove her point that I’m bitter, sarcastic, and mean.
I’m also close minded towards anyone who thinks different from me. I’m bitter about religion because I ask questions and make jokes. But Grandma doesn’t have a sense of humor.
So mom has a rude child who has no tact because she made a joke about lent in front of her devout grandmother!!
It would be easier to be gay here than to be an atheist.
I’m not bitter about religion, I’m bitter because of my mom’s touchiness. She’s close-minded too, she won’t even consider that there’s no god.
But I’m the bad person.
And I can’t leave Memphis for a few years, until I’m healthy. My doctors are here, and I’ve been seeing my primary care doctor since 1999. I don’t have time to rebuild that right now. Maybe after graduation I’ll move. Anywhere with snow and public transportation.
I can’t discuss racism in front of black people and I can’t discuss religion with people who go to church. (Becky - “I don’t know! You’re making fun of me!”)
I think I should, no matter how tactless it is. We need to bring these discussions out, not just online and on college campuses.
I also needled grandma about her racism - becky’s dark-skinned guy friend came over when becky wasn’t here (like all her good friends, he just walks in whether she’s here or not - if he rang the doorbell, he’d set the dogs off again). When grandma pulled up, I said, “Jonathan, hurry, come outside with me.” Just so grandma could see a dark-skinned boy at our house.
Mom didn’t say I need to respect her racism. But I need to respect my sister’s homophobia, which has no logical base, it’s all religion.
AND I CAN’T BLOG ABOUT IT.
Mom will call me bitter and drag me to church.
Something is wrong with you here if you don’t go to church.
I hate it.
And you can’t really discuss religion, because it’s all “God said so” “I don’t know”. Mom says becky’s youth leader wants to talk to me, but she(mom) doesn’t think I should, because I’m so bitter, I’ll ruin Becky’s relationship with her youth leader.
I left a message with her today.
When Mom sent someone from the church to the house to counsel me, I didn’t spit in her face and deny her entry. And we didn’t talk about God.
People think I’m angry at God for all my illnesses.
I’m not. I’m an apathetic agnostic, it doesn’t matter. However, I am curious about religion and religious customs.
So I’m bitter.
Fuck that.
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Kaitlyn says:
I’m converting to Islam this fall or joining a random cult.
“What mom, are you close-minded?”
Fuckity fuck fuck.
Oh well, I’ve raved about it here, I’ve raved about it in e-mails to internet buddies.
Bah.
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Foilwoman says:
Thanks Dr. Socks! Your blog has a much higher readership than mine, and you are more feminist specific in your writing (mine’s all over the map, I admit) so I’m glad the godbag chareidi’s got pointed at here. My next post will include all the contact information for the “no prenatal care for teens” guys in North Dakota.
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simply wondered says:
‘SW — in all seriousness, what’s the mood over there about this hostage situation?’ - well since you ask, i can exclusively reveal that … nobody seems too bothered.
certainly nobody seriously believes she wrote the letters (well i certainly don’t, which comes to the same thing for me); you find me one sailor that would refer to themselves as a ‘Serviceperson’! she doesn’t come up on my list of automatic choices when i start typing her into google. i think everyone knows there’ll be a bit of sabre-rattling by iran and they’ll be returned (actually my friend will have to give the russians a bit of a bollocking for not coming in on the un resolution). blair - who, while satan, isn’t daft - is determinedly making the least out of it and refusing to get macho or threatening with them (so you have to assume that’s what iran wants)and you have to feel for a nation who try to take on us brits at what we do better than anyone else in the world - managing the media to push our lies.
so overall, hold the third page from the end just next to the foreign women’s news. maybe we could borrow jimmy carter and make it all a bit more interesting… -
Violet says:
well since you ask, i can exclusively reveal that … nobody seems too bothered.
Really? That’s bizarre. I’m bothered about it. I’m always worried about people who are kidnapped — I mean god knows what they’re being threatened with, what they’re going through. You know they must be frightened, and I’m frightened for them. British people really don’t care?
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simply wondered says:
i’m sure on a personal level they/we care; if we assumed there would be any chance of them being harmed we would worry, but it’s just not a huge news story right now; and apart form anything else they are ‘Servicepersons’ in a combat zone and you have to expect a few knocks; cowardly lefties like me have been banging on so long about people (soldiers and otherwise) getting killed in iraq and nobody seems to give a shit, so i hardly think anyone is going to get too exercised about sailors getting ‘three meals each day and regular fluids’ (as Faye supposedly told her family) - or maybe we’ve all been so bloody brainwashed by jack straw that we automatically hate anyone in a hijab…
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simply wondered says:
update - newsnight on bbc2 has just come on and it’s the lead story. another of the marines has made a highly convincing (ahem) apology on film for violating iranian waters. it still doesn’t bear the tone of a major crisis. i guess it will just depend whether the daily mail gets onto it.
i mean iran are already involved in iraq - so what are they going to do; just keep annoying us so we join the shrub in his planned iranian attack? what’s actually in it for iran? i really think they have misjudged us here. i know we aren’t nice people and the blair government has many faults, but it isn’t as naive as this seems to assume.
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Violet says:
what’s actually in it for iran?
The only persuasive suggestion I’ve heard is that they’re hoping to use the 15 Brits as bargaining chips for the 5 Iranians the U.S. captured in Iraq a couple of months ago. Which would mean that for Britain to “apologize” could actually just be the signal for the Iranians to then say, okay now that you’ve admitted you were spying/invading, we’ve got your spies/invaders here and we’re going to execute them unless your buddy Shrub lets our people go.
Another possibility is that what’s going on is a factional thing within Iran; I think the Republican guards or something like that are the people who grabbed your sailors and probably various groups within Iran are struggling for control of the situation — which would explain why the messages coming out of Iran are so weirdly contradictory from hour to hour.
Either way, I don’t share your confidence that the sailors are in little danger. I think they’re in a great deal of danger.
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simply wondered says:
well if i’m wrong it wouldn’t be the first time. there really will be some trouble if they are executed. great british public are about as keen on that sort of thing as the americans. but are the factions really loony enough to try an extremely high risk stunt like that. the things that appear in faye’s first letter to the family about how she’ll be back to see the kids ‘with a present from the iranian people’ as well as the positive references to iranians and the humanity of her treatment at their hands just don’t look like they are setting her up to be executed. she’s coming across in the letter as a really sweet family woman (which i think is the iranian intention) and to execute her after that would be a bit schizophrenic and surely wouldn’t play well with people (particularly women) in iran. she is being identified as another innocent victim of british imperialism just like the poor honest iranian nation - rather than an enemy spy or combatant.
as i say, i have been wrong before…i will consult a couple of people in the industry and see what perspective they can offer.
this is simply wondered in london for socks news. -
simply wondered says:
sorry! i just realised i accused the iranian leadership of giving what i believe is known in your great country as ‘a rat’s ass’ about what women think.
ahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah oww. -
Violet says:
The business about the sailors possibly being tried and facing punishment is ominous. Not good. As for Faye’s letter, didn’t they make her write that she has been “sacrificed” to British (and American) imperialism?
Speaking of the letters, interesting that no one in the entire Iranian government can write fluent English.
No matter what happens, I’m sure that the British people are finding this ever more cause to rejoice that they are allied to the U.S.. Being tied to Bush is just the sunshine path all around, isn’t?
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simply wondered says:
we can’t blame shrub; we and our leadership are every bit as bad. we chose freely to get into this insane aggression against musliminess. even blair should have known better. i like that dave (my best mate) cameron the notting hill cokehead has finally had to admit that, even tho he has slagged off the whole thing, he would have gone into iraq too. of course, he would have done it way better because - well the tories, they love a fucking war don’t they! better get used to it; this loathesome oily thing may just be the next PM and the one who makes us long for the golden days of t blair. lord help us all. (or the big sky fairy if you are the good doctor - just as reasonable as neither will do anything).
promise i will get onto my sources and see what they think - may be interesting because between them they represent lots of shades of vaguely establishment or at least allegedly informed opinion. we shall see. -
Ruth says:
“The business about the sailors possibly being tried and facing punishment is ominous.”
Rather like Hicks being ‘tried’ at Guantanamo
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kalibhakta says:
thank you…that was a great post, Violet. once again you have cut through the BS to expose what’s really going on.
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simply wondered says:
well they are back with some free clothes as a gift from the iranian people (cheap marketing stunt for iaran’s tailors?)to cries from a delighted british public of ‘now what the fuck was all that about anyway?’
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butter says:
Ok to comment on-topic?
Fundamentalism of all stripes scares me as well. I’ve directly encountered it from Jews (myself and a friend being told on a Jerusalem bus to stop singing — we were learning Hebrew by translating pop-song lyrics to ourselves) and from Muslims (constant proselytizing, and occasional refusals to shake my filthy infidel hand (by women — men would never shake hands with an unrelated female), in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania). And through cultural osmosis as an American, from Christians.
That said, headscarves are a useful item in a windy, sandy environment, which is where they are most worn. The reasons for “having to” wear them do suck giant hairy infidel balls.
