In my day-to-day life here I do sometimes “forget” that I am living in the Middle East. OK, granted, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to get right, what with the dust and heat, especially at this time of year, but when you are busy with living your life there are things you begin to take for granted and you stop noticing them. And this week (weekend at least) I have once again been reminded that the things I may once have taken for granted at home, are neither normal or commonplace in certain parts of the region. I wanted to share with you two (unrelated) stories about Saudi Arabia today.
First off Stu pulled an article out of the Gulf News newspaper on Friday to share with me. As I seldom bother to read the paper myself he kindly keeps me updated with interesting titbits that I might want to know, or, more importantly, he feels may be good blog-fodder. You will be relieved to hear that this story had nothing to do with Swine Flu or the South African election, nope this story was about the “Miss Beautiful Morals” pageant, the only beauty pageant held in Saudi Arabia, which began yesterday.
Sukaina Al Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no once can tell what she looks like. She also admits she’s a little on the plump side. But at Saudi Arabia’s only beauty pageant the judges don’t care about a perfect figure or face. What they’re looking for … is the contestant who shows the most devotion and respect for her parents.
“The winner won’t necessarily be pretty,” added Khadra Al Mubarak (founder of the pageant), “We care about the beauty of the soul and the morals.”
200 hopefuls will attend classes and be quizzed on themes relating to various Islamic tenets during the 10 week contest period; thereafter they will spend a day, with their mothers, at a country house where their interactions will be observed and graded by the completely female panel of judges. The pageant is not televised, nor are any men involved, but there is a small prize for the winner of $2,600.
The second story was on the News24 website today, in fact I was alerted to it by a colleague in Iran. This story is titled “Slapping a wife ‘is okay’” and goes on as follows:
A Saudi judge has told a seminar on domestic violence that it is okay for a man to slap his wife for lavish spending.
…”If a person gives 1,200 riyals ($320) to his wife and she spends 900 riyals ($240) to purchase an abaya from a brand shop, and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” he said.
Razine acknowledged the depth of the problem of domestic violence, until recently not acknowledged as a serious issue in the ultra-conservative Muslim country, where family problems traditionally remained behind closed doors.
Saudi women have in the past few years become more vocal about the problem of husbands beating wives and fathers mistreating children.
But Razine said some of the blame must be shouldered by wives for their behaviour. “Nobody puts even a fraction of the blame on them,” he said, according to the report.
I am the first to admit that South Africa is far from perfect however it is a place where beauty queens proudly wear swimsuits and real men don’t hit their wives, so stories like these are a stark reminder that not everyone sees the world the same way. But as this is no place for my judgements and opinions I will keep these to myself, and merely close by saying that I am relieved for Miss Beautiful Morals that she will at least be able to buy her own abaya or two.