Egypt Activist, Poses Naked, Sparks Outrage, article.
A supporter, who identified himself as Emad Nasr Zikri, wrote in a comment on Elmahdy's blog, "We need to learn how to separate between nudity and sex." He said that before fundamentalist influence in Egypt, "there were nude models in art school for students to draw."
Some 100 people liked his comment, while thousands flooded the site with insults. Some denounced Elmahdy as a "prostitute" and "mentally sick" or urged police to arrest her.
Its shocking to see such extreme and irrational rage, particularly to somebody who grew up in Denmark, which was the first country in the world in 1968 to legalize pornography, and where the worst you'll see in case of nudity is somebody going "harumph!" and turning their back.
Writer Jed McKenna said that "sanity is a numbers game". Meaning that if enough people have an idea, it is no longer considered insane.
Elmahdy's blog post is unbelievably brave.
Update: Pascal wrote to me:
It's probably a good thing you don't understand Arabic. The Facebook comments on her blog page are mostly a furious hailstorm of religious anathema and highly crude insults.
Update: cross-border support.
Playboy should do a "Women of the Middle East" issue.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I'm sure they don't have any issues with potential firebombs. :-)
ReplyDeleteThey're doing that anyway. Besides, Hef's already 80 or something, a fatwa wouldn't bother him much.
ReplyDeletelooks like Israeli women have stripped in support as well
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2064267/Israeli-women-strip-support-nude-Egyptian-blogger-Aliaa-Elmahdy.html
Unfortunately they're covering up but I guess that's because it's a news story and of course seeing a few tits would corrupt readers. I mean what if children saw?! Why hasn't somebody thought of the children?
ReplyDeleteSome of the comments to that story are pretty stupid though. One genius wrote: "world has fallen down the gutter since the Roman Empire collapsed
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2064267/Israeli-women-strip-support-nude-Egyptian-blogger-Aliaa-Elmahdy.html#ixzz1eXbjkRpz"
I didn't mean to requote that link, oh well.
ReplyDeleteSomebody once said: "people say the youth is uneducated these days. Well, people have been saying that since the times of the ancient Greeks in the Roman Empire."
ReplyDeleteBesides, the world seems to actually be a much nicer place since the fall of Rome. No slavery, for one. Face it, Rome's fall wasn't a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteBut like they say in Life of Brian, they did introduce a lot of good things. It's funny how it seems to be the most fascist societies which make the most progress materially. Not that I think it's worth it.
ReplyDeleteRome didn't invent anything, though. They popularized some things, like the arch. Their reliance on slave labor is partly what prevented them from utlizing new technologies, which Europeans did start to do in the so-called Dark Ages. It's a shame that so much ancient literature was lost, but then, really, the Vikings have as much to do with that as the barbarians who destroyed Rome.
ReplyDeleteNerrrrrrrrrrd!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteRomans, fascists? Come on... From a certain point of view, any organised society is fascist, if we take today's more and more hysteric way of seeing everything.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, they had the 207 year-long peace, the Pax Romana. Who competes?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOK, fascist I dunno, but emperialistic, certainly, and you don't extend and hold an empire without a lot of force.
ReplyDeleteWhat is better, I really don't know. I'm leaning towards that idea that things won't really be better no matter the politics, until we mature a lot mentally.
It's probably a good thing you don't understand Arabic. The Facebook comments on her blog page are mostly a furious hailstorm of religious anathema and highly crude insults.
ReplyDeleteGoogle Translate, though imperfect, gives some idea.
I think the reaction she got shows just how much they fear a strong woman.
ReplyDeleteShe is only one woman who held her ground trying to get change. The response was to try and destroy her.
Change comes at a price, hope she is able to survive the resistance.
I think the reaction she got shows just how much they fear a strong woman.
ReplyDeleteReligion as usual is to blame for this attitude. Christianity went through its angry adolescence a bit sooner than Islam.
Change comes at a price, hope she is able to survive the resistance.
She might, as the more she's known the less they can fuck around with her - see Deniro in Casino.
This scene? (Thanks to IMDB):
ReplyDeleteNicky Santoro: And what the fuck are you doing on TV anyhow? You know I get calls from back home every fuckin day, they think you went bat shit!
Ace Rothstein: I'm only on TV because I got to be able to hang around the casino. You understand that, you know that, come on.
Nicky Santoro: Your fuckin ass! You coulda had the food and beverage job without going on television. You wanted to go on TV.
Ace Rothstein: Yeah I did want to go on TV. That way I have a forum, I can fight back. I'm known. People see me. They know they can't fuck around with me like they could if I was an unknown, that's right, yeah!
Nicky Santoro: You're making a big fuckin spectacle of yourself!
It's too bad she doesn't have a better body. She average. I dunno, I guess that's the point.
ReplyDelete