"The tide of Talibanisation...is threatening to destroy an art form that has flourished since the Mughal empire." Why? It's too seductive.
Sharia Alert from Pakistan: "Dancing girls of Lahore strike over 'Taliban' law," by Patrick Cockburn and Issam Ahmed in The Independent, December 12 (thanks to Block Ness):
The dancing girls of Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, are on strike in protest against the tide of Talibanisation that is threatening to destroy an art form that has flourished since the Mughal empire.The strike, which is supported by the theatres where they perform, was sparked by the decision of Lahore High Court last month to ban the Mujra, the graceful and elaborate dance first developed in the Mughal courts 400 years ago, on the grounds that it is too sexually explicit.
"The Mujra by its very nature is supposed to be a seductive dance," says Badar Alam, a cultural expert. He recalls that attempts were made to ban it during the 1980s. "Gradually, it returned to commercial theatre, mostly by paying off officials. The question remains: does the government have the right to engage in moral policing?"
The government and High Court in particular have no doubt about their right to do just that. They have tried to encourage "family friendly" dances, but once-packed theatres are now near empty, despite dropping their prices from 300 rupees to 25 rupees a seat.
In the face of the strike and the lack of enthusiasm for alternative entertainment, the court has suspended its ban. It has, however, ordered dancers to cover their necks with shawls and wear shoes (they used to dance barefoot but the court deemed that too erotic). "Do they expect girls to dance in a burkha?" asks stage manager Jalal Mehmoud. "Mujra has been going on for so many years it is part of our culture." [...]
A striking feature of those suffering persecution from fundamentalists is not their fear but their acceptance that, if they had encouraged immorality, they deserved punishment. The main centre for selling CDs and DVDs in Lahore is Hall Road. But when one of the tough-looking shopkeepers received a threatening letter accusing him and others of selling risqué films, the mood was not one of defiance, but of submission. The traders heaped up the forbidden DVDs and CDs in the middle of Hall Road and made a giant bonfire. "I swear we sell no pornography," said one nervously....
Because he accepts the Taliban's premises as accurate.
Muslims are intent on destroying all culture...even their own..
. "I swear we sell no pornography," said one nervously....
But DVDs with images of infidels getting thier heads cut off is A-OK.
Because he accepts the Taliban's premises as accurate.
Because he knows they will blow his shop up and possibly kill him.
In Geraldine Brooks' 'Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women', first published in 1995, the twelfth chapter, 'A Different Drummer', describes the suppression of professional belly-dancing in Egypt - and of theatre and the arts generally - in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as revivalist, purist jihad-and-sharia Islam really got going.
The chapter begins: 'Soheir el-Babh, the doyen of the Cairo stage, seemed to have it all. One of the biggest box-office draws in a city that has always loved its performances, her starring role as 'Attiya the Terrorist Woman' had been packing them in for a year at the 700 seat Misr Art Theatre.
'Then, suddenly, as the play was about to begin its second season in July 1993, she quit. She was, she said, renouncing show business for good and adopting the Islamic veil.
'Soheir's retirement was part of a wave of resignations by women artists that had begun with Cairo's belly dancers back in the late 1980s.
'Soon, dozens of singers and actresses also were hanging uup their spangles, wiping off their makeup, donning hijab and haranguing their former audiences about the evils of the artists' world.
'By the spring of 1992, the unthinkable had happened: the musicals with dancing that had enlivened the nightly celebrations of Ramadan were banned as un-Islamic, depriving hundreds of artists of work...
'A joke began making the rounds of Cairo:
'Who are the second-best paid women in Egypt? The belly dancers, of course, because the Saudi tourists throw hundred-dollar bills beneath their feet when they dance.
'Who are the best paid? The dancers who've retired for Allah, of course, because the Saudi sheiks throw thousand-dollar bills into their bank accounts when they stop dancing.'...
Mohammedanism is anti-human.
free inquiry
singing
dancing
portraiture
sculpture
youthful romance
pet dogs
...
Is there anything decent and pleasant in this life that these bastards aren't out to destroy?
Ayn Rand's words that strike me most, and stick like a song's hook in my mind are, "Check your premises."
Joeblough, I would argue that Islam is not just anti-human, but anti-life. Animals have mating dances, especially birds. They also have mating songs. My cats, the two young females (not my 21 1/2-year-old guy) have a nearly-choreographed throwdown dance that they do every morning, much of which consists of poses which they think to be intimidating, but which never really scare the other. Dancing is not strictly human. It belongs to many of God's creatures, as does song.
I've also seen romance in my mom's feral cats. There's a couple who are always together and have been forever (or really 8 years or so), two blackies joined at the hip. I've also seen this among parents in the feral colony, believe it or not. Cats have legitimate family units until the babies grow up. There are also two females, one scrawny, one fat, who curl up all night together in the same cathouse when it's very cold, which it is nearly every winter night in Indiana.
Then there are the birds in my mother's courtyard who nest on a drainpipe. They are two females who nest together every spring, bluejays. They take turns guarding eggs and fetching food. You would never find two women in a symbiotic relationship in the Muslim world.
Islam is anti-life and anti-normalcy.
Mujra came into existence as an artform before the Mughal Period. It came into existence with the first Islamic invaders who would kidnap the most beautiful women of places in India that they conquered or raided and made these ladies into refined prostitutes. Eventually it did not matter what religion you were as long as you were beautiful, thus majority of the refined prostitutes of the "Kotahs" where Mujra took place would be Muslim women who, to their misfortune, were beautiful and were thus made into "Kanjaris".
These women would be taught classical Indian singing as well as other arts to please their patrons.
Mujra as an artform flourished in Muslim dominated areas where many of the women were unfortunate victims of kidnappings by Muslim raiders thus bringing in the "Purdah" system among non-muslims in order to protect their womefolk. The Purdah System employed women to keep themselves out of the eyes of other males by covering themselves and their faces in areas where Muslims were a threat.
In Hindu dominated areas, the Purdah system was not employed unless there was a growing Islamic threat.
Another custom that came into being thanks to Islam was the practice of child marriage, this was done to protect girls by getting them married at a young age so that their family and now their husband's family would protect them from any kidnapping that could take place by Muslims, thus taking them away to "Kotahs" or Prostitution houses where they would be taught Mujra.
Good examples of Mujra in Bollywood/Indian Cinema are "Pakeeza" and "Umarao Jaan".
-Ayo Gorkhali
Me thinks the above article from the The Independent is grossly incorrect, the title should be "Dancing hijra of Lahore strike over 'Taliban' law,"
A whirling flock of people, singing, dancing, and clapping their hands, moves along toward a gorgeous villa in Lahore where a wedding is being celebrated. Seemingly a flock of birds of paradise, the group dazzles one’s eyes, ears, and nose, and a foreigner might think that these were giddy women given to hysteria. A second look, however, confirms that these are boys and men wearing women’s clothing, jewelry, and makeup. They have come to the party to bless the bridegroom, for which they receive luxurious gifts.
hijra (Urdu: حجڑا) is usually considered a member of "the third gender" — neither man nor woman. Most are physically male or intersex, but some are female. Hijras usually refer to themselves linguistically as female, and usually dress as women.
http://bp0.blogger.com/_EH7OLLQBtRc/Rkw-QZfd-NI/AAAAAAAAAco/HtW-zdSypA4/s400/bruno_morandi.jpg
Hijras of Pakistan have their history rooted back in Mughal reign as Khawjasaras. Khawjasaras were eunuchs or hermaphrodites that were employed by Mughal rulers as care takers of their harems. They were potent in courts, state affairs and as confidantes of rulers.
Most Pakistani cities have sizable hijras communities, divided into clan groups living mostly in ghettos and officiated over by a leader or guru. These communities are generally known as Chellas. Hijras, in past, earned their living by dancing at carnivals, weddings and births.
http://www.trickster.lettere.unipd.it/archivio/3_prostituzione/numero/rubriche/sguardi/ferrari_hijra/immagini/7.jpg
Hijras dance for a small private gathering in Karachi. The fee for the dancing is decided upon in advance, and paid throughout the performance in a shower of low denomination rupee notes sprinkled over the dancer.
http://www.ars-rhetorica.net/Queen/Volume11/Hijras/hijra_dancing_copy.jpg
At first glance, are men in women’s clothing. So, they must be transvestites, right? No. Most Western transvestites prefer women as sexual partners, are often married, and only dress in women’s clothing now and then, often in secret. Hijras, on the other hand, function in society only as women, and their partners are men or other Hijras.
So, what are the Hijras? Farrah, born Ahmed, around 35 years of age and a Hijra for the last 20 years, explains, “We are neither men nor women. We have men’s bodies and women’s souls.” We are in a squalid neighborhood of Karachi, sitting in a tiny room that Farrah shares with Balli, also a Hijra. Like most Hijras, they entered the Hijra world in their youth. “We were born Hijras and felt by the age of 5 or 6 that we weren’t boys.
http://www.crossdressing.pl/pics/pic_hijra1.jpg
Muslims, well placed financially, are required to perform Haj in the holy city of Makkah. As a religious compulsion, women must be
accompanied by male relative (mahram) for performing Haj.
Therefore, Hijras prefer the male sex to be written in their documents for the ease of performing Haj.
They acquire respectful status after performing Haj; called the Hajis. Hijras identify with the group of Mukhanath in the Haram Sharifain (Makkah and Madina) employed for keeping men and women apart while offering prayers, a status of piety and holiness.
People believe that due to this grave handicap, Allah has granted them special feature of effective blessings and curses. People are
apprehensive that some heavenly wrath may befall if they did not oblige the hijra’s demands. Quite often, if refused alms hijras abuse and show their private parts and curse them that may Allah make their child a hijra
In his 29 years, Mohammed Daud has seen the faces of perhaps 200 women. A few dozen were family members. The rest were glimpses stolen when he should not have been looking and the women were caught without their face-shrouding burkas.
“How can you fall in love with a girl if you can’t see her face?” he asks.
Daud is unmarried and has sex only with men and boys. But he does not consider himself homosexual, at least not in the Western sense.
“I like boys, but I like girls better,” he says. “It’s just that we can’t see the women to see if they are beautiful. But we can see the boys, and so we can tell which of them is beautiful.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/apr/03/news/mn-35991
jdamn: "Islam is not just anti-human, but anti-life".
Point taken. I concur.
Yeah...Islam kidnapping women is the forefront of this diabolic and sick ideology. It has done nothing but left thriving civilizations flourishing with art, music, dance and the joy of life the celebration of life into chaos, violence and misery and death. Look at all Islamic countries many before Islam where great civilizations. Afghanistan, once Buddhist and Hindu, Pakistan once Hindu and Buddhist, Iran and Iraq once Persian or Zoroastrian, etc. Islam is a disease a virus that kills the human spirit.
A lightly veiled woman in colorful clothes, laughing, singing and dancing--can't have that. It's un-Islamic.
savsiv, gravenimage
you should read the article at the following link.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=7E8E98D9-E148-4F9C-BAFF-40E9E4974AEE
Especially the second half, where the author being interviewed starts talking about laughter - especially the laughter of women - and music.
One of the best bits:
QUOTE "FP: I loved the question you asked of one Iraqi who was styling himself as a democrat in front of an audience and saying that political Islam was compatible with democracy.
After he said there could be freedom of speech in political Islam, you asked if, under such a system,
people could say in public that the Koran was not the word of God
and whether women could have premarital sex without fearing for their physical safety. {or: one might ask, whether women could choose their own life-mates freely, exercising choice in marriage, saying No and Yes, without being compelled by anyone - dda}.
All logical and rational thought in this individual ended after your question.
A: I have asked precisely these questions of many Muslims who have boasted to me that political Islam can offer peace and freedom.
After their great boasts, I ask if, under their systems, women can engage in casual sex with whomever they desire and to live without fear. And whatever we might morally think of such women, it is their business and not ours. That is what a free society is about.
In any case, I usually become the victim of a violent tirade after asking this question and it ends up, not very surprisingly I must say, that the definition of the word “freedom” is something very different for these individuals than to us.
Why is even the thought of a woman’s right to do what she wants with her sexuality and body something that makes Islamists and Arab tribalists start acting like the possessed girl in the Exorcist after holy water is sprinkled on her?" END QUOTE
And the other part of the article that really struck me:
QUOTE "FP: You note in your book that at one point you were sitting at the Al-Hamra Hotel, where Western journalists hang out.
'Beside the swimming pool you heard two American women laughing and you said a “chill shot” went right through you.
'You then realized that you had not heard a woman laugh in Iraq, “not in a free and unguarded manner, at any rate.” That laughter became like music to your ears.
'This part of the book touches a special chord in me, as I am researching why Arab tribal culture and militant Islam forbid women to laugh, regarding it as an evil.
'Many totalitarian cultures, actually, frown on frivolity, especially among women and, in turn, especially among young women.
'This is a quite a phenomenon. What is laughter and what does it represent? What does it represent in a woman?
Vincent: To me, laughter is that brief moment when we, in our limited capacities as human beings, express the joy of creation. It is a suggestion of grace, when we become possessed by the Spirit “that bloweth where It will,” making fools of the patriarchs, tyrants, death-cult warriors and Islamofascist clerics who attempt to stop It.
'As for a woman’s laughter—objectively speaking, I don’t think it’s any different from a man’s.
'Both represent a moment when men and women unite with the creative element of the Spirit. {NB - no wonder that Israel is the son of Isaac whose name is yitzaak – ‘laughter’; Sarah said at Isaac's birth - ‘God has made me to laugh – laughter of pure joy. One Inuit language describes sexual joy by this phrase ‘to laugh together’ - dda}.
'But to answer your question more precisely, for me—a male—hearing women in Iraq (but not, sadly, Iraqi women) laugh for the first time in weeks represented the most beautiful sound imaginable.
'A sound of the human spirit that I’d always taken for granted, now seemed inestimably precious.
'The fact that I hadn’t heard this feminine music in so long brought home to me the horrors of despotism—whether under the Baathist regime or the Koran. And, as I write in In the Red Zone, I became a feminist at that moment." END QUOTE
The fact that these "revolutions" are turning countries to Islam in the east makes me think of the Emma Goldman quote "If I can't dance, I don't want your revolution!" (The only thing she said I actually like, she was an anarchist useful idiot of the left.)
Speaking of Islamic Revolutions, I highly recommend the books Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which is about the "revolution" told from an insider. They were also adapted to a movie (which I haven't seen yet.)
dumbledoresarmy,
Good points. Yes Islam considers women property and more importantly demonizes women's sexuality while encourages perverted and rapist attitude in Islamic men. Nowhere do you see the exploration of human sexuality and spirit in Islam but just misogyny power and control and Genital mutilation. Unlike Hinduism that has the Kama Sutra and tantric tradition that explores sexuality and human consciousness, if I am not mistaken.
Islam celebrates hate, violence, kidnapping, killing, bombing, murder, lies, and evil.
(That is, the books is specifically about an Iranian during the Islamic revolution)
savsiv
yes.
By the way - have you ever read the 'Song of Songs' in the Bible? Jewish mystics read this collection of mysterious sensual and sensuous wedding songs, saturated with earthy, but also at times allusive and exquisite erotic imagery, as symbolising the union between YHWH and His Beloved, Israel;
it is the Holy of Holies in the scriptures because that which is holy (the marital relationship) stands for that which is most holy (the relationship between YHWH and his covenant people).
Its text has inspired a rich mystical literature among both Jews and Christians. You will find its influence in all kinds of places - for example, Peter Weir's 1990 film 'Green Card' is soaked with allusions to the Song of Songs.
If you can, track down a piece of music called 'Cantique des Cantiques: Cantate Hebraique', by an Algerian Jewish composer called Jacques Lasry. It comprises excerpts from the Song, in the original Hebrew, sung by a rich-voiced Ashkenazi Jewish woman named Sarah Gorby, together with the unnamed possessor of a shimmering tenor voice. I managed to find it on black vinyl, second-hand from a French site; a friend translated it into digital form for me.
If one listens to the Lasry/ Gorby piece while assuming that the female voice represents the House of Israel, Bride of G-d, and the male voice represents the divine Lover, it is extraordinarily powerful: a dialogue of love and longing.
Another gorgeous musical setting of part of the Song (Chapter 6: 4-5) is found in Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKwX4wER370
and chapter 1: 5 and 2: 10-12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04IT74axYSw&feature=related
Here's just one typical sample from the Song of Songs. The woman speaks:
"I am the Rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
(The man replies) 'As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters'.
"As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.
'I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
'He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
'Stay me with raisins, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.
His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me."
There are eight chapters, all of it like that.
Islam has nothing, nothing to match it. I don't think Islam is even capable of imagining the man-woman interaction in this way.
The woman and the man, the male and female voices, answer one another in the Song in perfect reciprocity and mutual delight and trust.