“When an instructor in Kuwait this month advertised a desert wellness yoga retreat, conservatives declared it an assault on Islam.” It is more accurate to say that the yoga incident reignited the battle over women’s rights in Kuwait.
Honor murder and violence against women in the name of Islam is commonplace in Kuwait.
Last April, Sheikha al-Ajmi, who was “a parliamentary officer guarding the grand, luxurious halls designed for a constitutional monarchy,” was brutally stabbed to death by her 17-year-old brother because he “did not approve of her donning an officer’s suit capped off with a beret decorated with Kuwait’s seal in its center.” According to the Sharia, women must be covered (Quran 24:31, 33:59) and must remain under the guardianship of men (Quran 4:34).
“For Kuwaitis, it’s an unsettling trend in a country that once prided itself on its progressivism compared to its Gulf Arab neighbors.” Kuwait is not the only “moderate” country that has taken a Sharia turn. So have Malaysia and Indonesia, while Saudi Arabia continues to arbitrarily detain and jail its female dissidents, despite Saudi Arabia hosting “its first open-air yoga festival last month, something Kuwaitis noted with irony on social media.”
“As Kuwait cracks down, a battle erupts over women’s rights,” Associated Press, February 21, 2022:
It all started over yoga.
When an instructor in Kuwait this month advertised a desert wellness yoga retreat, conservatives declared it an assault on Islam. Lawmakers and clerics thundered about the “danger” and depravity of women doing the lotus position and downward dog in public, ultimately persuading authorities to ban the trip.
The yoga ruckus represented just the latest flashpoint in a long-running culture war over women’s behavior in the sheikhdom, where tribes and Islamists wield growing power over a divided society. Increasingly, conservative politicians push back against a burgeoning feminist movement and what they see as an unraveling of Kuwait’s traditional values amid deep governmental dysfunction on major issues.
“Our state is backsliding and regressing at a rate that we haven’t seen before,” feminist activist Najeeba Hayat recently told The Associated Press from the grassy sit-in area outside Kuwait’s parliament. Women were pouring into the park along the palm-studded strand, chanting into the chilly night air for freedoms they say authorities have steadily stifled….
Hamdan al-Azmi, a conservative Islamist, has led the tirade against yoga, accusing outsiders of trampling on Arab heritage and bemoaning the aerobic exercise as a cultural travesty.
“If defending the daughters of Kuwait is backward, I am honored to be called it,” he said….
BTeboe says
Under Islam women are not really humans.
Infidel says
‣ Kuwait is right now the most regressive of all the countries in the Arabian peninsula – beating the Saudis. Aside from their action in this story, they had recently denounced India for the hijab controversy, and have, aside from Turkey and Malaysia, been the main muslim country openly supporting Pakistan. Like I said last week, we made a big mistake in 1991 liberating them
‣ The Saudis have stopped preaching hatred against Jews in their mosques, and aside from that open-air yoga festival, have started teaching their kids about some of the principles of Buddhism and Hinduism – trying to get them to appreciate the philosophies, if not the religions
‣ Saudi Arabia detaining female dissidents probably has more to do w/ them being dissidents than them being female. If Saudi Arabia became democratic overnight, al Qaeda would be their ruling party. It’s gonna take a while to de-program their citizens from Wahabi ideology, but I’m impressed w/ what they have been doing. They’ve just announced female train operators in Mecca
‣ Indonesia recently saw a high profile conversion of Sukmawati Sukarnoputri – sister of former president Megawati, and also recently decided to preserve certain ancient Hindu sites. I do think the jury is out on them, as they are w/ Saudi Arabia
‣ Malaysia is a part of the Turkey-Pakistan-Malaysia alliance that’s trying to pry the leadership of islam from the Arabs.
I do think that from an Arab-centric POV, Saudi Arabia needs to confront Kuwait, the way they did Qatar 2 years ago, for getting in bed w/ the likes of Pakistan and Turkey. B’cos aside from Qatar, Kuwait is the one country that’s capable of bankrolling the jihadis in Pakistan and Turkey
tim gallagher says
Oh, the “danger” and depravity of women doing the lotus position in yoga out in public. islam is such a bad, and extraordinarily backward joke. 2022 and you get this garbage from the Muslim knuckle draggers. Looking at islam is like looking far, far back into mankind’s primitive past in endless different ways.
gravenimage says
Yep.
gravenimage says
Kuwait cancels women’s yoga retreat, calling it ‘an assault on Islam’
……………..
Yoga is an “assault” on Islam–as are school rules with uniforms not including Hijabs, not providing brutally-slaughtered Halal meat, and questioning the wisdom of letting Jihadists back into Western nations–but there is no similar concern over *actual* assaults like Jihad terror attacks.
God, I hate Islam.
Bikinis not Burkas says
Under the MURDEROUS IDEOLOGY of ISLAM women have the right to stay in their owners home as per Quran 33:33
Keep your eyes open to keep your head on!
https://medforth.biz/again-a-french-mosque-called-for-assassinations-and-praised-martyrdom/
OLD GUY says
Human rights and Islam are two vary separate things. Under islam women have NO rights, and anyone who doesn’t follow the islamic lDictators is enslaved or killed.