Monday, April 19, 2010

Careful with that ash, Kazem

Here's one of the best entries ever in the "minister's explain nature" category:

"A senior Iranian cleric has claimed that dolled-up women incite extramarital sex, causing more earthquakes in Iran, a country that straddles several fault lines, newspapers reported on Saturday.

"Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes," Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran.

"Calamities are the result of people's deeds," he was quoted as saying by reformist Aftab-e Yazd newspaper. "We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers.""

My thoughts:

1. Man, I have GOT to go visit Iceland!

2. This is a pretty warped and sick view of what causes sex. "Of course I had sex with her your honor, I saw her ankle and her nose. What else could I do?"

3. "When in doubt, blame the woman" seems to be a common position among at least some groups of Islamic clerics.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, crap. Now I don't know what to think. Either global warming or extramarital sex is causing all these earthquakes.

Anonymous said...

When in doubt, blame the woman" seems to be a common position among at least some groups of Islamic clerics.

Sadly, this is neither a new phenomenon nor is it limited to Islamic clerics.

But you're right, whatever they're doing in Iceland must be a lot of fun!

Carpe Web said...

Your comment about the effect of seeing ankles, noses, etc. reminds me of a piece I read years ago, which included commentary from an orthodox Jewish woman. She explained, in a way that I could not imagine before reading her words, how only her husband ever saw her hair, and how this created a heightened level of intimacy with her husband, as well as a heightened level of modesty (when her hair was not exposed). The intimacy impact makes me think slightly differently about the ankles comment. Still, I agree .... unless .... them is some hot pair o' ankles! Dang! Yes, it's a stretch.

Best regards,
Jim