Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful.At Saudi Arabia's only beauty pageant, the judges don't care about a perfect figure or face. What they're looking for in the quest for 'Miss Beautiful Morals' is the contestant who shows the most devotion and respect for her parents.
'The idea of the pageant is to measure the contestants' commitment to Islamic morals... It's an alternative to the calls for decadence in the other beauty contests that only take into account a woman's body and looks,' said pageant founder Khadra al-Mubarak.
Full article: Daily Mail, UK
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Uh-huh. This from a country where they marry 8 year olds off to 50 year olds.
ReplyDeleteI have a book called "Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia" which is the most heartbreaking book I've ever read. It's written by an American woman from the diaries smuggled out by a Saudi princess. What is heart-breaking, is that this is the story of a princess about her life and the lives of other high class women, and what she knew of the lives of lower class women as well. Honor killings, arranged marriages (hers was), rapes, etc. Somehow, you think that a princess would have a better life. She has the clothes, the jewels, etc., but to her family, she is just an object without any voice in her own life.
ReplyDeleteThe Saudi royal family has been tight with the Bush family for years and after reading this book, I really understood a lot more about the way Bush must think about us if these are his best friends.
The Bush family has always been tight with the Saudi ruling family - it has to do with oil. Also, the Royal Family has it's own problems - they are not well liked and in fact, they probably aren't really secure in their ruling capacity.
ReplyDeleteThe Bush's always gravitate toward individuals who are slimy and creepy.
Basheert,
ReplyDeleteThere's actually quite a lot out there about the Bush's and the Saudi's (in fact, the only plane allowed to fly after 9/11 was the one picking up the Saudi royal family). Now that the Taliban is picking up their attacks on women and the Saudi's are a little more open about their honor killings - as are the Iraqi's and tribal elders in Afghanistan as they take more and more control of their countries, I'm thinking of writing some articles on the subject.
You know, it all does come down to oil. In Alaska, the middle east, and everywhere.