Adonis Diaries

“Man was created weak” (Apr. 2, 2010)

In verse 23 on “Women” the Koran said: “Man was created weak (da3eef).”  The imams had no problem identifying the main characteristic of this weakness in men: men have untamable sexual desires (shahwat) and men frequently succumb to carnal desires (among other desires like voracious eating and drinking binge?)

The best remedy was not to educate mankind to take on his individual responsibilities but to minimize temptations; thus, women had to be the sacrificial victims and be made scarce in public; if need be to go out for tending to daily affairs then, women had to get veiled (preferably completely wrapped up in loose garments that hide rotund parts of the body)

An unveiled woman (mutabarrijate) is a “fragile prey” in the mind of the patriarchal societies and thus, women lack defensive “frontiers” and barriers (hosn).  The best defense for women is seclusion at home and be provided for by a husband, a father, or a brother! The big threat nowadays for Islamic/Arab States is that there are no frontiers anymore, physically and visually.

High-tech enemies dominate the sky by airplanes and by satellites that diffuse all kinds of “inadmissible” sexually potent ads and movies.  The frontiers (hudud) that Islam wrapped itself in to protect against foreign influences are down.

For example, the second Abbassid Caliph Al Mansur, who built Baghdad in concentric shapes called the city “Madinat as-Salam” (City of peace); to that effect, any quarters that necessarily required mixing of genders and with foreigners (such as commercial souks) were ordered outside city-limit.

Another example that might be a reason for that kind of thinking is that in the fifth year after the Prophet fled to Medina (the first Islam City-State) from Mecca, Mohammad had to adopt a defensive tactic suggested by a Moslem Persian convert (Salman) to dig a ditch around the city (20 yards deep by 20 large) to prevent Quraich tribe cavalry entering and invading the city. The Quraich alliances of tribes encircled Medina for a month and the Moslems endured badly this period.  The city experienced civil unrest and great doubt about the new message and the Prophet’s ability to conduct political and military undertaking.  Muhammad had lost the previous year the battle of Uhud and no raids were launched for three years to bring in loot and prosperity.  During the siege, women were ordered to stay at home. Muhammad had to sit by the ditch facing the enemies to encourage volunteers to resume digging what was a first among tribal warfare.

It is no surprise that Moslems, after the Prophet’s death, picked up on the idea of erecting barriers; women were the first victims to be heaped upon all kinds of barriers and space division. During the first invasion of Iraq by Bush Sn (the father) in 1991, it was women who took to the streets shouting, demonstrating, and sitting in front of foreign Embassies of States that participating in the invading alliance.  Women knew what to do while men needed plenty of time to discuss and reason out the pitfalls of getting on the move.

In this first invasion, Baghdad was defenseless from the sky and frontiers were destroyed; women tore down the psychological barriers and defied men were totally impotent to applying defensive measures, especially against collateral damages of “smart bombs” killing innocent civilians. In the war of 2003, one critical factor changed: it was the Western enemies who were scared because the Arabs had means for instant capturing of images and war reporting.

Note:  Man was created weak but woman is endowed to becoming weaker as she learns to enjoying sexual pleasures; thus, harem were built and more space divisions erected to keep women isolated. Mankind has generally preferred to appreciate “raw potentials” in capabilities, physically and mentally, at the expense of slow continuous development of potentials.  We may account for that tendency on the assumption that our psyche is aware of life duration and days are counted: we are in a hurry to judge and apply what is at hand.

By the age of fifty, we realize that we were fooled: we actually had plenty of time to develop our potentials but we were caught up in the survival process; now nobody is willing to hire us because we failed to develop new capabilities and skills.  We react in frustration and anger for our current “impotence”.