So apparently, a Saudi judge has tried to explain the rise in domestic violence in that birthplace of femisim bt saying that women shared some of the blame.
And the comment that got everyone to brush off their copies of Ms. Magazine and stop shaving their legs as that, according to a CNN report
Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that “if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment.”
If you’re like me, you’re in shock that an abaya could cost so much money! I mean, $240? That’s a lot of Victoria Secret thongs right there, bitches. For $240, I’d totally expect that abaya to be bedazzled to the nines. I want to be able to walk into a room and have everyone be all over that abaya.
The thing about the slap is the humiliation. It’s the Alexis Carrington maneuver that says “I can do with you what I will, because I am fiery and I can get away with it”. And as humiliation goes, how different is it from the I Love Lucy maneuver that so many wives (even in the USA!) go through of hiding their purchases from their husband? Sure, he may never lay a hand on them, and that’s certainly a big plus, but isn’t there an implicit humiliation in that power struggle?
To be clear–slapping women is bad. Very bad. But so is feeling like you have to keep your purchases away from your husband. And the lack of economic autonomy that it implies.
Or am I just in one of those moods?
One year ago ...
- Do Good While Eating Well - 2011