Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Of "Islamic" Bikinis And World Peace ...



She is Miss Australia.

She is of Lebanese-Indian descent.

She is a contestant for Miss World in September.

She is Muslim.

As usual, certain people decided to protest that a Muslim should not participate in these 'degrading competitions' [link now broken], while others have held her as an example for all Muslim women to emulate (really!).

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote " ... 20-year-old Miss Houssami's achievement of becoming Australia's first contestant of Islamic and mixed cultural background - her mother is Indian and her father Lebanese."

Miss Houssami also hopes to dispel myths about Islam by competing. "Religion is something that is interpreted by the individual and I try to focus on the moral values of religion," she said. "I will wear a bikini but not a string bikini, so as long as it is not skimpy."

OK, now I have heard everything. Wearing bikini is OK but string bikini not OK because you are Muslim. Second by participating in the competition she single-handedly will dispel myths about Islam. I have heard of Miss World bringing world peace but this is quite something else.

Sabrina Houssami is free to parade in front of millions in a skimpy bra for all I care. Just leave the whole religion thing out of it.

PS. BTW here is Miss Canada.

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18 comments:

Anonymous said...

She is hot.

- Farah.

Anonymous said...

psssh! Islamic bikini my foot... it's an oxymoron

Chick said...

I dont have her problem wearing bikini and whatever else she wants....but I dont see why she needs to bring religion into it.

I dont see catholic participants saying the same and they are quite strict with attires as well.

she is an idiot..she just wants to create attention. Someone send her off to bollywood or something

Aisha said...

LOL.... Wow. Yeah I agree. Do your thang pretty girl but dont make it a religion thing. Lol :) But then again with the way Islam is portrayed even if its a bit silly, a pretty sweet girl discussin ghte modesty of her bikini... we're facing issues far worse than this right?

Jibonjatri said...

I want to cry! I want to pull hair my out! You know why?
Because she shares my first name! Jeez.. mukh kharap korte ichcha hochche!
I should change my name. There is just one too many screwed up people by this name. AAAAAAAgh
Yeah, why couldn't she say something like "I have the freedom to do whatever sh*tness I want"? Why does she have to bring in religion in here? oh God, where is she! I want to have this woman-to-woman confrontation. Not a pretty thing... argh.. I am so freaking mad! aaaaaaaagh

The Bengali Fob said...

I agree with everything said above (she's Miss Aussie, so I'm sure guys think she's hot.)

But yeah, the bikini thing is just whacked. She's wacked too I guess.

Tell us what her answers are to those serious questions they ask on Miss WOrld, k Mezba? Maybe it'll be another oxymoronic comment lol!

mezba said...

Farah: She is Miss Australia!

Anon: hehe.. islamic bikini is an oxymoron alright. Just make the peace and wear it and not talk about religion.

vm,aisha: exactly. Only a person was insecure or not comfortable with oneself would need to bring that out. You don't see bollywood actors who r muslim talk about the religion often.

mfh: i thank Allah for my uncommon first name. so far *touch wood* have met only one other person with my name.

bfob: i will have to watch miss world (which is not happening) to know those questions but u can already guess the answers. solve world hunger, bring peace blah blah... and oh, dispel myths about islam.

Jibonjatri said...

I have a feeling that she will become the miss World. Now I don't follow these things at all. so i don't know if it has already been done or not. But my prediction is that she will have a high chance of winning it, just because she is saying something like "dispeling myth about Islam" by going the most crooked way you can possibly imagine, as far as a woman's modesty is concerned in Islam. And these people, who hold these contests, would be more than happy to damage Islam by using some confused Muslims.
Just like this. You must know about this lady called taslima Nasreen. Now if you have read her book, you probably wouldn't find much talent in her writing other than the fact the she only complains and rants against Islam. But guess what? She, of all people, had gotten a fellowship at Harvard sometime in the past. Whoa! Not only that, it's at the Kennedy School of Government: yeah right when you thought it was toughest thing to get, bash Islam, and you are probably in.
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/cchrp/NasrinResearch.shtml

Remember Irshad Manji? Why in the world does she get so much media attention for her lack f knowledge in Islam? Same darn story!!!

Keep us updated about who wins this. please!

aragorn said...

i dont get it. what does she intend to mean? that it is allowed in islam to go in public with modest(!) bikinis....!!!! and what is a modest(!) bikini anyway...:@

Nabeel said...

yes exactly ... just leave the whole religion thing out of it .. she can do whatever she wants .. she does it because she doesn't have any clue about religion in the first place .. and when u make this religious she gives a stupid answer about skimpy bras .. that has nothing to do with religion ..

sooo .. leave the religion out of it .. target the molvis who abrogate religions instead of female models

Anonymous said...

Come come, let her be - most likely they quizzed her on it - she probably does leave religion out of it - but was forced to comment.

I said...

She is adult and she can do whatever she wants to do. No one can stop her.

Anonymous said...

We made it a business to make a dress code for a Muslim women forgetting that nowhere in Koran it said that you had to cover from head to toe to be called Muslim. There are quite few retard Muslims spread rumors that it is mandatory for a Muslim girl to wear Hijab. Sonia is right when people hear these misconceptions about Islam they do tend to ask such questions. My question to these Muslims usually is do you live like the fourteen century like in caves, or in one room hut or eat what those people eat or fetch a water from well and you got the picture. They usually say no then how come they want women to follow the similar dress code which was the necessity at the time. I am sad to say in most Islamic countries women HAD to cover unless she is labeled as a loose character. But in the west women are safe enough to wear what they think is modest. I think in a controlled environment that lady is allowed to wear a bikini and still be known as a proud Muslim. Don’t make Islam suffocating and away from main stream society.

mezba said...

Neena:
welcome to my blog.

I would prefer Miss Australia not get into classifying certain bikinis as Islamic and others as non-Islamic. She is free to wear what she wants - but should leave religion out of it. As VM said, no catholic beauty contestant says this is Vatican bikini / non-Vatican bikini.

Also, while the Quran does not say what clothes one should wear, it does leave certain guidelines.

Anonymous said...

I dont see catholic participants saying the same and they are quite strict with attires as well.

I do agree but no one in their religion no one is after them if they wouldn't follow certain rules like in Islamic states such as KSA and Iran. My point is, it is us who makes our business to point out the world that we need to wear this and that to be called a Muslim which is kinda over the line. Remember how
clerics were after Sania Mirza to cover up, she didn't claim anything. When world got messages like this they tend to ask liberal Muslim women tough questions. I agree she should keep out the religion but it is not Liberal Muslims who are problem here it is the Clerics who had to give out fatwah for everything and made us look ashamed of our religion where there is no tolerance.

Anonymous said...

In any case, you yourself bring up the religion bit in your post - also in paraphrasing what she said as 'islamic bikinis'.

interesting to note: i grew up in the middle east and amongst one of the many interesting points i noted in the differences between south asian muslims and arab muslims - they're not half as bothered as we are about 'swimsuits'. perhaps her lebanese muslim dad is not bothered because it's not such a big deal for them/

Anonymous said...

in any case, she was hardly 'classifying ' bikinis and making moral pronouncements concerning others ( i daresay you're more guilty of that than she was) she merely said, a bikini yes, but not a string bikini' she didn't then say 'because one is acceptable in Islam and the other isn't' - if she had, you may have a point. Also because one individual makes an interpretation for themself it's hardly as if that then automatically means they're prescribing it for others, or suggesting it must now become part of the canon or accepted dogma. In any case, all individuals intepret rules for themselves. It's only the Mullah's who go about pronouncing what's Islamic and what's not - and seem to think there's merit in doing so. It's not really anyone person's position to go about proclaiming what's Islamic and what's not - and that's why religious people can be often annoying - it's this proclaiming instead of just doing.

thanks, nice blog generally by the way: rather amusing.

mezba said...

sonia: i noticed i didn't reply to u earlier. welcome to my blog, i hopped over to urs and u have quite an informative blog urself!

the impression i got from miss aussie is that she won't wear skimpy bikinis because it contradicts her interpretations of islam. i say she should just keep ANY discussion of islam out of her speeches.

ya, i dont like mullahs or other individuals who try to force their interpretation of religion onto me. same goes with the pope. religion is personal, i say.