"Naked" Miss Afghanistan slammed (Shut-Up Burqa Boys, she lives in the Land of the Free)

AFP via Melbourne Herald Sun ^ | 27 October 2003

[Stultis]

"Naked" Miss Afghanistan slammed
AFP
27oct03

PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai's minister for women's affairs yesterday condemned Miss Afghanistan, as Vida Samadzai became the country's first woman in the post-Taliban era to appear in a bikini during a beauty contest in Manila.

"Appearing naked before a camera or television is not women's freedom but in my opinion is to entertain men," Minister Habiba Surabi said.

"We condemn Vida Samadzai, she is not representing Afghanistan's women, and this is not women's freedom."

Surabi said according to Afghan culture women should not demonstrate their worth using their "beauty or bodies" but by their skills and knowledge.

"In the name of women's freedom, what this Afghan girl has done is not freedom but is lascivious," the minister said.

The 25-year-old Afghan contestant, who lives in the United States, is the first Afghan woman in 30 years to participate in the Miss World international beauty contest being held in the Philippines capital this week.

The dark-haired, black-eyed Samadzai, apparently from a Pashtun tribe, was born and raised in Afghanistan but left for the United States in 1996 to escape the extremist Taliban regime which forced women to cover themselves from head to toe.

Under the harsh regime women were not allowed to work outside their homes or go out without a close relative beside them. After the fall of the militia in 2001, an increasing number of women left the burqa, or veil, at home and some took jobs.

The only other Miss Afghanistan was Zohra Daoud, who joined the Miss Universe contest in 1972.

[Post Toasties]

The display is immodest and makes of woman a mere sexual object. Moreover it is a provocation to Moslem believers.

Most westerners believe pedophilia, bestiality and homosexuality are provocations or worse, yet they are widespread in Muslim countries. Clean your own house before you make hypocritical comments.

[Lion in Winter]

Every darn thing we do in Afganistan bad or good is proppaganda for those jerky talibans.

[Unam Sanctam]

I neither approve nor condone pedophiliac, bestial or homosexual activity wherever such sins be carried out, be they here or in the Moslem world. And I do believe in modesty of dress for women and men anywhere. And as a prudential matter, I don't see this as progress for Afghanistan, but rather a propaganda coup for the Talibans who will blame it all on us decadent infidels.

[Prime Choice]

The downside is that we are trying to build a stable, human rights-abiding democracy in Afghanistan, not a Taliban/Al Qaeda Islamofascist state. What good does it do to give propaganda to the Taliban?

The Taliban only need point to the U.S. major media as "proof" of our "decadence." To suggest that one bikini-clad woman is going to be a propaganda coup de grace is just silly.

[Prime Choice]

And I do believe in modesty of dress for women and men anywhere.

I personally think Kahlil Gibran said it best:

"Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean."

...be not unclean, mmkay?

[Stultis]

Well, frankly, I'm all for modesty, but I'm also for people wearing whateverthehecktheywannawear. And for those that don't like it, they can lump it (whatever their religion is).

[Alter Kaker]

Most westerners believe pedophilia, bestiality and homosexuality are provocations or worse, yet they are widespread in Muslim countries.

I have no use for Islam, but this is nonsense.

[mvpel]

Surabi said according to Afghan culture women should not demonstrate their worth using their "beauty or bodies" but by their skills and knowledge.

Yeah, their skills and knowledge honed to rapier-sharp perfection in all those schools that Rep. Patty Murray thinks Osama bin Laden has been building.

[FreedomCalls]

[sheik yerbouty]

Just about anything is a provocation with them. even their goats.

[GulliverSwift]

Nice cartoon!

[Post Toasties]

I've seen documentation of much of this type of activity in the Mideast. Denying it without any factual basis is not convincing.

[Hank Rearden]

The display is immodest and makes of woman a mere sexual object. Moreover it is a provocation to Moslem believers.

Good. Screw the Moos. Dumbass death cult.

[Mr. Mojo]

And as a prudential matter

Emphasis on "prude."

[Mr. Mojo]

lol

[Alter Kaker]

I've seen documentation of much of this type of activity in the Mideast.

Show me.

Denying it without any factual basis is not convincing.

In Saudi Arabia homosexuals are put to death. In your country, and also in my country, they are elected to political office.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

What in the heck is a "women's affairs" ministry? Do I even want to know?

[PhilDragoo]

And Khatami bleated sour grapes over an Irani woman getting the Nobel prize.

Here's to progress driving the hateful insane.

It's called freedom and they can get used to it or die.

[expatguy]

It is not nonsense, pedophilia and homosexuality are widespread in all Muslim countries.

As a Westerner, I find the rampant pedophilia quite disturbing.

[cherry]

"Surabi said according to Afghan culture women should not demonstrate their worth using their "beauty or bodies" but by their skills and knowledge."

how romantic and quaint to think that women can offer anything to society except their bodies..../sarcasm/