Saudi Arabia: Uproar over 11-year-old girl’s dance that “has angered our religion”
The video “has angered our religion and morals and Arab traditions, the majority of people,” tweeted Saudi commentator Mohammed al-Yahya.
His religion is angered? Islam gets angry? It certainly is the angriest of religions, but that it could get even angrier is news to me. In any case, we can only hope that this girl is not honor-murdered. The uproar over her dance is rather absurd considering that child marriage is justified in many areas of the Islamic world by invocation of the example of Muhammad himself, who consummated his marriage with Aisha when he was 54 and she was nine. So now simulating a wedding dance with an 11-year-old girl is scandalous? The hypocrisy is staggering.
“Saudi uproar after 11-year-old girl filmed in ‘scandalous’ dance,” The New Arab, February 5, 2018 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):
A girl wearing a traditional wedding costume and full make-up, but still in hijab, has caused uproar in Saudi Arabia after being filmed in a mixed-gender festival over the weekend in the town of Jizan.Making matters worse, the girl, who in the video marches alongside a man in simulation of a zaffa, a traditional wedding dance, was later revealed to be just 11 years old.Following outrage on social media in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the tourism board of Jizan province in south-west Saudi Arabia launched an investigation, and banned the event planner from further activities in the Heritage Village, the venue of the dance.Saudi press reports suggested the man may have also been detained, but he later appeared on television to defend himself, according to Saudi news outlet Sabq on Monday.“The man responsible has been suspended… because it is not acceptable for such appearances to take place in a conservative society,” the chief of Jizan’s tourism board Rustum al-Kobeissy told local television.
“The girl was only 11, but she is tall and was wearing [adult] clothes, so she appeared older,” he added.The video “has angered our religion and morals and Arab traditions, the majority of people,” tweeted Saudi commentator Mohammed al-Yahya….
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