the Full Body Project was covered a few months ago over at BAGNewsNotes and according to the extensive accompanying article one of the models has already died of weight related problems.

So yeah, I'd say you're right. That said, it's also true that it's none of our business to be fat haters and then use the "but it's for their own good" excuse. Discrimination against the obese is very real. It's true that being obese is a choice but it's one that is very hard and slow going to undo.

Peace to all.

Great stuff. Thanks for the link.

I was especially struck by the argument that we--feminists-- "are all these women have". It's true. The niqabi sisters aren't going to be there for the honour killing victims. We have a responsibility to speak up loud and clear.

You relativist asshats need to stop putting hijab and "Western oppressive beauty standards" together. These are two different issues, although not entirely unrelated.

As many women who have lived in the Middle East or in Muslim countries have observed, nobody spends more money on makeup, hair work, clothes, manicures, and yes, even face lifts and plastic surgery than Muslim women. They are expected to be ultra-feminine creatures, hijab or no hijab. Go to the Gulf and browse the stores of woemn's clothing sometime. Take a look at the underwear women buy (makes Victoria's Secret look modest) and tell me that's "liberated". In Pakistan housewives spend whole days creating and superintending the production of fancy outfits, and then there's hair, nails, bangles, jewelry, chappals, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention there's a big market for all kinds of slimming scams like "salons" that offer vibrating machines (they seem to promise to shake the fat off or something). The slimming scams are necessary because there's no Islamically correct way to just get out and jog or go swimming or something. Muslim women diet a lot. There's also a huge demand for all kinds of fertility treatments.

Muslim women live in constant fear of being dumped for a younger and prettier women, or even of being replaced while still married by a younger wife. Believe me, they are VERY obsessed with their appearance. Then there's the fact that they don't work, and pass a lot of time attending social events. Then there's the whole ideal of femininity they are trying to live up to. It's wonderful package, isn't it?

On top of all this, they get the hijab issue. They are not liberated by the hijab, because underneath it they are just as "oppressed" by a "sexist beauty standard" as any other women anywhere. All they've got is the absolute worst of both worlds.

Western women should please educate themselves before they shoot their mouths off. You've got it all wrong. The hijab doesn't replace the clothes, hair, nail, face lift, etc. etc. etc. It just goes on over the top of it. And Muslim women read Vogue and Cosmo as avidly as any other women, and they have their own versions of these magazines.

You people. Sheesh.

I should probably mention that the beauty standard Muslim women are aspiring to is "blonde and white", although they themselves rarely have white skin. Hence throughout the Islamic crescent you find a flourishing trade in skin lightening creams like Fair and Lovely, some of which contain bleaching chemicals which seriously damage the skin. I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point.

Somebody was explaining to me how women who wear the hijab are liberated from sexist Western beauty standards.....geeeee....where'd they go? It's all so quiet now.....

while it's true I don't know each one of the 500 million personally, I have been in 12 of these countries, and this pretty much sums up the experience of the middle class housewife, be she Arab, Turkish, Pakistani, or Malaysian. Of course it's unfortunate to have to speak in generalities and you can find exceptions to the type I described. But it's overwhemingly the case. Some other posters mentioned women who wear tight fitting short sleeved clothes that show off everything, but then they have the hijab on over it. That's another example of what I'm talking about.

The point I'm making is that Western feminists are dreaming if they think that wearing a head covering has freed women in the Muslim world from having a feminine ideal in terms of appearance that they have to live up to. It has NOT. I think that really needs saying, because Tracy's whole argument is based on this frankly misinformed and rather stupid assumption.

that Elie completely fails to mention the Prophet's nine other wives, one of whom was a gift slave (Maria the Copt) and another of whom was nine years old (Ayesha)?

I have no doubt that as long as his benefactor was alive the Prophet demonstrated some good behavior...after all, Khadija was the financially solvent one in the relationship. Afterwards, however, things changed, didn't they?

If anything this story is another good parable for why women should be emotionally and financially independent of men.