A certain prophet who existed 1500 years ago is said to have decreed that women should completely cover their bodies and faces in a largely shapeless, dull-coloured garment and veil. Why?
To render them unattractive to males…
To prevent males from getting the slightest glimpse of their femininity…
To sanitize their interaction with males and to render their communication sexless, genderless.
I wonder what the good prophet would have to say if he could see that 1500 years later, some men and women wouldn't even see one another, and communicate facelessly, voicelessly and even namelessly with only alphabets on a glass or plastic screen.
"Wonderful! The faces and voices of both men and women are completely veiled! Praise the Lord!" he might have said in an ecstacy.
And then some worldly soul would have gently and painstakingly introduced the immortal prophet to the ways of the blogosphere, chatspace, email
"Well, I sense that these words on the screen mean a teeny bit more than they say," the bewildered old soul might have remarked after he had acclimatized. "Despite being faceless and voiceless, I sense that people are interacting here as men and women ' people who have no good reason to know each other some people who should positively be kept away from each other! I sense that there is man-woman interaction going on here these words are not genderless! But how?
"I thought that if you cloaked the womanhood of a woman, one could no longer relate to her as a woman! How do you people relate?" he would ask.
With painful slowness, the venerated old soul would watch and learn some truths that weren't so obvious in 500 AD:
That a woman in a salwar-kameez could be miles ahead of a bikini-clad babe (seeing whom the venerated old soul would likely have an apoplectic seizure)…
And a woman who approached you as words on the computer screen could be far more nakedly seductive than naked flesh itself!
One would educate the saint in the ways of the 21st Century, when larger-than-life images of perfect boobs and thighs ambush the eyes from the pages of respected daily newspapers, roadside hoardings, television screens And men pause momentarily without batting an eyelid, and move on without a second glance.
But what arrests their attention for hours, and days, and weeks, and months? The fine distillate of feminine and masculine thoughts here on the blogosphere!
Thoughts that may be penned thoughtfully or playfully by someone in his or her 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s who knows?
The thoughts of an attractive, trim young lady or from a flabby mother-of-three whose face and physique no longer excite fantasies.
The thoughts of an athletic young man, or of a bald, paunchy, world-weary man who is far from exciting to know in real life.
The merely physical aspect no longer excites the imagination because when all is said and done, there is only so much sexiness that the flesh can be burdened with.
But the sexiness of the mind? Ah, how infinite, how exquisite! How ageless, youthful and attractive is the mind, that it spreads its wings and flies about freely in the atmosphere of words, far above and beyond the body that it nests in!
Prophet, you could never have devised a burqa that is more opaque than the internet. But see how this mask, this veil, liberates the irrepressible sexiness of human nature!
See this and weep, prophet!
Or, if you have it in you, old man, see this and laugh!
But the sexiness of the mind? Ah, how infinite, how exquisite! .What an extremely wonderful thought….
But the sexiness of the mind? Ah, how infinite, how exquisite! .What an extremely wonderful thought….
i was extremly tired when i logged in but as i started reading ur views it brings a smile to my face . ifelt relieved
Infact a good post. Perceptions differ and reality could be far off. Also personally I advice you to put some effort to understand the teachings of Prophet Mohammed ( Sallallahu Alaihiwasallam ), as Sayed commented it is not visible in all sects of Muslims. Alas! muslims resorted to mere practises of the rituals and hence others became sceptical of the validity of the customs in the relegion.
A very original point of view……………i liked it to read……….
how could u say such things about prophets? better b aware before u point out any thing about islam n prophets. maya
The goddamn page says 41 comments but I can only see two pages or a total of not more than 20 comments…was really interested in going through all the comments…its quite irritating that Rediff hasn”t managed to fix a lot of this even after iLand becoming so popular! Sandeep has moved on and I am just not motivated to dig out who are the idiots running this now….what a contradiction…great product on one hand and total disregard for customer satisfaction on the other
I wont comment on the content but the writing style was mind blowing on this one. Superb stuff. Also, the ability to see things in so much perspective - fantastic. I really enjoyed reading this one.
The Truth …just amazing..
And a woman who approached you as words on the computer screen could be far more nakedly seductive than naked flesh itself!
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Well, I am seriously least qualified to make judgemnets here. My guess is the Prophet would have smiled. It is his followers who would cringe. Or maybe He wouldnt have. As I said, I am not qualified. But, to go beyond what has been said, I think the burqa has only been used sby you symbolically. It could represent any viel/partition, whether physical or mental, that makes man/woman interaction minimal. Hmmm, now I get the complete picture
he he he, i actually tried to see if the prophet.rediffiland.com page exists
looks like the prophet is too dumbfounded to speak out, as of now!
Nice thing that you have thought about Burqa….but taking one side of it…Big opression to Women….you cant think or understand the real thing about it…becoz u see only what you have been fed by the western media and most of ur brain has been masked by it. You think only on their lines of though…Take these steps before writing anything about Prophet Mohammed….
1. Refer only to the authentic sources of Quran and Hadiths(Prophets traditions).
2. Get the right context of the issue and the necessity of it.
3. Try to think independently by being yourself and at your heart.
4. See all possible pros and cons of the issue.
…and please dont judge your thoughts by looking at some Burqa-Clad/Negligent/Irresponsible muslims around the world. Most of them dont represent Prophet Mohammed & his teachings…
you have rightly said wearing a burka can only conceal the body of a woman not her mind. if only ladies of the countries insisting on burkread had the freedom and access to your blog you would have received the right support you nned. more women themselves would have come out openly against this tradition. Iam reminded here of the news item that made headlines some time back when a girl from a well to do saudi family eloped with her Indian driver with a fake passport of her indian maid servant and now lives in poor conditins at hydrabad
if u dont know anything about islam and the prophet (pbuh) dont say anything. mind what u say u stupid , idiotic person. next time u say anything u”ll be sorry u did
Good post. Its all in mind & imagination than on body, in these years. One need to keep his or her mind young…
well said
Internet a burqa? Oye , baat kya hai? Aajkal , you are writing too much about the internetted burqa!?! ;D
OYU HAVE PRESENTED THE PLIGHT IN A VERY TRUE SENSE. LIKED IT
Woo la la… I loved that one :=)
Well methinks if so many shenanigans happening in cyberia that’’s where I”ll go hunting now!
The truth has been presented in an ironical way however it is only pointing to a certain community of people and I”m sure all most all the communities which exists in this world never allow a woman/man to show their private parts……
I feel this blog is pointing only to one community when it is true for all others irrespective where they are burqa clad or are wearing a proper dress which is also a burqa in true sense if it does not show the body of that person.
hehehe .. . such a tru n apt comment about today’’s world - how the poor deah wud twist n turn in his grave, if he learnt of the interactions in cyberspace …. indeed the right words (not necessarily innuendos) can titillate the right minds (fertile soil) so much better than those oomphy flesh pix on the billboards. …
am curious about this though: ‘’some people who should positively be kept away from each other!” (candy - on ur guard!) casper, chill .. im just phunning reeeee! darned good post …
ironical! the truth presented very well…….
wht provokes u ???
there’’s a complete picture and then there’’s a completely new picture ……… this, is the latter one. i wonder what some of the fundamentalist more-proximus-to-God elements wld have to say abt this. the perspective of this write-up reminds me of something i used to hear on tv, from the star trek series, “…….to boldly go where no man has ever gone before”. keep up the good work mate.
How do you come up with these ideas and points of view?? Amazing and very well written.
Very well said indeed!!!
This is called putting matters into the correct perspective.WAY to Go!!!!!
Wah, what a comparison. and how apt. the way u described it was icing on cake. i”m outta words…this is the stuff that shud b printed in the editorial column, try it.
very honest - u say it so correctly. I say this again - u sure have a way with words and clarity of thoughts. Wonderful post.
“A woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea”. “While you”re saving your face, you”re losing your ass.”…..lol…. cheers..IP
well and truly said !excellent parady ..enjoyed reading it
khuda ! are u listening ?have a laptop now & send your fatwah.love the post.
The smile of the fool broadens. You have put it so beautifully and honestly!!!
hi FG, tx for the reply….yes…he is laughing both his heads off …. did u hear from him?
Whoa! When u say it u really say it and so eloquently but wazz cookin FG?;) The prophet can run with his tail between his legs or even enjoy! BTW as usual u r right!
Thoughful post.. and blogosphere and prophethood…an intersting concept, indeed.
wonderful and apt! There are always loop holes and equipped with “logic” ppl are adept at making one even if it doesnt exist. :-)) Instead of trying to list down what is right n wrong, wisdom to decide that has to be imparted. As a chinese proverb goes “Do not give them fish, buy them a net” It could be a permanant solution…
last heard….the prophet was actually signing in as prophet at rediffiland.com …… and laughing his heads off!
A very honest post indeed…A virtual world bringing out ones trueself irrespective of age,gender.A faceless communication becomes attractive coz of the frame of human mind which is filled with curiosity….Hard hitting truth FG…Well said…Reshu.
True that the mind provides more variety than the body does. But dear friend, the unquenchable thirst of mankind renders the span of interest in an attractive body and an attractive mind, relatively the same. The goodness of the virtual world is that it empowers you to be whoever you want to be.
Before entering into ‘blogosphere’, I could not imagine faceless communication can be so attractive! ……….. thanks for the excellent post.
wat alovely post and it sure does bring out the irony,the humour, the truth, the mystery of the net, the blog , the chatters…… words alone capture the fancy and give sleepless nites! the imagination takes wings and words beckon to words. thots to thots and 2 beings can enjoy a pleasure more intense than the sexual one…..(I am not referrin to hot chat here) It is an intercourse of the mind……… wonderful FG!!! I just sat down to check and have seen only 2 blogs and both are so wonderful that i feel like just stopping here and savoring em…
that was another hard hitting, honest post, the one we are used to from FG! come to think of it, you definitely said it all: the anonymity which the blogsphere offers every one of us to be burqa clad in some way. may be, it offers us all an opportunity to shed inhibitions and speak our minds! eminently readable post, FG!
This was a wonderful post FG!! First time I am trying to see the mind as sexy & how true it is!!! You sure do have some weird thoughts but they all turn out to be nice ones too.
there can be no prophets in the true sense- “prophets” see their own past, and create a mumbo-jumbo of words in every religion, to create an aura about themselves! most rave about nothing! there is no reliable method to predict what society would do ten years ahead, centuries and millenniums are beyond the conceptual vision of any prophets! oh yes, you have touched a sensitive issue indeed! what the common man believes is his/her religion, let sleeping….
Gr8 post FG….The prophet must be laughing…I imagine he is shaking his head ruefully …marvelling at mankinds ability to abide by his decree and yet negate its purpose….
u r always honest and u have a very nice perspective clear view about everything…this one is also like that….. wonderful post Ghost!