As you may have gathered dear readers, here at Love Habibi, we try to cover as many issues affecting young Arabs and Muslims around the globe as possible.
Our mission is to share information and news while respecting the spectrum of opinions that surround these relevant subjects: the conservative, the middle ground, the liberal and the… well… unusual.
I sometimes stumble across stories about our faith that make me blink, squint and look again. Take for example, this fascinating article in the Arab Times about a senior Iranian Muslim cleric who announced in April that inappropriately dressed women cause earthquakes.
Shake, Rattle and Roll…
“Many women who dress inappropriately … cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extra-marital sex in society, which increases earthquakes,” Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi told worshippers at Tehran prayer on Friday April 16th 2010.
The Arab Times also cites a quote by the Ayatollah in reformist newspaper Aftab-e Yazd, in which he affirms:
“Calamities are the result of people’s deeds. We have no way but to conform to Islam to ward off dangers.”
Worn Out?
Over 30 years of clerical rule has ensured that strict Muslim dress code is mandatory on Iran’s streets. What’s more, the rules extend beyond religion and nationality. Any woman, who is past puberty, be they Muslim or Non-Muslim must cover up in public.
But times they are a changing, and with them, so are the hemlines and cuts of modern attire. Today, some Iranian urbanite ladies choose to take to the streets wearing tight coats, flimsy headscarves and immaculate make-up.
I can speak only for myself here, but I still find it hard to believe this affects the Richter Scale…
Fault Lines
Iran crosses several fault lines, making it prone to earthquakes, some of which have been large-scale. The worst in recent years was the Bam Earthquake of December 2003, which shook the southern Iranian city, killing 31,000 people — about a quarter of the population — and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.
