{"id":5437,"date":"2008-10-02T00:18:23","date_gmt":"2008-10-02T05:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=5437"},"modified":"2008-10-02T05:15:16","modified_gmt":"2008-10-02T10:15:16","slug":"the_last_tempta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/02\/the_last_tempta\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Temptation of Zardari"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember last week<\/a> when Anna linked to the video<\/a> of the new Pakistani President Zardari kind of…sort of…innocently flirting with VP Candidate Sarah Palin? He said (to paraphrase) “he would be tempted to hug” Palin. Well the Christian Science Monitor reports on the fallout back home:<\/p>\n\n

A radical Muslim prayer leader said the president shamed the nation for “indecent gestures, filthy remarks, and repeated praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt…”<\/span><\/font> <\/p>\n

Though the fatwa, issued days after the Sept. 24 exchange, carries little weight among most Pakistanis<\/strong>, it’s indicative of the anger felt by Pakistan’s increasingly assertive conservatives who consider physical contact and flattery between a man and woman who aren’t married to each other distasteful. Though fatwas, or religious edicts, can range from advice on daily life to death sentences, this one does not call for any action or violence.

Last year, the mosque that issued the fatwa, Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, condemned the former tourism minister, Nilofar Bahktiar, after she was photographed being hugged by a male parachuting coach in France. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>Just like I’ve been telling my friends: you can’t call this a real<\/em> Presidential Race unless a fatwa gets issued somewhere along the way. Now I know that if I praise a non-Muslim lady in a short skirt I can do so only once and not “repeatedly.” Its not just the fatwa he has to worry about either. Feminists in Pakistan<\/a> are upset as well:<\/p>\n\n

For the feminists it’s less about cozying up to a non-Muslim woman and more about the sexist remarks by Zardari.

“As a Pakistani and as a woman, it was shameful and unacceptable. He was looking upon her merely as a woman and not as a politician in her own right<\/span><\/font>,” says Tahira Abdullah, a member of the Women’s Action Forum. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>I consider myself a feminist too, but with all due respect to Ms. Tahira Abudallah, I think she should watch this video<\/a> before referring to Palin as a “politician in her own right.” Besides, hasn’t Zardari grieved as a widower for long enough?<\/p>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p>Also, I was shocked that this is not new behavior for Pakistani leaders<\/a>. They pride themselves on being lovers (better than being fighters I suppose):<\/p>\n\n

The incident bears some resemblance to yet another charm offensive by a senior Pakistani politician. Marcus Mabry’s biography of Condoleezza Rice<\/a> includes a passage in which he relates a meeting between former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Ms. Rice, in which Mr. Aziz was said to have stared deeply into the secretary of State’s eyes and to have told her he could “conquer any woman in two minutes…” <\/span><\/font>[Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

Damn, when I use that same line I just get slapped.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember last week when Anna linked to the video of the new Pakistani President Zardari kind of…sort of…innocently flirting with VP Candidate Sarah Palin? He said (to paraphrase) “he would be tempted to hug” Palin. Well the Christian Science Monitor … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5437"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}