Burqa Babes are Back
Feb 16th, 2011If you like it here, please subscribe - by RSS or by email - and get new posts as I write 'em.
Burqa Babes from SarKE on Vimeo.
Muslims, Chill: This Isn’t About You
Since this story has once again reared its ugly unknowable, covered head, I thought a re-release of our 2008 video was in order. Especially just before Oscar season.
Some background, in bullets:
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- The Jewish burqa cult was discovered in an arrondissement of my hometown (Bet Shemesh… as in Samson….Extreme soil??) about 3-4 years ago.
- The main premise of said cult is that tzniut, modesty, is THE paramount virtue in a Jewish woman, and this requires covering EVERYTHING.
- Note that the above has very little to do with actual Jewish Law, which seeks to keep women modest, but not invisible or dysfunctional (well….mostly not); In fact, most rabbis at the time, and most of the husbands of these women, came out strongly against the practice, and especially their oddball leader (see below).
- As such, in an ironic twist, covering themselves became an act of feminist revolt. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. (Add somethin’ strong and it may even make sense.)
- This has a similar tenor (to my ear at least) to the debates raging across Europe over the Islamic burqa / hijab practice – is it an abrogation of religious and personal freedom to ban it? Or an abrogation of women’s basic rights not to step in and prevent Muslim women from being forced to wear it by the patriarchy? It is a conundrum that has liberal thinkers like me (I didn’t say practitioners, B.R.) in knots. But back to our own scandal.
- Said leader eventually arrested for….wait for it….child molestation
- So…We didn’t hear about them for a while and assumed they had…errr….disappeared.
- Surprise! Here they are again!; Keep in mind that we are talking about only a handful of people…just they are very…um….visible.
- Back in 2008, at the height of the first sheetstorm, some friends and I could not remain silent, and made this video for Purim (Jewish festival of food, disguise, and jocularity-slash-mockery…)
- (Many thanks again to Jaely K for the concept, Deb W for the authentic Ramle burqas, and Talli R for the talented video-editing progeny. Thanks also to The Kraz for being The Eternal Keeper and Purveyor of All Things Digital.)
- We had about 12,000+ hits on YouTube, but some Muslims took it the wrong way (Yes, they went thinking it was about them. Go figure.)
- Someone told on us re: the soundtrack not being authorized bla bla bla
- This got the sound disabled. (Now YouTube has the technology to do that automatically and no longer has to wait for snitches.)
- Let’s see how long this one stays up. Vimeo, come thru for us, will ya’?
Final thought: Back in 1989, as an Orthodox teen in Silver Spring, MD., some friends and I, in our floor-dragging jeans skirts in June, were asked by a passing redneck if “y’all wuz Menn-on-ites.”
Well, sir! See how our people have evolved?
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5 Responses to “Burqa Babes are Back”
The music is awful, not Jewish, and very symptomatic of a loss of religious sensitivity. The video creators are in need of deep retrospection of what it means to be a Jewish woman who follows the Torah Kedosha.
The video is 100% leitzunos. Shame, shame.
By Neshama on Feb 17, 2011
Of course it’s ‘Leizanut’ (Mockery, for the uninitiated.)! (Says so in the description.)As to your advice…. I think retrospection is less of a good idea than introspection might be.
By Sara K. Eisen on Feb 17, 2011
Thank you for making the need for introspection clearer. Sorry, but I found the video was still crass in it’s attempted aim.
By Neshama on Feb 18, 2011
I think BB is brilliant! I am intrigued by the ladies in RBS. Creeped out actually and still trying to find the tv interview from about 2 months ago.
By Yonina on Apr 4, 2011