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Arabia's Deficit of Hope

(Jerusalem Post) Amir Taheri - At a conference on "The Region and the Future" organized by the Kuwaiti parliament, I stop at a desk to register. Sitting behind the desk is a person dressed all in black with a veil covering the entire face. When we ask a question, the person answers in a strange voice. A guide explains that the person behind the desk is, in fact, a woman, and that she changes her voice in accordance with an "Islamic" rule that insists that a woman's real voice should not be heard by any man who is not her grandfather, father, brother, son, or husband. Having frequently visited Kuwait since 1969, we had never before seen anyone dressed like that. But our guide reports that an increasing number of women are adopting the fashion of the sitri, a sect in Pakistan whose members, male as well as female, cover themselves from head to toe from the age of four.
2004-05-28 00:00:00
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