Seems Like The Night For This... 'Saudi Clerics Advocate Adult Breast-Feeding'

[WillyT]

Found this while trying to find Christine O'Donnell's views on breastfeeding.

Saudi Clerics Advocate Adult Breast-Feeding
Dana Kennedy -AOLNews

<snip>

Women in Saudi Arabia should give their breast milk to male colleagues and acquaintances in order to avoid breaking strict Islamic law forbidding mixing between the sexes, two powerful Saudi clerics have said. They are at odds, however, over precisely how the milk should be conveyed.

A fatwa issued recently about adult breast-feeding to establish "maternal relations" and preclude the possibility of sexual contact has resulted in a week's worth of newspaper headlines in Saudi Arabia. Some have found the debate so bizarre that they're calling for stricter regulations about how and when fatwas should be issued.

Sheikh Al Obeikan, an adviser to the royal court and consultant to the Ministry of Justice, set off a firestorm of controversy recently when he said on TV that women who come into regular contact with men who aren't related to them ought to give them their breast milk so they will be considered relatives.

"The man should take the milk, but not directly from the breast of the woman," Al Obeikan said, according to Gulf News. "He should drink it and then becomes a relative of the family, a fact that allows him to come in contact with the women without breaking Islam's rules about mixing."

Obeikan said the fatwa applied to men who live in the same house or come into contact with women on a regular basis, except for drivers.

Al Obeikan, who made the statement after being asked on TV about a 2007 fatwa issued by an Egyptian scholar about adult breast-feeding, said that the breast milk ought to be pumped out and given to men in a glass.

But his remarks were followed by an announcement by another high-profile sheik, Abi Ishaq Al Huwaini, who said that men should suckle the breast milk directly from a woman's breast.

Shortly after the two sheiks weighed in on the matter, a bus driver in the country's Eastern Region reportedly told one of the female teachers whom he drives regularly that he wanted to suckle milk from her breast. The teacher has threaten to file a lawsuit against him.

<snip>

Link: http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/saudi-clerics-advocate-adult-breastfeeding/19504280

:hide:

[hlthe2b]

1. Ahh, those sneaky perverted Imams in S. Arabia--always looking for

for a loop hole.... I am confident that Saudi women will stand up to this though. Well educated urban Saudi women are very very different than their counterparts in other strict Muslim countries. They may not drive and yes, they wear the abaya, but they have a lot more power than most Americans have been led to believe.

[snagglepuss]

18. Exactly what sort of power do Saudi women have? This is the first I've

ever heard this.

[hlthe2b]

20. I'm not surprised... There is no attempt to differentiate

one Muslim from another, one Arab from another in this country on the part of our media and educational system-- that applies especially to ME women's issues. Having worked/lived in S.Arabia, Egypt and Iran, I can tell you there is a world of difference.

As to Saudi women, most would be shocked to hear that they can and do inherit and as such, can be the source of money in the marriage. This dates back to the origins of the Saudi state from its bedouin origins. Women can and do become highly educated--attend universities overseas, become doctors, engineers, lawyers. But having spent time working with highly educated Saudi women, as a western woman, I could do lots of things others could not. Talk to these women with no veils and no restrictions. There were Palestinian, Syrian and Jordanian women in the program in which I was working. It is true that their views differed considerably among these women, based on country of origin, but one thing really did not and that is there lack of desire to become truly westernized. They would have liked to drive, but some of what we take for granted as freedoms for women, they want no part of as they see it as leaving them vulnerable, pointing to our high divorce rates and the like...There are very strict laws requiring children be supported. Dead beat Fathers are unheard of in the event of divorce. As a western woman I could interact with these women on a personal level, but then separately with the men in the program (who granted were far more progressive, given their educational backgrounds and travel than the average Saudi male). As a western woman, they treated me respectfully, but sort of as an "other"--as though I had no gender. It was sort of amusing.

That said, there are plenty of Muslim women in S. Arabia--"guest workers" from poorer Arab countries that are quite often treated horribly and yes Saudi men do horrendous things with women brought in from Indonesia and elsewhere. Nonetheless there are lots of differences among the various peoples of Arab and Gulf State countries and more still for the Persians in Iran.

I usually don't speak up to these issues, because our population has largely swallowed a very singular viewpoint of the Middle East and Gulf countries, to the point many people are extremely dogmatic. While progressives are certainly not likely to be so bigoted towards Muslims, they are not always less dogmatic in their understanding. I tire of arguing with those entrenched attitudes.

[kimi]

21. This is really interesting

Thank you.

[hlthe2b]

22. You are quite welcome.

;)

[dkf]

2. Eyuck.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. So, this applies to non-child bearing women, too?

Female toddlers?

Ok, assume we "get" the no-related-male-associating-with-a- female thing,
how is the breast milk issue going to solve the problem of females with no milk?

Or is is only women who are breast feeding that the law applies to?

My head hurts.

[valerief]

4. Atheists are never this crazy. nt

[mjane]

12. well, atheist truthers are

but it has nothing to do with their atheism.

just their trutherism

[valerief]

25. What is an atheist truther? If their religion or lack of religion has nothing to do with their

trutherism, then I don't understand the point you're making. This OP is about people doing crazy things because of religion.

[uppityperson]

5. Seems a really convoluted way for men and women to be able to be in contact

The part where they should suck it directly is odd since they can't do that until they are related which they aren't until they do that...

How about they figure out a non-desert-tribal way to be in contact with each other?

[htuttle]

6. Bitty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8orUaCJ0GY

[sakabatou]

7. Are they going to do it at Olive Garden with pitbulls?

[Radical Activist]

11. Only if they're circumcized

[WillyT]

16. Damn... You Beat Me Too It !!!

:evilgrin:

:rofl:

:hi:

[SoCalDem]

15. Did someone at this table order the chicken?

:rofl:

[sufrommich]

8. I'd say it's pretty good odds that a lactating woman

has already mixed it up with a male who is not a relative.

[elehhhhna]

9. saudi women can lactate at will? & I LOVE the part about ...

"...except for drivers." lol

[Radical Activist]

10. My god

it's full of crazy.

[arcane1]

13. Egad, does the term "fatwa" mean nothing anymore? ;)

But the real question is: Why were you trying to find Christine O'Donnell's views on breastfeeding in the first place ;)

[WillyT]

17. LOL !!!

Well... after her views on masturbation, I was curious about how weird her views were.

Breastfeed in public, breastfeed in private, no breastfeeding at all... prefers to keep her relationship with her child as "a friend"...

:shrug:

:crazy:

:silly:

:hi:

[arcane1]

19. At the risk of pollitical incorrectness...

I'd much rather run across a woman breast-feeding her child than to run across one breast-feeding her non-related adult male.

Or maybe not? :P

[ipaint]

14. And we are selling these crazy ass rulers 60 billion dollars in weapons. Terrific. nt

[blondeatlast]

23. Spmetimes, thinking hard about the crazy is dangerous. Think I'll giggle and move on.

Great find, nonetheless. :thumbsup:

[McCamy Taylor]

24. ROFLMAO! Oh, those wild and wacky Saudis! But why not the drivers? Are they eunuchs?

A dick is a dick. So, if women hand out samples to every man they encounter, can they dump their veils?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. "The man should take the milk, but not directly from the breast of the woman,"

These fucking guys sure know how to take the fun away from everything. :evilgrin: