Woman solutions

Beyond the Veil, Fatima Mernissi:

[For hardliners] the sexual act is considered polluting, and is surrounded by ceremonials and incantations whose goal is to create an emotional distance between the spouses and reduce their embrace to its most elementary function, that of a purely reproductive act. During coitus, the male is actually embracing a woman, symbol of unreason and disorder, anti-divine force of nature and disciple of the devil. Hence a dread of erection, which is experienced as a loss of control and, according to Ghazali [11th century], referred to as darkness in verse 3 of sura 113:

Say: I seek refuge in the lord of daybreak
From the evil of that which he created
From the evil of darkness when it is intense.

In an attempt to prevent a complete merging with the woman, the coital embrace is surrounded by a ceremony which grants Allah a substantial presence in the man’s mind during intercourse. The coital space is religiously oriented: the couple should have their heads turned away from Mecca. “They should not face the ‘holy shrine’ in respect for it” [Ghazali]. This symbolism of spatial orientation expresses the antagonism between Allah and the woman. Mecca is the direction of God. During intercourse, the man is reminded that he is not in Allah’s territory, whence the necessity to invoke his presence.

It is advisable for the husband to start by invoking God’s name and reciting “Say God is one” first of all and then reciting the takbir “God is most great” and the tahlil “There is no god but God” and then say, “In the name of God, the high and powerful, make it a good posterity if you decide to make any come from my kidney”. [Ghazali]

At the crucial moment of ejaculation, when the physical and spiritual boundaries of the lover threaten to melt in a total identification with the woman, the Muslim lover is reminded:

It is suitable to pronounce, without moving the lips, the following words: “Praise be to God who created man from a drop of water”. [Ghazali again]

(Other reports on the words a Muslim is supposed to pronounce during coitus are in Imam Bukhari, al-Jami’ al-Salih, and Imam Tarmidi, Sunan al-Tarmidi.)

They’re not just any old sacred recitations he’s muttering to himself as he ploughs away—they’re incantations specially chosen to protect him because he believes you’re the embodiment of evil! That’s got to make any girl feel special.

(no subject)

There was an Aussie Rules match at the Oval on Saturday. Afterwards, as is customary, hundreds of people gathered at the pub next door to me, although this time they were prevented from milling around quite so much by the sudden massive downpours that saw them huddling under awnings and bus shelters. As the rain eased off, however, their thirst for sport overcame their antipathy for being soaked. Normally that + alcohol = impromptu games of cricket down the side street off the main road; this time, however, someone waiting for a bus on the other side of the busy main road booted a bright red Aussie football in a tall arc over the road, where it was caught and cheerfully punted back to cheers and low "oooh!"s from the massed, soggy crowd. This went on for some time, I gathered from the noise, until suddenly the cheers turned to prolonged booing. I went to have another look, and saw that the two policemen who normally guard the politician's house round the corner had wandered along to see what was up (having wisely left their automatic weapons behind). They disappeared round the corner of the pub. When they reappeared, one of them was holding the ball. The booing followed them all the way back down the road.

(no subject)

Have the police thought of checking with TV channels to see if this is just a brand new “hilarious” prank show?