web analytics

Saudi Women Climbing Mount Everest

Saudi, Women 0 Comment

Speaking of sports bras and what’s in’em, ten Saudi women are getting ready to climb Mount Everest in an effort to raise awareness of breast cancer.

20120324-115143.jpg

“Destination Mount Everest” is under the patronage of Princess Rema Daughter of Bandar bin Sultan AlSaud, in association with the ministry of education and health.

The effort comes after the guinness world record achieved by Saudi Arabia for the largest human awareness pink ribbon in 2010.

All of the participants are either survivors of breast cancer or have a close relative that is battling the disease.

One of my best friends lost his mother to breast cancer, another extremely good friend’s wife has been going through her own journey battling the disease, so the subject affects me deeply on a personal level.

They say 8000 new cases are discovered yearly among Saudi women, 50-60% of them in late stages.

Shout out to American Bedu who is going through her own battle with the disease and raising awareness through her own blog and activities.

Where Are The Sports Bras?

Where Are The Sports Bras?

Women 0 Comment

I am happy with the decision to let saudi women participate in the Olympics, I’ve been a supporter since the beginning on this blog, even though this stands against the original olympics where athletes (only males) would compete naked, plus, originating with the Greeks this event has pagan origins.

Now, looking back on this, where will they get females to compete? Not like athletes are made overnight, and It’s not like female sports are a favorite pastime for women (nor men, and we have an almost epidemic number of people suffering from obesity related diseases) and seeing how the millions spent on football (soccer) are a really good return on the investment, I am not really optimistic about women getting any medals… Unless they invent new sports of perseverance and ability, something many women all over the world are already champions in (ain’t that right John?)

Where are the sports bras is me making fun of the lack of women’s athletic apparel in Saudi, not the name brand expensive stuff, but the regular stuff you find in the cheaper stores.

Related Posts:

Picture an Arab Man

Art 3 Comments

Picture an Arab Man by Tamara Abdul Hadi
Started in 2009, the portrait series “Picture an Arab Man” is part of a large body of work capturing semi-nude Arab men of diverse backgrounds. The project is meant to literally picture a new face for Arab males than the one we are so accustomed to perusing in the mainstream media. Breaking down stereotypes as to how Arabs have been represented in the West, as well as in the East, is one of the conceptual aims of this project. I attempt to do so by highlighting the sensual beauty of the Arab man, an unexplored aspect of their identity on the cusp of change in a society that reveres an out-dated form of hyper-masculinity. Moreover, it is an attempt to uncover and break the stereotypes imposed on the Arab male in a post 9/11 world, and provide an alternative visual representation of that identity.

Check out the video and the commentary by the artist

For more information visit this link

Syria – One Year Later

Syria – One Year Later

Politics, World 3 Comments

I cannot believe it has been a year since the Syrians started their uprising, and I cannot believe how nothing is happening.

I have a very good friend who is from Homs, where most of the rioting is taking place and I cringe every time I hear anything about it in the news. I know he is well, And I hope he and his family and the rest of his country are all well.

It saddens me that the world (including me) are just looking like what’s happening is in a movie.

(source of picture: Rachel Roberts)

Overreacting and The Case of Being Religiously Overzealous

Culture 0 Comment

When the head of hai’a in Makkah said that extreme segregation was not required, some people went up to his house, knocked on his door and asked to mingle with his wife and daughters. This was a government official, educated, made it to the top and who could’ve been summoned to the highest courts in the country, and answered to them directly.

Instead some good and upright citizens took it upon themselves to show him the mistakes in his ways, and it is not wrong, we all do it somehow someway, but the methods of doing so, by force are not right.

When Hamza said what people say he said (I have not been familiar with his writings/tweets/etc before it all blew up, and he deleted his account) some got fired up and went to his home, where his family lives (parents and siblings), and posted it on YouTube, and a mob of people threatened to kill him (they are even using Facebook for that, but I think the page was removed for the obvious hate reasons), as if there is no law, or law enforcement in this land.

In Jordan, they put rape victims in jail for their protection from society, they will be killed if they got out. A guy in Saudi killed his sisters for suspicions of being with men, not sure what happened to him.

I don’t need to get into what they call women who are asking for the right to drive cars, some guy said vampires will no longer find virgin blood in this country.

Not that overreacting is not part of politics, it is, creating a sense of urgency, and a near doom, that they, and only they can save people from the bad and guide the way to a future where every family is living happily ever after and birds are signing and other birds are being roasted or grilled or better yet deep fried for that finger licken goodness with a side of security is not their stage where they act as saviors.

Barney and Friends in Saudi

Tourism 1 Comment

The purple dinosaur came to Saudi, no we didn’t go, but from what I heard the venue was packed, and the tickets were not cheap.

The cheapest were around 100 for the seats where u see Barney and friends on a big screen while sitting on bad seats, and the most expensive were around 750, where you get to almost touch Barney, and where kids will probably be disappointed to find out that the make believe dinosaur is actually (probably) a Filipino in a costume.

I kinda feel guilty for not taking my son to see Barney, since he said he wanted to, but spending 3x the ticket price so we can all go see him, is a waste of time and money, especially that we have almost all of the DVDs.

 

« 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 »

↑

© Qusay 2013