pojok

Kat luar cuaca teramatlah sejuk, pagi tadi -14.8 dan tengahari ni -10 darjah. sambil minum kopi ni eloklah baca keratan akhbar ni dan fikir-fikirkan, logik ke tak logik!


Chastity belts are so yesterday
21-02-2007 10:34:57 AM
BY SHAH A. DADAMEAH

A FRIEND from abroad e-mailed to say that a chastity belt could be bought on the American market for about RM3, 000.
"I read about what's happening in Malaysia and thought to let you know," he said. Huh? Amid the Chinese New Year festivity and the cheerful economic outlook, it was only this issue that he thought was occupying the minds of Malaysians. "Is this all you understand about current affairs here?" I asked. However, as a curious afterthought, I also asked if the belt comes with a guillotine-like contraption, such as we both had heard in an old joke about Sir Lancelot, the most trusted of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. "I believe it just comes with a lock and key," my e-friend replied, commenting on news reports that quoted Islamic scholar Datuk Abu Hassan Din as saying that women should wear chastity belts to thwart off sex offenders. The remarks created uproar across the nation, pushing the Istana Negara religious officer to admit later that he had said it in jest to drive home the point that sex crimes are an increasing menace. Most women folk, I suppose, are not amused. The last time the issue caused a furore was in 2002 when then Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar Tan Sri Isa Abdul Samad blundered with a similar remark. He drew a lot of flak from activist groups and politicians, who drilled him till he had to also confess that it was just a joke. Abu Hassan is a respected scholar but his idea, I think, is not from a religious viewpoint. In Islam, there is only the doctrine that women should cover the aurat to shelter their erogenous zones from being seen by men and to neutralise any tempting or lascivious designs the males might have.Islam also provides stiff punishment on those who commit crimes against women and against couples who indulge in illicit sex. But it's not going to be discussed here. Some very riled women have suggested that it is the men who should be wearing these unchastely things and their wives or girlfriends should be keeping the key. I think a Croatian woman I read about some years ago had a better idea. Motivated by the maxim that 'necessity is the mother of invention', she created a chastity jeans as an alternative to the belt.The jeans have safety-buttons that cannot be undone except by the one using it. The idea came about because ruthless soldiers were violating many of her countrywomen.Croatia, like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq and Palestine, had faced the issue of political rape because of either civil strife or foreign invasion. Iraq and Palestine continue to face these horrendous crimes today.In the days of Roman conquests, men leave their wives and daughters at home while they go to the battlefields to do their patriotic chores. Save for the chastity belt to guard their honour, the women were unprotected.The women suffered from the discomfort of wearing the steely belts, often for long periods, as only their husbands had the key.It must have been sheer agony when the men died on the battlefield and never returned home.Elsewhere in the medieval times many families among the rich and aristocratic also advocated the wearing of chastity belts.Possessive of their women, the men fixed these belts to either control the women's permissive habits or to prevent other men from violating their wives or mistresses.As an added feature to the lock-and-key, some versions reportedly had a razor or guillotine-type contraption to prevent even the most daring or craftiest of knaves to intrude into the woman's sanctity.The chastity belt, then, is largely a Western notion.However, more gruesome than these gadgets is the practice among some rural African tribes to sew the vagina opening of their young unmarried girls, with just a little space for menstruation and urination purpose.The stitches are only opened when they get married.Coming back to the chastity belts, our senses have, by now, been jolted. So, let's heed the alarming reminder that sex crimes are on the increase and that rape and incest also involved young children and the elderly.We must rise above our bestial instincts and keep intact our humane sense of mercy to protect life and honour of those who are weak, along with efficient enforcement, easier recourse to the courts and better civic-mindedness.

pekee jangan tak pekee...