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Do You Laugh or Cry?

By LisaB on January 8, 2009 at 6:30 AM in Current Affairs

Need a giggle? Well, sort of a rueful chuckle? Bill Maher (I know, I know) did a bit on women’s Islamic fashion.

And again, comedy can say things that we otherwise would have to scream about.

  • Pragmatist

    very revealing!

    • nancy sabet

      and very real, i have been in a few ME countries, and this is not a joke, it’s real.

  • HC

    Bill Maher is one of those sexist 60s libs who thinks women have arrived because he can see 19 year old girls in tank tops on the streets of Manhattan.

    I find him vile, but I guess the dialog is funny.

    Yes, women do really wear these Bill. Put that in your culturally sensitive pipe and smoke it all the way to retirement, sooner rather than later please.

    • mary

      HC

      Yes! Bill Maher is a geriatric misogynist pig and I usually find his sexist comments semi-ubly. But I must admit that this tells it like it is and manages to say things that we know are damn right on! The irony is that Billie himself probably devalues and diminishes women, but not in a fundamentalist way! Wish I could see Maher wearing a burqa over his head. He reminds of another misogynist vile sexist “humorist” Al Franken. Ugh!

  • Judy L. NC

    For those who are laughing, I hope you’re laughing at the idiot men who enforce this on the women.

    As for me, I’m crying.

  • margarita

    The topic is so disgusting that I couldn’t even crack a smile. That garment is real and is real oppression. It’s just not funny how women are treated.

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhXA3fXpCFk Woman Voter

      I agree, and the audience laughing “midnight stoning” is too revealing. Bill Maher is the man that ‘attacked’ Hillary and discussed her ‘C@@@’ with a shaw grin…ha ha ha (not funny to me) joke.

      He is a slimy person that is just all about the males and busy to attack women breast feeding but willing to see all the naked breast for their meant function according to him…sexual objects.

      I am canceling HBO and telling them why!

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhXA3fXpCFk Woman Voter

      I agree, and the audience laughing at “midnight stoning” is too revealing. Bill Maher is the man that ‘attacked’ Hillary and discussed her ‘C@@@’ with a shaw grin…ha ha ha (not funny to me) joke.

      He is a slimy person that is just all about the males and busy to attack women breast feeding but willing to see all the naked breast for their meant function according to him…sexual objects.

      I am canceling HBO and telling them why!

      • mary

        It’s the men who should wear the burqua in these regressive unevolved societies where women have the value of a sheep. Wearing the burqua would protect the women. It’s the men who should be covered from head to toe to prevent their indiscretions! Who should be punished? The victims?
        Incidentally, more women in the U.S. have died and been injuried as result of DOMESTIC ABUSE by an “intimate partner” (friendly fire!) than soldiers been killed in the war since 2003. Stats are frightening. Just a different kind of oppression. And Obamarama goes on…with Jon Favreau occupying the Director of Speechwriters office next to his boyfriend Perv-elect!

  • jmm

    I picked cry for this one. Not funny at all, for the reasons margarita stated.

  • SJ

    The fact is that is their culture we may not understand how they live but they have been doing so for years, who are we to say if our lifestyles is better then their own, and then we wonder why some of them hate us like that.

    Here we are making fun at how they dress on TV, yet we can walk in our country with our ass cheeks outside an not told anything, I say if they want to clothed themselves from head to toe its their choice, to each his own, am not going to try and force my way of living on any other.

    • HC

      It is not a choice to wear this (or a version thereof) in many Islamic countries.

      It is the law.

      To each HIS own, but SHE will wear a black bag or be punished.

    • AF catfish

      Um, on this, our lifestyle is better than theirs.

      Women in that society are oppressed. Open your eyes.

    • ritamary

      Women do not choose to wear those clothes. In many countries they can be beaten in the street for not wearing them.

    • nancy sabet

      Believe me is not their culture. If you ‘ve been in these countries in 60′s and 70′s , you would’ve not seen women being covered like that. In fact there were many , many women who were very westernized. The Islamic fundamentalista have turn these countries to Middle Ages.

      • mary

        Nancy Sabet

        THANK YOU! Exactly. WEll said. Back in the 60s/70s, the women in these countries were more progressive and Tehran, in Iran, could compete for fashion smarts with the best of Paris and Rome fashions! It’s the American foreign policy and intelligence that promotes puppet dictators to service their chauvinismn and imperialist designs on the back of the poor citizens there, that made Fundamenalism as fashionable as it is now! You can thank Reagan and Bush for this and IMF. The Shah of Iran was supported by the CIA all the way and his ruthless tyrranical “leadership” paved the way for the crazy misogynist Aytollahs! So, you can say, rather cruelly, that the FAshion Designers that brought us these lovely “fundamentalist burqua fashions” were the Washington Boys!
        And Obama will the worst offender…

    • nancy sabet

      Believe me is not their culture. If you ‘ve been in these countries in 60′s and 70′s , you would’ve not seen women being covered like that. In fact there were many , many women who were very westernized. The Islamic fundamentalists have turn these countries to Middle Ages.

      • NYC

        Comment by nancy sabet | 2009-01-08 12:44:48
        Believe me is not their culture. If you ‘ve been in these countries in 60’s and 70’s , you would’ve not seen women being covered like that. In fact there were many , many women who were very westernized. The Islamic fundamentalists have turn these countries to Middle Ages.

        Just wonder what we women will be turned into by eeeh…hmmm… you know whom…him… eeeh

    • NYC

      Comment by SJ | 2009-01-08 08:51:03
      The fact is that is their culture we may not understand how they live but they have been doing so for years, who are we to say if our lifestyles is better then their own, and then we wonder why some of them hate us like that.

      I completely agree with this comment, although I despise BM.

      • mary

        NYC

        The “House of Washington” is the real fashion designers of these sexist, oppresively fundamentalist prison-costumes! Women there hate them! But thanks to Reagan and Bush policies their decent conservative-liberal leaders were snubbed to usher in Puppet Dictators who, in turn, turned the people into thte hands of the Ayatollahs and the Sadams and the Taliban….No way these women there are ‘happy’ with the fashions WE have imposed on them. You need to go back to your history books in the past few decades.

  • bert

    I was just stunned and speechless. I did not laugh once. I find it hard to laugh at the oppression of women. Yes, it is their culture. And if that is what they want, then so be it. But many of the women there I have been led to believe, do not want to live that way. It was a dumb bit. And Andrew Sullivan’s (it looked like him – was it?) laughter was just dumber than sh*t.

  • goldengrahme

    How can you be funny and not funny in one skit?

    I know the underlying point is to emancipate women from sexual captivity…but in the hands of a gross cretin like Maher, it becomes unsettling. He is doing his shtick for fun and profit but cares nothing about the true dilemma facing not only women but children in their marginalized, unfriendly world.

    His parody always slices and dices but offers no answers. Satire should prick the conscience; Maher hides behind his own insulated comedic posturing.

  • rayve

    First, let me say I don’t like the sexist Bill Maher.

    It makes me want to cry for the millions of powerless women who are now forced to wear these 7th century coverings every day.

    I remember when the women in Afganistan were suddenly forced out of the universities as students, the hospitals as doctors, and businesses as owners by the extreme fundamentalists Muslim men, the Taliban. (We were still funding these jerks in early 2001.) Their lives became hell on earth having to wear these black sacks. They were not allowed to work or even move about freely without a man. They begged the world for help. But they were just women. Since it was religion the men used to imprison the women, nobody voiced condemnation or lifted a finger to help.

    The same thing has and is happening in other Muslim countries, including Iraq. Look what has happened to the women there. They can no longer wear western style clothes as they did before their ‘liberation’. Let’s face it, the powers-that-be never take the lives of women into account as they decide the fate of any country, including ours.

    I am afraid the crimes against humanity being carried out by Israel will have more unintended consequences for the Palestinian women–that is, if they survive the obvious losses being endured now. If it’s possible for their lives to get any worse, they will, as the fundamentalists men, Hamas, reap the support of the world that’s intended for the regular Palestinians caught in a horrible war.

    • mary

      RAYVE

      Excellent commentary here. Bravo! The House of Washington is the fashion designer of the fundamentalist garb…We should hang our heads in shame for we have allowed our shadow government to take over….

      *Obama would look great in a burqua!

  • rayve

    First, let me say I don’t like Bill Maher.

    It makes me want to cry for the millions of powerless women who are now forced to wear these 7th century coverings every day.

    I remember when the women in Afganistan were suddenly forced out of the universities as students, the hospitals as doctors, and businesses as owners by the extreme fundamentalists Muslim men, the Taliban. (We were still funding these jerks in early 2001.) Their lives became hell on earth having to wear these black sacks. They were not allowed to work or even move about freely without a man. They begged the world for help. But they were just women. Since it was religion the men used to imprison the women, nobody condemned what they did or lifted a finger to help.

    The same thing has and is happening in other Muslim countries, including Iraq. Look what has happened to the women there. They can no longer wear western style clothes as they did before their ‘liberation’. Let’s face it, the powers-that-be never take the lives of women into account as they decide the fate of any country, including ours.

    I am afraid the crimes against humanity being carried out by Israel will have more unintended consequences for the Palestinian women–that is, if they survive the obvious losses being endured now. If it’s possible for their lives to get any worse, they will, as the fundamentalists men, Hamas, reap the support of the world that’s intended for the regular Palestinians caught in a horrible war. Islamic fundamentalism will be stronger after this war. Islamic or any other religious fundamentalism is bad for women.

  • SJ

    I really don’t know how many Muslim women want their lives to change, those that I have seen and have spoken to seem to be quiet comfortable with their rules and way of life.

    There are strange cultures all over the world, maybe some in the other parts of the world find us strange and disgusting also. In a society of same sex relations, where sex and drugs fester our society, were gang killings, rapes, murders you name it we have it, maybe they look at us and wonder what kind of odd people we are.

    We walk around beating our chest telling the world to live like us, because we are better then you look at our daily events among our population and wonder what the hell are we so proud about, or what the hell is it we want others to follow.

    Yes we have some good things but we sure have a whole lot of bad that others would say those Americans are repulsive how can they exist like that, and those people may not care to live like us, maybe its time some of us start to understand that fact.

    • HC

      Muslimas seem “quite and comfortable” to you so we should be OK with strict Islamic dress?

      You are repulsed by America so Islam is OK with you?

      There are strange cultures all over, and America does some bad things so we should be OK with making women wear black bags?

      “In a society of same sex relations, where sex and drugs fester our society, were gang killings, rapes, murders you name it…” – I was born in an arab country with tons of muslims and ALL of those things happened there too. Humanity has the same inclinations everywhere I have been.

      The Burka, not OK with me. Never will be.

      It is not a fashion option.

      Its a political statement disguised as a religion meant to keep women (and others) down.

      • SJ

        Oh please I have lived in a country where there is a very strong Muslim population and some women wear the full Burka, while some dress in part of it. No one is beating them or forcing them to wear this dress, just as the Hindu woman paints her hair line in red. It is there culture and some weather you want to believe it or not do it willingly.

        Its not every Muslim populated country has this great problem that America feels they need to fix, just as its not every Muslim that is a terrorist either. Americans have to stop pretending as if they know what is right for the entire world, when if you take a deep look at America its festering and dying in its own garbage.

        In case you have not noticed there are some every educated Muslim and Hindu women throughout the world, as to being repulsed by America you can bury you head in the sand if you want but honestly there is a lot America needs to repair and repair quickly, our values seems to be going down the tube, now wonder the next generation cares about nothing or anyone.

        We older head are too busy trying to fix the problems in other parts of the world that we are not seeing our own problems on our doorsteps. Burka, sari or a Punjabi suit its their style and custom, deep in tradition in some places where some hold on to that and have no issue about it, its their business not ours, its time we let the world decided what they want for themselves and stop trying to force our lifestyles on everyone.

        • HC

          “We older head are too busy trying to fix the problems in other parts of the world that we are not seeing our own problems on our doorsteps. Burka, sari or a Punjabi suit its their style and custom, deep in tradition in some places where some hold on to that and have no issue about it, its their business not ours, its time we let the world decided what they want for themselves and stop trying to force our lifestyles on everyone.”

          Interesting.

          Let me ask you, did you feel this way about Apartheid? I mean South Africans had their own distinct culture and it was really not our business how they treated blacks.

          “Oh please I have lived in a country where there is a very strong Muslim population and some women wear the full Burka, while some dress in part of it. No one is beating them or forcing them to wear this dress, just as the Hindu woman paints her hair line in red. It is there culture and some weather you want to believe it or not do it willingly.”

          A strict interpretation of Islam does not allow for tolerance in dress and custom. Aghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and half of Somalia would be some off the cuff examples of countries where women are required to be covered, with our without their own consent. They enjoy lesser status under the law and in their own homes. This has nothing to do with what I believe. It is fact.

          None of this has anything to do with the erosion of “American values”, whatever those may be.

    • http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com Uppity Woman

      We are talking about countries that set women aflame, shoot them in the head and throw acid in their faces, pal. Anybody wants to wear that garb is fine with me, but it sometimes comes with Sharia law. This isn’t just about choice of garb. It’s about subjugation of women. If you aren’t a woman, maybe that doesn’t bother you at all. But for the rest of us, they can just shove that right into a major orafice.

      • Strawberrybitch

        The sad part is Uppity, Islam didn’t start out that way. The sexist pricks waited for Khadijah and Muhammad to die and then they twisted the Koran to fit their sick sexist cultures. If it wasn’t for a strong wealthy, beautiful older woman, (she was 40 he was 25) Muhammad would have never been able to go into the desert and speak to God. Kind of like Mary Magdelynne (sp) and Jesus. We women help launch the great religons only to have them twist the messages and use it against us.

        • HC

          If by “they” you mean Mohammed then I agree.

          He had to wait for his first wife (sugarmamma) to die before he could implement his agenda.

          Nobody forced him to marry a 6 year old.

      • NW Country

        What Uppity said!!!

      • mary

        uppity

        Yes! And put a burqa on the Perv-elect and his next door boyfriend Jon Favreu, now esteemed Director of Speechwriters….

    • JozefAL

      SJ, there’s a difference between being “comfortable with their rules” when they have a CHOICE in the matter and having to obey because it’s “the law of the land”.
      Do you HONESTLY believe that Muslim women are REALLY “comfortable” knowing that they have no choice in picking their future husband? Knowing that the only men with whom they can freely associate are their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons (even uncles and male cousins are kept “outside the loop” and fathers and brothers can become off-limits following marriage if the new husband so decrees)? Knowing that their medical treatment depends on the good fortune of finding a FEMALE doctor (not very easily done even in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia), because a male doctor isn’t allowed to look directly at her, much less touch her? Knowing that her “purity” is far more important to “family honor” than her brothers’ “purity” (her brother can always marry–or be forced to marry–the woman he’s “raped” to salvage his honor and protect the family’s honor but she, of course, is subject to the dictates of her father’s demands on whom she marries, and if her “rapist” is not judged to be adequately marriageable material, she may be killed to protect the “family’s honor”)?
      Most Muslim women in countries like Egypt, Lebanon, and Pakistan–especially those in the cities–enjoy, if not outright prefer, “Western” clothing and customs and mores over the clothing, customs and mores that their “sisters” in the rural areas are forced to live with. BUT, at the same time, they also enjoy the fact that can HAVE the choice. (The worst that men are forced to endure is growing a beard. One could include circumcision, but that’s a process that happens in infancy. Otherwise, even in the most “traditionalist” areas of the Muslim world, men have ALL the privileges and they get to choose. There’s no penalty for wearing Western-style clothing. There’s no penalty for their walking down the street, unaccompanied. If they’re otherwise within the law, they’re free to act as they please.)

    • ritamary

      There has to be some middle ground for women’s clothing. Somewhere in between having butt cheeks hanging out and being forcibly covered from head to toe.

      • HC

        There are standards of public decency for MEN AND WOMEN.

        Although we may squabble over the specifics it is not legal to be lewd & naked in public.

        This has nothing to do with Islamic dress for women. Nothing at all.

        The law should apply equally to all citizens. This is not the case in Islam, which treats women as somewhere between a dog and a human.

  • rayve

    First, let me say I don’t like the sexist Bill Maher.

    It makes me want to cry for the millions of powerless women who are now forced to wear these 7th century coverings every day.

    I remember when the women in Afganistan were suddenly forced out of the universities as students, the hospitals as doctors, and businesses as owners by the extreme fundamentalists Muslim men, the Taliban. (We were still funding these jerks in early 2001.) Their lives became hell on earth having to wear these black sacks. They were not allowed to work or even move about freely without a man. They begged the world for help. But they were just women. Since it was religion the men used to imprison the women, nobody condemned their actions or lifted a finger to help.

    The same thing has and is happening in other Muslim countries, including Iraq. Look what has happened to the women there. They can no longer wear western style clothes as they did before their ‘liberation’. Let’s face it, the powers-that-be never take the lives of women into account as they decide the fate of any country, including ours.

    I am afraid the crimes against humanity being carried out by Israel will have more unintended consequences for the Palestinian women–that is, if they survive the obvious losses being endured now. If it’s possible for their lives to get worse, they will, as the fundamentalists men, Hamas, reap the support of the world that’s intended for the regular Palestinians caught in a horrible war. Islamic fundamentalism will be stronger after this war, not weaker. Religious fundamentalism in any religion is bad for women.

  • http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com Uppity Woman

    Bill’s New Year wish for American women.

  • rayve

    My comments are not posting. Testing.

  • rayve

    First, let me say I don’t like the sexist Bill Maher.

    It makes me want to cry for the millions of powerless women who are now forced to wear these 7th century coverings every day.

    I remember when the women in Afghanistan were suddenly forced out of the universities as students, the hospitals as doctors, and businesses as owners by the extreme fundamentalists Muslim men, the Taliban. (We were still funding these jerks in early 2001.) Their lives became hell on earth having to wear these black sacks. They were not allowed to work or even move about freely without a man. They begged the world for help. But they were just women. Since it was religion the men used to imprison the women, nobody condemned their actions or lifted a finger to help.

    The same thing has and is happening in other Muslim countries, including Iraq. Look what has happened to the women there. They can no longer wear western style clothes as they did before their ‘liberation’. Let’s face it, the powers-that-be never take the lives of women into account as they decide the fate of any country, including ours.

    I am afraid the crimes against humanity being carried out by Israel will have more unintended consequences for the Palestinian women–that is, if they survive the obvious losses being endured now. If it’s possible for their lives to get worse, they will, as the fundamentalists men, Hamas, reap the support of the world that’s intended for the regular Palestinians caught in a horrible war. Islamic fundamentalism will be stronger after this war, not weaker. Religious fundamentalism in any religion is bad for women.

  • ford

    Typical tripe, making fun of oppressed women. Maher hates women as much as the people he is laughing about.
    It takes one to know one. The segment is sadly too real.

  • The Robot

    Imagine if a race of people were treated as these women are – it would be NO JOKE. There would be a World outcry.

    I don’t particularly care for Maher, but anything that brings this oppression to the fore is welcomed.

    • The Robot

      Strike particularly

    • http://sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty

      Excellent point about race, Robot. I don’t like Maher either–his delivery of the lines doesn’t indicate one iota of empathy for these women–but have to agree that bringing the subject out is good.

  • http://www.wewillnotbesilenced2008.com OBAMA IS A FRAUD

    Bill’s a jerk. My girlfriend used to work for him. I’ve heard the really nice stories about what he thinks about women and how he treats them. Should we be surprised? Isn’t he also a HUGE Fraudbama supporter? Oh well.

  • Ellen D

    Cry.

  • SJ

    Right and we are great defender of women all over the world and we have all just sat by and witnessed what was done to two women running for political office, yet we know what is right for women.

    None of us could of stopped what was happening to Hillary or Palin we came on here and talked and bellyached about it, yet did we achieve anything? These were our women trying to make a difference not some strangers to this land, these were American women giving their time to serve this country and what did some of us in this great country of ours do to them?

    We want to fix every problem for woman rights in the world and we cant ever get a fair shake for our own women in this country, we all sit by and watched them dragged through the mud, Palin her entire family and its still going on to this day, but we want to fix the problems of the Muslim woman, I say fix our mess first then we can preach that we know what is right and how women should be treated.

  • basil

    ::raising my hand tentatively and whispering::

    I thought it was very funny, a satire on the over-exposure of western fashion compared to the under-exposure of Islamic fashion.

    I mean, yeah, it’s a crock of manure that women are forced to wear burkas and I wouldn’t last 2 seconds in a country which imposes such a drastic dress code and I agree it’s disgustingly oppressive women are forced to wear them but Maher had some funny lines like ‘Christian’ Dior changing his name to ‘Muslim’ Dior and one of the shrouds ‘showing curves in all the right places; the dome of the head and the shoulders.’

    Political correctness can be aken entirely too far as we all experienced with the race-baiting BO campaign.

    So please don’t stone me for voicing a contrarian opinion and yeah, I’m a she.

  • WasLNbutNoBamaBotsKeepStealingMyName

    I don’t like the man. Like basil, I too thought it was funny at times…but also sad as well.

    And I also would not be surprised if some Muslim fundamentalist came after Bill after seeing this…

  • Magic Puzzle Box

    We’re in agreement that Bill Maher is rather vile, but I will admit this is a funny piece, and I second some of basil’s reasons. The burka and related accoutrements deserve a certain amount of derisive humor. Unfortunately, I don’t live in an Arab country but saw a couple and their children with the wife dressed in the burka in my local grocery store here in PA within the last year! From what I read, the whole idea of the burka apparently derives from what originally was a voluntarily worn, fashionable veil that wealthy women used to shield themselves from unwanted male attention. Sounds reasonable, and in some parts of the world, the hijab/tudung still is viewed as a fashion accessory by women at times. But it has evolved into this and is mostly cultural, not actually religious in origin. My personal form of protest against this aspect of Muslim culture has been to study bellydancing and help preserve their art form.

  • Sabina

    Funny no it is not a funny piece. Misogony is not funny. Bill maher wasn’t speaking up for these women he was ridiculing them, he is vile and a misogonyst. How anyone can find misogony commentary and jokes funny is beyond me. Would we think racist and anti-semitic commentary and jokes ar funny.