O - for "obscene" - by Rahal EksWhat is obscene? I think that is very relative and depends on your culturally/religious conditioned perception or the fact that you perhaps liberated yourself. The other day while being back once more in Berlin in lovely spring I came across a rather striking house facade. It depicted a 3-D-sculpted naked man on a wall: The guy had an erection reaching to the top floor of the building - the somewhat more detailed close-up photo I took here shows the beginning of all this male glory reaching up to the sky. I perceive of it as art and think of it as beautiful with a good dose of humor added to its gigantic dimension. Prudish moralists might be horrified and conceive of this as obscene. In the same vein certain people get all wired up because in the UK there is another "Muslim" woman - a model!!! - planning to participate in a beauty contest representing the country.
Why shouldn't she? Because she is not a white Brit? Or because a Muslim shouldn't be doing this? Polarized voices express themselves about this "case". The lady in question is also getting positive back-up energy and feed back from the so far only Arab-American beauty contest winner and I would tout into the same freedom-loving horn: "Go for it girl, you have every right to do this and don't let those fanatical fundamentalists pee on your leg trying to convince you it's raining - it ain't obscene!" At least in my progressive eyes. The same could be said about the recent Turkish actress who stripped down for Playboy! "Pourquoi pas?!" Far out! I too have on occasion modeled naked for photographers and at art classes and it never crossed my mind that this could be conceived as "obscene" because I'm a Muslim.
Remember the following: "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty!"
Why should we feel shame about our bodies - female, male, transgendered or inter-sexed?
The body per se is not obscene, but at times people's twisted attitudes and alienation, people's fragmentation, and of course fetishism and clonedom are obscene to me.
Talking of which, the doubtful manifestations of de-humanized leather/rubber/uniform-fantasies-on-a-leach and other nutty tralila from Clone-istan (= Absurd-istan) are meeting up in town! Isn't that slightly obscene?
I was hiding all day in the sunny Tiergarten park at the "Tuntenwiese" where queer nudists indulge in sun-bathing, not far from down-town - and why not? There was nothing obscene about the scenario, au contraire, it had something paradise-like, including a flair of innocence, like a fresh breeze on a sunny day with bright blue sky and recently born green leaves. Intensely green - as if everything was touched by the essence of Al-Khidr. Today the weather here was better than in Marrakesh or in Nerja, judging by my cell phone weather report service. Apparently I was at the right time, at the right place. The people too seemed alright, the majority reflecting the city's diversity - only a few fetish freaks crossed the greenery in heavy leather gear or other somewhat out of place drag (are they looking for Easter eggs or what?) - while we worked on our tans in the sunshine!
Now what do you conceive as obscene? The leather and other uniform drag or a bunch of naked bodies on the grass?
I could add other stuff to my obscene list: Building nuclear power plants in earthquake and tsunami-ridden areas like Japan. Or supporting Gaddafi & Co. Or those who miss the times of Hosni Mubarak's government. Or those who believe the Egyptian army is cool. I could go on and on.
Time for another coffee and to decide what to do tonight - evidently not partying with the fetish crowd - rather searching for an exotic alternative... Insh'Allah, I'll come across something delightful.
Have a nice weekend wherever you are! Ma as-salama, saludos Rahal!
