Burkini fashion, Islam, Men, and Christianity.

Hijab style of a Turkish woman.

Iranian futball player !!!!

Burkina Fashion


Aheda Zanetti created the burkini for her niece, who wanted to play netball. Her young niece wore the hajib for modesty, as other Muslim girls and women did but that was not enough of a covering to be a respectable, and modest Muslim woman. The point of women's dress was to somehow lessen the attraction to the form of a woman's body. In its depth of understanding it is important to understand that this is a reverse way of men disciplining their spirits; but that subject we will set aside for further analysis, as well as the contradictions of Christian and Islamic values and the predator nature of Western man, and the Arab man.

The child's mother had to debate and reason with the family to get the girl's permission to play the game. This was in early 2004 in Australia, where Aheda searched for a reasonable outfit for a woman to wear to the beach, or to play sports in public, and not finding anything developed to wear by the fashion industry from this concept she created the burkini.

IN Aheda's story, she sent out questionnaires to the community to properly discern the attitudes about the outfit and following old tradition and instinctive inclinations listened to the family's thoughts and feelings on this new intervention between wanting to play and appear in public in the Western world modestly. She says, "It is about integration and acceptance and being equal and about not being judged." She knows the holy Qu'ran does not ask women to cover their face and that the Burqa is not in the holy text. But, being Muslim anywhere in the West is now dangerous because white citizens are terrified of things and consequences other people can be insensitive to, or resentful of because those paradigms believe not in the natural order, but the world as they perceive it.

After 9/11, many things changed in the Western world from the perspective of Americans, not about safety, but out of fear of historical consequences. France began making Muslim women remove their burkinis on their beaches. The police became more military and the military became more aggressive charged by an urge to go after an ill-defined enemy and blurred understanding of world histories to inform thought and behavior. Airline service became wooded, and climate in the air and airports became depressive and subdued as passengers, mule like, shuffled through long lines submitting to humiliating searches and enduring profiling; fearful of their usage of language.

The United States waged war in the Middle East saying they are fighting for freedom in America with a fractured economy, and torn apart in its soul they stomped around the globe threatening smaller governments to side with their agenda. Meanwhile, Muslims around the world were reevaluating their positions in their relations to American and European extremes. Prior to this event (9/11) the Arab world was careful about Western influence over their cultures. There was a lot of smug resentment from Americans of this trait, but it revealed how important Americans thought their thoughts and sensibilities were to them, and felt their ways should not be scrutinized by people in the Arab world.

It is important to understand these views of the world, and the way Americans thought of themselves prior to the successful attack against the U.S. in 2001, and know how our influence actually feels to people we dismiss, as beneath us. This is a quiet way of saying our arrogance is our diplomacy. Our estimation of Muslim women being modest in public repulsed Americans first prior to the 20th century, and terrified them in the 21st century! What we have are governing concepts at odds within Christians. If we are going to link Islam with sacred dress for women, we must analyze Western Christianity reacting to a historical past with the Arab world.


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
April 13, 2017

Casual elegance implied by the smile, the style

Part II
modesty

Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman said she gives no heed to critics of her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photo shoot -- it's something she expected.

"I knew people were going to say that I wasn't a good role model and all of this stuff," Raisman, who posed topless in the magazine, told Motto. "I did the issue because I love my body. I can express myself in any way that I want. But that doesn't give anyone the right to judge me. I think being a role model is about being a kind person."

"It really made me realize women do not have to be modest in order to be respected," Raisman added.

So deeply does the water pour into the pool. This young woman recites into the pool from what her predecessors stirred. It is not from a place of understanding the depths of contradictions steeped in fearful transactions white women's looks pay tribute to; it is from a sense of freedom based on hopeful assumptions of how things should be if men were impeccable of mind, spirit and emotions.

For the most part men are not trained to be impeccable.

Against this backdrop the young Olympian states a claim saying: "It really made me realize women do not have to be modest in order to be respected." The boast is naïve and it is ignorant, but applauded by young and older women living in a bubble crying because of, and straining against the tyranny of men, who prey upon their bodies and their souls. 

"Do you understand this?" I cry from within to countless women I have seen and interacted with over my decades. Many do. Many don't. What is promoted on television, as freedom of expression, is an irrationalness hard to focus upon knowing the history of religion, belief and white European and Arabian men in their histories! The next logical question is not apparent to an ignorant assumption about freedom. 

Freedom. "What is freedom in the context of this subject?" 

What it is not, is divorced from the spiritual responsibility of men to be engaged at young ages by their Wise Men, the Elders from a strong tradition of initiation. Freed men engage the resources of spiritual powers Western ideology rejects. Most are trapped in a culture unable to free itself from its pride in being divorced from archaic ideas and practices that believe in God, and understand the Sacred. What we are afraid of is the truth of who we are supposed to be inwardly. 

Being Sacred is far removed from how we govern ourselves in this country. For that we pay heavy prices, and women and innocence are the first victims of what is profoundly ugly and evil within men divorced from the sacred processes into true masculinity. 

This is where I stop, and should not have come face to face with in this medium for the simple, and complex reason a father does not feed meat to an arm baby nursing on his mother's breasts. 


This takes us back to the young woman's words, "It really made me realize women do not have to be modest in order to be respected." 

What she is pointing out is unobvious. Men should be required to have the type of impeccability her statement requires to be supported in general society in sexy, or modest styles of dress. 


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 
April 13, 2017

Aly Raisman's Sports Illustrated 2017 magazine pose.

Part III
declaration

When a man wants to undress a woman it is she who makes resistance difficult. Responsibility for decorum is the man's. It doesn't matter what she does. It is what we know to do and who we are in relation to the truth... - Gregory E, Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/13/17  

Instagram, the value of

Viktoria Odintcova, a Russian model sitting in a park. 

Wearing jeans cut off way above her thighs, a black loose fitting t-shirt with a V-cut showing her ample breasts, and tennis shoes, Viktoria Odintcova allowed herself to hang on to the grip of a man 73 stories above the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates dangling in the air to have pictures taken for the 'likes' on her Instagram account. The video features the crew practicing on ground, and then arriving at the Cayan Tower in Dubai to do the real thing (without permission). This is an international problem and she violated laws. The most grievous thing she did was to be socially disrespectful and contemptuous of Arab culture and the rules of safety accepted by nations without exceptions made for 'entitled' people from European countries. Somehow, Europeans and white Americans are snug in their assumptions of exclusivity.

Well, there is another thing not taken into consideration. There are ripple effects. Global economies. The things citizens do in other countries have impact internationally, and during a time of Arabic people's reaction to Western powers she left herself vulnerable in the part of the world who see her in a different light out of a woman's place in their house! Also, an assistant to the chief of police in Dubai said that Viktoria Odintcova “had been summoned to sign an undertaking not to repeat any dangerous moves that could endanger her life in Dubai.” According to Emirati newspaper The National. 

This young wisp of a woman, Viktoria, "grips a blond helper’s hand as he confidently encourages her to lean away from the top of the 1,000-foot building. As she leans back, her hair flows and her eyes close, and somehow she gets comfortable enough to look serene in images captured by her team. As if that were not enough of a risk, she then gets down on her knees, while still holding the hand of her “spotter” and then gracefully flops off the rails, the guy’s forearm strength the only thing keeping her from plummeting to the ground.

Somehow, she still looks beautiful, with her T-shirt falling off her shoulders, and her sneakers (they’re not even fancy suction-cupped shoes or something high-tech!) kicking about as if she’s just dangling from the side of a pool."

The Russian model is a thrill seeker. She has done other stunts in other parts of the world. Daredevils are not unusual. They are generally found in every culture as variations of the sort in guises such as wildly creative musicians or artists, soldiers of exceptional skill, athletes, politicians, parents, and so forth.  In today's world daredevils like this young woman face a challenge: too much attention immediately and a lack of business acumen. They cannot live invisible lives as we older people all have been able to do in times past. She will probably have her insurance rates increase. Undisciplined or uncaring or not knowing better people like her have to broadcast every adventure of their lives to be liked by total strangers, who either love and admire them, or despise them.

For 'likes' on Instagram, Angela Nikolau, another Russian model who last year in 2017 stepped off the roof of a ridiculously tall building in Guangzhou, China, in an adorable dress and heels! Viktoria Odintcova posed on the edge of a cliff in Sri Lanka, and has also bungee-jumped in Sochi, Russia, with a camera in hand, and prettily posed on the edge of a cliff in Sri Lanka.

Top model Coco Rocha pulled something similar when she balanced in pink heels on a ledge lots of stories up with no strings attached for the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Taiwan over the summer. Then she sat on the ledge, saying, “So here we are on set, you think it’s a normal day, until you might be asked to do something like this, and you do it willingly, ’cuz you love the art of fashion,” in her behind-the-scenes video for Instagram. She made sure to add the hashtag #DontTryThisAtHome.

It is childish. It's fun. The urge within them must burn to act out what they envision but the dangers are in the shadows and children raised to be unaware of how things work are easy targets in the vicious political games of terror, exploitation and a few other nefarious ventures. The questions they didn't ask most likely were who would protect them? How do I be disrespectful, and why is it important to have deep knowledge with your dreams?

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Feb. 22, 2017  

Viktoria Odintcova dangling from the 73rd floor of Cayan Tower in Dubai for Instagram likes in Feb. 2017.

Russian model, Viktoria Odintcova dangling above Dubais from the 73rd floor of Cayan Tower in Feb. 2017.

Contrast, and Clash of Mentalities

Rihanna
2 of 9

Rihanna, see the contrasts and the contradiction? For the sake of argument, and for the sheer beauty of a captured moment this is, for me, the best and most telling of the shots taken by the photographer!! How did he get those older women in the background, by chance? Were they secretly wishing to rebel and get a cameo? Was this their act of civil disobedience? - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 10.29.13

photo: 9 of 9

This is a sultry woman. Is Rihanna seductive clothed in a black fashionable version of modesty, or to American taste humble of attire in front of the mosque? In this controversy the administration of the Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi felt her body beneath the cloth and the way she used her body was too much for the sanctity of the grounds, their tradition, and the environment of prayer and reverence common to sacred space. 

It is very hard for millions of Americans to understand how religion fits into the fabric of the Arab world. The Europeans and the Americans by definition of  their law and bullying, and missionaries spent 500 years ripping this ideological merge of elements out of the cultures of the indigenous peoples of the North American continent. Knowing that it is no wonder a Rihanna and a creative crew would miss the nuances of worship and reverence, custom, and politics Arabs practice and have a fashion shoot in a holy place. 

In practice, Americans do not hold land sacred. To other peoples in the world that is a dangerous spirit. A people who would invade the holy land of their proclaimed religion without reserve, or regret is an incomprehensible creature. With the same horror the Apaches felt watching the Spanish/Mexican sheep herders copulating with their sheep millions of Arabs were horrified watching American bomb the cities of Iraq, where the Garden of Eden once existed for Adam and Eve. With that as a backdrop here comes Rihanna. 

You see? - Gregory E. Woods 10.29.13

Rihanna lying in the court yard of the sacred place of the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu  Dhabi  in 2013.

the Story 
is translated from Arabic into English, I believe. So don't be put off by the language usage in the short script. - Gregory

Arabian Poetry

Jan. 6, 2013

أصل إليك 
وأن الغرام بين وديان
الصمت سيظل أســـــــــير
ـــــــ
أحببتك ..... وأعلم أن قلبى
سيقتله العشق
وأن الشوق حبيبى سينتحر
غرقا فى بحر التفكــــــــــير
ـــــــــــــ
أعلم أن الطريق إليك صعب جدا
ـــــــــ
أحببتك .... وروحى غرقت بين
آهات الشوق
وكم وصفت لى بلابل الغرام
عن جمالك الأساطـــــير
ــــــ
أكتب لك رسالاتى صباح مساء
وأنتظر ....
أن تعود الحروف لتخبرنى
أننى الأمـــــــــــير
ــــــــــــ
أحببتك .... وأعلم أن كل قصائدى
لن تقرأها عينيك
وأن كلماتى ستسبح بين المطر
ولكن بلا تأثــــــــير
ـــــــــ
سيظل مسائى وحيدا بين براثن
الأنتظار والشتاء
والوصول الى شفتيك سيظل
حلما فقـــــــــــــير


:.
ツツღღツツأمانــــــــــــــــي العمــــــــــــــر ツツღღツツ 

امانى العمر author, 

الغَريبْ فيْ آلآمر,,
آن يَكون القَدر هِو الشَخصِيةَ الرَئيسّية لِـ المَسرَحيِةَ,,
ومآ انآ وآنتَ إلآ آدواراً ثآنَويِة لآ حّول لَنآ ولآ قِوة !!
تآرةٌ يُنتَزعُ قِنآعُكْ ,, فَـ يَصفّعنَي القَدرِ عَلى صِدغِ آمآلي بِـ خَيبةٌ مآ بَعدهآ خَيبةْ..!
وتآرةٌ آُخرى يُنتَزعُ قِنآعيْ فَـ أُصدمُ بِـ نَفسّي,,
ومآ آحمِلُهُ مِن ملآمِح ضِعفٌ ويآسْ ~
ونَقِفُ بَعدهَآ آنا وآنتْ فِيْ آخِر صَفْ مُتَجمهِريِنْ
آمامُ دّهشةٌ مِنكَ ومِنيْ ..
نَنتظِرُمآ سَـ تُحيكُهُ آلآقدآرّ مِنْ نِهآية رآقيةْ تَليقُ بَـِ غرآبةُ وجِنونْ آلتفآصيِلْ

:.
ツツღღツツ

Blow The Mountain Top Cut the Tit!

Terry Tempest Williams
July 12, 2012 

 "When I witnessed mountain top removal for the first time in the hollows of West Virginia, it put everything I believed about democracy into question," says Terry Tempest Williams.  http://earthjustice.org/mountain-heroes/mymtrstory







Something is happening beneath the surface, right beneath our noses and on top of the world. Things like this often happen while most are distracted by a major event in the public eye of no real consequence to the betterment of the whole! So what is insignificant that is occurring and getting your attention while something fundamental to our freedoms, and our very lives is being threatened with extinction that has your attention? Who cuts the tops of mountains to create wealth, and expand an industry, or develop beautiful islands in the water for the rich to enjoy? 


Like many the thought of, and the 'how' such a practice could have been conceived staggers the mind of most people because the mountains are where people, their histories and homes are and have been, and where prayers ascend from to the Most High, and where animals and birds live their productive lives. Mountains have been revered since our first time as people upon the Earth, our Mother! The insensitivity of a group of people who would conceive of such a thing have their own dilemma with their grandchildren becoming environmentalists, and disagreeing with the tactic. The people who profit from the destruction of mountains have an origin, a creation story, and a history we need to discover, and dissect. That being said I want to ask the proponents and those opposing this practice a series of questions beginning with how could such a thing be conceived, developed and acted upon? What kind of people believe in, and come from such an energy force, or level of consciousness? 

I don't know how to arrive at an answer to the three questions I raised without making the obvious connections to the rape of the Earth, our Mother and the rape of women. The correlation is clear. The horror visited upon one is visited upon the other. That being said where should focus now be centered in our introspection? What is the name of the monster chopping the tops of mountains off, and the one who takes pleasure in cutting the nipples of his victims' bodies? 

We can protest, and be outraged and sign petitions, march on Washington, but those actions will be as effective as slamming one's fists into the ocean outraged at the creation and power of a tsunami if we don't understand the beast created, or find out who, and what mindset, and cultural perspective created this monster! It is the lack of understanding origins that leads to gross assumptions, and disallows introspection to lead good people to correct strategies to develop and unfold in the war that should start within our very beings and follow the wisdom of knowledge, and rituals of purification that should lead the best leaders to lead the best of people to permanently stop the actions of the men who come from two cultures that have darkly, and with light altered the world we live upon. 

I asked six questions. The answers will determine outcome. These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods, the first born of Herbert and Constance B. Woods. I am also named Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha. I am a Sirmiq Aattuq Wisdom Keeper, a Keeper of Stories, a Grandfather Teacher, a Muskogee Indian-African Man speaking for the next seven generations. 

(2.23.14) 

Earth, our Mother

EAST vs WEST: RAPE

Marlene

... Cultures are different and, in their attitude to truth and human rights, the many brands of Asian culture are particularly remote from Western expectations.

Certainly, all American wishful thinking to the contrary, the world is NOT converging to American values. Yes, of course, more and more consumers around the world are drinking Coca-Cola and eating Big Macs. But this is a superficial observation that says nothing about any values worth the name.

Of course, Dubai, which is the most populous constituent of the United Arab Emirates, seems on a superficial view to be highly Westernized. A more accurate description is that Dubai is highly economically advanced. It is home, for instance, to major regional operations of such U.S. corporations as Hewlett-Packard, EMC Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Microsoft, and IBM. It also boasts the world’s tallest building, the 163-floor Burj Khalifa. Meanwhile the Emirates airline, which is based in Dubai, counts, on some measures, not only as the world’s largest international carrier but the world’s best (it was so designated a few months ago by the British consultancy, Skytrax).

But Dubai’s official religion is Islam — and not a particularly liberal brand. This means that Westerners are tolerated only under sufferance. Western women in particular are not always welcome. This despite the fact that Dubai features one of the most disturbingly imbalanced male-female ratios in world history: in the overall population, males outnumber females more than three to one. The ratio for adults is probably even more imbalanced. The only foreign women who seem to be welcome are prostitutes, particularly Russian and Indian ones. Other foreign women enter Dubai at their own risk and woe betide them if they rock the boat. The status of ordinary decent local women in Dubai is powerfully symbolized by the fact that wives can be beaten with impunity so long as no marks are left.... 

Susan Murphy-MilanoContributor

READ WHOLE STORY

SOCIAL CHANGE: modern Arabian women

جمال الحب المقدس

Arabian woman in office

MEDITATION

“The Arab world creates different environments for creativity to grow, and shapes boldness in a different, and un-American fashion. It is puzzling why creativity ceased in the Arab world so many centuries ago. What is within Islam that retards creativity, and stopped its flow?” – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

http://keeperofstories.blogspot.com/2011/03/privilege.html 

WESTERN WOMAN & EGO

middle eastern beauty of stacey

"There is something frightening about the women who have become the ideology they suffered from the most. Women moving into the halls of corporations, missionary work, social activism, and government have more than a job to master. They have a Western tradition of thought, analysis, and behavior to unearth, unmask, and unlearn."

-Gregory E. Woods

Keeper of Stories

4/20/10