[Bern, Switzerland; December 12. Image via Getty]

Two Muslim women stand beneath an umbrella adorned with Swiss crosses during a protest on December 12, 2009 in front of the Swiss parliament building in Bern against a recent decision by Swiss voters to ban the construction of minarets. On last November 29, 2009 more than 57 percent of Swiss voters approved a rightwing motion to ban minarets on mosques, a decision that has sparked an international backlash and charges of intolerance. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINI (Photo credit should read FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Berkeley, December 2. Image via Getty]

BERKELEY, CA - DECEMBER 02: Muslim American teenager Shaymaa Mahmoud (R) looks on during her Gender and Women's Studies class at U.C. Berkeley December 2, 2009 in Berkeley, California. Eight years after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Muslims in America are once again fearing a backlash following last months Ft. Hood shootings. Muslim groups have started to organize campaigns to educate the public about Islam and its adherents. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The "burka Barbie" in question is one of 500 dolls, many dressed by Italian designer Eliana Lorena, currently on display at Florence's Salone dei Cinquecento and to be auctioned off for Save the Children in association with Sotheby's. The exhibition, in concert with Barbie's 50th anniversary, has Mattel's blessing.

Anna advised me not to do the show. Not only is she unimpressed by previous segments in which Jezebel was mentioned, she was pretty sure they'd "play the concerned "feminist" card" while in fact getting in more sweeping digs at the pernicious influence of Islam. Indeed, although the doll hasn't generated a ton of media attention, it's been enough to prompt both reflexive anti-Islam rhetoric (ahem, Daily Mail commenters!) and feminist outrage. NOW's Marcia Pappas has apparently released the statement,

As feminists we believe that women must be able to make their own choices and that includes choices about the clothing they wear. But the burka is more than a choice. Women are forced to wear the burka or risk being murdered. Mattel should be ashamed. Making a profit by selling a doll that is clearly wearing a symbol of violence is not acceptable and there should be a public outcry to take this doll off the market.

But there were other reasons that dressing Barbie in a burka wasn't exactly the cause I wanted to get behind, especially on Fox News. A non-Muslim dressing a non-Muslim doll in a burka trivializes it and reduces it to a costume as surely as Barbie's Mackies and bikinis and doctors' coats. Also, the burka in question is scaled strangely - not to mention lime green and vermillion. Perhaps more problematically, the doll is dressed in a burka "or" a hijab, and the two are not the same thing.

But most of all... I don't think it is really that big a deal: it's a single doll. It's not mass-produced. It's presumably not intended for any children, Muslim or otherwise, and doesn't seem to involve any more social commentary than Malibu Barbie does on Proposition 8. That said, whether the designer intended it to be or otherwise, it's obviously a loaded choice: Saudi Arabia outlawed Barbie in 2003, and as the Christian Science Monitor reminds us, "in April 2008, Iranian prosecutor Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi warned in that Barbie dolls are 'destructive culturally and a social danger,'" prompting attempts to ban them from stores, although several Barbie-substitutes have failed to catch on. (Fulla, a more naturalistic fashion doll from the United Arab Emirates, has been successful across the Middle East.) And for many, Barbie can never be de-sexualized.

In the end, I spent so much time debating and deciding that by the time I'd made my decision, the Fox segment had already aired. Too bad: I'd arrived at what I thought was an inarguable thesis: at the end of the day, all Barbies are going to end up in the same place - naked and spread-eagle on the floor.

It's Barbie In A Burkha [Daily Mail]
Burka Barbie To Raise Funds For Save The Children [Christian Science Monitor]
Boycott Burqa Barbie [PajamasMedia]
Burqa Barbie [Fox News]

The only good I can see coming from Sarah Palin's media march is that any possibility of her running for President in 2012 will, most likely, be shot to smithereens.

First, she's on Newsmax, calling Fox News comedian Glenn Beck "effective":

Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He's a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he's so bold – I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he's very, very, very effective."

Of course you think he's a hoot - what he does is comedy! Well, unless it's a disgusting metaphor that he used incorrectly. Melissa over at Shakesville bravely decided to wade into Beck's world and create a transcript:

America has spoken clearly, consistently-we don't want [government-paid healthcare]. And for the first time in history, we don't think it's the government's place to give it to us. We're kind of reading this [holds up unidentified piece of paper] from time to time now. We are-excuse this analogy, but I feel like it's true-we're the young girl saying [puts on scared voice and crying face] "No, no-help me!" [back to regular voice] and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end, I think we're all gonna be cowering in France. [A few more moments of babbling about "unfunded liabilities" before the video cuts out.]

Melissa says: "Universal healthcare = rape. Awesome."

I say: Can this asshole even get a goddamn joke right? If the government is Roman Polanski, then they would be cowering in France, not us. And doesn't France have womb-to-tomb care, which is what we're apparently protesting against? Fail! Fail! Fail! If Jon Stewart kept botching jokes like this, Comedy Central would have fired his ass.

Palin's love of Beck's inane sputtering seems even more strange when you consider he just won the Anti-Defamation League's title of "Fearmonger-in-chief:"

The Influence of the Mainstream Media

Though much of the impetus for anti-government sentiment has come from a variety of grass-roots and extremist groups, segments of the mainstream media have played a surprisingly active role in generating such segment. Though a number of media figures and commentators have taken part, the media personality who has played the most active role has been radio and television host Glenn Beck, who along with many of his guests have made a habit of demonizing the Obama administration and promoting conspiracy theories about it. Beck has acted as a "fearmonger-in-chief," raising anxiety about and distrust towards the government.

Please note the headline the ADL gave Glenn Beck: Mainstream Media.

But back to Sarah.

The tragedy at Fort Hood on November 5, which resulted in the deaths of thirteen people and injuries to dozens of others, has been co-opted by those who would seek to further their own agendas. The Republicans are already on the move:

House and Senate Republicans, emerging from the most detailed briefings given to Congress since the Nov. 5 attack killed 13 at the central Texas Army post, said delaying investigations would put off legislative efforts to give military officials the tools to prevent similar tragedies in the future. They said such an effort would not interfere with the criminal investigation of shooting suspect Nidal M. Hasan, an Army major who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan.

"Congress also needs to move forward to make sure we do our work to get to the right conclusions," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee.

Catch that? We need to get to the right conclusions. Wonder what those would be?

Sarah Palin knows. Here's an assessment that she shared with the Weekly Standard yesterday:

She commented on the trail of evidence linking the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, to militant Islam. "There were such clear, obvious, massive warning signs that were missed," she said. "This terrorist, even having business cards" that identified him as an "SoA" or soldier of Allah. Palin blamed a culture of political correctness and other decisions that "prevented — I'm going to say it — profiling" of someone with Hasan's extremist ideology. "I say, profile away," Palin said. Such political correctness, she continued, "could be our downfall."

Interesting. Because obviously, racial profiling worked so well before. In fact, due to the government's racist actions in World War Two, many Japanese Americans lost their homes, their lives, everything they had - and for what? Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park fame) cut a track for his solo project that explored his family's history in the internment camps. A student on YouTube spliced the song with images and facts from the era:

The U.S. government ultimately paid close to $1.6 billion dollars in reparations for their insistence on profiling.

Now Palin and company want to repeat history, as those who don't learn from it so often do.

Palin-Beck 2012 [Politico]
Glenn Beck: Asshole [Shakesville]
Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies [ADL]
Republicans criticize Obama's Call To Delay Hill Inquiries On Fort Hood [Washington Post]
Palin On Nidal Hasan: "Profile Away" [Weekly Standard]
Exploring Japanese American Internment [Asian American Media]
Official Site [Densho]

Related: Casting Out: Exploring the Racialization of Muslims [Racialicious]
The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness" [Zuky]

[Ahmedabad, November 12. Image via Getty]

A young Indian woman wipes her eyes after seeing off a relative at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad on November 12, 2009. A first batch from Gujarat state of more than 400 pilgrims left for Mecca in Saudi Arabia, with about 160,000 Indian Muslims expected to undertake the Haj pilgrimage this year, either with government assistance or through private tour operators. AFP PHOTO/ Sam PANTHAKY (Photo credit should read SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images)

[Yogyakarta, Indonesia; November 10. Image via Getty]

YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA - NOVEMBER 10: Transgender named Novi, applies make up to her face on November 10, 2009 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The Koran school, called 'Senin-Kamis' meaning Monday - Thursday, the 2 days the school operates. The school was founded in July 2008 by a 48-year old Maryani as a place for waria to pray. Islam strictly segregates men from women when praying, leaving no-where for 'the third sex' waria to pray before now. There are now estimated to be around 300 men who prefer to live as women in Yogyakarta, many of whom work in the sex industry after their prayers as this is the only option for them to make a living. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

[Yogyakarta, Indonesia; November 9. Image via Getty]

YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA - NOVEMBER 09: A member of Koran school attends a special prayer school for transgender Muslims or 'waria' on November 9, 2009 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The Koran school, called 'Senin-Kamis' meaning Monday-Thursday, the 2 days the school operates, was founded in July 2008 by 48-year old Maryani as a place for waria to pray. Islam strictly segregates men from women when praying, leaving no-where for 'the third sex' waria to pray before now. There are now estimated to be around 300 men who prefer to live as women in Yogyakarta, many of whom work in the sex industry after their prayers as the only option for them to make a living. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

(Go ahead and check it out first, so you can see what we're discussing here. I'll wait.)

First of all, I think the ad is pretty effective: You know exactly what's being sold and what it looks like; the clip is memorable.

But is it "empowering to women," as Copyranter claims? That's debatable. You could view the woman in the commercial as confident and self-assured; or you could see her as the embodiment of a Western stereotype: The vixen under the veil. On AdFreak she's called an "exotic hottie."

In addition, some Muslims (or likewise modest people) would certainly be offended by the ad since the model appears bare-bottomed, briefly.

We don't know much about the woman in the commercial; she could live in anywhere. But since there is a campaign to lift the ban on women selling lingerie in Saudi Arabia, the commercial actually addresses a genuine issue (even if it wasn't intentional). But will viewers get that? Or do they just see an "exotic hottie" in a stylish undies ad?

Social Statement Via Unmentionables Ad [Animal]
Lingerie That Goes With Practically Any Outfit [AdFreak]

Earlier: Saudi Women Trained To Sell Underwear
Boy-Cott: Male Lingerie Salesmen Not Helping Modesty, Say Saudi Women

• New data from Britain shows that the number of violent crimes committed by women has risen 81% in the last decade. Conservative politicians suggest that this is directly linked to a rise in binge drinking, which doesn't fully explain why the article is illustrated with a picture of a woman passed out drunk on a park bench. •  A woman spent her wedding night in a Spanish jail cell after she grabbed a cop by his neck and slapped him. The police officer was attempting to break up a fight that had broken out between members of the bride's family and relatives of the groom. We think this would make a great (read: horrible) rom-com, very Bridezillas meets Romeo and Juliet. • According to a recent study, pregnant lesbians are sick of being treated differently than heterosexual mothers. Researchers found that most lesbian couples have felt frustrated at some point or another with the uncomfortable way that midwives and doctors dealt with them. • Experts have disproved claims that Ida, a fossil recently discovered in Germany, was the missing piece that would link the evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes, and humans. In fact, Ida is the "about as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be." • 

[Gaza City, September 21. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian girl poses for a picture at a recreational event organized by the radical Islamic movement Hamas in a school in Gaza City on September 21, 2009 during the second day of Eid al-Fitr. The celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, usually starts with an early morning prayer, then a visit to the tombs of loved ones and later a family festive lunch gathering. AFP PHOTO / MARCO LONGARI (Photo credit should read MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Kabul, September 20. Image via Getty]

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - SEPTEMBER 20: Afghan girls wear fancy dress as they play outside celebrating the first day of Eid-al-Fitr, a three day holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan September 20, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. During the holiday Afghans visit friends and family exchanging gifts and feasting. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

[New Delhi, September 15. Image via Getty]

An Indian muslim woman prays at the Jama Masjid mosque in the old sector of New Delhi after breaking her day long fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in New Delhi on September 15, 2009.Muslims the world over are fasting from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, abstaining from food and drink during daylight hours.AFP PHOTO/PEDRO UGARTE (Photo credit should read PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, September 11. Image via Getty]

A mother and daughter look out of the window as they watch anti muslim protestors being arrested by the police in Harrow, North London on September 11, 2009. Riot police intervened to quell clashes between Muslims and anti-Islamic extremists protesting outside a London mosque on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. AFP PHOTO/Carl de Souza (Photo credit should read CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Tehran, September 9. Image via Getty]

Shiite Muslim women hold the holy Koran on their heads during overnight ritual prayers in Tehran in the early hours of September 09, 2009, marking the start of the Lailat al-Qadr (Night of Power) ceremonies which celebrate the night in which the holy Koran was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammed through the angel Gabriel. Observant Muslims pray all night long for mercy and salvation in a ritual known locally as 'Ehyaa' or 'Revival', one of the most important ceremonies of the holy month of Ramadan. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)

[Baghdad, September 9. Image via Getty]

An Iraqi girl hold a bundle of clothes she has chosen at one of six centers in Baghdad where children who have lost their father's in violence following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq are given a set of new apparel to wear during the Eid festivities which mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan, on September 09, 2009, in Sadr City an eastern district of Baghdad. The clothes are donated by a private organization that runs six centers in across the city. Muslims abstain from water and food and sex during the holy month of Ramadan which culminates with the Eid where people wear new clothes and visit each other. AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

[Jerusalem, September 8. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian girl poses in her prayer gown as she walks with family members to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the third week of the fasting month of Ramadan on September 8, 2009. Muslims across the world are observing the holy month, abstaining from consuming food and drink from dawn to dusk. The Al-Aqsa compound, which is known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif to Muslims, is Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. AFP PHOTO /AHMAD GHARABLI (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Jakarta, September 8. Image via Getty]

An Indonesian Muslim woman prays at a mosque in Jakarta on September 8, 2009. Indonesian Muslims like millions of Muslims around the world, are observing the holy month of Ramadan — a month of fasting and spiritual purity during which they refrain from eating, drinking or sex from dawn until dusk. AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY (Photo credit should read ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)

The first article, from the new Economist, is actually a book review titled "Out from under." It covers Mania Lazregs' Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women.

The summary really says it all:

Marnia Lazreg, an Algerian-born professor of sociology at the City University of New York, feels passionately that Muslim women should not wear the veil, as both her mother and grandmother obediently did. She is particularly bothered by the trend of "reveiling" in the West and Islamic countries, whereby the daughters of women who went unveiled decide to cover up. But she also thinks that democratic governments should not impose dress codes by law. So she has written this collection of letters to Muslim women to try to coax them out from under the veil.

I toyed with rehashing things already written, with asking Fatemeh or Sobia to come and discuss why Muslim women may find themselves feeling the need to cover, either out of piety or political solidarity, why the fear of the headscarf is rooted in ideas of a frightening other, or how there are many Muslimahs who don't feel the need to cover (like Fatemeh) who still resent the imposition and policing of her beliefs by anyone.

But you know what? That gets enough air time and I'm sure there will be more segments on the news shortly. So let's talk a new film out of Egypt called Scheherazade: Tell Me a Story. From the Yahoo! article:

"Scheherazade: Tell Me a Story," screened at the Venice film festival outside the main competition, tells the story of Hebba, a successful talk-show host whose husband urges her to steer clear of politics in order to forward his own career.

As the deputy editor of a state-run newspaper in Cairo, Karim has been told by officials he is in line for the top job as long as his wife tones down the provocative content of her popular television slot.

But by inviting women to tell their personal, tragic stories, she unwittingly exposes fundamental flaws in Egyptian society where, the film argues, women are treated as sexual trophies and used and abused as men see fit.

When a man who tricks one of the women in order to extort money turns out to be a senior party figure, Hebba's comfortable life and seemingly perfect marriage begin to fall apart.

So here's the story of a woman, who asks other women to speak their truth and becomes an accidental whistleblower. Hebba, the heroine of the story, isn't trying to do anything but explain what is going on in the lives of the people she puts on her show. Yet, in one of the best illustrations of how the personal is political, her quest for the truth leads her to run afoul of powerful interests, and cause strife between Hebba and her ambitious husband. Check out the trailer (and a translation would be appreciated, if anyone speaks Arabic):

Domestic violence, marginalization, abortion - this film is tackling the standard fare of women's issues head on. In addition to this feat, the filmmaker had even loftier goals:

In production notes for the movie, Nasrallah said that as well as addressing "the misogyny prevailing in Egyptian society," his aim was to put women back at the center of Egyptian cinema which marginalized them for more than 20 years.

In the film, women are show both veiled and unveiled, but still struggling under the crushing weight of society. And this is why I feel like epics written about the act of veiling fall short. Is it good to examine the motivations for why women veil? Sure, why wouldn't we? It's kind of like why we examine black women's hair choices. These are personal things that are also very politicized and our choices send a message, whether we agree with the transmission or not. But it is important to remember that just like the issue with black hair isn't about what's growing out of our heads, but racism and dominant beauty standards, questions about the lives of Muslim women shouldn't be ascribed solely to the headscarf when we're really talking about misogyny.

(Oh, and the pic illustrating this post? They are school girls in Belgium protesting a headscarf ban.)

Official Site [Muslimah Media Watch]
Out From Under [The Economist]
Muslim Lookout [Official Site]
Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story [Screen Daily]
Egyptian Film On Women's Role Draws Ire And Praise [Reuters]