Al Rai has graced its e-pages with a fascinating mix of science,90’s Jordanian culture, sexism, and mere retardedness courtesy of a certain Rania Tadrus.

Tadrus has sort of put together an article about smoking women in Jordan and how they are no longer embarrassed by the fact that they smoke, how they smoke in public and how they flaunt this once-taboo behavior with complete freedom.

So far so good. But then the article proceeds to quoting the most ridiculous statements such as these:

وتوضح ان الانفتاح وتوجه الفتيات نحو الدخان -سواء كان سيجارة أو ارجلية - يعود الى التأثر بالثقافات الاخرى، ويرتبط بعلو الأصوات التي تنادي بتحرر المرأة، خصوصا في ظل ثورة المعلومات .
وتتابع التدخين أمام العائلة خارج وداخل المنزل بات مؤشرا لاتجاه المجتمع نحو قيم وعادات غريبة بعيدة عن ثقافتنا العربية .

and

ولأخطر من ذلك وفق الدكتورة أيوب أن نضوج الفتاة يكتمل عند سن 25 عاما، فإذا بدأت التدخين في سن مراهقة متأخر تكون النتيجة حسب الدراسات العلمية، حدوث مشاكل في نضوج ونمو الجزء الأمامي من الدماغ، الذي يتحكم بالتصرفات والسلوكيات ،وطبعا هذا يفسر التصرفات غير المقبولة منهن .

and

ويحذر من خطورة الارجلية على أجسام النساء ويصفها بأنها موضة آخذة في الانتشار على نطاق واسع رغم خطورتها بسبب احتوائها على الملونات والأصباغ في المعسل وعدم الاحتراق الكامل ما يعد احد اسباب السرطانات

and the worst bit

اما مديرة مجموعة لينا للإبداع التربوي/ برنامج مكافحة التدخين ماويا حمّاد فتفسر إقبال النساء على التدخين لأسباب أساسية أهمها غياب التشريعات والعقوبات الفعّالة ،وكذلك سهولة الحصول عليها من حيث البيع وتواجدها في كل محل تقريبا ، إضافة إلى غياب القدوة الحسنة فالام تدخن مع بناتها وكذلك الأب عندما يطلب من ابنته اعداد الارجلية له

To sum it up, it turns out that smoking is a Western habit that Jordanian women are picking up, it causes them to behave in unacceptable ways if they pick it up before 25, it is a problem that is directly related to the increasing awareness of women’s rights, Narguile is a dangerous trend that is infesting women’s bodies with diseases, AND according to Mawya Hammad women who smoke do so because there are no regulations enforced to prevent them and because they have ready access to cigarettes coupled with lack of guidance.

I felt like I am living in the Middle Ages after reading that article, or perhaps back in the times where clerics and philosophers pondered the question of The Woman and if she has a soul. To have an article written by a woman, and featured like that in a national newspaper, is a scandal to Jordanian journalism I believe.

If the article is about smoking women in Jordan, who represent a 19% segment of our feminine population, then it should be unbiased and unsexist to say the least. Unless, of course, it aims to bash this segment, which it basically does.

I am amazed at the absence of a single word mentioning Jordanian male smokers. What is the percentage of that segment, do you think? (my guess is 50%+) How come all the negativity is directed at female smokers (Western habits, unacceptable behavior, no regulations, no guidance, etc) ?

Granted, smoking is not good for your health. I don’t care if you are a woman or a man or a goat, it will kill you eventually. I just find it absurd that this article would so portray women as if they are children who have been let out by accident and who are picking bad habits in the absence of parental control.

If an article of the same genre was written about male smokers in Jordan, would it have mentioned that they “have ready access to cigarettes” and “lack of guidance” and that they have adopted it as awareness of men’s rights started to emerge in Jordan, and with the same tone of this article? I very much doubt it.

It upsets me that even articles that fall under the “raising awareness” genre stoop to such a low level of sexism in this country. The sheer amount of bashing women smokers not because they smoke but because they are women who smoke in our society is outrageous. These articles mix science with witchcraft, so to speak.

These articles do not raise awareness as much as they raise anger and a feeling of inferiority in women. Why else would they be signaled out like that and a supposedly scientific article would mention their taboo behavior and quote people who say they are breaking with Jordan’s culture and traditions? I daresay the amount of anger this article has produced in me might push me to burn a packet today.

Now where’s that awareness it was supposed to raise?

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 10:44 am and is filed under Jordan, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.