Fiesta Latina A Washington,DC: Pictures

Un estatuto de la civilizacion azteca??

Mucha gente...

Las Donas de Panama !

Las Donas de Espana!

Flamenco!

!Ole! Viva Espana!

Tango de Argentina!

Paella de Espana: Que deliciosa!

Comida de Argentina

Un pais que yo quiero visitar

Muslims & Sexuality

Dr. Heba Kotb

I have tackled more or less the same topic in a previous post but from another perspective. At that time I referred to a fatwa issued by an egyptian cleric declaring a marriage contract illegal if a married couple engage in sexual intercourse while naked. This time I came across this news item by CNN which reads: "Egypt's "Dr Ruth": Muslims Need Better Sex".

The article in question is about an egyptian medical doctor Mrs. Heba Kotb, (I wonder if she is a relative to egyptian author and islamist Sayyed Qutb, for I am sure he wouldn't be appreciative of what she is doing if he was still alive), who specialized in human sexuality and got her degree from an American University (no wonder).

Dr. Kotb also runs the show "The Big Talk" a famous program broadcasted in one of Cairo's TV channels. In her show Dr. Kotb tackles the issue of sexuality which you like it or not is still a taboo subject in most conservative arab and moslem societies. Dr Kotb's main advice to married couples is to have more sex ( which CNN badly rephrased : "Muslims Need Better Sex", are we arabs and moslems so bad at having sex?? are there international standards for good sex?? I am asking).

In "The Big Talk", Dr. kotb talks about issues like masturbation ... sex over the Internet... sex and Ramadan...the wedding night... however she sticks to the teachings of the Quran something that brought her criticism from those more liberal [who] think she's not being open enough about sex, ignoring topics like extra marital affairs, homosexuality and pregnancy out of wedlock [and] conservatives [who] think sex is not for public discussion.

All in all I personally think that Dr. Kotb's initiative despite its shortcomings is something worth praising and something that needs to be generalized in other arab and moslem societies.

Bodies: The Exhibition

Anyone is interested in visiting an exhibit of real human bodies? (of course they are dead human bodies ;)). Well the afore-mentioned exhibit is at the Dome in Rosslyn, Virginia. Check the website here.

With educational relevance for all ages, this exhibition of real human specimens immerses visitors in the complexities of the human body, telling us the amazing story of ourselves with reverence and understanding.

Planet Of The Arabs

Sometime in December 2005, I wrote a post titled "Hollywood and Washington Sprung From the Same DNA", I was at that time referring to a book written by american professor and author Jack G. Shaheen titled "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People". I contributed my post to Maghreblog.net, when I was a contributer to this blog. Unfortunately the post was lost for ever when the website crashed and was closed :( I regret not having saved a copy of my post but I came across this trailer of a documentary inspired by Shaheen's book and which deals with the image of Arabs according to Hollywood.

Here is the link to the video clip in question (Recently, I encountered technical problems while posting video clips from dailymotion, google video and youtube, so my apologies)

Rumi 800th Anniversary

Turkey is celebrating the 800th anniversary of the birth of Mevlana Jelal eddine Al Rumi who "stands as one of the great spiritual masters and poetical geniuses of mankind and the founder of the Mevlevi Sufi order, a leading mystical brotherhood of Islam". Visit the website here and here.

ثقبت أذني اليسرى لأن الجهة اليمنى مقدسة في الإسلام

Ainsi expliquait Nomane, un jeune tunisien agé de 18 ans, son experience avec le port de boucles d'oreilles communement connu sous le mot anglais "piercing" et pouquoi il l'a mis à l'oreille gauche bien que certains pensent qu'"un homme avec un "piercing" à l'oreille gauche sous-entend que ce dernier est homosexuel" ou encore la notion qu'"une fille qui porte un bracelet au pied elle est considérée comme lesbienne". Selon un article publié par le journal arabe Al-Hayat, il semble que le phénomène du "piercing" est très à la mode en Tunisie (suite). Que pensez-vous de ce phénomène?

Pravda: Tunisians Are The Slimmest People In The World

According to Pravda, One can hardly see an overweight person of Tunisian origin. The local secret of staying slim and trim looks amazingly simple: a diet of vegetables, seafood, mutton, and spices. More importantly, the way all the above are combined and cooked makes a big difference.

The article is neat but I thought the author will give us some scientific studies or researches to prove his statement instead he went on by presenting various tunisian dishes which is not bad too...Anyway I agree with the fact that Tunisian cuisine is one of the healthiest at least in the mediterranean region. BTW I miss couscous :((