An Australian reader emails:
A "home" magazine here in Australia by the name of "New Idea" has published an article about suicide bomber women called "Dressed to Kill". I don't know when it was published but my daughter saw it last week in a hairdressing salon. A person I know, coincidentally last week also, saw it in a doctor's waiting room.The idea of putting up a web page is apparently too new of an idea for New Idea, but we have a scanned image of the full article [large jpg]. The text isn't entirely uncritical of the suicide bombers, but it portrays them with inappropriate glamour and sympathy. I excerpt:The article is disgusting because it equates feminism with suicide bombings. I attach it for your interest.
Dareen Abu Aisheh was dressed to kill on a cold February night last year. Wearing an open-necked blouse and leggings, her face delicately shaded with mascara and rouge. Dareen had dressed carefully for what would be the most important night of her lifeIt also turned out to be the most important night in the life of the policeman she maimed.
Then we learn of Wafa Idris
Like Dareen, Wafa Idris lived in a refugee camp in the West Bank.We learn nothing about the Arab intransigence that has kept Wafa Idris' family in a "refugee camp" for 55 years.
On January 27, 2002, Wafa, 28, travelled to Jerusalem with her face made up and her hair done up in curls. And like Dareen, Wafa wore explosives that killed herself, one bystander and wounded 100 more.One only wonders what her victims were wearing. How does New Idea rationalize the suicide bombers' fetish for death? With an obviously out-of-context quote from an anonymous Israeli
'The phenomenon of suicide bombing in the Palestinian arena is motivated by desperation, coercion and an acceptance that there are no pleasures on earth that can match the rewards of someone who dies for Islam,' an Israeli officer says.Wafa Idris' twisted mother gets the last word:
'She is a hero' [Wafa Idris' mother] says, her face full of pride. 'She is a martyr'.Read the whole sick article (on an empty stomach). Comments may be sent to michelle.endacott@pacpubs.com.au Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 06, 2003 12:23 PM
People who write articles such as this or the one last year that was in Newsweek creating a linkage between the young Israeli girl who was killed and the Pali girl that killed her (they forgot to mention the security guard at the supermarket,he was unimportant to the story I guess), make me sick. I almost wish that they would suffer in a terror attck themselves.
Posted by: Joel on August 6, 2003 01:02 PMIt is disgraceful for a wide circulation women's magazine to attempt to glamorise homicide bombers in this way. New Idea is mimicking Palestinian glorification of these murderers. What about the clothes and makeup of the women and children who were innocent victims or these deranged killers.
Posted by: Anita Oliver on August 6, 2003 05:10 PMNew Idea has always been THE magazine for mentally-challenged females, this is not really surprising. I think the same magazine ran approving reports about Woody Allen's affair with his adopted daughter. When I read this article, I was tempted to write a letter to the editor expressing my disgust at the glorification of cowardly murderers, but on second thought, why waste my valuable time?
Posted by: dee on August 6, 2003 06:02 PMWhat sort of clout is required to get a brain-damaged article like this published? What sort of media machine deos the Wahhabi publicity circus have on retainer?
Posted by: murray on August 7, 2003 07:57 AMI received this email today from the New Image people in response to an my frwarding of Sharkman's comments about them.
Dear Mr ********
Your email this morning is to hand.
Our lawyers want to send a response - could you please send a postal address for this correspondence?
Kind regards
Michelle Endacott
Managing Editor
New Idea
Hey you Americans, here's a suggestion from an Aussie - please do some basic research before you send your Shoot-to-Kill posses.
If you Google this you'll soon find out that "New Idea" is an ultra-trashy, but still somehow mainstream (it's owned by Oz's # 2 TV network), magazine that has long skated on legal thin ice. Despite this, it has absolutely no political agenda(s), as far as I can tell.
And if that doesn't satisfy your bloodlust here, why not instead go after the co. http://www.planetsyndication.com > and/or the journalist (Samuel M. Katz) named in the article's byline?
While New Idea may be guilty of many other things, then, it did not either write or commission the offending piece of crap.
Oops, used the darned "
Hence, Google this: "new idea magazine" "pacific publications"
And also check out this (very non-Australian)company: http://www.planetsyndication.com
Posted by: Paul Watson on August 9, 2003 09:43 PMWafa Idris was (a) Divorced and hence ineligible to marry again in spite of her husband's infidelity - allowed to males but not females in Islam and (b) Infertile, and unable to be "useful" by bearing children, the main function in Islam for women. Her decision to be a "martyr" was therefore so that she could attain to the Islamic fool's paradise by committing shehada. Investigate every single female suicide bomber's past and you will find similar motivations, none of them political, and all based on their primitive religious mythology.
Posted by: Iain Campbell on February 9, 2004 04:00 PMSo is that supposed to rationalize her actions? She didn't feel good about herself so it's ok to blow herself up?
Also, the magazine didn't write the article, but they sure as hell printed it. They didn't have to - they chose to. big difference.
Posted by: Claudia on February 11, 2004 07:26 PMIsrael + Palestine + Peace = true
Posted by: Hanna on April 26, 2004 03:12 AMWow.. the ignorace in so many people about the plight of these women and the situation in Palestine/Israel.
Also.. please keep quiet as long as you are not educated about a religion, a people. If this is your idea of Islam.. than you are in dark dark days.
Posted by: Cindy on October 10, 2004 11:45 PMin response to what Iain Campbell said... do you even KNOW anything about Islam? If you had said that to a scholar they would think you were an idiot. Why dont you ask a Muslim woman what her rights are in Islam and not assume anything. It is very obvious that most of the people who are reading this have already been brainwashed by CNN and other mass media propaganda. people love to forget that when submarines were first invented, they did not have torpedos. The people in the sub would ram their sub into the side of a ship from under the water... were these people sick demented terrorists? American double standards are repulsive. I wish you would all learn about your own history before you started to condem others for doing what Americans did. I left my email, you are all more than welcome to email me if you would like to learn the true meaning behind Islam from a MUSLIM and not another ignorant "know-it-all" Fox News fan...
Posted by: Mishal on March 10, 2005 05:34 PMWho cares bout the true meaning behind Islam. It is plain and simple, she killed innocent people. People like this should do society a favor and kill themselves.
Posted by: ? on April 12, 2005 07:26 PMI am thinking its really not a matter of humanitarianism at all the while the israelis are killing the Palestinian civilians. You know perhaps some of them were family members of the suicide bomber but thats not the issue to some people out there.
Come to think of it, i dont see alot of articles devouted to war crimes linking Israeli soldiers to their occupation in Palestine.
So the real question is that how do you live with such double standerds while pretending to hold on to some moral high ground.
I am thinking its really not a matter of humanitarianism at all the while the israelis are killing the Palestinian civilians. You know perhaps some of them were family members of the suicide bomber but thats not the issue to some people out there.
Come to think of it, i dont see alot of articles devouted to war crimes linking Israeli soldiers to their occupation in Palestine.
So the real question is that how do you live with such double standerds while pretending to hold on to some moral high ground.
Israel and palestine would never ever at peace. Never be at peace two big religion comunity in same place, And You guys, u have to know the truth, what was happening in Israel and palestine, Is that fair a huge tanks, gun, and other military weapon versus stones? Don't you know that? Allahuakbar!!
Posted by: leily on September 23, 2005 08:23 PM