Sex Education Saudi Style

I have to thank Angry Arab for bringing me to light about this fatwa originally, but i couldn't help re-posting it. Since it is in Arabic, I will summarize: a website that specializes in fatwas on "women's issues" called Eve's World posts the following (Arabic only): if a man has anal sex with his wife without realizing it, he is forgiven as long as he ceases as soon as his wife informs him. There is a long-winded explanation given for this using chain of narratives which ends up saying that God "told the Jews" that having anal sex or sex with your wife while "she is laid on her face" will produce a cross-eyed child. However, fear not, for God did not reveal the full truth to the Jews, as anal sex does not (gasp!) result in pregnancy! This stellar sex education tip is accompanied by the ruling that a husband may "take his wife however he pleases, laying on her back or on her face, so long as his entry is in 'the front' and not 'the rear'". I find this disturbing enough to share not just because of the insertion (no pun intended) of Jews into this whole tale so as to try and somehow link them to sexual deviance - taking advantage of their being mentioned a whole lot in Surat al-Baqarah (the Cow Chapter of the Qur'an) - but also because implicitly the fatwa seems to say that (heterosexual) butt sex is ok if the husband "doesn't know" and the wife doesn't inform him! Can this also mean that a man can have sex with another (male-bodied) man as long as he thinks the latter is female and is not informed to the contrary? In addition to this, the fatwa is inadvertently reassuring curious young people who may lack safer sex knowledge that anal sex will not get you pregnant. Oh, if only they had found a Hadith that supported using condoms.

PS: In addition, I would like to thank his Beneficience the Sheikh who issued this fatwa for teaching me the term for anal sex in good fussha (classical Arabic). This will definitely be worked into my next homework composition.

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On Breast Cancer, Palestinians in Israel, and Haifa Wahbe

A little while ago I attended a Breast Health Study Day put on by the Arab branch of the Israeli Cancer Association in Nazareth for Palestinian Arab women citizens of Israel. Cancer is a difficult issue here; people often don’t even want to say the word. Breast cancer gets into even more touchy territory (no pun intended). You’re talking about boobs in a generally conservative society and then putting boobs AND illness in the same sentence.

These attitudes are reflected in the survival rates of women afflicted with breast cancer. The survival rate of Jewish Israeli women for breast cancer is 70-75%, while among Arab Israeli women it is 60-65%, according to Physicians for Human Rights. Dr Raymond Menassa, the Director of the Breast Health Center in Nazareth has been quoted giving far more disparate numbers. The point is that survival rates indicate several things- access to health services, quality of diagnosis and treatment, access to information- and there is a serious differential here.

(Let’s keep in mind that in Gaza the breast cancer survival rate is around 30% or less, and I can’t find the numbers for the West Bank. I’m focusing here only within Israel’s internationally recognized borders, which places this into the context of an indigenous minority group’s health rights within the state where they are citizens. Cancer and access to treatment through checkpoints and across borders from the West Bank and Gaza is a whole other can of worms, though the people involved may end up in the same hospitals with the same doctors and may be related in some way....)

So there's the general cultural attitude toward breast cancer that makes prevention and awareness work so difficult: often women hide the fact that they are undergoing treatment, even from their own families. And as if stigma weren't enough, the Israeli Cancer Association insists on burying its head in the sand. The ICA recommendations, which determine what the Sick Funds (HMOs) will pay for, say that women should start getting mammographies at the age of 50. This recommendation is based on data showing that Israeli women tend to get breast cancer in their mid to late 50s.

Well, guess what. The physicians in Nazareth are saying, and have been for a long time, that Arab women tend to get breast cancer in their 40s. There's a reason why the American Cancer Society recommends that women begin mammogram screenings at age 40. And the CDC. While not always cost effective overall, mammogram screenings in a woman's 40s are so important, because if you get it younger it's likely to be more aggressive, and early detection will benefit you much more. You can find that information anywhere. Like here. And while it isn't a clear-cut issue (the American College of Physicians 2007 guidelines say you should just ask your doctor in your 40s when to begin mammogram screenings), it seems to me that if Palestinian citizens of Israel are likely to get breast cancer in their 40s, then the insurance should pay for screenings beginning at age 40, and the guidelines should be revised.

This whole situation is not unlike the good old U.S. of A. African American women tend to get more aggressive forms of breast cancer, and younger. African American women also wait longer for treatment.

Language is also a huge issue. While there is a ton of breast cancer awareness work that goes on in Israel, it's in Hebrew. I seriously doubt that's going to help most middle-aged and over Palestinian women who are Israeli citizens. At the study day, even though it was conducted in Arabic, every presentation but one was accompanied by a Hebrew language powerpoint. This is because you have to speak Hebrew to get anywhere in this country, and the doctors and nurses and nutritionists presenting who've clearly gotten somewhere have had to leave their Arabic in the dust and just couldn't be bothered to type out their notes bil Araby. One did. When her powerpoint came up in Arabic, the audience (mainly of the older non-Hebrew-speaking generations) reacted with exclamations of "What a bright girl!" "Bravo!" "She's so smart!"

I recently spoke with the product manager in the oncology branch of a major Israeli pharmaceutical company regarding some of this information, and he actually- and I still can’t quite believe this- said, “Now, explain to me why I should be interested in this?”

I’m sorry? Why should you be interested? Women in your country are DYING because they don’t have enough information in their own language to protect themselves, and you can’t muster up the teensiest ounce of interest? This issue is directly related to your line of work and product consumer base. I have a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure San Diego t-shirt that lists the following general sponsors: Yoplait, American Airlines, Coldwater Creek, Energizer, Ford, New Balance, and Quilted Northern Ultra. TOILET PAPER, people! Yogurt, airplanes, weird yuppie clothing, batteries, cars, shoes, and TOILET PAPER are interested in breast cancer.

In spite of, and also because of, all this nonsense, many women showed up at the the Breast Health Study Day AND asked a ton of questions. Including the woman who stood in front of everyone to ask if in her 70s, she was too old for reconstructive surgery. Someone was quick to reply, "Not if you want to sing like Haifa Wahbe!"

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