Let the Light Shine, Sisters!

Two young women of the Muslim faith have taken steps this past week or so that landed them both in the news. While I hail the bravery of the one and lament the participation in the beauty-pageant mindset of the other, I think they are both worthy of headlines.
I usually have big problems with beauty pageants. They just contribute so bloody much to the mindset that objectifies and intellectually denigrates women. Those who take the titles are damn fine clothes horses who far too often fit right into every stereotype joke ever made about the winners. On May 16, however, the Miss USA pageant crowned a winner who was an interesting choice, so far as I am concerned, since these contests continue whether or not I like them. Miss Michigan, a Lebanese American, Rima Fakih became the first Muslim ever to wear the Miss USA tiara and she did it without a hijab. In fact, during the bikini segment, she did it almost without any cloth cover-up at all. My biggest concern for her is not the right-wing hatemongers who feel obliged to call her all kinds of names and insist she is a terrorist, simply because of her religious affiliation. My fear for her is rather that some fundamentalist wingnut who calls himself a follower of the prophet will feel obliged to murder her. If she wants to parade her charms in front of gawkers who see her as nothing more than an object, it should be her choice to do so with impunity.
I sincerely wish a great deal more good luck, however, to the woman who reportedly attacked one of the Saudi religious police. The Saudi daily newspaper, Okaz, reports that the woman, who is in her 20s, was strolling through an amusement park in the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz, when she engaged in fisticuffs. She was in the company of a male when she and he were approached by a member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The upholder of public virtue demanded to know the relationship between the two, and the ever-so-brave young man "collapsed". Obviously the one with the balls in this twosome, the woman reacted with her fists, laying on enough of a beating to send the religious police officer to the hospital "with bruises to his face and body". Good luck to this young woman. Her actions took a great deal of courage while Fakih's only took a great deal of curvaceous exposure. Either way, these two could find themselves facing the wrath of some self-righteous Quran-spouting misogynist. Any danger posed would seem to be far greater for the young Saudi woman, since she faces incarceration and lashes if charges are brought against her. I imagine whoever lays on the lashes would do so with great gusto, in order to teach a lesson to every female upstart who does not submit to the supposed authority of the male.
Either way, these two women have placed some interesting light on women in Islam, and I say, let the light shine, sisters. Let the light shine.