Re: wayyyyy cool
Posted by Kenzi on February 05, 2000 at 01:43:37:
In Reply to: wayyyyy cool posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on February 05, 2000 at 00:26:07:
: Damn, you're good! REALLY good!
: I've heard the feminist rant against henna mostly from some very
hurt
: and angry women who are ethnically Middle Eastern, and haven't
gotten
: past rage they have about relationships with older members of
family.
: It's some pretty miserable immigrant experience stuff. I do a lot
of
: listening when I'm hennaeing Lebanese and Palestinian ladies
: hereabouts. There's a lot of very real pain going on that is
tangent
: to henna and women's experience. That's one of the reasons I am so
: bloodyminded about persuing a larger view of women's experience
with
: henna, and it's origins. There are so many points of view to be
heard,
: so many experiences, that openmindedness is crucial.
: Some particularly enlightening books on the experiences the ME
women
: have with marriage, henna, identity, and the like are in "Price of
: Honor" (don't have the author, daughter borrowed the book and
hasn't
: brought it back) and "Beyond the Veil" by Fatima Mernisi, second
: edition ...
: It certainly doesn't take a lot of historical digging to see the
part
: henna has played as a symbol of power, independence, and strength,
and
: sexuality in women. (not to mention the occasions of vengeance,
: victory, and once in a great while, killing everybody in sight.)
Well, then, Catherine, you better get that book out so it can be a
best seller and get translated into Arabic (and other languages) to
get your message out there!
One thing that really struck me from your site, Kree, was your
stories of Morocco (as i have told you) and what keeps on coming back
to me to make me laugh is the picture you paint of the old woman
sitting with her feet up in the air having them hennaed, and then
laughing like crazy when you ask her if she's gettting hennaed for
her wedding. That image is priceless and I can see it so clearly.
And what you wrote about them hennaing to celebrate happiness was
great...going against the idea that henna is a prison.