I saw on CNN the following headline: Men see bikini-clad women as objects. I saw this and was like, “No fooling?!” We’ve been saying it for 1400 years that Islam, by telling us to cover up, is saving us from being objectified. And we constantly have to hear back that covering up makes us objects. Well, thank heaven we have science to back us up now! Interesting little tidbit from the article:

A supplementary study on both male and female undergraduates found that men tend to associate bikini-clad women with first-person action verbs such as I “push,” “handle” and “grab” instead of the third-person forms such as she “pushes,” “handles” and “grabs.” They associated fully clothed women, on the other hand, with the third-person forms, indicating these women were perceived as in control of their own actions. The females who took the test did not show this effect, Fiske said.

It’s going to be fun pointing this article out to the hijab haters! It sure beats all those studies that say Vitamin D levels in Arab (code word to imply Muslim!) are simply life-threateningly low.

Well, by now, the entire world has watched the stunningly creative and majestically orchestrated extravaganza that China wowed us all with. Every time something happened, we’d all clap madly, as if we had a hand in it or something I kept reading around the blogosphere that it was going to be amazing, but deliberately didn’t stick around for details, because of course, I wanted to be as surprised as they had been. And I was! From the countdown with the flashing light-drums, I was so hooked. It was hard to pick a favorite part of the night: the drums/lights, or the printing press/blocks weaving signs of harmony, or the paddle show, or the Tai-Chi demonstration? Or could the effects and animation be the most amazing thing, with the Olympic rings being peeled off the ground and floating in the air? Or was it the little Chinese boy who was a survivor of the Sichuan quakes? Whatever was my favorite, I don’t know….but it was all certainly a fitting way to lead up to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. The poor Queen of England must be choking on her jewels hoping that London can match this show from her former colony.

Which countries athletes had the best Opening Day costumes? I really liked the traditionally-inclined outfits (Gambia, most Arab/African countries, India {woohooo}, Lesotho {my favorite, for style alone}) more than any others. Sweden surprised me (pleasantly) with their Chinese-styled garments. And it was awesome seeing a few hijabed heads, from places like Iran and the Maldives. The one I liked best of all, though, was the Palestinian’s: the kaffiyeh printed shirts, and that one girl’s dress, which was just wowzers! It was a small delegation, but done well with pride. Oh, and I discovered that Belarus has a gorgeous flag.

And of course, in true Nomadic style, I have to complain about something. Please, stop your groaning…you know this is the part you were waiting for And here it is: Why did the NBC announcer have to say the same predictable stuff about Saudi Arabia when their athletes paraded by? Really, was it entirely necessary to bring up, yet again, that KSA is the only country where women are not permitted to drive, and have no female athletes in their delegation? Don’t you guys ever get tire of repeating the same stuff about the same countries at the same predictable moments? Ever?! I noticed that they neglected to mention that Kuwait and Iraq also don’t have any women on their teams; and how come it was not an equally big deal that Iran, a notoriously conservative Muslim country, does have a couple of female athletes? Just curious! It was nice to hear other interesting bits about other countries (Vietnam has 150 medals for mathematics, but just 1 medal from the Olympics; Central African Republic is in…Central Africa) but really, the same drivel about KSA had to bear repeating? Ok then.

So yesterday, I decided to spend a good half day at the uni library studying. I went to take a little hand-washing break, and as I entered the Ladies Room, there was this girl at the mirror. She was busy applying makeup and fixing up her highlighted hair, in tight jeans and fitted sweater. As soon as she made eye contact with me, she said hello, and then: “Thats a really beautiful outfit.” I had to look down at myself to see what she was talking about, and I realized it was the loosest abaya I have, and of course with the hijab and niqaab.

And I just have to say, that really made my day. How often do we get stuck in this mode of thinking that we are surrounded by people who think our Islamic code of conduct is too extreme, or foreign, or whatever? And then somebody comes along to shake us out of thinking that we are hated. Alhamdulillah!