photo, Kevin Sites
Samarra is an ancient city, just outside of modern Tikrit. Samarra is likely a remnant of the great civilization of Sumeria or so I've read, seems pretty likely. I am still in the grips of a fascination for that far off pre-historical time.
I find it a compelling mystery, that the land of the ancient goddess is locked in the grip of a pattern of male domination and female submission. The Godess hailing from this very geographical place, was the embodiement of a concept powerful enough to have survived successive waves of destruction, defacement, submergence and oppression. Innana, Ishtar, Isis, Venus, Dianna, Mary. She has a million names and lives in millions of hearts of millions of woman everywhere, yet look LOOK what has become of her, draped in black, hidden, once sacred, now profane to even look upon.
I don't understand the mind set, I get the fashion, really I do. I think veils and silk and mystery alluring. I could easily see myself adopting such dress if I were there, you know when in Rome and all, I could even see myself donning a real fancy one here and now for a special occassion. It's not the fashion that bothers me. (The Taliban Burka however is a different thing all together. Designed not only to cover, but to immobilize and dim the sight. No way Jose!)
It's the secretiveness sourrounding women that bothers me. Like at some point, if you were born female, your fate is all set out for you. It's just a matter of time, once those powerful hormones and chemical changes begin to take place, you just end up sort of amputated from society, hidden like something either terribly shameful, or something terribly precious. Which is it? I don't know. I can't even pretend to know. But I do like to wonder.
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