Friday, June 09, 2006

Sex Advice for Frum Muslims (or Tzena Rena in Arabic)

My dear DovBear,

Here is an interesting article about what my Iraqi sisters are reading:

'Instead of an agony aunt, sex therapist or doctor, questions relating to bedroom etiquette are dealt with by a theologian from Najaf's Kufa University Law School, Ghufran Dikan Abbas, who relies mainly on advice from centuries-old Shia edicts.

No man should ever look directly at his wife's private parts, she counsels, or his son will be born blind. Nor should he read the Koran during sexual congress, as this would most likely see both man and wife smitten in their beds by hellfire'

Apparently the fear of having blind children keeps adherents' libidos in check in more than one religion.

Reading the above paragraph rang a loud bell of Talmudic deja vu in my ears.


Quoted by permission from the decidedly Shia-like 'R Yochanan:

"R. Johanan b. Dahabai said: The Ministering Angels told me
four things: People are born lame because they [sc. their parents] REDACTED; dumb, because they REDACTED; deaf, because they REDACTED; blind, because they REDACTED


(This is a family blog, after all.)

Of course, on the very next page, "..our Sages said: The halachah is not as R. Johanan b. Dahabai, but a man may do whatever he pleases with his wife [at intercourse]"

Phew. So much for those Ministering Angels 'eh?

[Tip of the beaver-skinned shtreimal to L]

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