Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Pictures of sexy swimsuits in Arab world

Apologies for the annoying title, but Internet logic prescribes to use these kind of words to attract the most traffic. Anyway, it's spring in Lebanon and that means new billboards, filled with the latest swimsuit models. It always amazes me to see such huge pictures of half naked women in an otherwise conservative country, let alone the region.

And it's not only a spring thing. Somehow, the Lebanese always find a reason to put up these borderline erotic pictures. In spring, they have women in bikini, in autumn they feature seductive lingerie to keep you warm during those long winter nights. Anyway, this post is just to share with you the sight I see these days when walking to work:




Photo 1 & 2: Swimsuit ads in Hamra

Interesting enough, such explicit billboards are usually placed in Christian areas and not so much in Muslim sections, assuming Christians are more open-minded than Muslims. Based on my personal interactions with people from both faith, I sincerely doubt that this stereotype is true, as it could easily be argued that even if this somehow were the rule, there are so many exceptions that the rule would be hardly relevant anymore.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

that does not only drive traffic, but also displays relevant google ads such as the ones i see now "sexy lebanese girls" and "hot celeb girl pics", I bet some people will be clicking on them ;)
I would have done the same thing btw! :)

Anonymous said...

Why do you always have to compare between Muslims and Christians. I don't think that Lebanese do look at things the same way you look at. Just give me a subject you wrote about without getting to the Muslims - Christians issue??? I mean come on man wake up and look around...
And for yor information, there are also certain areas and let me use your words, Christians areas, who rejects such ads, i think that they are the "not open minded" part of the Christians people, don't you think???

Riemer Brouwer said...

@Anonymous,
The postings on this blog reflect my own interests and like many western foreigners I am interested in the co-habitation of Muslims and Christians. Especially so perhaps because of the increasing tension between the two groups in my country of origin, The Netherlands.

Lebanon is a good example of how people with different faiths can live together and despite their differences have enough respect for each other to give each other space.

It is interesting, though, that many Lebanese refuse to accept, or at least down play, the differences that do exist between the various faiths. E.g., many Christians I know hardly have any idea about the Muslim faith and vice versa.

Simply sweeping it under the "We are all Lebanese" carpet might look tolerant, but it can also be seen as indifference, or worse, intellectual laziness.

Regarding your last comment, if you read my article closely enough, you'd notice that I contradict the idea that Christians are more open-minded than Muslims: even if there is a rule, there are so many exceptions to this rule that is becomes pretty much irrelevant.

Despite living in Lebanon since 2001, I am still amused as well as intrigued whenever I see a Muslim family with the grandmother fully veiled, the mother somewhat veiled and the daughter completely 'unveiled' so to speak.

Come to think of it, I should write a separate posting on this, but you have to promise me to skip it: I don't want to upset you again:-)