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By Aisha Gawad January 27, 2010 Have you heard about what those crazy Muslims have been doing lately? Take Indonesia, for instance, where a small group of clerics in East Java recently issued a fatwa that girls should not chemically straighten their hair. (Straight hair is obviously the pathway to moral deviance. Curly-haired girls are always so much better-behaved.) If you read The Huffington Post or The Telegraph or countless other blogs and publications that have picked up the story by now, you likely already know about it. It seems there is nothing the Western press loves more than a funky fatwa - especially ones that suggest the subjugation of Muslim women. But every time the Western press reports on an obscure fatwa somewhere in the world, it reports it as if the sky is falling down. I don’t know how many times we have to say it, but fatwas are not actually legally binding. They are literally just the opinions of religious authorities, some with clout (and common sense) and some, obviously, without. But the media always conveniently forgets this fact. Take the hair-straightening debacle. Both the Huff Post and the Telegraph make it sound as if an out-right ban has been imposed on all Indonesian women who straighten their hair, not just that one group of clerics expressed a dislike of their silky locks. The blog, ”Escaping Durkadurkistan,” (great new blog. great name.) deconstructs the coverage of the Indonesian fatwa point by point: “We’re told that the ‘ban’ is being called for by ‘Muslim Clerics.’ How many clerics? Where? Representing who? Sunni or Shiite? This, apparently, is not important (and not mentioned in the write-up itself, either). All that matters is that they are Muslims, and readers can now enjoy one more odd tidbit about the silly things ‘Muslim clerics’ do, without being bothered by specifics or context. They’re all the same,” writes the Durkadurkistan blogger. (Props to this blog for running a header photo of little Lego men dressed up as jihadis complete with AK-47s and turbans. I’ve never seen such cute little terrorists in my life). Durkadurkistan also points out the ridiculous photo that was previously published alongside the Huff Post piece - an image of lots of Muslims dressed in white praying in a field. And all of them were on their way to the hair salon before this photo was taken, I’m sure. (Huff Post has since replaced the pic with something far more sensible - a photo of a woman getting her hair chemically-treated. Imagine that). How would the U.S. like it if the Muslim press started reporting on all their ridiculous, obscure, and un-enforced laws as if they were representative of American law and values as a whole? Well, we’ll see because I’m about to start right now. Here are just a couple insanely archaic U.S. laws relating to women: Did you know that in Virginia it is illegal to tickle women? (I am actually in full support of this law). And in New York it is illegal for women to wear body-hugging clothing and you can receive a $25 fine for flirting. It is also New York law that while riding in an elevator, one must talk to no one and fold his/her hands while looking toward the door. (This one must actually be enforced. Have you ever tried to talk to a New Yorker in an elevator? Don’t). In Kentucky, a woman may not buy a hat without her husband’s permission. In Arizona, women can’t wear pants. In California, women cannot drive in a housecoat (what on earth is a housecoat anyway?). Full disclosure: I found all of these laws on www.dumblaws.com. Like the bad journalist I am, I have no idea if they are accurate, but you get the idea. Contact the author: Email: aisha.gawad@gmail.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/ArabRaptor http://www.elanthemag.com/index.php/site/blog_detail/wtfatwa_literally_western_medias_love_affair_with_the_fatwa-nid648636739/