I first heard this story during the Iraq-Iran War when the Iranians were
reported to be using soldiers to clear land mines by just marching through
the fields. Then it was a flat out joke:
Ali sees Mohammed walking ten feet behind his wife and says "Mohammed,
don't you know that according to the Koran your wife should be walking ten
feet behind YOU?" And Mohammed replies: "Ah, yes. But that was before land
mines."
My guess is that the story originated in that period and circulated as
part of the then rabid anti-Islamic humor/ideology that flowered during
the post-1978 hostage conflict.
On Mon, 8 Sep 1997, Michael Eisenscher wrote:
>
> <<
> A journalist had done a story on gender roles in Kuwait several years
> before the Gulf War, and she noted then that women customarily walked
> about 10 feet behind their husbands. She returned to Kuwait recently and
> observed that the men now walked several yards behind their wives.
>
> She approached one of the women for an explanation..
>
> "This is marvelous," said the journalist. "What enabled women here to
> achieve this reversal of roles?"
>
> Replied the Kuwaiti woman: "Land mines"
>
> >>
>
>
............................................................................
Harry Cleaver
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712-1173 USA
Phone Numbers: (hm) (512) 478-8427
(off) (512) 475-8535 Fax:(512) 471-3510
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cleaver homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/index.html
Chiapas95 homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html
Accion Zapatista homepage:
http://www.utexas.edu/students/nave/
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