Keeping "A Breast" of Islamic Issues

"The thought of a huge hairy face at a woman's breast does not evoke motherly or even brotherly feelings. It could go from the grotesque to the erotic but definitely not maternal."

OK, I'm a guy, so I see a story with the word breasts in it and I gotta go check it out.  This story, however, was not titillating, just creepy. 

Saudi Clerics Advocate Adult Breast Feeding

Dennis Prager cautions us that every religion has certain aspects that look weird to an outsider, but Islam, with the genital mutilation, things going boom, etc, seems really out there...

(June 5) -- Women in Saudi Arabia should give their breast milk to male colleagues and acquaintances in order to avoid breaking strict Islamic law forbidding mixing between the sexes, two powerful Saudi clerics have said. They are at odds, however, over precisely how the milk should be conveyed.

This is what happens when a belief system becomes hidebound by its own legalism.  Is there a word in Arabic for Pharisee? 

Seems a woman cannot be alone with a man who is not a blood relative, but men who have been breastfed by a woman are OK.  I can't waste any more space explaining this, so go read the article and it will at least make sense it its own bizarre way...

"The whole issue just shows how clueless men are," blogger Eman Al Nafjan wrote on her website. "All this back and forth between sheiks and not one bothers to ask a woman if it's logical, let alone possible to breastfeed a grown man five fulfilling breast milk meals.

This reminded me of some breastfeeding issues right here in the good ol' US of A involving a breastfeeding group fighting with Facebook over what constitutes "nudity."   I'll leave the Saudi breastfeeding controversy alone since (Thank God) I don't live there.  I do believe mothers have the right to discreetly breastfeed in public.

From my article on the subject:

Breastfeeding is a beautiful, intimate experience between mother and child, and there is something creepy about the desire to turn it into a notorious display of "look at me" defiance.  (Read More)