Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
him but he would not 'burn in hell' if that ever
happened, which she thought was highly
improbable; and thirdly that anyway in Mauri-
tania those that need to be careful are the
tubab
(foreigners) because they are not in their
own country. With her fi nal touch, the message
Zeida was conveying to the policeman, sub-
verting the criticism he had made her, was that
she had nothing to fear because she expected
the men in her country would always protect
their Muslim women, even from any eventual
danger arising from the
tubab
. These, con-
versely, were the ones unprotected in a coun-
try that was not their own.
Zeida's case shows us how an individ-
ual interpretation of Islam can offer alternative
legitimacy for individual behaviour within rigid
and paralysing social codifi cations unready for
quick social changes, such as the ones produced
by tourism. In her interpretation of Islam, female
visibility and visitability does not necessarily
affect her honour, which boundaries she care-
fully redefi nes publicly appealing to
fi qh
(Islamic
jurisprudence). And this is why, and how, she
allows her image to be used in her placard, in
touristic sites of NGOs, at the Internet, and ver-
sions of her story to be told on conferences and
papers on anthropology.
References
Bennett, T. (1988) The
exhibitionary
complex.
New Formations
4, 73-102.
Butcher, J. (2003)
The Moralisation of Tourism. Sun, Sand. . .and Saving the World.
Routledge, London.
Cheikh, A.W.O., Lamarche, B., Vernet, R. and Durou, J.-M. (2002)
Sahara. L'Adrar de Mauritanie. Sur les
Traces de Théodore Monod
. Vents de Sable, Paris.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B. (1998)
Destination Culture. Tourism, Museums and Heritage
. University of California
Press, Berkeley, CA.
Mitchell, T. (1991)
Colonizing Egypt
. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Urry, J. (1991)
The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Society
. Sage, Newbury Park, CA.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search