Prof Chandrakant Singh

A section of the Indian social media remained divided almost for a week (16-21 August ) into pro- and anti-Islamic camps over the alleged report (Financial Times, 14.8.16) of a Qatari Princes, Ms Shaikha Salwa, having group sex with three men in her London apartment room, while three others were waiting for their turn.

The vigorous responses to the report invite a few questions that merit our attention.

● Is it the first case of group sex with hired men in the world?
The answer is NO.

● Is it the first case of orgy in Europe or America?
The answer is NO. In fact the pornographic movies (depicting orgy or otherwise) are protected as the right to freedom of expression under the Second Amendment of the US constitution.

● Is it the first case in Asia or Africa?
The answer is NO. In fact , the orgy is depicted on the walls of some of the oldest temples in India lending a definite element of sacredness to the act. The West and South Asian Turk, Afghan and Mughal harems with thousands of inmates and sex slaves, both female and male, testify to this.

● Is orgy unheard of in the Islamic world of today?
The answer is NO. In fact , it may be more common in the Islamic world than anywhere else. Why? A man is allowed to have four wives who can be divorced conveniently through the Shari’a sanctioned system of Triple Talaq.
This, in turn, makes a woman too vulnerable to decline her husband’s demand for orgy.

● Is it really about Islamic world vs the rest? Should it really be so?
No. It’s not as the carnal desires are universal though they may acquire extra-normal dimensions if suppressed by religion or any other agency.

● Is group sex abhored globally?
The answer is NO. In fact , it has huss-hussed acceptance among the elites all over the world. It’s becoming almost a status symbol among the filthy-rich.

● What’s so special about Shaikha Salwa having group-sex in her London apartment?
First, this involves a member of the Qatari Royal Family that, along with Saudi Arabia, sponsors Wahabism, the most conservative sect of Islam globally.

Second, it involves a woman who , at least officially, is an adherent of Islam, a religion that gives only very limited rights to a woman over her body so much so that Jehadis are guaranteed 72 hoors (virgins) in their afterlife in the zannat(Islamic heaven).

Third, and the most important from gender perspective globally, the dominant partner in this case is a woman exercising her choice ( of location, timing, manner, number and types of hired male partners).

Fourth, Shaikha Salwa (a woman from the developing world) decided to consume the sex-services sold by six men from the developed world (Europe). The seventh man’s job was to help her find these six men with expertise in specific acts of orgy and also rescue her in case these paid human robots went violent breaching the terms of contract.
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Looked at with a non-gender-neutral eye, the courage of the Qatari Princess has almost no parallels globally. Her capacity to risk her reputation back home should be a matter of envy as well as a source of inspiration for those females who want to have males on their own terms and conditions. In fact, even males can take a few lessons from her.
It needs no emphasis that she has aroused burning envy among the affluent men and women all over the world irrespective of their race, religion or region.
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By exercising her rights, not given by her religion (Islam), she has proved that ‘if there is a will there is a way’. Who knows, she or her ilk turns out to be tomorrow’s icon for the Islamic women fighting for complete rights over their bodies. Hers was an act of defiance resulting from absence of even bare minimum body rights granted publicly.
Her coming to an unknown world to enjoy those rights that should have naturally belonged to her merits no less attention.
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Dear, Shaikha Salwa, I thank thee. It is our bad luck that we can’t boast of a Papa Hemingway today. Had he been alive, he would have dared the whole world: Salwa is my family member. Don’t you even think of causing any harm to her!