On May 11

On this day in ...

... 1950 (60 years ago today), at Paris' Théâtre des Noctambules, a new play, La Cantatrice chauve, made its début. The moment has meaning for this IntLawGrrl, whose 1st French textbook featured on its cover a drawing of the title character, The Bald Soprano -- a smooth-skulled stick-figure woman singing her heart out. (Must say, the 1993 cover at left may be even stranger.) The drawing, like the play contained within (the 1st by Eugène Ionesco, namesake of the 'Grrls Ionesco Awards), was absurd(ist). It offered an odd introduction into a new language for Middle America pupils.

(Prior May 11 posts are here, here, and here)

The Ionesco Awards 2009

It's been two years since we've nominated any government officials for the Ionesco Awards, but this particular piece of news takes the cake of absurdity. Mara Carfagna, Italy's Equal Opportunities Minister, has called in her support of a bill that would ban the wearing of the burqa in Italy. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi appointed Carfagna to her post in May 2008; her qualifications, beyond an undergraduate degree in law, include participation in the Miss Italia contest, acting, and topless modeling. A self-proclaimed "anti-feminist", Carfagna introduced last year a law criminalizing street prostitution, saying "I don't understand how someone can sell their body in the street for money." As the founder of the Italian Committee for the Rights of Prostitutes astutely noted, Carfagna's position was astounding given her history of earning money by posing nude.
(IntLawGrrl Diane Marie Amann's 2008 post on the appointment of Carfagna and other women to his Cabinet foreshadowed these developments.)
Ironically, in her position as Equal Opportunities Minister, Carfagna has also opposed gay pride marches, claiming that LGBT folks no longer suffer discrimination in Italy and noting her opposition to gay marriage. So it is particularly interesting now to see her using the language of equal rights to support a ban on the burqa and the niqab, which she claims are "symbols of the submission of women and obstacles to integration." Carfagna adds, "There is no room for traditions, mentalities and religions where women are treated as inferiors." In other words, Carfagna's vision of equality protects traditions and mentalities that ask women to show as much skin as possible, but not those that require women to show as little skin as possible. Eugene, we have a winner.

The Ionesco Awards

In the spirit of the Darwin Awards, which satirically "honor those who improve the species...by accidentally removing themselves from it," recent hijinks by government officials across the globe inspired me to start a list of Ionesco Awards -- celebrating decisions that could only belong in the theater of the absurd. (NB: If you can name any female absurdist playwrights, please let me know!) Many of you have likely read Paul Theroux's article in May's New Yorker that chronicles the tragically ridiculous decrees of Turkmenbashi, the leader of Turkmenistan from 1991 through 2006. Among other absurd moves, Turkmenbashi filled the capital, Ashgabat, with gold statues of himself; made his book, Ruhnama, a national bible; and banned beards and ballet. A more recent contender: Last week's NY Times reported on a bill introduced in Venezuela's National Assembly that would "limit parents of newborns to a list of 100 names established by the government." Seeking to stifle whimsical names such as Hochiminh Jesús Delgado Sierra and Kerbert Krishnamerk, the law seeks to promote Spanish-language and cisgender identity by preventing parents from giving newborns names that are ''extravagant or hard to pronounce in the official language,'' Spanish, or ''generate doubts'' about the bearer's gender. Send them to the Ministry of Silly Names? But I thought the Governor of Ulyanovsk's decree, reported in yesterday's NY Times, might win the prize: For the third year in a row, he gave couples the day off work yesterday so they could make babies. As a strategy for increasing Russia's declining population, this plan has a rather large hole. Unless these women ovulate in the next day or two, the chance of fertilization is rather slim -- so the vast majority of females taking the holiday will not be able to get pregnant even if they diligently follow the government's procreation orders. Perhaps someone wants to give the governor an elemental lesson in human biology? And suggest that a more effective way to encourage more births might be to offer high-quality, low-cost childcare? Sigh. Any contenders you can think of?