The Price to Pay for Good Looks

Omar Borkan Al Gala (photo from open source)

History has it that the abduction of Helen of Troy by Paris was the reason for a thousand ships to be launched, which eventually led to the Trojan Wars. Faustus in Christopher Marlowe’s famous novel waxes eloquent about Helen’s beauty: “Was this the face that launched a thousand ships…” A lot has also been sung about the captivating beauty of Cleopatra. Perhaps in a fear that history might repeat itself — albeit with a gender twist this time — authorities in Middle East kingdom of Saudi Arabia deported three men who were attending the annual Jenadrivah Heritage & Cultural Festival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. First reported in the online Arabic newspaper Elaph, the news soon caught the interest of the international press and the fascination of people — especially women — around the world. Of the three men, the identity of one is known: Omar Borkan Al Gala, who is an actor and poet. If the hysteria surrounding Omar’s facebook page is anything to go by, the moral police in Saudi have turned Omar into an international sensation.
Though doubts can be raised questioning the veracity of such news, one is tended to believe it, especially since it comes from a country where intolerance towards mingling between the sexes is sky high. The Elaph reported that ‘…three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they are too handsome and that the Commission members feared female visitors could fall for them’. More than anything the actions of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices, which sent the three Emiratis pack back to the UAE, is an indictment against women and a statement that suggested Saudi women are too weak-kneed that they would “fall” for good looks. What else could one expect from a regime that still deems its women unfit to drive cars and where its religious police get into a tizzy when women interact with men?
It’s not that we in India are alien to this concept of ‘moral’ policing. Come February 14 and the ‘save-Indian-culture’ band goes about trashing boys and girls at the slightest of an excuse. But even by their standards we are yet to hear someone targeting a man for being ‘too handsome’. Being too handsome, it seems, is a crime in certain parts of the world.
(An edited version of this appeared in the Hindustan Times on May 6)