Who would have thunk it?
Hubs and I went to the Bahrain National Museum. I was looking forward to learning more of the history of the area...more about the pearl diving for which they are known..more about the culture, customs and crafts.
I certainly wasn't dissapointed. I learned all of these things and more!
What I definitely did NOT expect to see anywhere in Bahrain - much less on display in a museum - were boobs!
But here they are!
As we left the museum, we popped into this gallery on our right...and a few paintings down the row, there it was - a breasticle!
Imagine my shock - not at the display of the human form. (After all, there's plenty of boobages on this site.)
My shock is that this would be permitted in a country where the women are typically covered head to toe. (The Bahraini women do not have to veil or cover, but it seems the norm, and I have only seen the Saudi women with their faces covered...ie they cover all but the eyes.)
So, not only is there a boob here - there are also legs (gasp) and arms (fan me!).
From what I can see...there's no hair exposed...hee hee (none on the head...or elsewhere).
In fact, I don't think this gal has hair.
I would include the artist and the name but didn't see either. (I was busy trying to snap a shot of the picture without getting into trouble.) - Pictures were allowed in the museum, but I didn't want to have to explain taking a picture of this particular painting.
Or this one...
This one was around the corner on the other side - same gallery.
In this painting, there are TWO boobs. (I wish I could add an audible "ah ah ah" there at the end. Anyone else a fan of The Count from Sesame Street...two boobs...ah ah ah!)
This painting reminds me of a Dali...the object to the right looks like "guts" or intestines. There's a foot poking out from underneath the "intestine" area.
The painting has a "garden of Eden"-ish feel to me. That's what it brings to mind.
I like the fuller hips on both the women in these paintings...and am rather curious how these paintings got posted in the museum.
I know Bahrain is pretty liberal comparitively, but to have blatent boobs seems extreme for their culture.
Nice paintings, nonetheless.
A more interesting question would be, "Were these paintings done by memory - or model?"
Hmmmm.
The only place I think one could get nude models here would be the prostitutes that are apparently abundant - you just have to know where to go...or from what I saw, I guess they approach random women in the grocery store! Read about that incident here...guy thought I was a Russian prostitute.)
I'm off to get a shwarma...It's 11:30 Bahrain time. (They are 8 hours ahead of the East Coast. I'm writing this at 3:30 am EST.)
All the breast!
