It started as a college student’s snide response to an Iranian cleric’s assertion that scantily clad women cause earthquakes.
But as of last Thursday, it had become much, much bigger.
Jen McCreight, a self-described atheist, feminist and geek “trapped in Indiana,” took issue with Hojatoleslam Kazim Sadeghi’s message during Friday prayers in Tehran, the Iranian capital. The hard-line cleric, who was standing in for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, said women who dress provocatively – thereby tempting men – are to blame for the world’s tremors.
“When promiscuity spreads, earthquakes increase,” he says in a video posted Monday on YouTube, apparently of him leading Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, last week. “There is no way other than taking refuge in religion and adapting ourselves to Islamic behavior,” he adds in the video.
The video was posted by YouTube user “electionlies,” who appears to be anti-regime. The account features wallpaper of a blindfolded woman apparently weeping blood and the slogan, “The green movement is alive.”
Sadeghi is not the only religious leader to have linked earthquakes with human behavior this year. American televangelist Pat Robertson suggested that January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti was because of a pact Haitians made with the devil in order to throw off French rule in the 18th century. A spokesman for Robertson said he was referring to a widely discussed Haitian legend, but University of Miami researcher Kate Ramsey said the legend was “utterly a fabrication, and it’s an extremely offensive one.”
McCreight, who is pursuing a double major in genetics and evolution, took to her blog, Blag Hag, on Monday, demanding that the world’s women band together in a scientific experiment to test the merits of Sadeghi’s hypothesis.
“Time for a Boobquake,” she wrote. “On Monday, April 26, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. … I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that’s your preferred form of immodesty.”
She continued, “With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I’m sure [Sadeghi] can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn’t rumble.”
So in the name of science women all over the world are supposed to be dressing immodestly today (Though McCreight has also insisted that this started as a silly joke and was never meant to demean women or pressure them into participating). Now, I never have any shortage of boobs on my watch but so far I haven’t noticed too much of a change on this particular Monday in Hollywood, CA. (arguably one of the more immoral locations of the world) but I do plan on having an outside lunch today, along the sidewalks of Melrose…IN THE NAME of SCIENCE.