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Evading the Evil Eye.

March 31, 2017 by Exangel

by Brian Griffith.

One of the most prevalent “superstitions” in Iran and across the Middle East concerns the so-called “evil eye.” The evil eye is to blame for countless misfortunes, and many remedies are devised to ward it off. Naturally, people hope to protect their loved ones from the evil eye, as in the modern pop star Andy Madadian’s lines for a girlfriend:

May bad eyes be far from you,

May jealous eyes be blind.

Many people, especially children and women, wear talismans to ward off the evil eye. The talismans commonly show the image a hand, held up palm outward like a “stop” sign, with an eye in the center of the palm. For Jews it is the hand of Miriam, and for Muslims the hand of Fatima. These charms block the evil eye like a cross drives out vampires. Otherwise, special words can act like a charm: “I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah from every devil and vermin and from every envious eye” (Hadith 3,191, Al-Bukhari).

According to Sahih Muslim, the Prophet himself confirmed it: “The influence of the evil eye is a fact” (Book 26, no. 5,427). It is less well attested that he added, “One third of those who are in the grave are there because of the evil eye” (Jabir). The evil eye has therefore ranked among the top ten fears of traditional Iran, among leading dangers such as highway robbers, tribal bandits, wild animals, jinn (or demons), drought, famine, and the plague.

Naturally, many modern educated people have argued that no evil eye actually exists, and the whole thing is just a matter of ignorance. But what do believers in the evil eye say it is? “The evil eye is like an arrow which comes from the soul of the one who envies … sometimes it hits him and sometimes it misses. If the target is exposed and unprotected, it will affect him, but if the target is cautious and armed, the arrow will have no effect and may even come back on the one who launched it” (Zaad al-Ma’aad). Concerning the effects on women, Ayatollah Ali Meshkini rather explicitly explained, “Looking is rape by means of the eyes … whether the vulva admits or rejects it, that is, whether actual sexual intercourse takes place or not.”

It may be false that the eye can emit evil rays that physically harm others, as Plutarch claimed it does. But the sense of harm people feel does not depend on any proof of physical causation. Women generally know the feeling of being defiled by a look, like the looks of lechers who follow them in the street. Traditional women in Iran have always known that the evil eye spells trouble, and not just the embarrassment of being followed and teased in public. Street lechers are usually powerless men, fairly easy to shun or evict. The eyes to be feared in the past were those of powerful men, who could carry off women with impunity. Those eyes belonged to the warlord ruler and his armed men.

 

Filed Under: EAP: The Magazine, Now., Spring 2017: If Not Then, Uncategorized

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  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
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  • A Tale of Persistence.
  • A Conversation with Steve Hugh Westenra.
  • Person Number Twelve.
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  • True (from “My Life with Dogs”).
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  • 12 Baking Essentials to Always Have in Your Poetry.
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  • A Death in Alexandria.
  • My Forked Tongue.
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  • Singing against the muses.
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In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

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In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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