There’s a poignant irony thick enough to chew on in the fact that we’re kicking off 2015 with a news story about an uproar over a pop star showing her ankle.
Selena Gomez was heavily criticized for posting a picture of herself inside Abu Dhabi’s Grand Mosque on Instagram over the weekend, in which her ankle is visible. Following the outrage, Gomez appears to have deleted the evidence. But the internets is forever:
A second picture, showing Gomez and pop culture fixations Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Cody Simpson and Shay Mitchell smiling and striking poses has also been attacked but remained on her Instagram as of Friday. We’re not going to bother linking to that, because there’s no benefit to promoting vapid globetrotting rich kids. We have TMZ for that.
Mosque visiting rules strictly ban all ‘intimate behavior’ including holding hands and kissing, and states that all skirts must be ankle-length. That being said, we now live in the 21st century, where mind-controlled bionic limbs are a reality, hoverboards are finally real, and the majority of the developed world has access to the entirety of human knowledge with a few keystrokes. Yet a woman will face vitriolic anger, and often times brutal and fatal beatings, merely for showing an ankle or elbow in certain countries.
