Hizbullah strikes a blow for modesty

Modesty in dress--that's a progressive value, right? The Guardian reports:

Israeli naval forces are on alert as an all-female ship prepares an attempt to break the blockade of Gaza. Organisers say the Mariam – named after the Virgin Mary – is to sail from Beirut in the next few days.

However one woman who will not be on board is Haifa Wehbe, a sultry and often scantily clad Lebanese singer. Wehbe's request to join the vessel has reportedly been vetoed by Hizbullah, the militant Lebanese Shia organisation, on the grounds that her "nudity, degradation and immodest dress" would damage the reputations of all the Arab and European women on board.

Arab observers dismissed the story – in the Kuwait daily al-Siyassah – saying it was designed to smear the humanitarian mission with a connection to Hizbullah, like the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip an implacable enemy of Israel. [...]

And if that's a credible dismissal why did the Guardian report the story in the first place? The flow of the reportage suggests that it is a just knee-jerk dismissal that doesn't reflect any real inside knowledge and that the Guardian is really convinced of the truth of the headline, but worried that they will come across as too Zionist-leaning unless some dissenting voice is brought in. But who knows . . .

Crossposted on Soccer Dad