Dollar store corsage edition of boobquake

boobquake: dollar store corsage edition, originally uploaded by mollykiely.

American student from Indiana, Jen McCreight, found a novel way to protest against men deciding how women should dress, as an Iranian cleric commented women showing their skin causes earthquakes. His statement is too unscientific, and shows his limited knowledge of seismic activities and movement of tectonic plates. He also forgets that every second somewhere on earth earthquakes of minor intensity occurs.

A major earthquake that struck the Iranian city of Bam, surrounding Kerman province of southeastern Iran, on December 26, 2003, a moment magnitude (Mw) of 6.6 on the Richter scale, killed 26,271 people and injured an additional 30,000. The effects of the earthquake and damage was exacerbated by the fact that the city mainly consisted of mud brick buildings, many of which did not comply with earthquake regulations set in Iran in 1989.

Iran had a strained diplomatic relationship with the United States, but the quake thawed it. Following the earthquake the U.S. offered direct humanitarian assistance to Iran and in return the state promised to comply with an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency which supports greater monitoring of its nuclear interests. In total a reported 44 countries sent in personnel to assist in relief operations and 60 countries offered assistance. Bam is still not fully reconstructed. Most of the populated areas of Iran, including Tehran, have buildings that are not built according to earthquake resistant designs. The capital Tehran itself sits on a huge fault line.

So, instead of concentrating on how women dress, it will help the clerics and the Government of Iran, if they think about earthquake preparedness. As this story shows, in case of calamities, the first relief measures may come from countries that have people, including women, who do not subscribe to the thinking of the clerics!