2022年7月28日The Economist報導《Why women are fatter than men in the Arab world》
Zeinab勉強過活，她老闆會給餐廳剩菜，她說大都是油膩食物。星期四是她和女兒中唯一吃水果的日子，慈善團體所捐贈。Zeinab體重 120 公斤。
【get by】 免強過活。
Zeinab, a matronly 60-year-old in a black abaya, washes vegetables in a restaurant in Baghdad, taking home 20,000 dirhams ($13.70) a day. But she cannot afford to buy her family a decent dinner. Her daughters dropped out of school because the fees were too high. Zeinab gets by because her boss gives her leftovers—mostly oily food, she says—from the restaurant. Thursday is the only day of the week she and her daughters eat fruit, since that is when people in her neighbourhood give away food for charity. Zeinab weighs 120kg.
雖然她的四個女兒都長大了，但都沒有工作，他們都很可能會變胖。Zeinab 寧願手頭拮据，也不願讓她們在工作中被男人騷擾的風險。所以他們坐在家裡，做家務，偶爾拜訪家人。Zeinab 有時會帶他們出去吃冰淇淋或參觀聖殿。「這不像在監獄，他們有電話和互聯網」她辯解著。
【strapped】 手頭拮据(缺錢)
Though grown up, none of her four daughters works. They are likely to become fat, too. Zeinab would rather be strapped for cash than risk men harassing them at work. So they sit at home, doing chores, occasionally visiting their extended family. Zeinab sometimes takes them out for an ice cream or to visit a holy shrine. “It’s not like they’re in prison—they’ve got phones and the internet,” she says defensively.
世界上，肥胖的女性多於男性，有 15%女性、 11%男性有肥胖問題，他們的BMI為 30或更高。但世界各地的肥胖差距不一，中東北非性別差異最大。(南部非洲幾個國家也有很大的差距)。在中東，有26%女性是肥胖，男性16%，這相當危險，2019年，8 個阿拉伯國家躋身因肥胖至死率最高的 11 個國家之列(主要是心臟病、糖尿病和高血壓)。
Across the world, more women than men are fat. Obesity is a problem for 15% of women and 11% of men, meaning that they have a body mass index (bmi) of 30 or higher. But the obesity gap varies across the world. The Middle East and north Africa has the biggest and most consistent disparity between the sexes. (Several countries in southern Africa have big gaps, too.) In the Middle East 26% of women are obese versus 16% of men. This can be dangerous. In 2019, eight Arab countries were among the 11 with the highest share of deaths attributed to obesity (mostly due to heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure).
世界銀行指出，阿拉伯國家中只有五分之一女性從事有薪工作。在伊拉克是十分之一。這表示大多數阿拉伯女性都在室內，錯過被動鍛煉，而其他地區的職業女性在醫院、教室和餐館裡忙碌著，但在阿拉伯國家，工作主要由男性完成，在海灣國家，繁重家務活更由外國人完成。
【miss out on】錯失享樂、或獲利的機會
Only a fifth of women in Arab countries have paid jobs, says the World Bank. In Iraq the share is one in ten. This means that most Arab women spend most of the day indoors, missing out on passive exercise. Working women in other regions bustle around in hospitals, classrooms and restaurants. But in Arab countries many such jobs are done mainly by men. In Gulf countries many of the heavier menial household chores are done by foreigners.
除此之外，阿拉伯國家女性運動機會更少，年輕的女孩和男孩在街上一起踢足球。但是一旦女孩進入青春期，在公共場合打鬧是不被允許。女孩變得更缺乏運動，改在室內見朋友。「我們不喜歡女孩在外面」一個汗流浹背的伊拉克男孩說，每週在外踢4次足球，但不讓他的妹妹效仿，「她在家有一台跑步機」。
【frown on/upon sth】不贊成；不允許
【sedentary】缺乏運動的，少活動的
Moreover, women in Arab countries have fewer chances to enjoy sport. Young girls and boys play football together in the street. But once a girl reaches puberty, roughhousing in public is frowned upon. Teenage girls become more sedentary, meeting friends indoors. “We don’t like girls to be outside,” says a sweaty Iraqi man who plays football outdoors four times a week but does not let his sister follow suit. She has a treadmill at home, he says.
不管怎樣，遮女性身體的頭巾和衣服，都會讓公共活動變得累贅。路上騷擾常讓慢跑變得不愉快。「當我遛狗時，我必須放音樂來蓋過口哨聲」，伊拉克婦女說。
散步往往在有空調的商場，有些健身房只為女性服務，但主要在大城市。
【cumbersome】累贅
【catcall】口哨聲
【block sth out】擋住(聲音/光線)
In any case, headscarves and clothes that cover the female body make public exercise cumbersome. Harassment in the street often makes jogging unpleasant. “When I walk my dogs, I have to put on music to block out the catcalls,” says an Iraqi woman. Strolling tends to be in air-conditioned malls. Some gyms cater just to women, but are found mainly in big cities.
在埃及，貧窮的女性，平均比有錢女性胖，有錢家庭往往更願意讓女兒外出。儘管如此，除一些太平洋島嶼之外，埃及女性BMI是世界上最高。
飲食有很大的責任，埃及人 30% 的卡路里來自麵包，其中大部分是補貼的：一公斤的價格0.61美元，1975 年以來，阿拉伯女性比男性胖得更快，垃圾食品則穩步增長。
【bar】除此之外
【proliferated】激增
In Egypt poor women are on average fatter than rich ones. Rich families tend to be more relaxed about letting their daughters out. Still, Egypt has the highest women’s bmi of any country in the world, bar some of the Pacific islands. Diet bears much of the blame. Egyptians get 30% of their calories from bread, much of it subsidised: the price of a kilo is fixed at $0.61. Since 1975 Arab women have grown fatter at a quicker rate than Arab men, while junk food has steadily proliferated.
Wafa al-Khatib，一位巴格達家庭主婦想瘦，要求母親多煮一些，幫她抵抗烹飪誘惑。「伊拉克人的問題是碳水化合物」她說，她家人幾乎每餐都吃米飯和麵包。
【slim down】變瘦
【carbohydrates】碳水化合物
Wafa al-Khatib, a housewife in Baghdad, wants to slim down, so she asked her mother to do more of the cooking to help her resist culinary temptation. “Iraqis’ problem is carbohydrates,” she says. Her family eats rice and bread at nearly every meal.
根據一些女性的說法，肥胖最後一個原因，是許多阿拉伯男性喜歡魯本斯式的體態，將女性關在家有助於保持此體態。
另一位伊拉克家庭主婦 Shireen Rashid 想瘦幾磅，但不會太多，她說當你很瘦會失去女性氣質，她丈夫根本不希望她減肥，因為擔心她會「感覺像床上的一塊木頭」。
伊拉克人經常引用豐滿曲線的女演員埃納斯·塔勒布（如圖）作為美的理想。有人聲稱伊拉克女性，甚至服用增重藥，好讓對男性更具吸引力。
唉，在阿拉伯世界或其他任何地方，這都不是通往健康的道路，更不用說幸福了。
【Rubens-esque】魯本斯式(魯本斯的繪畫風格)、人物都體態豐滿
【let alone】更不用說
A final cause of obesity, according to some women, is that many Arab men prefer them to be Rubens-esque. Shutting women up at home helps keep them that way. Shireen Rashid, another Iraqi housewife, wants to shed a few pounds. But not too many. When you are skinny, “you lose your femininity”, she says. Her husband does not want her to lose weight at all. He fears she will “feel like a piece of wood in bed”. Iraqis often cite Enas Taleb, an actress with ample curves (pictured), as the ideal of beauty. Some claim Iraqi women even take weight-gaining pills to be more attractive to men. Alas, in the Arab world or indeed anywhere else, that is hardly the road to good health, let alone happiness.
