Shakh-Dar Gesture

insulting cuckold gesture, whereby any 2 “branched” fingers are displayed, symbolizing the spread legs of the target’s lewd wife, open & ready for copulation. as opposed to the “do-qarnayn” (‘two-horn’) gesture, where they signify 2 p-n-ses. common across the irano-semitic & indo-aryan worlds, it is source of the european wife’s legs gesture.

typically, the forefinger & either little or middle finger are jerked upwards or placed above the head like antlers or tree-branches. these represent the wife’s open legs, the basal joint of the fingers connote her groin, & the hard nails signify her toes.

an amplification involves pushing the nose, representing a strange p-n-s, between the 2 fingers, as recorded by morris: “the obscene v-sign as spread female legs: another popular interpretation switches the symbolism from the male to the female. here, the sign is read as meaning `her legs are wide apart, like this, ready for copulation.’ there is some evidence to support this, from the arab world. there, there is an obscene gesture in which the forked fingers are jerked upwards several times under the gesturer’s nose, so that the tip of the nose protrudes through the v-shape, as if it were the p-n-s being pushed through the legs.” (“gestures”, desmond morris, peter collett, peter marsh & marie o’shaughnessy. london: triad/granada, 1979, p.232)

when the fingers are bent at the upper joint, it signifies the toes curling up in -rg-sm due to the strange p-n-s.
1) “the wife’s-legs theory … sees the two erect fingers as representing the legs of the cuckold’s erring wife. the gesturer is supposed to be saying, ‘your wife is promiscuous, she will spread her legs for anyone, & you, the cuckold, must wear on your head the symbol of her open legs.” … a common variant of the horn gesture is one in which the first & second fingers, widely spread apart, are jerked upwards into the air, instead of the usual first & fourth fingers. this forked-fingers gesture is the most popular one for present-day spaniards, & we also encountered it elsewhere.” (morris et al, ibid, p.125-6)
2) often, a 3rd phallic finger (fore or middle finger) is pushed between the leg fingers of the shakh-dar gesture: “horns. to make horns at a person, to put the forefinger of one hand between the first & second finger of the other. see tarlton’s jests, p.15; cotgrave, in v. ciron.” – ‘a dictionary of archaic & provincial words, obsolete phrases, proverbs, & ancient customs: from the 14th century’, j o halliwell-phillipps. london: j.r. smith, 1847 vol. 1, p.460. morris explains this: “here, the forefinger symbolizes the p-n-s entering between the spread legs of the forked hand. the insulting message, quite clearly, is ‘someone else’s p-n-s is going between the open legs of your wife, hence you are a cuckold.’… the erect fingers are as far apart as possible & hence symbolise a female with her legs far apart, inviting copulation.” (morris et al, ibid. p.125-6)