...Family's health...My health
...Parents who, still, do everything for me
...Friends who like my cooking :)
...Nice place to live that smells super nice - sans leggy bugs so far.
...A friend who tells me bedtime stories in marwari so I dont ask
questions and fall asleep faster.
questions and fall asleep faster.
...A friend who I can always count on to throw down comments on my
blog.
...Straight hair. Its not easy to be curly in humidity.
...A friend who tells me Im really not missing anything much at all.
...For being able to walk down the street and not be questioned as to
...Straight hair. Its not easy to be curly in humidity.
...A friend who tells me Im really not missing anything much at all.
...For being able to walk down the street and not be questioned as to
where Im going, who Im meeting, when I'll be coming back and where
my mehram is.
...Having a decent income.
...For having a professor/landlady who looks out for me. :)
...Chocolate
...My cellphone
...Books
...Coffee
...Having a decent income.
...For having a professor/landlady who looks out for me. :)
...Chocolate
...My cellphone
...Books
...Coffee
I'm reading a book called "Veil of Roses" and its about a girl who leaves Iran for 3 months to come to stay with her sister in America in hopes of finding a husband. She takes pictures of everything: short skirts, women with no veils, red lipstick, long painted fingernails, a girl talking to a guy face to face in public, catching my drift? She's photgraphing subtle acts of freedom, freedom we take for granted day in and day out.
Sure, a revolution in Iran brought back Islam to a country that had strayed, but it did so forcibly and took with it a lot of freedoms that we greedily enjoy here while supporting the new regime. But what if we as women had it different here tomorrow? What would you remember? What would you miss? What would you cry for? Brothers this is for you to consider, too: what if your mother and sisters were suffering in silence and you knew it? Would it be easy enough to say, "It's better this way."?
We have what they do not. Its a shame they cant live the way we do: accepting Islam yet living amongst a society that practices a different religion and culture altogether. Its not easy, but its not life-threatening. We're still here arent we? If we had to leave, where would we go? Where would you take your family?
Who are we to judge others? Who are we to say women veiled are better off? Who are we to say the world would be a better place if fundamentalism replaced democracy? Who are we to say anything until we've walked, not in their shoes, but barefoot over glass, metal, dirt, and body parts?
We live in a very different world. We should be thankful we're not them, but be humble enough to realize our luck can run out any minute.
9 comments:
Hmmm....did you not quit coffee???....if yes, why thankful???...or are you back and couldn't resist quiting coffee???
~eysheikah
I like the idea of coffee. Haha. I did quit, but that was for the month of March -- Caffeine Addiction Awareness Month or something like that.
Im not hitting it up all the time, but when Im in my apartment all cozy every now and then all i want is a book and coffee... mostly hot chocolate.. but else its coffee.
chocolate. :) ummmmmm!
Last night I told myself to say alhamdillah everytime I see someone less fortunate than I.
On lunch, I saw a man in a wheelchair and a homeless woman....it puts things in perspective.
nice blog. sometimes we need to be reminded to be thankful.
You're right Farah. It is a shame that they have to live the way they do. Really, how 'Islamic' is it in some of these Muslim countries? Alhamdulillah, although we (as Muslims) love to criticize our own administration (and justly, we have every right to be mad at US foreign policies), there aren't many places in the world that give us the freedom to practice our religion as we receive here.
Many Muslim countries give us less of a right to practice 'proper' Islam than this secular country we live in does. If you think about the problems we have as Muslims living in this country, they're pretty trivial by comparison.
I also appreciate being able to see the wrong around me. Don't take that the wrong way, what I mean is that if we know what's wrong, we can identify it. But if you're living in a country ruled so tightly, where you're told everything is being run "Islamically", you might not be able to distinguish so easily what's proper and what isn't.
Can't say I know where I'd leave if I ever had to flee America.
We still need that balance though. The danger here is the complete lack of boundaries. On the flip-side, the boundaries are so tight they don't allow for you to express yourself.
You're absolutely, 200% right though! Judging others is the worst thing we can do. Even those of us living in the same country don't have a right to judge one another, let alone two people that live in the same household. Everybody experiences life differently, and we're all molded differently as a result. Just be understanding and embrace each others individuality.
Think of it this way: we're responsible to some extent on the day of judgement of our brothers/sisters straying from Islam. Ive heard this to be the case -- on the day of judgement we will be asked why we didnt raise our relatives to the same level of Islam as ourselves.
There are people in Iran who because of harsh extreme conditions have begun resenting their religion. Who is going to shoulder the blame for that? Im not. People are dying to come to America and want no part of a religion that forces them to veil by people who are ravenous for control and making a statement.
They think they are doing Allah (swt) a favor by forcing people into submission? Allah(swt) doesnt need us... we need him but its a need we have to realize on our own.
GREAT post, do you reccomend reading this book? I will have to request it at my library.
Aisha - at first I did not think it was a good book because, though its not entirely anti-Islam, it is a book that vears away from culture and traditions associated with Islam.
But, realizing the effect its having on me is not a negative one, but rather a positive soul-searching and humbling one, I can say its possibly something I will tell people about. Im not recommending it, still, because you do have to take it with a lot of salt, but it might be worth while. If my sister were to read it, I'd want to discuss it with her and nix any misunderstandings or misconceptions in her mind about Islam.
Hope this helps.. :)
Beautifully written Farah! Thanks for making me think and be grateful for what I take for granted!
:)
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