| Jun 16, 2007 @ 7:24 AM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Blondino
Posts: 4,553
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Posting some thoughts and Poems from my Islamic Sisters .... They are often very strong ladies & misunderstood by western cultures.... I understand both....
To A Non-Muslim Woman..( From The Other Perspective )
When you look at me
All that you can see
is the scarf that covers my hair
My words you can't hear
because you're too full of fear,
mouth gaping, all you do is stare
You think it's not my choice
in your own "liberation" rejoice.
You think I'm uneducated,
trapped, oppressed and subjugated,
You're so thankful that you're free.
But non-Muslim woman you've got it wrong
You're the weak and I'm the strong.
For I've rejected the trap of man.
Fancy clothes - low neck, short skirt
those are devices for pain and hurt.
I'm not falling for that little plan.
I'm a person with ideas and thought.
I'm not for sale, I can't be bought.
I'm me - not a fancy toy,
I won't decorate anyone's arm,
nor be promoted for my charm.
There is more to be than playing coy.
Living life as a balancing game - mother,
daughter, wife, nurse, cleaner, cook, lover
and still bring home a wage.
Who thought up this modern "freedom"?
Where man can love'em and man can leave'em.
This is not free, but life in a cage.
Always jumping to a male agenda
competing on his terms.
No job share, no creche facilities,
no feeding and nappy changing amenities
No time off for menstrual pain,
"hormones" they laugh "what a shame"
No equal pay equal skill
your job they can always fill.
No promotion unless you're sterilised.
No promotion unless you're sexually terrorised.
And this is liberation?
Non-Muslim woman you can have your life.
Mine - it has less strife.
I cover and I get respected,
surely that's to be expected,
for I won't demean the feminine,
I won't live to male criterion,
I dance to my own tune
and I hope you see this very soon.
For your own sake - wake up and use your sight.
Are you so sure that you are right?
From a Muslim Woman
[Edited on 6/16/2007 7:36 AM]
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| Jun 16, 2007 @ 7:29 AM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Blondino
Posts: 4,553
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WOMEN OF THE VEIL
by Hena Farooq
Her long, thick, shiny black hair
Fell against her back.
Her rich, copper skin
Gleamed in the sunlight.
Her slender figure outlined,
With her soft voluptuous curves.
But when she stepped outside,
She became a ghostly figure of the night.
Nothing more to the people
Than a dark, shadowy figure of oppression.
But she showed them.
As she walked down the street,
People made way,
Men lowered their gazes in utmost respect.
And others whispered,
As she held her head up high,
With pride in her belief
And showed them how oppressed she really was!
While they whistled at their women,
Looking them up and down as they were
pieces of meat to be inspected?
She pitied their savage ways.
As she walked into the arms of
her partner,
Her only love,
Her husband.
Where she was transformed,
Into her beautiful self,
For only his eyes to see.
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| Jun 16, 2007 @ 7:32 AM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Blondino
Posts: 4,553
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TO MY SISTERS
No longer shackled by the oppression
of miniskirts and see-thru shirts,
my sisters stand proud.
Covered by cloth and more so by conviction
submission to Allah, they stand apart from the crowd.
The taunts, the jeers, the stares, the leers
Never fazing or dissuading them from following the deen.
Real women they be, the epitome of femininity
strong, secure, complete human beings.
Not slaves to the world of fashion
which is always askin'
for women to dress in as less as they can.
Their hijab is for the sake of Allah
in imaan and taqwa
they refuse to be objectified by man.
Such are my sisters in Islam.
[Edited on 6/16/2007 7:35 AM]
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| Jun 16, 2007 @ 7:34 AM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Blondino
Posts: 4,553
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The Scarf
By: Nura Alia Hossainzadeh
They stand there with shorts, so short, excessively short,
shorts that so deceptively capture from them all they know
of modesty...
...and I proudly pull my scarf over my hair
They stand there, face lost in a sea of make-up,
make-up that so ruthlessly captures from them all they know
of freedom...
...and I proudly pull my scarf over my hair
They stand there, hair raining with gels, colors -
chemicals that so menacingly capture from them all they know
of purity...
...and I proudly pull my scarf over my hair
They stand there, so close, so very close to their "lover",
devoted to them, the devotion that so mercilessly captures
from them all they know of individuality...
...and I proudly pull my scarf over my hair
And they stand there, talking of getting new shorts, new gels
and colors, new boyfriends, materialistic things
that so wrongfully capture from them all they know
of God and love...
...and I proudly pull my scarf over my hair
For my scarf is my protector, my lover, my devotion,
my pureness, my beauty, my rememberance of God,
And I proudly pull it over my hair knowing that when I wear it,
I so rightfully thrust away all the things that the devil
brought about,
And when I put it on, I am
Free...
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| Jun 16, 2007 @ 5:41 PM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Meadowlark8
Posts: 686
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Personally as a very educated western woman I find your
poem very offensive...
The western woman ...you're the weak and I'm the strong????
I won't get into the details of the Male dominated muslim world
but their concept of "MECCA" speaks for itself...
No women allowed in a city...
I'll stand up for most women in the free world and say,
it sad to know that the U.N. will stand for culture segregation and
predudice such as South Africa's apartied and still has not taken
at strong stand to help many of the women trapped in a very
gender oppressed, gender prejudiced religious culture.
I do not claim that all women in the middle East feel oppressed.
Some, like any female or even male, like feeling and being treated
as second class citizens. However, I can bet my life on it that many,
many women, if allowed the true freedoms, and basic human rights
would choose differently....
These words are not attacks but sincere thoughts for I truly, truly
feel saddness for these women....
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| Jun 16, 2007 @ 5:45 PM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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12knots
Posts: 6,400
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  Glad someone said something.
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| Jun 16, 2007 @ 6:34 PM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Heaveninawildflower
Posts: 18,615
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I don't think Blondino was saying she agrees with it, only that our impression of what life is like for the average Muslim woman is quite different from the actual fact of it. For the most part, they don't think of themselves as being downtrodden and wouldn't want to give up purdah for a western way of life. Actually, I don't feel any more sad for those who live that life and love it, any more than I feel sad for Catholic nuns, who wear their habits and give up family for a life they think is better. Anything done through choice is fine, but countries like Afghanistan under the Taliban, or those areas practicing female circumcision (which isn't Muslim, it's a regional/tribal practice) where women are NOT allowed options, is just wrong.
I don't think anyone's suggesting that Muslim women should burn their veils, just that they should not be treated as property, but should have the freedom to choose the life they'll live, not be forced into it.
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| Jun 16, 2007 @ 10:29 PM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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jamminjerry
Posts: 4,085
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to show true freedom would be for every person to have their 5 minutes at the microphone and of course that 5 minutes would be when the microphone is working. and, my brother is one of them fellas that would like to play with the off and on switch. LOL
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| Jun 17, 2007 @ 4:32 AM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Blondino
Posts: 4,553
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personally as a very educated western woman I find your
poem very offensive...
The western woman ...you're the weak and I'm the strong????
I won't get into the details of the Male dominated muslim world
I posted poems from another perspective .. you choose to find them offensive or to look beyond and see women on both sides misunderstand each other ...
The reactions are the ones you choose to have ...... have you ever been to a Muslim country ??? How many Muslims do you know really well ?
The west misunderstand Muslims as much as many Muslims misunderstand the west .....
These words are not attacks but sincere thoughts for I truly, truly
feel saddness for these women....
Maybe try to understand rather than pity .... I am going to a Muslim country to stay with my Muslim friends ..... ladies who both smoke (I dont ) both drink and wear lovely clothes ... & know how to party ... but they are still Muslims
I once went to a nightclub with a lady in Islamic dress who got up and danced on the podium .... I was shocked myself but she said - why would me dancing affect the way I feel about God ..
Heaveninawildflower
I don't think Blondino was saying she agrees with it, only that our impression of what life is like for the average Muslim woman is quite different from the actual fact of it. For the most part, they don't think of themselves as being downtrodden and wouldn't want to give up purdah for a western way of life. Actually, I don't feel any more sad for those who live that life and love it, any more than I feel sad for Catholic nuns, who wear their habits and give up family for a life they think is better. Anything done through choice is fine, but countries like Afghanistan under the Taliban, or those areas practicing female circumcision (which isn't Muslim, it's a regional/tribal practice) where women are NOT allowed options, is just wrong.
 Hi Heaven I knew you would be one that understood .....thanks for clarifying
I am trying here to show ......
 SEEK TO UNDERSTAND .. THEN BE UNDERSTOOD
[Edited on 6/17/2007 4:58 AM]
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| Jun 17, 2007 @ 7:02 AM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Blondino
Posts: 4,553
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Women In Ka aba in Mecca
This is a link to the story of ladies in the sacred sites in Mecca .. one of my girlfriends who lives in Plano Texas went to Mecca on a Haj .... she is a Muslim and uncovered , I mean she does long distance cycling & studies counselling at Dallas Uni ..oh and in her marriage she is the 'Boss' lol.....she said it was the most moving experience of her life ....
Ka'aba is a special place. It is overwhelming to be in company of 3 million brothers and sisters in faith, all enshrouded in humble whites. The highest king to the humble laborer are both dressed alike. They stand shoulder to shoulder, they run side by side and they greet each other the greeting of peace. People of all races intermingle as co-equals. Black, white, yellow and brown all come together in harmony before their Beloved. Men and women all stand together. Veils are lifted off women's faces. In this searing passion for the Loved One, there is no distraction. He Alone Matters! It is wonderful to lift one's face and see one's Qiblah face-to-face. All their lives 5 times a day they turned their faces to their Qiblah--the Holy Ka'aba and now they see it right in front of them in all its majesty and glory. They savor the sweetness of coming Home all the while exclaiming "Labbaik Allahuma labbaik, la sharika laka labbaik, Labbaik Allahuma labbaik: I have come, my Lord, I have come. No one participates in Your Divinity (so I have nowhere to come but You). I have come." I have come, my Beloved. I have come.
The scholars conclude from this Hadith that if the road is safe a woman may perform the Hajj alone. However the authorities may conclude that there are other dangers that may threaten a woman travelling alone to perform the Hajj and insist that she should be accompanied by a qualified male or travel with a group of trustworthy women.
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| Jun 17, 2007 @ 10:00 AM |
To Non Muslim Women
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eastham
Posts: 7,913
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And with regard to the Taliban and other Muslim tribal sects that truly subjugate women, they are not likely gleaning their practice from the Koran, but other texts. It would be instructive to read medieval Christian accounts of the equality of the treatment of the sexes in Islam -- actually, the Christians were appauled by it. The works of Karen Armstrong, a Dominican nun, are very interesting -- the Defense of God is a great book.
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| Jun 17, 2007 @ 2:42 PM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Angel54214
Posts: 18,201
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I loved the poems "Blondino" It doesn't matter about what the mind conveys, it's what the heart conveys. And your heart shows love, beauty and wisdom of your faith.
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 8:05 PM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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Blondino I have joined this site because I read your posts and I wanted to have my say on this subject.
First of all I would like to thank you for posting these poems and for the reason that you chose to share them. I am a Muslim woman and I am NOT repressed nor am I forced to wear hijaab or nicarb. I am glad that you recognise the strength we Muslimah's have as the unique individuals that we are... as the poems highlight. Respect to you sister.
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 8:37 PM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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Meadowlark
I mean no disrespect to you, but what right do you have to pass judgement on me and my Muslim sisters? All you know about Islam and Muslims is what you have seen on the news and read in the papers .. this is quite obvious.
I respect your views and agree that yes, in 'some' Muslim countries my Muslim sisters are not always treated with respect and that they can be surpressed. But what you need to understand is that this has NOTHING to do with Islam, and is the politics of men who exploit an aspect of Islam to suit them. But Muslim women in general are NOT forced to wear hijaab or nicarb, and are far from repressed. What you focus on is a very small minority in comparison to the percentage of Muslim women throughout the world, and is of political adgenda's being imposed and NOT religious.
I am actually a convert to Islam. I was born into the Western World, brought up with western values and traditions as a Christian. I am just one of many many thousands of women from the western world who have converted to Islam. Do you really think that women like me would walk into anything .. be it a job, a relationship, a marriage .. or a religion that represses us and treats us badly?? I can assure you dear woman that I am not a woman to be treated as a second class citizen as you put it! What gives you the right to stand up for Muslim women? Did we ask you to? Do you think us so weak that we cannot stand up for ourselves? I say to you if you do then you are a fool!
You say: However, I can bet my life on it that many,
many women, if allowed the true freedoms, and basic human rights would choose differently.... Remember more and more women from the western world are converting to Islam ... why? Because we like to be second class citizens? NO! How dare you! Are you going to stand up for poor supressed nuns? After all, do nuns not wear a form of hijaab? Have they also not made a decision to devote their life to God? The only difference between nuns and we Muslimah's is that we can marry and have children. We also believe in your Bible by the way, apart from the many discrepancies within it.
How dare you patronise me and my Muslim sisters ... we do not ask for your pity or for you to feel sadness for us. When were western women given the right to vote? When were western women entitled to inheritancies and land rights? When were western women allowed a career and be able to work with equal rights?
Muslim women have had these rights and more for 1,450+ years!
It is you my dear woman who are to be pitied with your make-up, hair dyes and fancy fashion and finaries, buying into a dream that never makes you happy. Yet YOU without knowledge pity ME? You feel self-righteous and better and more liberated and free than I? Wake up and smell the coffee! Look at reality and not all you are spoon fed and told to believe via the media. How dare you!
I am a proud Muslim woman, happier now than I have ever been! I am free, liberated and have more rights as woman in Islam than I do in your world! Kaffar!
[Edited on 6/19/2007 10:34 PM]
[Edited on 6/19/2007 10:38 PM]
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 8:43 PM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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Angel .. thank you also for your respect and understanding. Thank you for your open heart and open mind.
I am sorry if I came across as harsh to that woman, but we are attacked constantly by self-righteous know-it-all's. An elderly woman had her scarf tore from her head whilst standing at a bus stop by 3 people who felt she should not be wearing it. She was a wife, a mother and a grandmother of 67 years old, harming no one. She was later rushed to the hospital where she had a heart attack brought on by the assault, and she died. Would this be done to a nun?
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 8:51 PM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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eastham .. you are correct such policies are certainly NOT a representation of the Qur'an. In actual fact there is nowhere in the Qur'an or the Hadeeth which commands women to wear hijaab or nicarb! It is about 'freedom of choice' in accordance to the reasons given in the Qur'an such modesty and for the same reason that Christians and Jews also used to cover their heads, but have forgotton. Unlike Christianity, Islam does not get changed to 'fit in' with the times ... the covering of the head and modest attire is prominant in the Bible too but ignored! There are a number of deeper religious and spiritual reasons for this. But it is also about 'modesty' and being accepted for the individuals that we are, that is ... women with minds, intelligence, talents and gifts ... and not on to be judged on how we look. There is strength and much power in that! Many blessings to you!
[Edited on 6/19/2007 10:45 PM]
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 8:59 PM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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Muslims are now getting the same treatment Jews had a century ago
Today's anti-Muslim racism uncannily echoes earlier anti-semitism - both minorities abused as an alien security threat
Maleiha Malik
Friday February 2, 2007
The Guardian
Migrants fleeing persecution and poverty settled with their children in the East End of London. As believers in one God they were devoted to their holy book, which contained strict religious laws, harsh penalties and gender inequality. Some of them established separate religious courts. The men wore dark clothes and had long beards; some women covered their hair. A royal commission warned of the grave dangers of self-segregation. Politicians said different religious dress was a sign of separation. Some migrants were members of extremist political groups. Others actively organised to overthrow the established western political order. Campaigners against the migrants carefully framed their arguments as objections to "alien extremists" and not to a race or religion. A British cabinet minister said we were facing a clash about civilisation: this was about values; a battle between progress and "arrested development".
All this happened a hundred years ago to Jewish migrants seeking asylum in Britain. The political movements with which they were closely associated were anarchism and later Bolshevism. As in the case of contemporary political violence, or even the radical Islamism supported by a minority of British Muslims, anarchism and Bolshevism only commanded minority support among the Jewish community. But shared countries of origin and a common ethnic and religious background were enough to create a racialised discourse whenever there were anarchist outrages in London in the early 20th century.
Most anarchists were peaceful, but a few resorted to violent attacks such as the bombing of Greenwich Observatory in 1894 - described at the time as an "international terrorist outrage". Anarchist violence was an international phenomenon. In Europe it claimed hundreds of lives, including those of several heads of government, and resulted in anti- terrorism laws. In the siege of Sidney Street in London in 1911, police and troops confronted east European Jewish anarchists. This violent confrontation in the heart of London created a racialised moral panic in which the whole Jewish community was stigmatised. It was claimed that London was "seething" with violent aliens, and the British establishment was said to be "in a state of denial". East End Jews were said to be "alienated", not "integrated", and a "threat to our security" a long time before anyone dreamed up the phrase "Londonistan".
Today the Middle East is the focus of a challenge to American political and economic hegemony, which is being presented as a "civilisational conflict with Islam". Nearly a century ago, the Russian revolution sent shockwaves through western states and financial markets. Anti-semites argued that Jewish involvement in revolutionary politics was part of a conspiracy by "the homeless wandering Jew" to replace European states with their "Hebrew nation". Winston Churchill, as secretary of state for war in 1920, wrote an article in the Illustrated Sunday Herald claiming there were three categories of Jews - good, bad and indifferent - and arguing that they were part of a "worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development".
Jews were the first non-Christian, yet monotheistic, religious minority in Britain. They are also one of its earliest "racialised" people. Despite important differences, the treatment of British Jews provides an illuminating comparison with contemporary anti-Muslim racism. There are recurring patterns in British society that racialise Jews and Muslims, which we need to understand if we are to develop an effective strategy for national security.
Jews and now Muslims have been and are the targets of cultural racism: differences arising from their religious culture are pathologised and systematically excluded from definitions of "being British". Both anti-semitism and anti-Muslim racism focus on belief in religious law to construct Jews and Muslims as a threat to the nation. Pnina Werbner, professor of social anthropology at Keele University, argues that Jews are predominantly racialised as an assimilated threat to national interests emerging at moments of crisis. Muslims are now being represented as a different kind of "folk devil" - a social group that is openly and aggressively trying to impose its religion on national culture. This partially explains the recent concerns about multiculturalism. "Anti-fundamentalist images provide racists with a legitimising discourse against Muslims," as Werbner puts it, which is used by "intellectual elites as well as 'real' violent racists".
The Jewish-Muslim comparison reveals another recurring pattern in recent British history: the rapid collapse of security fears associated with a religious minority into a racialised discourse of "civilisation versus barbarism". The American philosopher William Connolly predicted after September 11 that "the terrorism of al-Qaida, in turn, generates new fears and hostilities. The McCarthyism of our day will connect internal state security to an exclusionary version of the Judeo-Christian tradition".
The ease with which security fears can generate "moral panics and folk devils" was r
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 9:00 PM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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Ctd:
The ease with which security fears can generate "moral panics and folk devils" was recently highlighted at a conference organised by London mayor Ken Livingstone to debate the neoconservatives' insistence that we now face a new clash of civilisation versus barbarism. In London's past, the East End British Brothers' League carefully framed its objections using terms such as aliens, anarchists and Bolsheviks rather than Jews. At last month's conference, many cheered as if at a rally, as these new advocates of "civilisational conflict" worked hard to keep separate their categories of barbarian and civilised. They cited Ayaan Hirsi Ali as their exemplar of a "good Muslim", thus clarifying the "civilisation" they are encouraging Muslims to emulate. Hirsi Ali, whose research is funded by the neo-conservative American Enterprise Institute, argues that the west should launch a war against Iran - with the prospect of the deaths of thousands more innocents - as it earlier agitated for war on Iraq.
The neocons want us to treat domestic security like the war against fascism. This manipulation of Europe's memory of its struggle against nazism mirrors the propaganda of some Muslims - the July 7 bombers who, citing Iraq, insisted that they were martyrs in a holy war; and those who portray domestic anti-terrorism policy as a new western crusade against 1 billion Muslims. The London mayor's refusal to lapse into such "war talk" is one factor that has so far helped to prevent fear of domestic terrorism from collapsing into a racialised conflict of civilisations in the heart of diverse London. This is not just about foreign neocon wars, or politically correct anti-racism, or multiculturalism - or even the defence of the human rights of British citizens who are Muslims. It is about the security of all British citizens. As Ken Macdonald, director of public prosecutions, warned last week, if we want to safeguard our security we must abandon delusions that we are fighting wars, and deal with terrorism in the context of criminal justice. With more terror arrests inevitable, and the prospect of new anti-terrorism legislation any day, the need to grasp what is really going on could not be more urgent.
· Maleiha Malik is a lecturer in law at King's College London.
· This is an edited version of lectures prepared for presentation at the Clash of Civilisations conference in London on January 20 and at Finchley Progressive Synagogue
{email address removed}.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2004258,00.html
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 9:59 PM |
To Non Muslim Women
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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Heaveninawildflower
Respect to you also!
only that our impression of what life is like for the average Muslim woman is quite different from the actual fact of it
Absolutely spot on! Thank you! Well said!
For the most part, they don't think of themselves as being downtrodden and wouldn't want to give up purdah for a western way of life.
Because we are NOT downtrodden, and many of us have given up the western life because we had everything but nothing!
Also to add that female circumcision is absolutly NOTHING to do with Islam! In fact I am appaulled by it, and their reasons for carrying that out is cultural and based on 'supersticions' which is against Islam!
Not every Muslim is perfect, there are Muslims who pay lip service to Allah, just as there are Christians paying lip service. But it is not the people we follow it is Allah.
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| Jun 19, 2007 @ 10:02 PM |
To Non Muslim Women |
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Bonbon289
Posts: 34
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jamminjerry ... looks like I've had more than my 5 minuets haha but I think I get the gist of what you're saying?
I'll get off my soap box now and wish you all salaam .. PEACE!
Thank you for your time!
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