Enough For me

Enough for me to die on her earth
be buried in her
to melt and vanish into her soil
then sprout forth as a flower
played with by a child from my country.
Enough for me to remain
in my country's embrace
to be in her close as a handful of dust
a sprig of grass
a flower.

Fadwa Tuqan

Dreams of Trespass

Dreams of Trespass is a book by Mernissi, an autobiography...not the point really, bas I was in the toilet reading it, and I thought about the title, and I find it an amazing thought.
Dreams of Trespass...think about it...not trespassing, bas dreaming about it...its powerful.

Hijab

I have been reading Women and Islam, a book by the Moroccan Feminist, Fatema Mernissi. I have found a few quotes which I find quite interesting, when dealing with the issue of the hijab. To her hijab means segregation and is used as a medium of asserting heirarchy between the rulers and the people.

"The concept of the word hijab is three-dimensional, and the three dimensions often blend into one another. The first dimension is a visual one: to hide something from sight. The root of the verb hajaba means 'to hide'. The second dimension is spatial: to separate, to mark a border, to establish a threshold. And finally, the third dimension is ethical: it belongs to the realm of the forbidden." (93)

"The concept of the hijab is a key concept in Muslim civilisation, just as sin is in the Christian context, or credit is in American capitalist society. Reducing or assimilating this concept to a scrap of cloth that men have imposed on women to veil them when they go into the stress is truly to impoverish this term, not o say to drain it of its meaning, especially when one knows that the hijab, according to the Koranic verse and al-Tabari's explanation, 'descended' from Heaven to separate the space between two men." (95)

"The Muslim God is the only monotheistic God whose sacred place, the mosque, opens on to the bedroom, the only one to have chosen a Prophet who does not keep silent about his concerns as a man, but who, on the contrary, voices his thoughts about sexuality and desire." (115)

This is quite an amazing book, it looks at the role of women from the time of Muhammand and how he dealt with them...really a must read for anyone intersted in this topic, or anyone who would like to see how diverse the interpretations are when it comes to women's issues. Mernissi is an amazing writer, all her books are great, and I've read them all, bas another one that people should read is, Women's Rebellion and Islamic Memory. In it she makes a statement that is quite obvious bas at the same time when I read it I found it quite shocking: "The Eastern man places his honour(sharaf) between the legs of a woman." (This is not a direct quote since I don't have the book on me bas its pretty much what she says.)
Makes one think doesn't it, about how our society is structured and why it is structured like it is?

The Rules

I found this list on The Religious Policeman's blog, and decided to paste it here...as a follow up to the incident posted below! I hope he won't mind:)

The Four Rules of Saudi Queueing.

1. Queue is a foreign word, for foreigners. Saudis do not need to queue. If you see a line of people, that indicates that there is something desirable at the front, and it is waiting for you, so just go and get it.

2. If the line is from the Indian subcontinent, they will not dare to stop you from going to the front. Indeed they will be grateful, in their quiet and humble way, that you have honored their line with your presence.

3. If the line contains Westerners, they may object to your going to the front. Affect not to understand their unrefined languages. If some smartass has a smattering of Arabic, pull a face that suggests you can't make head or tail of his silly accent. However if there are no other Saudis around, be careful, as some of them can become extremely threatening and physical. The men can be scary as well.

4. If you meet another Saudi at the head of the queue, precedence goes to the better family or tribe. Unless one of you has a relation behind the window or whatever it is you are queueing for. However if a Bedu from out of the desert turns up, let him go first, because everyone expects him to be pig-ignorant and not understand queues and you just can't be assed trying to explain it to him, and anyway he can't read so he's probably come to the wrong place and he'll bugger off soon enough as it is.

However the problem arises when there are 10, 000 Saudis, and no other nationalities, all after the same thing, and having no word to encapsulate the notion of "queue".

Muttawa-Religious Police in Saudi

Let me set the scene:
I had been sitting in the parking lot for half an hour, waiting for prayer time to come to an end, so I could go into the store and buy the stuff I had promised a friend I would get him from Saudi. It was humid, I have the flu, and was thus not in the best of moods when I finally got into Extras-the tech store in Alkhubar. I found the stuff I needed, and was standing in line at the till waiting patiently for my turn to come up. I was with my cousin, we were chatting away, not really looking at the line-all of sudden this dude comes in front of me.
Now before I go on with the action let me describe this guy-short little man, wearing a mini-disdasha, the longest beard ever, slippers, eye that were tiny, dark, deep in the socket, with the thickest eye-brows.
So anyhow, I clear my throat, and politely tell him that there is a line, and it was our turn. He turns, barely looks at me, and states flatly: Ya Hurma, you need to cover your hair! Now, what does have to do with standing in line I have no idea...my cousin tells me that the till next to us is empty, bas I had reached my boiling point, as I said, I have a cold, I was sitting in the car/sauna for half an hour, and this little dipshit tells me to cover my hair.
So I shouted at him, I have never shouted at a muttawa before-always been to scared-I told him to get out of my way, and what the hell does covering my hair have to do with standing in line?!?!?
Courageous you might say.
Ha...I had not noticed that this dude had a whole posse with him, and that they were standing waiting for him at the door, when I shouted they came over...I have never been so scared. My heart was beating fast, I was sweating, and I could see my cousin next to me also terrified. We were two girls, both unveiled, with only a driver as our backup-shouting at these 'men'!
The man at the till...looked at me and asked is there a problem?I handed him the stuff I wanted to buy, and just walked straight passed the little munchkin, paid for my stuff and walked/power-walked out of the store.
I should not have shouted I know, could just have walked to the other till, paid and left, and if he said to me, well you were talking and missed your turn, I most likely would have done that. Bas for him to tell me to cover my hair, ino who the fuck is he???

Noses

I have always hated my nose. It is the one thing-or more like one of the things-that I hate about my body. My aunt used to tell me-and maybe this is where my complex comes from-that my mom used to talk about getting me a nose job when I was younger (my mom tells me that this is a lie, bless her heart). Bas I have realised in the past three days how important this nose is to my life.
I am currently suffering under the effects of the notorious summer cold-am in Saudi, its hot, fa its summer-I hate summer colds more then winter colds, in winter one expects to have the flu, fa it doesn't really feel like its something unnatural, but in summer one wants to swim, go out, sit in the hot sun and drink beer. THEN the cold arrives and you are stuck inside...or even worse you go out bas are unable to enjoy anything.
SOOO to go back to my original point, my nose. Since I can no longer smell anything, I no longer enjoy stuff that I used to LOVE...such as, chocolate cake...I ate it just before I got my flu and thought it was the best thing ever-from the Cheesecake Factory-bas then I got it the day of my flu-my aunt wanted to make me feel better-and it just tasted like sandpaper-not that I have ever tasted that bas you get my drift-then we went to Bahrain, and I had a beer-Mexican-and nada...didn't enjoy it...so have decided after long consideration, while lying on the couch with nothing to do and nothing to watch, that I love my nose, everything about.

Poem # 3

I gather up
each sound
you left behind
and stretch them
on our bed.
each nite
I breathe you
and become high.



Sonia Sanchez

Hamas

So it has hit the fan again...Jordan and Palestine, and a call to take sides has come up.
I for one don't believe the story being told by our government. I find it to flimsy, and to well timed for it to be the honest-to-God truth. I don't know if I like being put with the conspiracy theory people, I don't usually go for them-conspiracy theories, bas I think it is very clear, that the Jordanian government-like all the other Arab governments-has been facing a lot of pressure from the West, telling it not to deal with the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED Hamas government-and has thus tried to find a way out!
I don't know what I really feel about this whole thing, I am disappointed in our government, I think that it has made a grave mistake, that it should not have canceled the visit...or maybe more to the point, it can cancel (sorry postpone) the visit, but not come up with this tale to do it.
One has to only look at how Hamas has been lately to know that it would not do this, I have been studying this movement for three years now, and I might not agree with everything it stands for, but one thing I truly respect is the fact that it has NEVER taken its battle with Israel outside of Palestine. I don't see how Hamas would benefit as a new government, with all the international pressure on it, to take the battle into Jordan? This movement is extremely pragmatic, and very practical, there is no reasoning-far nor short-that would explain Hamas smuggling these weapons. Some have stated that it might be a cadre of Hamas that wants to ruin its relations with Jordan-again I don't see the logic (and if you don't like this word) then the strategy behind them doing this.
I think it is a fabrication, and I think it is a sad attempt at that. Its fucking awful that one Arab government would deal with another Arab government in such a fifth grade fashion.