Seventy-two

I am currently reading this book my friend Malinda gave me just before the heffah left for
Boston (I do miss you).

I haven't read a substantial portion of the book at all.  I may be 13 pages in but already I am reading about a heavy emphasis on the pride of being a male and the commodification of women that is blatant, viscous, annoying, arbitrary and stupid.

The book commences with an account of the young female protagonist learning her lineage from her bulldozing grandmother.  Rather than learn a complete history of those who came before her, she memorizes her literal forefathers only -- back 800 years.

I thought it was a great concept to be knowledgable about your ancestry.  I wish my parents had made me learn the names of my lineage.  Other than my maternal grandmother, the only surviving grandparent I had for a long time, I didn't really know about my grandparents.  As I grow older and more African, I am interested in my ancestry and I ask.  Once I know them (and my baby's daddy's lineage), I'll make sure my babies know from jump who they are.

I digress.

In learning the names of the men, they were communicating to this small girl that she is a consequence and is somebody because of the men who preceded her and not the women who birthed them all.

Typical.

Given that the author is a female, the book details the commodified, strict life of Muslim women in Somalia.  Something I find peculiar about Islam is the obsession with sexuality.  If you know anything about Islam, there is a high degree of obsession with decency, morality, submission, and humility.  However, I am observing a serious obsession with sex.

The ideas behind the decency, honor, and submission of women in Islam is all about sex.  Women must be decent and cover themselves so as not to arouse their men when their men should be focusing on Allah and providing for the family.

Women should honor their bodies (virginity) so as not to shame the men of their family.  Their bodies and the limited sexuality they are granted are not their own but belong to the men in their life at that time.  For an unmarried Muslim woman, her father, brothers, uncles are the masters of her body and sexuality.  Once she is married, her husband possesses dominion over her body and sexuality, much how it was in ancient society.

Ayaan, the protagonist of the story details the rationale behind wearing the now vilified burkas.  No part of a woman should be exposed because it is sexually incendiary.  A woman should not wear high heels for the clicking sound a woman makes as she walks will remind a man of her legs which can be an unending distraction.  Woman is unclean when menstruating and should not talk to God, attend mosque, or sleep on the same bed as others.

There are two things communicated in the aforementioned regulations.  For one, it appears to me that Islam understands men to be wild sexual beasts, unable to contain or control themselves.  Their every thought, motivation, desire in life is to have wild sex with every woman who walks by.  And they cannot control it.  If a person cannot control something about themselves, then they also cannot be blamed for what they do.

Hence the onus of decency being on women.  A woman should not show her body or remind a man that she has a body because it arouses something uncontrollable in him.  What type of shit is that?

The second thing communicated is that women are inherently defective.  Menstruating and childbirth make women vulnerable and weak, physically and mentally.  Women need decisions made for them and are in constant duress if left to make decisions on their own.

I observed that women are not people.  They are confined by so many rules that unequivocally deny their humanity.  They are not to feel, opine about anything, and should definitely not express those opinions.  They are defenseless and at the mercy of often times cruel men who shape a cruel culture.

Women are to be seen and not heard; used but not considered; protected but ignored; necessary but negligible.  Boy children have more freedom and dominion than do grown women.  Absurd.

It is quite sad because I think Islam is such a beautiful religion.  I try to live my life by the five pillars and exercise submission and humility in my life.  I think the core tenants of Islam are pure and would make for wonderful world if people could actually practice it.  But the Qu'ran and the laws must be reconsidered and re-interpreted.  It excludes a whole half of the population who is responsible for the creation of the other half.

Women around the world should go on a sex strike and watch mountains move. 

I aim to change the position of women in the world and I aim to make you like it.

All For the Love Y'all

"Oh Me Oh My" by Garnett Silk


...pretty baby don't be shy / oh me oh my / i'm gonna tell you why...

I got a new job.  I'm so excited to start but I'm highly hesitant to leave the job I currently I have.  I absolutely love the children that I serve.  They make me laugh.  They make me feel young and old at the same time.  They make me tired and they give me energy simultaneously.

And they totally aren't babies but as I have gotten so much older, the seem like babies to me.  I remember being their age and in retrospect, I realize how young I was.  However, I thought I was all 'growed up' and my parents couldn't tell me anything.  So happy there is a God because kids like me...no bueno.

Sometimes I feel like this isn't my life.  Things have changed so so so so much, of course for the better...I assess.

At times I sit around and wait for the other shoe to drop because y'all don't know how far things have come; how much people have changed in my life; how much I have changed; all that.

At this junction, college is over, life has started...like really started. I'm being pulled in many different directions at the same time, which of course I love because I love stimuli and all that...but it's slightly overwhelming.

I used to know exactly what I wanted to do.  I wanted to go to nursing school and be done with it.  I still want to because it's stable and good money but that's really the only appeal.  I do want to do obstetrics and gynecology.  I love women's health, especially focusing on the health of women of color around the world.


But I also love law.  I'm great at reading, research, writing, and debating; most effective tools for the artistry of law.

And now that I have discovered social work, I love social work.  I consider it to be the physical implementation of psychology.  I of course love psychology, but social work demands that one applies psychology.

There are so many options, so many talents I could use, so much I could change, so many people I could help and simply not enough time to do it.  For one thing, life is short.  Secondly, the good die young.