Work Work Work

Asalaamu alaykum wa rahmatallahi wa barakato~
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you~

Oooff, I have been too busy lately.  I moved this weekend, have several 10-15 page papers due for university in the coming weeks, and I graduate in May, insh'Allah.  Which just means searching for jobs like a nut...

So perhaps I'll just update ya'll on my papers for now.  Some of the topics I'm writing about are interesting --  some not so much.  This semester I took three graduate level courses, ay yay yay.  They were challenging but rewarding.

One paper will be about ethnocentrism in digital media -- such as video games, movies, online, etc.  This sounds weird for an upper-level paper, but my class is digital rhetoric.  Yup, I spent a semester learning about video games and social networking, he he he.

I thought that it was important to write about this topic because of all of the war video games we learned about in my course.  I find the trend very disturbing, especially when there is no balanced option to show the moral implications/repercussions of war.  All war games nearly played in the U.S. are of U.S. soldiers attacking the Middle East, including mosques, etc.  This leads to racial profiling, misconceptions of Islam and Arabs/Muslims, and generally reinforces a spirit of "them vs. us" without the players of these video games possibly ever realizing what is being put into their minds.  Disturbing...

Another paper I'm working on will be about how social media is affecting power relations, specifically in education.  This is for my Governmentality/Foucault philosophy class.

And I'm also writing a paper for my Migration in Film and Literature about a novel by Bharati Mukherjee called "Jasmine."  It's due next week and I haven't even read the book... ;)  I guess it's about an Indian immigrant to the U.S.

For my Advanced Arabic course, I'm supposed to make a video final project of myself speaking Arabic about something.

We shall see how it all goes...

Wearing Niqab

Asalaamu alaykum wa rahmatallahi wa barakato~
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you~

A couple days ago, I had my first bonafide experience wearing a niqab.  It was not planned.  I was driving home from university, and I just decided to wrap my scarf around my face and pin it.  It was instinctual, really -- kind of like my first time wearing the hijab -- it just felt right.

So anyway, that feeling of "rightness" didn't last long.  Almost immediately I got a reaction (mind you, I was in a car on the highway).

I passed an SUV going 5 over the speed limit--normal, non-dangerous type driving.  The man in the SUV began speeding up, so I looked over.  And I will never forget what I saw.

I have never, EVER in my life seen such an expression of shock and disgust -- even horror -- as I saw on that man's face.  It was as if I didn't have a face, or my face had been ripped off.  Yup, if my face had literally been ripped off, his reaction would have been the same, most likely.

He sort of drove side-by-side with me for what felt like an eternity, although it was probably only a few minutes.  I just stared calmly back at him -- I didn't show any emotional response to his crazy behavior.

Well, the interchange ended with his revving off (he suddenly decided to drive like 90 miles an hour) and leaving me in his dust.

I can't say that I felt completely cool and collected after that.  I mean, someone had just looked at me like I was the grim reaper.  I tried to calm myself down and carry on.

Now, I have had crazy reactions to my hijab.  I have had harassment, and rude comments, and unkindness.  But I have never had a face react quite like that to my appearance before.  And it frightened me.

I just keep thinking, what was running through that man's mind?  He looked so disgusted and shocked, but what did he feel when he looked at me, a covered woman just driving on the highway?

And mostly, why did he feel it was okay to react to a human being that way?  Just because I had covered my face up didn't mean I suddenly became a robot.  It didn't mean I was something to be feared, or leered at like some sort of nasty spectacle.

I will never treat anyone the way that man on the highway treated me.  My heart goes out to all of the sisters who wear the niqab, especially in the West where reactions to it can be so violent.  May Allah reward all of you, in sh Allah.