The Burka- A Security Threat?

I was watching a weekend morning talk show and they were discussing if Australia might follow suit in banning the Burka. The main reasons were that the women were being opressed and that the burka posed a significant security threat.

There was a lady on the panel who seriously believed that burkas were a threat to national security because "you don't know what they could be hiding in there!" She went on to say that she has never seen a woman being truly happy while wearing the garment, since they have been forced by men to cover their faces. Young girls were also brainwashed into thinking that they have to cover up their faces and body.

1) So, that's why they scan my hijab at the airport! They're afraid that the round object at the back of my head could be something else (B-O-M-B) besides my hair tied up in a bun! But then again, I've seen girls with bun-less hijab heads also get scanned so maybe we have wires running under our hijab?

2) You've never seen a woman wearing burka happy because you can't see her smiling duh!

3) What about girls being brainwashed into thinking that showing off their bodies was the only way to be popular or socially accepted? There are not only half naked girls on TV anymore, they're COMPLETELY naked.

And Pauline Hanson doesn't want to sell her house to a muslim. *shocker!! lol, why would any muslim want to enrich her with a few million dollars anyways? I say, rich muslims everywhere, don't waste your money.

Women

Women are women's harshest critics and why is that??!!
Ever walked into a room during a family gathering and got told that you looked like you had put on weight? Or have you over heard someone gossiping about the possible reasons as to why your sister broke off her engagement? Guess who said that? Your aunt, of course! Or your mother's cousin's wife's daughter.

I'm not saying all women are nasty, I'm saying that women need to give a little space to each other and how about a little support? A simple praise, compliment or words of encouragement can go a long way in maintaining rapport and strengthening a relationship.

So, next time you see your friend after a long time, take your focus away from her expanded waistline, and instead, compliment her on her gorgeous navy blue hijab (because really, in your head, you were already thinking how much nicer it would look on you).

Reverse Dawah

Brothers telling sisters who have just started wearing hijab, and doing their best at covering up; wearing summer dresses with a cardigan and jeans - "You looked better without hijab"

Good one, boys!

The death of fast food chicken burgers

brother @ kebab shop: Sister, I would like to give you some advice...

me: *freaking out, what did I do wrong??!!

brother @ kebab shop: I want to tell you that your chicken burger,..I'm not sure if it's halal.

me: huh?!

brother @ kebab shop: It is not 100%, I am not sure. When we buy, we check the halal certificate and the man said it is halal but I am just not sure.

me: Ohh..really? Okay, I don't want it then. *pushes burger back to him.

brother @ kebab shop: No no, In shaa Allah for today it is halal. I also eat it. Just I wanted to advice you, because it's You..sister. Next time, try to order something different.

me: erm, okay!

Walking to Uni was like walking through a jungle. The underpass was flooded so I took a risk and ran across the highway. I held my abaya up by about an inch so that the branches won't tear a hole in my abaya, oblivious to the fact that anyone would even care that I was wearing jeans inside.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, someone jumped next to me and said, "Does Nadia wear jeans?!"

lol, there are a lot of misconceptions about hijab, abayas and what muslim women can and cannot wear. For example, I'm pretty sure she thinks I wear the hijab to sleep & shower. It must totally blow her mind that I actually don't wear the hijab 24/7.

Anyways, everyone in tutorial was complaining about cars and windows and leaks when my tutor piped up with "Perth is not prepared for any disaster. We will not survive a terrorist attack", causing some people to look my way. Great, just wonderful.

You know what though? Sometimes I feel like I've been stereotyped so many times that I actually victimize myself? Like maybe those people weren't looking at me in an accusatory way but I just felt it because it is what I have come to expect. I feel discriminated, even when in actuality, it may not have been the case.


Have you ever felt that way?

Hello Internet

We got the internet up :)

I spent two hours listening to how every single type of meat I've ever eaten could be filled with awful worms + eggs that will mature and multiply in my intestinal crypts. I've actually seen a worm exit someone's body through an orifice. It was mighty gross.

Then, I ignored the rumblings of my empty stomach and decided HEY, I could go vegetarian!

But, I found out that cattle get worms because they eat from contaminated pastures.

So everything can be contaminated. I am definitely over cooking everything from now.

@ Singapore Zoo

The elephant show was the best therefore there aren't any pictures of that because I was too busy enjoying it. The day was pretty fun except for one unfortunate incident where a muslim lady thought it was appropriate to keep shoving her daughters forward, intruding into my personal space, stepping on my toes and then once they pushed past me, they nicely tapped the shoulder of a non muslim woman infront and said 'excuse me'.
I moved the first time around to let her younger daughter through even though she was about 10, and was as tall as me. Then when her taller teenage daughter started shoving me I was not going to move until she asked me to. It's pathetic that children don't say things like 'excuse me' or 'please' anymore because their parents are to busy shoving them forward to teach them manners.
So it's really more of a manners thing but what got me really pissed was that they treated another muslim like crap.

Theme Parks

a few of the crazy rides
that's us, at the bottom of the tower after the crazy drop

gorgeous goldfish, and there were different varieties, some looked really creepy.

Ocean Park was AWESOME like crazy wild rides but the day we went, it was too windy so they closed the cable car rides, the hot air balloon and the biggest roller coaster. But we took all the other rides. At the end of the day, we were wet, cold and shivering, tired from all the walking but extremely pleased.




Hong Kong Disneyland was fun but the queues were not. Parents came up with the brilliant strategy of letting their kids push through the crowds and then they got to cut the line because their kids were at the front of the queue. I didn't mind at first but after awhile it got really annoying.

Playing host to two arab men

Recently, my brother played host to 2 arab men. They had thought that Singapore was a muslim state. Unfortunately, we're secular!
Things were definitely unpleasant when my father decided to treat both of them to dinner in a fancy restaurant. One of them refused to eat because he doubted that the food was halal. Despite showing him the HUGE Halal certificate, he did not want to eat. My father called the manager of the restaurant to explain to the man that the ingredients as well as the preparations for the meal are all halal certified.
He still didn't eat.
I feel pretty insulted that he would think that my father would bring him to a restaurant that was not halal and then to make things worse, lie to him and paste a false halal certificate on the wall.

We might not be living in a muslim majority country, but we are muslims just the same.

Another Chance

Assalam Alaykum.

I passed my exams and I will be entering my third year of university in 2010, in sha Allah if my financial situation works out. Thing is, I made du'a to pass, and I did but now I am learning that passing may not be the best thing for me. Being alone without a mahram wasn't working out very well for myself and now I will talk to my parents about not wanting to go back. But knowing my parents, I know I will be back there next year...

I know I sound terribly confused. At the start I sounded happy that I'm moving into third year but then now, I'm not so sure.

What I do know is that I have to prepare myself for another much tougher year. I don't have much support but I know that I can count on the support that I already have.

On another note, I decided to delete all males on MSN except the ones that I need to discuss school matters with.
I also deleted my facebook account because I got tired of reading status updates and people bitching about each other on that social network.

I'm having a go at memorizing all the short surahs in the Quran. I have little trouble remembering them but when I'm actually praying, I get stuck. But Alhamd lellah, I've found out that saying them out loud helps me remember initially but then I just got to repeat them again and again quietly to myself, until I can say it without counting off on the number of ayats to make sure that I didn't miss any.

LOL @ what people post on Facebook

Muslims posting Christmas wish lists.

I have over 200 people on facebook and none of the Christians have posted up such lists (yet). I just had to laugh reading through a few Christmas wish lists that the Muslims posted.

Confused.

I want to say something subtle but...maybe not. I'll keep a look out for the crazy Christmas party pictures though then I can happily click 'Remove Friend' or something like that; guilt free.

Giving Thanks

I logged into Messenger this morning and my friend had this message on her status:

"LORD, you truly bless me with muffin tops* "

Seriously.

Monday's Musings

Thank you Telstra and Bigpond for majorly messing up our bills for the 2nd time. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'd rather be transferred to a call centre in India with fast and efficient service than be put on hold for more than half the length of the call to a centre somewhere in Australia. Telstra should also learn how not to disconnect calls more than once while a customer is being put on hold.
Stop it with all these phantom costs that we did NOT incur. And please, start some sort of unifying system so that your customer support officers don't contradict each other and sound stupid.
I'm going to laugh the next time Telstra calls me for a plan change/upgrade and claim that they are the largest telco and that they don't outsource their calls to India.
That's nothing to be proud of when your service sucks.

I skipped neuro revision lab, will stare at brains in my atlas. Back to muscles of the gluteal region for now.

oh, I saw this lady @ Northbridge rocking a long sleeved silver blouse with black tights. And for some unknown reason, she couldn't stick to one outfit so she also had on a black tube top and a denim skirt. I don't know what's in fashion right now but I'm pretty sure that's not it??

Me? I'm guilty of wearing my pajamas with an abaya on top. Anyone else doing that? It's soooo comfortable.

Why don't you pray or something?

Overheard in tutorial (when the laptop got disconnected and the image failed to project onto the screen while Mohammed was presenting his Alzheimer's topic)...

"Pray or something! Oh go and slaughter a goat!!"

This moron said it loud enough for 4 of us in the back row to hear. Just as I was about to turn around and glare at him, before saying something, the laptop reconnected and the presentation went along quite smoothly after.

flying while muslim

En route to Singapore, on SIA...

Malay muslim flight attendant: Ma'am, can I offer you anything to drink? Coffee, tea, coke, orange juice or white wine?

Me: ?!! apple juice please.

It was Ramadhan, 230am and I had a sticker on the top of my seat, clearly indicating that I requested a Halal meal, as if the hijab is not enough proof that I am muslim. It's sad that the words just robotically escaped from her mouth and she did not stop just before offering me wine.

Of course she is just doing her job and she served me with a smile.

Maybe in her mind, she was contemplating whether she should ask about the wine seeing as to how she has served wine to other muslim passengers before.

On the flight from Dubai to Istanbul, there was an arab couple sitting just infront of us. Husband was in full thobe gear and wife was clad in niqab, baby in tow. Husband drank and drank and drank those alcoholic beverages. Yes, I stared because I had never seen anything like it. I poked my father and he told me not to stare :b

Disappearing Acts

Things keep disappearing from my room. Seriously, if you're hiding my stuff, please put them back where you found them because it's not funny. I get obsessed when I can't find my things. Right now, my jaw is clenched and my left eye is twitching because I realised I haven't see my shades since the last week of Ramadhan.
Since, the devil was tied up, I can't even blame it on him! (joke, people)

Anyways, I have searched high and low, I have looked into every single drawer and checked behind every single thing, I can't find it. It's not even tiny. It's like in this bulky box. ARGH.

I'm sure nobody took it but how can I explain its sudden disappearance?

Don't know if I mentioned this before but one time when I was like 3, I went out with my grandparents to a wedding. I was wearing this gold bracelet/ring (? my memory failed me) that my grandma bought for me and it was definitely on my wrist/finger when we left the house. In the cab, grandma realised it was gone but of course I didn't get any scolding since I was like 3. Grandma was upset though.
But, the maid found it when she was sweeping under the bed back at home. Weird eh?

In primary school, whenever I got into fights with my older brother, I would always find my textbooks missing. He was clever, never hiding books that I needed on a daily basis. So, he had all the time in the world for the perfect opportunity to sneakily grab a book and hide it. When it was time to pack my bag before school, I would realise that my Social Studies textbook or my Health Education textbook was missing. I would go bat crazy and start crying.

Luckily for me, my maid is a brilliant woman and she hypothesized that books just don't go missing and I defintely didn't lose them because I am a nerd and nerds treasure their books. She further analysed the situation and looked into all possible factors, finally coming to the conclusion that my brother was the culprit behind my missing books.

We found the books ontop of my wardrobe, in my own room, underneath all the extra bedding material that is stored there.
I got my own sweet revenge when I told my parents about what my brother had done and I even had a witness.

I recently had an argument with my brother. Maybe he used his power of mean-ness and hid my shades and all the other things that have gone missing from my room.

I have an exam on Tuesday but my brain is obsessed with finding my shades. HELP

Scanning the Hijab

At Singapore's Changi Airport, their security checks are so tight that after they scan your carry on luggage and make you walk through the metal detector, they stop you and wave their magic wand around your hijab, looking for little elves that may be hiding inside.

I have been through this numerous times and I wish they would go about doing it in a more discreet manner. Once, the security official shouted to her partner to quickly get the magic wand [I have no idea what it's real name really is] to scan my HEAD. On another occasion, I was pulled back after being cleared because I needed to have my scarf scanned.

I do not wear any sort of hair accessory that makes my head look disproportionate so no one ever suspects that I am hiding anything inside. Unfortunately, these officers are just doing their jobs listening to some higher power who thinks its necessary to scan people's heads.

Question: Wouldn't the metal detector detect if there was something metal under my hijab anyways? Also, what does the magic wand actually scan for?


Actually, come to think of it, I remember on my way for Umrah, at an airport ( I don't recall which), all the ladies were brought into a small room where a female security officer made us flip our hijabs over our heads and she made sure that there was nothing inside.

Take a hike, Anonymous.

You would think that any rational person would leave a blog and not ever come back to it once he/she reads something that turns him/her off. Unfortunately, there are people out there who just cannot resist leaving a nasty comment every so often just because. Then, they repeatedly come back to the blog to see if the comment has triggered a response. That's just sad.

This blog has been getting the occasional hate comment but I have been deleting them. This will be the only response I will ever give with regards to such comments. I will continue deleting nasty comments without acknowledging them.

So, take a hike Anonymous.

Eid Update

After 2 years of spending Eid away from my family, I flew home on the eve of Eid to celebrate Eid at home.
I can't say that I've enjoyed it much or that it was definitely better than Eid with friends but I am thankful for the opportunity to spend Eid with my family.

I've semi dislocated (?) my (TMJ) jaw and now the left side of my face is swollen. I vomitted twice and my camera decided that it didn't like any of the 147 pictures I've taken on Eid and deleted them all.

This year, I fasted for 20 days, that's 7 less than the number of days my 6 year old cousin fasted. It just isn't the same not being able to fast for the full month.

How was your Eid?

#1 On the Stupid Things I Have Ever Done List

$400 spent for a ticket to nowhere.

I kid you not.

I tried to cancel and get a refund but apparently, the No Refund policy was in the Terms & Agreement list that I did not read. I happily checked the box. I told the customer service officer straight up that NOBODY ever reads those things and he just laughed and said there was nothing he could do about it.

I hate fine prints, I hate hidden conditions, I hate pop up Terms & Agreement windows that I close without reading.

If you don't already know, I don't feel too happy.