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.

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!

Weekend Review

I spent the long weekend doing absolutely nothing related to Uni. I caught Blind side and 3 Idiots and read House Rules by Jodi Picoult.
Blind Side was fantastic and I really enjoyed Sandra Bullock's character, right down to her accent. Having previously read about Bullock's involvement in the movie, I was pleased with the way her character had been introduced into the movie smoothly.
3 Idiots was an absolutely touching movie and the excellent subtitles ensured that nothing was lost on the mainly non-Hindi speaking audience. Even when it rained, people just got up and stood for the remainder of the movie. Nobody wanted to miss anything. I had initial doubts as to whether I would enjoy the movie but five minutes into the movie, I knew I would want to watch it a second time. Where can I find a DVD with awesome English subtitles?
House Rules was disappointing because I figured out the ending of the book before I had even read half of it. Picoult's books are getting very predictable and somehow, reaching the last quarter of the book, it seemed like she was trying to squeeze the story into a set number of pages. I don't think I will be reading this book again.

Okay, now back to nematodes, cestodes and trematodes. Go, WORMS!

@ 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

#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.

Ramadan Day 8

The title of this post misleads the reader into thinking that I have been keeping a Ramadhan Diary. I have not. I could not find a suitable title to incorporate the 2 stories that I am going to blog about. You'll see...

This afternoon, my friend and I took a drive to Mill Point to enjoy the scenery. I stepped out of the car and watched as a lady walked onto the field with her huge black dog who began running around wildly. The dog ran towards a couple and was rather aggressive. The man tried to push the dog away, as its owner called out to it, unsuccessfully. The dog then ran around again before it spotted its next target. Me.
I took a few steps back, towards my friend. If not for my friend, I would have made the not-so-wise decision of running away but I stood rooted to the spot. The dog halted to a spot next to us and leapt up to pounce on me.
I was already whimpering like a baby and the minute I felt the dog pounce on me with its paws I just started bawling. No, Im not exaggerating when I say the dog is huge.
Maybe the dog got the idea that I wasn't into playing with it so it ran away and chased after the couple again, tackling the lady from the back and causing her to fall over. She then proceeded to shout at the dog owner, asking her why she didn't have her dog on a leash.
I walked back to the car, severely traumatised and my friend decided to tell the dog owner off for being irresponsible. The dog had started chasing after all the smaller dogs and annoying the other dog owners. After my friend gave the dog owner an ultimatum, she finally leashed her dog and the other dog owners were all thanking my friend.
I dislike dogs. I am afraid of dogs. But, I am afraid of cats too. I am afraid of all animals generally. Since young, I avoided animals because I had asthma and extremely sensitive skin. Besides, all my experiences with animals (cats and dogs) were unpleasant.
I don't hate dogs. I don't think that dogs shouldn't exist. What I do know is that if you're a dog owner and you know that your dog is huge and overly friendly, you should have it on a leash, even in a non-leashed area of the park. Otherwise, get the dog some training so that you have control over it and it actually listens to you.
I am going to try my very best to stay away from Mill Point. This is the 2nd unpleasant dog experience that I've had over there.




This evening, I got invited to an iftar at a friend's place. I knew before hand that it was going to be a mixed event (duh, because the friend who invited me is a guy, classmate from uni). But, I thought that they would have separate sitting areas for guys and girls. They didn't.
I was uncomfortable at the idea of going at first because I told him that I didn't know any girls there but he called me twice to invite me so I felt obliged. Also, I called a girl that I did know and she said she would be attending. She also said that she would leave before Isha' so that both of us can proceed to the musolla in Uni for Isha' and tarawih prayers.
I was one of the first people there and boy, was it awkward! There were 3 other girls. 2 of them didn't remember me even though I had met them before and 1 of them was someone I knew but was never close to.
At maghrib, there weren't many guests so I made polite conversation with the girl that I vaguely knew. She replied to all my questions but she gave closed answers. It seemed as though I was trying too hard to keep the conversation going and clearly, she was not going to be a willing participant.
Then they all prayed Maghrib without me...After I prayed Maghrib alone, I sat in my friend's room and played with my ipod. The next time I came out, the place was a full house. Guys and girls everywhere. I was much too shy to budge in and crowd around the table to get food so my friend helped me get some. He told me that he felt bad for me because I was feeling left out so he tried his best to include me. Unfortunately, his graciousness was mistaken for something else because a guy saw my friend helping me get food and made a statement that insinuated that something more was going on between the 2 of us.
I didn't like what I heard so again, I secluded myself in the room. I did try to talk to some girls but they all had their cliques and they all knew each other. No one wants to waste time talking to the newbie.
My girl friend finally arrived but she was too busy eating and catching up with her friends. Also, she made no move at Isha' and I realised that no one was headed to the Uni for tarawih. They were all going to do tarawih together in the house after iftar.
It seemed like the guys were always trying their best to include me but the girls didn't really give a damn. Finally, I made the decision to leave and the guys were all like "Aw Nadia come on, don't go yet. Come, I'll introduce you to the girls"
And I'm like "err, yeah you guys already did that. 3 times. Noone came to talk to me."
Lesson learnt: I am NEVER going to a mixed iftar again.
I am NEVER going to any event where I don't know someone.

And I leave you with this:

When there are three of you, one should not be left out while the other two share a secret, for this will cause him grief.

HADITH OF AHMAD IBN HANBAL
On the Authority of 'Abdullah Ibn 'Umar

One long post because telstra is a jerk.

Friday

It was in the evening. I was on the phone talking to my friend in Melbourne. Then I heard someone knocking on the front door. I told my friend to stop talking and I waited for the knocks again. There weren't any. So I continued with my conversation.
But the knocks started and they became persistent and gradually moved from being classified as a 'knock' to 'banging on the door like they're trying to break it open'. What was weird was that I didn't hear anyone calling out.
I opened the door to my room to discover I was home alone!! This was where I started freaking out. I theorized that perhaps my housemate forgot her keys but then why didn't she call me? Oh yeah, I was on the phone but..if it was anyone who knew us, why didn't they call out our names?
I went back into my room and started rambling to my friend about how that was a crazy person outside my house trying to break the door down. My friend wanted me to dial 000 but I had my doubts so finally, I left my room again and called out 'Who is it?' from the 2nd floor.
A female voice answered 'Ummm...' and I said 'Yeah?' and she replied 'I think I got the wrong house...Sorry!'
I nearly fainted out of pure relief. But seriously, its just so weird how she went on banging on the door for nearly 20 minutes without ever saying anything!

Saturday

Again, knocks on the front door but this time I was not home alone. My housemate and I decided to keep really quiet. The person knocked about 5 times and then left in a white car (Yes, we peeked from my bedroom window). So after a while, my housemate decides to lock the screen door so that no one can knock on our front door when she discovered food placed at our doorstep. Weird. Noodles and soup. No note.
We decided that perhaps the same unlucky girl was still adamant that she had the right house and had mistakenly sent food to us. We didn't eat it because 1) Maybe it wasn't halal and 2) Maybe it was poisoned. Total paranoia, people.
Later on in the evening, my housemate received a text from a senior claiming responsibility for the food at the doorstep. Phew. At least we know that it was only 1 weirdo knocking on our door once.

Oh and I went to the Ramadhan expo thingy and bought some books and halal gummy bears. I haven't read any of the books but I have eaten the poor little teddies. Anyways, I got this little book with a collection of hadith inside. I think that's my favourite buy.

Sunday

I don't remember what I did.

Monday

No internet. HELLO. NO INTERNET. WHATTT?!!! We have a contract with Telstra but it is under our ex housemate's name and I have tried several times to change the name of the account holder but...yeah. Telstra cut our phone line so we didn't have a phone line and internet.

Anyways, my housemate tried to call Telstra but when the support staff asked for the name of the account holder, my housemate gave her my name as well as the ex housemate's name. The lady then asked my housemate for her name and then the lady went all like 'Sorry I cant help you because you gave me 3 names so I am suspicious and you're making me uncomfortable.'
Not her exact words but she did use 'Uncomfortable'. I really want to smack her.
Anyways, I tried my luck but I ended up talking to a damn machine for 15 minutes before I had had enough fo saying 'Yes' 'No' 'ADSL' and various other words to a machine who didn't understand what I was saying.
My housemate tried again and this time I talked. We were SOOO close to getting our complaint handled when credit on her mobile ran out.

So we were pissed and I skipped Uni so that we could head to the telstra shop in the city. Unfortunately, they didn't handle complaints but they did let us use their landline...We talked for TWO hours, and we were passed around. There was this philipino lady on the phone who was saying 'I can't access your account because it must be stored in the old system and I'm using the new system so I can't access your account. I will transfer you to the old system so that they can access your account because it is stored in the old system and I am using the new system so I can't access it'... Yes, she really did go round and round until I interrupted and said 'Yeah ok so can you just transfer us now?' Finally, they transferred me to this really nice lady who went through everything with me and handled all my requests.

Basically, Telstra has been sending the bills to the wrong address so we never got any and we didn't really realise that we hadn't paid the bills for 3 months. The problem is, when we first signed up, they managed to send the modem package to the right address but the system seems to have our old address as well as an address in Victoria. I know, they suck.
Also, they have been charging us $30 extra per month even though we were on a different plan. I managed to get $30 for 3 months and $5 for late fee credited to our account. Then we were transferred to a different department and I let my housemate talk for another hour. We were going to be charged $55 for reconnection fee and I was furious. It's not even our fault. They're the ones who cut the line DUH. So yeah, we got that charge cancelled too.

What I'm saying is that when I dial for technical support, I want to speak to a human being. I don't even care if the person has a funny accent (3's support is the best. they outsource to India and the staff are super friendly and helpful). I do not want to speak to a wonky machine who asks me stupid redundant questions and refuses to let me speak to a consultant.

Tuesday

I went to Uni. Phone line reconnected.

Wednesday

Internet reconnected. My housemate sent a long complaint to telstra and they deserve it. Before we signed up, many people said that Telstra wasn't good but we were swayed by their telemarketing skills. I am never recommending Telstra to anyone. Seriously, unless you get off on talking to a machine.


I admit I was being really aggressive and I may have come off pretty rude on the phone. But then, what do you expect when you provide poor service? You definitely won't get happy customers. Sometimes, I need to be mean to get things done.

Hijab

So, said girl in previous post decided to ask me a question this afternoon while we were walking across the field towards the dissection room.

she asked what i (or i guess, in general all hijabis) thought about muslimahs who don't wear hijab. She said that if other non muslim girls are viewed as 'cheap' or 'trashy' while wearing tight, short, revealing clothing then would a muslim girl be viewed the same way if she was without hijab?

she also asked if i was forced into wearing hijab and if not, whether i knew of anyone who had been forced to wear it.

so this was my answer: no, i dont think muslim girls without hijabs are cheap or trashy. hijab is a religious duty but, i have seen girls without hijab act better than those with hijab on. no i was not forced into hijab and yes i do know of girls who had been forced into wearing it.

i know my answer could have been alot better but this was what i said at that point in time. i could also have left out the part where i mentioned hijabis acting worse than non hijabis. duh nadia, you're supposed to be painting a good picture of hijabis but yes sometimes i say things that i regret. im sorry! ):

she seemed focussed on only one thing...girls being forced to wear hijab and i felt like she wanted to dramatize the whole hijab issue so i left my answer at that.

i hate how people try to manipulate an issue and turn people against each other. noooo, i like wearing hijab! seriously, it makes me feel safe but i know she will never understand.


also, a friend commented "Wow Nadia, i love how colorful you are today" while I was wearing black abaya, black hijab and black shoes.


i <3 my friends *ehem*

Abaya Attempt 3

So I just realised that my title in the previous blog entry had nothing to do with what I actually blogged about.

Well, this was what I wanted to say before I ran out of time. Just because I can say sentences like 'anta majnun jiddan' and 'anta ahbal' and 'ana thakiah' and other random words like 'dajajah' does not mean that I am fluent in arabic. LOL too funny.

Anyways, today will be attempt 3 at Abaya in Uni. The first time I wore it, a classmate said "Woah, impressive...is that actually a gown?!" I didn't feel like explaining so I said Yes. (:
You know what I hate about windy days? It blows your abaya INTO you, outlining every single err,...curve you have on you. Regardless of how loose your abaya is, the wind's gona do that. I bet I look like a complete idiot, trying to pull my abaya off me Lol. What would you do?

here is another observation about abaya: when I am wearing my shades, people stare more. why? is it because i am more mysterious (??!!) because they can only see my nose and mouth?

you speak arabic??

$7 left on my mobile credit. how can i survive on that much til 7th august?!

apparently lectopia is being a jerk. now i am regretting not paying attention during the last few lectures because ive got nothing to listen to again.

im still pissed about tmr's presentation because i have to learn a whole new topic about lymph drainage (which isnt even core material) to present it for 10 minutes while the rest of the class gets away with presenting topics that are core material and thus, have ample lecture notes that can help them in their preparation. im getting my revenge. im putting up horrible gory pictures of anything and everything that can go wrong with lymph drainage.

i want to buy a chair from ikea. it costs $100. my current chair gives me backaches. but $100 for a place to rest my bum on?? is it worth it?!

gosh, i wish my professor would stop putting up lecture slides with colored backgrounds. come onnnn full black background? i hate wasting ink. kills the trees. (lol? idk) its already 10 and i dont have time to fuss about it. shall just print.

shoot, its 10. i was supposed to prepare my slides for tmr.

Just Married!

Lol, no..not really though I wish it was true.


We are watching the same sun! idk...

EDIT: Tuesday Tales /Reasons why I annoy myself and you (maybe)

1. I'm absent minded. No joke about it...
I search for my mobile phone in my pockets while Im talking on my mobile.
I wonder why my glasses are not fogging up when Im eating hot soup because Ive forgotten that I dont have my glasses on.
I just missed my 1pm lecture because I totally forgot there was one in the first place.
I was looking at myself in the car's mirror and wondering why the heck I couldn't see anything clearly. I demanded that my friend turn on all the lights in the car and still I couldnt see clearly. Half an hour later, friend realises that Im wearing my freaking shades. DUH

2. I am a hoarder. I hate to throw anything that looks nice even though I have absolutely no use for it. the packaging from my microwave egg boiler? I still have it. The envelope that held the book he gave me? I still have it. The leftover wrapping paper that's too small to wrap anything? I still have it.

3. I have a way of messing things up, even when I start out with good intentions.

Foto Friday (delayed)

Something just totally ruined my whole weekend. I feel like crap, seriously. Sometimes I say things that I'm not supposed to but hey, half the time I don't know that I'm not supposed to say them. Besides, you could always have told me in a nicer way, instead of going all berserk on me like I'm suddenly an apostate. It's not fun to feel like this but whatever...

Here are some pictures I took recently:

I made this for my best friend. It's actually something to massage with.

Freo at night.

Mr. Teddy goes out for a drive, if you can see him.

Lipton's Optical illusion. The question is How many legs does the elephant have?


Jamal, my baby camel.


Me, at Freo after Ice Age 3. I loved it, it was so cute.
A really huge ship at Freo.