rebellious

Color does not matter!!! We live in a free country where we have all the laws to protect us from racism or discrimination based on color. This is indeed true. The law definitely has helped us to establish equal rights in our outside world but it is unable to help us to fight the discrimination inside our home. If we take a good look around us, we'll find that every family is racist in this sense regardless of class, color and ethnicity. I generally do not write about anything unless I experience it in my own life. This recent experience has definitely made me realize that discrimination is not only an American issue, it is an issue everywhere around the world. To those people, black is the color which makes them say "Eww" she or he is so dark. It is like people cannot see beyond the color. They cannot imagine any person with a terrific personality or I should say that personality does not matter only color matters. In my culture, marrying a darker skin person means having...

I always try to find a topic from my everyday life experience. May be, this is the reason why I take so long to find a new topic to write. Sometimes, I hate to be not knowing what to write and at the same time, I am glad that I have something to write about life experience. This time, I got the idea from hubby's sweet and beautiful niece Fatima. That day, she was so worried about her dark complexion. So, she asked her uncle, "Mama(uncle), how can I be brighter like aunty?" Hubby's reply: "There is nothing wrong with having a darker complexion." Fatima: " It is a problem. Nobody is going to marry me.(Even though she is only 10!!!)". Hubby: "Who told you that?". Fatima: "I know that. Every time you guys look for wives, you always look for the girls with the bright skin. I am not bright so no one will marry me!!!!". This conversation with little Fatima has left me stunned and hubby speechless. She has pointed out a very crucial fac...

All these days i was thinking myself, what should be the next topic for my writing about women in our culture. I could not come up with anything until recently when I visited my friend's house. My topic is hijab!!! I  know it is the same old and boring topic and everybody has already learned about it everywhere. But we still tend to miss one very important part where it says "who should we do hijab from and why?". In Bengali culture, hijab has become a symbol of culture rather than a symbol of religiousness. Almost in every household, we'll be able to see women wearing 'so called' hijab not out of religiousness but out of culture. This is true regarding all Bengali women regardless of age. These women are forced to wear hijab or even veil by their own family members. Once I asked a woman about the reason behind her wearing the full face veil. Her answer was, "my husband feels insecure about me going outside so he makes me wear a veil.". After listeni...

Today I came across this video in youtube. I was kind of surprised in a good and a bad way. Good thing was a christian woman named Nika started wearing the Muslim face veil and hijab in support of her Muslim friend who wears a full hijab. She was doing this in support and love of her muslim friend. At the end of the video Nika became very emotional when she was talking about how muslim women on veil are not even treated as a normal human being. She also mentioned that face veil should not be a barrier to be friendly to the person under the veil. In my opinion, "This is the example of true sisterhood, the true feminism where one woman stands up for the other women regardless of belief and faith." Now let's talk about the bad part!!! It was kind of astonishing to find a Muslim sister talking about the huge socialization barrier she faced when she was wearing the niqab only for five minutes!!! I was wondering where is our Muslim sisterhood. A Muslim sister should suppor...

Mothers are the most important persons of our lives. They are the source of our being in this world. This is the reason why Islam has put so much emphasis on the rights of our mothers. We all know the hadith where mothers are mentioned as the door to jannah. In Bengali culture, these mothers are not given as much respect as they deserve compared to the fathers. According to the culture, when the parents get divorced or fathers die, the custody of the children goes to the fathers and fathers' families respectively. They pretend like, mothers do not have any rights over their children. The situation is totally different in Islam. According to the shariah law, mothers get the custody of the children after the parents get divorced or the fathers' death. Moreover, Islam has made the women the rightful inheritor of the husbands' and fathers' property. Most of the time, we do not know these rulings. Even if we know, we do not care. These mistreatment regarding the children are...

A bride, a girl, a muslim girl goes to a new house with hundreds of expectations. Marriage is not only between two people but between two families. Ironically, in Bengali culture this very statement is always misunderstood. For the sake of unifying the family, we overlook the unity of the two people who just started their lives and barely know each other. With all these responsibilities, the girl totally forgets about the purpose of wedding itself. I have known so many families where the daughter-in-laws are discouraged to to spend some private time with their husbands except for the night. The end result is that they never get to have a loving relationship between them. According to our culture, this is supposed to be the epitome of an ideal muslim bride. Hold on, is it really what islam says? Has Allah (swt) made the wedding for the purpose of satisfying the in laws only. Ibrahim (As) had told his son Ismail (AS) to change his wife not because she was'nt a good daughter-in-law bu...

Every year April 14th is celebrated as the first day of the bengali new year. Ladies wear sarees or dresses of white and red color contrast. This is a tradition which celebrates the bengaali heritage in a mixed environment of men and women. Not to mention, music and dancing also accompanies. Ironically, this cultural practice basically contradicts all the tenets of islam. The worst of all is, the muslim immigrants from Bangladesh has brought that tradition with them in the USA. I am not against upholding the bengali tradition. I am against the tradition where we go against the religion and self-value. Most of us do not practice the religion religiously but practice this culture very religiously. They even go to such an extent that the ladies take their hijab off just to represent the cultural dress in public. It is also common for them to go to a mixed gender party. I am not blaming the women only for this. Men are also guilty in this. I have known so many men who go to these sort of p...

Life is perfect!!!! Wait a minute! Is my life really perfect??? This is the question i ask myself every morning I wake up ignoring the fact that I should be grateful to have my soul back in my body. I guess this the nature of the human mind is to never be contend with whatever one has. I don't know about the other people but at least I should never complain. Coming to the USA was a life changing experience for me but it was not like any other immigrant's. This experience has taken my spirituality to a new height, made religion more like a religion rather than just a cultural practice. This country has given me the freedom of choice of what I want to do with my life. I am truly grateful to the almighty who has given me the opportunity to be here. Alhamdulillah!!!!