The Proudest Brother in the World

I am always happy to be in London but this morning I am sitting at Heathrow airport waiting to fly to Bonn and feeling a bit sad. Tomorrow, God willing, my sister will graduate and receive officially her PhD. I went to her graduation ceremonies when she received her first degree and Master's but this would have by far been the best. My sister, who already possesses a plethora of academic and professional achievements, will add one more to her list. May the Almighty continue to bless her so that that list always grows. She, despite all that she has achieved, remains immensely humble and she has maintained fiercely her independence and integrity as a scholar. Her research and her work continue to be ground-breaking and of the highest intellectual levels. She is simply quite outstanding! I may not be there in body but halfway across the world, I will be smiling, the proudest brother in the world! Dr. Hajra Degia- I love the way that sounds!!!

P.S. I was able to watch it online. I admit I shed a tear as she walked and collected her scroll to the sound of loud applause and cheers.  I also saw some pics that the university and the newspapers posted online and my wife sent me the pics she took :) 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, March 6, 1927 - April 17, 2014

“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.” - Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Thank you Gabo, for sharing your literary brilliance with the rest of us.

Tony Benn- The Best PM the UK Never Had

I did History, Government and Politics, and Sociology for my A’ Levels during the years 1994-1996. History was divided into two components- Caribbean and American- as was Government and Politics- British and American.  It was during that time when reading about the 1981 election for the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party that I was introduced to Tony Benn.  I was a 17 year old who identified with leftist politics and as I did more research on him, I became a fan.  I again came across him shortly afterwards when I did a British politics course in my first year at LSE.  His outspoken statements, his criticisms of New Labour and his leadership role in the anti-war movement continued to endear him to me over the years.  Tony Benn was a man whose intellect I held in high regard and whose willingness to speak truth to power I respected a great deal.  It was with great sadness that I woke up to the news of his death this morning.  His loss is a huge one for the UK and the world, especially at a time when voices like his are rare to be heard.  He was for me the best Prime Minister the UK never had.

What Makes One a Bajan?

I was born and grew up in a working class neighbourhood in Bridgetown. I went to school with Bajans from all walks of life.  I also interacted with Bajans in rural parts when I went out with my old man on his itinerant sales job (“coolie man” as Bajans of all ethnicities refer to it).  I studied Barbadian and Caribbean History.  I know more about Barbados, its history, culture, government, politics, economy, etc. than the average Bajan.  However, to many Bajans, I am not a real Bajan because my ethnicity is Indian and added to that I am a Muslim.

When I was younger, I would be bothered by the various comments questioning my Bajanness, expressing shock at my Bajanness or insisting absolutely that I am not a Bajan.  I was a patriotic Bajan and who were these people to question my Bajanness?  One of my favourite ways to react to the ignorance displayed in these comments was to not only speak the rawest Bajan possible in my retorts but also to spice them up with a gigantic dose of Bajan “cussing”.  The shock on the faces of those who dared to question my Bajanness was always worth it.  You see, growing up in the heart of Bridgetown meant that I was exposed not only to everyday Bajan cuture like food, norms and language but also cussing and by cussing I mean cussing of the worst kind.  I was known for having a potty mouth from a young age and it has only been about two years since I severely restricted my use of colourful language, to the disbelief and relief of many.

Over the past five years though, my patriotism has increasingly waned to the extent that I find myself detached from Barbados and I no longer care whether Bajans accept me as a fellow countryman.  I have always had a global outlook but this was alongside a fierce Barbadian patriotism. Working for the government and my mostly negative experiences with this, growing older and seeing things differently have made me realise that in reality, I don’t fit in in Barbados. There is much to unpack in this disconnect I feel with the country of my birth so I won’t delve into it now and will leave it for a future blog.  Needless to say, when Bajans question my Bajanness because of how I look, it does not trouble me anymore and if I do counter, it is just to bother them as opposed to responding because I am upset.

This brings me to an incident that occurred this morning.  I am attending a training course for public sector managers this week. Each day there are different sessions with different presenters. This morning we had a session on “Diversity in the Workplace”. The “instructor” in her introduction says she will be speaking in Bajan so that everyone can understand her. Then she proceeds to look at me and ask if I will be able to understand her. Needless to say, I blew my top and let her have it, albeit without the insertion of any cuss words! I did not lose it because she questioned my Bajanness. Nope.  I lost it because it upset me that a retired senior civil servant was presenting on diversity in the workplace and had the bleeping audacity to question my Bajanness because I am not black! Then the idiot instead of recognising that what she did was wrong tried to make it seem as if I was the one who did not understand what was going on and again because I am an outsider to this group of Bajans.  I therefore decided to have some fun and on a few occasions questioned what she was saying.  I also made a point of expressing my absolute contempt for the silly personality exercises she wanted the class to partake in.  I took great satisfaction in knowing that she did not at all enjoy my challenges to her supposed expertise on the subject of the session.   

I have always relished making life difficult for teachers, presenters, trainers, religious folk, bosses and persons in authority when they make ridiculous claims and are unable to defend them.  Inevitably, they make fools of themselves because people who issue asinine pronouncements are generally the type that are incapable of offering solid arguments and hate being challenged.  They will get riled up and dig an even bigger hole for themselves when you tear their weak cases apart.  They expose themselves rather easily.  I guess I am getting old because I don’t usually do this anymore.  However, there are times like this when “hard ears” Mohammed does cahn help he self and he does gots to have some fun 😎

People like this woman occupy large swathes of the civil service, many in senior positions.  It is persons of this ilk that ensure my refusal to buy into this farce called public sector reform.   Big loud stupz! But no Rs and other such vivid words : )

New York City and Multilateral Diplomacy

I travelled to NYC on Sunday and am due to leave tomorrow.  This is a work trip so nothing much to be excited about.  Not to mention, the weather, which had been relatively well-behaved for a stretch of days before I arrived, decided to return to sub-zero levels.  I have experienced many winters, both in the UK (London and Durham) and the US (NYC), but I don’t think I will ever become acclimatised to cold weather.  I am a mild weather person.  I love spring and autumn and am not a fan of extreme summer heat.

I have been back a few times to NYC since leaving the last day of December 2009 but this was the first time I had returned to go to a meeting at the UN.  It was like déjà vu.  The UN may have undergone some physical changes but substantively it remains the bureaucratic talk shop it has always been.  It was a painful few days.

On a positive note, it was nice to see some old colleagues, eat some food that I don’t have access to in Barbados and be able to purchase a few items that are either unavailable in Barbados or priced exorbitantly.

Of Fads, Followers and Moringa

A lot of people are inherently shallow.  They buy into the latest fad with utmost ease, spending freely and acting as if the newest craze is the best discovery in the history of man.  Of course, issues of suitability, cost, consequences, etc. are rarely considered.  We see evidence of this mostly in fashion (clothes, hairstyles, make up, beauty products) but it also extends to foods, diets, exercise and entertainment choices.  Something that is particularly noticeable now is the manner in which the “new craze” phenomenon has successfully cut across the exercise/food/diet sectors.  From quinoa and Brazilian drink to Zumba and the Atkins diet, people have embraced what corporations and clever marketing gimmicks have sold them.

Barbadians are enthusiastic about any new fad that emerges whether it is a diet, an exercise programme, a hairstyle or a fashion.  What is ironic is that Barbadians are generally conservative when it comes to change and are resistant to anything outside of their comfort zone.  It is almost as if they reject anything different unless it is superficial, dangerous or ridiculous.  One therefore finds that weaves, fake eyelashes, fake nails, ugly chemical laden make up, processed foods, fast foods, hairstyles like the Mohawk, unhealthy diet fads and SUVS and other large vehicles are all embraced.  Last year I popped into a popular beauty product store with my wife who had been told that a specific natural hair product was sold there.  I saw half of an aisle filled with skin lightening creams.  Unsurprisingly, the store is owned by non-blacks, in this case Arabs.  I would not be in the least bit surprised if the skin lightening self-hate trend catches on here very soon.  It is after all very popular in Jamaica and Jamaican dancehall music is a favourite of a large section of the Barbadian populace.

Which brings me to Moringa.  Moringa is the new craze in Barbados.  Almost everyone you speak to is touting the health benefits of the Moringa.  People are spending large sums of money to purchase different parts of the Moringa tree, Moringa products and on seedlings to grow.  The demand for Moringa has even led to the increasing problem of theft of Moringa plants!

The Moringa or Hikta nee Heeng as we called it when we were growing up was not well known in Barbados.  There were 2-3 trees and the Gujaratis would take the pods to cook and eat.  I therefore grew up eating Moringa.  I remember Barbadians would scorn us and many would say that the Indians did “baku” or obeah with the Moringa.  So it is rather ironic that this same tree is now touted as a savior because some American or European has said so.  I actually find it annoying when people who I know are the type that would have turned their noses up at us for eating Moringa now come sermonising about the tree as if we know nothing about it.

I guess one can argue as one of my sister’s Hanifa does, that the best thing about this latest trend to be adopted by Bajans is that there will soon be an abundance of Moringa plants around the place that no one wants and which we can take advantage of.

A Passion for Imparting Knowledge

I wrote about the wife taking one of my sister’s cooking classes in a previous entry.  All of my sisters are excellent cooks.  I like to think that I am also.  My mom was amazing in the kitchen and I believe we all inherited that from her.  My sister has been able to take that talent to another level through her unique idea to teach Indian cooking classes.  Her classes have proved to be very popular and having attended quite a few to take photos for her, it is clear that one of the main reasons is her ability to teach a complex subject quite easily to people unfamiliar with it.  I remember my mother demonstrating her techniques and passing on various tips to us and I am reminded of her when my sister does the same thing while teaching her cooking class.  A lot of it also has to do with passion for the topic at hand.  I think people who are teaching a subject they care deeply about, who possess significant expertise in it and who are able to connect with their students do a much better job in conveying knowledge.  Students in such an environment are much more willing to learn and feel much more satisfied.   I have seen my sister Hajra, who has been teaching for thirteen years, lecture to a class and she is similar to Hanifa not only in mannerisms but in her passion for the subject.  She has a comprehensive grasp of what she teaches, is an expert in the field, is able to relate to her students and extracts the best out of them.  This love for teaching seems to run in our family because another sister of mine loves teaching young children and she had taken a course in early childhood development although she did not pursue teaching as a career.  I love standing in front of a class, speaking about a topic I am passionate about and engaging in discussions with students.  I can see myself doing this permanently at a university at some point in the future.  I think that this desire to pass on knowledge stems from our mother and the way she would always relate secular and religious stories to us, teach us prayers and interact with us while she cooked.

The “About Me” section of Mircha’s facebook page speaks about the influence of my mom’s culinary skills and teaching on Hanifa’s cooking.  I have cut and pasted it below:

"Hanifa Nakhuda is an Indo-Barbadian cook with deeply embedded roots in traditional Indian cuisine. Born in Barbados to parents of Gujarati Indian origin, she learnt how to cook Gujarati food at a young age at the feet of her mother, Hawwa Degia.

Hawwa, an extraordinary cook, would have polished her culinary skills in her village of Kaphletha before moving to Barbados. In a Barbados of the late 1960s/early 1970s, she was faced with constraints in locating certain spices and ingredients, leading her to develop the art of improvisation. As her children grew older and demanded Barbadian and Western food, she began to experiment with those cuisines as well as fuse Indian and Western cooking. The increasing number of Gujarati immigrants in the late 1970s and early 1980s was accompanied by a more expansive availability of Indian spices. Therefore, Hawwa took advantage of this to showcase fully her talent in cooking a wide array of Indian dishes and desserts.

It was no wonder that growing up in this type of environment, Hanifa and her siblings emerged as master cooks in their own right. Hanifa began cooking Indian, Bajan and various Indo-Bajan fusion dishes for her immediate family before graduating to extended family, friends, neighbours and colleagues. Widespread encouragement from family and friends to take her skills to another level led her to enter a few local cooking competitions all of which she won. She also started a small catering business, focusing on authentic Gujarati food. Her burgeoning popularity resulted in her being asked to fill a serious dearth that existed in Barbados- the teaching of authentic Indian cuisine to Barbadians. Her cooking courses proved to be an immediate hit with classes being constantly oversubscribed.

Hanifa’s latest venture, Mircha, is aimed at bringing her expertise and experience as the standard-bearer of Indian cuisine in Barbados to a wider cross-section of Barbadian society."

A Special Barbadian Woman - Haajima (Hajra) Degia

I mentioned my sister Haajima (Hajra) Degia a few days ago in an entry on World Hijab Day.  Barbados Faces, an online magazine that highlights Barbadian women, did a feature on her recently.  The article focuses on the severe obstacles she faced and overcame in her quest to live a life outside of the norms of her Gujarati community and the significant achievements, academic and professional, that she has attained with the help of the Almighty.

I had penned a much longer entry that delves into the internal dynamics of the Gujarati community but decided to save it for another entry in the future.  The entry is hard hitting and I know that Gujaratis here would find it offensive.  Of course, what they feel or think is of no concern to me but I decided that it would be best to leave this mention of the Barbados Faces article as a standalone and present my commentary on Gujaratis in Barbados later.  You can therefore look out for that at some point soon.

Stuart Hall, February 3, 1932 - February 10, 2014

I first came across the name Stuart Hall when I did A Level Sociology.  Reading him at age 16/17 was somewhat challenging but the manner in which he contextualised colonialism, race, politics, identity and British society, all with a leftist slant, made a lasting impression.  I did not study Hall’s work closely as an undergraduate but over the years I would see mentions of his name periodically in the media and while I was unable to read his work in depth I did manage to peruse some chapters and articles from time to time.

When I was doing my Masters in 2011/2012, I took some courses that were inter-disciplinary in nature and which provided me with the opportunity to revisit some of Hall’s work as well as study some which I had not been exposed to.  Reading Hall at the age of 34 allowed me to recognise how important his nuanced thinking on issues of race, identity, media, culture and society as a whole had been in shaping my own ideas.  As a teenager wrestling with issues of marginalisation and identity, I tended to see a world of neat linear divisions functioning solely in the interests of power and with the masses possessing no agency at all.  Economic determinism was central to my world view at that point   Of course, as Hall demonstrated, while the forces of neo-liberalism do wield significant power which is reinforced by the output of a media allied to them, the economy alone is insufficient in explaining how society functions.

I started my Masters with eleven years of diplomacy behind me, eleven years of my brain being dulled by the Foreign Service.  It is difficult to describe the sort of intellectual stimulation I felt and the intellectual liberty I experienced in my one year sabbatical.  Stuart Hall’s writings, although a small part of the vast amount of academic reading I did in one year, are for some reason associated indelibly with my year in Durham.  I had a very good friend when I was there who did a paper on Hall and who formed a close bond with Hall through his work.  When I emailed him to inform him of Hall’s death he spoke about this bond and how affected he was by Hall’s death.  Hall had that ability to resonate with you because he so ably described the dynamics of our lives.  

This morning when I read about his death, it occurred to me that whenever I think of West Indians who have made their mark in the UK, the first name that comes to mind is not a Trevor McDonald, a John Barnes, a George Lamming, a Gus Young, a C.L.R.James or a Darcus Howe.  It is always Stuart Hall.

The following are some articles which pay tribute to Hall:

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Mosheera and Mircha

My wife is a Southern girl- Charleston, South Carolina to be exact.  Her mom is Egyptian so her culinary skills are diverse.  It has been a constant battle with my weight since I got married! I love to cook and cooking was my way of relaxing when I was a single man.  However my wife also likes to cook and as far as she is concerned, the kitchen is hers.  The most cooking I have done in the past five years was a six month period during the time I was studying for a year in Durham and she was in Charleston and Cairo.  Once she joined me in Durham, she took over cooking duties!

The wife has always been envious of my ability to cook mouth-watering Indian dishes.  She finally decided that the best way to deal with it was to learn to cook Indian food. However, not just learn to cook, but to learn from the best- one of my sisters.  I learnt to cook Indian food from watching my mother, who was an excellent cook, and from my sisters.  One of my sisters runs a Gujarati Indian cooking class and at the beginning of this year, she started a set of classes at her new location.  The wife was first in line to register!

The wife has so far cooked two of the dishes she was taught in class.  I have to admit that they were delicious and I wanted to eat the entire pot of food at one sitting!  This is testament not only to her culinary prowess but also to the excellent teacher she has!

If you want to learn to cook authentic Indian cuisine, then Mircha is where you need to go.  Check out their Facebook page and contact my sister Hanifa Nakhuda.  She offers eight week sessions with classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  The next two sessions are February 18 – April 8, 2014 (Tuesdays) and March 12 – April 30, 2014 (Wednesdays).  In addition, she also conducts half-day workshops on Saturdays as well as personalised classes for individuals and small groups. 

Of Kids, Lambs and Childhood Memories

My brother-in-law has a few black belly sheep and lambs.  A ewe give birth to two lambs a few days last week but rejected one of them.  My nephews and niece have been playing mom and feeding him with a baby bottle.  They have named the lamb “Milky”.  Needless to say, Milky has become quite attached to them and acts more like a puppy than a lamb.  He tries constantly to come inside the house and prefers their company over that of the other lambs.  He seems to think he is human!

I finally got a chance to visit Milky over the past weekend and when I got there it was his feeding time.  What a greedy little lamb! He devoured a bottle of milk in a few seconds.  He is so adorable and I was reminded of a kid I had when I was a little boy.  I had always liked sheep and goats and of course even more so lambs and kids.  When I was growing up, the only way to obtain Halal mutton and chicken was to do the slaughtering yourself.  There was one family who sold Halal beef so my mom would get her beef from them.  I therefore grew up seeing sheep and chickens being slaughtered on a routine basis.  Gujaratis however do not eat goat so we had never had reason to purchase any.  I persuaded my old man to get a kid from this man who raised goats.  He was so cute and delightful and he would come in the house and act like he was a pet, which in essence he was. I raised him till he became a huge goat with large horns.  However, not only was he huge, but he was also very aggressive and no one could approach him except me.  Tired of his butting everyone who went near him, my parents decided it was time for him to go.  One day, I came home from Islamic school- it was school vacation so Islamic school was held in the mornings- and there was no goat. I threw a fit!  My old man had gotten his friend who lived in the next street to come and kill the goat.  He could not bear to do it himself.  It took me many years to forgive them for that and I refused to eat any lamb for fear that it may be actually be goat disguised as lamb. 

Cricketing Malaise is a Reflection of Society

Barbados cricket has been in shambles for many years now.  As far as I am concerned it is because cricket administration in Barbados is simply an “old boys’ network” where a certain few ensure they benefit even if this means that the actual standards on the field of play are poor.  Admittedly, many of the cricketers also shoulder some responsibility because of their poor attitudes, indiscipline and mental weakness.  However, these traits are not limited solely to cricketers but are symptomatic of a societal wide decay that has seemingly been nurtured across the Caribbean.  Moreover, the cricketing old boys’ network is also a reflection of the way the Caribbean functions at all levels to its detriment.  Hence what we have is not a cricketing crisis but a societal crisis.  Call me pessimistic, but in the same way that I hold out little hope for our region, I hold out very little hope for our cricket.  I cannot envision positive change because a certain few benefit from a broken governance system and they have no intention of allowing it to be fixed.  The education system, almost in a conspiratorial manner, churns out sheep who buy into the myth sold to them that “everything is all right”.  Even if they envision change, it is within the parameters of the existing societal structure.  This in effect entails switching periodically between the two-three dominant institutions that are part and parcel of the “old boys’ network”, i.e., recycling failure.  Any attempts to alter the underlying structures that perpetuate this malaise, whether in cricket or in the socio-economic/political sphere, are vehemently resisted.    

This brings me to the latest saga surrounding Kirk Edwards.  Edwards is not a classically talented cricketer but appears to be determined, hard working and disciplined.  In other words, he possesses characteristics that are absent from most present-day West Indian cricketers.  He was captain of the Barbados team last year and led the team to the first-class championship after a lean period for the former giants of Caribbean cricket.  Edwards was vice-captain of the West Indies “A” team on its recent tour to India where he received praise for his performance and won back his place on the West Indies side for the tour to New Zealand.  His last innings was a century for the West Indies against New Zealand and this was in a form of the game which many believe he is not suited for- one day internationals.  How does Barbados reward Edwards?  They sack him from the captaincy and insist on not offering any explanation for their action.  They did not even have the decency to speak directly to Edwards about their plan to relieve him of the captaincy.  He learnt from family and friends that he had been sacked.  The Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) announced two new captains, Kevin Stoute for the one day side and Kraigg Brathwaite for the four day side.  Stoute has never been able to command a place in the Barbados team but has now been elevated to the captaincy.  It is a situation that anyone with a modicum of common sense will compare to Darren Sammy’s appointment as West Indies captain and the widely held belief by many Caribbean cricket fans that this was done because he was seen as easy to control by the administration.  Brathwaite’s case is an injustice to a young man who should be concentrating on developing himself as a batsman as opposed to captaining a team of players, the majority of whom are older than him.  In a quest for total control, everything cricket is sacrificed.

So where was the Bajan media in all of this? They behaved as if nothing was wrong.  The media simply reported that there would be two new captains.   No real questions were asked of the BCA about why there was a captaincy replacement.  Barbados Today made an attempt but it was feeble in my opinion.  Of course, one cannot expect any better from a media whose job it is to reinforce the established order in Bimshire.

The Kirk Edwards saga did not end there however.  Over the weekend, Edwards was expelled from the team which is in Trinidad for the Nagico Super50 tournament.   There had been a disagreement surrounding Edward’s refusal to sign for a team kit which he believed to be inferior.  Each player is given two outfits which must last for two years.  The costs for replacements have to be borne by the player and they are required to sign an agreement in this regard.  What an absurd policy!  How can any sane person expect two uniforms to last a player on a sports team two months furthermore two years? Unless of course, the BCA is asking the players not to dive or slide while fielding, not to rub the ball on their trousers and not to perspire!  Edwards had not signed the agreement in the previous two years but no action was taken against him.  When he refused to do it this year, the manager acted in a heavy-handed manner.  Despite a compromise solution proposed by the West Indies Players Association (WIPA), the Barbados manager would not accept anything but Edwards’ total conformity.  When one reads the details of the situation, it is clear that management was being petty and idiotic.  WIPA has issued a detailed statement about the matter which makes for an interesting read and highlights how ridiculous management’s position is.  Edwards, who is usually media shy, has also spoken about the incident. 

The entire fiasco is the norm that pertains in our cricket and our society:  total lack of transparency, poor man management, punishment for individuals whose views differ from those of the establishment, promotion and reward for the mediocre and incompetent because they toe the line, pettiness, lack of accountability.  I wish Edward’s all the best and hope he continues to hold true to his principles.  We have enough yes men around.  It is refreshing that he is willing to stand up to the status quo!

Showcasing a Barbadian Muslimah

I wanted to follow up on my post from yesterday.  My contention is that we must go beyond discourses on Muslim women which focus solely on them as a Hijab wearing object.  Why can't we talk about a Muslim woman and what she has achieved, especially when she is operating in an environment that seeks to objectify her?

This is an example of what I am speaking of- Haajima (Hajra) Degia is a highly accomplished Barbadian Muslimah. She took the courageous decision back in 1992 to attend Barbados Community College wearing a hijab. This was at a time when not only did Muslim girls in Barbados stop going to school at a young age but also rarely covered their hair.  Since then she has proceeded to scale great heights, academically and professionally, all while fulfilling Allah’s command to cover appropriately.  She wears a Hijab but she is not defined by it.  She is defined by much more- her accomplishments, her career, her family, her studies.

World Hijab Day

Today is World Hijab Day.  It was founded by a Bangladeshi American, Nazma Khan, and is now quite popular around the world.  Ms. Khan developed the idea to promote an understanding of the experience of women who wear hijab.  One of the major aspects of the day is to encourage non-Muslim women and Muslim women who do not wear a hijab to do so for one day. 

While I understand the reasons behind what Ms. Khan is doing, I have been feeling some discomfort with respect to what appears to be an inconsistency about what the organisers are seeking to achieve. 

For centuries, a significant aspect of the Western world’s discourse on Islam and Muslim women has centred on the dress of female Muslims.   This discourse has sought mainly to portray Muslim female dress in a negative light and as a symbol of their oppression.  Muslim women are what they wear, full stop.  There is no consideration of any other aspect of a Muslim woman, whether it is her career, her studies, her social life, her dreams, her aspirations, her volunteer work or her struggles.  If there is any mention of any of these facets, the hijab inevitably finds a way into the discussion and within the prism of a constraint. 

In placing the central focus on the hijab, are we not reducing Muslim women to their external beings in the same manner that the Western world does?  In trying to draw awareness of hijab, Muslim women are again being defined simply by their wearing of the hijab as if this is the only feature of a Muslim woman.  We are taking the very headscarf which is used by the West to objectify Muslim women and depicting it as the essence of a Muslim woman’s existence.

My other concern has to do with validation.  I saw someone post, very proudly, a picture on facebook of a Ms. Universe donning a hijab as part of the Day.  The picture had been reposted from the World Hijab Day site.  I am sorry but what is so marvelous about a Ms. Universe donning a hijab?  Beauty pageants and all they stand for are not only demeaning to women in every way possible but are also against all that Islam stands for.  Islam and the manner in which Muslim women have been commanded by the Creator to dress require no validation and especially not from or through a Ms. Universe!  We as Muslims need to do a lot more to educate people about our religion in order to dispel the ignorant views many have of us.  However, when we attempt to demonstrate how “cool” or “acceptable” our religion is because a celebrity or public personality is seen at a mosque or wearing a head covering, we come across as craving legitimacy. 

I think that instead of concentrating solely on the hijab as a covering, the stories of the millions of Muslim women around the world who live fulfilling lives in different ways should be emphasised.  I believe a more positive way to showcase Muslim women is by sharing their life stories as individuals and members of society as opposed to just speaking about the experience of wearing a headscarf and asking people to slip one on for a day.  

Notwithstanding this, I do understand the motives of Ms. Khan and those organising events around the world.  As a Muslim, I think it is better to focus on the positives and the constructive efforts of people like Ms. Khan.  I admire her for the way in which she has managed to galvanise worldwide support for her initiative and I pray that she continues to use her skills and her tenacity in the service of Islam.  My criticisms above are not meant to be an attack but to merely raise an alternative lens through which we as Muslims can examine World Hijab Day.

A New Beginning- Sort Of

In January 2007, faced with a prolonged period home because of a serious injury, I decided to write a blog as part of my plans to keep myself occupied.  When I returned to work six months later, updating the blog proved to be an onerous task and despite my best intentions, I stopped blogging soon after.  Over the next few years I would often formulate various ideas in my mind about a blog post but when it came to actually writing, I never managed to reach that far.

It is now seven years since my first blogging experience.  The nomad in me is increasingly restless and I have decided to restart my blogging as one way of focussing my energy.  My wife (marriage is one of the many changes in my life since 2007) is of the view that my blogspot and the moniker that went with it are out-dated.  She tells me I need a fresh name and that I need to use wordpress.  Yes, she likes to boss me around!

I was sitting at my laptop trying to come up with a name that she would approve.  I made a few suggestions which she immediately dismissed.  I began to get frustrated and then suddenly a thought crossed my mind and not wanting to lose it, I blurted “how about paradoxical Iqbal”.  She expressed delight at this idea and insisted that I proceed to right away sign up for wordpress with this “name”.

I signed up for a wordpress.com blog as instructed by my wife, but the Iqbal-Wordpress relationship soured almost immediately.  I guess I went into the relationship expecting too much.  I had heard and read quite a bit about all the wonderful flexibility and customisation tools on wordpress.com.  What I was unaware of was that these are only available at a cost.  The scheme wordpress seems to be operating is to sucker people in with the attraction of hundreds of themes from which to choose.  However, after being duped into choosing one of these themes, the ability to undertake any real modifications is curtailed unless one is willing to do so at a cost.  I felt hard done because blogger, while not providing the highly sophisticated tailoring capabilities that wordpress is touted for, allows for more than adequate customisation and for no charge.  I therefore decided that I would stick with blogger!  Sorry wordpress!  This article lays out in a very clear manner the differences between blogger and wordpress and I found the guidance offered extremely useful in my decision-making process: 

So here I am.  The wife helped me with some of the features to make the blog appear aesthetically pleasing.  She is rather multi-talented unlike me and I depend heavily on her for advice/assistance in most things I do.  I have to give her credit here because if I don’t not only will advice/assistance not be forthcoming in the future, but I also face the possibility of increased physical abuse.

The blog is now up.  The difficult part -updating it on a regular basis- comes next.  I always have a million thoughts and ideas circulating in my head.  The challenge for someone whose wife strongly believes they have adult ADHD, is putting those thoughts and ideas down on paper or in this case on a screen.