Angie and Marcel :)

They are a lovely and nice couple . And these are some of their pictures that i stole from angie's site , forgive me dear :)

Marcel was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2006 and he recovered from it. Unfortunately, he relapced and the disease is back and their journey is back. A journey i am sure will be tough but they will go through with love and support from each other ,their lovely son and everyone who knows them.

I have not meet angie before, but she is a regualr reader of my blog and oh how much she touched my heart and soul with her kind words, it shows me how a great and gentle soul she is and falling in love with such caring soul shows how amazing man you are.

Please pray for Marcel well being , it 's not important what your religion , just pray and wish them the best of health :)

this is angie's blog

her post about Marcel

and this is a site where she dedicated for Marcel's battle

13 year old to prison !!

After this i was dreamy and thought things might be changing at least for kids until i read the horrible news !!!!

A court in Jubail in the eastern of Saudi Arabia have sentenced a 13 years old girl , yes you read that correctly 13 , to two month in prison and 90 lashes !!!!!!!

whatever she did , she is a CHILD.

According to the newspaper, at the second semester of last year, the girl brought a mobile with a camera to the school which is forbidden at all girls schools in Saudi . The principle has seized the mobile and decided to expel the girl , allowing her to study from home . The next morning the girl came to school surprising the principle by hitting her with a cup on her head.

Yes, the girl made a mistake by breaking the rules and by hitting the principle, but are not there any other alternatives but to expel her ? . why not turn to the help of the guidance at school to solve her problems cuz apparently she has a lot of them and anger is one of them .

The newspaper talked to the principle who said " that the ruling is satisfying and she decided that the lashes should be at the school because the sentence was not meant for her defamation but discipline " . Being lashed 90 times in front of her peers is nothing but humiliating and she is not going to recover from it.

If i was responsible for Education in Saudi , the first thing i would do was to fire this stupid principle who know nothing about disciplinary but all about vengeance. And the judge who sentenced her with harsh punishments should be fired, too.

I know that kids should be faced with punishment when they do wrong and each case has its own backgrounds, but if this girl have had any trouble before she would not have been at school still. So she should be punished with something close to what she did, expel her from school for a few days is acceptable for breaking the laws of the schools. But for a judge to sentence that, it means that the principle has filed charges against her for hitting her and i know that it's her right, and i don't think that she knows any thing about the role of educator , does she know what would happen to her now being sent to juveniles !!! taking her away from her home and her mother, spending too much time with older girls who would taught her bad stuff !!! .

That 13 year old child will be no longer a child the moment this crime is done with her.

Is it the end for child marriages in Saudi Arabia ?

(scary picture, is not it ?)

For years that what has been happening in here, young girls at the age of 17 and younger - 9 sometimes- are forced to marry old men, some of them are 60 or 80 years old. The society back then took that as a normal thing, most claims that this is an Islamic thing like the time when the prophet married Aisha when she was 9 -or 12 as some claim-.

Anyhow, things seems to be changing lately here in the good way and mothers appear to have their voices heard everywhere to stop their greedy husbands from forcing their young girls to marry at that tender age to old men . Fathers claimed to do so to protect their daughters, some are honest and confess that it's because they were offered huge amount of money.

Lots of people still believe that girls are shame and could bring trouble to their family so to get rid of them is the easiest thing to do, it won't be their problems but the husband's.

Lately an 80 year old man married a 12 year old child , the sheik who approved the marriage say that there are " no clear law against the marriage of any girl younger than 18 " , and that he

" talked to the girl , asking for her approval and that she said yes " , so if a 12 year old said she wanted to kill herself or take drugs we just accept saying that she is mature enough to decide !!!

The husband said that what he did was "legal and was not against the Islamic law" .

Thanks to the mother ,who went to court to revoke the marriage, now the Ministry of Justice is involved . Sources saying that there might be a trail for the shikh and the father and that the marriage might be stopped.

Could this be the end for such horrible marriages ?? Are we going to have a law against minor marriages ??

Racism in Saudi Arabia

Again thanx to Abu Sinan for inspiring me to write this post about racism. the comment was made in this post and made me think about a problem that we (Saudis , Arabs and Muslims) usually accuse other of but never admit of having.

Let me start with my own country . Yes , we have a huge percent of racist here and their target differ from non-Arab to Arab to Saudi themselves. i know for a fact that it's not easy to be a non-Saudi here, people will look down on you thinking that you are mainly here to take our money from those Saudis who deserve it. If you are a non-Arab and coming from a third world country then you are filthy and stupid, we treat them the worst. If you are a non-Arab but coming from the west, American or European for example, then you are bad but at least smart, you have no morals cuz you are not a Muslim. If you happen to be an Arab, then you are a thief and should be treated badly and that you are always guilty of thinking badly of us. Muslims are not better cuz they have the wrong kind of Islam and we are the best, they all should follow our own interpretation of Islam or they will be doomed.

It's not easier between Saudis themselves. There are the Shia who are a non-Saudi and should be sent to Iran. There are the different parts of the kingdom where everyone claims theirs is the best and the rest are either not civilized or not religious enough.

The normal word for a black is "slave" or "Zebra" . And if a white woman is married to a black then he should be thankful his whole life for that, he shouldn't be mean to her not cuz it's wrong but cuz he wouldn't be dreaming of him marring the white lady.

Most of Saudi Arabia are tribes, so if you don't belong to one, you are called a non-Saudi. the worst case is when your father is a tribal and when your mother is not -such is the case in our house-so what do you do? whom should you belong to, cuz you have to curse the other side.

Racism is spreading all over the Arab world especially among non-Arab from the third world countries and blacks. Where are the Arabs from the Darfur problem? . Lots of Arabs don't like Saudis and even online i was faced by such rejection for being a Saudi without even waiting for me to explain myself.

I don't know is it because we don't like the Arabs so they don't like us or it is they don't like us so we don't like them back. who started this dilemma??

It's not like the whole Arab and Saudis are racist and there are not an exact number of that. But we keep blaming others calling them racist and close our eyes of what is happening in our homes. pointing a finger towards them and can not see their own fingers pointing at us.

It's a huge problem but how can one change that when inside of you there are a small racist?? should the law get involved in such things and hope that one day in the long future things will change ??

Movies should come with a warning !!

Why ? cuz some will remind you with the horror in your life, with the pain and agony.

Yesterday, i watched the movie "brothers", a very normal movie which i insisted on completing, not knowing that the pain will be at the end.

The last 15 minutes of it was all our-my family- life happening all over again but this time you are having an out of the body experience . It was not the same reasons as the movie, but the same action. The screaming, breaking things, yelling as loud as you can and threatening of a drunken brother. And the rest of us will be there afraid, laying in bed, crying. While some can run, some might caught and an attempt on their life is done. In our present day you may think nothing was going to happen, but then you would not know if a drunken brother would really do it and stab you !!!. And when you have the chance to run, you just can't , you are frozen.

i used to wonder why people scream and afraid if they are threaten with being killed ?. I used to say ,so what if it's the end of your life then you are going to die but if it's not, you won't.

Until that day, about 12 years ago, when that knife was in my face and he said it. You will die if that key doesn't fit in the locker ?? what shall i do, i started trying them one by one but when i was left with only one key, i just froze and refused to try it, i was not courage , i was afraid and crying and wondering what if ?? .

I wonder why can not we have some button in our brain where we can just press and all is gone and wouldn't be there waiting for a movie or anything to flood all over again !!!

I will always hate this movie for reminding me of the many years of horror and pain.

Amreeka, it sukcs...so what? every place sucks.

The title is a line from the very beautiful " Amreeka" , the movie is about the life of a Palestinian woman who left to America ,or Amreeka as the Arab usually calls ,it with her teenager son at the time of the American invading to Iraq. It chronicles her live there with her sister , her sister's family and the barriers they face from language , different culture , finding jobs and the racism.
The movie, also, shows the beautiful face of many American who are willing to help strangers and make their lives easier :)


The movie reminds me of my post about the ( 6 girls who decided to runaway) and finding happiness . It's very tough decision to make to uproot your whole life and move to another different place but sometimes it's worth it.


If you have the time to watch it, then don't stop. it's worth it.


The movie end with the amazing song "passport " or "جواز السفر" in Arabic by Marcel Khalifa. It's one of the most beautiful poems of the Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish, and here are the poem in Arabic and English

جواز السفر

محمود درويش

لم يعرفوني في الظلال التي

تمتصُّ لوني في جواز السفرْ

وكان جرحي عندهم معرضاً

لسائح يعشق جمع الصور

لم يعرفوني، آه... لا تتركي

كفي بلا شمسٍ،

لأن الشجر

يعرفني...

تعرفني كل أغاني المطر

لا تتركيني شاحباً كالقمر!

كلُّ العصافير التي لاحقتْ

كفى على باب المطار البعيد

كل حقول القمح،

كل السجونِ،

كل القبور البيض

كل الحدودِ،

كل المناديل التي لوَحتْ،

كل العيونِ

كانت معي، لكنهم

قد أسقطوها من جواز السفر!

عارٍ من الاسم، من الانتماء ْ؟

في تربة ربَّيتها باليدينْ؟

أيوب صاح اليوم ملء السماء:

لا تجعلوني عبرة مرتين!

يا سادتي! يا سادتي الأنبياء

لا تسألوا الأشجار عن اسمها

لا تسألوا الوديان عن أُمها

من جبهتي ينشق سيف الضياء

ومن يدي ينبع ماء النهر

كل قلوب الناس... جنسيتي

فلتسقطوا عني جواز السفر!

Passport

They did not recognize me in the shadows

That suck away my color in this Passport

And to them my wound was an exhibit

For a tourist Who loves to collect photographs

They did not recognize me,

Ah . . . Don’t leave

The palm of my hand without the sun

Because the trees recognize me

Don’t leave me pale like the moon

All the birds that followed my palm

To the door of the distant airport

All the wheatfields

All the prisons

All the white tombstones

All the barbed Boundaries

All the waving handkerchiefs

All the eyes

were with me,

But they dropped them from my passport

Stripped of my name and identity?

On soil I nourished with my own hands?

Today Job cried out

Filling the sky:

Don’t make and example of me again!

Oh, gentlemen, Prophets,

Don’t ask the trees for their names

Don’t ask the valleys who their mother is

From my forehead bursts the sward of light

And from my hand springs the water of the river

All the hearts of the people are my identity

So take away my passport!

The trailer of the movie

and Marcel's song

Help Haiti

It's feared that the number of dead will reach 100000 !!! One person is too much let alone this huge number. These are the updates from the CNN

And this is a video from the CNN about the Earthquake ,

And that's all so you can help if you can please , in anyway you can, these are thousands of organization to help and one of them is the World Food Program Help Haiti .

The time when 6 girls decided to runaway

This was inspired by Abu Sinan's comment on my mother's story. This a true story.

They were 6 girls, in their junior high school, some were fed up with their lives, some wanted to be free, some just wanted the adventure of it. Five of them were at the same school, the sixth one ( the youngest of them) was in a different school, she wanted to leave because life was so tough and she fed up with her life, she already had tried to kill herself before, nothing serious but the attempt was there. Her cousin was one of the 5 girls and since it's not easy for girls to meet outside their schools at that time in Saudi Arabia, the cousin was the link. One of the 5 girls claimed to have known people who would smuggle all the girls outside Saudi Arabia and that they wanted nothing, just help. And they were naive enough to believe that.
Later on, two girls dropped out. and only four remained. The lonely girl, cuz she was lonely, have high hopes and dreams of a better future ,happiness ,love and great things.
Later that year,their plans failed and no one knew how or why , but it did. And from the six girls only 3 still know each other.
They have different lives now but are not very happy, one still struggles with marriages and divorces and unemployment. As for the two cousins, they are both teachers who never liked each other very much, one has lots of deep issues and quit her job . The younger cousin (the lonely one in a different school who wanted to get rid of her life here) , held that idea for a very long time and planned everything well enough to work but things still won't happen !!!
Sh is still struggling with life and intending to get through it -inshallah- and to make the best of everything. She knows for sure now that happiness is not located in one place or city or country, happiness is her attitude towards life . She can make it good , or at least not lose it.

I am glad that we didn't make it 20 years ago :)

No for Discrimination Against Aids Patients in Saudi Arabia

( The picture above is for a 12 years old girl aids patients who was covering her face with a mask during her speech in the first conference for the organization last year. )

Up until 2008, there were 13926 aids patients in Saudi Arabia . In 2009, 1274 has been added to the previous number.

On Wednesday , a workshop was held by a Saudi organization for aids asked the media to spread the message of " No for Discrimination Against Aids Patients" .

I know for a fact that lots of people here still think that being an aids patients is your fault, and that you must have got it through sexual relationship. A few people know the difference between Aids and HIV. A lot of aids patients are being stained with shame and people look down on them. We really need to spread the word for a better knowledge of the disease and stop the discrimination against aids patients.

The problem happens in the whole society. when the First and only Saudi organization for aids started its work, it was faced by ignoring from almost everyone thus it has no financial resources, society feared that acknowledging the organization is the first step to accept the existing of AIDS in Saudi Arabia, mostly because it is still believed that the cause of it is sexual relationships.

Religious leaders also denounce the organization saying that it is working in a westerns manner by accepting illegal sexual relationships and asking for money to help with its consequence.

The first aids case has been discovered in Saudi Arabia was in 1984. That's a long time for the society to accept and help Aids patients.

If You are Interested in Hate Speeches, Listen to This

On the 5th of January 2010 and while people are still happy about the new year, a Saudi sheik decided that it's time to spread some hate, how sweet of him.

He is one of the famous sheiks and people really look up to him and follow his words, his name is Al-Erefi. In his Friday prayer speech, he talked about the Shia' . Claiming that they have killed the Sunni people of Iraq. That they have distorted the religion of Islam, that they are not Muslims and that they are helping the enemy of Islam . Most of his speech are against Iran.

Well, if you know Arabic and interested in disturbing your day with his hate speech, click here

I had to listen to it and waste 30 minutes on that and i wonder: claiming that the Shia are killing the Sunni in Iraq !! where were his concern when Saddam killed Iraqis, Shia and Sunni ?.

Telling stories of things happened hundreds and thousands of years !!, who says that all historians are honest beside didn't he know that history is written by the winner !! .

Talking about the crimes the Shia do ,what about those Sunni Saudi who terrorize the country for years and still , and the Sunni terrorists terrorizing the world ?.

Claiming that they have distorted the religion and then moving to the same claim to Jews and Christians !! wow, this guy really HATE everyone.

That the Shia wanted to conquer the Kingdom from north (Iraq) ,almost east (Iran) and south (Yemen) , so it's true that we are the innocents one and that the whole world is living and breathing just to destroy us !! .

Believing that the Yemeni people are great and so , then i guess we are attacking Iran cuz the majority are Shia and not Yemen cuz the majority are not Shia !!. So if we are against Iran ( and i do believe it's a dangerous country thanx to the leaders not the people or the sect) we attack their sects instead of what they are doing like aiding people who fight against your country !! You have to defend your country in everyway you can and know, but not by attacking the religion of others !! .

Calling the things i do wrong and false just simply cuz you believe your religion or sect is better and superior !!! . Naming religious leaders of other religions and sects is the worst move and we have been ordered in Islam not to !! .

Shame on you Al-Erefi.

Lots of people have talked against this speech including Al-'Abikan ,a very important Saudi religious leader and a consultant to the king.

The whole thing is stupid ,silly and awful but the problem is that people like this are everywhere and in every religion and sects. so how can we fight this hate ??

Invictus

Last week i watched Invictus, what interests me to watch the movie most is that it's about one of my few heroes, Nelson Mandela . The movie is good, not the best movies directed by clint Eastwood though. Matt Damon was great, but Morgan Freeman didn't convince me as Nelson Mandela. Maybe because Mandela is still alive and we can easily compare and this is, i guess, one of the few movies where they don't use an actor who would resemble the real person or at least try with the makeup and so. One thing was more than amazing to me in the movie, the songs. All of them .

The movie is taking its name from the short poem by the English poet William Earnest Henley whose foot was cut at a very young age.

That still didn't stop him from successfully pass the Oxford Local Examination as a senior student in 1867 and live an active life until the age of 53. talk about his powerful spirit at that time !! . Nelson Mandela had the peom written on a scrap of paper on his prison cell while he was incarcerated.

This is his powerful poem . (Invictus means unconquered in Latin ) :-

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

New Year Theft !!

On New Year 's eve, my aunt was visiting the dentist , getting out of the doctor's office , her bag was snatched from her hand-inside it there were 3000 SR , 2 cellphones, and some dear and personal items that belong to my late grandfather- no one could catch the guys, actually no one tried to help.

At the police station , the second station because at the first they told her that that was not their area so they can not help, they brought some guys to be identified but she told them that she didn't see their faces and can not recognize any,

She report the incidents immediately so when did police men have the chance to catch them !! .

She is very sad and depressed over what happened .If you read this post then my mother's sister i mentioned there is this aunt, so the least i could do was comfort her in any way i can and since i am not good with words i bought her a cellphone which she loved . Now everyone claimed that they cellphones are stolen .lol

When my mother told me what happened, i was about to cry remembering what happened to us about three years ago, same incidents , different outcome.

About three years ago, My mother and i were leaving the bookshop when i felt a hit on my bag and it fell, i looked behind me to see what has happened and all i can see were two young kinds, about 11 years old, running on a bicycle with my bag in the hand of the one on the back.

First, i screamed and then started running after them, i looked like batman with my abaya flying behind me, but nothing was going to stop me. There were lots of people there but no one help. The kids vanished quickly and i couldn't see them , Then, i saw some kids playing nearby and was asking if they have ever seen the kids on the bicycle when a syrian man came running and told me that he is from around and that these kids are living in the poor area around there, so i left with him looking for them, i rode with him in his car - dump move since you don't know who was the man but nothing was going to stop me and turned out he was very polite and helpful - .We were looking in the area when i saw two Egyptians men and a Saudi man standing on the street with my handbag being held by the Saudi, i couldn't believe my luck and started to cry. what happened? one of the Egyptians told me that he saw the kids with the handbag and knew it must be stolen so he yelled at them telling them he was a police man, so they dumped it and ran and he gave it to the Saudi . I couldn't believe myself and opened it to check if anything was stolen but thank god nothing was taken. The Syrian guy took me back to the bookshop where my mother was waiting .I was scared for days but thank god things turned out well :)

what i hated about the whole things?

That we here, in Saudi Arabia and Saudi in general, have no knowledge of what to do in such cases, that's why i mentioned the nationality of the men who helped me, Saudi men just stood there looking at me and some were even smiling !!! have not seen a bat woman before or what ?

I hated the feeling of being a victim, hated the situations that led two children to steal- at first i hated them so much but then forgave them -.

I hated that with my shock and how quick everything happened i didn't give any of the men who helped me a reward !!!.

I hated it when someone said oh yea because Allah love you or that you are a nice lady things turn out good !! so what ? those who couldn't find their stolen things are bad !!

What i liked about the whole things?

That strangers could turn out to be your hero and that life is still good, i will always be grateful to those three men - the Syrian and the two Egyptians -.

Oh yea and police were not any helpful here, i did call them after everything happened but they didn't call me back to come identify any kids they have caught, so if i found my bag, no need to find the thieves !!

Everyone tell my aunt that it's almost impossible to find her bag and things. I guess they are right and so i told her to concentrate on forgiving them and pray for them, who knows? maybe it will help and she could end up doing something good for them when they did something bad for her.