Groomed for Sex

Child marriage has always been deeply rooted in Arab and Muslim countries alike. This hideous disregard to childhood innocence, obvious violation of human rights and absolute misinterpretation of fundamental Islamic teachings usually result in nothing but physical, sexual and emotional abuse and maternal mortality. For it is a well-known fact that girls between the age of 10 and 14 are more likely to be subjected to death during pregnancy/child birth more than older women.

Thousands, if not millions, of girls in these countries are forcefully compelled to marry older men. The motivations behind such degrading practice may be derived from traditional, societal or even financial backgrounds. Accordingly, these child brides are deprived of their rights in education, healthy wellbeing and ordinary childhood joys.

Young girls, mostly under 18, are not viewed as children or teenagers, but as devoted housewives and responsible mothers. This practice only dictats young girls' lives and often lead to exposing them to marital responsibilites and health hazards (mainly due to bearing children at an extremely young age) that are normally too much for them to handle.

In April, a 10-year-old Yemeni girl named Nujood Ali made it to the news agencies worldwide for her courageous attempt to file a divorce against her husband (22 years old her senior) and protested against this type of abusive marriage. Luckily, the judge decided to terminate the marriage.

In Afghanistan, things are not any better. Roshan Qasem, 11, shares Nujood's agony as she was forced to marry Said Mohammad, 55, and accordingly will join his other family soon (first wife, 3 sons and one daughter at Roshan's age).

In Saudi Arabia, though, the problem seems to take a whole new dimension of social sadism. Back in 2006, a 100-year-old man was married to a 19-year-old girl. The old man claims to be in a perfect shape due to the healthy diet he has been following for years.

Possible Solutions:

1. Educating young girls about the power of learning and knowledge and raising them to be future leaders.

2. Increasing the public awareness on the essential human rights and the dreadful, revolting outcomes of child marriage.

3. Improving both the educational and economic systems in these countries to provide young women with better opportunities and independant life styles.

Look At Me, Look At Me

Obviously, the minister of labor finds it easier to put on a waiter uniform and serves costumers in Jeddah's Fuddruckers than to actually find constructive and effective solutions to problems like low wages and increasing unemployment in the country. I guess what he does best, afterall, is urging Saudi women to work as house maids.

Still, I wonder if he bothered to spend sometime in the kitchen to make those burgers. Interesting, don't you think?

A Letter From Me

Dear Global Citizen,

I want you to know that it's ok to make mistakes sometimes. Who doesn't anyway?. However, the most important thing is that you learn from those mistakes. For I think you quite agree that it would be stupid if you keep doing the same mistake over and over again.

You must realize that mistakes are the core essence of life experiences. They are magical in ultimately modifying your behavior and work as eye-opener for you. Never ignore them, never repeat them & you'll be a much better person eventually.



Dear Global Citizen,

Yes, love can be confusing sometimes. There's the pain of love, but there's also the ability to fall in love again. It can be also hard to find. However, patience is a virtue. Don't become obsessed about it. Live your life to the fullest and the right man will certainly come anyway. Don't push yourself too hard and make hasty decisions & surely never invest your precious heart in something that will bring you nothing but pain and misery.



Dear Global Citizen,

The world is full of silly people. I'm sure you realize this by now. But you must know that you can do nothing about it. You can't change it. So just live with it. Find some peace through it. But never surround yourself with superficial people. For superficiality can be infectious, sometimes.



Dear Global Citizen,

Life can be sometimes hard & tough on you. The road might not be always smooth and easy. Obstacles will certainly appear in your way every now and then for the purpose of stopping you and preventing you from following your dreams. However, be determined, be persistent, be strong. Don't let anyone, or anything, takes total control of you. You came to this world as a free spirit and you don't want to be controlled. Keep fighting and never get intimidated by those who wish to destroy you.



Dear Global Citizen,

Value your friends. For they are the true blessing of life. You're a good friend, but surely you can be better. Work hard for the betterment of your friendships. Believe me, you don't want to blame yourself in case your frienships ties fall apart. For attempting to mend the broken glass afterwards would be hopeless.



Dear Global Citizen,

Be a good listener. Give people a chance to express themselves. Listen carefully to what they have to say. You get to learn a lot through this. Think twice before uttering a word. If you don't know what to say, then just remain silent. You don't have to bug yourself in every discussion or conversation. All in all, listen carefully, think wisely and speak beneficially.



Dear Global Citizen,

Life is a blessing. Live it to the maximum. Life moments are too precious to be wasted on silly things. Yes, you might not have everything in life, but you're certainly have much more than thousands, or billions worldwide. Be thankful, be grateful. And remember that life can end in a fraction of a second. So work hard to fulfil the reason behind your existence in this world.

You have fallen many times, but that shouldn't pull you back from accomplishing what you've always dreamed of. Keep falling, again and again. For someday you will be able to stand up.



Dear Global Citizen,

I know you're afraid of me. You don't want to talk to me. You don't want to confront me. For you know that I know you better than anyone else. But I'm here to help you understand life, overcome obstacles and keep your secrets. I don't understand why do you always rush for others to sympathize with you while I'm always here for you. Come to me, talk to me. I won't take advantage of your fraustration and will never enslave you to be under my mercy.

Take sometime for yourself and talk to me. That's not instanity. Or if you claim it is, then insanity is the best representative of human intelligence.



Dear Global Citizen,

You live in a backward, rigid collective society. Strict ideologies are forcefully imposed on you with no regard to your individual differences. Don't worry, things will change. They always do eventually. It is the cycle of life; nothing remains the same. And when that positive, constructive change takes place, I'm sure you'll be a major part of it.

You need to remember though, that complaining and whining will take you no where. So be strong and always fight back.



Dear Global Citizen,

For God's sake, stop eating chocolate. You'll either get fat or diabetic.


With all my love,
Yourself.

Her Little Shadows

I saw a young mother

With eyes full of laughter

And two little shadows

Came following after.

Wherever she moved,

They were always right there

Holding onto her skirts,

Hanging onto her chair.

Before her, behind her-

An adhesive pair.

"Don't you ever get weary

As, day after day,

Your two little tagalongs

Get in your way?

She smiled as she shook

Her pretty young head,

And I'll always remember

The words that she said

"It's good to have shadows

That run when you run,

That laugh when you're happy

And hum when you hum -

For you only have shadows

When your life's filled with sun."

~~ Author Unknown ~~

A Glimpse of Hope

Finally, the Saudi Shura Council has come to the realization of the various issues and problems that confront the Saudi working woman. According to Alriyadh Newspaper, a law is soon to be issued aiming at protecting the Saudi working women from sexual harassments and improper actions that might occur in working places (especially in those which have a mixed nature).

The law is basically created to set specific rules and punishments for its violators and accordingly create a better, much safer working environment for Saudi women. Such constructive laws that we need in order to create a better, more developed social, professional & political environments for Saudi women. Restricting the professional options for women and banning mixed working places and the ideology of segregation will not positively contribute to the development of this country. If we want to work for the ultimate progress and betterment of our homeland, then we must not limit the rule of women in certain typical areas, but we must enable them to be part of all professions & working fields (as long as it doesn't contradict the basic Islamic concepts).

I believe if this law is taken seriously and assertively applied, then this will be a remarkable step on the way of achieving women's rights in this country.

Way to Go, Jeddah

The tallest building in the world, The Mile-High Tower, is currently under construction in Jeddah. As the name suggests, the tower will be a mile in height. Apparently, the project is being planned by The Kingdom Holding Company which is based in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

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Dubai people, and you were braging about Alburj? :D

On the Way to Rehab

72%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mere Rubbish

I hopelessly stood there

My eyes fixedly staring at you

With a million thoughts on my mind

& a hope you would step over your pride

& pretend to be remorseful

Then the question crosses my mind

How can you be so rigid?

So provokingly heartless?

& simply walk away from me

Leaving me broken behind

Waiting for you to utter it

To simply say "I'm sorry,

I never meant a word of what I said

I don't hate you

I don't wish you disappear from my life"

To take me in your arms

& make me feel safe for the first time

But you're just not sorry

Not for all those harsh words you said

Nor for all those cruel things you did

That stabbed me in the heart

& left me bleeding

That awful color of hurt

You chose to be merciless

& I now choose to be careless

Forgive me, but blame me not

For I'm a human too.

I'm the Birthday Girl

Yesterday was my birthday. Not that I'm too excited about it. For my birthdays never seemed that important to me and I never celebrated them before. This post, I guess, is to make up for all those missed birthdays.

A whisper to myself:

"If you want to look young and thin, hang around old fat people"
Jim Eason