Watch this

A few days ago I went to a film screening of the CBC's documentary on the Omar Khadr case. I recommend to each of you to watch it here. It's quite astounding.

The Ballerina from Iceland

Today I got one of those guys adding me to MSN randomly. So, before I blocked him, I decided to have a little fun...

Shoaib says: ok my name is shoaib
Asmaa says: wonderful
Shoaib says: from where u r
Asmaa says: I'm from Iceland
Shoaib says: nice place
Asmaa says: it is. cold and a bit ugly. but it's my home
Shoaib says: r u muslim
Asmaa says: i'm muslim, yes
Shoaib says: me too
Asmaa says: wow we have so much in common. lolz
Shoaib says: ur age
Asmaa says: i'm 15
Shoaib says: i am 26
Asmaa says: eww that's so old
Shoaib says: can i see u?
Asmaa says: can you see me? I don't know. sure, come to iceland
Asmaa says: where are you from?
Shoaib says: The one and only pakistan
Asmaa says: cool that's my favourite country. all the power outages...so romantic
Shoaib says: i like this name asma
Shoaib says: tell me about ur family
Asmaa says: I have 9 brothers, and 2 half-sisters.
Asmaa says: and we live in a little village on this mountain here in iceland
Asmaa says: i'm lucky to have internet today, usually we don't get signal up here.
Shoaib says: amazing
Asmaa says: yeah, it's really cool. i want to be a ballerina when i grow up, too
Shoaib says: join me for friend ship? chat daily
Asmaa says: where is this friend ship going? what sea is it sailing on?
Shoaib says: ok
Shoaib says: your home countary?
Asmaa says: lithuania
Shoaib says: where is it?
Asmaa says: it's in south america
Shoaib says: ok i dont know
Shoaib says: will u sent me ur picture
Asmaa says:no, i'm much too beautiful. you wouldn't be able to handle all that beauty
Shoaib says: ur the most younger in ur brother/sisters
Asmaa says: no. I'm the oldest. I have 9 younger brothers
Asmaa says: and they all came out at once, too! like a litter of puppies. except uglier
Shoaib says: nice jok
Asmaa says: it's not a joke
Asmaa says: do you think i'm lying?
Shoaib says: how is it possible ur 15 after every year ur mother have a child. any way how is ur mother
Asmaa says: okay i'll tell you the truth. my father is married to 7 wives
Asmaa says: but don't tell anyone, because it's so embarrassing. lol
Shoaib says: no its not
Asmaa says: yes it is
Shoaib says: it hapen with human
Asmaa says: true. like, i want to marry 3 husbands. one black, one white, and one brown.
Asmaa says: so I guess it's the same with my dad...he wanted to marry one from each continent i guess. lolz
Shoaib says: ok!!!!!!!!!!! Why?!!!!!!!!!!
Asmaa says: because I can't decide which race I like best. duh!! silly!!
Shoaib says: u have to sister right. how old they are. have u meet them
Asmaa says: yeah i have two sisters. they live in bolivia unfortunately. they moved out recently.
Asmaa says: one was adopted by a bolivian family. the other was sold for slave labour because my dad wanted to buy a bigger house
Shoaib says: ok. can we have chat daily
Asmaa says: like I said, we don't get internet access here much. because we live on a mountain. duh
Shoaib says: ok
Asmaa says: uh oh...i feel an earthquake!!! I have to go. bye! lolz

Soothing Mercy

When prophet Ya'qoub (peace by upon him) lost both his sons, he made a poignant statement, which is mentioned in the Quran. He said: I only complain of my grief and sorrow to Allah.

I've been through some difficult months, and it seems that through it all I couldn't find peace or contentment. I was shoved towards a low place, and I could not pick myself up. I recently heard the verse above recited prayer and I found it very powerful. I mean, my Lord is the only One who has any true power in my life, wouldn't it be fitting for me to turn to Him in my times of need?

And Ya'qoub said to his other sons: never give up hope of Allah's Soothing Mercy: truly no one despairs of Allah's Soothing Mercy, except those who have no faith.

I think one of the reasons I'm unable to pick myself up is because I've been fairly constant in complaining about my sorrow to other people. But I never once thought I should stop doing that, and instead only complain to my Lord.

I need soothing mercy. Maybe today is a good day to start.

Babies make my day

So whenever I feel kind of angry or annoyed or sad, my remedy is watching youtube clips of cute babies doing funny things. This cheers me up quite quickly. Here are a few of my favourites.







And of course, the ever present classic:



I am not crazy.

Sometimes I want to ask God: when will it be my turn for the two eases?

Beautiful Noise

I happened to be listening to this song today, and I found something about the lyrics really irritating. (The other) Asma also talks about the idea of love songs here. Anyways, the song I heard went something like this:

you got my attention,and you know,
we had first connection that wouldn't let go,
there was somethin' sexy 'bout your voice,
anything you say makes a beautiful noise.

Besides the general ickyness of that whole bit, anything she says makes a beautiful noise? I can't even sit here and explain how ridiculous that phrase is. It's like this man is in love with this woman because she has this amazing voice, and every time she says something, he loves the melody it makes. Let's set aside the obtuse notion that a woman may actually have something of benefit to say, and not appreciate a man losing himself in the tones of her voice.

I'm sure some people may find this type of "compliment" romantic. But let's face it, stuff like this just furthers the reality that women are valued for their beauty and not for their wit or intelligence.

Perhaps we are slowly making progress. But we still have ways to go. General pop culture is definitely not helping.

That also reminded me of this video (which is ingeniously hilarious):



Anyways, that's enough man-hating for one night. Well then, til tomorrow!