travelling to seek a cure for the soul

In the last period of time, i was under much stress related to family and work. And for sure the situation of Egypt is adding extra pressure on all our shoulders. 

i reached a point that i am totally disoriented, unproductive and panic and anger attacks were always hunting me down. And I have been through unfruitful relations

at a certain point i thought there is no way out , and i am trapped to my fate and there is no hand can pull out of that dark well.

in an addition to that i have to say that all the souls that i depended on them to cure my pains are already suffering their own trauma, so seeking help was like adding burden to the already suffering friends 

I did all my techniques to cheer myself up but it did not work.

An idea stroked me to get about of the context away of work, family and country.

That’s why I changed my expenditure style for the first time since my graduation and saved to come to turkey, god knows how hard that was, but I needed away out

I was not only seeking seeing the beauties of this country, but to get in touch with a  very dear, well one of the dearest friends I ever had , asli .

I think that I changed over the past years and I developed huge amount of resentment and anger on myself and others. I changed to be a person that alienating herself from the events in order to stop the non stop pain I feel with any political discussion in Egypt. And I hate when the event brings me out of me bubble to react.

I felt the soul and the mind need refreshment, getting out was like abandon many things, the stress of following the news feeds and comments in twitter for example felt well.

And turkey for me was not that fantasy I had since I was young, the country which that last Islamic caliphates, but also that country which went in a similar political situation which the polarization between Islamic political powers and secular ones.

I can see that there is deep urge to put  the photos  of Ataturk who repersent the civil and secular face of the Turkish republic , the founder of Turkey of today and the existance  pro Islamic trends which I can see through the number of veiled women, even if it is still not accurate indicator, because it is social in most of the cases than religious.

Add to that Turkey is having great Islamic architecture and that was food of sight and bless to the soul, and complete different from the Egyptian style. I really enjoyed the stories of it. Although I had my tourism guide book, but when Asli was saying how the power struggle in the ottoman empire lead to a law by Mohamed el Fateh that a Sultan can kill his brother to secure his throne, that was for me a slap and it was information I never knew and I think that the current political situation in Egypt lead us to a similar situation, where one power totally alienates the rest actor from the political arena.

 And away from the headache of the politics, through this journey I was cured by the beauty of the sea and hospitality of my friend family, where I felt really welcomed and cherished.

Also as a typical cynical person, this was my first trip outside after taking off the veil, and I can say that the look to me is different, either because I am in a country that almost half of the city is veiled or I am getting tougher from what I encountered before.

The journey is supposed to be recharge of my energy and cure of the pain I suffered from and it is actually is, I am writing it in the last days in Istanbul .

I am coming back to Egypt with many questions about myself and how I will deal with my life, even if I took some tips from my dear Asli

Malta Hanina Khobza w Sardina

 

i travel a lot, i visited many countries, but some countries have place in the heart and soul 

Malta the beloved from 14 Sep 06 till 20 Apr 07 

and back for the graduation in the international human rights day 10th of Dec 2007

but Malta is the only place i fell home. i studied my MA there. i studied International Human Rights from a multidisciplinary perspective, i come political science background and my approach to international law was enhanced in this study tour. 

Presenting African System of Human Rights

it was a scholarship, 

as part of the co operation policies of the European union, i was in the Mediterranean masters, there are four twins in Africa, Balkans, Europe and Latin America.

my first semester was in Malta Hanina Khobza w Sardina and the second semester was in Ghent, Belguim. 

In Malta i met all the class, many nationalities, friends, acquaintances, even enemies .

 

it was a journey for the soul and mind, not only physical journey. 

 i met great people, i had a huge gang to hang out with 

but i still rememberf bad things like the migration authority office, where i felt that i am negr veiled woman coming from the Middle East after 2001 .

Discrimination and racism 

made me tough,

 tougher

 and toughest than ever

 i still remember when they made me stand in the line of black people, and the bad employee was doubting that i am a student and i was mad and angry, and good female officer comfort me by a smile and warm good morning greeting. 

 

i met good people in my class and in Malta 

and i made it to the degree .......

me and H.E Egyptian Ambassador

Southren Egyptian Rock

Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences - Cairo University Rock :) 

40 YEARS in Jihad for Allah :Amina Wadud

الا ان نصر الله قريب ...

عجلت اليك ربي لترضي .... افلا تتعقلون

Tant Amina
I have a piece of news
And I hope it is nice
El shourok newspaper the second wide spread newspaper in Egypt published
My post about you
And I think the timing is important as the fundamentalists are stealing what women gained by the pretext of Islam is not debatable and Ijhtad is over
And who is better than you to say this is not Islam
I am so sorry that I gave u false hope
Really sorry
Love

you saved me,
i felt that i am fighting my identities as a Muslim woman 
in moments i felt that i am trapped between my faith
and my identity as a woman.
stay blessed and strong Tant Amina

• قومي من تحت الردم 
• كزهرة لوز في نيسان 
• قومي من حزنك قومي 
• ان الثورة تولد من رحم الاحزان
•  
•  
• ست الحبايب يا حبيبة 
• يا اغلي من روحي و دمي 
• يا حنينة و كلك طيبة 
• يارب خليكي يا استاذتي 
•  
•  
•  

•  
•  
• ق
•  
• i wanted to see her this year in "3omra el Tawheed" i told her : ]
• fattou :  ezayek tant Amina
  i want to join umrah el tawhid, but i think it will e hard because Saudi will not allow me without escort.
  i will consult with a toursim company whether they can help or not.
  i hope i can manage . ya rab.
  love
  fatma
•  
• Prof Amina :  In the US they let the mahram sign a notarized letter giving permission for females under 45. So you have that? Would love to have you join us ISA. but visa needs to get started immediately. 
• tanta amina 
•  
• كل سنة و انت طيبة يا امنة 
• و بعودة الايام
• تفرحي و تتهني و في عيدك 
• نغني 
• و نضرب لك سلام 
• كتبتي و علمتي و امنتي 
• و تسعي في الارض 
• و تعجلي الي الله حتي يرضي 
• ابشروا بشري لكم 
• امنة بنت ودود تكتب 
• المرأة و القرأن 
• و جهاد النساء 
•  
•  

featured in Carter Center

 Meet Egyptian  

Fatma Emam

Sept. 17, 2012

Fatma Emam

During Egypt's January 2011 revolution, human rights activist and blogger Fatma Emam demonstrated for change in Tahrir Square day after day with thousands of other men and women. Post-revolution though, she found women's rights left behind.
"There are so many women who like me defied their families," Emam told Bloomberg News at the time. "The revolution is not only taking place in Tahrir, it is taking place in every Egyptian house. It is the revolution of fighting the patriarch."
As a young woman in a religiously conservative and patriarchal society, Emam faces risks both in her life and work as a researcher at Nazra for Feminist Studies, a feminist NGO in Cairo that seeks to advance knowledge related to gender equality and rethink gender roles.
"Even if I am afraid, so what? I just have one life so I must live it as best I can," she said. "I am a typical Egyptian woman; we are fighting for our rights every day. We exist and we are visible."
Several months after the revolution, Emam shared her experiences with other activists at a human rights defenders forum at The Carter Center, where a diverse group of believers, scholars, activists, and traditional leaders from 22 countries met to discuss the impact, both positive and negative, that religious and cultural institutions have on women's rights globally.
Before the forum began, Emam also led a workshop for participants about the benefits of using social media like Facebook and Twitter to change social norms and raise voices.
"Social media can be used to connect a bigger mass of people all over the world for social justice because it highlights a lot of issues," she said. "It is an alternative platform for information, not like the mainstream media."
The workshop was part of two days of technical training for activists on topics such as local fundraising, the use of social media and technology, successes and challenges of working within historically patriarchal contexts, and using the arts in advocacy campaigns.
"Advancement of human rights must come from within society, so The Carter Center works to bolster the efforts of local activists who accept great personal risks in the pursuit of human freedom," said Karin Ryan, director of the Center's Human Rights Program. "We also connect them with each other to share experiences and engage them with new audiences to expand and innovate their efforts."
In February 2013, The Carter Center will host human rights defenders and religious leaders in Cairo to further explore the role of religion in advancing the human rights of women. This event will encourage greater efforts by the leaders of major faiths to ensure that women everywhere enjoy the respect and protections of universal human rights.
For Fatma Emam, the fight for human rights takes place every day in her life and work.
"It is all about fighting for your space. You have to push, push, push until you maximize your space. It's a long-term effort, but we need to start by talking about the problems, like how we are perceiving women, especially in religion," she said.

Human Rights Defenders Forum 1

I am participating in the Human Rights Defenders forum organized by Carter Center.

Although it was very difficult to come to Atlanta and I faced hard times with my visa and I was interrogated in the airport, but the discussions of the conference made it up for me.

This forum started by idea raised by former president of US Jimmy Carter about the role of religion in advancement or suppression of women , he raised this idea two years ago in the Congress of the world religions  . And that’s why the center organized this forum to allow people from different places of the world , from different religious traditions to share the best practices in this topic. the attendees of the forum are Human Rights activists, academics , religious leaders , traditions leaders and social media activists .

First of all this conference is so special for me because I met Prof Abduallahi Nai'em and he is just a great inspiration for me and many Muslims, his writing of Human Rights, secularism  and Islam is guiding me and many Muslims all over the world . Prof el Naiem is challenging the traditional interpretations of Islam , deconstructing them and offering a progressive point of view that reconcile Islam with concepts like democracy, secularism and Human rights .

The second reason which make me happy that I am presenting Nazra project "exploring taboos " on using the social media to tackle sexuality issues in Egypt , this project is funded by Rising Voices project.  Exploring taboos is a project that is trying to start a public debate about the taboos in the Egyptian society not to confront it and to deconstruct it but to raise awareness and create a safe zone to tackle such issues .

The last reason for my happiness that I found people I related to , follow feminists from the international solidarity network , Women Live Under Muslim Laws and the international campaign for equality in the family law in Muslim world Musawah

The conference is such a safe place to exchange and question ideas and beliefs  and being here is such a unique experience. 

About Dancing

Tonight was the Gala party of the AFF, we went to a very nice restaurant with a pool and a garden and it was lovely, the food, the music and the best element was the company .

The Senegalese dancing is phenomenal, I was really inspired and I decided to write about dancing, yesterday I was arguing with my Egyptian friends in the AFF, that the Egyptian dancing is for seduction and not just for having fun . and I still think it is seductive, it is always focused on women and how to show the beauty of her body and always men or older and more powerful women are the audience , I hate also that the attention is focused only on one person, the dancer and it is not community dancing or group dancing like the Nubian dancing , where all the community, males and females dance collectively, so the attention is not focused on one person.

I hate being under the lights, I hate the feeling that people are looking at me, I know that I am suffering from low self esteem problem in addition to huge body issues , that’s why I do not like dancing in public, although I do know how to dance , like many other young Egyptian women, but the attention bothers me .

I really liked the dancing in the AFF, the women are just powerful, celebrating themselves, their beauty and enjoying their pride and self esteem, and creating with their smiles and colorful outfits a very beautiful photo.

From Dakar ... with love

I am passing a difficult phase of my life, where I question everything, especially the labels I am carrying and my multiple identity, I hate being in a box and can not be out of it, I hate when people do not bother to explore me and prejudge me. Sometimes I ask myself why I am labeled with certain affiliations , do I choose all the relations I enter in, why are people assuming ideas about me.

These are the questions that come again and again to my mind in the first day of the 3rd African feminist forum, AFF is gathering women from all over the continent . we are four from Egypt and very few from North Africa.

In this AFF I felt the power of connections and the importance of sharing knowledge and building capacities, however although all the positive vibes and the good points I am seeing in the AFF, I was sorry for the weak participation from the Arabs or the North African region, although I felt cherish by the people I already  know before the AFF and others know I just know many showed a very welcoming attitude

What stroked me is the North African and how they are exerting effort to assert their African identity, in Egypt the population defined itself as Arabs and Muslims and the African identity is only just shown in the Nubian minority or when we engage African in sports and cultural activities.

Seriously I can be African, Muslim, North African, Egyptian and before all of this is I am Nubian, and I am happy with that and my labels are not in conflict with each other.

I am so happy in Dakar, I feel the peace and solidarity and I will carry all the positive vibes back with me to Beloved Cairo .

Politics of ethincity and color

In my trip in the USA, I was overwhelmed by the politics of ethnicity and identity politics , I feel very sensitive to such issue as a person of color belonging to ethnic minority . I noticed that in some places the services workers are predominately non White Caucasians, they were either African Americans or Latinos or Asians and that differs from place to another, that gave impression that still some ethnicities  have  better societal status and that true, I just saw the simplest manifestation of this phenomena.

Add to that the ethnic factor is shaping the dynamics or relations and imposing challenges of persons of color in various realms, I remember a female judge saying that she was from the first patch of female judges in Mississippi and the gender and ethnicity were challenges in her career life. Also Ashley Jackson, youth queer advocate told me that life is difficult for LGBT, but way more difficult for LGBT person of color.

The ethnicity politics did not have only negative aspect, it has a bright side which is the solidarity of between the persons of each ethnicity, I felt the very special attention and care from the African American with me, that I am an African dissident person , I felt a strong link with their ongoing struggle for the African Americans to claim their civil rights and that sense of belonging was limited to the African American struggle, it went further, I did not feel happy and keen to take photos of Martin Luther King only also I was delighted to find some good photos of the Great Nelson Mandela . I just felt that I  belong to the Pan African Nation and that we are struggling for equality and justice and that is not limited to certain country m however it unite all the Africans all over the world. i felt although the context may differ, but the Nubian cause is deemed to be an African cause against centuries of discrimination.

Sorry I could not upload my photos , the connection is failing me  

Viva Africa