In the moment
March 23rd, 2009
As I walk in the journey of life
I come across God’s wondrous beings
At times I would rest for a while
Only to enjoy the beauty of beings
I would contemplate the blessings I have
And whisper grace to God for all his givings..
I learned many things from only seeing..
I learned that to tear a flower from her intimate haven
Only allows me to enjoy her momentarily..
For her place is among the endless fields
Where I can observe her true beauty as the wind touches her body
She dances a harmonized coordinated dance with all other blossoms
I can only observe in silenced awe at the creator’s reverence
I carry on in the journey ahead and bid farewell to the dancing blossoms
For I know I shall brush against God’s allure again in his wondrous livings
Paths cross in the journey of life
And that is the essence of being
But never forget we always must part
And that is the anguish of being human
We draw in the core of beings who joined us in our path
Their true essence never cease.. for we capture them in our spirits
Never forget these are the foundations of living
For you are the only pilgrim walking in your path
Enjoy the entwining of paths while it lasts
For if you don’t enjoy the moment
You will wish you had when there is no turning back
With no regrets look ahead and be aware of paths that cross
For there is always beauty in God’s beings
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you saudi females are the most weakest ones in the whole world
you live a pathetic life and die one as well
sorry, nothing personal, just telling the fact.
Jacky what a horrible and mindless thing to say. I’d like to put you in a Saudi society for one day and see if you can survive it. What they go through and what many are fighting to achieve takes strength and courage. Their efforts are admirable and some might argue historical.
Rasha your poem is beautiful and it’s nice to see you always exploring your artistic side, first photography and now this
Keep it up.
as i said before nothing personal at all—just stating how i felt about saudi females—but saudi females are also to blame—they just scream and cry but they dont go out on the streets demanding change—they expect western countries to do everything for them—why dont these women do anything to change their status? at least rich and upper class saudi women who globe trot a lot and spend a lot of food on makeup, food, and apparel—why dont they form NGO s to help poor saudi women? Why are saudi men so chauvinistic and hypocritical? They go abroad, most of them, have premarital sex with prostitutes but when asked to give those same rights to their women, they become extremely emotional and defensive—and when most saudi women especially the upper class ones remain quiet, then they allow themselves to live a poor quality of life and death is the only way for them to get out of that depressing and sick way of life. I know this personally because i dated and was intimately involved with a few saudi females and they didnot have anything good to say about their men in most cases and issues. sorry, but just being honest—what happened about that saudi girl who was killed by her father for chatting on the internet last year? if saudi females felt horrified, they would had protested en masse on streets on the net, formed campaigns (just like reem is doing against men selling lingerie to saudi females) but obviously except for a few weak condemnations here and there for a month or two, nothing really concrete happened. obviously, most females in saudi accept that as their fate—i dont see any vigorous or robust reaction to such a terrible crime and this is just a one small example to illustrate saudi womens’ inaction and failures to end gender apartheid and discrimination against them, all done and justified in the name of islam.
I’m sorry, but your comment is totally ignorant and full of stereotypical abuse. I find it entirely offensive and I’m not even Saudi.
Yes they do. All the time. And they risk their lives for it, as many get imprisoned or exiled for their efforts. Don’t you read the news?
There are several local organizations committing to these values, providing business opportunities to women who are disadvantaged, you not hearing about them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Do some research.
Typical rumor to associate any Arabs with but is severely untrue in each and every instance.
What happened to the Austrian father who raped and tortured his daughter for 24 years while locking her up in a basement? I don’t see you calling all Austrian males “hypocritical” and chauvinist.
You really don’t know anything about Saudi women and society and I’d suggest you start talking to them. Your comment has racist implications and it’s a bit disturbing to have to swift through these false and insulting claims.
To begin with, what is ignorant,abusive or offensive with what i said??? please do explain to me because i honestly dont believe i wrote anything ignorant,abusive or offensive.
Second, i said they dont go out on streets demanding change but you said yes they do—while you know very well they dont—if such a thing happened it would become breaking news in the arab world as well as in the west. I have never heard news about women going on the streets demanding change—the bit exception was some saudi women, a limited number who dismissed their drivers in the early 90s and wanted to drive—thats about it. About NGOs, there is only one or two and they exist only in name and u know that very well—Domestic abuse is so rampant but do these NGO ever intervene?? what did they do about that poor girl who was gang raped last year??? those girls forced within the premises of the school in makkah (of all places) while they burnt alive in their school? what about the girl killed for chatting on the net??? did the NGOs demand that that father be put on trial? in that case, that was the very least they could had done but as usual, nothing. then instead of giving any explanation, u turn around me and ask me about the austrian father—he did wrong and should be punished obviously but in case u forgot the author of this post is from saudi not austria and if she was from austria then i would talk about that so please dont go off topic. Sorry but despite what u claim, i know a lot about arab/muslim women and societies especially saudi and i dont need 2 start talking since i talked with them long ago—besides, i even had relationship with a few as i stated before. In the end, please again i ask you where did i use racist implications or used false or insulting claims???
Read your comment. In a nutshell, here is what you said:
1) Saudi women lead meaningless, pathetic lives and die as a nobody
2) They are lazy
3) They are stupid
4) They allow men to walk all over them
5) All Saudis rely on the West for support because they are practically too stupid/lazy to fight for change themselves
6) Saudi men are hypocritical perverts, all of them
7) All Saudi women are incredibly weak
8 ) Saudi women’s lives are worthless
9) All Saudis lead an unnecessary existence
10) Saudis are either raped or rapists, because they are pathetic
I’m sure this was meant to be a joke, because it was very funny.
I apologize for not replying any sooner for this thread has been brought to my attention only recently
I thank you Esra’a for being around all the time, being supportive and in taking in all the numerous blows!
As for Jacky
You have all the right to be angry at Saudi women for their situation and lack of rights. I myself become annoyed many times but not to the extent of being spiteful and mean! (My annoyance comes from the pain I feel when I see other women hurting and myself at times)
But if being hurtful is your way in coming across, then you will learn in no time that you are a nuisance whom to be ignored (at least by the likes of me)
It is one thing to blame women and the whole society for failing us women and another to be stereotypical in your thinking and believing in your little mind that you know it all!!
I can see your attack is drawn from personal experiences. That does not mean you know the in and outs of the Saudi culture or Saudi women! Yes many are very passive because that is all they know and were brainwashed to fear change! so instead of beating them up for their weaknesses we are here to give them the tools to educate themselves and make the changes to improve their lives..
I don’t believe the answer for women is marching up and down the streets! That would be pathetic for they would lose whatever freedom they have and much more..
As for NGO’s, there are several that deal with women issues. There are several that deal with women and children’s rights, some are against child and women abuse, NGO’s are being developed as we speak in preventing women harassment in the work field, another that helps shelter divorced and widowed women another that provides unprivileged women with training and jobs to help in supporting themselves and their families. There are so much more. These were all initiated by Saudi women who are very active and that I am truly proud of.
I have met so many who are brave, active and work for the better. I have met so many wonderful ladies who’s day to day lives is a struggle and believe me waking up every morning for them can be as active as they can be.. I will not allow anyone to belittle them.. For you are not living in their shoes so you don’t know what it’s like
Don’t give me any crap about all Saudi women being lazy! There are more female college graduates than males in this country. Saudi women have the highest percentage of having postgraduate training and PhD in comparison to Saudi men! Yes work is limited but it is changing.
The girls with their makeup who trot around the world as you mentioned are a very small minority of Saudi women.. (Although I have nothing against makeup.. or traveling !)
As for the case of the poor girl who was brutally killed by her dad! Yes true it is inhumane and sad but if I told you that a woman in the United States gets raped every minute or two .. does that mean all American men are rapists?
As for the Makkah incident.. and many other incidences.. they are tragic and make one’s blood boil but if you follow the media now you will see that there was and still is a very strong attack on the religious police and some of their wrong doings! They also get prosecuted while they were above the law in the past!
As for the legal system, true it is unjust when it comes to women but women are speaking out now and they are not as passive as you claim. If you knew what was going on you would have heard about the case of the girl who was married off to an old man. Her mom went to court and made it public. The judge was against the mother in the beginning but because of her voice, media and NGO pressures the case is being relooked at!
Drastic change will not happen overnight but if you compare where we were 10 years ago and now you would see the difference. I know the road ahead of us is a long bumpy one but do not judge us all from knowing few Saudi girls (that was a very childish statement by the way) for true some have their eyes closed and their ears shut but the rest who are in tuned are trying the best they can.
If you knew what was going on you would have heard about the first Saudi woman to be in a minister’s position and believe me that did not happen by chance or by passive women rather from so many women who have been working so hard..
I am also proud to say that Esra’a for instance is one of the active female Arabs who has been working so hard to bring light to workers rights in the middle east.
As for people like you who might mean well, you may need to choose your words better next time for you become the cause of so much anger and hate in this world..
That’s all I have to say
“in the moment”.. What a beautiful piece of work. Reminds me of something Hafiz would have written. Very Sufi. Loved it. And I live it.
Nevermind Jacky. Jacky is a relic of the 20th century. The good news is this is the 21st century and China will soon scatter the relics of the past to the winds. Stay tuned.
Thank you Alexander for those encouraging words .. Glad you liked it and actually live it !
Thanks a lot for deliberatley censoring my last post in which i answered back to esraa 1) to 10)
obviously, u wanted to ignore that post of mine so what better way than to just delete it… so much for freedom of speech and tolerance of opposing view points—after all, you acted like the true saudi—censorship of opposition viewpoints.
again just like esraa, i ask u to point out where i have acted with hatred,ignorance or racism—i clarified them in the last post to esraa, but obviously you deleted it perhaps because u have no real answer— everything i posted, you call it CRAP—-who is acting like a real brute here—-and yes i have lived in your country and still have friends and relatives working there and know your society in and out—you act as if u know me more than i know myself—How can u ever compare your medieval society to that of america, europe or even east asia??? again, answer the questions to my last post which you deleted, the very post which esraa couldnt sum up the courage to reply back to—obviously you wont, its just because your so insecure, you have nothing to explain your backwards stone aged culture for, you thus play the racist card to shut me up. and i didnt say any crap, just stated the truth that most upper class saudi women r indeed lazy so lazy that they need to import domestic slaves to wipe up their sorry asses as well as put a spoon in their big mouths to feed them. what about that saudi girl who was killed by her father?? instead of fessing up that u women suffer from gender apartheid—-u deflect the incident by asking me a stilly stupid statistic which has not been proved, that american females get raped a min or two—even assuming if that statistic is rite, what does that have to do with females suffering in your country???? for god’s sake, just get off your high horse instead of deflecting attention—we are talking about saudi, not america or europe, so why go off topic??? obviously that poor girl or those girls burnt alive in makkah, of all places, wernt your sisters or otherwise you would had gone out on the streets and started a real genuine campaign to stop such insantiy instead of living in ur grand palaces eating sleeping and passing gas left and rite like there is no tomorrow, moaning and bitching to the west how it should solve all your problems. Sorry, but that is the real truth….i dont deny that saudi woman have seen slight improvement since the past ten yrs, but only slight— You females complain of gender apartheid yet do nothing concrete—i know about those couple of NGOs even better than you do—and i know where they get their funding from etc so i wont even talk about that—that child bride marraige was cancelled only because of foreign outrage—of course there was some saudi women outrage but it was mostly impotent since u women in saudi are so scared, you know you could suffer abuse and even worse at the hands of your males—i aint trying to put you or your culture down, but believe me, we in the west are so sick of tired of you people claiming that the west is the source of your suffering—obviously, we are so bad that we supposedly interfere in your internal affairs, yet somehow we are so enlightened, progressive and rational that many of you saudis love to come to european nations for education and tourism.(BTW, we in europe have also given political asylum to a lot of arab men and women suffering in their lands and are now prospering in europe) plz for your own sake as well as ours, lay your eggs in one basket—You say saudi women are more educated than your males, and i personally know that to be true, yet except in a few specific fields, women cannot work in many other fields since your men are so insecure that you may elope with your male co workers and jump the sac—If a female sits on a seat near an unrelated man or talk with one and smiles, y is she considered sharmooty??yyy??? based on that would it be racist if westerners consider arab culture to be narrow, conservative,over religious, medieval and stone aged??? Till this day, u saudi females cannot even drive or travel freely—ur men, most of them love to engage in pre marital and extra marital sex yet they suppress you so brutely—How can you live sane in such an extremely backwards society??? about me choosing better words, i did but since you ppl dont know how to appreciate enlightened debate and then you have the audacity to say i am the cause of hatred and anger in this world—o plz look who is lecturing whom. The day you can speak freely to me or for that matter any person outside of your peninsula, can have relationship with any male without being killed or chastised, can obtain the power to take your hubby or lover to court for domestic violence, then do talk with me and i will consider you an equal debater—till then, save all this energy in getting out of your stone aged position in arabian society, since believe me you will need a lot of it.
bye and try to have a good life.
jacqueliene.
Mr. alexander , who is the relic of the 20 th century, time will tell—unless you wana debate like a calm and rational person, stop acting like an ass because it shows all over that your an insecure and jealous person who only puts people down for opposing views. i dare you to come out of your shell and debate like a mature rational person, that is if you have any sense of maturity and rationality. otherwise, just shut up you idiot.
It’s funny when people spew out personal insults and attacks and then claim that they’ve been “censored.” Our comment policy couldn’t be clearer or simpler than it is. If we wanted to censor every comment opposing or questioning our views, then none of your other comments would have appeared here, and in fact we would have deleted over 70% of the comments that we receive on average considering the number of times people disagree with each other or directly with the author. The difference is that the other commenters do it respectfully, or at least intelligently, as opposed to relying on personal attacks.
Your post does nothing but belittle an entire society in an inconsiderate and brutal way, causes nothing but hatred and an invite to name calling, and is brimming with the ignorance that millions of people here are trying so hard to eliminate.
What a hilariously ironic statement. In the same sentence that you make a racial statement in, you deny your racism in the second part. When you claim that this is a “backwards stone aged culture,” you’re implying that you’re culturally superior, and in the rest of the post, you claim that you are morally superior. That’s racism by definition. You exemplify it.
Rasha also spent the time and energy refuting your uninformed claims, and you came back making the exact same outrageous statements that to me seem really hateful. It’s one thing to point out the wrongs of any society, Rasha herself is one of the most critical Saudi bloggers out there, but it’s another to make blanket statements that insult a person’s identity and entire nation, to the point where you’d call it “pathetic.” We don’t resort to these immature words when talking about other nations or cultures, we’d appreciate it if people had enough respect and understanding to refrain from saying that about us too.
You showed us right now that with people of your ilk, serious dialogue is not possible, only angry exchanges inspired by stereotypes and sheer misunderstanding. I’d expect more from someone who claims to be superior in every conceivable way. Rasha’s post to you was entirely spot on and relevant and yet you did nothing but claim that her culture is “backwards” and that she is “pathetic” and “insecure,” which is really no different than the summarized version of your first comment. And then you have the nerve to question what was “offensive” about your response? Get a clue, woman. If we sat here insulting your culture and claiming that your nation consists of pathetic lazy bugs who lead witless existences you’d have gone nuts.
again, i dont have any expectations from you ppl to exchange a fruitful discussion—again just like from your starting post, just accusations of racism but u never answer my questions even though i did and u deliberately erased it—and u know that—- y not answer those questions and explain y you erased my post—you act as if your doing me a favor but your not since youre such insecure ppl, u have nothing to debate about—only best defense is sucking on the nipples of racism, acting as a victim, blaming others for your downfall—Its not me but ppl such as you and your llikes who talk about peace and dialogue but dont have the nerve to sit down and talk calmly—you being the moderator of this sit is not only a joke but an insult to freedom of speech—instead of engaging in censorship and deflecting attention by playing the racism card, y dont you sum up the courage to debate like a mature and rational person—anyways, im getting the impression that im debating with ppl who have the intellectual maturity of a dwarf and its no use talking with you—You and rasha know that you dont have any answers to my questions so you ignore them and just play the sorry tired racism card—If i for example say that we westerners r technologically superior than the arab world, that is a fact but in your own defeated sick mind, u would call it racist and there lies the fundamental problem—Fact is, most of your countries are failed states, dictatorships, your rulers are above the law, judiciary is either non existant or strongly influenced, freedom is a luxury for the elite, and you commoners especially women have no rights—y dont you just admit that instead of crying over the racism thing because it makes you only look that more pathetic—you have to import all your medicines, jets, DVDs and much other stuff from wester countries so just admit it—you can produce nothing except, murderes, criminals, terrorists, suicide bombers and dysfunctional elements and whatever intellectuals and educated ppl you have , most of them come running to the west trying to live a normal sane life. Now am i being racist here, no not at all—just stating the truth. dont worry, come to europe or anywhere in the west and criticize us all you want but u wont be put in jailed, harassed and definitely not even tortured—if it were vice versa, —never mind, i dont wana embarrass you and besides i dont have any expectations from a culture which is inherently rigid, narrow minded and unforgivable.
anyways, dont worry i wont disture you again since my debate put you ppl in an awkward position and now i know you have nothing to say, you act and talk like a defeated ppl, dont have any good intellectual debate to offer except playing the racism card.
good day and good life.
With insults like these, you wonder why no one takes you seriously?
And then you wonder why people call you racist?
And still you have the urge to come here and say:
Try taking your own advice – and, if you have enough time, try attending a school or reading a book for a change.
i know how to take care of myself thank you very much—instead of barking and bitching so much, y havent u so far answered my questions or tell me y u deleted my post??? your just an insecure and stubborn person. b4 trying to moderate a site, learn the decorum and ettiquettes of debate for a change—the only racist is u and most of ur culture so keep sulking in ur dark ages—however, if u wana learn humanity, plz come to europe so that u can c what its like to b a normal rational sane human being—unlike you, were open to debate , not insults—so look in the mirror to whom you r trying to preach to. i dont wana have anything else to do with imbeciles and idiots like you. ur just intellectualy dwarfs and sick in the head.
Racist: A belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race/culture is superior.
That statement of yours alone is a perfect example of this.
On another note, Rasha refuted all of your claims, your response to her consisted of angry insults and further stereotypical remarks that highlighted your ignorance of this region and its culture, history, et al.
I wasn’t joking when I said that you should read books and serious blogs from and about the Middle East. There’s too much that you’re painfully unaware of.
Yes I did. Read this. We don’t publish any comment that consists only of a personal attack, and that’s a standard policy across the internet, as opposed to “censorship.” If we wanted to censor you, don’t you think your other comments wouldn’t be here? Yet they all are, except for one that wasn’t fitting to the posting standards here.
And FYI, if you write outrageous statements people will react with outrage. I’ve no idea why you were surprised at how your comments were received by others so far.
Jacky. Those that know do not speak. Those that speak do not know.
For Jacky,
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips,
and sound is a diversion and a pastime.
And in much of your talking, thinking is half-murdered.
For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold it’s wings but cannot fly.
(Pay special attention to the sentence, “And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.”
[...] Esra’a and myself after reading a poem I posted on this site earlier this year called “In the Moment” to include it in this intercultural project. Fourteen year old students from Flatow Secondary [...]
[...] few months ago, Rasha from Saudi Arabia posted a poem she wrote here called “In the Moment.” She posted it simply to share it with other readers, not [...]
@Rasha: your words are pure and reflect the Truth of existance. Surely, a result of deep contemplation. very inspirational!
@Alexander Supertramp: I liked your quotation and its interpretation. So true!!!