People will walk away when you start to change. People will become uncomfortable with the version of you that’s difficult to manipulate and control. These people can be family, close friends or even a spouse. And you have to be able to recognise this as a positive thing.
Women’s rights in Islam have been grossly misconstrued and misinterpreted by people who do not understand the religion. Women are not deprived of any rights in Islam, and they are seen as equal partners with men.
Allah Himself has told us that He has forbidden opression for Himself and has forbidden it amongst us. How then, can we in the same breath, believe that our oppression is sanctioned by Allah? He is the Most Just and anything that feels oppressive is not from Him.
The world was so bold and confident in bullying us into believing that we are only worthy if our lives are marked by hardship. Embracing the soft-life is emboldening ourselves and changing the narrative. It’s giving the middle finger to those who desperately want to see us miserable.
Friendship isn’t about telling the other person to “get over it”, “stop overreacting” or that “it’s not that deep”. And if you’re friends with someone who tells you this every time you open up to them, you really need to start evaluating why you’re friends with this person in the first place.
When it comes to finding someone to marry, some Islam-approved matrimonial sites like Matchbox Matrimonial and others serve as the best companion. It provides a neutral platform for independent-minded young adults and their more conservative elders and relatives.
It’s how to change and go to the bathroom when public bathrooms make your skin crawl. It’s needing to pray without any private place to do it. It’s keeping your damn hair successfully tucked back without the waves constantly tugging it all out. How!
The inevitable comparison between the ‘real me’ and the ‘retouched me’ emerges. Of course, the natural image can never live up to what has been designed as a beauty mask.
I hope the day will come when you will be free to hold your head up and claim what you believe or support without fear of being “dragged”. I pray for the day when being a Muslim woman – especially being visibly so – is not seen as an open invitation for others to have an opinion on how we choose to live our lives. Until that time, and unless you choose other
I had grown up in an environment surrounded by non-Muslims. My teachers, classmates, and friends were non-Muslims. I was, in fact, the only Muslim girl in my class. People made awful comments about my religion. Friends deserted me because I was Muslim. I vividly remember when a friend brought a book, which portrayed Islam in a bad light, to school. I cried bitterly that day, wondering why I was Muslim…why I couldn’t be like everyone else, why I couldn’t live without the risk of being judged or ridiculed on the basis of my faith.
