Sunday, May 31, 2009

Anti-abortion terrorism

Today I am shocked by the news that abortion doctor George Tiller is killed (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tiller1-2009jun01,0,7068875.story); He was one of the few American physicians who performed late-term abortions.

Not that I knew him. But..I had to think about my visit in 2007 to one of the most inspiring women in my life, Sarah Weddington (http://www.weddingtoncenter.com/). Then, I had a meeting with her in her office in Austin, Texas, to talk about women's rights in America. She is an American attorney and lecturer who gained world-wide fame with the Roe versus Wade case. Roe versus Wade is the historic Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas interpretation of abortion law and making abortion legal in the United States. The Roe v. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy. With this case she was the youngest person to win a Supreme Court case (the highest court in the United States).

As a young female attorney, Sarah Weddington had to convince 11 male jury members of the Supreme Court that the most abortionlaws of the United States were unlawful because they were in contradiction with the constitution. She won the case, which was the beginning of the liberation of thousands of women in Texas and the United States to decide about their own body, life and future.

While I was in her office I had the privilege to speak with this wonderful woman, who has also been a succesfull politician and political advisor to Carter-registration (let me give you one detail: in the hallway she showed me her pictures, which one of them, dated on 1977, was very interesting: she stands next to president Carter with a very very young Bill and Hillary Clinton on the background).

Her office was full with papers and books and she talked in detail about this landmark decision about the abortionlaw. That she got letters from women around the US to thank her for the new law. But sadly, she also mentioned that some anti-abortion activists threatened her.. So, maybe now you understand, when I got the newsheadlines today on my Blackberry, I didn't dare to read the article. There was a possibility that it could be Sarah and I was terrified!

Having this said, the killing of doctor Tiller is not less terrifying.. Every form of terrorism should vanish forever. Every victim of terrorism could be you..

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Will this ever end?

If I compare my life in Austin with the life I led in Holland, I could say that it's much more simple. What do I mean with that? Well, here everybody lives more outside! And I know of myself that if I am outside, under the blue sky, with the sun shining on me, life looks better and I just want to lead the good life. I don't want to be confronted with heavy world issues. And if I do (for my job as a journalist of course I can't avoid that!) I experience it much more different than whenever I am in Holland, sitting at home, reading the newspaper inside out, listening to the radio all day hearing intellectuals discussing all these problems. No, I don't do that in Austin. I even noticed that I react different on very serious news issues like today on the news that four muslim men were planting bombs in New York synagoge, and this feeling was new to me.
But whenever friends from Holland kept me sending messages about it I couldn't deny it and surfed on internet to learn more about it.

I want to share with you all a beautiful personal letter of a member of the Muslims for Progressive Values, founded by a friend of mine from LA. Sam Aboelela exactly says how I feel about this shocking and saddening news.

Dear friends,

I'm sitting in Cairo now as I write this letter, at the home of relatives with whom I was reunited yesterday after nearly a decade of separation. I went to sleep last night with a feeling of peace that I haven't felt in a long time and woke early this morning to the sound of the Azhan, the Islamic call to prayer, as it sung its way across the neighborhood and through the open window over my bed.

But as I was sharing hugs with my Muslim family here in Egypt, four very disturbed Muslim men were planting bombs in an effort to tear apart Jewish families in New York. Early news reports suggest that these men were "upset about the war in Afghanistan," so with a deranged rationale of misanthropic nihilism they somehow concluded that planting bombs in front of two Bronx synagogues and recreating the atmosphere of bloodshed, fear, and loss we experienced during and after 9/11 would provide some personal cathartic release.

I want my friends in the New York Jewish community to know how deeply I sympathize with the emotional anguish that is sure to pervade in the wake of this failed plot. While we're all concerned for the well-being of our families in this period of economic insecurity, none of us should carry the additional burden of being potential targets of violent acts of hate and terror. You have no idea how relieved I am that you are all safe from the will of these would-be terrorists and how concerned I am for your (and our collective) ongoing health and safety.

In all honesty, it is times like these that I wish Islam had some mechanism for excommunication. I wish that my non-Muslim friends and acquaintances would see me, my family, my Muslim friends, and the American Muslim community as representative of Islam rather than the headline-grabbing sociopaths who act in our name. I'm so sick of finding myself ashamed of something I didn't do, by someone I do not know, with motives I do not share, against people for whom I care.

Please know that you are not alone in the shock of this news... that good everyday people whom you have never met, and will likely never meet, as far away as Egypt are also distressed by this story. My thoughts and their thoughts are with you. My prayers and their prayers are for you.

Peace,
Sammer Aboelela



About Muslims for Progressive ValuesMuslims for Progressive Values (MPV) seeks to bring together progressive Muslims and friends who share their values to work for a more humane world. We welcome all who are interested in discussing, promoting and working for the implementation of progressive values - social justice, human rights, economic opportunity, and separation of church and state - as well as tolerant and inclusive understandings of Islam.

Monday, May 18, 2009

My birthdayparty in America

Today is my birthday which I celebrate for the first time in the USA. And I can guarantee you that it's quite different than in The Netherlands. My American girlfriends said that they would arrange a birthday party for me. In Holland, you arrange your birthday yourself...which doesn't make any sense..
because it is much nicer being pampered on your own birthday..

My friends told me to come at 6.30 pm to one of the Mexican Restaurants, Sago, which was near my house, so I could walk. So, I put on my new dress which I bought exceptionally for this day, a beautiful blue Cavalli summerdress. I put on my make up and dressed my hair a little bit wilder than normal. Nothing wrong with that: it's my birthday! On my snakeskinned Gucci pumps I walked to the restaurant and it felt really like I was Carrie Bradshaw: I felt very glamorous, particularly when I looked at my diamond ring which I got from my beloved one the other day. An antique (1920's) yellow and white gold diamond cocktail ring. It has nineteen round brilliant cut diamonds, each set in a four prong white gold head, in a waterfall style.

I arrived at the restaurant. One part of it is called the 'love-suite', which has pink walls and voile curtains. There my friends were waiting for me with balloons.. Melita, Marisol, Jenny, Khotan, Rachel, Neyssan, Leila, Monte, Ron, Linda and her beautiful daughter Asha to whom I asked how old she was and she answered: 'I am exactly four and three quarters'. We had a wonderful dinner together and I was overruled by beautiful presents, and the birthday cake which was, of course, specially made for me.

Everything was brilliant, my friends and the setting, but most of all the different experience of not having organized my own birthdayparty. The only thing I had to do was set the date and forward a couple of emailaddresses to Melita who organized all of this. I even didn't have to pay for anything! They just didn't let me. I just could enjoy every minute of my birthday, which I did.

I think I am going to introduce this way of celebrating birthdays in Holland. I can't imagine there will be people who will have objections to it. I can't imagine why..

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Even after all that way (part 1)

“He, I've got news! I am going to work abroad” I said to Ellen, one of my girlfriends who had been single almost all her life. 'What? What do you mean?' she responded. 'I am going to work at a University in the US” I explained. 'What about your son? she asked. 'Of course he is coming with me' I said very confident. 'And your fiance?' she asked. 'What about him?'
'What - does - he - say? She asked with very clear pauses between the sentences as if she already had an answer. 'I don't know, I haven't told him yet' I said.
'Are you afraid that he will disapprove?" She asked, again with a certain voice I didn't recognize in her. 'No, I don't think he'll disapprove, but..''
"But he won't certainly like it" Ellen answered for me.
It was silent on both sides of the phone. I couldn't understand why she reacted this way. And I think my friends' brains couldn't gather the information all together.
Overseas. Child. Father. Ex. Career. Love.
But more likely, she probably didn't know what to think of it. I thought that maybe she would be worried about our friendship and said to comfort her: 'Don't worry, it's only for eight months!'. 'Eight months?!!' she yelled, continuing: 'And what does your ex think about this?' as if the worldpanic broke out. 'Well, what can he say?' I sounded naieve..but not because I didn't think about his rights as a father, but just because of my girlfriend's reaction. And then, as if she realized she had been negative all the time, she put her things together and tried to end it in a positive way: 'Well, it sounds like fun'..with somewhat hesitation in her voice.. 'If you really go'.

Yeah. Sure. If I really go..

This questioning was going to be the first one in a whole line. I didn't quite understand. What was wrong with what I was planning? No personal internal conflicts made me take this 'huge' decision. I was not in a pre-midlife crisis or depressed or whatsoever, so I it was going to be a balanced decision. But 'the others' made me fear my move: my son would react badly, it would cause fights with his father because of the distance, and the separation from my partner might be bad for my love relationship. People immigrate daily and start new lives. What is so difficult about living eight months overseas? It's also overseeable. Was there anything I had to worry about?

To be continued...