UAE curriculums must lift the veil off female thinkers

As a young student enthusiastic about literature my school’s curriculum although included great works, it was noticeable to my young mind even then that they were mostly by male authors, poets, and philosophers. Being a young Arab girl the only rare glimpses of female works came in the form of novels by the Bronte sisters and other Western greats, and while I drank every drop of their ink I was mostly left unsatiated and ever yearning for a familiar female voice. For all the genius of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights neither their authors nor their protagonists shared much in common with this young Arab girl, although the cultural restrictions of England’s 1800s might have slightly resembled some of the aspects we as women lived through at the time, neither the political backdrop of my surroundings nor the struggles of my region were reflected in their foreign works, these women had never even felt that distinct burning that only the Arab sun can leave on one’s skin.

I experienced first hand the drought that our school curriculums suffered from when it came to the female mind. It left me searching for it on the stacked shelves of my school library and making the effort to hunt for those names that were not being introduced to me by the system. It is an ongoing search for after the many great female Arab minds that I have read I am still discovering greater ones that somehow I have still not come across. Since then the number of female Arab minds who have contributed generously to the literature, political and philosophical landscape of the region has more than doubled, yet the eager young ears today are still oblivious to these voices.

The UAE has seen impressive, one could even say unimaginable, advancements in all sectors and has cemented its position as a cultural hub for aspiring thinkers, artists and musicians from across the region and beyond. The Emirati woman has been offered opportunities that other women in neighbouring countries can only dream of, worse yet have to fight for, but it is not enough to give the opportunity without cultivating the mind. It is essential for the young generation to not only know that women can do anything they aspire to they must also understand the mindset that brought them there. Let them interpret and critique the ideas that brought about change, teach them to compare the poetry, the language and the stories and arm them with positive female examples that counter the assembly line of clichés the media has to offer.

Impressionable young students must be given true examples of the Arab woman through her own words, and when I say students I do not mean young girls alone for in order to raise a generation that truly believes in gender equality it is the young boys that have to listen first, those boys who will grow up to have female rivals at every stage of their professional careers. In order to foster greater respect for their future interactions as equals at par with each other in every way we must introduce them both to those female thinkers, those female warriors who have fought to create a distinct voice, that voice that emanates from an agony, a sense of injustice and suffocation from years of silence, that no male thinker, no matter how great, can mimic.

 

This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper May 29, 2016 http://bit.ly/1NVNw90

Arabic version of this article was published in Al Khaleej newspaper http://bit.ly/1TNzCoG

Generation ‘Share’ knows nothing about privacy

It used to be that when one wanted to keep a conversation private all they had to do was shut the door, when one felt strong enough about a memory it was locked in a drawer and when moments were utterly precious they were appreciated instead of being documented for future enjoyment.

Those days are long gone, for the private generation is dwindling to make way for generation ‘share’. It is evolutionary I suppose, but with all the moments, memories and conversations being streamed, beamed and uploaded into clouds has the idea of privacy been mutilated? Slashed at and cut through by the hands of all the Tweeters, Instagramers and Snapchatters out there?

Having to explain to a child of today, who has learned to swipe before they can speak, that certain aspects of a person’s life must remain private for the preservation of one’s sanity is almost frivolous. At one point in time privacy was so sacred that the world agreed to make it a fundamental human right, we agreed then we forgot. The need for privacy is a universal human condition that is essential to the growth process of a human being yet somehow our obsession with sharing has blinded us to the most human of behaviours.

It used to be that the world had to come up with ingenious ploys to pry information out of our clenched hands. Privacy pirates even resorted to reverse psychology deploying efforts to convince us that having access to our information is in fact for our own safety. No schemes needed now for we divulge all without a care in the world, without a moment’s thought, because life is not lived if it’s not being shared.

Steve Jobs’ Apple Inc. was recently under fire for refusing to unlock and extract data from an iPhone at the request of the FBI. While the debate raged on whether or not Apple should adhere to the FBI request most people did not really care whether or not a company could hack into their personal devices and retrieve any information they wanted and more of them believed it was being done already! Let’s face it, nobody ever reads those lengthy privacy agreements and none of us really know what we are accepting when we eagerly click the ‘I Agree’ option on any of these products. We do that not because we are incapable of reading but rather because the lure of technology is such that it has made us indifferent about our once revered privacy.

The messaging service WhatsApp, which has been operating since 2010, has only last week assured its one billion users that their “private” conversations have now become “safe”. What that means for us users is that six years’ worth of private, intimate or critical information have been up for grabs to anyone, to WhatsApp’s defence they do mention that in their privacy agreement which of course none of us have read.

The question here is not whether or not companies are keeping our data secure once they have acquired it but rather do we really care if they are? Because in a world where one is identified and rewarded not by their productive input but rather for how much of their private lives they are willing to reveal, the more you share the more you become. And so it is inevitable that the day has come when we write about privacy with such nostalgia, analysing it as we would some unearthed fossil of a creature our human eyes had never fallen on. Our children might never understand why their parents’ conversations should not be broadcast and that their future selves would probably regret publishing every thought that ran through their young heads because privacy is a concept that must be relearned in an age where it has become a currency that cannot be cashed.

This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 17 April, 2016  http://bit.ly/1p8cWEb

Arabic version of this article appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper http://bit.ly/1SmLQHl

A beacon of hope amidst the hopeless

On a plane headed back to the United Arab Emirates I found myself staring at the airplane’s route map, and as the tiny plane icon inched its way across I couldn’t help but sigh at the state in which all the Arab nations we flew over are in. All the bloodshed, suffering and mindless wars, all that sectarianism, extremism and hate we were flying over.  If I closed my eyes I could almost hear the sobbing of the Iraqi mother and the sighs of the Syrian refugee, I could swear I heard the cries of help from all the helpless souls of my nation. 

Yet as my plane hurtled through their dark skies, parting the clouds above their heads and leaving behind nothing but a trail of smoke, I realised that I am the one who is truly helpless. For I cannot wipe the tears of that Iraqi mother nor can I console the Syrian refugee. I cannot bring back this woman’s child or make a promise that this man will return home once again. I can only write of their sorrow and remind you all that their grieving souls need our voices to speak for them. 

Touching down on this great land, which stands as a beacon of peace amid the chaos, I pray may God bless the UAE and all the people who have chosen to make it their home and protect the Arab world.Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and Yemen... our Arab nation is haemorrhaging before our eyes. We continue to watch as great plans of divide and conquer are being realised and remain helpless as people of this great nation are being dismissed as collateral damage. Civilisations have been demolished and culture is being desecrated faster than I can write these words. The horror of it all is paralysing and yet we should not be still. We must act, we must shout and bring aid to those of us who suffer, for the pain of our fellow Arabs is bound to hurt us. We are one for better or worse and that should always be where we stand. 

As my plane approached its final destination and I glimpsed the flickering lights of my home I heard the words of its founder echo. The late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the man who believed in unity and built his country as an example that such unity can be harmonious as well as powerful. The United Arab Emirates today stands monument to his words, “We believe in National, Gulf, Arab and Islamic unity. There is no doubt that our faith in the power of unity shall not waiver.” 

Landing in the UAE fills me with hope, for this country along with its current leadership continues to heed Sheikh Zayed’s words, coming to aid all those in need. 

In 2013, the UAE has jumped 18 points to become the world’s largest donor of official humanitarian assistance, actively supporting its Arab neighbours and the rest of the world. Proving that it is not the geographical size of a nation but its intentions that dictate its place in history. While some nations in the region continue to meddle in other countries’ affairs spreading hatred and inciting holy wars, the people of the UAE and its leadership carry a message of peace and respect for all faiths at a time when such ideas seem far-fetched. The general outlook of the UAE is to fight this hatred with productivity and put out the fires of destruction with a flood of hard work and resilience. 

The UAE’s footprint has been a positive and productive one, holding on to the dream of true Arab unity that rises above corrupt political agendas and financial gains, Arab unity that stems from mutual respect for one another and the realisation that no amount of weapons or fleeting alliances can bring absolute power like the one which unity provides.

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 29th June, 2014 http://bit.ly/1oeO8G9

Appeared in Arabic in Al Khaleej newspaper here  http://bit.ly/TH5G2W 

Feminist before her time

We knew her as a mother of men, a mother to all but back when she was younger she was a girl who would not conform to what she believed was unfair, to what she saw as unjust. She was a girl who possessed the courage to put an end to what was in her eyes, even then, demeaning. It was a time when this country was nothing more than a gathering of tribes. She grew up in it not as we know it today, she lived in a UAE that was tight-knit, sheltered and unexposed. 

It was a time when child marriages were the norm, a place where a sign of a man's wealth was revealed by the number of wives he had, and women’s rights were those that were given to them by men. Even then, she stood tall, resisted an early marriage and refused to be treated like a possession. It was her choice to raise her two boys as a single mother, two boys who grew up to be men who played a pivotal role in shaping the country we know today. 

Everyone has heard of her two sons but not many have heard of the great woman behind these great men.

My grandmother was the first feminist I have ever known. She spoke of a woman's right and the preservation of her pride and dignity at a time when such ideas seemed taboo. She believed that a woman's education was her most prized possession and that her independence is a right not a luxury bestowed upon her. As a child I grew up listening to her stories of the harsh yet innocent times of her youth, of her struggles in raising her boys with the help of only her mother. I heard many times of her heartbreak at sending her boys off to Kuwait to get an education that she could never have. And about the many years she longed to see them at a time when communications were confined to letters that she could not read. 

She was a woman who loved life and the people in it. She recited poetry, loved music and had a sense of humour that remained with her to the very end. She was the woman who taught me that speaking one's mind and standing up for one's rights should be done gracefully and without disrespect for opposing views. She was a mother to all who knew her and to this day fondly call her "Mama Sheikha". 

I know that my words will never do her justice for she was the greatest part of my life. The void she left can never be filled no matter how many words I throw into it. She was my link to a life I never lived but, through her eyes, grew to love.

Loss is the absence of a part of you, you hold dear. In life, death is the absolute loss. We are taught that death is inevitable yet that never makes it any less cruel. Death is always sudden no matter how prepared you are for it. Death is always sudden, death is always cruel. 

My grandmother lost a son eleven years ago, his absence broke her spirit and she was never the same again. Eleven years later and only one week before her son's death anniversary she chose to leave us. And just like in life, in death she left gracefully and quietly. She was by my side since the day I came into this world and when she left it I was by hers.

She was my father's mother, she was my mother, she was and still is the strongest woman I have ever met. 

May she rest in eternal peace knowing that she will forever remain in our hearts.

This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 12 May, 2013. Arabic version was published in Al Khaleej newspaper http://bit.ly/10P6vT3

  

One-way ticket to Mars

There was a time when people looked up at the sky in bewilderment, felt humbled by its vastness and intrigued by its unattainable wonders. It was the one place that allowed a human being the courtesy of a boundless imagination. But that was then, and this is now.

This month, a Dutch company named Mars One has made the dreamers of us an offer they cannot refuse. It is to send people on a one-way trip to Mars to start a human colony on the red planet. With no way for return, setting foot on this elusive planet means they are eternally on their own. Left to their own devices and vulnerable to whatever dangers lie ahead, they are to fend for themselves. So who would be brave enough or mad enough to take this trip of no return you may ask?

According to Mars One there have been 10,000 applicants so far. Ten thousand people found this idea alluring enough to venture into a place of no return. Fearlessly accepting to take this one-way journey, leaving behind everything and everyone they have ever known and bidding farewell to their mother, Earth. They are expected to fly, four at a time, living on limited supplies of canned food and to drink water made of their recycled urine. Even if there was an atom of a chance that these people could return, Mars One explains that once their bodies have adjusted to the mere 38% gravity level on Mars they would be physically incapable to tolerate Earth's much stronger gravity.

According to Mars One, this project is to be financed through media sponsorship. The company aims to create a reality-TV show around this mission, transmitting the daily lives of these Martian converts who have willingly left us behind to live the rest of their lives on a planet far, far away. These real-life Jetsons will instantaneously become the celebrities no one on Earth could ever get to meet. The fact that this endeavour is to be a media spectacle somehow diminishes its integrity and gives off a dark aura of blatant exploitation of cosmic proportions.

Bizarre as I might think this journey is, the more I ponder it the more logic I see.

We have succeeded in destroying earth, infecting it with disease, abusing its resources and are now counting down to its slow but sure demise. The idea of being able to escape all the devastation we have created and start anew could be compelling enough to propel people into the darkness of the virgin skies in a tiny pod fuelled by their sheer hope and naïve optimism. 

Yet to think that this expedition is a mere escape would be looking at the subject from a one-dimensional perspective. The egotistical compound of the human psyche shines another light on this endeavour, man as conqueror of Earth is not enough, man must conquer the heavens as well.  Our narcissistic nature keeps us forever ready to plant a flag on foreign territory, our pens anxious to draw boundaries sectioning any place we choose to inhabit. After all, this might not be about the journey but about the spoils.

For the romantics of us, this journey could be about man the explorer, man the adventurous. It could be the culmination of the ultimate dream that started as a sketch in Leonardo da Vinci's notebook. It could restore our faith in human determination and achievements after we have come to believe that all man can achieve is death and destruction.

Whatever the reasons for the journey may be and setting aside the physical and psychological damage that can occur, if these Martian pioneers were to actually carry out this mission successfully, would they do it differently? Would they learn from their earthly mistakes and strive to build something better?

Will they be able to set aside religious disparities, will they erase racism, eradicate hatred, and will they shed the ruthless skin of greed? Or will the weaknesses of mankind prevail and they would end up starting a journey similar to the one we have taken? A journey that ends in a bruised and battered world.

I wonder if these 'chosen ones' have thought about the responsibility they shoulder, I wonder if they even care.

This title was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 28 April, 2013. Arabic version published in Al Khaleej Newspaper http://bit.ly/188wGbY