#NoHijabDay

So this day happened earlier this month.

‘If you are free to not wear hijab for one day then don’t wear hijab, in solidarity with with women without that freedom’

Poor grammar was replicated as it was in the original statement. Let’s just get straight into it.
Do I wear a scarf on my head as an accessory? A fashion statement? Do I wear this for fun, in that I just take it off whenever I want? Who are you, even?
I feel for the women who are forced to wear hijab, but that doesn’t mean I should take mine off. As if when I take it off, other women magically gain freedom. Even if they did, I still wouldn’t.
Soz
Wearing hijab should be a choice, but it’s also obligatory in Islam. Why should another woman take hers off in ‘solidarity’.
Hijab is more than just a cloth on your head. It’s modesty, it’s your character and behaviour. Since you want to take it off in celebration of ‘no hijab day’, why don’t you spend the day being shitty to every single person you meet, brag about everything and just generally be a despicable human being. Remove your humbleness. Remove your good character. Remove your hijab.
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Honour violence

“Whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment.” [Quran; 4:93]

murder
ˈməːdə/
noun
1. the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.

I’ve been so MIA, for various reasons, and a new one is because my nails are too long to type comfortably. One is also broken and I’m too scared to rip it off the nail bed. Anyway. This is a long one.
So I don’t know about anywhere else in the world, but over here, people are finally getting a glimpse into honour based violence/murder, thanks to a show called Murdered by my Father, which you can watch on BBC iPlayer here. I don’t remember the last time I was so thankful for a drama, and this has opened a lot of eyes to the disgusting traditions that a lot of women are subject to. Too many people are oblivious to this horrible crime performed in the name of culture, reputation or warped religious interpretations. Imagine a woman is KILLED for having sex before marriage? Tortured for having a boyfriend? Beaten for wanting permission to marry someone she chooses, rather than someone she despises? MURDERED BY HER FAMILY FOR BEING A VICTIM OF RAPE BECAUSE IT BRINGS SHAME ON THE FUCKING FAMILY? For the average woman in the UK, such a thing is unthinkable and doesn’t sound real.
This is NOT just limited to Muslim families. It is VERY widespread and happens all over the world, to people of different religions. At best, this is in the form is disownment. At worst, it’s murder.

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Tax the rich, feed the poor

This is part of a series I am going to do, as there are many important things I would like to speak about. Here you’ll find the summaries of each post. For a world who is so proud of our technological advances, we are relapsing and it’s time for me to unleash my frustrations.
We are a world who let a witty black president make us believe that we are overcoming racism. But we are regressing dangerously fast. Where it is okay to arrest a non-white child over a clock they thought was a bomb. Where it is okay for the police to violate someone just for being black.  Every black person is a thug, every Asian or Arab is a terrorist, every Mexican is a lazy criminal. But every white cop isn’t a violent, racist piece of shit – even though, painfully, we have a multitude of evidence for it. There is one and only one race that is never generalised. But no, we are definitely overcoming racism. There is definitely no preferred race in this world.
We are a world where feminists are becoming much more active. Women are becoming stronger, in charge of the image of their own bodies, because that is the most important thing we have to deal with, right? Not women being given the same recognition as men when achieving something great, not women being given the education to achieve the same or higher positions as men, but the right to be naked without being objectified. The right to be respected without having to earn it. Women have started to strip naked in order to reject objectification, to storm into religious meetings and proclaim that women must not have the choice to cover up, because to be free means to be naked. Women are denying other women the right to be their own woman. But feminism is definitely a step in the direction for all of us.
We are a world that believes that women should be their own type of beautiful, but men must still look like underwear models, a world where women claim to be in a patriarchal society but forget that men are subject to objectification too. We finally believe that women should reject the photoshopped images in magazines, containing standards of beauty that don’t exist. But we still have to conform to European standards, of course,  just without being stick thin – we have come to the conclusion that only fat women are “real women”. Instead of urging us to become fit, we must be happy with unhealthy bodies. Buzzfeed articles recreate Disney princesses as the “average woman”, telling us that ‘fat’ and unhealthy looking is average. The media tells us that we have to have European features and European skin, but the assets of “exotic” women. Sultry eyes, a big butt and everything else. But you have to be fair skinned. Body shaming begins again. Racism complements it. Read more