How To Change the World

Happy new year dear readers. And yes I am back, but this time with a slightly different oulook on things. Politics has drained me.

In fact, talks of politics and religion have drained a whole country. All Egyptians suffer now. I walk down the street and I can sense the change--that twinkle, that glimmer of hope that we witnessed all across Egypt after the Uprising of 2011 is now, officially, extinct. 

Religious extremism, poverty, and corruption existed back in 2011, as they do now. But what had changed since the early days of the revolution was people's heartfelt belief that a change is possible. The hope in people's hearts gave them resilience and it empowered them. Everyone believed that what they do matters, and that they have the power to change their world. 

The fanatics are like the angry mob in the illustration, yelling "$KULL&BONES!#$&@." 

Don't fear them. 

They are puppets. Their insecurities pull their strings. 

Don't shout back at them. You can't win at the game of ugliness. Instead, show them love. Show them happiness. Show them fullfillment. Show them gratitude. Show them all the things they miss out on by being who they are. And slowly, one by one, you will convert them. 

Stand in the Face of Fanatics and Change the World One Heart at a Time

You may be skeptical but have faith, I have witnessed such "conversions" myself. Inside every human being is the need for connection, and the yearning for transcendence. They may not show it--or know it for that matter--but it is there. 

Just lead and show them the way. This is how to change the world, by touching one heart at a time. 

P.S Thank you  Robin Möller  my colleague in the RMT institute for sharing this inspiring comic strip. 

P.S. I tracked down the artist behind this brilliant comic strip, it's Nathaneal Lark. You could catch more of his artwork at NLarkArt

Freedom: A New F-Word ?

Article first Published on BikyaMasr


I'll let you in on a little secret. When I was a dreamy teenaged my parents --especially my dad-- itched when they heard the word Freedom. 


And I believe that most, if not all, Egyptian and Middle Eastern parents still shudder in fear when they here their young one speaking of their demands for Freedom.


"FREEEEEE???? What do you meant you want to be FREEEE?" A parent from our culture always says. 


"Do you want to be homosexual? Do you want to have sex? To do drugs?? Istaghfaro 'llah *asking God for forgiveness*" The parent usually breaks down into tears at this point. "What have I done to deserve such a child? God help me! Why can't you be more like me at your age huh?"


One said parent might've even had a normal adolescence with mistakes that they hate to admit. And if you were ever to confront them they'd say: "well, I want to you to be better than me. I don't want you to make the same mistakes I did." 


The examples are many. But one very common and almost ubiquitous example is the hijabi and/or Niqabi mama who forces the islamic dress on her daughter. 


The mother who, in her day, wore whatever she pleased and dated the guy she eventually married asks her daughter to "cover it all" and abstain from even talking to boys. 


"My parents were not very religious so they didn't teach me right from wrong. But I'll be DAMNED if I watch you be promiscuous!" This, naturally, reads "Do whatever you want as long you're sneaky enough to fool me."


To most of the 'older' generations, Freedom is promiscuity and promiscuity is the root of all evil. 


And the pseudo-liberals we have roaming round in the land of the Nile have a curious way of fighting for Freedom. They offer up assurances that when granted our freedom, we will be good boys and gals and use it properly and respect the social norms and rules and what have you. 
HA!
Freedom, people, is the right to be FREE. To choose your way and find that spark in your soul that's worth living for.


Those who deny us our Freedom do nothing, other than frustrate. Because whether they like it or not, or want to admit or not, we ARE free. Each and every one of us is free to wake up and go rob a bank, or kill our neighbor, or chop our ex in tiny morsels. But we don't because we CHOOSE not to, because we accept moral responsibility and cherish righteousness, at least most of the time. 


And this is precisely why we, as opposed to animals, are responsible for our acts before God. God gave Adam and Eve Freedom the moment he gave them Free Will. He told them not to eat the Forbidden Fruit but left the tree right there in front of them. Their test, as is ours, is fighting temptation. 


So dear Salafi Wahabis or whatever you can call yourself today, please remember that, in the words of William Wallace (aka. Braveheart), you can take away our lives, but you can't take away our freedom!

On Hope and Being Young

I found a quotations notebook from my teenage years the other day.

It started off  with stanza One of  Emily Dicknison's

 "Hope is the thing with feathers.

 That perches in the soul.

 And sings a tune-- without the words
 And never stops at all."

It was written up in beautiful colors with an elegant hand writing complete with decorative motifs and small happy scribbles. 

The notebook's was full of quotations, some attributed some not. I flipped through it without much attention--until I found that final page. 

I had not remembered collecting these quotes or making that notebook at all. But from the choice of first quote I had assumed that it was a happy teenage girl's little book--a guide to life, or something of the sort. 

Until I came across the last page.
The page held the last quote: 

"Contentement is when you finally realize that life is a gift, not a right." with a small circular drawing beside it, labeled "Vicious Circle of Wants and Needs."  The circle, scribbled in fading pencil strokes, showed how the "quest for happiness" leads to "unfullfillment" which, naturally, leads right back up to the "quest for happiness."

Then, a sad question a few lines down: "How can I break free?"

The answer was shocking: " God," circled in red.

I must have been fourteen or fifteen when I wrote the first quote. But I remember nothing of the circumstances of writing this one last page.  That page was not just a pious girl's quest for Nirvana, or a plan to relinquish material life. This is was the beginning of what was to be many years of learned helplessness.

I wonder who taught this young intelligent human being full of potential that she has to "stop wanting." Who taught her that happiness is bad? Why did she think that there was no use trying?

What happened between the first and the last pages, you may wonder. Well, the patriarchal misogynist Powers That Be had finally gotten the best of me. A very long story that I am sure I am going to tell someday, or even put it in a book. For many years I battled with this there-is-no-use mentality. Sometimes I won, but most of the time the Powers That Be had something entirely different in mind.

How did that story end? Well, I ultimately came out victorious! The Powers That Be are no longer in charge. I'm in charge!

But somewhere deep inside still lies that sad scared little girl. Is this why I was drawn to writing YA fiction about a girl who thought of herself no good but turned out to hold all the power? Perhaps. But maybe I also wrote it for my daughter, to tell her of all the things that she can be and all the things that she can do--if she chooses to.

The operative term here is "if she chooses to." This is a theme I will come back to time and time again in the Battle for Maat. Aya is not just someone who is fated by blood and heritage for greatness, she had to choose to be great. She will even defy common sense on many occasions because she wants to do what she feels is right and wants to find her own way.

"We are who we choose to be." The blind Seer tells Aya in the beginning of her journey. I believe in that wholeheartedly. Don't you?