Living Behind the Veil

I'm often asked what I wear in Afghanistan and what it's like to wear a veil. It's freedom. Freedom to have a bad hair day, freedom to arrange my chadar to conceal the curve of my breasts and backside, freedom to not be an expatriate for a little while. It means freedom to hide even on the street from the Afghan men's eyes which seem to strip me naked.
When I relax my shoulders and walk less purposefully, less confidently, my eyes downcast and covered by sunglasses, I pass for an Afghan woman. I hear the men whisper in Dari, "Is she a foreigner or local woman?" I chuckle but am silent. On the street, I'm also a free target....freely exposed to groping, sexual innuendos whispered to me as a man bicycles by, free to have stones thrown at me, freely seen as no one's wife, daughter, sister, mother, friend, or boss. I step inside my gate, and remove my chapan and chadar. Now I'm someone's boss, motherhood returns to me as little steps run to greet me, and I receive a kiss from my adoring husband. Now I'm free to his loving and gentle eyes which know and enjoy my curves, free to once again be under the protective umbrella of being a wife, mother, friend, colleague, boss, niece, sister, daughter, woman.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

What if the Good Samaritan was an Orthodox Sunni Muslim Woman?


The Good Samaritan was hated. 
He was hated for his religion. 
He was hated for his nationality. 
He was hated for his proximity to his Jews.
He was hated for everything he stood for. 

The Muslim in America is hated. 
The Muslim man and woman are hated for their religion. 
They are hated for their nationality. 
They are despised for how they dress. They are hated because they are "here."  
Americans are afraid of the Muslim man and woman.
Americans tell them to leave "our" country.

What if an American Republican Evangelical Christian man got in a car accident on a deserted road? He was trapped in his car, bleeding from his wounds, unable to reach his phone to call for help?  

A democrat White nationalist sees the wreck and assumes someone else has already called.  
An upper class Asian bicyclist speeds by - he is in the middle of a workout. 
An Evangelical Mega Church pastor goes by in his car, late for another business meeting. 

A veiled Sunni Muslim woman stops. She sees the damage and pulls him out of his car.  She applies pressure to his bleeding wound, and calls 911. She stays with him until they come and put him in the ambulance.  She follows the ambulance to the hospital and stays near, helping to call his wife and family until they come to the hospital. 

_____________________________________________________________

Luke 10:25-37

25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”

26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”

27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”

28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”

29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”

30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’

36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”

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