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Culture Religion

Another child bride story

This one is from Saudi. Apparently, a 16 year old girl drank bleach in order to kill herself so that she wouldn’t be forced to marry a 75 year old guy. The father of the 16 year old was doing it so that the 75 year old would let him marry the 75 year old’s 13 year old daughter. You can read about it here.

There are several things wrong with this picture. Forcing girls to marry, the huge age discrepancies in age, and of course the desire to marry a 13 year old. I think it’s safe to assume that we’re dealing with a couple of first class creeps…

The comments on that article are pretty interesting as well. There are a ton of people that basically say, “See, Islam is a barbaric religion,” despite the fact that one of the first things said in the article is that forced marriages are haraam. So these guys are operating outside of accepted religious guidelines.

“But what about the marrying of a 13 year old? Isn’t that nasty? Shouldn’t Islam ban that?” Oh come on, like there has never been a 13 year old bride in the US. And please point out to me where in the Bible it says what a good age is to be married… Religion isn’t a cut and dried affair, and it always bows down to cultural norms in the mainstream.

To me, that is a more damning aspect of this. Many places in the middle east (and especially Saudi) are stuck in the 5th century when it comes to things like this. I can sort of, kind of understand the importance of marrying off a girl at 9 back then. Life was pretty different, and much harder in 500AD. Things are much different now, and so people that want to marry young girls really strike everyone as people trying to take advantage of “the law” for their own, creepy agenda.

So I’m not laying this at the feet of Islam, but I do wish that more Imams would take on some leadership roles when it comes to things like this. I wish they would say, “Yes, the prophet (PBUH) did marry a 9 year old, and yes, he waited until she was 12 before consummating the marriage HOWEVER, you are not him and there really isn’t a good reason to marry a girl that young any more.” Would that be so difficult?

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Categories
odds and ends

An even newer layout for the blog

I’ve changed my website again. The home page is still at isaharr.com, but now it’s just a navigation page to the other blogs. You can get to the Blogging in Yemen page directly by going to http://www.isaharr.com/blog/page27.php.

Categories
odds and ends

A new layout for my blog…

I have decided to separate out my Blogging in Yemen from my general ramblings. I’m going to strip out the general stuff and put it in the new one that will now be found at www.isaharr.com. I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen with the RSS feeds, so those of you using those, you might want to go to the new home page (which will be up soonish) and redo the rss settings in your readers… We’ll see how this goes.

Categories
Music

New blog for music

Hmm, talking about sitar music and Mozart operas in a blog entitled “Blogging in Yemen” is a little silly. I have lots of other things I’d like to blog about music, so I’ve started a new one just for my music ramblings. I’ve started it out with an ABBA clip that is, well, interesting… You can see the new blog here.

Categories
Arabic teaching

Now I’m confused…

I was chatting with someone I had met online (a brother of a friend from college) and he asked a question that has made my head spin. He has taught English in a variety of places so I was picking his brain about that. Out of the blue, he asked me if i had ever considered the Peace Corps. I admitted that I hadn’t, and we went on…

Afterwards, I couldn’t shake the implicit question about joining. It has some appeal, but there are some things that don’t. If I joined it, it would be another opportunity to live in a different culture, and everyone says that it is a great experience. On the other hand, it would be another 2 years of being poor…

They have positions in Morocco and Jordan. Those are the only places they work in where my language could possibly be of any use. It probably wouldn’t help much in Morocco though… If I went to either, I could continue my Arabic studies with no problem (which I could see being attractive again in the future). On the other hand, it might be a good thing to go someplace totally different. I dunno…

There’s always the option of just getting some certification and teaching for pay of course, but with the Peace Corp there is always the potential to do more.

At this point, I have a lot I want to accomplish (like being able to walk a couple of miles again) before I even consider anything like that. Still, I’ll be wondering about it…

Categories
odds and ends photography

My progress

I haven’t written much of the book I’m supposedly working on. I knew that was going to be a problem, and here it is. It’s mostly an issue of finding the right way to present the information, nothing seems quite right… I’m not sure if I should write a narrative or simply present situations. I’m also not so sure about first or third person… Anyway, I’ll figure it out and things will go more smoothly Inshalla…

I am making some progress on the physical front. As you may or may not know, I came back here a physical mess. I could hardly walk 100 yards without weaving all over the place. I still don’t know what lead to my rapid deterioration in that regard, but I think I’m getting better. My muscles were just weak in general. That’s all getting better with some targeted exercises. I bought one of those wheels for doing core exercises. Gawd, that thing is brutal. My shoulders, abs, chest, and back are feeling it right about now.

I’ve also managed to get my digestive things under control as well… I think. I’m now taking some probiotics and they seems to have taken care of the GI issues. It’s nice to be able to eat again and not worry about the results…

So things are improving, slowly… I even have a job! It’s a short term thing, but it should be good. I am scanning about 2500 old negatives, hopefully it’ll go quicker than I think it will… Things are looking up!

Categories
Culture politics Yemen

The fighting is over!

The president of Yemen has announced that the long standing fighting in the north has ended. Woo hoo! Now I can go back! Just kidding of course. I was talking with a friend of mine that I met in Yemen last night. I asked Dana if she missed Yemen. She said, “I did for a little while, but then I got over it. No really, I’m really over it…” I don’t think I’m there yet, but I can see that day approaching.

UPDATE

There is now a new press release (here) that says a couple of hours after the president made his declaration, the rebels seized a village where there has been sporadic fighting. I doubt that there will ever be a “neat” victory on either side, that part of the world doesn’t lend itself to that…

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Culture Yemen

I’ve decided…

I’m going to write a book about my time in Yemen. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, hell, I think that every westerner that goes there thinks about it. With a few encouraging words from members of my family I’ve decided to give it a go.

Now’s a good time to do this since there’s not really anything else to take up my time. The thing that has been holding me back is myself of course. Writing something as long as a book is an intimidating prospect. I’ve never tried anything this long before, of course I had never been that far out of the US before I went to Yemen, so what the hell. The only way I’ll know if I can do it is to start writing. Who knows what will become of this project. If nothing else, I hope that this will help me sort out what I learned over there. I’ve often approached creative works in the context of puzzle solving. I’ve found that taking pictures, sketching, and writing have helped me understand things better. Here’s hoping that this will do that as well.

Hey, it’ll keep me off the streets for a while:-)

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Categories
Culture teaching travel Yemen

Schools in Pakistan

I just finished reading a book called “Three Cups of Tea.” It’s about an American man named Greg Mortenson and his mission to build schools in impoverished Pakistan and Afghanistan. He has quite a story to tell and his accomplishments are really something. I never encountered danger like he did, of course he jumped right into that trouble with both feet while I have been more circumspect. Mortenson sounds like the guy we wish we all were, helping other people, facing insurmountable odds and making things happen in places that really need help. His Central Asia Institute (click here to go to the site) is one of the best charities I can think of. They do things the right way. Instead of swooping in and handing things out like so many charities do, he goes in, asks if they want a school, makes the village contribute to it, and also makes them provide sweat equity. That way the locals are invested in the project and he can be sure that everyone is on board with the goals.

The book isn’t great literature or anything, but it is a great story. I really identified with the urge to teach people in places like that a little about the world. He was dealing with much worse situations than I did, but the thought is the same… I also liked to see one of my theories in action, that is what we do makes a very large impression on people. Being in Yemen taught me a lot of things and I will always remember how grateful people were for me just being there. Having someone from the US actually come there and talk with them meant a lot to them and I like to think that their ideas about Americans moved in a more positive direction. They understood that Yemen was more than a little out of the way for us and they were very happy to share their culture with me.

It’s a good read, you should pick it up!

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Categories
Culture Yemen

Being at home weirdness #44563

I was sitting in the reception of my cousin’s wedding thinking to myself that I need to buy a suit. The last suit I got was for my mother’s second wedding, and that was a while ago. I have no idea if it fits, but I do know that I don’t like it. I also know that I need one for job interviews, etc.

My mind then drifted back to my last weeks in Sana’a. I remember hearing the shelling in the distance and wondering what would happen to that place. The bombardment had calmed down tremendously, but it was still ongoing… With all of the troubles the government has, with all of the problems the Yemenis have, I laid awake and listened and wondered.

Then my mind came back to the reception and I realized that I didn’t give a damn about the suit…

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