Le weekend

Friday afternoon my sister called me and told me she was over at my mom's house. She wanted to know if I was planning to go to the mosque (for the Friday night lecture) or if I was coming home. I know she's waiting for the day when I'm going to make my
Jamaican oxtail. She's afraid she's going to miss it even though I told her I'd call her when I make them. She's been eyeing the oxtail every time she comes over, lol. We ended up going to get Somali food and chillin' at home. It was FREEZING outside. The temperature was like -14 or something crazy. Needless to say, I wasn't trying to be outside any longer than I had to.

Saturday night was "ladies night out". I only recently became a part of the outing. It's basically like 7 or 8 African-American Muslim sisters who get together every other Friday or Saturday night and do something together. This time we went to eat Thai food and then we went to see a play. The play was written by an Iranian women and depicted the oppression she suffered in Iran. We had a lively discussion about it afterwards because most of the group hated it and a few people liked it. As you can imagine, if you know anything about Iran, the play had a classic anti-hijab theme, a scene with a woman leading salaat (with the men behind the women) and some discussion about Islam. I felt, overall, the playwright fed right into the western media stereotype about Islam and Muslim women. I felt like the message it left the audience with was "I'm so free now that I've taken off my hijab and have disobeyed Allah". It was a weird dynamic to be there and watch the play since all seven of us showed up in hijab.

Don't get me wrong here, I understand and have great sympathy for the struggles Iranian women face. Islam or hijab were never forced on me. I chose to be Muslim and I chose to wear hijab. Furthermore, Islam has functioned as source of peace and liberation for me. I don't know it as anything different so I admit my bias here. I just hate it when people think that Islam oppresses women rather than people and their interpretations of Islam. Ya know what I mean?

After we left the play we went to a coffee house down the street and hung out until it closed. The playwright, the cast, and some of the audience also came to the coffee house. I think politeness prevented us from sharing our thoughts about the play with her. After all, she was kind of celebrating with the cast. Eventually she came over to our table and asked how we heard about the play and thanked us for coming. I wanted to ask for my $15 back. (Just kidding).

Sunday I began the daunting task of going through my things and deciding what I need to give away or throw away before the big move. One would think I'd acquire less "stuff" since I move so much. Yet every time I move I find myself in this situation...When I think about it, I realized I've moved every single year since I was a freshman in college. I need to get somewhere and settle y'all. FOR REAL!