[lit-ideas] Re: Wahhaj's vision
- From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:42:01 -0700
> "Can you see the vision, can you see young women
> walking down the street of Newark, New Jersey, with long flowing hijab and
> long dresses?"
>
ck: This is a vision? This is just about any street in Fresno today!
Muslim-owned stores abound, in all neighborhoods. There's a mosque down the
street from the university, and a number of them throughout town. (More
mosques than synagogues, but more churches then either by a factor of at
least 10.) The Islamic cultural center of Fresno regularly sponsors
community activities, advertising in the newspaper and on NPR. A woman in
hadj-wear works at the local B&N. (Ask her about the divorce she's ploying.
[To ploy--to plan, secretly. Synonym: emotional ruse, or plot.] )
Talking politics with acquaintances is not generally done, in this
environment. As long as we all remain superficially friendly and helpful to
one another, we get along just fine. And I wonder, if that all that's
needed, everywhere? Tolerance means getting along on a superficial level. It
means, apparently, respecting otherness to the degree that nobody is
harassed, and nobody brags, either, about that otherness. (This is my
culture--partake of it pleasantly or leave us the fuck alone.)
What's beyond the surface of clothing and obvious differences? In a
multicultural mosaic of a place, you won't get to know that unless you
disturb the balance by, say, marrying in.
I just wonder if Fresno's casual hadj-wearing is so surprising to the rest
of America (not talking about NYC, obviously). Loads of sari-wearing here,
too. Me, I'll stick to my comfy, homemade, middle-aged humanistic-
feminist-don't-give-me-religious-crap, drapy look. Lots of beads.
Carol
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
