On the Wheels

Porsch GT-3
Originally uploaded by r3oodi

Wajeha Al-Huwaider is Saudi Writer and Women’s Rights Activist had recently wrote an article titled " Help Women in Saudia Arabia to Buy Your Cars", it really made me think about how lucky we women in Oman. Oman is one of the neighboring country to Saudi Arabia, it takes a border line two women separated between this border line. One opens her eyes to life and find her mother and other women are driving and anther one, she opens her eyes to learn that driving is not allowed or forbidden. I recall my trip to Saudi Arabia when I was a teenager with my brother and elder sister, we were driving to Saudi Arabia before reaching the border my sister who was driving had to switch driving seats with my brother. I had this urging question why was driving forbidden in Saudi Arabia, in past before cars, during the prophet's time women rid horses and camels. I kept wondering what was so different.

I'm waiting for our sisters in Saudi Arabia seeing them on the wheels with their cars. Hope it will be soon, it will also open us doors to cross KSA by driving. Looking forward to cross Saudi Arabic driving one day…

Please join in the campaign to see our Saudi Sisters getting on the wheel…(Read the article in here)

http://www.aafaq.org/english/aafaq_today.aspx?id_news=135

Black History Month (USA)

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer
1917-1977
[Beaten for trying to VOTE]

In 1963, Mrs. Hamer and other civil rights workers arrived in Winona, MS by bus. They were ordered off the bus and taken to Montgomery County Jail. The story continues "...Then three white men came into my room. One was a state highway policeman (he had the marking on his sleeve)... They said they were going to make me wish I was dead. They made me lay down on my face and they ordered two Negro prisoners to beat me with a blackjack. That was unbearable. The first prisoner beat me until he was exhausted, then the second Negro began to beat me. I had polio when I was about six years old. I was limp. I was holding my hands behind me to protect my weak side. I began to work my feet. My dress pulled up and I tried to smooth it down. One of the policemen walked over and raised my dress as high as he could. They beat me until my body was hard, 'til I couldn't bend my fingers or get up when they told me to. That's how I got this blood clot in my eye - the sight's nearly gone now. My kidney was injured from the blows they gave me on the back."

[To read more about Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer click HERE]

Where Our African Heroes

I recall as a child hearing about the Ugandan president Idi Amin and at one time hearing the news that he was on exile in Saudi Arabia. Last week we had a movie brought home titled The Last King of Scotland which apparently is based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician Dr. Nicholas Garrigan during the 1970s. How clueless of me to not know that he was a brutal dictator, so as I sat to watch the movie assuming that this movie was trying to show us the history of Idi Amin's which it had indeed removed my blindfold but it was through his physician and from the first scene how Dr. Nicholas travel in the bus meeting an African woman who invite him for one night stand, showing us how energized through this night stand. The movie goes on smooth until we reach on a special party held by the President or on nightclub I can not really tell where we are shown how African women dancers dancing topless and with Dr. Nicholas meeting one of Idi Amins' wife where he gets involved with her physically and this scene has been detailed. The movie swerve that the wife get pregnant from Dr. Nicholas and the journey of the women to abort herself and the brutality that happened with it.

Normally I watch a movie and forget about it, this movie left me with intense anger, my African in me was so angry as how our African women had been portrayed in this movie. As an African I wonder do we have in our history heroes that we could look up to and we can portray them in a movie that can do them justice. Isn't high time for us to bring the glory for those who did us proud in Africa or there is none of them to mention.

I watched this movie and had a question that is this all we have in Africa to show to the rest of the world.

This movie have been directed by Kevin Macdonald 2006 and had won Oscar and nominated for many other awards.

~She is who she is~

So he asked who is she. She stood there to inhale, with deep breath she plunged into thinking, the words repeated to her in self form “Who am I?” Lightening of thoughts by passed her, but were too fast for her to snatch the answer, and within self walls fear started to crawl in but insisted that she knows the answer of this simple question. As everyone has to know who are they, its impossible not to know. So the question repeated her self to her, she pulled the only rope that she had in her, is being spontaneous and her voice came out not offering an answer to the question but is to convince her self that she is the person is what she is about to describe “I’m a woman, who never enjoyed her womanhood, a soul that still searches her perfect body form, I’m a sensation that lost her tip of senses, I’m emptiness that awaits for fulfillment, I’m a tear - yet too weak to engrave her path, I’m human wanting God’s acceptance, I’m a female scribbled with many emotions, I’m a body cursed in curves, I’m hunger aching for a quench, I’m all ruins but wanting to parade my wall, I’m a child who wants to stand in shoes of a man and I’m poetry waiting to be all written” As she ended pronouncing of what she is, finally she had freed her chains of trouble. She stood in bold face staring at him, yet it was piercing into him, so he can understand, that she is a woman, who has been trapped in claws of lion, but too proud to show her defeat. She has no ground to fall, so she chooses to stand despite her trembling knees.

Breast Cancer Awareness Support

Brave Faces: The Daring Stand Against Cancer, written by Nasra Al Adawi. It is 64 pages, 6 x 9, hard-covered, spiral bound (two-part) book. This book contains real life stories written by those who have suffered with cancer. All proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Cancer Awareness in Tanzania. The top booklet is written in Swahili, and the bottom booklet is written in English. Brave Faces has corporate sponsors, but it's a self-publishing project. The ISBN number is 978-9948-03-569-5.

Go here to read Reader's REVIEWS and Press RELEASE. Click on photo or here BUY ME! Your support would be greatly appreciated!

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream - How do we carry on his Legacy?

Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream. What is your dream? Are you living his dream? Or your dream? Or are you engulfed in a nightmare? As you read the words in his speech, ask yourself what you are doing to embrace Martin's legacy?

What contributions are you making to your family, your friends, your community, your country? What are you doing with the freedom that your civil rights leaders fought so hard to attain? Or maybe you're not yet free???? I'm sure that we all have differing opinions on what this speech means to us, but we can all agree that we owe Martin Luther King, Jr. the duty to live his legacy!!!!

As we read this speech, we must remember that this is not a "dream," but a call to action. A call to action in a dignified, peaceful, articulate and eloquent way. A directive to live full, rich lives, grateful for the sacrifices others made so we can be where we are today, have what we have today, work where we work today, eat where we work today, read, write and ride public transportion (and sit whereever we want).

We now have a duty to honor this legacy by doing what we can to change lives - educating our children, working for peace, providing financial resources to women around the world who need help starting out, working for social and economic reform, working for peace so that others can have the basic dream of food, shelter, clothing, clean water and the right to vote. We don't have to make a speech at the Lincoln Memorial to make a difference or carry on the legacy - Charity begins at Home!!!!

What will you do to carry on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream in 2008? You too, have a dream that [insert your dream/directive/legacy].

Below is an excerpt of one of the most powerful dreams in the history of the United States.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last

Excerpted from Americanrhetoric.com
Picture Source
Picture Source

Attention - Women Entrepreneurs & Small Biz Owners

If you're looking for business growth and marketing tips for 2008, don't forget to register for Entrepreneur Magazine's Women in Charge Conference.

Entrepreneur and American Express have teamed up to present the Women in Charge Conference on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 in Miami Beach, Florida. [Miami beach in winter - You can't do better than that]!!!!

You will get the opportunity to:
(1) Learn internet marketing secrets for success
(2) Learn low-cost marketing strategies
(3) Learn how how to build stronger personal and professional networks
(4) Learn how to play the money game and start earning what you deserve
(5) Pitch your business to Entrepreneur's editors, and
(6) Learn the latest trends for 2008.

You will also celebrate the the OPEN from American Express® and Entrepreneur magazine 2007 Woman of the Year. You'll get a chance to meet her and learn from her success. Last but not least, you will hear from Entrepreneur experts such as Rosalind Resnick, Catherine Seda and Kim T. Gordon, who will guide you through all 6 opportunities (and much more) listed above!!!!

Click here to register!!!