Raising Point:by-Dr.Ilham Qattan When I speak about women, about mothers, sisters, daughters, teachers and educators, I look into those pioneering women who strive to raise their young children. When I speak in particular about women in my homeland, Saudi Arabia, I have to explain briefly the miserable status they went through, how much they suffered, and then how they are living now, what they have attained so far, and what they are aiming for. To speak about those women, I should describe the sufferings of the people who were, and are still, restrained by strict cultural traditions, which are not impossible to amend and rectify under our present concepts, and in consideration of the attitude of the world around us. I should outline the graduate phases that Saudi women went through from the period before the unification of the kingdom until now, and what we are looking for at the moment. Let me outline these details in a story that my mother passed on to me from my granny and great granny, say around 150 years ago. My mother’s granny used to perform the duties of doing house work, collecting firewood, having and raising babies etc. and other duties which no one can deny were the duties of a woman at all times, and in all peoples on Earth. But how about her status within the family? Did she have a say on her rights and even on her destiny? The answer is obviously “no”, although our religion’s teachings are to give her freedom of choice. So, it was not a matter of religious beliefs, but rather of harsh traditions and domination by fathers in the past. Before unification of Saudi Arabia by the late King Abdul Aziz, our community suffered a lot from wrongful and unjust cultural traditions. I cannot deny that Saudi women are still suffering now, but the burden has been much lighter after unifying the Peninsula , establishing the Saudi State , and extending links with other cultures. However, is that enough!! to provide them with intellectual freedom and stability? King Abdul Aziz, together with his sons Saud, Faisal, Khaled, Fahad and the present King Abdullah have all strived to establish and consolidate the State Rules. Nobody can say that they ignored women’s rights, as they provided women with education and freedom within the framework of the Saudi culture. However, with the recent world developments, a further change has become inevitable, a change that can only happen on the intellectual level, because some unjust traditions do not even comply with our religious teachings. In my homeland, there are many stories told about unfair conduct by men, and laws which are unjust to women. In general, Arab men and not only Saudi men neglect the rights of women and see them as mere containers of stress relief. In my view, God created women to complement men and please them. So a man and a woman complement each other, and no one can be happy without the other. A new generation of good children would emerge from women who are caring, learned, and intellectually free from unjustified restrictions. I should pose some questions and invite your answers to them, knowing that my answers would not be welcomed by most of you. If a woman drives a car in my homeland, does this give an impression of a highly civilized country? Well, if she is allowed to drive a car, and even an aeroplane etc. what comes next? Does mixing male and female staff in offices, factories, hospitals etc. make us feel free and make our country look more civilized? If I uncover my hair and go out with full make-up and cosmetics, do I look more free or civilized? What difference does it make if a woman wears or doesn’t wear a headscarf, as long as her mind is not intellectually free?. I believe that we should strive for intellectual freedom in conformity with our religious belief, and not by bowing to harsh unjustified traditions. Our religion is a temperate belief, not a fundamentalist, Wahhabi or terrorist one. We should follow our Shariah and Sunnah which, when applied properly, would give us full intellectual freedom. This means that we should not over-react or exceed all boundaries by exercising chaotic freedom. We should take pride in being Saudi citizens, because in spite of all negative aspects, we are still much better than others. Our government needs all our efforts to overcome any problematic issues, and we should do our best to gain merit in our history and our civilization.

Today as a friend and I were driving back home from ATL, we hit a small patch of rain. Having nothing else to do i stared at the raid droplets rolling off the windows. I began to look at it in a different way. I noticed as the drops started some were very small while others were larger, and they all rolled towards the window seal on the car. Well as they rolled some would move slower, some faster, and some would grow larger by picking up other droplets on the window. I started looking at the water dropletes as if they were people heading towards a goal or something along that line. The larger ones where faster and normally hit their "goal", I looked at them as if they were the ones with the most determination. I viewed the ones that grew larger as the ones that had the most supporters and people to help them. Some took longer than others and i viewed them as the ones that took their time or just did it very casually. Some didn't make it all and i viewed them as the ones that didn't have the support or will to work towards their goals. I just figured I would share this with some people..maybe someone will enjoy it.

There are people around us who are going in direction they dont know or dont want to know and then there are people who are doing in the direction they want to go however dont reach there It is said that bounce back like a ball the harder it hits the ground the higher it goes after that however what if the ball gets cracked in the bounce would it be able to go higher after that it is the same case with humans as well they they fall they fell they are cracked after a fall in life which would be a failure in any form what they dont see is that the crack created by them is a illusion of the mind which the mind alone can change. every failure gives us a opportunity to perform better and to bury our mistakes Stories are good when told and listen are they even good when they are followed. There is a time in everyones life when he/she feels that everything is possible and nothing can go wrong it is this moment that needs to be capitalized just like a bad ball is hit by a batsmen for the maximum and in case he misses and hits a single he is disgusted not because he is out only because he has lost a good opportunity similar is the plight of a human he feels digusted by missing a opportunity however in his case he is so very disgusted that he gets out in the next ball due to not concentrating and thus misses other opportunities as well. To teach is easy to learn is also easy the tough part is to apply what is taught. What happens when you start following your dream and lose the way inbetween here by losing the way it means you only know one way and the road in which your dream is going. And then suddenly you realise that it is becoming impossible to contiune to follow and you also realise that just to follow this one dream you have lost your way in life and now stand at a point where there is no direction boards and no point of return. What do you do then do you take the courage and contiune to follow your dream still though your inner heart says it is useless or do you turn back and try to come back to your origin so you could take a different path or do you take a diversion from the point you are in and go in searh of your lost path. Fear comes with possesion as take this example you are travelling in a crowded public transport say a bus or a train and you dont hold any possesion with you like Gold or any huge amount of money and on the other hand there is a person who is having huge amount of gold and money in his suitcase and the one hour journey is through a wild jungle with beautiful senary on both sides. Now what is the state of mine of you and the other person and who would enjoy the journey more well ofcourse its you only because you dont have the fear of losing anything as you dont possess anything on the other hand the person with the suitcase would have all his eyes and mind fixed on the suitcase as he fears of losing it in the crowded bus. Now the journey is ended and all get down at their destination and who is happy now of course the person with the suitcase as he is happy of not losing his possession however how long is his happiness exist as he would have to travel every one and again with his possesion throught his life so what he is doing here is not enjoying the entire journey but feeling happy that the journey has come to an end well this is similar to what people do in life they fear their entire life and feel happy that their life has come to an end well life is not a exam you dont want to attend it is a play time which needs to be enjoyed before the bell rings. Life is like a moving bus which we start off with our loved ones we know as and when the bus of life moves we meet new people make friends with them and also bid farewell to others we knew before as their stopping are different than ours however a farewell is only to meet again as you the ones who have got down at stop A might just jump into the same bus at stop E which happens so very often in our life we again meet people who we doubt of never meeting again. Everyone likes a moving bus and no one would like a bus to be halted however what would you do if you owned a ferrari and had to go for a drive of 10 hours would you drive continously of course not as you would be more concerned of the ferrari as it might get a breakdown and stop inbetween to take some rest for the ferrari. Similar is the stopping of our life in the bus we do need them to move ahead what the stopping does is gives us time to plan the direction we wish to take from there onwards it also gives us time to have the pleasure and be happy about the distance we have already covered. You dont get a seat to sit all the time in a bus you might be required to stand as well which is painful similar to what we get in life as life is not a bed of roses however there are no roses without thorns and its ony due to the thorns that the rose is beautiful and soft. And just when we are started to feel tired there is suddenly a stop in which a person gets down giving you a opportunity to sit on his place. Similar is the way in life wherein we get opportunites only because someone is losing them or someone has reached his destination take the example of a job vacancy a vacancy arises only because someone has left the job so ones misery is others pleasure.

everyone is great but to be grater you have open your mine.

I eat worms.

what did you see when you saw me coming?

if God created man in his image then does that mean that whatever man creates (nuclear bombs ect...) are created in God's image as well?