Oppression

Oppress: to treat sb in a cruel and unfair way, especially by not giving them the same freedom, rights etc. as other people.

Don't tell me you've never heard of the notion that "Muslim women are oppressed". A notion that is spread by the Western media.
Supposedly, we Muslim women are oppressed because we are 'forced' to cover ourselves up and are restrained from certain activities.
But this is what people merely SEE and not UNDERSTAND.

Let me ask the Muslim women who cover themselves modestly. Do you feel oppressed?
Ask the Muslim women who wear the niqab, are they oppressed?

The truth is, covering ourselves does not oppress us. It liberates us.

Look at our Western counterparts. They are forced to follow the latest trends to be accepted. They have to be thin for fear that they would be rejected. Their styles of clothing, their hair, their body shape will be judged. How they look will be classified into ugly or beautiful. Makeup is needed because they fear they will fall into the ugly category.
And it doesn't end there!

Now I ask you, who seems more oppressed?

When we cover ourselves up, people will no longer view us as a 'material'. People will view us as who we are, our personality, honesty, kindness and intelligence instead of how the shape of our body is, or how pretty our faces are.
We don't have to worry if we have love handles or drumstick legs or whatever which other girls are torturing themselves to lose (thus becoming anorexic and bulimic).
We don't have to worry if we don't have 'bikini bodies' as the only person who will look at us are our husbands.

O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.(Al-Ahzab: 59)

Wearing loose clothes, and covering our whole body except the face and hands liberates us. Ask anyone who covers themselves modestly. We have this feeling that we have been set free from the society's judgement and we do not have to worry about what people will see because they can't really see anything.

This is my personal experience.

Sometimes I see all the pretty clothes worn by other girls and the way they pull of the different styles. I feel like I really want to wear something like them. So then I buy all these different clothes and scarves with different patterns. 

Then, when I go out, I mix and match the pieces, and I worry, will people think it's alright? Will people like my style or will they think it's daft?

And I ask myself, why am I worrying about this? In the end, I throw on an abaya and wear a pink tudung bawal. Cause I feel freer that way.

I love how Islam treats women. Women are valued in Islam. 

We are not materials made to please men's eyes and desires. We are not mannequins made to be decorated and accessorised. We are human beings with potential and ideas.

And that, is far from oppression.

Of disappointments

I've failed before. Of course I have.

When I came back to Malaysia from the Netherlands, I entered school a week later than everyone else since I arrived here a day before school started. Adapting to a completely new environment was hard. I went to an international school during my 3-year stay in the Netherlands and believe me, it is completely different than the education system here. 

On my second day of school, there was a test. It was horrible. I didn't know a thing. I didn't even fill in the OMR paper because I had no idea what it was for. It was just so embarrassing. And for that January test, I got 1B 2Cs and 2 fails. And that wasn't just it. I had to go down from the first class to the third. When I came home I cried like a baby. It was just... embarrassing. Some of my classmates went to the second class but I was the only one who had to go all the way to the third. 

That didn't stop me from obtaining 5As for UPSR.

You might belittle me by saying that UPSR is easy or kacang or whatever. But I was proud that after that failure, I was able to stand up and fight for my success. It wasn't easy. My friends took 3 years to learn all the subjects for UPSR while I only had 1. It was hard to catch up, especially for science. 

In Form 1, I had a C/D for agama. To me that was kind of a failure. It contaminated my result slip. Studied like hell for it for the next exam and Alhamdulillah I got an A.

Throughout the next exams during Form 1-3, I kept reminding myself that I did not want a bad grade again in my result slip, so I studied hard for all my exams. I studied hard for my PMR trial, and PMR itself. People might have thought that I played a lot, but they don't know what I did at home (I make it sound like I torture myself lol)

Once in Form 4, I got a C for Physics. And whoa did that give me a huge shock. I was horrified with it. Call me a perfectionist but I don't care. To me, that was one of my greatest failures of all. But all I had to blame was myself since I didn't study much for the exam. And after that you should've seen how I pulun for Physics. Every little detail I had to know. Every chapter I needed to understand and have it ingrained in my head. Every single thing I didn't know, I went to ask anyone who'd know. And I did the same for all subjects.

I'm not trying to brag. But I believe that everyone is capable of achieving things if they put determination together with hard work.

I was hoping to get a Bank Negara scholarship. But I failed. I didn't even get an interview. I didn't get the Khazanah interview either. And I have absolutely no hopes for Petronas. I'm not going to lie, I am extremely disappointed. I really really really really wanted Bank Negara because my job is guaranteed. And I worked hard for my 9A+ just for these scholarships.

But you know what, this will not stop me from going to a good university and getting a good job. Because I have tried and maybe this is what's best for me.

I know Allah has planned it out well for me. 

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"...But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not." (2:216)

My Mornings.

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYONEEE.
Anyway, since I'm on a VERY long holiday, I've been trying to maintain my figure to prevent myself from becoming miss chubby cheeks. So for the past 3 months I've did some jogging and stuff but lately I'm becoming quite lazy.

Thanks to Nunis though, I have some workouts to do! But I really have to start jogging or swimming again to gain my stamina. Sometimes I just feel so slow.

So this morning, I did this:

It's called the MIGHTY squat challenge! Emphasis sikit on the mighty because it is mighty hard and gives you mighty pain! I am not kidding. Halfway through the video I was just screaming in agony. You guys seriously have to try it. I did it for the first time yesterday and I could barely walk. So I thought maybe I'd give it a rest but mom told me to do it again today cause I have to biasakan diri with it. Later on, you won't feel the pain when you do it. 

Before this, I did this one, which is also from the blogilates series:

Oh wow this one hurts even more but I didn't continue with it since I know I didn't have the right technique, so I thought I was going to follow my mom for pilates this week to correct my technique. 

There are many more workouts from the blogilates series, so you can check it out. This Cassey girl is bright as well, she makes me laugh cause while doing the workout she'll be chatting with you. 

When you do these workouts though, you need to do some cardio as well. The conventional way is of course to jog. Or you can swim/bike or something. Do it for 20-30 minutes or for a specific distance.

This is all of course if you want to be fit! Or if you're on diet. Don't just diet but exercise as well!

Exercising will seriously boost your self-esteem. You'll feel more confident and when you carry out your daily activities you'll feel fit and full of energy. You'll even walk faster. This is of course, what I have experienced.

Whatever it is, you do know that exercise is good for you. So if you feel fat (which I know many girls feel), then start doing something about it! 

You won't become fit if you just sit there and complain. Make some effort :)

Lessons

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

It tremendously bothers me when people keep saying things like this to me

• You're clever, you don't need to study
• You're clever, you don't need to be scared for the exams

etcetera etcetera, you probably know because either you have said it or it has been said to you. It is annoying. I repeat, IT IS ANNOYING. So I kindly ask you to stop saying such things. 

And I am not trying to imply that I am clever or a brainiac because I am most certainly not.

Well enough with the ranting, I'll get to my point now.

What bothers me even more though is when people don't work hard enough for what they want but when they get results which do not meet their expectations (or should I say hopeless dreams), they complain and blame everything other than themselves. They make remarks such as the ones above (You're clever you don't need to study bla bla bla) but disbelievingly continue to waste precious time.

Honestly. Failures are meant to teach you, meant to correct the things you shouldn't have done, NOT to give you misery for fun. When you make a mistake, you learn from it and stop doing it. 

There are also some who envy successful people pointlessly because they themselves don't want to get off their lazy bums and work harder. Do you think that successful people achieve what they had easily? They endured a lot of pain to succeed. Remarks such as "Kau pandai boleh lah" or "Kau kaya boleh lah" aren't going to benefit you at all.

Change your mindset. Man jadda wajada. You've got to stop all the whining and shit and start working hard if you want to achieve those dreams of yours. 

Dreams + Determination + Hard Work = Success

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"...Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves..." (Surah Ar- Ra'd:11)

Education

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

For the past 3 months, I have been staying at home. Unemployed nor a student (yet). Do I think I'm wasting my time? No. I'm not. 

Now, according to the dictionary, education means the process of being educated especially at school/university. I don't totally agree with that. I believe that education is not confined to learning at an institution. I believe I have been receiving education for these past few months, but an informal education. You don't have to go to be in a classroom or a lecture hall to be educated.

You can help your mom clean the house, wash the dishes, do laundry. That'll certainly be helpful once you've moved out of your parents' house and living on your own. It's sort of learning Ekonomi Rumah Tangga.
You can learn new languages, buy a book or something, because learning other languages is fun and very helpful if you want to be successful in your future life.
Improve your English, cause English is an important language. And it'll be helpful once you're in university. And watching movies or t.v. shows is not a total waste of time you know, a lot of people learn English from them.
Go work because that'll increase your communication skills and you'll know how to deal with different kinds of people.
Learn a new skill - sewing, playing the piano or anything. You might just discover a hobby you never knew you loved. You won't get a lot of time to do that in college.
And the most important thing? You have all the time to learn about Islam. Gain knowledge about your religion, memorise verses because when else will you get all this free time?

My point is, not learning in a particular institution doesn't completely mean you're wasting time. Make full use of the free time you have right now because you won't get to replace it. (unless you spend your whole life unemployed).

Staying at home and not going for fast-track or not working doesn't mean you're wasting it. It means you get to do a whole lot of stuff that you won't get to do later in life.
So stop whining about not getting fast-track or whatever and start doing something productive that'll be useful to you later in life. You're going to regret wasting it by sleeping and Facebook-ing or tweeting etc. every single day.

Change your views on education and you'll see life from a whole new perspective. Every passing moment can be a lesson for you.