the four right chords can make me cry

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

"My fear is that the younger generations, such as myself and those younger than me, will forget the struggles of women before us, and end up condemning them for the liberation and choices they wanted for their daughters. Take for example the debate between stay-at-home mothers and career women. Stay-at-home home moms claim that feminists are undermining motherhood and family by neglecting children. Career women denounce stay-at-home moms for lack of ambition. In the midst of this debate, people forget the fact that it is an achievement in itself for women to be able to choose either to stay at home if they wanted to or work if that suited them. Feminists never championed one option over the other. They simply wanted CHOICE."

~ Dr Suzaina A. Kadir
Deparment of Political Science
National University of Singapore
speaking at a 1999 forum "21st Century Women: Challenges and Choices" organised by Ba alawi Mosque Singapore (where i spent 3 hours today)

I admit. I used to think it very unambitious to be a housewife. Noble, but not exactly what I envisioned my future to be. The mundane life of housework, minding the children, cooking dinners. Cut off from the rest of intellectual society, your main concerns become the price of eggs and how much better your children are doing than Mrs Lim's kids from next door. I want a dynamic career, to work with the movers and shakers of tommorow's world. To be a high flyer. Not a stepford wife.

But what Kadir said is so true. Real feminism is about choice. And if enai chooses to be a housewife, well then great, she can, thats the great part. It's not unambitious, cos being a housewife IS her ambition. (correct me if i'm wrong dear). I think I get it now.

On another note. I liked being in the Mosque. The Imam was nice, the cappucino they brewed me was nice, the burial cloth of the founder of Sufism was so beautiful(and it was made more than 500 years ago). I liked the carpets everywhere, very nice to walk on, handmade. Arabic calligraphy is beautiful too, can't wait for the calligrapher to come to class on monday, prof alattas promised us that he would write our names for us free. I left the mosque with a deeper understanding of Islam and a profound respect for Muslims.

I realise, much to my utter disgust, that I have been brought up with a very lopsided euro-centric worldview. From the Western media, we are all led to believe that the Arab world is very backward, third-world. But I'm learning so much about their rich heritage, philosophy, science, art and architechture. In a sense I'm glad that I didnt get to study overseas, because right here in Singapore I will get an education with a uniquely Asian perspective. And Singapore is a great place to be educated, cos we not only have Chinese thought, Indian thought, but as I've learnt, great history in Islamic thought too. It is utterly naive and stupid to think that the Westerners have the monopoly on science and philosophy. But in schools we are taught with such a heavy western slant. One jarring example is that all Singapore history books begin in 1918 with Sir Stamford Raffles. Prior to the arrival of this great ang moh? We were nothing but a "sleepy fishing village". All our rich heritage and culture prior to 1918, dismissed as mere backwardness. "Sleepy fishing village"?!!?!?! WHAT AN INSULT!

And yet we accept this "sleepy fishing village" for fact. Never once do we question it, "but what about before Raffles?", we just swallow hook line and sinker that our culture was inferior to the Western one. We name our premier educational institutes after some low ranking ang moh who couldnt make it in his own country and so decides to come over to Asia and tries to pull a Christopher Columbus on us. Colonialism is very much alive and kicking in Singapore.

posted by beckyboo @ 1:28 AM