A Boxing Tournament Episode #3
But Home Must Protect Me to Deserve Me...
Since
the moment we are born, we start developing symbols in our memory for
everything. For example, you say pet; I see an image of a baby dragon. You say
food; I see an image of ice-cream and so on. It is simply that our brain
connects words with certain images that become later symbols for those words. Now,
there are some few words that we hear and get zero images in return and “Home”
is one of those blank images for me. No matter how hard I try to find an image
that symbolizes home in my memory, I fail. But this has not always been the
case. For a couple of years, I had a home in a person and of course when this
person left, home left, too. It all made me see how home is not a house or a land.
Home is the abstract value of unconditional love and acceptance. And when do we
feel homeless? We feel homeless only when we cannot name a single place or
person after midnight which/who can love and accept us unconditionally.
Since I was a high school student, I always noticed the same sentence written on some school books, police stations’ gates and military shacks: “A home we don’t protect is a home we don’t deserve.” Well.. It is not that I disagreed with that sentence, but I always felt the need to define where home is so that I gain the right to belong to it by protecting it as I was taught in school. As a result, I got to learn many things but on two levels; on the level of a Yemeni woman in specific and on the level of a Yemeni citizen in general.
Since I was a high school student, I always noticed the same sentence written on some school books, police stations’ gates and military shacks: “A home we don’t protect is a home we don’t deserve.” Well.. It is not that I disagreed with that sentence, but I always felt the need to define where home is so that I gain the right to belong to it by protecting it as I was taught in school. As a result, I got to learn many things but on two levels; on the level of a Yemeni woman in specific and on the level of a Yemeni citizen in general.
My country is not home for every woman. My
country does not love and accept unconditionally. To the contrary, a woman must
meet the set of social requirements starting with dress code and limited
interests all the way to passing “Honor” and marital tests in order to be
welcomed and only in that part of home, which men allowed and decided to “Give”
her.
And when you hold a bigger lens in Yemen to see where home is to both men and women, you find it difficult to decide the actual borders let alone the abstract ones.
In my country, Ali Abdullah Saleh and Al Ahmar family sold the land to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia… In my country Saleh gave the US the right to shell villages in the South. The US was looking for a man they accused of being a terrorist who happened to be a Yemeni American and by law in both countries, he should have been tried in front of a just court. In my country, Anwar Al Awlaqi was killed because the US government “Believed” he was a terrorist and if they “Believe” in something, the law that requires a fair trial before any sentence, doesn’t really mean anything. In my country, Saleh allowed the US to kill Anwar’s child one week after he was killed, a teenager who listened to pop music and wore jeans. In my country, Saleh was once asked in an interview on Al Arabyia T.V about drones and how he allowed US drones that threaten the independence of his country, he said:” Well.. Drones come from the sky! How would I know about them? What comes from the sky is out of my control as a president.”
In my country, the DAPDC Agreement was signed illegally without the parliament’s consent to leave the historical Aden Port to gradually die, and with it a very essential source of national income. In my country, leaders sell the land, the sky and the sea and then they teach us in school that a home we don’t protect is a home we don’t deserve.
In my country, we have more NGOs than grocery stores. NGOs spend millions of dollars of grants on workshops that target the same group of people every year in 7 star hotels. In my country, NGOs do not mind taking money from the same exact government that sent weapons to the oppressing regime to kill peaceful protesters in order to hold trainings on DEMOCRACY in fancy hotels where rent can feed hundreds of families.
In my country, NGOs spend grants publishing one guide after another on how to fight corruption then talk about it with ambassador X, who said the protestors caused chaos and Saleh had no choice but face them with violence, over dinners, lunches and receptions.
On Sunday July 1st.2012, we went protesting. We asked the government to end the DAPDC Agreement. We asked the government to stop begging for money on televisions and bring our national income to life.. As a woman, I walked on the front line. To me the battle is bigger than just trying to find a land, sky and sea. To me, I need to find a home where I am accepted and loved as a woman and a human being. I refuse to walk behind men or in front of them in a protest. I walk by men’s side chanting with them.. Not only am I fighting to get my national rights back, but I am also fighting to establish a space for my identity so that my fellow men activists, shop keepers on the street, politicians and media gets used to my voice, my colorful clothes, my face features and my attitude. As a supporter tweeted me two nights ago: I am the kind of woman that when her feet hit the floor each morning, the devil says: Oh crap! she's up!
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
3:30 p.m
Sarah Jamal,
p.s. The video shows a press release on behalf of “Activists to Cancel DAPDC Agreement” form our protest to the Yemeni Parliament on July 1st.2012
And when you hold a bigger lens in Yemen to see where home is to both men and women, you find it difficult to decide the actual borders let alone the abstract ones.
In my country, Ali Abdullah Saleh and Al Ahmar family sold the land to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia… In my country Saleh gave the US the right to shell villages in the South. The US was looking for a man they accused of being a terrorist who happened to be a Yemeni American and by law in both countries, he should have been tried in front of a just court. In my country, Anwar Al Awlaqi was killed because the US government “Believed” he was a terrorist and if they “Believe” in something, the law that requires a fair trial before any sentence, doesn’t really mean anything. In my country, Saleh allowed the US to kill Anwar’s child one week after he was killed, a teenager who listened to pop music and wore jeans. In my country, Saleh was once asked in an interview on Al Arabyia T.V about drones and how he allowed US drones that threaten the independence of his country, he said:” Well.. Drones come from the sky! How would I know about them? What comes from the sky is out of my control as a president.”
In my country, the DAPDC Agreement was signed illegally without the parliament’s consent to leave the historical Aden Port to gradually die, and with it a very essential source of national income. In my country, leaders sell the land, the sky and the sea and then they teach us in school that a home we don’t protect is a home we don’t deserve.
In my country, we have more NGOs than grocery stores. NGOs spend millions of dollars of grants on workshops that target the same group of people every year in 7 star hotels. In my country, NGOs do not mind taking money from the same exact government that sent weapons to the oppressing regime to kill peaceful protesters in order to hold trainings on DEMOCRACY in fancy hotels where rent can feed hundreds of families.
In my country, NGOs spend grants publishing one guide after another on how to fight corruption then talk about it with ambassador X, who said the protestors caused chaos and Saleh had no choice but face them with violence, over dinners, lunches and receptions.
On Sunday July 1st.2012, we went protesting. We asked the government to end the DAPDC Agreement. We asked the government to stop begging for money on televisions and bring our national income to life.. As a woman, I walked on the front line. To me the battle is bigger than just trying to find a land, sky and sea. To me, I need to find a home where I am accepted and loved as a woman and a human being. I refuse to walk behind men or in front of them in a protest. I walk by men’s side chanting with them.. Not only am I fighting to get my national rights back, but I am also fighting to establish a space for my identity so that my fellow men activists, shop keepers on the street, politicians and media gets used to my voice, my colorful clothes, my face features and my attitude. As a supporter tweeted me two nights ago: I am the kind of woman that when her feet hit the floor each morning, the devil says: Oh crap! she's up!
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
3:30 p.m
Sarah Jamal,
p.s. The video shows a press release on behalf of “Activists to Cancel DAPDC Agreement” form our protest to the Yemeni Parliament on July 1st.2012
Interesting read :)
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