Islamic Culture & Photo Blog – Muslim Blog

Saudi Arabia Olympics: Islamic Kingdom To Allow Women Athletes To Compete In London

June 25th, 2012
by Sufia
r SAUDI ATHLETES large570 Saudi Arabia Olympics: Islamic Kingdom To Allow Women Athletes To Compete In London In this undated photo provided by Reema Abdullah, members of the Jeddah Kings United all female team attend football exercise in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Reema Abdullah)

RIYADH, June 25 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia will enter women athletes in the Olympics for the first time ever in London this summer, the Islamic kingdom’s London embassy said on Sunday.

Human rights groups had called on the International Olympic Committee to bar Saudi Arabia from competing in London, citing its failure ever to send a woman athlete to a Games and its ban on sports in girls’ state schools.

Powerful Muslim clerics in the ultra-conservative state have repeatedly spoken out against the participation of girls and women in sports.

In Saudi Arabia women hold a lower legal status to men, are banned from driving and need a male guardian’s permission to work, travel or open a bank account.

Under King Abdullah, however, the government has pushed for them to have better education and work opportunities and allowed them to vote in future municipal elections, the only public polls held in the kingdom.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is looking forward to its complete participation in the London 2012 Olympic Games through the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee, which will oversee the participation of women athletes who can qualify for the games,” said a statement published on the embassy website.

In April the head of the kingdom’s General Presidency of Youth Welfare, the body that regulates sports in Saudi Arabia, said it would not prevent women from competing but that they would not have official government endorsement.

The IOC said on Monday that talks with the Saudis were “ongoing” and that “we are working to ensure the participation of Saudi women at the Games in London”.

The head of the kingdom’s Olympic mission, Khalid al-Dakheel, told Reuters on Sunday evening however he was unaware of any developments allowing women to participate.

Top Saudi clerics, who hold government positions and have always constituted an important support base for the ruling al-Saud royal family, have spoken against female participation in sports.

In 2009 a senior cleric said girls risked losing their virginity by tearing their hymens if they took part in energetic sport.

Perhaps the most likely woman candidate to compete under the Saudi flag in London, equestrian Dalma Malhas, represented the kingdom at the junior Olympics in Singapore in 2010, but without official support or recognition.

Physical education is banned in girls’ state schools in the kingdom, but Saudi Arabia’s only female deputy minister, Noura al-Fayez, has written to Human Rights Watch saying there is a plan to introduce it. (Reporting by Angus McDowall and Asma Alsharif; editing by Andrew Roche)

Inspirational Quotes for Mothers

June 23rd, 2012
by Sufia

mother son Inspirational Quotes for Mothers

I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.

-Abraham

Lincoln

If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.

-Lord Langdale (Henry

Bickersteth)

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something

absolutely new.

-Rajneesh

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.

 

align=”right”>- Sophia Loren

>The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

-Honoré de Balzac

No ordinary work done by a man is either as hard or as responsible as the work of a woman who is bringing up a family of small children; for upon her

time and strength demands are made not only every hour of the day but often every hour of the night.

- Theodore Roosevelt

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

- Theodore Hesburgh

Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime.

-William Shakespeare

Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist.

- Michael Levine

Before you were conceived I wanted you Before you were born I loved you Before you were here an hour I would die for you This is the miracle of life.

- Maureen Hawkins

The sweetest sounds to mortals given Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.

-William Goldsmith Brown

Time is the only comforter for the loss of a mother.

- Jane Welsh Carlyle

Women do not have to sacrifice personhood if they are mothers. They do not have to sacrifice motherhood in order to be persons. Liberation was meant to

expand women’s opportunities, not to limit them. The self-esteem that has been found in new pursuits can also be found in mothering.

- Elaine Heffner

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

- Aristotle

[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.

-Emily Dickinson

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who

rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate

the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.

-Washington Irving

A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.

-Victor Hugo

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn, Hundreds of bees in the purple clover, Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn, But only one mother the wide world over.

-George Cooper

Grown don’t mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What’s

that suppose to mean? In my heart it don’t mean a thing.

-Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987

A father may turn his back

on his child, brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, wives their husbands. But a mother’s love endures through

all.

-Washington Irving

My mother is a poem I’ll never be able to write, though

everything I write is a poem to my mother.

-Sharon Doubiago

There’s nothing like a mama-hug.

-Terri Guillemets

Who fed me from her gentle breast And hushed me in her arms to rest, And on my cheek sweet kisses

prest? My Mother.

-Anne Taylor

Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place

to make it well? My mother.

-Ann Taylor

A daughter is a mother’s gender partner, her closest ally in the family

confederacy, an extension of her self. And mothers are their daughters’ role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their

relationships.

-Victoria Secunda

The tie which links mother and child is of such pure and immaculate strength as to

be never violated.

-Washington Irving

Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by

dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, comrades and friends – but only one mother in the whole

world.

-Kate Douglas Wiggin

It’s not easy being a mother. If it were easy, fathers would do it.

-From the television show The Golden Girls

My mom is literally a part of me. You can’t say that about many people except relatives, and organ donors.

-Carrie Latet

God could not be everywhere, so he created mothers.

-Jewish Proverb

Because I feel that in the heavens above The angels, whispering one to another, Can find among their

burning tears of love, None so devotional as that of “Mother,” Therefore, by that dear name I have long called you, You who are more than mother unto me.

-Edgar Allan Poe

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.

-Irish Proverb

Married or not you should read this…

June 23rd, 2012
by Sufia

“When I got home that night as my wife …served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?
muslim couple seated outside Married or not you should read this...
I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent ten years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day. She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. . She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, daddy is holding mommy in his arms. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realized that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realized she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realized that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realized that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, Dad, it’s time to carry mom out. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart. Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a loud slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The salesgirl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I run up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed -dead. My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push through with the divorce.— At least, in the eyes of our son—- I’m a loving husband….

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves.

So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. Do have a real happy marriage!

If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up

Source: yanabi.com

Muslim Brotherhood to march against Egypt military

June 19th, 2012
by Sufia

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood will take part in protests across Egypt to demonstrate against sweeping new powers taken by the ruling military council.

Over the weekend, the generals issued two decrees dissolving the Islamist-dominated parliament and claiming all legislative power for themselves.

MPs are also expected to try to enter the parliament building on Tuesday.

Muslim Brotherhood to march against Egypt military Muslim Brotherhood to march against Egypt military

Meanwhile, with counting in the presidential election run-off complete, both candidates are claiming victory.

Mohammed Mursi, the head of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said on Monday that he had won 52% of the vote.

Mr Mursi promised to work “hand-in-hand with all Egyptians for a better future, freedom, democracy, development and peace”.

But former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq’s campaign team said their figures showed that he was ahead and that the Brotherhood had “terrorised” voters.

Independent observers and state media believe Mr Mursi has won by a margin of about three to four percentage points, or about a million votes.

The official result is scheduled to be announced on Thursday.

‘Million-man march’

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) appears to be working on the assumption that Mr Mursi will win, reports the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo.

It has made a series decrees and appointments designed to reduce or constrain the power of the president, and entrench the power of the military.

Despite opposition talk of a “military coup”, it may end up being a messy compromise that everyone can live with, our correspondent says.

Voting over the weekend to choose a successor to Hosni Mubarak, who was forced to step down by last year’s uprising, was overshadowed by two Scaf decrees.

The first ordered the immediate dissolution of parliament following Thursday’s Supreme Constitutional Court ruling that the law governing the recent elections for the lower house was unconstitutional because party members had been allowed to contest seats in the lower house reserved for independents.

Troops were deployed outside the parliament building before the decree was issued on Saturday to prevent MPs gaining access. The FJP and the ultraconservative Salafist Nour party dominate both chambers.

The second decree, which was published after the polls closed on Sunday, amended the March 2011 constitutional declaration and gave the generals complete control over legislation and military affairs until fresh parliamentary elections are held.

The Scaf will also play a significant role in running the 100-member assembly that will draft the country’s new constitution.

The new president – who will take office without the oversight of a parliament and without a permanent constitution to define his powers or duties – will be able to form and dismiss a government, ratify and reject laws, and declare war, but only with Scaf’s approval.

Muslim Brotherhood members are set to protest against the decrees on Tuesday by taking part in a “million-man march” – the name they give for almost any demonstration in Egypt, our correspondent adds.

At the same time, MPs may attempt to enter parliament to protest against its dissolution. Soldiers have been given orders not to let them in.

Source: BBC

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