2004-05-21

From the mouths of babes:

Upon hearing that a lady from the real estate was coming to their house, one twin (3 yrs) asked “Can I kiss the lady, Mummy?”

I am reading a book called “My Forbidden Face” by Latifah, who is a young woman who escaped the Taliban in Afganistan. I’ve heard lots about how the Taliban misused the teachings of the Koran to fit their own goals, but I am amazed by reading this girl’s account. For instance, the Koran says a woman can be veiled if she desires, but she must remain recognisable. However, the Taliban enforced the burqa on women, a most repressive garment that made it difficult to do things such as turn your head, sneeze, walk up stairs, see. Most of all, it made women unrecogniseable, simply walking clumps of black fabric. Hopefully, westerners are waking up to this and other forms of fundamentalism. I hope people start to understand that these terrorists are not good Muslims, but right wing freaks. Not unlike the Christian right wing freaks in America who advocate the death penalty, when God’s word says “Thou shalt not kill”. It doesn’t say “Thou shalt not kill unless someone has done something really bad, then you can kill them”. But then again, there is that whole ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ thing in the bible though, isn’t there? Oh, biblical dilemma.

I watched another inspiring woman on the TV tonight: Margaret Fulton. Apart from the fact she helped to reshape the way Australians considered food, she vehemently anti-GM (genetically modified) foods. She even lobbies for Greenpeace on this issue…I am very keen to get hold of her revised cookbook.