Hi there!
Finally! It's Saturday, and I'm so excited to give you today's very special post. I have a very important post today, and it's about a very special topic, but first I want to show you guys some amazing quotes. All of them are in Arabic, but don't worry if you can't read Arabic, the English translation is right below each of them. Without further ado, here they are:
*I got all of these quotes from arabicquotes.co.uk, A great website you should check it!*
There they are, the photos may be a little small, but they are clearer if you zoom in to around 200%, which may seem like a lot, and it would be better for all of you if I just enlarged the photos, but then they cross over the borders, which is just horrible. So, in both instances, an inconvenience is caused, however the photos being too small is more comfortable for everyone.
Moving on, let's talk about the last quote, which Souad Al-Sabah says. She is a Kuwaiti female poet, who wrote poems during the Iraqi invasion war on Kuwait to encourage her people to stand up against their aggressors. She is also a member of the ruling family and is an avid women and children's rights activist. Souad Al-Sabah is great way to start this article, because her poems were inspirational and motivated her people to go and to fight. She is one of the Arab women who stood up and took a stand.
Day by day, the number of these fighting women increases. To show how much female revolutionaries have affected and inspired revolutions, I have decided to go as far back as I can and work my way to our modern day.
*Note: I am using the word revolution as in the a sudden, extreme, or complete change in the way people live, work, etc., not as in the overthrowing of a government.*
The most impressive and unforgettable female revolutionary is most definitely Joan of Arc. On several occasions I have heard her name and the many fierce accomplishments that come with her name. For this post, I have decided to look up a little about her, and I now understand all the hype that surrounds her. She was born into a very poor family of peasants. As a young girl, she was deeply devoted to God and she even reported seeing visions sent by angels, making her more religiously inclined. When her country, France, was attacked by the British, she approached the very weak French king Charles De Pontieu. He was very inspired by her passion, that he placed her, as a young girl of 17 years old, at the head of the army against the British.
In a year, she lead them to multiple victories. She also liberated multiple towns from the English rule. Due to her multiple accomplishments, her family was given a noble status and French soldiers look up to her as a symbol of inspiration and hope. However, she was later kidnapped and sold to the English. The countrymen tried her for witchcraft and her trial was fully documented, and it reveals a lot about her character and destiny. The trial started out public, however she was outsmarting all the prosecutors with her rebuttals that the trial became private.
It appeared that she was tortured into confession, and her penalty was burning at the stake. She then recanted her confession and faced her death with dignity. After several years of her death, the English professed her innocent and named her a martyr. Her ashes were then scattered in Seine. Until this day she is considered the main saint of France and one of its most influential beings, due to her changing the course of French history in her 19 years of living.
Fast forward around 30 years to the 1950s, where the civil rights movement was just emerging in America. African-American citizens were sick of the racial discrimination and started to fight for their rights. Some expressed it by refusing to give up their bus seats to white passengers, such as Rosa Parks and Elizabeth Jennings, while others expressed it through getting nominated for the Oscars as the first black actresses to receive such an honor, such as Norma Sklarek. Many women then fought for their rights and fought against racial setbacks. One of the famous of these revolutionaries is Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks was on the bus one day in 1955, when the bus started filling up with more white passengers, and there wasn't any space in the whites-only space. The driver demanded all the black passengers to move a row back to clear space for the riding passengers, and all of them did, except Rosa. She remained in her seat and didn't budge, although the driver kept barking demands at her to move. She eventually got up when a police officer came and arrested her.
One of her friends, a civil rights activist called ED Nixon, came and paid her bail. He used her story to motivate other civil rights leaders to boycott busses, since they heavily depended on African-American passengers, however they treated them unfairly. These leaders included the infamous Martin Luther King Jr., and they all spread the thought of a boycott to others in the community. The next day, no black people were aboard the bus, instead they chose to walk, carpool and some even rode mules to work!
Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged the African-American community to continue with avoiding busses until bus companies remove segregation laws and start to employ black bus drivers. They agreed to continue with the boycott, which caused bus companies to have to increase prices and decrease the number of busses they own, since 75% of bus passengers were black. This is also lead to shops in the sections of the city far away having less business, since no more black shoppers were visiting their stores. The owners got infuriated and started harassing all boycotters, even going to the extreme of bombing King Jr's house. However, Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged his people to remain non-violent, and the attacks made their desire for the removal of segregated laws much greater.
After a year from the Rosa Parks incident, the Supreme Court removed the segregation laws on busses. To celebrate their success, Martin Luther King Jr., E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks boarded a bus, with Rosa sitting at the front row, a seat she rightfully deserved after becoming the spark in such a revolutionary movement. She is remembered to this day as the woman who refused to settle for unjust rights and stood (the more appropriate word is sit, but it doesn't make any sense) her ground.
Finally we reach the modern-day female martyrs. In the Arab world, revolutions have been a very common thing, and since the female population makes up half the entire population, the Arab revolutions consisted of many female revolutionaries. Some were long-time activists, such as Tawakul Kaman, and others were ordinary-turned-revolutionary, such as some female students who fought for their rights to a democratic country.
It would be unfair to choose one Arab female revolutionary, because as a whole they work together. Many Arab women today fight for their rights as a gender. They defy gender norms and bring awareness to the injustice they are forced to suffer in a male-dominated culture. They speak up as a whole to the negligence of the government to treat them with the same respect and grant them the same freedoms boys and men have in the Arab world. These Arab female revolutionaries are sick of women and girls being harassed and belittled, when they have so much potential and so much spirit, that will most definitely make our world such a better place to live in, because both sexes having equal rights and opportunities will lead to the Arab world evolving into a power that is strong, innovative and envied by neighboring powers.
I understand this is a very long post, but I just had to write about this topic because it really interests me and I find these women are a source of inspiration because they go out and fight for what they want, and won't stop until they make our world a better place, even if it's just by a little bit.
I hope you liked this post and I will write soon talking to you guys about my two week's goal to improve my artistic skills. Don't forget to comment down below about what you think!
Sources:
teacher.scholastic.com
content.time.com
arabicquote.co.uk
biographyonline.net
Love you all!
In a year, she lead them to multiple victories. She also liberated multiple towns from the English rule. Due to her multiple accomplishments, her family was given a noble status and French soldiers look up to her as a symbol of inspiration and hope. However, she was later kidnapped and sold to the English. The countrymen tried her for witchcraft and her trial was fully documented, and it reveals a lot about her character and destiny. The trial started out public, however she was outsmarting all the prosecutors with her rebuttals that the trial became private.
It appeared that she was tortured into confession, and her penalty was burning at the stake. She then recanted her confession and faced her death with dignity. After several years of her death, the English professed her innocent and named her a martyr. Her ashes were then scattered in Seine. Until this day she is considered the main saint of France and one of its most influential beings, due to her changing the course of French history in her 19 years of living.
Fast forward around 30 years to the 1950s, where the civil rights movement was just emerging in America. African-American citizens were sick of the racial discrimination and started to fight for their rights. Some expressed it by refusing to give up their bus seats to white passengers, such as Rosa Parks and Elizabeth Jennings, while others expressed it through getting nominated for the Oscars as the first black actresses to receive such an honor, such as Norma Sklarek. Many women then fought for their rights and fought against racial setbacks. One of the famous of these revolutionaries is Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks was on the bus one day in 1955, when the bus started filling up with more white passengers, and there wasn't any space in the whites-only space. The driver demanded all the black passengers to move a row back to clear space for the riding passengers, and all of them did, except Rosa. She remained in her seat and didn't budge, although the driver kept barking demands at her to move. She eventually got up when a police officer came and arrested her.
One of her friends, a civil rights activist called ED Nixon, came and paid her bail. He used her story to motivate other civil rights leaders to boycott busses, since they heavily depended on African-American passengers, however they treated them unfairly. These leaders included the infamous Martin Luther King Jr., and they all spread the thought of a boycott to others in the community. The next day, no black people were aboard the bus, instead they chose to walk, carpool and some even rode mules to work!
Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged the African-American community to continue with avoiding busses until bus companies remove segregation laws and start to employ black bus drivers. They agreed to continue with the boycott, which caused bus companies to have to increase prices and decrease the number of busses they own, since 75% of bus passengers were black. This is also lead to shops in the sections of the city far away having less business, since no more black shoppers were visiting their stores. The owners got infuriated and started harassing all boycotters, even going to the extreme of bombing King Jr's house. However, Martin Luther King Jr. encouraged his people to remain non-violent, and the attacks made their desire for the removal of segregated laws much greater.
After a year from the Rosa Parks incident, the Supreme Court removed the segregation laws on busses. To celebrate their success, Martin Luther King Jr., E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks boarded a bus, with Rosa sitting at the front row, a seat she rightfully deserved after becoming the spark in such a revolutionary movement. She is remembered to this day as the woman who refused to settle for unjust rights and stood (the more appropriate word is sit, but it doesn't make any sense) her ground.
Finally we reach the modern-day female martyrs. In the Arab world, revolutions have been a very common thing, and since the female population makes up half the entire population, the Arab revolutions consisted of many female revolutionaries. Some were long-time activists, such as Tawakul Kaman, and others were ordinary-turned-revolutionary, such as some female students who fought for their rights to a democratic country.
It would be unfair to choose one Arab female revolutionary, because as a whole they work together. Many Arab women today fight for their rights as a gender. They defy gender norms and bring awareness to the injustice they are forced to suffer in a male-dominated culture. They speak up as a whole to the negligence of the government to treat them with the same respect and grant them the same freedoms boys and men have in the Arab world. These Arab female revolutionaries are sick of women and girls being harassed and belittled, when they have so much potential and so much spirit, that will most definitely make our world such a better place to live in, because both sexes having equal rights and opportunities will lead to the Arab world evolving into a power that is strong, innovative and envied by neighboring powers.
I understand this is a very long post, but I just had to write about this topic because it really interests me and I find these women are a source of inspiration because they go out and fight for what they want, and won't stop until they make our world a better place, even if it's just by a little bit.
I hope you liked this post and I will write soon talking to you guys about my two week's goal to improve my artistic skills. Don't forget to comment down below about what you think!
Sources:
teacher.scholastic.com
content.time.com
arabicquote.co.uk
biographyonline.net
Love you all!
-Yara :)
P.S.: This following sentence is dedicated to Zeid Shriem. I know I promised to post this on Saturday, but it wasn't quite done, however I have finally finished for you all, so here you go!
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