This Metsy Monday post is a waaaaay overdue post! Maybe I forgot to say “bismillah.”
*click on the image below to view an eclectic and lovely collection of Muslimmade items on Etsy.
Month: August 2014
Art For Syria Auction
I will not confess to how many paintings I have bought/bid on, but it is all beautiful art and for a really good cause. Please take a look.
Salam, peace!
On the 19th July 2014 I started an event on Facebook called Art for Syria Auction . For some time now I have been trying to do a fundraiser with Human Appeal and crawling slowly along alhamdolillah. I came up with the idea for an auction because my house is so full of art I’m running out of space! (Well I was before doing the auction)
So far I have sold 17 artworks with 100% donation going to my fundraiser. Each auction runs for 7 days and then the winner is announced on the event page. Payments are made directly to my Just Giving Page and buyers pay postage.
So far I have raised £261, that’s about £15.35 for each artwork sold so there are real bargains to be had. Here are some of the artworks sold and selling so far:
If you’re not interested in buying any…
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Women on Their Favorite Tools
Here’s a lil something I did for The Toast and am pretty, totally proud of:
Last week a friend of mine bragged on her social media about acquiring a shiny new mint-green scroll saw. Before I could derail her moment and bemoan my failure to replace my long lost cordless Dremel, a slew of comments popped up voicing safety concerns and personal testimonies of complete inadequacy with tools. My covetousness was quickly replaced by another lost thing, my annoyance with women who claim to not be tool inclined.
One winter I worked in a bead shop in Alaska, wherein every day I heard women bemoan their tool-using deficiency. Yes, just women, as only about five men came into the shop during my employment and not a one whined that, “Oh I just couldn’t use a wire snipper!”, though one guy did mock our adorable mini anvil designed for detailed hammering work. Women, on the other hand—you know the ones who can use their bare hands to install contact lenses and feminine hygiene products into the most sensitive regions of the body—who can use forks, various brushes, and often even drive cars and run complicated machines such as clothes and dish washers, many of them claim they could never use a drill, which is basically a hair dryer with a thing on the end that you point away from you…
Click here to read the rest and check out The Awesome Toolies.
Metsy Mondays: Pin On!
I wasn’t able to get a whole Metsy Monday treasury up this week, not for lack of great finds, just no time, no time. So please do some window shopping and Muslim business supporting via this awesome group board on Pinterest that features Muslimmade and Islamic Esty finds: http://www.pinterest.com/brookolie/metsy/
Brooke’s beautiful Jewellery
My sister-neighbor asking me all about the sparkly things.
the simple yet lovely necklaces Brooke made for me
Today I have the honour to introduce you to my dear friend Brooke and her work.
I met Brooke online through this blog about 6 years ago when she was still living in Alaska.
In the meanwhile she moved to Morocco and lives since two years in my neighbourhood, with her Berber husband and their six children. We became friends and if time allows (which is not as often as we’d like to) we sometimes have coffee together, do a little walk or simply meet to have some exchange from expat Muslim woman to woman.
Brooke is a homeschooling mum, a writer, a famous editor for Sister’s Magazine and a maker of beautiful things. Recently she came to offer me one sweet little necklace she created, alhamdulillah. Over the last fifteen years I haven’t worn any jewellery at all, except…
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Metsy Mondays: For The Muslim Male
Confession: I usually (window) shop on Etsy with myself or my kids in mind. The husband does most of his own shopping, and I fill in the boring gaps: socks, underclothes, and um, socks. Apparently I am not the only one suffering a lack of imagination when it comes to shopping for the Muslim males, especially the Mister Mipsters ones, but yaye for the fabulous makers and sellers on Etsy who keep you guys in mind.
Click on the image to go straight to Etsy.
*every Monday I am featuring the tons of awesome Muslimmade and Islamic finds on Etsy. Please leave your own or your favorite shop in the comments so I can add them to a treasury, iA.
Why Does He Do That? Inside The Minds of Angry and Controlling Men
Herein are ruminations from a Muslimah point of view on Lundy Bancroft’s book Why Does He Do That? Inside The Minds of Angry and Controlling Men originally published in the August 2014 issue of SISTERS Magazine.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say something I think is a universal truth, though maybe not a very popular idea: I believe that men, in their general position of greater physical and economic power, are at great risk of abusing that power thereby abusing women, children, elders and all people ‘weaker’ than them. Those of us in potential positions of being abused could do well to recognise some of the abusive behaviours which are common in many in positions of power. In turn, this could aid us all to not let abuse trickle down the chains of hierarchy and spread. It is for this reason that I was curious to read Why Does He Do That? Inside The Minds of Angry and Controlling Men. At the time of writing the book, Lundy Bancroft had spent fifteen years working with angry and controlling men as a counsellor, evaluator and investigator. Bancroft identified many patterns among the men, making abusive behaviour less evasive to pinpoint, as simply recognising that something is actually abuse is difficult for most involved in it.
One of the many useful things I found in Why Does He Do That? was Bancroft’s demystification of several commonly held false beliefs about why men abuse. These ‘myths’ are used by the men, and others, as excuses for their behaviours. Bancroft points out that it is abusers themselves who have so oft repeated these excuses, creating their own mythology within cultures – he also points out that abusers are master manipulators and, in this sense, have manipulated a great many of us. A few of these myths popped out at me as being frequently used as excuses among Muslims; when I shared Bancroft’s list of seventeen myths on Facebook, Muslim friends and acquaintances had had experiences with all of them. So, while I encourage people to read this book to get its full benefit, I will share some of Bancroft’s myth-debunking insights, keeping them correlated to the chronological order he uses in the book:
1. He was abused as a child.
Bancroft uses studies to demonstrate how abusers manipulate or outright lie about childhood abuse in order to garner sympathy for their abusive behaviour. But for me the most compelling argument against this excuse is that when Bancroft corners abusers about this one suggesting, “If you are so in touch with your feelings from your abusive childhood…. You should be less likely to abuse a woman, not more so, from having been through it.” As Bancroft explains, “….he only wants to draw attention to [his childhood abuse] if it’s an excuse to stay the same, not if it’s a reason to change.” Like most other abusers, the majority who use this excuse refuse to use therapeutic measures to heal and discontinue their own abusiveness.
2. He loses control.
In this section, Bancroft demonstrates the many ways that abusers themselves removed the façade of “out of control abuser who doesn’t realize what he’s doing”. For instance, when questioned why the abusers didn’t do certain things, such as leave visible marks or break their own valuable items, or about how they were able to immediately calm down when police arrive, abusers responded that they didn’t want to take things that far as they had something to lose if they did. That is not indicative of being out of control, rather Bancroft and his associates long term work with abusers revealed that abusers are actually extremely calculated in how they emotionally and physically abuse their partners. Control is the primary thing abusers seek by being abusive and they know how to get it.
3. There are as many abusive women as abusive men.
It is unfortunate that I even feel compelled to address this myth, but since it nearly always comes up during conversations about abusive men, I am glad Bancroft addresses it. Part of this overall myth is that men are ashamed to come forward when they are abused by women so their numbers are harder to identify. Bancroft makes several points to correct this flawed reasoning, including “….that women crave dignity just as much as men” and it is often outside interference that brings abuse to light. If there were truly such high numbers of female on male abuse, they would have been brought to light by those same concerned family members, neighbours, police, schools and so on who interfere in male to female abuse.
Another commonly upheld aspect of this myth is that men are responding to verbal abuse with physical abuse, but as author Margaret Atwood has famously been quoted, “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” Bancroft reminds readers that “….abuse is not a battle that you win by being better at expressing yourself” and that male abusers employ verbal abuse such as sarcasm, insults and threats as part of their overall abuse tactics. Female to male abuse exists, but it is much rarer and has no place in conversations about correcting the prevailing problem of men abusing women as it only derails from the solutions specific to the problem.
4. He is a victim of racism.
As Muslims are often in circumstances to be on the receiving end of racism, Orientalism and Islamophobia, I thought this item needed addressing here. Racism causes a great deal of real stress, but non-abusive men deal with that stress in ways other than abusing. Just like with being on the receiving end of child abuse in issue #1 “…if a man has experienced oppression himself, it could just as easily make him more sympathetic to a woman’s distress…”. Bancroft points out that men of colour were among the first and strongest opponents of abuse of women in the United States. Consider, for example, the former slave Frederick Douglass who was a champion for the suffrage movement.
Ultimately, Bancroft explains the motivations of the abusers: “The reasons that an abusive man gives for his behavior are simply excuses…. beliefs, values, and habits are the driving forces [behind his abuse].”
A man is abusive because he has a warped belief. The abuser believes that the person he is abusing is inferior to him and deserving of a treatment he himself is not. Of course, that is a common belief held by some Muslims, that the ‘degree a man has over a woman’ is one of absolute human superiority. This is plainly known as ‘entitlement’. My belief is that this greater physical and economic power men often have can be a great fitnah for many of us and we should each do our best to fight the abuse of this power, either as exerting or receiving abuse.
In the book, Bancroft says, “If any part of what I describe about abusers doesn’t match your experience, cast it aside and focus on the parts that do fit.” I would suggest that as Muslims with an interest in improving character and behaviour, as well as encouraging improvements and resisting injustices, we all truly could benefit from understanding the roots of abuse and oppression and can find something to relate to or overcome in this book. I by no means want to shame or blame victims of domestic violence; rather, I would like to remind them that Allah (SWT) tells us not to accept abuse to our persons. Accepting abuse is a form of wronging ourselves, as well as enabling or encouraging a culture of abuse:
“And those who, having done an act of indecency, or wronged their own souls, should remember Allah and ask for forgiveness for their sins and who can forgive sins except Allah? And are never stubborn in continuing (and excusing) the wrong they have done. For them, the reward is forgiveness from the Lord and gardens with rivers flowing underneath as an eternal dwelling; how excellent a reward this is for those who work and strive for good.” (Al ‘Imran:135-136)
Why Does He Do That? is an excellent resource for understanding and helping to dismantle abuse, insha Allah. You can also find more articles about domestic violence on the SISTERS website at http://www.sisters-magazine.com/index.php?route=articles/category&articles_path=11.
Metsy Mondays: Palestine
This week, with Palestine weighing heavily on many of our hearts, it seemed obvious that this treasury needed to come together. These sixteen unique Muslim made items are just a teeny sample of the amazing works artists and sellers are creating to support Palestine. Enjoy! Support!
*click the image to go straight to Etsy
Please leave urls of your favourite (or your own!) Muslim sellers on Etsy in the comments. ❤
A Clichéd Life 