What is the connection between the events that took place in Egypt on the first day of Eid and the uncovered meat vs. cats’ theory? What makes hundreds of men (although I can’t and won’t describe them as men, but that’s how they are classified anatomically and genetically) turn into a herd of bulls in heat? What makes them unite under a shameful action and charge forward without any consideration to religion, morals, culture or tradition?

Oppression? Frustration? Revenge? Proving a point or just simple ignorance?

What happened to the oriental Arab values that they kept pushing down our throats? The Arab man is jealous by nature and would feel bad for the women of his country of they were treated badly or unjustly, the Arab man is always keen on protecting the women of his country even if they were not his flesh and blood, the Arab man demands that the women of his country dress modestly and cover up because that’s what religion and tradition say they should do and because they want to protect them from the wolves in the streets waiting to rape them if they showed an arm or a leg like uncovered meat calling for strayed cats to attack and rip it apart, … etc.

The Arab man this and the Arab man that … bull shit!

These guys really gave us some great examples!! From the mufti who blurted out the infamous theory of uncovered meat vs. cats, to any of those guys who committed assault against those poor women in down town Cairo a few days ago; they are no different in my opinion because they both considered women to be pieces of meat that were created to satisfy their hunger … shame on them!

What is the message that we are supposed to be getting from all of this? That women’s place is home and if she goes out, she will be violated in the worst possible way? That we have become monstrous creatures driven by their animalistic urges? What can we understand from this ugliness? They have managed to prove one point though; it is that there is no connection between violating and raping a woman and her dress code; they did not differentiate between covered or not, Muslim or not, Egyptian or not, they were hungry angry bulls in heat and fighting over the few females that were cursed to be there at the time.

What we have, is a morals crisis; we suffer from poor raising standards, no proper guidance or references, no close monitoring from the parents, illiteracy, ignorance and denial.

I have to say that I am happy that I live in Jordan; when I read about those incidents, I could not help but imagine how things will be if something like this happened here; regardless of how and where I imagine this to happen, I always came to the same conclusion; in Jordan, if something of this nature was to start, people will not wait for the police to react and interfere; they would take matters in their own hands and not only by isolating the girls and trying to protect them, but doomed is the guy or guys who attempt such a shameful irresponsible act, because they will not live enough to talk about it.

To all women in Egypt; we feel for you and support you; the ordeal you had to go through and deal with is something that we cannot easily comprehend or absorb; I cannot claim that I know how you feel because I don’t know what I would have done if I were in your place; may God bless you and the few good men who are standing up for you and the rest of us!

You must know by now how much I am against censorship, especially when it is against brilliant content like Mahmood’s Den!

In Bahrain; they are shutting down the sound of reason by blocking this smart and informative blog which makes me wonder when we will start moving forward and give up on dragging our people backward; all the way to ages that are darker than ignorance!

Please help us unblock Mahmood’s Den by signing the petition; get your voice heard and help us bring Mahmood’s Den back to all its fans in Bahrain!

Spread the word and link to the petition!

No one can argue that good friends are rare to find and that friends who like you for you without any hidden agendas and no preconceptions are even rarer than the first type. You find yourself a good friend and say; I can talk to this person about anything, I can tell them everything, I can be transparent with them, speak my mind and express my true feelings and not fearing being judged or looked at in a different way.

Friendship as I understand is when you are there for your friend whenever they need you or don’t need you, i.e. being there always, sharing their joy and sorrow, picking them through their low moments, understanding where they are coming from when they are angry, frustrated, desperate, depressed, happy … etc.

What makes friends so special is that you get to pick them and keep them closer to you. We don’t get to pick our families or relatives, but we do get to pick our friends. We have the opportunity to meet people who are a match to us in the way they think or feel, people we can communicate with and have fun with.

Sometimes we go through difficult times in our lives and feel that we are alone, no one can understand or relate to what we are going through. Only friends pull us through such times and help us out by being nonjudgmental, supporting, loving and most importantly; patient. When you crack under the pressure of your life and its demands, you need someone strong to help you handle that pressure and come out of it a stronger person.

This friend might need to be strong enough to make us see our mistakes and confront us with our fears, help us see through ourselves and reach deep down to find the real cause of our problems and work on solving them.

In the state of panic that we all go through when we are facing a problem or a critical situation; we seldom control our ability of listening and responding, and more often than not, we become aggressive and offensive; we might unintentionally hurt those who are trying to help us and be there for us by shutting them out and keeping everything inside. Good friends stick around in such circumstances and forgive you because they believe in you and know that you are reacting to a certain variable in your life that will soon go away and you will be back to yourself again.

But do all stick around? Do all take the pressure? Do all go the extra mile for their chosen mates and friends?

Of course not!

Some will be waiting for you to make a mistake to walk out of your life, some will attack back and add to your problems, some will withdraw quietly and make all sorts of excuses for not being there, and some will become your enemies; let me rephrase that; they will become your worst enemies because they know so much about you; and that is what I call: “frienimies”.

So, what are we supposed to do? Stop trusting people? Refrain from getting closer to anyone? Practice more caution? What are we to do? How can we know that this friend will not turn into an enemy one day? How can we take it when it happens for real?

I have a friend; I am not really sure if we are still friends; he was supportive and caring, he always said that he wanted the best for me, always said that he will always be there for me, always said that I can tell him anything and confide in him as if I was taking to myself, he said that he wanted to see me happy and content and he said that I can always rely and depend on him. I told him that my experience tells me that I should not be so trusting, that I cannot depend on anyone being there for me, that I can only rely on myself but he kept arguing that he will prove me wrong.

I might have consumed his support, I might have gotten carried away with relying on him being there or maybe I have reached a point where I took him for granted, but what happened lately; is that he started caring about my friends more than he cared about me, maybe because he approves their lifestyle more than he does mine, or maybe he feels that they are more worthy of his support because their way of life matches his ideas and conceptions. I don’t know what happened, but he was slipping away, became less tolerant and less supportive, more judgmental and aggressive and finally slipped away and wouldn’t even answer my messages any more.

Is he only angry? I don’t know because he wouldn’t answer me; I don’t know why he would have gotten angry in the first place. Has he become a frienemy? Maybe; I have learned to expect everything and accept anything. Will he come back and take his best friend status again? No idea and no expectations. Have I tried to understand what happened and why he did this? YES! Is he reading these lines and will he know that he is meant by this post? Definitely! What will he do about that? I don’t know!

Last but not least; I will quote our dear prophet (PBUH) when he said: Love your beloveds moderately as they might become your hated one day, and hate your hated moderately as they might become your beloveds one day!

أحبب حبيبك هوناُ ما عسى أن يكون بغيضك يوماً ما … وابغض بغيضك هوناً ما عسى أن يكون حبيبك يوماً ما

When you want to write about a pleasant experience; it is a must that you are in a good mood so that you can give the story its right flavor and reflect the true essence of the experience. This Eid; I had a very nice experience that is worth writing about, but the flu delayed this post a little because of the bad mood it caused.

On the first day of Eid; I met one of the people that are on my “must meet” list; if I say that this was a pleasant refreshing encounter, that would be an understatement!

The land of the Nile sent us a present for this Eid; Sandmonkey was here and we enjoyed his visit exactly like he did and maybe more. He contacted me and said that he will be spending his Eid vacation in Amman; this was more than a nice surprise to me because I enjoy reading his blog and have heard about him from mutual friends, so you can imagine that I was anxious to finally meet him personally.

When I went to the hotel to pick him up; he greeted me with a lovely smile that promised me a day that is full of joy and laughs. We started out by going to Canvas to have lunch where we were joined by Jad, Bakkouz and Roba. The guys hit it the minute they said hello; I expected that they would although SM was reluctant and skeptical about him getting along with Bakkouz after their infamous encounter and he was not sure about Jad because this was the first time he hears of him; boy I am glad they got along and became friends

After lunch; we wanted to go for a cup of coffee and argeeleh for SM. Roba recommended that we go to a place next to Salute because they have a nice setting, but unfortunately; both places did not start their service before 6, so we headed to Old View Café that was closed and no one would answer our calls. Our last hope was Books @ Café and thank God it was open and serving everything we wanted. SM loved the place and found what he was looking for; we sat on the balcony and had a great time.

We discussed many issues and talked about things that concern Egyptians, Jordanians and Arabs in general. We agreed on almost all topics discussed and I can say that there was a nice harmony going on.

SM was everything I imagined him to be and even more; he is smart, outgoing, open-minded, bold, fearless and most importantly cynical. Add to all that his sense of humor; we really enjoyed some good laughs. He talks about serious things in a light manner that does not leave you space to miss the humor yet get the basic idea of what he is aiming at; bottom line; you cannot afford not to like the guy like we all did.

I had to leave them early because mom kept calling me saying that we have a full house and everyone was asking about me; first day of Eid and that is the normal practice. I was supposed to meet him again but flu stopped all plans and left me in a really bad mood because I missed seeing SM before he left and enjoying his company one more time.

I am glad that SM enjoyed his stay in Amman and maybe next time we will take him out of Amman to show him more of Jordan’s beauty.

It seems that I caught a bad flu the first couple of days from this long Eid holiday and I have been suffering since. Even if you were in a good mood, fever, sneezing and coughing guarantee that for you, so you can imagine how this holiday was so far.

Adding to flu severe symptoms, I have had more than my fair share of bad news, things that you never expect to hear or witness, yet; you see them happening and watch with astonishment and sadness; a question hangs over your head: how could this happen and how would people be so clueless and cruel?

It makes me feel depressed when I see men in our society do the same mistake again and again; they leave the most important decision in their life for others to make for them, then after a short while, they start complaining about it, and the result is more broken homes, more divorced wives and more kids getting lost between their estranged parents. What makes the situation even worse is that they don’t listen to advice and go ahead with what others planned for them; it is like they do not want to claim responsibility for failure when it happens or find themselves excuses to justify their actions later.

Getting married has become casual for a large part of the community, men and women get married at an earlier age, their parents pay for everything, they even choose for them; the man’s family chooses his bride and the woman’s family accept the proposal of the highest bidder, then they cover the expenses. The end result is a couple of strangers living under the same roof and governed by a contract called marriage, they do not understand or appreciate the value of this holy commitment and end up underestimating the consequences of their actions, hence; divorce becomes easier and lighter.

Infidelity is becoming a major problem in our community as well; I am hearing stories from all sources that the concept is more common than we would like to accept or believe. I think everyone will agree that this is not a good sign, especially when we consider all the negative consequences of such actions.

Not discussing this further; I was really looking forward to this vacation, only to be disappointed with coming down with the flu and hearing bad news that drained all my positive energy and left me weak and gloomy!!