It is Sunday morning, it is raining here in San Francisco. I am in bed, laughingly I say I practically live in bed as I write from bed and most of my hours are spent reading and writing, particularly in the last few days. But I am on a new topic, a new concern. Goodbye Dubai and Hello the Rights of Women under the Islamic faith. It is fascinating and such a surprise! There were and are very strong women – from the very beginning.
I, admittedly, came upon this new passion for a rather unholy reason. I do somewhat laugh at this as I was researching how to get the goods on the Ruler of Dubai. His treatment of women has been proven to be abominable which is defined as causing moral revulsion. Its synonyms are loathsome, detestable, hateful, odious, obnoxious, despicable, contemptible, damnable, cursed, accursed, diabolical; disgusting, revolting, repellent, repulsive, offensive, repugnant, abhorrent, reprehensible, atrocious, horrifying, execrable; foul, vile, wretched, base, miserable, horrible, awful, dreadful, appalling, abysmal, brutal, nauseating; horrid, nasty, disagreeable, unpleasant, distasteful; informal terrible, shocking, God-awful, beastly; ANTONYMS good, admirable.
Yes, unfortunately, all of those words. His behaviour towards women is not based on gossip and innuendo, but upon facts that were found to be true by one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom. Innuendo is an allusive or oblique remark or hint, typically a suggestive or disparaging one. Used in a sentence: He became the butt for their smutty innuendos. .The synonyms are: insinuation, implication, hint, suggestion, intimation, overtone, undertone, whisper, allusion, nuance, reference, imputation, aspersion, slur.
So when I first became involved with the Royal Family of Dubai there were rumours, suggestions, implications concerning the actions of the Ruler of Dubai but there was every reason for me to believe that this was only innuendo. But then along came March 5, 2020. At the time I was shaken to my core but it is only now that I can integrate it. You see, I am not a casual observer, because for some reason I met most of the family and am very attached to ROD’s fourteen year old daughter who I met in London. But there is really nothing I can do, nothing. In yesterday’s blog I blatantly suggested how perhaps ROD could become former ROD but he still would be head of the family. I do not want be part of that family, I had one abusive father, I do not need two particularly when he is six years younger than I am. I am laughing, I have a great sense of humour. By the way, I think my father is still alive at the ripe old age of 98, which proves that only the good die your. I do not know for sure if he is alive or dead but there seems to be no obituary – I do not have any contact with him or his wife or other members of the family.
Also it appeared to me, through videos on the extensive Fazza network that the ROD was ailing. I explained the symptoms to one of my doctors and suggested that it might be pancreatic cancer.
He: Alexis, you are and excellent diagnostician.
Me: Thanks Doc. Perhaps you could pay me the next time I see you.
But ROD seems to be looking a little bit better these days. If I were him I would not want to be dying, because along will come Judgment Day. Oops. But this I learned: “Conversely, a person who has done evil all his life may repent even at the last moment and with one good deed earn paradise.” Perhaps the one good deed that the ROD could commit would be stepping down as the ROD and appoint the Crown Prince of Dubai, the Ruler of Dubai. Just a suggestion.
So what am I to do? As there is the need to turn this situation around and make it positive. Personal Driver in our continual conversations. supplies me with needed information. He is of the Islamic faith and tells me of the reverence the faith has for women. I begin to research the topic and it is fascinating and now I feel most positive about the Islamic faith, learning so much which I will pass onto faithful readers of this blog.
The source of my new found knowledge and hope is a website: www.mei.edu › publications › social-system-and-morality-islam
Energetic readers can look it up and read it in its entirety but I shall summarize the beauty found therein..
This is taken from the beginning:
“As in most of the nomadic tribes of the ancient world, women were deemed unimportant in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, in a society shaped by the rigors of desert life, women were relegated to the margins of community life.
The advent of Islam fundamentally altered the status of women in several ways. First, and most importantly, it overturned tradition by according women equal status before Allah. No longer were women denied a human face. Their souls like the souls of men were precious to Allah. They, like men, were worthy of dignity and respect. As a result of this new status and the revolution it worked on Arab society—women became pillars of early Muslim society and were counted among its strongest supporters. Several women—notably Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and wife of Ali, the fourth caliph—even played important roles in the propagation of the faith. To the Shia, for example; Fatimah is an authoritative source of the Prophet’s sayings and deeds.
“The Prophet set an example for the treatment of women in marriage through his relationship with his first wife Khadijah.” She was fifteen years older than he was, although polygamy was extensively practiced, she was his sole wife until her death. She was his first convert and a strong supporter in the birth of this new faith.
After her death, Muhammad married more than once. “Aishah bint abu Bakr (613-678) was Muhammad’s favorite wife of later years. Noted for her education and intelligence, in particular her ability to read and write, she was often consulted about the teachings of the Prophet after his death. She played an important role in the life of the early community, most famously by opposing the succession of Ali after the death of Uthman, the third khalifa.”
There is other encouraging news.
“The new, elevated status of women is apparent in numerous Qur’anic proscriptions which set out women’s rights and obligations. On protecting the dignity and self-respect of women, for example, the Qur’an is emphatic and unequivocal: One of the seven hudud crimes is maligning a woman’s reputation.”
Compare this with Judaism and Christianity. I was raised in the Protestant faith and attended church, Sunday school and religious organizations during my childhood, so I am well versed in Protestant Christianity. I became an atheist at the age of nineteen, but I had extensive background.
There are no strong women in the New Testament, Jesus did not marry, saved a woman from getting stoned and was born of a Virgin but that is not a big deal. At one point all of we woman were virgins. I am so funny sometimes.
I cannot think of a powerful woman in the Old Testament, but I am not as familiar with Judaism. I have a certain distinction however. I was stood up at a Orthodox Temple in New York City – I think it was seven years ago. Thank goodness for that, otherwise I might be married to Derek Enlander, who is an Orthodox Jew from Ireland.
Me: How strange, a Jew from Ireland. Are there many of you?
He: Just two, me and my cousin.
That conversation took place in his very ritzy apartment across from the Metropolitan Art Museum. We sat, gazing at Central Park, drinking very good Scotch one afternoon. Then he stood me up the next day at Temple and that was that. I did not go to dinner with him as planned, went back to California and he married someone else about three months later. That is known as a close call. I had another close call with another man, quite recently, in January 2020. Phew. I wrote about the New York encounter, it is one of my Betrayal stories which I must start placing on this blog. But it will have to wait until recovery from knee replacement surgery.
I shall continue this positivity in the next blog
