Doe v. Walmart

Ok, so I know I haven't posted in a while, but I have a good excuse that will have to get me through until Monday. My final draft of my Journal Comment for the Emory International Law Review is due on Monday (30 pages), and I have been procrastinating quite nicely up until this point. If I write well enough there is a chance that I could get it published!

If you are interested in my Comment, which is about labor abuses overseas, especially those committed by Wal-Mart, check out the NGO who is suing them for breach of contract here http://www.laborrights.org/.

So wish me luck and insha'Allah, I will be back to posting more soon.

My Top 10, See these movies!

Amelie- The story of a shy and quirky French girl who embarks on a quest to make people happy. She learns a lot about herself in the process. This is just a beautiful film and an interesting story. It's in French, so expect subtitles. Actually,
most of my top ten are foreign films because apparently Hollywood doesn't make good movies anymore.


Children of Heaven- This is a beautiful story about a little boy in Iran who loses his sister's shoes and then decides to share his with her so that they can both go to school. They make a kind of weird relay where he runs from school to give her the shoes and then she runs to school. It's just very simple and sweet. In Farsi with subtitles. Broaden your mind, learn new languages!


The Terrorist- This is loosely based on the true story of Thenmuli Rajaratnam (also known as Dhanu), who assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. It gets into the mind of a woman suicide bomber fighting with the Tamil Tigers and grants a humanizing look to the motivations behind someone who would do such an atrocious act. It also has beautiful cinematography. In Tamil with subtitles.

Hotel Rwanda- This movie displays in vivid detail the horrors of the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and the bravery of one man who worked very hard to save as many people as he could. This is an important film becuase so few Americans actually know about this, one of the worst genocides of all times. And this one is in English!

Life is Beautiful- This movie is about the Holocaust, but much more than that it is about a father's love for his family and his willingness to sacrifice everything just to make his son smile. This movie has both incredibly funny parts and incredibly sad ones as well. Watch it in English or Italian!


Rabbit Proof Fence- The story of three little aboriginge girls during the 1930's in Australia when the government supported extreme measures to assimilate half-white, half-aborigine children into the population. The girls are stolen from their mothers and taken to an orphanage, where they escape and travel thousands of miles back home. Amazing true story! Expect both English and Aboriginal language (not sure what it's called?).


The Station Agent- This is the story of a dwarf (I think this is the PC term?), who loses his best friend and moves to the countryside, only to make an odd group of new friends whether he wants them or not. This is kind of a strange movie, but beautiful in its own way. It makes you think. English.

The Message- A true classic and the Musilm equivalent of the Ten Commandments. It is my goal to make watching this movie a Ramdan tradition for my family in the years to come. Truly tragic that it's talented director, Mustafa Akkad, was murdered by terrorists in Jordan only a few months ago. In English or Arabic



Garden State- An anthem for disillusioned twenty-somethings, this movie is thought provoking and the cinematography is good. See it just for the soundtrack if you must! English.



Earth- The story of what happened in the troubled city of Lahore during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, told through the nuetral eyes of a young zorastrian girl. The film highlights the religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims and the damage caused by centuries of colonialism and repression. This is not your typical Bollywood film and a must see for anyone interesting in the history of both nations. In Urdu/Hindi with subtitles.

Boys v. Girls

There is an article in Newsweek today which I found particularly interesting. The Trouble with Boys

It talks about why America's boys are systematically doing worse than girls in school. The thing that I found most interesting about the article was the portions of it which discuss how the biological differences between girls and boys affect their attention spans and skill proclivities.

"For many boys, the trouble starts as young as 5, when they bring to kindergarten a set of physical and mental abilities very different from girls'. As almost any parent knows, most 5-year-old girls are more fluent than boys and can sight-read more words. Boys tend to have better hand-eye coordination, but their fine motor skills are less developed, making it a struggle for some to control a pencil or a paintbrush. Boys are more impulsive than girls; even if they can sit still, many prefer not to—at least not for long.
Thirty years ago feminists argued that classic "boy" behaviors were a result of socialization, but these days scientists believe they are an expression of male brain chemistry. Sometime in the first trimester, a boy fetus begins producing male sex hormones that bathe his brain in testosterone for the rest of his gestation. "That exposure wires the male brain differently," says Arthur Arnold, professor of physiological science at UCLA. How? Scientists aren't exactly sure. New studies show that prenatal exposure to male sex hormones directly affects the way children play. Girls whose mothers have high levels of testosterone during pregnancy are more likely to prefer playing with trucks to playing with dolls. There are also clues that hormones influence the way we learn all through life. In a Dutch study published in 1994, doctors found that when males were given female hormones, their spatial skills dropped but their verbal skills improved.

In elementary-school classrooms—where teachers increasingly put an emphasis on language and a premium on sitting quietly and speaking in turn—the mismatch between boys and school can become painfully obvious. "Girl behavior becomes the gold standard," says "Raising Cain" coauthor Thompson. "Boys are treated like defective girls."

The article also discusses single gender schooling, which appears to have a positive affect on the acheivement of both sexes, with single gender girls classes to the best, followed by boys, and then co-ed.

While it is sad that boys in America are suffering as their educational needs appear to be overlooked, other things about the article struck a chord with me as well.

One of the issues that I am constantly battling is those men who attempt to enforce "Hislam" on the female muslim populace, i.e. their misogynistic cultural values disguised as legitimate Islamic principles. The general attitude is to declare that women by their "nature" are weaker and less intelligent than men, need to be taken care of by men and therefore owe their due obedience to their protectors and sustainers. So when I see studies like this which show that yes, women are biologically different from men, but NOT inferior, it just makes me smile :).

I welcome any comments on the article in general, or the concept of single gender schooling. Do you think that it will affect kids negatively later in life when they have to work in a co-gender environment? How much of the problems confronting today's boys are due to the lack of strong male role models because of divorce or unmarried pregnancy?

Happy Birthday To Us!

The only cake I'll be getting this year because of my "diet."

Today is my birthday. I am the big 24. I guess that it is not that exciting anymore. After 21, you just don't get any cool birthdays. Well, even 21 wasn't a big deal because I had already quit drinking by then. The only interesting thing about my birthday is that M has the same birthday. We are exactly 8 years and 15 minutes apart (not counting the time difference, since he was born in Iraq and I am not sure what the time difference is between here and Iraq?). Poor M though, he doesn't like birthdays because he is 32 now, and of course I am all "Yay! its my birthday" and force him to have fun, lol. It was pretty funny the first time we found out that we had the same birthday. He jumped up and yelled "Get the hell out of here!" And I made him show me his driver's license because I didn't believe him. He is always making stuff up to tease me. But sure enough, there it was on his license. So Happy Birthday to us!

War On Error

Hello All,

My friend Melody wrote a book, and I am sure that it is going to be really good. It is releasing sometime in the summer and I am very excited for her. By the way Mel, since I'm plugging you, any chance you can get me an advance copy??? LOL.

Here is what her website says about her new book, War on Error.

"In this insightful and provocative book, Ms. Moezzi explores a rarely seen side of Islam. The individual Muslim Americans around whom her book revolves reveal a more personal, less sensational, and most importantly, more realistic portrait of the faith and its practitioners. "

Check out her website here: Melody Moezzi

Oh you crazy law student...

I thought I would make a little post about some of the different "types" that you can run into in a law school which I had never previously experienced in all my long years of education. For some reason, law school seems to just pull these people out of the woodwork and disperse them to annoy us "average" students who just want to get along and not draw too much attention to ourselves. Please note that all names have been disguised to protect the not-so-innocent, but these are actual conversations that I or my friends have been witness to in the past year and a half.

Type #1- The Gunner (aka "That guy," as in, don't be "that guy")
These are the people who seem to know everything about everything, have already read the entire casebook before the class even starts, and generally think that they are smarter than the professor. They also talk in "smart people" voices (think the boss from Office Space). Some choice tidbits from the gunners in my class.
"I'm glad that there are people like you around to round out the curve," said to a student who expressed the belief that she is not extremely competitive in class.
"Well, if law school doesn't work out, you can always be a billings clerk," said to me upon learning that I was an administrative assistant for 9 months between undergrad and law school.
To the professor who wrote the casebook used in our class, "Well, as you wrote in your book..."
I could go on and on.
Needless to say, these people tend to irk me just a little bit.

Type #2- The What-Planet-Are-You-From Guy

Ok, I only have one really good story for this guy but here it goes and it came from a close friend of mine (let's call her Janine)

So Janine is in the student lounge area studying when THPAYF Guy comes up to her and...
THPAYF Guy: Hey Janine, are you going to the girl's restroom anytime soon?
Janine: Umm, I don't know, why?
THPAYF Guy: Well, I heard that there is a list of the 10 hottest guys in the 1L class on the wall in the girl's bathroom and I wanted you to tell me what number I am.
Janine: Ummm, I don't know what you are talking about (to herself- if there was one, you wouldn't be on it).

Where do these people come from?

Type #3- The Professor that's just sooo good at being mean
Seems like every 1L class is subjected to one of these, a professor who makes Professor Kingsfield from The Paper Chase seem like a pussy cat (mine was even my contracts professor)!

Choice comments from this guy:
"That's the second dumbest thing I've heard all day."
"I'm going to get you some ballet shoes so that you can dance around the question a little more."

Hilarious when directed at someone else, not so much fun when coming at you, this guy actually made me forget the name of my Civ. Pro. professor because I was so intimidated when he asked me in class.


Another miscellaneous comment from people in my class that I thought were hilarious, or unbelievable-
The girl who during discussion of the U.S. v. VMI case in Con. Law (this is the one that forced VMI to let girls in), said "I just don't understand why women are trying to be men by being soldiers, why don't you just let the men do that, what woman would want to be in the army?" Huh? Why are you in law school, you are trying to enter a traditionally male dominated field, shouldn't you just let the men be lawyers? just blows my mind.

Ok, I'm going to stop now, who knows, maybe I am someone else's annoying personality type? Well, turnaround is fair play, lol.

Tears in Heaven

So I was just listening to that Eric Clapton song "Tears in Heaven" on my iPod while I was ironing M's clothes and that song always makes me think about this story from my childhood which simultaneously makes me laught and feel guilty.
So when I was a kid I played soccer (actually I played all my life, into college NCAA D1, but thats a story for another post). Anyway, we used to have a carpool to go to practices and this girl was in my carpool and we were really good friends in school and everything too. So one day, "Tears in Heaven" comes on the radio and we have this conversation.

K: This song always makes me sad because it reminds of my best friend's dad's funeral back in Oklahoma (she used to live there).
Me: Wow, that's really sad, how did he die?
K: (very seriously) He was gored to death by a water buffalo.
Me: (laughing so hard that if I had been drinking milk it would have come out of my nose) Are you kidding me?
K: (very hurt and offended, and almost crying) Why is that so funny? He was a water buffalo farmer, there are lots of them in Oklahoma.
Me: (feeling very guilty now and like a real idiot) Oh, sorry.

So now whenever I hear that song I think about how this guy I don't know and never met in my life was "gored to death by a water buffalo." And as awful as it is and as guilty as it makes me feel, I still snicker just a little bit. I think it was in her delivery, please tell me I'm not a horrible person!

My Porkchops Glow in the Dark!

Today I decided to comment on the news, because there are some weird and interesting things going on out there.

Weird thing- Scientists in Taiwan have created a flourescent green pig. Tres bizarre, I think. This has something to do with stem cell research, which I don't have any particular opinion on because I don't know much about it. So are green pigs, like, extra haram? Ha ha, I don't like pork anyways, even before I became Muslim I very rarely ate it because its yucky. I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I Am!

Sad thing- Many pilgrims were killed today during Hajj as they rushed to stone the pillars at Mina. Inna lillahi wa inna rajaoon. I don't know what the solution is to this problem, but something more must be done to ensure the safety of the pilgrims. The Saudi officials KNOW that there are going to be 2.5 mil people there, so.... The way I look at it there are a few problems, which is inefficient crowd control, and the demand by Wahhabbi clerics that people complete the stoning between noon and sunset. Shi'a clerics say that people can complete it anytime during sunrise to sunset, so most of the Shi'a got through it early in the morning and had no problems. Another thing which is horrible is that another hotel collapsed earlier in hajj and killed many pilgrims, that is totally preventable by requiring people to follow building regulations, but I guess that is just too much to ask. Arrgggg!

Thing I am worried about- Let me tell you a little story. In summer 2002, I went to Germany and actually backpacked from Muenster to Rome and back again with 3 German friends of mine. Along the way we met several other friends. Sometimes people would ask me, "do you think that the U.S. is going to invade Iraq?" "Ha ha", I would suavely reply, "that would never happen, your press over here is so sensationalist!" Oh little did I know... Boy did I feel like a dumb a*** a year later. Now the war drums are beating for Iran, and I will say this, we as a country do not have the troops, resources, and public morale to support ANY kind of military action into Iran. Iran is not a feeble dictatorship that has been suffering under more than a decade of UN imposed sanctions. The U.S. is getting in TOO deep, even for themselves, unless they have MASSIVE EU support, which I don't think will happen, even with murmerings going on right now. I hope that we stay away from Iran, if solely for the sake of my middle age, when I will be paying off the national deficit (not single-handedly, but you know what I mean).

Ok, enough of my political commentary for today and my news commentary. Ta ta!

Eid Mubarak

Eid Mubarak to everyone!!!!!

We went for the Eid prayer this morning at the Shi'a masjid. It was nice even though it took us over an hour with the rush hour traffic! Why do they have to plan these things to start in the middle of rush hour (8:30)?? A half hour before or later would make SUCH a difference. Ah, well. Apparently the mulana was stuck in traffic too, so the prayer started late and we only missed half of the first rakat. I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the day and hopefully I won't drop completely off my blog again now that school has started. Ciao!

Hilton Head Hell

Looks nice, doesn't it? but.........


Hello,

Well, I have just spent the past three days in Hilton Head with my maternal grandmother, which was, let's say, a trying experience. She is not a very easy person to spend three days with and normally I manage to avoid her scrutiny, as it is normally deflected to one of the other cousins who is a bigger screw-up at the time than I am. Let's see, some of the things that this crazy woman has done in the past just to give you an inkling of what I am talking about.

- She told my oldest cousin that if he didn't get married before he was 30 she was going to cut him out of her will (which would be a substantial amount of money).
- She did cut my cousin out of the will who had a child out of wedlock.
- She told my uncle that his two children were not truly apart of the family because they are adopted (well, she later disinherited one, so...)
- She told my cousin who has battled anorexia in the past that she was overweight (she's not at all, she used to be a model before she got married).
- She didn't want my Mom to marry my Dad because he was poor.
- She told my cousin that she wouldn't come to his wedding if my dh was invited (so he wasn't invited because she always gets her way, and the rest of the family are closet xenophobes anyways).

So this time, I got to hear in the course of about 2 days that I was overweight a good 20-3o times. ("My, don't you have a healthy appetite","you may be able to fit into my clothes if you lost a dew pounds"). She is always saying that if I lost a few pounds I could wear her clothes (she is very fashionable actually and I like most of her clothes), but come on! she weighs 102 lbs and is 5'2. I am almost 5'7 and weigh 150! There is no way I will EVER fit into her clothes, urgh.

Other fun topics, how I should get rid of dh (she says this very subtly, asking questions about his immigration status and telling me that I don't need to be tied down too young). Also we watched Fox News and Bill O'Reilly and she lauded his political genius, which I just sat there and took, rather than open that can of worms. Other choice comments, "I don't understand why all those Muslims want to kill each other." "Well, as long as they are killing each other over there in Iraq and don't try to come over here and kill us again, I don't care." "It's their religion that makes those Muslims so violent." Obviously she doesn't know that I'm Muslim, I'm pretty sure that she would disinherit me too, which I don't care about but which would effectively disinherit my parents too.

Ok, sorry for the long post and I'm going to shut up now, but I really needed to vent. Thanks for listening.

Qur'an Verse-A-Day Calendar

Salaam,

I wanted to buy a verse-a-day calendar for the Qur'an and hadith and I couldn't find one anywhere online, so I am making one myself. If anyone wants a copy, just leave me a message or send me an email to sea6242003(at)yahoo.com and I will send you a copy gratis! I am only half way through February right now, but I will try to finish each month in time and send it out to anyone who is interested. I am going with Qur'an verses first and I am thinking that if I run out of the book I am using right now, I will fill in with sayings of Imam Ali (as) from Peak of Eloquence.
Thanks!

Happy 2006!

May all of you have a blessed and happy New Year in 2006!