Photo credit: Unknown
Date taken: April 4, 2013
Location: Palestine
Alaa Al-Ali hugs his mother for the first time in twelve years after being released from an Israel prison earlier this week. His family hails from the village of Silwan along the outskirts of Jerusalem’s Old City. [Read more...]
“Heaven lies beneath your mother’s feet.” It’s a hadith that I’ve grown up reciting to myself. But fourteen or fifteen years ago, almost before I could even read, beneath my mother’s feet was a grooved aisle, matte brown in color. We were riding the #3 bus home from a long day at the library.
These are the moments that tug on my heart, the ones that make me so proud of mama.
Wearing a white hijab and sunglasses, mama would take me multiple times a week to the Harold Washington Library right off of Congress Ave. Still relatively new to America, she wore her identity proudly and never feared venturing off into the city of cold winds and tall sights.
Our routine was almost scripted. There used to be a very intriguing miniature house in the center of one of the floors. Nearby would be a librarian sitting by a small arrangement of empty chairs. At the head of every hour, the librarian would begin a small interactive program. I wanted to be an astronaut at the time so when the children’s section was designed with floating rocketships and round planets, mama made sure to take me to the library more often than usual. There I’d join the librarian as he’d flip through the pages of brilliant space books. He’d point to a planet.
“Saturn! The rings!”
Mama, standing near that miniature house, would flash me a smile.
One time, we looked at animal books. She would always bring a canvas bag of some sort to help carry the books home. We used to borrow fifteen or more books at a time and if I couldn’t read them myself, she read them to me. I never realized how heavy that bag must have been until just now but it never left her hands. [Read more...]
The way I walk, the way I talk, the way I view the world, the way the world views me—these are all products of my experience, a mix of good and bad, welcome and unwelcome. But what guides me through the day, what calibrates my conscience and sets the perfect example to follow, is my understanding that I am a reflection of my mother.
For International Women’s Day, I couldn’t find anyone better to write about than the one woman I represent: she who calls me “son”. Having dedicated the last twenty-one years to empowering me above all else, I find it fitting to share a few words about just who she is and what she’s pushed me to discover.
Many have read references to my mother in the past. As my de-facto editor-in-chief, she plays an important role in the maintenance of this blog. As my mentor, she plays an equally important role in the development of my critical thinking. And as my mother, she plays the most important role of all: preparing me for the world outside. [Read more...]
Two weeks ago, I put out a call for questions people might have about the blog. The responses were interesting to say the least, and they’ve given me an opportunity to give readers a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes action of blogging for SMP. Here’s a small compilation of the best questions I’ve been asked along with the most honest answers I can give.
Do you ever sleep? You post at awkward hours.
School plays a tremendous factor in what time I get to experience this luxury you call “sleep”. At the end of the day, I do sleep but not as much as I should. This isn’t a consequence of the blog though. Typically, I’ll already be up studying or finalizing an assignment and if I choose to take a break, I’ll scrap together an article or publish one that has already been prepared.
How did you become a journalist?
Some of you might not know this but I’m not a journalist. In fact, I’ve never formally studied journalism. My university doesn’t offer the major and, in case you’re interested, none of my op-ed submissions have ever seen success. But even if a journalism degree was an option for me, I’d probably avoid it unless I intended to become a reporter. As much as I love the field, it doesn’t seem to have yet made the full transition from traditional print journalism to today’s cyber journalism and that, to me, is a bit off-putting. Regardless, I’m into blood vessels and whatnot so I’m taking the pre-med route.
How do you balance school and blogging?
It can be done. I’m not a powerhouse blogger so publishing three or four things per week is acceptable by my standards. Although the posts do take time, I try to strategize when exactly I get to work on them. You might notice lulls in the blog’s activity and those are almost always because I’m studying for exams. School takes precedence, but if school is out and the guys are playing Xbox like thirteen year olds, I get to work on a new post. [Read more...]
Yours is the face we wake up to,
through our eyes and in our minds,
and the face that wishes us to sleep
the night the missiles fall. [Read more...]
For those of you who have followed this blog from its early stages, you might recognize the influence my mama has had over my approach to the issue of Palestine and, more specifically, my writing. Even as a toddler, well before I could understand the words she spoke, she instilled in me a sense of overwhelming love and respect for people as members of the human family. This positive attitude carried over to my understanding of history, sociology, medicine, politics, and life, really. Her wisdom continues to motivate me to pursue justice for all of the oppressed, not just the Palestinian people.
I am who I am because of my mama, so here’s a special Happy Birthday to the best woman in the world!
Sami Kishawi
Note to readers: If things go as planned, this blog will take on a more personal side for the next few weeks as I write about my experiences in occupied Palestine. Any post regarding the trip will fall under the heading of ‘The Palestine Entries’.
In less than four days, I’ll be heading toward the land that dominates my political discourse as well as most other candid conversations I have. We’ve already begun packing and I can only imagine just how inspiring and life-changing this trip to the Gaza Strip will be.
Maybe it’s a common practice but my family has a tradition of packing very early for international travels. It usually begins years before we even think about making an airline reservation. If any family member runs into a good deal on a useful item, it goes into a suitcase to be filled with gifts for the relatives. Fancy dress shirts, stuffed animals, toy cars (personal favorites of mine), purses, make-up kits, colognes, soccer cleats: the little things that don’t always exist inside the borders. The gifts eventually accumulate well beyond the capacity of the suitcase and plane tickets are reserved. [Read more...]
As it turns out, this will be the 101st post on this blog. It’s taken exactly eleven months to reach this achievement, and while this might seem like a painstakingly long time, running this blog and dedicating its mission to the people of Palestine has been tremendously fulfilling. That said, I want to share with you some of the things I’ve come to experience writing for Sixteen Minutes to Palestine.
1. Maternal “wrath”
Writing takes time, especially when writing for a blog that seriously intends to change the status quo and advocate for the self-determination for Palestinians by promoting justice and truth. The way I see it, operating this blog may consume some of my time but the purpose is important and necessary. The way mama sees it, on the other hand, operating this blog means I’ve secretly dropped out of the pre-med track! It’s likely that she’s reading this and wondering whether or not I have homework to complete and whether or not I’m going to come clean and finally tell her I’ve switched to a political science major.
Just so we’re all on the same page though, I’m still a pre-med/biology major.
Nevertheless, many of my most prominent experiences as a blogger have been those involving my mom. She raised me to be who I am and I have no problem saying she knows me more than I know myself. It’s nice to know that she continues to support my ambitions as a writer, and her “wrath” (which is really just a matter of traditional Arab-style motherly concern) is much appreciated. It keeps me in check. Without it, I’d most likely spend entire days and nights reading and writing everything unrelated to my studies. [Read more...]
