I’m in a philosophical mood these days, and I want to share with you one of the most beautiful things I have ever read in my life. It’s written by a French philosopher called Andre Comte-Sponville, and it talks about how hope is an absurd, illogical concept.

I live by this code of “no hope”. No inshallah’s. No maybe’s. I was taught by my parents that hope is futile, and that you control your own happiness. I owe them very deeply for teaching me that. Our culture in the Arab world is a culture of hope and tomorrows (We’ll free Palestine… One day!), and my parents taught me to control what I can control, because we only live one life, eh?

Anyway. Here is the beautiful text (so beautiful that I spent an hour typing it up on my iPad). I strongly urge you to read it.

Cheerful Despair by Andre Comte-Sponville

“Nature is blind; our desires insatiable; only death is immortal. [...]

I wished to escape from it [despair] and to show that happiness is not something to be hoped for but something to be experienced here and now. [...]

Tragic wisdom is the wisdom of happiness and finitude, happiness and impermanence, happiness and despair. This is not as paradoxical as it might sound. You can hope only for what you do not have. Thus, to hope for happiness is to lack it. When you have it, on the other hand, what remains to be hoped for? For it to last? That would mean fearing its cessation, and as soon as you do that, you start feeling it dissolve into anxiety. Such is the trap of hope, with or without God — the hope for tomorrow’s happiness prevents you from experiencing today’s.

“Would I ever be happy, if only I were happy!” sighs Woody Allen. But how can he be happy, when he is hoping to become so? We all tend to reason this way. Forever grasping after things to come. Forever filled with hope and fear. [...] We are cut off from happiness by the very hope that impels us to pursue it; cut off from the present (which is all) by the future (which is nothing).

Pascal summed it up brilliantly: “So it is that instead of living, we hope to live.”
[...]

As for foolish people, [...] how can they be happy? How can they stop fearing?
“There is no hope without fear,” wrote Spinoza, “and no fear without hope.”
We usually think of serenity as the absence of fear, but it is also the absence of hope; thus, it frees the present moment for action, knowledge, and joy! [...]

The path is clear enough. The wise act; the foolish hope and tremble. The wise live in the present, wishing only for what is (acceptance, love) or what they can bring about (will). [...] Such is the spirit of all wisdom, no matter what the doctrine. It is not hope that spurs us to action (how many people hope for justice, but do nothing in its favor?); it is will. It is not hope that sets us free; it is truth. It is not hope that helps us live; it is love.”
[...]

People who hope for nothing cannot be disappointed. People who desire only what is or what depends on them, who are content to love and to will, cannot be weary or embittered.”

Hope for nothing. Work hard. Be happy.

If there is anything that can always piss me off, it’s the overt sexualization and objectification of women.

The question I often get after I rant about that, even by my most intelligent friends, is: “But if women want to dress like that, why is it your business?”

Let me tell you why it is my business. Let me tell you why it is YOUR business.

I don’t post YouTube videos, so when I do post one, you know that you must watch it, right? Here’s one that’s very much worth the next eight minutes of your life:

I know that the video is America-centric, but if you want, you can ignore those parts and just concentrate on the importance of imagery and media.

It isn’t often that you run into the words of a person who manages to deeply affect you, simply through her words. It isn’t often that you start caring about a person you never met, and who has no idea you exist. It isn’t often that you shed a tear over the death of a person you didn’t know.

But yesterday Ola Muath died, and the tightness I felt in my chest upon reading the news was suffocating.

Ola, with her beautiful spirit. Ola the fighter. Ola the strong. Ola the honest. Ola the unique. Ola is gone, and we will never read new words on her blog again.

An excerpt from a post in January 2011:
“if you were wondering how do I look these days? I would say I’m no
different from “Buddhism – Buddha’s followers -” that we know … pretty
casual, and COOL :).”

I urge you to honor Ola by going through her blog, Moles, which is courageous and heart-wrenching documentation of her battle with cancer. Its unabashed bravery is a unique case in Jordan.

The death of a woman who fought for something we all take for granted is also a great reminder of how short our lives are. In the words of Steve Jobs: “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

 Of course, different people are humbled by death in different ways. I personally am the worldly kind, and I love the Holstee Manifesto:

In honor of Ola and people who still have to fight with cancer on a daily basis, I urge you to make a donation the wonderful King Hussein Cancer Center. 

My 2 years niece saw me counting my drugs last night adding a new one to them,& she said:” Kol Hadooool ya 7abebee:)”oh how much I love Joj!

— Sha100 (@shammless) November 17, 2011

My thoughts are with Ola’s family.

Over and over again, the same damn issue.

Article 6 (i) of our Constitution stipulates: “There shall be no discrimination between Jordanians as regards to their rights and duties on grounds of race, language or religion”.

As a Jordanian woman, I am equal to a Jordanian man. I MUST be able to give my Jordanian nationality, i.e. my IDENTITY as a Jordanian, to my children. As a Jordanian woman, I am proud of being a Jordanian woman. As a Jordanian woman, I want my children to also be Jordanian.

As a Jordanian woman, I am a productive part of Jordanian society, working equal hours (if not more) than my fellow Jordanian brothers. As a Jordanian woman, I pay my taxes. As a Jordanian woman, I practiced my voting rights in the Jordanian parliament.

I hold no other citizenship. I was born in Jordan. I was educated in Jordan’s universities. I live in Jordan. I am an active part of the Jordanian economy. I am an active part of the Jordanian society. I LOVE Jordan.

So why is it that as a Jordanian woman, I can’t pass on my PROUD Jordanian citizenship to my children? 

It is sexist, it is unjust, it is greedy.

As a Jordanian woman, I DEMAND my right to pass on my Jordanian nationality to my children. 

Related:

As a Jordanian Woman, I am a Second-Class Citizen in Jordan

So, we’re finally seeing the beginnings of feminist thought and expression in Jordanian non-traditional media. It’s still raw and simplistic, but brilliant nonetheless, as the rawness and simplicity reflect on our social and intellectual realities.

Being a feminist myself, both articles are very toned-down. But as you can see from all the backwards comments, they are shocking to many people. It is sad that in our society, the level of feminist discourse is intimidating to most at its most basic level, a level that should be a given, since it’s 2012 and all.

Anyway. I’ll leave you to read:

أنا مش مستورة by Dana Suleiman [Arabic]
Why Feminism Is Important by Siwar Masannat [English]

Quoting from the latter:
“Finally, women’s independence should not be offensive to men; it should not threaten any real man’s sense of masculinity. Real masculinity is not about opening the door and being responsible for helpless females. Real masculinity is being capable of respect without disempowering or dismissing a woman. Real masculinity is about feeling secure enough in one’s selfhood that repressing the other gender is never a definition of oneself.”

More pictures of Women’s March today in Tahrir

Sexual harassment in the Arab world has always been taboo, the Egyptian women are now speaking up. As an Arab woman, I can’t explain to you how beautiful it feels to see fellow Arab women standing up together collectively.

As a feminist Arab woman, I always believed that we Arab women are own worst enemy. The Egyptian women are changing my mind. Egypt is having a feminist moment, and I’m loving it.

Power to Egyptian women. They’re giving the phrase “Em Il Donya” a whole different meaning.

Free women, free the world. No society that mistreats its women and doesn’t give them their right will ever be free.

Free me as a Jordanian woman. Give me the right to give my kids my proud Jordanian nationality.

Free me as a Jordanian woman. Denounce laws like the one involving honor crimes.

Free me as a Jordanian woman. Stop staring at me like a sexual object.

Free me as a Jordanian woman. Stop planting the seeds of misogyny and patriarchy in our children’s brains.

Free me as a Jordanian woman. Enforce harsher laws against sexual harassment.

Free women, free the world.

Related:
Two Simplistic Solutions to Fixing Some Problems in Jordan
Rest in Peace, Myriam Achkar: A Call Against Sexual Harassment in the Arab World
You’re So OUTRAGEOUS!