Lotus Reads: Rockin' Blogger

Saturday, October 13, 2007

The Syrian Bride(movie), Rockin'Girl Blogger, Cruel Shoes

Two nights ago I saw the movie "The Syrian Bride", a film by Israeili director Eran Riklis.

The bride, Mona, was being given a send off as she prepared to leave for her bridegroom's house. But this was no ordinary send off because although Mona and her husband-to-be were both Syrians from Druze families (the Druze are a breakaway Islamic sect following al-Hakim, an Ismaili caliph, as the embodiment of God), they live on opposite sides of the Israeil-Syria border, with Mona living in one of the villages of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Tallel (the bridegroom) living in Damascus,Syria. Once Mona crosses the border into Syria, she relinquishes her residency and any right to return to her home. Infact, from now on, the Israelis will consider her a "foreigner from an enemy state."

THis also means she will never be able to meet with her family again as she will never be allowed back into Israel and nor will her family be allowed into Syria.

Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights and parts of Palestine has separated 100's of families. Not being able to see your family must be the hardest thing for anyone to endure. No doubt it happens in other parts of the world too, I am reminded here of the 100's of Indian families that were separated when India was divided into India and Pakistan and also, families from North andSouth Korea. Still, some of those countries have come around and now special dispensation is given for visits between family members...why isn't this happening on the Israel-Syrian border as well?

(Druze bride Arwad Abu Shaheen married her first cousin on the armistice line between enemy states Israel and Syria, hugging her family for the last time before starting a new life near Damascus. (courtesy AFP)

Further reading: Druze wives hope to reclaim old ties

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The wonderful bint battuta sent me the Rockin' Blogger Award a couple of days ago all the way from the Kingdom of Bahrain! Thank you, Ayesha!

Bint Battuta works as a translator, writer and teacher in that wonderful ocean Arab Kingdom and while I always knew she was proficient in Arabic, a number of Indian languages and English (ofcourse) , I learned today that she has also studied Russian, and Bulgarian! Way to go girl!!! Her blog always has the most interesting posts covering a diverse range of subjects, do visit her when you can.

Ok, so now I have the honor of naming five other Rockin' girl Bloggers. It's always hard to pick just five, because every girl on my blogroll rocks, but I'm restricted to five, so here we go:

Beenzzz and ml. I love visiting their blogs, they are both very funny gals and their posts always put a smile on my face.

Melissa of Hello, Melissa fame. Melissa was my first ever reader (we met at bookcrossing) and hence my first bloggy friend too. I love her blog because she's always up to such exciting things. I especially love reading about her two little kids.

Booklogged of A Reader's Journal. Booklogged was my first non-bookcrosser reader. Her blog is the one to go to for great book reviews. It is also a one-stop shop for news on book giveaways, contests, reading challenges etc. A truly exciting blog for book lovers!

Happy Reader from Book Closet. Another avid reader. I love going to Chitts's blog because she always picks such interesting books to read and writes fabulous and compact reviews. Keep those reviews coming, Chitts!

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Finally, are these shoes cruel or what???