Written by Thu Tran, MD,FACOG
May 9, 2014
YES, dear readers, Dr. Nadia Hashimi, one of our LadyDocsCornerCafe bloggers, is officially a published author as her first novel (When the Pearl Broke its Shell) was released May 6 by Harper Collins. See the attached photo of Nadia holding her novel in a local B&N store! We are so happy for you and so proud to be in your company, Nadia! I bet you will be another Khaled Hosseini, the endocrinologist and author of “The Kite Runner” and “One Thousand Splendid Suns”. Nadia’s book was featured in the Gazette insert of the Washington Post yesterday with her beautiful picture. Way to go Nadia! We are so proud of you!
Below is the link to a very poignant and intelligent opinion piece from Nadia in the last week’s Boston Globe:
I told Nadia how we can be all “silent” or peaceful activists by our writing and not necessarily by shouting or marching on the streets. It is worth it to fight for any injustice in the world. Nadia’s opinion piece was about a tradition in Afghanistan called Bacha Posh, wherein daughters are transformed into sons in family without male heirs, by changing their names, cutting their hair, dressing them as boys. They have to live this “charade,” as Nadia calls it, but have then gain the right to go to school and by doing so, learn to be strong and confident. So, is it bad to be raised as a boy?
You know how I feel about living life as if we are in a masquerade ball, wearing our mask to avoid revealing our true self. It is another “form” of Darwin’s survival of the fittest. We all have to “fit in” to survive, but without a free spirit to be whomever we want to be, are we living a full life? Is it fair that “others” have coerced us to live in this masquerade ball?
Ironically, after pondering about Nadia’s opinion piece in the Boston Globe, David and I went to Sidwell Friends, where our son Sandy is a tenth grader, Tuesday evening to hear a talk from Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the only living civil rights activist from the “big six” civil rights leaders, with MLK, Jr., being one of the others. Lewis was the famous activist in the “Bloody Sunday” event when he led 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. He was beaten badly by the troopers and his skull was fractured. The event contributed greatly to the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act. Like the modern-day Nadia the blogger, Lewis was fighting for a cause but in a more active way. Thanks to people like him, I told Sandy, I can drink from the same fountain as my “Caucasian” friends, and go to the same restroom! Someone else paved the way for the rest of us to sit in a bus in whichever seat we chose to. Isn’t life more beautiful that way?
Congressman Lewis was inspiring as a speaker on the topic of peaceful involvement in the fight against social injustice. He was such a gentleman when I asked to have a photo taken with him. Look at the attached photo! I told him that I was a toddler in Vietnam when he was fighting for his rights in America!
Sadly, when we in America have outlawed slavery and the right to vote has been declared open to all citizens, we now hear the horrific news about the kinapping of 267 Nigerian girls. Now, they are somewhere far away from their secure homes and loved ones. We can’t help but recognize how the world has not changed much, from Nigeria to Afghanistan to Myanmar. It continues to be a long struggle against the dark side of humanity!
However, when asked about the multiple times of being beaten badly, Congressman John Lewis poignantly shared that he still called out for peace and love and non-violence. In his memorable quote:
“Don’t be bitter, don’t be hostile, don’t give up, keep your faith and move forward.”
So there you go, Dr. Nadia Hashimi, our fellow Ladydocscornercafe blogger, don’t give up on the hope that someday the girls who grow up in Afghanistan will have as much opportunity as you and your daughters have in America. They won’t have to wish they were born here to be equally successful and happy like the men.
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