Tag Archives: women

The right to exercise

As I finished class on Friday here in Korea, I asked my fifth-grade student what she would be doing this weekend. She answered, “Studying!”

“Oh,” I said, “well, make sure you get plenty of rest and get some exercise!”

“I can’t. I have to study.”

Another friend who has completed high school, told me that her parents don’t want her to enroll in dance or exercise classes, …just study! While it’s true that most kids in Korea get very little exercise, boys do tend to play soccer at lunch time at least.

But, it’s not only Korea that restricts physical exercise. When I was in Saudi Arabia, most girls told me that they don’t walk and they don’t exercise. There, it’s not about time, but instead it is about what is considered proper for women and girls to do.

I grew up spending time outdoors, playing in the neighborhood, on the neighborhood swim team, and later on high school gymnastics and soccer teams. Playing sports and being physically fit has been a rewarding part of my life.

Of course, this isn’t only in some cultures. In general, more and more jobs require us to sit for long periods of time.

Let’s acknowledge the basic fact that human bodies were designed to move.

Our bodies are not simply vehicles for our brains. We can’t expect our brains to be flexible, quick and strong, while not granting our bodies the same qualities.

I am standing up for the human right to move. Everyone, but especially girls and women, deserves the basic right to dance and exercise.

Girls of Riyadh

Girls of Riyadh

 In Jarir Bookstore, two weeks ago I first noticed the bright red cover of the Girls of Riyadh. It was on an end-of-aisle display of the Top 10 Bestsellers. I picked it up, and didn’t want to put it down until I finished it a few days later.

Amazing that it was there! It was banned when it was first published in Arabic, in about 2005.

The author, a 25-year-old Saudi woman Rajaa Alsanea living now in the US, wrote the book as it developed through a series of emails. Every Friday she sent another chapter anonymously to her yahoogroup email list.

There is some controversy about whether the book is disclosing things that are too obvious, while others say it’s too outrageous and unbelievable. But for me, it seems to reflect many aspects of the lives of our students. Our girls are from the more well-to-do slice of Saudi society, and what they talk about seems to be in sync with the author’s tales.

The difference is that in class we are restricted from discussing or debating many of the details of their lives. For example, any mention of the possibility of a boyfriend is strictly prohibited. This book offers answers to basic questions I had like, if girls aren’t allowed to ever be in groups or alone with guys other than their relatives, how the heck do they get married? Are they all arranged marriages?

The Girls of Riyadh paints the pictures of how girls and guys meet: at the mall, in the workplace or higher education for medical students (for example), or through friends of friends. And yes, through the arranged meetings of their families.

There are tons of cultural references about Saudi society, which confirms what I’ve been experiencing from the very outermost layers. It’s an interesting, easy read that I’d recommend to anyone.

It’s also inspirational that a 25-year-old had the self discipline and courage to write, what unbeknownst to her, would become a hit worldwide.

(Source: http://www.amazon.com/Girls-Riyadh-Rajaa-Alsanea/dp/014311347X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325229258&sr=1-1)

Student center surprises

Last week, when we walked into school, we saw that about 20 sofas had been
added to one of the rooms of the student cafeteria – center area.

Yesterday, it was recreation equipment:

– two brand new pool tables, complete with balls, cues and racks
– two foosball tables
– two ping pong tables …still with the plastic wrap on and no
equipment to go with it

This is in a place where we don’t have a printer yet that the teacher’s can
use to print handouts for our classes, so more than one teacher were pretty
upset with budget choices.

But at lunchtime, we played pool for a few minutes with some of the
students. And realize that it is a huge value to them. In general, Saudi
girls have little or no opportunity to exercise or play sports (if you
don’t count shopping, drinking coffee, eating dates & chocolate as sports).
So, it was nice to play with them and see so many girls doing something
other than sitting, talking and eating.

As a side note, the male teachers in our hotel walk to a pool / ping pong
place near our hotel. But women aren’t allowed in. So, yeah, maybe it’s a
good investment for them.

Today, is “Peace Day”. It’s a fair in another of the main center spaces of
the university. Some of the students are walking around to teacher’s rooms,
giving out cards to non-Muslims, wearing T-Shirts that have a quote from
the Quran. Booths, free food, free CD’s of the Quran. Signs about “Allah,
the Brain and Deep Sea Waves”, “Quran”, “Hijab”.

Makes me wonder, what I’ll find tomorrow!

Tidy

I was waiting for the taxi outside my apartment. I’d packed my lunch and felt ready. Neat and tidy as a teacher must be. My lesson plans were swimming in my head, when she I noticed her. Pushing the modified stroller, she more ambled, than hobbled up the road toward me. Her wet clean clothes were heaped in her dinged metal washpan. Her breasts swung gently under her checked cotton blouse. I smiled at her. But the deep shade of her wide-brimmed hat made it impossible to see if she smiled back, or even saw me.