Better than the Avengers : Meet the Real Heroes

I saw Avengers 2: Age of Ultron last week with my sister. I was looking forward to seeing this sequel for a long while.

I loved the first movie. Action is my genre and there’s just something amazing about watching impossible maneuvers by these heroes saving the planet. It is one of the biggest movies to hit the screens this summer.

However  all throughout the movie I had this sinking feeling inside because I knew there was something even more complex …something even more real playing not in a theatre close to us but in the war ravaged countries of the Middle East

The story that I am talking about involves an organization known as the ISIS – or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Map of Syria and Iraq and key areas

Since 2014, this group has advanced rapidly in the region of Iraq and Syria throwing it in chaos. The UN has held it responsible for human right abuses and war crimes and Amnesty International has also reported on its ethnic cleansing.

The goal of this group is to establish a caliphate under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide.

Four million people have fled Syria. Another two million Iraqis have been forced to leave their homes to escape the fighting.

Almost 60 countries are at war directly or indirectly with ISIS and its brutality is splashed all across the Internet.

Unlike other organizations, which claim some reason for their heinous acts – (even Bin Laden tried to rationalize the attack against the USA) ISIS doesn’t justify itself.

Their cruelty and viciousness have included beheadings, crucifixions, stonings, burying victims alive and ethnic cleansing.

The only reason they have is to terrorize their enemies and impress the world. They want to shock the world and awe it with its savageness.

Anything in their way, they destroy

Their savagery has even got them more recruits according to a few commentators.

Except they didn’t count for an obstacle like this that would stand in their way…

The hands of a Kurdish woman fighter

The Kurdish fighters who are bravely taking the fight to ISIS and what’s more they are doing it with women by their side.

There are all women combat units that have grown to almost 10,000 women.

The Kurdish fighters are right there at the frontline battling for their homelands and what’s more freedom – in every form.

These women are picking up arms against these ISIS militants who preach that women should never leave their homes unless necessary.

According to an anonymous woman fighter interviewed by a reporter on joining the war, “ if we don’t do it, who else will?”

Many of them have lost their lives at the siege of Kobane . There are 17 and 18 year old girls picking up arms too.

A young woman soldier poses for a photograph for TIME

Zilan Orkesh is an 18 year old who had left her village to join the YPJ

When she killed an ISIS fighter for the first time, she began cheering loudly, hoping the sound would reach the ears of other jihadis. “I wanted to let them know that their worst nightmare had come true,” she says. “Their friend had been killed by a woman.”

For these women, it’s not just avenging their lands but a fight for their own identities. Their fearlessness and their refusal to cower under those who seek to terrorize all in their way is astounding.

ISIS seeks to oppress women, even using rape as a weapon and here are women fighting to stop them.

Their bravery and their spirit is beyond anything.

I had tears in my eyes as I read articles and glimpsed photographs of these men and women.

Air strike at Kobane

Painting the tombstone of fighter

Women fighters at Kobane

They have lost almost everything.
Somehow even the antics of Captain America failed to compare to them.

I liked the movie for sure… but this was just too raw, too real and too amazing.

In this story there is no hi-fi technology, no superpowers and there may not even be a happy ending.

There is though the indomitable bravery and spirit of men and women for whom brutality is now an everyday occurrence and hope even far ahead.

It is real. So very real.
I salute them and I hope we keep them in our prayers.

Peace.

All photographs from here are sourced from the Internet. I heavily researched articles from BBC News and TIME.

The Brutality of this World – Fitzpleasure!

Hey everyone.

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a music festival with my sister. It was quite a fun event and I enjoyed the various artistes who performed with the headlining act as Alt-J, an alternative indie rock band from the UK.

I shall be very frank. I never heard them before and I attended the concert solely for my sister’s sake.

Since I am taller than her, I consider part of my job description as a sister to be her bodyguard.

The reason I am not very into what’s happening with music lately is that I am getting really rigid with my tastes. I prefer the classics.

Lazing around and playing music loudly is my kind of thing – not the noisy jostling of a crowded concert.

However, listening to Alt-J was definitely incredible. Their music stayed with me long after everything was over.

One of the songs that I enjoyed was called “Fitzpleasure”.  ( I am going to add the video in this blog.)

The first time I heard Alt-J , I really could not make out the lyrics. Not at all.

I remember being mesmerized though and since my sister and I had gone right to the front near the barricade, I could feel the music- the pulse, the bass and the energy. Mind blowing!

Bangaloreans are cool. The people were such big fans that they knew all the lyrics to every song. I didn’t, so I just gaped.

At one point the keyboardist was looking at me, and perhaps because I was the only one not singing along, he grinned and shrugged at me.

Oh well. I was embarrassed but then I brazenly refused to let it get to me. [Some people make it such an issue if you attend a concert and don’t know the band before. As long as you enjoy the music and don’t trouble anyone, chill out right? ]

So Alt-J was incredibly talented with their cascade of different music. I went back home and listened to all their songs, being particularly intrigued by Fitzpleasure.

At first, the lyrics look like innocent gibberish, but truly it’s not.

If you read the inspiration behind this song, it’s a bit chilling.

The song is inspired by one of the short stories in the 1960s novel “The Last Exit to Brookyln” which was quite controversial in it’s time for it’s bold portrayal of taboo subjects like homosexuality, rape etc.

The story is based on a prostitute called Tralala (the song begins with a “Tra-la-la”) who morally empty and violent herself gets brutally gang-raped.

Delving into this story is extremely creepy and I felt sick just reading the overview.

Playing the song later, I couldn’t help noticing its sheer beauty. I played it over and over again.

I then spent a whole day just mulling things over.

Reading the interview on BBC of the Delhi rapist and how he cooly talks about how the young girl should not have fought back later, I was reminded again of this song.

It’s like everything around me cries out about the brutality of this world.

The psychopathic frenzy which grips people to perform extremely violent, brutal acts on people without consideration of them as a human being is indeed, frightening.

But I can’t help wonder, does this song feel that way as well?

It’s so groovy, so awesome, that the message behind it is innocently hidden. A brutal gang-rape in a song that stays on your mind.

I don’t know what to make of it.

Is it a positive thing? I mean, if a song gets you to stop and think about how evil people can be… is it a way to make people cautious?

Frankly, during the concert, we saw scores of skimpily dressed women drunk and stoned and equally opportunistic men hanging around. It ended around 10 PM and it was raining… did everybody reach home safe?

I am probably going to get a lot of hate, but I just have to say that these places are like breeding grounds for danger, a minefield of potential disasters.

[ Date rapes? Yeah they are very possible.]

Thinking about it, we all just heard a song about brutal gang rape and yet we’re living on wild edge of danger.
Maybe the music falls on willing ears, but are we really listening?

Would you call yourself a feminist?

Hi everyone, before you vote on this poll, or after, it would be wonderful for you to read the post on why feminism is a bad word, part 2

I want to understand how most people view feminism. Thanks for voting, God bless you.

The Semifeminist

 

PS- this poll is anonymous. You can only vote once, (via cookie) but otherwise, anonymous. Feel free to vote.

XX

Why Feminism is A Bad Word – Part 2

Happy Women’s Day!

It’s a day late, but I was enjoying myself too much to write on the blog. I made it a point to wish a few people on Women’s Day, and I got some standard responses from the men.

“Oh is there a Men’s Day?” Give a short yes. (November 19th folks)

“Oh how come no one knows about it?”

 I did… (And you fight a bad urge to roll your eyes because you know what’s going to come next)

“Well see, women always get the cake. They get more importance on holidays, it’s always the women. This is discrimmation, misandry!!!….”

Conveniently ignored. Now you roll your eyes, slap yourself and go home.

Well. Now what?

Firstly, I would like to say this to anyone who reads this blog – there’s  a vast difference between women from the west and women from the east. Challenges are different. Women in the west are more free. They have all the rights that men have and the battles are mostly won.

BUT. BUT. BUT.

I feel really sorry for the women of the west, just as sorry as I feel for the women of the east because there is HARDLY any difference between a man of the west and a man of the east. Take one out of any environment and place them in another – give or take a few adjustments and the attitudes towards women will be the same.

(Forgive me, the few good men who believe in equality and encourage women to do their best. There are bad women too who are absolute hypocrites, and they call themselves feminists too.)

So why is feminism so negative?  Why do people dislike feminists? I am throwing points here. No fancy paragraphs.

Most of it is in context of the western women and this is what I’ve gleaned.

• Women have almost the same rights as men – (this is in the west) . Any further demand from women’s activists is seen as eating into what men are offered. Getting government benefits, extra aid and other help makes people see women as getting more favours. Men feel insecure and afraid. If women were supposed to be equal, why do they want more?
• Women have more choices than men. (also in context of the west) They have the power to leave any man and go after another one. Men feel insecure and afraid.
• Women are taking up positions of leadership. They make bad leaders. Men feel insecure and afraid.
• All feminists want women to be sexually open and devoid of morals. Feminists are atheists.
• All feminists are for abortion. They have no qualms in mudering babies
• Feminism destroys families – this is because a woman no longer has respect for the man she marries. As she believes she is superior (or equal) , she no longer feels bound to any man who doesn’t give her what she wants.
• Also, feminists are lesbians and hate men.
• Feminists are hypocrites. They want all these goodies, but don’t work for them. They have double standards. Men abuse happens, men get victimized, where are they when all this goes on?

These are some of the fears that people have about feminism.

I am a Christian. I love God. Personally, I have a problem with radical feminism too. I feel actions speak louder than words.  There are glass ceilings, yes life can be tougher… but that doesn’t mean we dislike and oppress another gender.

This is something that should be beneficial to both men and women!  Why does feminism have to be mutually exclusive regards to gender? It does not!

I care for many men, and I have nothing against them, but with such negative connotations associated with feminism, how are we going to talk about equality and rights?

Do you think some of these concerns are real? Do you think these fears are justified?

Why Feminism is a Bad Word – Part 1- The Introduction

It’s been more than a month since I wrote on this blog, but it isn’t because I forgot about it. Christianity and Feminism has been at the back of my mind all this while.

It’s a process that’s running in the background but refuses to stop. It’s there everywhere. It’s there when I give up my seat on the bus or a train to an elderly person, or when I stare down some guy who’s looking at my boobs. It’s there when I decide to hit the treadmill for an extra kilometer especially when I feel like giving up, or when I look at the calendar and know it’s that ”time” again.

I took a hiatus from writing on this blog, because a few people expressed concern whether this blog would become a thing that would obstruct my studies and distract me. Honestly, my studies right now is pretty hopeless :D… but at least I can safely say it’s not because of this blog and I could do with a distraction.

So this month that I’ve been away, what exactly have I been doing? Well I’ve been researching. Research being scouring the internet and lurking on forums. The internet is awesome that way – the anonymity gives people ample freedom to express their true thoughts.  It’s also full of trolls, catfish and the delightful world of the Manosphere.

Let me tell you –  I got burnt. I got disillusioned. I got upset.

In the coming series, I will be highlighting these observations/questions  –

• Why feminsim has a negative connotation among the general public
• What is the current focus and goals of feminists and why this is not gaining popularity
• Misogynists who have banded together in a MRA movement
• Why Christians have a problem with feminism
• What are the roles of a Christian woman and does it clash with the idea of feminism
• What is a woman got to do

I would love to receive feedback and further input from anyone who’s interested. I am setting a goal for doing this within this month, (There’s  March 8th, International Women’s Day)

Also, look forward to a few pieces of encouraging write up on God that has built me up.

Thanks for reading. Much love and God bless you.

The Semifeminist.