Whatever happened to freedom of religion

This morning as I was perusing the latest headlines on the BBC, I came across this article entitled "French minister denounces burqa." It irked me for several reasons, which I will get to in a moment.

But first, for those of you who are not familiar with exactly what a burqa is, let me enlighten you. Muslims believe in hijab, which means "to veil or cover." Much like Mormons, they believe that both women and men should be modest in dress. The burqa is an outer garment worn by very conservative Muslim women with the purpose of covering one's entire bodies. You will see burqas with actual eye holes or sometimes a mesh screen (like the one on the left). This is not to be confused with the simple *veil (head scarf) that many Muslim women wear (covering only their hair), or the chador, which loosely covers the entire body, but leaves the face open to the breeze.

So back to the BBC. The point of the article was that a Moroccan Muslim woman in France was denied French citizenship because she wears the burqa. Because, as the woman in question was bluntly told "her practice of 'radical' Islam was not compatible with French values." The minister, a Muslim woman herself, said that the burqa "is a prison, it's a straightjacket."

I myself find the burqa to be, in many cases, a symbol of the oppression of Muslim women. For many of them, especially women in Iran, the burqa (or chador, for that matter) has been forced on them by fundamentalist regimes. They have no choice but to wear the burqa, regardless of their personal religious views.

BUT!

For many other women, especially the more conservative Muslim women, the burqa is a symbol of their modesty and chastity. It is their way of being obedient to what they perceive to be God's law. Whether of not I agree with their point of view is irrelevant; I believe that we should respect their right to practice their religion as they see fit.

So when I read that a woman in France was being denied citizenship for her religious practices, I couldn't help but be outraged. Yes, I know, it's France (maybe they never had freedom of religion). But still! This was done with complete and utter disrespect for a long-valued tradition based on a deeply rooted fear of Islam and anything associated fundamentalism. And it makes me very angry.

Although I don't think it will ever reach this point in the US, I am often astounded by the number of people I meet/ read comments from/ talk to/ etc., with views that echo Madam Minister and company's opinions. So for all of you out there who applaud France's discriminatory decision, here's something to consider:

Wearing a burqa does NOT equal fundamentalist.
Veiling does NOT equal oppressed.
Being Muslim does NOT equal terrorist.

*An interesting side note about veiling: many scholars believe that head covering did not begin with Islam, but was introduced into Arabia (where Mohammed eventually adopted the practice, to some extent) by people from Syria and Iran. It is believed that veiling was a sign of social status because a woman who was veiled could obviously not work in the fields...kind of like Chinese women whose feet were bound.

Chicken Tostadas

Tonight Zillah and I went for a Mexican style dinner. It was delicious (although K didn't give us the usual "It looks fantastic!" both he and T-rav ate enough to convince me that it really was tasty) and, aside from having a lot to chop up, it was pretty simple. Here's the recipe, thanks to Gourmet July 2008.

Chicken Tostadas

1 medium white onion
1 pound tomatoes, quartered
2 large garlic cloves
1 or 2 fresh serrano chiles, stemmed
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoon vegetable oil, divided
3 cups shredded iceberg lettuce - or some other green like romaine or red leaf
6 large radishes, halved and sliced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, divided
1 rotisserie chicken, meat coarsely shredded (4 cups)- if you're too poor to buy a pre-cooked chicken, broil a few chicken breasts and then shred them. It takes a bit longer, but it's cheaper...
6 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 (1-pound) can refried beans, heated
1 avocado, halved, pitted, and peeled
1/2 cup Mexican crema or sour cream
1/4 cup crumbled queso añjo (aged white cheese, also called cotija) or ricotta salata -we used white cheddar

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Cut half of onion into 3/4-inch wedges, then chop remainder. Toss onion wedges, tomatoes, garlic, and whole chiles with 2 tablespoons oil in a 4-sided sheet pan, spreading in 1 layer.
3. Broil about 4 inches from heat until softened and charred, 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, toss together lettuce, radishes, chopped onion, and half of cilantro.
4. Purée tomato mixture in a blender along with one or both roasted serranos (to taste) and 1 teaspoon salt until smooth (use caution when blending hot foods). Transfer purée to a bowl and stir in chicken, remaining cilantro, and salt to taste.
5. Heat remaining 1/2 cup oil in a heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Fry tortillas, 1 at a time, turning once or twice and pressing with tongs to immerse, until golden brown, 45 to 60 seconds per tortilla. Drain briefly on paper towels, then transfer to plates.
6. Spread tortillas thickly with heated refried beans, then top with chicken mixture. Slice avocado over tostadas and dollop with crema.
7. Mound lettuce mixture on top and sprinkle with cheese.

a fast food nation?

This term at UVU, one of my main goals (aside from the whole improving pronunciation, grammar, fluency, thing) has been to convince my level 4 Speaking class that Americans eat more than just fast food. We've had quite lively discussions about what a "typical" or "traditional" American dinner would be. Inevitably, their answer is always "hamburgers and french fries." Mine is always more along the lines of meat and potatoes, meatloaf, some kind of casserole, spaghetti, etc. We compromised with this list:

• apple pie
• meat and potatoes
• turkey and stuffing
• hot dogs
  
• cake
• pasta and sauce

That's what 4 Mexicans, 6 Koreans, 2 Mongolians, 2 Peruvians, 1 Chinese, 1 El Salvadoran, and 1 Malian think about daily American cuisine.

But honestly. Do you really think that a normal family comes home from McDonald's every day with a Big mac and fries? Well, I didn't think so at first. But perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe Americans really do eat fast food all the time. Maybe I'm an anomaly because I only eat fast food when I'm on a road trip and the only restaurant within 200 miles is a Wendys...and then I get a baked potato (fast food makes me ill when I'm driving). So after a bit of research I discovered these disturbing facts from Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.

• Every day about one quarter of the U.S. population eats fast food.
• The golden arches are now more widely recognized than the Christian cross.
• American children now get about one quarter of their total vegetable servings in the form of potato chips and French fries.
• This year Americans will spend over $110 billion on fast food more than they'll spend on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music combined.

Wikipedia says that "the average American eats out more than five times a week and often, one or more of those five times is at a fast food restaurant." Granted, many of those people are probably grabbing a quick something for lunch. Maybe they're eating salad or a bagel or soup or something all the other times.

So then, out of desperation to prove that as a nation we are not as obsessed with fast food as it may seem, I bring up these points:

• Subway counts as fast food, right? (That's healthy and not a hamburger! HA!)
  
• Maybe the people who eat out 5 times a week are all the same people (I only eat out about 2-3 times a month)
  
• Maybe the people who eat all the fast food are the same people
• Maybe a high percentage of students/lower income people are the ones eating the fast food
• I found an article on an unreliable website that says that British people are the most fast food obsessed

However, none of these really help my crusade to change my students' minds about American food. I fear they shall leave my class with the same (in)correct (and embarrassing) ideas of what we eat. But either way, I decided to conduct a poll to see if my friends and associates eat the high quantities of fast food that other Americans do.

Please be honest. There is no shame in admitting that you have a fast food addiction. ;)

fishes

Of recent, I have had an overwhelming desire to eat fish. All the time. For every meal. As much as possible! Or at least once a week. (And no, for those of you who I'm sure are wondering, I am definitely not pregnant). Luckily, T-rav is ok with this, so I've been able to freely experiment with different types of fish. I've been cooking all the types of fish in all fairly similar way (not too many spices, sauces, etc) so that we can taste the flavor of the fish, my purpose being to discover what kinds of fish I love, hate, or am indifferent towards. Bear in mind that my fish experience is based on what our local Smiths ships in each day, and therefore some of it may not be the most fresh. So just think how delicious these fishes would be if they were fresh! Those of you who live near a coast- I'm jealous! Anyway. Here is my list thus far:

• Tilapia- very tasty, light, flaky, and one of my favorites
  
• Flounder- surprisingly good. I was a bit wary at first (something about the Little Mermaid comes to mind...), but it had a very mild fish taste, wasn't as flaky as the tilapia and is one of T-rav's favorites
  
• Sockeye Salmon- salmon in any form is always good
  
• Cod- I can't remember this one well enough to describe it, but I liked it, T-rav didn't
  
• Red Snapper- just a fish, nothing spectacular or terrible about it
  
• Catfish- not our favorite. It tasted very...fishy, was thick and almost rubbery in texture
  

Still to try:

• Halibut
• Sole
• Mahi Mahi
• Tuna (not from a can- a nice fat fillet)

Does anyone have any suggestions for fish that I absolutely must make? Or are you all fish-haters?

On another note, you should all go check out this website, which is a simulation of what it's like to be a refugee. It's very enlightening, especially if you're unfamiliar with the whole refugee thing.

update on italia

Things are looking up with our Italy plans. It seems we might be able to go on a student visa, work part time, and take Italian classes so that we're not breaking the law. This way both of us could work (yes, T-rav would also teach English- don't laugh, he's really going to do it) but it would only be about 25 hours a week for me and a few less for him, so we would still be able to travel and study and such.

Now we just have to apply for the visa and convince them that we really love Italy enough to deserve a visa.

Nope, I'm not kidding- for this visa, you really do have to convince the consulate representative that you love Italy and Italian and Italian culture before they give it to you. If they don't think you love Italy enough, they won't let you in.

Oh Italy. I can only imagine the types of bureaucratic disasters we will encounter while we're there for a whole year. It's so exciting...

Festivities

Here's a log of this year's 4th of July.

6:30 am- get up
6:45- ride our bikes frantically to the hot air balloon launching- frantically because we were late and saw some balloons start to take off as we were pedaling
7:15- stop at Smiths for some donuts
8:00- ride the vespa around town before the parade- they say about 250,000 people turn out for the Freedom Festival parade
8:30- join Zillah and family to watch the parade at a pristine location on Center St (thanks zillah!)
9:30- waiting for the parade to reach us
10:00- watching the parade (it took 8 pygmy horses to pull this carriage)

11:00- isn't the parade over yet?!
11:30- go home after the parade finally ends (or after we got sick of waiting for it to end) and grab some water and snacks
12:15 pm- head up to Scera Park to see a reenactment of what an immigrant going through Ellis Island would have experienced
12:45- leave Ellis Island disappointed with its lameness and head back to Provo for some real entertainment (it was a good idea, just badly done)
1:00- explore Provo's Freedom Festival's exotic foods and wares
1:30- my dream is realized- i got a henna tattoo (It will last for 2-3 weeks. What you see here is the henna before it is fully dried. It now is a reddish-brown color).








2:00- go to a REAL historical activity: Colonial Days! Maybe one day I'll get to go to Colonial Willamsburg for the 4th of July (please oh please oh please!), but for now, this will have to do.


Spinning yarn...










Steering the replica of the Mayflower.


















T-rav in the stocks.















He's a bit too tall for his breastplate, don't you think?
3:00- go home and watch some Alias, take a shower, and get out of the dreadfully hot weather
6:30- head up to a fellow ESL teacher's house for dinner and fireworks (I think it's kind of funny that I spent the evening of Independence Day with 8 Koreans, 4 Japanese, an Angolan and T-rav)
11:00- go home after the fireworks and listen to various neighbors and their sparklers, pops, fountains, ground flowers, etc...

Happy Independence Day!

rationale

So I've always grumbled to myself a bit when I open a new can/jar/package of anything and the stuff inside is several inches below the top. It's always made me feel rather jipped. But today I discovered firsthand exactly why the packaging companies do this. And it actually made quite a bit of sense as my brand new can of cocoa exploded all over my kitchen.

We now present...UVU!

It's official: Utah Valley State College has now become Utah Valley University. Yesterday they opened the new library (which, although quite large and definitely a huge upgrade from the "Resource Center" they used to have, has many sparse and empty shelves. I guess you can't ask for perfection all at once) and had a huge party all evening long to say goodbye to UVSC and hello to UVU.

Then today they dedicated the new University. There were tons of peeps there: politicians, university board members, donors, the construction company that built the library, the architect who designed the library (he had a fantastic NYC accent), UVU presidents from the past 40 years, and President Monson even showed up to give the lil dedicatoy prayer (which I was actually quite surprised about- is that a common practice outside of Utah?).

Strangely enough, I felt rather proud of UVSC. It might not be the best school in the state, but the longer I'm here, the more affection I feel for it. I really like it, architecture and all (where else do you find a campus that you can walk completely across and never once step out of doors?). In the ESL department at least, the faculty and staff are pleasant to work with, the student body is pretty great and fairly diverse, and I can basically do whatever I want with my classes. It's a comfortable place to work. The pay leaves something to be desired...but they DO have a cafeteria that makes deliciously greasy burgers. AND I can get a bus pass for only $5. It makes me a little sad to think of leaving in the near future...

In other news, it's finally summer and I have proof (aside from it being blazing saddles hot):














My day lilies are starting to bloom.

Curves Smart

Total calories burned this morning with Curves 30 minute work-out on the new Smart Equipment: 684.