Last Saturday we took a steam train to historic Haworth, West Yorkshire, home of the Bronte Parsonage Museum. The weather was shite - shocking, I know - yet Court and Ian opted to stay outside in the garden while I wandered through the house. The Bronte home is small but incredibly interesting - one of the very first rooms you enter is where both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were penned...pretty amazing. On the property is the church where Patrick Bronte was curate and the school where Charlotte taught. It's a really beautiful little area at the top of a sloping cobblestone lane.
The next few days were fairly uneventful as we prepared for our trip to Manchester. We arrived there Wednesday afternoon after a pleasant train ride through the English countryside. Manchester itself reminds me of Providence, R.I. in terms of its vibe. We stayed on campus, and while Court was up in Cumbria, I wandered around. Sorry, nothing terribly interesting to report about my exploration.
So, the good news is that Court's interviews went well and the position looks great. The bad news is that now we've nothing to do but wait until a decision is made. To pass the time - and to get back to the travel portion of this stretch - we've decided to head up to Scotland in a few days. YAY!!! That being said, we should be back to posting more interesting updates soon!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
David Hockney
How timely!
Thestar.com - VideoZone - Hockney animation
Murray Whyte, Visual Art Critic
David Hockney has always been an avid doodler, whether meandering the English countryside or the decidedly un-countrified landscapes of Los Angeles. So much so, in fact, that when he started having his suits and jackets custom-made at Savile Row in the 1970s — he’s been among the most successful painters in the world for about that long — he had them sew in a large interior pocket to hold his sketchbook.
Over the long march of technology from then to now, Hockney’s suits haven’t needed alteration. Now on display at the Royal Ontario Musuem is “Fresh Flowers,” a selection of images made with Hockney’s current sketchbook of choice: Apple’s iPad, which, through a remarkably simple and adaptable application called Brushes, has become a suit-pocket studio of sorts to indulge Hockney’s ever-curious eye.
It makes for an unconventional museum display: A row of small screens, all of them vertical, fastened tight to the wall. Some present slow-motion slide shows, lingering on each luminous, quirkily cartoonish drawing for a minute or so before fading into the next. Others are fast-motion animated versions of the artist at work: cross-hatching deep facial for crevices for a portrait of his friend, Morris Payne, or a moody evening cityscape as seen from a dark interior, peeking through heavy drapes.
All together, there are 100 drawings iPad drawings displayed on 25 iPads, and another 100 drawings Hockney made on the tiny screen of his iPhone.
If it seems like an odd turn for a 72-year old contemporary master painter to take, think again: Hockney’s always been a willing experimentalist, morphing his classical training and interests as a modern painter into new realms like set design for theatre. He’s dabbled with technology before, too, using Photoshop to create a series of prints.
His i-art came about less by design than by happenstance, though. Hockney is famously hard of hearing; a few years ago he got an iPhone so he could communicate with friends via text messaging. In his always-curious fashion, the artist was an avid peruser of the iTunes app store, and quickly came across Brushes, which he downloaded and started to fiddle with almost immediately.
In his bedroom in Bridlington on the northeastern coast of England, Hockney would have fresh flowers replaced every couple of days. Rolling over in the morning, it wasn’t uncommon of him to sketch them in his book. But in the darker mornings of fall and winter, when natural light wouldn’t allow it, Hockney turned to his iPhone. He found the immediacy of the experience could be shared just as immediately, a world away.
“He started sending these flowers to us,” said Charlie Schiep, a long-time friend of Hockney’s and curator of the show at the ROM. “They were charming – he’d be in England, I’d be in New York, and when I’d get up in the morning to have my coffee, there would be this beautiful flower on my phone, waiting.”
Schiep has heard the predictable grousing about the work – that without the discipline of bending oil to canvas, the struggle with the material, the obvious cheat of being able to zoom in almost microscopically on-screen to render tiny, intricate textures in extreme close-up, none of it qualified as actual artistic practice.
“When we had the Fresh Flowers show in Paris, people were saying we should have had a painting show, this, that, and the other thing,” he sniffed. “I told them ‘this isn’t some little thing, this is David Hockney!’ ”
In the gallery, there’s no mistaking that. Hockney’s signature fascinations and techniques are on full display here: His unabashed love of colour, his rough, playful figurative gestures, his unapologetic curiousity for the forms of mundane objects (images of ashtrays, or stacks of magazines, or suburban rooftops often interrupt the more serene flow of floral still lifes).
In other words, they look like Hockneys — just a Hockneys of a different sort. For the offended purist, you might take comfort in the fact that the i-drawings are for Hockney more akin to sketching than finished works: note-taking studies, so to speak, for eventual in-studio paintings, which many of the drawings have become.
More than anything, “Fresh Flowers” is about an artist’s process: translating a ravenous curiousity for the visual world in ways that broaden a practice that’s been evolving as long as he’s been doing it. “The paintings are feeding into the iPad drawings, and vice-versa,” Schiep says. “He’s invented new marks that go with the limitations of the program (Brushes). Those have fed into some of his new paintings.”
So much so, in fact, that when a huge new survey of the artist’s landscape painting opens at the Royal Academy in London, Hockney will present 60 or 70 iPad sketches — printed on paper, no less; none of these have been released to the pubic — alongside “The Four Seasons,” the painting for which they served as studies.
It’s bound to offend somebody, though I can’t see why. With his embrace of simple digital technology, Hockney is also embracing the truism that art is not a static thing – either its definition or its practice. This is just Hockney doing what he’s always done – and maybe a little more so.
David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers: Drawings on iPad and iPhone opens Saturday at the Royal Ontario Museum’s Institute of Contemporary Culture. It closes Jan. 1, 2012.
Thestar.com - VideoZone - Hockney animation
Murray Whyte, Visual Art Critic
David Hockney has always been an avid doodler, whether meandering the English countryside or the decidedly un-countrified landscapes of Los Angeles. So much so, in fact, that when he started having his suits and jackets custom-made at Savile Row in the 1970s — he’s been among the most successful painters in the world for about that long — he had them sew in a large interior pocket to hold his sketchbook.
Over the long march of technology from then to now, Hockney’s suits haven’t needed alteration. Now on display at the Royal Ontario Musuem is “Fresh Flowers,” a selection of images made with Hockney’s current sketchbook of choice: Apple’s iPad, which, through a remarkably simple and adaptable application called Brushes, has become a suit-pocket studio of sorts to indulge Hockney’s ever-curious eye.
It makes for an unconventional museum display: A row of small screens, all of them vertical, fastened tight to the wall. Some present slow-motion slide shows, lingering on each luminous, quirkily cartoonish drawing for a minute or so before fading into the next. Others are fast-motion animated versions of the artist at work: cross-hatching deep facial for crevices for a portrait of his friend, Morris Payne, or a moody evening cityscape as seen from a dark interior, peeking through heavy drapes.
All together, there are 100 drawings iPad drawings displayed on 25 iPads, and another 100 drawings Hockney made on the tiny screen of his iPhone.
If it seems like an odd turn for a 72-year old contemporary master painter to take, think again: Hockney’s always been a willing experimentalist, morphing his classical training and interests as a modern painter into new realms like set design for theatre. He’s dabbled with technology before, too, using Photoshop to create a series of prints.
His i-art came about less by design than by happenstance, though. Hockney is famously hard of hearing; a few years ago he got an iPhone so he could communicate with friends via text messaging. In his always-curious fashion, the artist was an avid peruser of the iTunes app store, and quickly came across Brushes, which he downloaded and started to fiddle with almost immediately.
In his bedroom in Bridlington on the northeastern coast of England, Hockney would have fresh flowers replaced every couple of days. Rolling over in the morning, it wasn’t uncommon of him to sketch them in his book. But in the darker mornings of fall and winter, when natural light wouldn’t allow it, Hockney turned to his iPhone. He found the immediacy of the experience could be shared just as immediately, a world away.
“He started sending these flowers to us,” said Charlie Schiep, a long-time friend of Hockney’s and curator of the show at the ROM. “They were charming – he’d be in England, I’d be in New York, and when I’d get up in the morning to have my coffee, there would be this beautiful flower on my phone, waiting.”
Schiep has heard the predictable grousing about the work – that without the discipline of bending oil to canvas, the struggle with the material, the obvious cheat of being able to zoom in almost microscopically on-screen to render tiny, intricate textures in extreme close-up, none of it qualified as actual artistic practice.
“When we had the Fresh Flowers show in Paris, people were saying we should have had a painting show, this, that, and the other thing,” he sniffed. “I told them ‘this isn’t some little thing, this is David Hockney!’ ”
In the gallery, there’s no mistaking that. Hockney’s signature fascinations and techniques are on full display here: His unabashed love of colour, his rough, playful figurative gestures, his unapologetic curiousity for the forms of mundane objects (images of ashtrays, or stacks of magazines, or suburban rooftops often interrupt the more serene flow of floral still lifes).
In other words, they look like Hockneys — just a Hockneys of a different sort. For the offended purist, you might take comfort in the fact that the i-drawings are for Hockney more akin to sketching than finished works: note-taking studies, so to speak, for eventual in-studio paintings, which many of the drawings have become.
More than anything, “Fresh Flowers” is about an artist’s process: translating a ravenous curiousity for the visual world in ways that broaden a practice that’s been evolving as long as he’s been doing it. “The paintings are feeding into the iPad drawings, and vice-versa,” Schiep says. “He’s invented new marks that go with the limitations of the program (Brushes). Those have fed into some of his new paintings.”
So much so, in fact, that when a huge new survey of the artist’s landscape painting opens at the Royal Academy in London, Hockney will present 60 or 70 iPad sketches — printed on paper, no less; none of these have been released to the pubic — alongside “The Four Seasons,” the painting for which they served as studies.
It’s bound to offend somebody, though I can’t see why. With his embrace of simple digital technology, Hockney is also embracing the truism that art is not a static thing – either its definition or its practice. This is just Hockney doing what he’s always done – and maybe a little more so.
David Hockney’s Fresh Flowers: Drawings on iPad and iPhone opens Saturday at the Royal Ontario Museum’s Institute of Contemporary Culture. It closes Jan. 1, 2012.
Friday, October 7, 2011
London & Saltaire
Good evening from Yorkshire!
Here's a quick update on what we've been up to since arriving in the U.K. September 27.
Will update soon - heading to Manchester on Oct. 12!!!
Here's a quick update on what we've been up to since arriving in the U.K. September 27.
We spent our first night in a hostel, but after that have been fortunate enough to crash with friends. As luck would have it, our Aussie mates James & Antoinette were heading to Italy in the wee hours of September 28 and graciously gave us their flat (in Brent) to use in their absence, as well as access to their "The Inbetweeners" box set. Loves it!
As previously mentioned, the weather in London last week was phenomenal. Every day was sunny with temperatures hovering around 28-30 C. Who knew the weather in the U.K could be so lovely??? Not wanting to waste what was surely the last of the year's warm weather, we hit the streets every day from early morning to late night.
On our first day we met up with my good friend Matt Cross, who was en route to Cape Town (woot woot!) from Ottawa. After a quick drink and some catching up, Court and I set out on our own to wander Trafalger Square and Covent Garden. (I had been to London twice before, but this was Court's first trip - thankfully, he loved it as much as I do.) In the early evening we met up with another mate - Cam/Monty - and did a mini pub crawl around Farringdon.
On Thursday we took a trip to Camden Town, where Court trolled for records and I wandered about the shops. Friday we met up with my aunt and uncle - en route back to Toronto after their African safari. Court and I met Jane for lunch, then she and I went to find Felix and tour the National Gallery whilst Court explored a record shop in Soho. A few hours later we met up in Soho for a drink with our friend Bean, then we were off to the Dominion Theatre to catch an evening performance of the fantastic We Will Rock You. (Oh, Queen, how I love thee.) We hoped to get tickets to Les Mis for the following night as well but it was sold out. :(
On Saturday, Court went to the science & natural history museums while I went shopping in Oxford Circus. Sunday we moved over to Cam/Monty's flat and spent some time exploring Hamstead Heath. Monday it was off to the legendary Brick Lane - much better on a weekend, but what can you do? - where we spent several hours wandering in and out of vintage shops. Monday night we were able to catch up with James & Antoinette over dinner which was great!
On Tuesday morning we caught the train to Saltaire, a world heritage listed community in Yorkshire, and home to our friends Ian and Julie. While Court stayed in to prep for his upcoming interview, I took a 5 mile walk with Ian to see the moors, glens, and dales of his community - it's just like a Dickens novel! We also took in the galleries at Salts Mill, which feature works by local/world famous artist David Hockney. Finally, we went up to the Cow and Calf rocks, and dropped by The Woolpack, the pub used in the famous British soap Emmerdale. Lots of local culture here!
Last night we went to quiz night in neighbouring Keighly, and tomorrow Court is going on an "ale trail" - basically, he and Ian and some of Ian's mates are going to spend 9 or so hours visiting pubs between Leeds and Manchester...by train. (The results of which should be endlessly entertaining.)
On Saturday we're going to visit the Bronte Parsonage Museum, which I'm really excited about. (When we arrived, Ian was like, "Have you heard of the Bronte sisters at all?" I smiled and nodded, not having the heart to tell him that one of my bachelor degrees is in English literature.)
So, that's what we've been up to since leaving Morocco! We're incredibly grateful to our wonderful friends for putting us up - it has really made this leg of our trip SO much easier. Thanks also to Robyn for sending us some warm clothes (etc.) - everything arrived today and we're thrilled!
Will update soon - heading to Manchester on Oct. 12!!!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
In their own words...
I thought I would repost this video & article from today's Toronto Star. Enjoy!
Women in hijab say it completes their identity
A thin, blond woman with a sharp face is shouting across the aisle in southbound a University line subway car.
Three hijab-clad girls sitting across from the angry woman look puzzled as they lean forward to hear her. They cannot make out what the woman is saying. “But I do not think it is polite,” one of the girls whispers.
This is what the woman is saying: “You need to challenge the men in your religion and the imams to respect women.”
One of the girls demurs: “But we are respected in our religion.”
The harangue continues ferociously. “We don’t put up with that crap.”
By wearing hijab, these girls are identifiably Muslim and, whether they like it or not, find themselves defending their faith — as the three friends did on the subway last week.
Women wear it for reasons as varied and personal as the patterns woven into the head scarf fabric.
To some it is effortless but as essential as “putting on a pair of shoes,” as a hijab-clad woman walking along the waterfront said recently. Others do it unwillingly to appease families.
But most hijab-wearers, it seems, are moved by faith or motivated by political ideals. And some are grateful for the desexualizing effect of hijab and loose clothing. It makes them more untouchable.
Those who make the choice as adults say they are surprised at the response. “It blew me away how positive my co-workers and students were,” says Mississauga middle-school teacher Sophia Siddiqui, who put on hijab when she was 25. “We don’t hear enough about how accepting Canadians are.”
Three young women explain why they are hijabis.
It had not been her family’s tradition for women to cover their hair. Yet Ambreen Syed, daughter of immigrants from Bangalore, India, thought about hijab throughout high school.
“But I was scared,” recalls Syed, now 24. “How would people react? Could I live up to it? I wanted to love it.”
When she was 18 she enrolled in Ryerson University’s social work program — a course of study she chose and introduced to her parents, who weren’t aware of the profession — she felt renewed.
“Freedom!” she says. “It was a time for me. I really felt confident about myself and for the first time was making decisions for myself.”
That first semester, she signed up for the annual GTA Muslim convention, Reviving the Islamic Spirit. “It was at SkyDome — to me that’s the symbol of Toronto — and it was full of my own people and people from all over the world speaking different languages, and for the first time I thought, ‘Hijab is cool.’
“There were so many people doing it. What’s stopping me?
She had trial runs: three days at the convention, once to the grocery store and once on the TTC. She liked it. Hijab felt like an act of worship.
And when she read about families returning to the U.S. from the convention being interrogated and fingerprinted and having their cellphones confiscated, she found deeper layers of conviction. Hijab now spoke to her sense of social justice.
“I felt it was a form of racism. It was only Muslims they were checking. I decided hijab would be my form of resistance and freedom of expression. I wanted to be identified as a Muslim.”
There were also unexpected benefits. “I grew up in Scarborough and got hit on just waiting for the bus from when I was 14. By men, twice my age.” Now, there was a new distance.
And for her, a new experience of her beauty framed in a simple scarf. “That was surprising and pleasing. It wasn’t a struggle. It actually looked very nice.”
On the downside, some of her university friends stopped taking to her. One stopped sitting beside her in class.
Syed, now 24, lives in Redmond, Wash., with her husband and newborn baby boy. She recently helped start a small Islamic school.
She’s in Toronto for an extended family visit. “Hijab is part of my identity,” she says in her cousin’s condo in Don Mills. “It opened the door to self-discovery.”
Like other hijabis, she says, she’s weary of justifying the garment. “We need to stop explaining why we wear hijab and say, ‘It’s cool.’ ”
In high school Sahar Ammor, who lives in Oakville, admired the two or three other girls who wore hijab. They were brave, she thought.
On Jan. 1, 2009, when she was 17 and in Grade 11, she joined them. She picked the date because she was sure to be able to remember it.
What spurred her was a speech by actress Hanan Turk at the December 2008 Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention. Turk had started wearing hijab two years earlier.
“I was curious,” Sahar recalls. “She was very famous in Egypt and gorgeous and had it all — husband, kids and did all these movies. She didn’t make excuses for herself. It made me think about my situation. What’s stopping me from putting it on?”
She found another role model in her mother, Sanaa, who at 40 started wearing hijab.
The head scarf made Sahar more attentive to her faith, she says. “It reminds me that since I don’t live in a Muslim country, I have to keep my mind on my faith and that I’m representing Islam.”
Moroccan-born Sahar is an active teenager. Now 18, she goes to McMaster University, where she studies kinesiology. She also teaches piano, tutors French, snowboards, practises taekwando, plays soccer and works at an electronics store.
She wants to be a doctor.
Sahar says hijab is about her relationship with God. “I feel closer. We put it on to pray and when we wear it all the time, it keeps me aware he’s everywhere and all-knowing.”
She believes women are honoured in her religion. “Women are like diamonds . . . You can see them in the glass case, but you don’t get to touch every one.”
With, her heart-shaped face and dark eyes, Sahar gets lots of male attention. Hijab offers some protection. “I felt it would be a lot easier if I had it on and I wouldn’t have to explain to everyone why I can’t have a boyfriend.
“I always wondered what it was like to have a boyfriend, but I don’t think I ever would since I have seen what all my friends go through. I don’t want that.”
Instead, she attends all-girl events where she can wear party dresses — and release her long, dark hair.
Gehad El Sayed declared in Grade Six, when she was 11, that she was ready to wear hijab. Her parents worried she’d be harassed at school or change her mind later. Was she sure of her decision?
Yes, she said. Looking back, she says she may have been impressed by her hijab-wearing friends at Sunday school, where she was studying Arabic. But she also recalls feeling a spiritual tug. “For me at first, it made me feel closer to God.”
Now 22, she was born in Cairo and came to Canada when she was six. Her mother, trained as an engineer, wore hijab. Her grandmother started wearing the scarf only after her mother did.
Her family is religious. They pray five times a day, fast at Ramadan and attend Friday prayers.
When family discussions turn to moral quandaries they look to the Qur’an or Hadith for resolution. “It is the final ruling in our house,” El Sayed says.
A recent debate was on what you should do, as happened to a family member recently, when you come across a $50 bill at the train station — keep it or turn it in to lost and found?
She is a dignified yet approachable woman, studying to be a pharmacist at the University of Toronto. She has already had five marriage proposals, but is not ready to wed.
Wearing hijab reminds her of her obligations as a Muslim, she says. “Not only because other people will judge me, but because it makes me ask: am I doing the right thing?
“I feel (hijab) part of who I am,” she continues. “If I went out without it, I’d feel that something was off. I would feel like it’s not me.”
She says she has not had any hostile encounters on the street over her choice to cover her head.
Not her, but it is only moments later, while El Sayed is on her way to a class, that the brutishly angry blond woman condemns the three young hijabis in the subway car.
Sophia Siddiqi started wearing hijab at the age of 25. Her mother and younger sister do not wear it. Nor does her mother-in-law, who lives next door in a new Milton housing development.
At 30, Siddiqi is an extroverted mother of three — a 2½-year-old boy and 4-month-old twins of both genders — on maternity leave from Homelands Senior Public School in Mississauga, where she teaches Grade 8. Her husband, Yelman, is a chartered accountant.
“I was born and raised in this culture and grew up in the school system where I now teach,” Siddiqi says. “I am Muslim and Canadian.”
She was brought up in Mississauga. Her father told her she could be anything in life she wanted.
“Back then, in the 1970s, maybe we didn’t have enough confidence,” says her mother, Alia Khan, who is 50. “The hijab wasn’t so much known. The generation now is more confident. We were praying and fasting, but we tried very hard to fit in.”
A pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006 with her husband and in-laws was a turning point for Siddiqi. “We were away from superficial things. Our life for three weeks revolved around prayer and goodness. It was a beautiful thing, the most peaceful place in the world.”
It captured a way of thinking and living she wanted to continue at home. She went back to work for two weeks without the scarf, but was yearning for something more, a greater closeness to God, which she believed could be expressed by wearing a scarf.
“When I had it on I thought, ‘This is me. This is what I should be doing.’ But I was conscious of how people would react. At our school, there are 400 kids who knew me a certain way.”
But the response was affirming. Students, she recalls, looked at her in her new garment and said, “Oh, people who wear scarves are normal. They are just like us.”
While she says wearing hijab may lead to assumptions that she isn’t a native speaker or well-educated, overall she has not had a hostile experience wearing the head scarf.
“It blew me away how positive my co-workers and students were,” she says. “We don’t hear enough about how accepting Canadians are.”
Now her sister, who is starting university, is occasionally wearing hijab to school.
And her mother: “I have in mind that one day I will wear it.”
-30-
Women in hijab say it completes their identity
A thin, blond woman with a sharp face is shouting across the aisle in southbound a University line subway car.
Three hijab-clad girls sitting across from the angry woman look puzzled as they lean forward to hear her. They cannot make out what the woman is saying. “But I do not think it is polite,” one of the girls whispers.
This is what the woman is saying: “You need to challenge the men in your religion and the imams to respect women.”
One of the girls demurs: “But we are respected in our religion.”
The harangue continues ferociously. “We don’t put up with that crap.”
By wearing hijab, these girls are identifiably Muslim and, whether they like it or not, find themselves defending their faith — as the three friends did on the subway last week.
Women wear it for reasons as varied and personal as the patterns woven into the head scarf fabric.
To some it is effortless but as essential as “putting on a pair of shoes,” as a hijab-clad woman walking along the waterfront said recently. Others do it unwillingly to appease families.
But most hijab-wearers, it seems, are moved by faith or motivated by political ideals. And some are grateful for the desexualizing effect of hijab and loose clothing. It makes them more untouchable.
Those who make the choice as adults say they are surprised at the response. “It blew me away how positive my co-workers and students were,” says Mississauga middle-school teacher Sophia Siddiqui, who put on hijab when she was 25. “We don’t hear enough about how accepting Canadians are.”
Three young women explain why they are hijabis.
It had not been her family’s tradition for women to cover their hair. Yet Ambreen Syed, daughter of immigrants from Bangalore, India, thought about hijab throughout high school.
“But I was scared,” recalls Syed, now 24. “How would people react? Could I live up to it? I wanted to love it.”
When she was 18 she enrolled in Ryerson University’s social work program — a course of study she chose and introduced to her parents, who weren’t aware of the profession — she felt renewed.
“Freedom!” she says. “It was a time for me. I really felt confident about myself and for the first time was making decisions for myself.”
That first semester, she signed up for the annual GTA Muslim convention, Reviving the Islamic Spirit. “It was at SkyDome — to me that’s the symbol of Toronto — and it was full of my own people and people from all over the world speaking different languages, and for the first time I thought, ‘Hijab is cool.’
“There were so many people doing it. What’s stopping me?
She had trial runs: three days at the convention, once to the grocery store and once on the TTC. She liked it. Hijab felt like an act of worship.
And when she read about families returning to the U.S. from the convention being interrogated and fingerprinted and having their cellphones confiscated, she found deeper layers of conviction. Hijab now spoke to her sense of social justice.
“I felt it was a form of racism. It was only Muslims they were checking. I decided hijab would be my form of resistance and freedom of expression. I wanted to be identified as a Muslim.”
There were also unexpected benefits. “I grew up in Scarborough and got hit on just waiting for the bus from when I was 14. By men, twice my age.” Now, there was a new distance.
And for her, a new experience of her beauty framed in a simple scarf. “That was surprising and pleasing. It wasn’t a struggle. It actually looked very nice.”
On the downside, some of her university friends stopped taking to her. One stopped sitting beside her in class.
Syed, now 24, lives in Redmond, Wash., with her husband and newborn baby boy. She recently helped start a small Islamic school.
She’s in Toronto for an extended family visit. “Hijab is part of my identity,” she says in her cousin’s condo in Don Mills. “It opened the door to self-discovery.”
Like other hijabis, she says, she’s weary of justifying the garment. “We need to stop explaining why we wear hijab and say, ‘It’s cool.’ ”
In high school Sahar Ammor, who lives in Oakville, admired the two or three other girls who wore hijab. They were brave, she thought.
On Jan. 1, 2009, when she was 17 and in Grade 11, she joined them. She picked the date because she was sure to be able to remember it.
What spurred her was a speech by actress Hanan Turk at the December 2008 Reviving the Islamic Spirit convention. Turk had started wearing hijab two years earlier.
“I was curious,” Sahar recalls. “She was very famous in Egypt and gorgeous and had it all — husband, kids and did all these movies. She didn’t make excuses for herself. It made me think about my situation. What’s stopping me from putting it on?”
She found another role model in her mother, Sanaa, who at 40 started wearing hijab.
The head scarf made Sahar more attentive to her faith, she says. “It reminds me that since I don’t live in a Muslim country, I have to keep my mind on my faith and that I’m representing Islam.”
Moroccan-born Sahar is an active teenager. Now 18, she goes to McMaster University, where she studies kinesiology. She also teaches piano, tutors French, snowboards, practises taekwando, plays soccer and works at an electronics store.
She wants to be a doctor.
Sahar says hijab is about her relationship with God. “I feel closer. We put it on to pray and when we wear it all the time, it keeps me aware he’s everywhere and all-knowing.”
She believes women are honoured in her religion. “Women are like diamonds . . . You can see them in the glass case, but you don’t get to touch every one.”
With, her heart-shaped face and dark eyes, Sahar gets lots of male attention. Hijab offers some protection. “I felt it would be a lot easier if I had it on and I wouldn’t have to explain to everyone why I can’t have a boyfriend.
“I always wondered what it was like to have a boyfriend, but I don’t think I ever would since I have seen what all my friends go through. I don’t want that.”
Instead, she attends all-girl events where she can wear party dresses — and release her long, dark hair.
Gehad El Sayed declared in Grade Six, when she was 11, that she was ready to wear hijab. Her parents worried she’d be harassed at school or change her mind later. Was she sure of her decision?
Yes, she said. Looking back, she says she may have been impressed by her hijab-wearing friends at Sunday school, where she was studying Arabic. But she also recalls feeling a spiritual tug. “For me at first, it made me feel closer to God.”
Now 22, she was born in Cairo and came to Canada when she was six. Her mother, trained as an engineer, wore hijab. Her grandmother started wearing the scarf only after her mother did.
Her family is religious. They pray five times a day, fast at Ramadan and attend Friday prayers.
When family discussions turn to moral quandaries they look to the Qur’an or Hadith for resolution. “It is the final ruling in our house,” El Sayed says.
A recent debate was on what you should do, as happened to a family member recently, when you come across a $50 bill at the train station — keep it or turn it in to lost and found?
She is a dignified yet approachable woman, studying to be a pharmacist at the University of Toronto. She has already had five marriage proposals, but is not ready to wed.
Wearing hijab reminds her of her obligations as a Muslim, she says. “Not only because other people will judge me, but because it makes me ask: am I doing the right thing?
“I feel (hijab) part of who I am,” she continues. “If I went out without it, I’d feel that something was off. I would feel like it’s not me.”
She says she has not had any hostile encounters on the street over her choice to cover her head.
Not her, but it is only moments later, while El Sayed is on her way to a class, that the brutishly angry blond woman condemns the three young hijabis in the subway car.
Sophia Siddiqi started wearing hijab at the age of 25. Her mother and younger sister do not wear it. Nor does her mother-in-law, who lives next door in a new Milton housing development.
At 30, Siddiqi is an extroverted mother of three — a 2½-year-old boy and 4-month-old twins of both genders — on maternity leave from Homelands Senior Public School in Mississauga, where she teaches Grade 8. Her husband, Yelman, is a chartered accountant.
“I was born and raised in this culture and grew up in the school system where I now teach,” Siddiqi says. “I am Muslim and Canadian.”
She was brought up in Mississauga. Her father told her she could be anything in life she wanted.
“Back then, in the 1970s, maybe we didn’t have enough confidence,” says her mother, Alia Khan, who is 50. “The hijab wasn’t so much known. The generation now is more confident. We were praying and fasting, but we tried very hard to fit in.”
A pilgrimage to Mecca in 2006 with her husband and in-laws was a turning point for Siddiqi. “We were away from superficial things. Our life for three weeks revolved around prayer and goodness. It was a beautiful thing, the most peaceful place in the world.”
It captured a way of thinking and living she wanted to continue at home. She went back to work for two weeks without the scarf, but was yearning for something more, a greater closeness to God, which she believed could be expressed by wearing a scarf.
“When I had it on I thought, ‘This is me. This is what I should be doing.’ But I was conscious of how people would react. At our school, there are 400 kids who knew me a certain way.”
But the response was affirming. Students, she recalls, looked at her in her new garment and said, “Oh, people who wear scarves are normal. They are just like us.”
While she says wearing hijab may lead to assumptions that she isn’t a native speaker or well-educated, overall she has not had a hostile experience wearing the head scarf.
“It blew me away how positive my co-workers and students were,” she says. “We don’t hear enough about how accepting Canadians are.”
Now her sister, who is starting university, is occasionally wearing hijab to school.
And her mother: “I have in mind that one day I will wear it.”
-30-
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Morocco
I'm going to be honest with you - we spent 10 days in Morocco and learned next to nothing. Which is too bad, because it's a really interesting place, but we were exhausted when we arrived and just wanted to chill out. So that's what we did. Ten amazing days in a beautiful riad (therepose.com) with no agenda. We did get out to explore the medina and neighbouring Rabat - the capital - which we thoroughly enjoyed. The difference between Rabat and everywhere else we went in Africa is that we were suddenly completely off the radar; as in, shop owners virtually ignored us until we spoke to them. It. Was. Awesome. The souks were filled with treasures that we were free to explore at our leisure - brass/tin/and coloured glass lanterns, hundreds of leather goods in every colour of the rainbow, beautiful woven goods (carpets, blankets, scarves), lovely foods - couscous, fresh veggies, tajines filled with slow cooked produce and expertly blended spices - Morocco is truly a feast for the senses.
After a few days of wandering around Sale and Rabat we took a train trip to Fes to see their incredible ceramics and leather goods. It was a nice day out, but we preferred our surroundings in Sale/Rabat, to be honest.
So, after 10 days in Morocco and 11+ amazing weeks in Africa, we said goodbye and flew to England. Court has an interview at the University of Manchester in a few weeks, so for the time being we're couch surfing in London and enjoying the fruits of an Indian Summer. In a few days we'll head up to Leeds to see some more of our friends, and then...Scotland? Ireland? We'll keep you posted!
After a few days of wandering around Sale and Rabat we took a train trip to Fes to see their incredible ceramics and leather goods. It was a nice day out, but we preferred our surroundings in Sale/Rabat, to be honest.
So, after 10 days in Morocco and 11+ amazing weeks in Africa, we said goodbye and flew to England. Court has an interview at the University of Manchester in a few weeks, so for the time being we're couch surfing in London and enjoying the fruits of an Indian Summer. In a few days we'll head up to Leeds to see some more of our friends, and then...Scotland? Ireland? We'll keep you posted!
Egypt: Alexandria
After our in-depth tour of Cairo, we went up to Alexandria for a short break. Thankfully, Rasha accompanied us. :)
En route, we stopped at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy where we were taken around by an orthodox priest. It was a very interesting experience, but pretty intense - the priest kept quizzing us on the Bible. Eek! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the experience.
We chose to visit Alexandria because everyone kept saying it was beautiful. Beautiful? Not really...interesting, sure. (That's how we felt about Egypt in general - we didn't find it beautiful, but we found it fascinating.) Upon our arrival we visited the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, which was really, really cool. Decorated with Egyptian and Greek/Roman statues and carvings, there were enough spaces for hundreds of people to be buried. (They have all been exhumed and moved elsewhere so as not to be disturbed by visitors.) Following that we went to Pompey's Pillar and the Roman Amphitheatre (where they still have outdoor concerts).
The following day we visited the Citadel - which was quite nice - the Mosque of Al-Mursi Abu Al-Abbas (which was gorgeous from the outside, but Rasha and I weren't allowed to go inside...men only, apparently), and the incredible Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Now that is a library. If I had access to a library like that, I would probably never leave!
Sorry this particular post isn't very descriptive - while interesting, Alexandria didn't grab our interest the way other places had. It could have been travel fatigue - Egypt was incredibly hot (even though we arrived after the hottest part of the year) and we had already been in Africa 2.5 months when we got there. Whatever the reason, we don't think we'd go back to Alexandria, but we would like to visit Luxor and Aswan someday.
If you're wondering whether or not Egypt is worth visiting, we truly believe it is. Tourism is a huge force in their economy, directly employing some 2 million people who then support 10 million of their family members. Though we had been warned that we would be harassed to no end - particularly in Cairo - we found that that was not the case at all. Everyone was incredibly respectful and kind to us - vendors thanked us repeatedly for coming to Egypt, even if we didn't purchase any of their goods or services. Though the revolution was certainly necessary, it has hurt their progress in the short term. We hope that the upcoming elections will be peaceful and will put their fantastic country on the right track.
En route, we stopped at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy where we were taken around by an orthodox priest. It was a very interesting experience, but pretty intense - the priest kept quizzing us on the Bible. Eek! Nevertheless, we enjoyed the experience.
We chose to visit Alexandria because everyone kept saying it was beautiful. Beautiful? Not really...interesting, sure. (That's how we felt about Egypt in general - we didn't find it beautiful, but we found it fascinating.) Upon our arrival we visited the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, which was really, really cool. Decorated with Egyptian and Greek/Roman statues and carvings, there were enough spaces for hundreds of people to be buried. (They have all been exhumed and moved elsewhere so as not to be disturbed by visitors.) Following that we went to Pompey's Pillar and the Roman Amphitheatre (where they still have outdoor concerts).
The following day we visited the Citadel - which was quite nice - the Mosque of Al-Mursi Abu Al-Abbas (which was gorgeous from the outside, but Rasha and I weren't allowed to go inside...men only, apparently), and the incredible Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Now that is a library. If I had access to a library like that, I would probably never leave!
Sorry this particular post isn't very descriptive - while interesting, Alexandria didn't grab our interest the way other places had. It could have been travel fatigue - Egypt was incredibly hot (even though we arrived after the hottest part of the year) and we had already been in Africa 2.5 months when we got there. Whatever the reason, we don't think we'd go back to Alexandria, but we would like to visit Luxor and Aswan someday.
If you're wondering whether or not Egypt is worth visiting, we truly believe it is. Tourism is a huge force in their economy, directly employing some 2 million people who then support 10 million of their family members. Though we had been warned that we would be harassed to no end - particularly in Cairo - we found that that was not the case at all. Everyone was incredibly respectful and kind to us - vendors thanked us repeatedly for coming to Egypt, even if we didn't purchase any of their goods or services. Though the revolution was certainly necessary, it has hurt their progress in the short term. We hope that the upcoming elections will be peaceful and will put their fantastic country on the right track.
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