SAPNA: Opinion: I’m Not a Virgin and I Don’t Feel Bad About It
via Sapna Magazine:
Here is the thing- I know I am not the only Desi Muslim woman to be having premarital sex. I am also a follower of Islam and I am inspired by the religion’s moral codes and the way of life that it tries to instill in people. I defend Islam and the image of Muslims in the West all the time, whether that was within my international relations major, in writing, volunteering, and making it a personal motto. But maybe what I am writing is upsetting to some of the same Muslim women. I understand that, but I also want to state that Islam is not just about staying a virgin until you are married, not drinking, and dressing modestly. Rather, the idea of respecting your elders, giving to charity, not back biting, or believing in a higher power is frankly much more important in my opinion than staying a virgin.
There is also more to me wanting to “Get it over with” in regards to my virginity. I knew that anyone I eventually marry will not be a virgin himself. The rate of virgin Muslim Deshi men, both in the U.S., Europe, and across Asia and Africa is getting slimmer and slimmer every day. More attention is always given to the women’s purity rather than the men- this is a sad reality. Also, I didn’t want to marry a virgin in the first place, even when I was a virgin. In this day and age, that just seemed, well, odd. Marrying a late 20s virgin? Just did not seem very interesting or appropriate for a cosmopolitan, smart, and not bad looking woman like myself. Even my current boyfriend admitted that if I was a virgin, he would not have had sex with me so soon (maybe even ever). He is a great guy who is smart, considerate, kind and generous, and his sentiment does not make him a bad person either- it is just how it is in today’s society and in our relationship with sex and sexuality.
So, if the person I was going to marry was not going to be a virgin, why should I be? That did not seem very fair and even a bit demeaning to the meaning of being an independent woman of our time, regardless of race, religion, and class.
![spastasmagoria:
alcoholicgifts:
London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
[…] try to imagine fandom’s reaction if the next big Holmes adaptation to come along had Holmes and Watson as British, yeah - young black British men, living case to case on a council estate in a dodgy area of London. How fandom would react if Sherlock Holmes didn’t employ street kids and homeless people like trained animals to do his bidding, but instead was part of that invisible underclass; if instead of having his eccentricities tolerated~ by Scotland Yard on account of being the Great White Genius, Sherlock Holmes, BME, school dropout, and sometime addict, was regarded by the police as practically a criminal already, one more thug, one more junkie, one more dealer in the making. If he had to choose between buying the week’s groceries or palming a twenty to a bored constable for the chance to spend five minutes on a crime scene, in the hope that whoever’s under enough pressure to deal with crime rates in the neighbourhood will pay him enough for a perp to feed himself and Watson for a month or two. If the greatest threat to his safety were police brutality, or the prospect of being done for a snitch; if his arch enemy weren’t Moriarty, but the systemic poverty and inequality that has him helping out his oppressors just to get by, and that makes the other side of the law look more tempting to someone with his skills every day.
this.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m370d5K88R1r13h5ho2_100.gif)
![spastasmagoria:
alcoholicgifts:
London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
[…] try to imagine fandom’s reaction if the next big Holmes adaptation to come along had Holmes and Watson as British, yeah - young black British men, living case to case on a council estate in a dodgy area of London. How fandom would react if Sherlock Holmes didn’t employ street kids and homeless people like trained animals to do his bidding, but instead was part of that invisible underclass; if instead of having his eccentricities tolerated~ by Scotland Yard on account of being the Great White Genius, Sherlock Holmes, BME, school dropout, and sometime addict, was regarded by the police as practically a criminal already, one more thug, one more junkie, one more dealer in the making. If he had to choose between buying the week’s groceries or palming a twenty to a bored constable for the chance to spend five minutes on a crime scene, in the hope that whoever’s under enough pressure to deal with crime rates in the neighbourhood will pay him enough for a perp to feed himself and Watson for a month or two. If the greatest threat to his safety were police brutality, or the prospect of being done for a snitch; if his arch enemy weren’t Moriarty, but the systemic poverty and inequality that has him helping out his oppressors just to get by, and that makes the other side of the law look more tempting to someone with his skills every day.
this.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m370d5K88R1r13h5ho1_500.png)
[…] try to imagine fandom’s reaction if the next big Holmes adaptation to come along had Holmes and Watson as British, yeah - young black British men, living case to case on a council estate in a dodgy area of London. How fandom would react if Sherlock Holmes didn’t employ street kids and homeless people like trained animals to do his bidding, but instead was part of that invisible underclass; if instead of having his eccentricities tolerated~ by Scotland Yard on account of being the Great White Genius, Sherlock Holmes, BME, school dropout, and sometime addict, was regarded by the police as practically a criminal already, one more thug, one more junkie, one more dealer in the making. If he had to choose between buying the week’s groceries or palming a twenty to a bored constable for the chance to spend five minutes on a crime scene, in the hope that whoever’s under enough pressure to deal with crime rates in the neighbourhood will pay him enough for a perp to feed himself and Watson for a month or two. If the greatest threat to his safety were police brutality, or the prospect of being done for a snitch; if his arch enemy weren’t Moriarty, but the systemic poverty and inequality that has him helping out his oppressors just to get by, and that makes the other side of the law look more tempting to someone with his skills every day.
this.
George Lucas’ rich neighbors don’t want him building a movie studio in their backyard. His response is the best thing he’s done in years.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, for four decades Lucas has owned a large swath of land in Marin County in the North San Francisco Bay and has spent the past few years trying to transform the ranch on it into a massive, nearly 300,000 square foot, state-of-the-art movie studio complete with day care center, restaurant, gym and a 200-car garage. His neighbors, however, have rejected it every step of the way. Despite the promise of bringing $300 million worth of economic activity to the area, the already-well off neighbors are worried about years’ worth of construction activity and the additional foot traffic it will bring into their neighborhood once completed.
[…]
So what is George Lucas going to do with his property now that he’s tired of his rich neighbors putting up a not-in-my-backyard stink? He wants to transform the property into low-income housing, naturally, ending their official statement with this zinger, “If everyone feels that housing is less impactful on the land, then we are hoping that people who need it the most will benefit.”
He’s working with the Marin Community Foundation to instead construct affordable housing for either low-income families or seniors living on small, fixed incomes. In order to smooth along the development, he’s already given them all of the pricey technical studies and land surveys Lucasfilm spent years conducting. And we think that’s just great. Because if there’s one thing rich people will hate more than having movie magic made in their backyard, it’s poor people moving in.
George Lucas Does Something Likeable For a Change
This is amazing. (via liquidiousfleshbag)
Ahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa my brother lives there. Hope he’s pissed.
(via annlarimer)
Well played, Jedi Master.
(via laughingacademy)
