The title can be read as “Bint Trump” and it is Arabic for “Trump’s Daughter”, specifically Ivanka Trump. This hashtag has been internationally a trending topic on twitter in regards to the United States’ president Donald Trump’s visit, along with his daughter and many others from his administration, to Saudi Arabia to attend the Riyadh Summit, which hosted leaders and representatives of 55 Arab and/or Muslim countries and the United States of America apparently.
To cut a long story short, Ivanka Trump has received the official title of assistant to the president.She’s now accompanying her father and his team on his international tour. She is an active business woman and a mother of three. However, when she set foot on the respectful Saudi Arabian lands, she was not spared from social media comments. Twitter users in Saudi Arabia tweeted captions to her photos that were tweeted under the aforementioned hashtag. It was as if Saudi twitter have never seen a female before.

Saudi’s be like #بنت_ترامب : pic.twitter.com/3A4to8Wo2l
— Maryam Albanna (@Maryamiialbanna) May 21, 2017
 
Their eyes :#بنت_ترامب pic.twitter.com/iE9xBlFSHY
— Hasan Sari (@HasanSari7) May 20, 2017

​Now let’s start with the least of our concerns. This is a simple reminder that if people were to imagine this happening to any other random female, it would be considered a form of harassment, and clearly it isn’t any different with Ivanka Trump, the President of the United States of America’s own adult married daughter. Women around the world of all ages, religions, and ethnic backgrounds are condescendingly treated under the justification of their gender. Unfortunately, social media further provides an outlet for such patriarchal concepts to flourish.
Speaking of condescending treatment, Arabs have a long history of continuously  objectifying and belittling their women to their outer appearance with little to no regard of their achievements. Moreover, Arabs have an obsession with the Eurocentric beauty standards that is quite difficult for our Arab genes to put together, not to mention the scorching sun that has kissed our skin from birth. For example, it is well-known that in Arabic culture, a girl of fair skin is most likely to be treated better and experience favouritism over her darker skinned sisters. She tends to be a “product of pride” to her family only because of her skin colour and not because of any particular achievement in school, sports, etc. People’s obsession with the POTUS’s daughter further promotes my argument. All (yes, not most, but all) the comments are about how beautiful, white, hot, and wife-material Ivanka Trump is. It isn’t about how professional and competent she is as a business woman.
Needless to say, the same people who are praising (and by that I mean harassing) Ivanka over her outer beauty are the same patriarchs who oppress, speak over, and cover their women in the name of religion. It’s the very same system that has called out the four Saudi female Olympic players for participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics. This is the culture that claims that the female body belongs to the state, family, and her husband, but never to the female herself. Such oppressive techniques are normalised in this region on our civilized planet in the year of 2017. Ivanka Trump showed up not wearing a headscarf and was respected for it, but God forbids if the Saudi sprinter, Sarah Attar, wanted to race in London and Rio without a headscarf, knowing that she plays in America with shorts and tank tops. People would discuss that Trump is not a Muslim but Attar is, which only strengthens my stand on how the culture is oppressing their people under the name of religion.
As a female who identifies as a Muslim Arab, I believe I am entitled to declare that the men of our culture were indoctrinated by patriarchs from birth. In laymen’s terms, this is what’s wrong with our culture. This is what’s wrong with our society. Calling harassment as the “least of our concerns” above is proper sarcasm because all women’s issues should matter to everyone. Women are not respected for who they are, but for how they look like and how much skin they show. Practicing such behaviours on daily basis has numbed the people’s perspective on how wrong this is. Finally as naively hopeful as that sounds, acknowledging a dire problem is the first step to seeking radical change to help elevate the rank of women in the Arab community.

Published by Nesreen
Your next-door passionate feminist View all posts by Nesreen

“They say home, is where the heart is
but my heart is, wild and free
so am I homeless, or just heartless?

It is believed that all greatest things in life happen unexpectedly, you never predict what turns your world upside down. Our greatest fault is that we think we know what will happen but it has never been that way and it will never be.

I love you, seems about right doesn’t it ? but is it truly what we look for when seeking such emotion?
What if the simple things, things movies and novels don’t highlight, I strongly believe its such things that we should hold on to. Is it possible we have been mislead by all the on screen romance?
Because after a load of experiences, it hits you when you don’t expect it. Its that simple “drive safe”text that made me realize I found home. And after many doubts and long nights of life sucking overthinking I have found home, home is that one person you go back and confide to, home could be the one thing that person says that makes you feel sane even when the world makes you feel like you have lost it, home is the text you get that makes you feel like nothing can break you and that someone actually cares for you in a way a thousand gifts or an I love you would never suffice.

 I found home in her and all the little things she does, one look into her ocean deep eyes are enough to make me invincible and I thank god for her every day I go to sleep knowing what I was blessed with, Home.

Written By: OMN

But you don’t look like you belong here. “
Many years later, after having been told I will always be an outcast in many different ways and languages. Only one thing seemed to always be stuck in my head, where is home?
It became an abstract concept that I no longer had hope in identifying, while everyone around me seemed to be stable about what home is to them, is it family? Is it where you were born? Where you were raised? Where you know most people? All these questions bottled up my head and the powers of overthinking repelled one small thought to one big mess I found myself in.
After years of denial I came to the peak of courage to confront these questions and figure out the answers for myself, and what I found out truly shocked me, I didn’t find answers but I found truth, and truth is never easy to digest.

We were raised in a whole different world than our parents, but they can’t comprehend the knowledge we have and therefore we are blamed for thinking on our own. They pressure us into becoming like them when in reality that’s impossible. And if we dare try to break through the mainstreams they lived on we are considered villains and outcasts that the “internet “has created. When in reality you gave us a great education, how come we are not allowed to use it?
Being from a country and being raised is one another is a whole different loop that complicates the situation a lot more, as a kid you don’t understand politics or jobs, you think about where am I? Who are these people? My education and wide span of knowledge allows me to understand you, but do you understand me?
​
“So here you are
too foreign for home
Too foreign for here
never enough for both”


- to be continued.

Written By:  OMN

For those who have me on my facebook, I believe you guys have already read yesterday’s status, about a very big surprise that will be announced on the 9th of August. Which is today.
Since it means a lot to me, I’ve decided to write a whole blog about it.
I'm really trying to put the time and the maximum effort for this blog. Although I know only a few people read it. I literally know your addresses too….

Here’s the whole story…

It was a very normal day with the family, and just like any family we planned a trip to Taif and went. I was scrolling through my personal IG feed and noticed a post about the makeup company Nars, which says that the brand will start to test on animals due to the fact that they will enter China’s market. It’s obligatory for cosmetics brands in China to test on animals.
It didn’t really matter that much to me, although I am a person that really loves animals, and I really get hurt if anything happened to any kind of it. But, I never really gave it a big thought, and since I ‘am a person that you can call a big carnivore. Meats got to be included in any meal I eat.

Again back to my IG feed, another interesting post that grabbed my attention. It was from Kat Von D, a post with graphic photos of how they test on animals, the results from the tests, and how ashamed she is from Nars.

I couldn’t take it, so I started crying. While I was sobbing my family asked me what’s wrong ? I said about how shocked I am from the photos that I’ve just seen. I showed them the photos, yet my family are carnivores too, to the point where my grandpa is a butcher. My Mom was like, we know that you love animals, but like you still consume them and use Nars products.

I was triggered.

I have always been one of those people who makes fun of vegetarians, and vegans.
I never understood how can people be picky on food.
It never really came to my mind how can they survive without consuming meats, or any animal products.

I was really annoyed from what my mom said, and spoke to my friend about it. He told me that actually rings a bell, didn’t you once say that you would love to be a vegan someday. I was like I said that as a joke, I don’t think I would survive a day, imagine for eternity. He was like okay Asma, I challenge you to go vegan for a month. I said, Woah that’s too much, and it’s really going to be hard for me. Then, I was like I accept the challenge, but instead of Vegan, I will go Vegetarian.

That’s how it all started.
I became vegetarian for a month.
Today is the monthiversary.

The real surprise is, I ‘am planning not to consume meats for eternity.
The month passed by very quickly and I can’t believe that I actually completed the challenge, till the very end.
I'm gonna write in another post, my experience, and pros&cons.