I've shifted! (Again)

The absolute last time.

I promise.

 

Find me on:

http://www.twofatcatz.wordpress.com

Enjoying His Little Kingdom

Sometimes I like to experiment with my camera and often the subjects are my cats.

My cat Bubloo enjoying his outdoor time.

I love his majestic pose!

 

My cats enjoying their outdoor cat enclosure

Hi all!

I recently made a video of my cats enjoying their outdoor cat enclosure  I recently got built for them.

My black coloured male Angora is very territorial and tends to get into a lot of fights with other street cats which would end up numerous trips to the clinic. To nip the problem in the bud, I built them this so they could be outdoors but still be safe.

Recently, I adopted the grey Persian from bin kitty collective and both of them love their outdoor house.

I have a Canon7d that I normally take photographs with but I've been told it is also excellent for videography so I've been testing my skills and these cats make purrfect subjects.

Enjoy!

Women in the UAE state their case on the Niqab

Lo and behold the Niqab furor has risen again. It always amazes me that such a tiny piece of cloth has the ability to cause international headlines and can be a cause of national concern in some countries. More than, say, like tackling human trafficking or issues of unemployment apparently.

I was recently interviewed for a segment in the National - an Abu Dhabi based newspaper by Mitya Underwood on what I thought about wearing the Niqab / face-veil considering that I've been veiling for several years. I was glad because whenever the issue of Niqab rises up, the important voices of Muslim women who wear the face-veil are missing.



Read on at:

‘My niqab, and why I wear it’: Women in the UAE state their case as global debate rages

Employment Opportunities at CPJ for budding Journalists

CPJ - Commitment to Protect Journalists has an excellent oppurtunitiy for current students or recent graduates of Journalism. I would have applied for this but firstly I don't have a US visa or the paper work to work in the U.S and I don't know how they would perceive someone wearing the face-veil.

But, if you do have the above qualifications I'd recommend applying for this. I personally really love the work they're doing and having the opportunity to work for them would be a career opener for any Journalist.

From their website:

Steiger Fellow

The Committee to Protect Journalists is seeking a qualified individual for the Steiger Fellow program. The six-month fellowship, established to honor Paul Steiger, will start on September 16, 2013.

The ideal candidate will be a current college student, recent graduate, or early career journalist with an interest in projects related to freedom of expression and the press. The Steiger fellow will carry out an independent project on press freedom while supporting CPJ staff and working on a variety of topics. This is a paid position and reports to the Senior Program Coordinator.

Steiger chaired CPJ from July 2005 to June 2011 and continues to serve on CPJ's advisory board. He is currently the executive chairman of ProPublica. He is also the former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal.
Primary duties and responsibilities:

• Supports staff with researching and documenting press freedom violations.
• Communicates regularly with international journalists and human rights activists.
• Researches and writes on topics related to international press freedom issues.
• Maintains research files.
• Reviews domestic and foreign news publications.
• Assists in CPJ's international advocacy efforts.
• Assists in organizing events and preparing travel logistic arrangements.
• Supports program staff in administrative duties, including database management and general office support.

Qualifications:

• Knowledge of international press and human rights issues.
• Ability to work both independently with supervision and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment.
• Completion of at least two years of college or university.
• Excellent English writing and reporting skills.
• Proficiency in a U.N. language (French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, or Arabic) a plus.
• Exceptional research skills and attention to detail.
• Knowledge of Internet free expression issues is desirable.
• Comfortable working with databases.
• Ability to work on a variety of projects and to prioritize.

International students with proper authorization to work in the United States are encouraged to apply. Please email a resume, cover letter, references, and a one-page proposal on a specific press freedom-related project to jobs@cpj.org by August 2, 2013.

No phone calls, please.

Ramadan Charity Initatives - UAE 2013

Here are a few charity initatives that will be popping up during Ramadan this year: (Check back for updates)

AdoptACamp

Ramadan Care Packages for Labourers

Venue: Sheikh Rashid Hall, Dubai World Trade Centre

Date & Timings:
24th July, 12pm - 7pm &
25th July, 6pm - 11pm

You can also sponsor: 

"Please give donations in monetary form or by donating items. Please see if your company can sponsor bulk Care Packages, changing the lives of hundreds of labourers at once. Procuring at wholesale prices, same as previous times, each complete package will cost around 125 Dhs. Every little bit counts. 500 Dhs is enough to make complete Care Packages for 4 men!"

Click here for more details and how you can help.

Flea4Charity

Labor Camp Iftars

HSBC 

Food packing for needy families 

Korean food in Dubai

Globalisation has done wonders for us. You can find Asian cuisine in the heart of the Arab world. 

Recently my latest form of escapism has become Korean dramas. Simply put: they're entertaining. Being a foodie I ended up playing close attention to what the characters in my drama constantly ate and I was introduced to Korean food so I set out to search for Korean food in Dubai. 

You can find almost any cuisine in Dubai with such a large multi-cultured population. I finally found an  Asian cuisine restaurant with authentic Korean, Thai and Japanese food hidden near Al Ghurair. It was called: Shogun. 

I was really excited about experiencing a new cuisine as I'd never eaten korean food before and I was also happy about finally eating the food some of the characters in the dramas that i've watched eat so enthusiastically. 

My friend and I ordered Udong, Kimbap and Saewoo Jeon. Simply put: it was amazing. We had Kimchi in the starters and I didnt like it as much as i'd thought I would but the main courses were great and not as pricy. 

Starters

Fried shrimp in Egg batter - Saewoo Jeon

Seafood Udong

Rice cakes with shrimp and beef - Kimbap

Repost from Muslim Matters: Sex MashaAllah | Muslim Vignettes on Female Sexuality

Sexuality in Islam is usually a very culturally sensitive issue with frank discussions on it being very rare. Although Islam teaches us that there is no shyness when learning about matters related to the religion, cultural taboos make it difficult. 

MuslimMatters discusses a very important topic on the issue of female sexuality in Islam in a manner that I really liked. I feel that this issue is important considering the level of divorce going up among Muslim communities and unhappy marriages. Also, usually on this subject cultural views are given more priority and islamic facts go unread. However we tend to forget that Islam is a religion that encompasses everything and therefore there is no haya - shyness when it comes to matters of religion. 

"Blessed are the women of the Ansar (citizens of Madinah), shyness did not stand in their way for seeking knowledge about their religion." [Bukhari & Muslim]

Sex MashaAllah | Muslim Vignettes on Female Sexuality

(Below is an exercpt; click on the link above to read the whole article)

Disclaimer- this post is meant for a mature audience only as it contains sexually explicit material.

Many men and women in our communities live under the illusion that only men feel desire or have an interest in being sexual, and that women should not or cannot feel attraction, do not experience sexual pleasure, and can live healthy intimate lives without sexual satisfaction for lengthy periods of time.  This leads to misunderstandings and disappointments about wanting sex, initiating intimacy, and/or feeling excitement when sexual stimulation occurs.

This series of articles contains the perspectives of several Muslim women at different stages of life who have grown up and lived in different parts of the world, East and West, and want to share some insights with Muslim men – both married and unmarried – who don't want sexually repressed, bitter spouses and failing marriages.  This is a look behind the scenes to aid understanding of a universal social issue. For the sake of privacy, each writer is identified only by her marital status. May Allāh bless all of us with loving, passionate, and fulfilling intimate lives.

Anti-Niqab activism in Tunisia

I came across this linked video on You Tube. The video is an effort by an anti-Niqab activism group EgaliteParite in Tunisia which is protesting against women wearing Niqab.

What I thought was a bit silly though is the automatic assumption that women who wear the niqab / face-veil are forced. Secondly, it took me a while to overcome the fact that there are people calling themselves anti-Niqab activists considering the Niqab / Face-veil is a cloth worn my Muslim Women to cover their faces for reasons of modesty / culture / religion. Don't they have other things to protests against in Tunisia? Or call for reform for say, education? Why is the Niqab such an important factor for people to dedicate their lives into seeing its removal?

It is a bit hypocritical though as these people who advocate banning the Niqab are taking away the choice of women who choose to wear it, just like I and thousands of women who do so. These same activists group claim to champion "women rights" are in fact, enforcing on other women their own beliefs.

Instead of showing the face-veil in such a degrading manner, steps should be taken to promote tolerance and understanding among communities. Religious discrimination is still discrimination and the world should not turn their head the other way simply because they might not understand the practice or don't know what it means for women who are forced to remove their face-veils.

Snippets from Ibn Al Jawzi: Disciplining the Soul

I have started reading a book by Ibn Al Jawzi: Disciplining the Soul. To be honest, I haven't touched anything spiritually uplifting in a while because of my busy schedule and while browsing some books I had I came across this so I picked it up.

Ibn Al Jawzi was an amazing scholar and I'm very fond of reading his works. This book starts of by discussing the idea of excess desires and I thought I'd post it here:

First and foremost I feel that this book is speaking directly to me. Sometimes I've caught myself doing things like eating too much or some other activity which is in fact in excess when I could be doing something more productive. Like sitting in front of the laptop for too long doing nothing but browsing the internet when I could be reading a productive book.