I’ve been meaning to post about this for so long but where is the time these day? Holidays are here and how wonderful it is to be around the children sans school and madressah rush. Gym is going along very well but the creche will be closed for the next couple of weeks so will need to do evening sessions and that means having to negotiate my way around big burly men who hog machines. Actually they hog the entire free weight section as well which is just so dang annoying. The women-only section has only a few standard machines and that’s pretty full up in the evenings too (obviously since the men are HOGGING EVERYTHING ELSE.)
Certification for Hand in Hand parenting is going along swimmingly alhamdulillah. Have made some huge progress my connection with my children and surprisingly have noticed a huge difference in my adult relationships, too.
So now all that is out of the way:
Achelois posted recently on an incident where a friend tricked her into eating camel meat all the while knowing that Achelois did not eat it. I commented on how awful it was for her and added a few excuses for her friend – maybe this was a way of showing Achelois that camel meat was really not that bad.
Her reply (and I will post it here in its entirety because it’s just that good)
Tasmiya, she knew well I don’t eat rabbit and cammel. We had that conversation ages ago and even then she had insisted that it was very tasty. I’m offended and will show her that by not talking to her for some time so she understands that in my culture what she did was in appropriate.
Like Abu Sinan so well said, what we put in our bodies is a very private matter.
She’s right. Achelois did everything possible so as not to offend her friend. She did what was culturally appropriate, culturally acceptable and culturally good manners. It’s not much that she ask the same of her friend. In Achelois’ culture, it’s rude and insensitive to trick someone into eating something they do not usually eat. Reading the post again (and I can’t believe I missed this part before) here is the real insult:
If that wasn’t enough, she then asked me if I wanted to make abolution with her since we had all eaten camel meat!
So knowing how awful and obviously UNCLEAN Achelois would feel after finding out the truth, her friend jokingly tells her they should what? Go and perform wudhu together? Woah, now that’s pretty nasty.
Thank you for this post, Tasmiya!
I have come to learn (rather late!) that in some Eastern cultures it is not offensive to trick someone into eating what they don’t like. In the end everyone gets to laugh about it including the victim.
My Filipino maid mentioned after my camel meat eating episode that people are always doing this in her country. No one minds. I also recalled that when I got married my husband didn’t like any Indian/Pakistani food and I remember my father’s cousins pushing ‘kheer’ into his face and saying “treat it like it is custard”!
I think I took the whole thing very seriously but I’m happy because it taught my friend that you have to understand that not everyone will accept your cultural practical jokes.
I do find camel meat very unclean and unhealthy. In Arab societies a pregnant woman is not allowed to eat even a mouthful of camel meat. What if I was pregnant and she didn’t know? I feel if it is that dangerous or unhealthy then there must be something wrong about it so why should I be forced to eat it?
i agree with the post completely.i dont eat red meat.i just dont.i never have.and i dont drink tea either.i can stand it if somebody will try to make me drink tea(may be because it is herbal and all)but never meat.and if somebody tries to do something naughty,i would be really upset.