Well, first off, I've yet to think of myself as a "woman." I'm still in that "young adult" stage, though "20-something" is starting to fit more and more...
But, it seems at many of the discussions I've been to, the talk has revolved around "us women."
The first example is the Women's Leadership Program. (We are having our final reception tomorrow.) At lunch for about five weeks, we chatted about the leadership qualities of women versus men, nature versus nurture, and, of course, the oppression of women.
The next example, which I mentioned yesterday, is my participation in an Islamic Feminism class. Women's rights are a daily topic, and this week, a internationally-known feminist theorist Leila Ahmed came to Doha to give some talks.
Yesterday, she presented a slightly dry presentation on female activists in North America. I personally just wanted to hear about her and her theories!
Today, my class, in addition to Student Affairs staff and other women from CMU-Q, were invited to a women-only dinner. I sat at her table, and she wanted to hear all about us. So the students at the table went around, talking about our majors, our hometowns, and having a little chat.
After the first course, the question-and-answer period started, bringing up diverse topics such as purity and sexuality, quest for identity, the return to the hijab, and why some women become activists.
One of the questions was about having a Pope-like figure for Islam. "More patriarchy?" was basically Dr. Ahmed's reply to that one. Then there was the question of identity: "I'll let you know when I figure it out, but it hasn't happened yet!"
On a different note, it dawned on me that not only are my final projects due in five weeks, but I am ending school in Qatar in five weeks! I've been doing a good job of reflecting throughout the semester, but it is still a shock to think that these people could be thousands of miles (and kilometers) away from me for the rest of our lives. I don't even know how to think about that. Human minds can't comprehend "a thousand miles!"
I'm starting up my Community Adviser duties for next year, e-mailing my staff and networking with the housefellows back in Pittsburgh. Now that I've been so disconnected for a quarter (a
"Qatar quarter", as it were), I need to get back in the loop fast!
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