Tuesday, April 15, 2008

What's with the Crooked Rib?

It’s simple. ‘Crooked’ is a description. A feature. A form.

No.
It’s NOT a defect of creation.
It’s NOT an insult to thinking.
It’s NOT another word for ‘dodgy’.

It’s only a matter of design.
A required design for functioning inside the body.
A required design for protecting a most important organ inside the body… the heart.

A Prophetic tradition in the Muslim faith mentions:

‘Women are created from the rib, which is naturally crooked, and its crookedness is more at the top; if you try to straighten it by force it will break; if you leave it, it will stay as it is. So accept my advice and treat your wives with kindness.’

Contrary to popular belief, ‘crooked’ is just another one of the many ways to simply articulate on a woman’s complexities and expansions of unique personality and temperament. A detail that is by no means regarded in Islam as a way to inferior a woman’s status or thinking to man’s, but rather to explain a normal trait functioning for humanity.

Basically, this tradition is every man’s guide to dealing with women in a just manner without imposing his thinking, or attempting to re-mould her in a manner harsh enough to break her spirit and wounding her heart.

Simply put, it’s how not to try reforming a rib to the degree of breaking it.

We, the women of this project, chose this name for a number of reasons.
Firstly to express our pride in how we were created to function with the other, in unison, whether it be gender, faith, race or else, for a great humanity.

Secondly to use a generic term to join other’s perceptions with ours as a protective function to maintain harmony and reconciliation for our societies.

Finally to express the flaws in the misinterpretations of our faith made by those claiming to hear our case, yet unwilling to hear our voice.

So please…
Crooked, is beautiful.
Crooked, is natural.
Crooked, protects.
Crooked, functions for humanity’s sake.
We are proudly…Crooked Rib.

1 comment:

MGB said...

MashaAllah sisters, liking the mission statement.