Mirror Mirror on the Wall…

Okay, I am seriously tired of talking about this. But I cant help it, every where I turn to lately, I find references to it.

For my honours research I studied concepts of beauty in the Muslim Indian society. Its safe to say that Muslim Indians have a F#&$* up view of beauty. The dichotomy of Light and Dark, is the same as Good and Evil. Because we associate the one with the other.

The problem is, that MI’s (Muslim Indians) describe each other as ‘Fair’, ‘Light’ and those words is never far from (please whisper when you say this) ‘Beautiful’ if they have a lighter complexion or skin colour than other MI's. Which for most people it is automatically associated with being good. I’m not going to type out my whole thesis, so if you want to read it, let me know I’ll send you a copy.

But my real issue is with Snow Whites parents. I mean, what were they thinking?!? Did they not realise that by wishing for a girl, with skin as white as snow, and rosy cheeks and pitch black hair that they were changing the very essence of beauty for all eternity. Have you ever seen a really dark girl on the cover of cosmo? You did? Well, let me phrase it differently. Have you ever seen a really dark girl on cosmo, that is not African, or one of the only two really dark famous African super-models out there??

After reading Azra’s blog, there are a couple of things that I don’t understand about people. Why do we associate skin colour with culture? Why do we confuse culture and religion? And MI’s are the worst! These three concepts are so confused in society. They affect each other, but they are not the same thing. The concept of Race is a phalicy, because it was justified by biological factors that at they time, those people didn’t fully understand. Religion and Culture - the whole world even the academic community seems to misinterpret. It is NOT the same thing. We don’t get married in Indian Church. We get married in a mosque, or church etc. We get married in front of Allah (God). Your morals and values should be from your religion. The MI’s should be looking for people who display Muslim values. Not someone who know the traditions of the Ghaam. Cultural laws can be learned. But people don’t realise that culture is constantly changing. Religion stays the same because it is defined by a specific set of laws. Culture is how we interpret those laws!!

There is nothing wrong with Culture…I like it. But when who I am, is judged on my skin colour, I want to build a time machine and go back to the very man who wrote Snow White, and cut off his hands!!

FYI – being ‘fair’ does not make you beautiful! Being from a higher Ghaam, then other people does not give you easy access to Jannah! We will be judged by who we are, what we do and not by mortals.

The mirror we see ourselves in, is important, but we don’t realise that it really is a one-way mirror. What we reflect to ourselves, the world watches. It is for this reason that our own perception of beauty needs to change so that the world's perception can.