22 October 2005

Welcome!


Welcome to my blog. It is meant to be the story of my stay in Gaza, and of course inevitably my thoughts and feelings about my life and life in general. First, let me introduce myself. My name means ‘Faith’ and I choosed that name for myself ten years ago, when I embraced Islam. Many people have over the years asked my ‘why’ I became a muslim, and there is of course a long and detailed story, which I’m gonna spare you all from, but in short it is because my parents raised me to be kind, honest and generous and when I came to a point in my life that I realized that there was “something out there” Islam seemed the most logical choice for me. The way Islam described God was really the way I already felt.

I am a Swedish woman, who was born and raised in Gothenburg, then at age thirteen moved to a smaller city called Trollhättan and after my graduation I flew out the nest and moved to my favorite city in the whole world; Stockholm. My whole family still live on the west coast, which is well know for it’s beautiful nature. I’ve just turned thirty and I love it. Can I finally be considered an adult now? Me and my husband just celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary this summer and together we share three lovely and stubborn children.

Why are we now in Gaza? Well, this is of course my husband’s home country. Even though he left it by his own choice after his graduation, he have ever since then, more or less, been dreaming of returning one day. As you all know ‘dreaming’ is never done in a realistic manner. Returning to Gaza is the hardest thing we’ve ever done, as you will find out through this blog. The other reason is that we both wanted to raise our children in an Islamic environment, but that environment, in my opinion, does to my disappointment not exist here. At least not in the way that I was looking for.

As I’ve been “blogging around” I realize already at this point that this blog could be heavily commented upon and therefore I would like to make a few things clear from the beginning. Even though I consider this land to be ‘Palestine’ I do realize the complexity of the situation between Israel and Palestine. I don’t believe in black or white solutions. I don’t support Hamas or any one of the extremist groups. I also don’t support the way the State of Israel occupy and oppress the Palestinian people. I have come to learn first hand why Gaza is called the world’s largest prison. However, this blog is not meant to be political. I just want to share what it's like to live in Gaza City, from my point of view.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fascinating! I moved from Israel to Canada with my my 4 years old Daniel and can relate to so many things you describe; the constant search for home, the adjustment period (although yours seem pretty quick :). Only the Rafah story made me realize how easy it actually was for me...

Anonymous said...

assalam aalikom
yes sadly , we really lack to many islamic manners here in Gaza strip , which we missed. I really think no palestinian group is totaly good , alhamdulilah .. i support no one of them but that doesnt mean , that i accept this hard life which we have , due to the criminal occupation to our land . many things to say , but no time . insha'Allah till another time! by the way , this is Abdallah again
wassalam aalikom