Why Blog?

I need to remove some of the "pages" (or tabs or whatever) from the top of my blog to replace them with more important pages (like job opportunities and calls for papers/submissions, etc.), so I'm gonna go ahead and paste some here to still retain a copy of them. 'Cause I spend hours on these long write-ups, k?

In case it's not obvious already, I love, love, lurrrrve blogging!

This was actually written as a response to Metis' questions on why Muslim feminists blog - or something like that.

What I blog about

Pretty much about anything and everything. No, really, I do. But almost all of what I have to say tends to be controversial, and I'm not someone who enjoys being around the kinda folks who go "you're going to hell." Yes, I am aware of that, and thank God my God didn't put you in charge of hell and heaven! We'd all be screwed then, yes? Believe it: Some of my friends are threatened for being my friends.

Yeah, but mostly, I blog about women/gender, Pashtuns, and Islam because I'm a woman/female, a Pashtun, and a Muslim -- in exactly that order.

Why I blog

In response to a question about why I, a Metis' Blog reader, blog, I said:

I started blogging in 2006, first on Yahoo! 360 where I joined a really exciting Muslim community. I’d never intended to be a blogger and didn’t even know what it was, but I’m known for being talkative and close to bursting because of the millions of ideas always running through my head. A teacher recently told me in response to my frustrations about how difficult it is to have these ideas and to be learning so much and no one who’s willing to listen or no one who understands, “Looks like someone needs to write a novel!” And, so, since then, I’ve started a novel called Smothered.

But, anyway, when 360 broke (shut) down, so did I. I didn’t blog for a couple of years and was always feeling like I was gonna burst. No, really, I still sometimes feel that way because in real life, almost no one gets it, or almost no one’s interested in hearing what I’m learning (about Islam, about women’s rights, about the Quran, about humanity, about the world). So I decided that I need to blog for real and have been doing so non-stop for about two years now.

But, really, I blog because I need to blog; it’s often the only thing that calms my frustrated nerves, and is the best way for me to share my knowledge. Besides this “venting,” of course, it’s also to understand my own self and to allow myself to grow and learn.

I have formed such an amazing network through blogging. I’ve met so many amazing and intelligent people–some I agree with, some I disagree with, some who hate what I write but still read me and some whose posts I hate but still read them and respond because we all need each other’s support, and each of us could use just one more ear. Ultimately, it’s not about how much we agree or disagree with each other; it’s about what we learn from each other, how well we can grow with each other, and how much we can empower each other.

Through blogging, we empower each other (and ourselves), and that’s exactly what my own blogging has done to me. I have developed so much confidence and strength--mostly because I feel like I’m far more well-versed in my fields than I was, say, a year or two ago--that I feel like nothing and no can harm me or bring me down anymore. As far as how it’s helped me as a *Muslim woman*, I have re-discovered myself--and I continue doing so. I have discovered my rights mostly through blogging. Initially, it was people’s “radical feminist” blogs, which really offended me until 2 years ago or so, that drove me to study Islam more deeply. If I didn’t blog, or if I hadn’t started blogging yet, I am sure that I’d have taken a much longer time to discover these same rights. What a waste of several years that would’ve been for me, no?

Why blogging should matter

Blogging connects people in a way, in a “live” way, that no other form of media has done before. I mean, look at us–if it hadn’t been for blogging, would I really have come across any of the folks I've met so far? I may have; perhaps I may have read their books and written a review and published it on my website or something, and they might have come across it. But what would’ve been the chances of their responding to it instantly and then my writing back instantly, and so on? This is extremely important in communication, especially since we get to clear up misunderstandings very quickly and conveniently. The reason I think it’s extremely important that we hear and understand each other, that others hear and understand us, is that that’s one of the fastest ways towards progression. Sure, we can learn all that we do and don’t have to share it with others (because learning shouldn’t be for others; it should first be for ourselves), but when it comes to things like human rights or religions or law, there’s no point in just learning or studying them. We actually need to act upon them, and one way to do that is by sharing with others what we know and discover, and making sure they understand us well so we can form a support group, a healthy community and discuss possible ways to effect positive change.