Honour & Shame Essay Example for Free

Honour Shame Essay One Sunday morning I was driving my children back from their regular soccer game. It was a warm summer day, sun shining ever so brightly, making the uneven town picturesque. As I drove along in my Holden with rigid brown seats and the windscreen wipers that didn’t work, I looked over to my sixteen year old daughter sitting next to menodding and shaking her head rhythmically to, in her words, ‘legendary’ music band One Direction. An image of Asreen flashed through my mind†¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Kiran?† the voice on my mobile phone was barely more than a whisper. â€Å"Kiran? Is that you?† .The train ride back home was a typical for Friday eveningIt was very busy Friday evening train ride back from work, â€Å"Are you able to speak up a little?† I asked, raising my own voice overagainst loud chatterschatters from fellow passengers and rattling noise from the train. â€Å"I found your number in Indus Age, My † the line went suddenly went dead. Indus Age is a local monthly newspaper. iIt has largest circulation to Indian and South East Asian community in the country. I was interviewed a week ago concerning about my plight with honour based violence. After two years of lengthy legal proceeding over evidence of injury which included tampered medical records I managed to get a divorce. I was sure that such crimeshonour based violence against women was prevalent and practiced behind closed doors, after my divorce I wanted to assist other women in similar situation and have my phone number published in the newspaper. I thought I lost her but then, few minutes later, she was back. â€Å"Sorry I had to hang up I thought someone was coming. My parents are forcing me to marry a 35 year old man who I don’t even know. I am a prisoner in my own house. I can’t take it any longer. I need help.† She stopped for breath. â€Å"Please help me,† she said in a trembling voice. She sounded frantic; it seemed that she was at the mercy of her family. I didn’t know who I was talking to but I knew I had to help. I spoke quickly, â€Å"Can you get out? There are all sorts of help available if you can get out.† I knew from my own experience that if a girl has made up her mind to run she usually finds a way to do it. This woman could be anywhere in the country but she was desperate and I had to reassure her. â€Å"There is help for you,.† I said. â€Å"There are women refuge houses, people to support. I would support you. You’ll be okay.† â€Å"But how†¦Wait, that’s Dad. He’s coming. I have to go† Her phone went dead. I felt anxiousiety, my pulse shot up as I tried as best I could to get on with my daily household choresroutine and parental responsibilities. Later in thethat evening while I was preparing dinner my phone rang again. I tried hard to understand but couldn’t make out anything except the gasping sound panting. I turned off my range-hood and enquired, â€Å"Hello?† â€Å"It’s me, Asreen,† she spoke, her voice penetrating as if she was right next to me. â€Å"I did it, I ran away† â€Å"Where are you?† â€Å"Redfern.† â€Å"Asreen, you have to call the police. DailDial 000† I had put my phone on speaker as I washed my hands. â€Å"No, I don’t want police. My family will never see me again. My community will disown me,† she said claimed almost hysterical. I could imagine why Asreen didn’t want police to be involved. She was in a state of fear and frustration. Her parents who loved her dearly until very recently changed overnight and now consider family’s honour more important than that of their daughter’s well-being and happiness. â€Å"Meet me at Redfern railway station in 45 minutes,.† I said cleaning up my kitchen. â€Å"Please don’t be late,.† she hung up. I called on my children and explained them that I need to go out on an emergency. I drove as fast as I could past the motorway speeding up to maximum limit. I reached Redfern at 8 p.m. it was crowded, people pushing one another to get ahead in line. Few country trains hurried past while the intercity trains stopped at the platform for passengerss dark and deserted. I walked across the automatic ticket machine to find myself staring at a tall slim woman leaning against the closed door humming what I could understand a very popular song. from Justin Beiber. She looked no more than sixteen dressed in a traditional outfit her head was covered in a veil. I caught her eye and she smiled and then waved at me. â€Å"Kiran,† she said enthusiastically. â€Å"Yes.† I walked closer I could see her eyes swollen lips dried smeared make up over her face. I offered her a bottle of water and walked with her to my car. No one spoke, the two minute walk felt like an eternity. Breaking the silence she spoke softly, â€Å"Thank – thank you Kiran. You saved my life. I read your story and only after I spoke to you I found courage to leave my house.† I didn’t know what to say, I was in a state of shock. I felt rage I could barely focus on my driving I wanted to say something. Asreen continued, â€Å"There were bolts on all doors and someone from the family was always home. I didn’t know how to get out. And if I did, where would I go?† We talked about family, food, school, fashion and many other issues on our way back. We talked as if we were best friends and had known each other for many years. I introduced Asreen to my children Maya and Vicky and offered her rice and lamb curry for dinner. It was close to midnight she looked very tired and fell asleep as soon as she sat on the lounge. I imagined her situation; it was her mother who arranged her marriage. She grew up knowing that one day the subject of her marriage would come up but didn’t expect it when she was sixteen. She was one of the smartest girls in her school; she wanted to become a psychiatrist. One day when her parents woke her up and told her that she was going to get engaged Asreen said bluntly, â€Å"But I don’t want to.† For the next few days I enquired at women’s refuge centre, department of community services, legal aid and other community based organisations. What followed was another court proceeding lasting more than 12 weeks. I became Asreen’s foster parent while she continued her education. Later that year Asreen and I started Honour to help other women from South East Asian family facing honour based violenceI sat next to her contemplating on the events of the day. I wanted to help Asreen and reach out to other women in similar situations confronting criticism and oppression from inside their communities and often close family members for not being obedient to the traditional rules set by men for thousands of years. â€Å"Are you alright?† Asreen said waking up suddenly. I realised that I accidentally dropped my glass on the wooden floor breaking it into pieces. â€Å"Why can’t I live like any other sixteen year old girls? Why can’t I have boy-friends like girls from my school?† she cried while cleaning up broken pieces of glass. It was close to two, I was so exhausted I could barely feel any strength in my legs. I could hear Asreen’s voice slowly fading away. With my eyes closed I tried to seek explanation for such acts against own daughter. The issue of status of women is always in question in a patriarchal society. For thousands of years people from Indian sub-continent had considered daughter a painful burden, a potential source of shame to her father. Family is vital principal group and marriage hallowed as sacred. Women are deprived of their freedom and those who rebel or go against the norms faces threat the people of the community so much so that they are even killed for honour. †¦perhaps this comes out as it makes it like a newspaper article, not a narrative. †¦ As we arrived home I hugged my daughter tightly and said with tears running down my cheeks, â€Å"I love you.† The time frame here doesn;’t work, you’ve already taken the story on years but now go back to the present†¦

Imagery In John Donnes The Bro Essay -- essays research papers

Imagery in “The Broken Heart';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Donnes’ poem “The Broken Heart'; is full of imagery, used to portray his broken heart. Donne uses the imagery so we can get a visual picture of what love means to him. He uses the imagery because it’s necessary to see a picture of the pain he lives with. Donne uses several aspects of imagery, including death to show his grief and Donne also does uses despair to display his pain.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The image of death was used throughout the poem. “…Love so soon decays,'; meaning that love so quickly dies. If you cut a flower and do not put it in water it will quickly wither and die. Another image of death would be the plague. A plague is a widespread disease that causes thousands of people to die. The plague is also synonymous with suffering. Donne writes that he has “had the plague a year,'; by writing this Donne has been deathly ill for what he thinks is a year. Love, to Donne is something that you think about for a long time so, therefore, it seems that you have loved someone for that long but in reality it is only a short period of time. According to Donne, love is very powerful and causes the widespread destruction to thousands.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Donne also uses the image of despair and depression. In the second stanza, he says “Ah, what a trifle is a heart, if once into lo...

Global human power Essay

Most of the victims in the novel were Frankenstein’s family, William, Henry, Justine and Elizabeth. These people all suffered due to the creature’s anger from Frankenstein’s original neglect, which is what begun the hatred in the creature. It is not fair to view the creature as a human, as he was artificially created he has no human morals and has never been taught the difference between right and wrong, in the same sense that a court would never convict a baby. Although the creature did manage to master human language skills, it only pushed him further away from society as it allowed him to express his alien nature. We can see this in the novel when the creature put his hand into a fire, because the colours and heat of the fire attracted him † I thrust my hand into the live embers but quickly drew it out again with a cry of pain†. The creature was a victim in the way that he was uneducated of the world before he â€Å"stepped into it†. Elizabeth can easily be portrayed as a hero in the novel as she represented a â€Å"saintly soul† and a â€Å"living spirit of love†. This lets her down however, when she attempts to save Justine in a religiously Christian based way, which was not successful. Although viewed as a hero she doesn’t contain any power over other characters, just a good heart. There is controversy over whether Frankenstein could be viewed as a hero or not, as a cowardly attribute is certainly not a trait of a true hero. When the monster asked him to create a companion for him, he said no as this would enables the creatures to breed and possibly take over global human power. On the other hand he could have spared his family a lot of trouble if he had just created another being who could have possibly shown the love and understanding the creature needed. Frankenstein later realises this when he says â€Å"For the first time, I felt what the duties of a creator towards his creature were, and that I ought to render him happy before I complained of his wickedness†. Elizabeth, Frankenstein’s wife, was also a hero as she managed to bring up everyone’s spirits at sad times, and she continually believed in Justine’s innocence. This particular genre creates a need for both heroes and villains, as it is usually the case of good trying to overpower evil, or vice-versa. To conclude, I believe that there are heroes and villains, as well as victims in this novel. Most of the characters seem to change from villains, heroes and victims throughout the novel, especially the creature and Frankenstein. In my belief the creature was made to be the victim from the opening of the novel as he was neglected, uneducated and ostracised. I believe Frankenstein could have changed everything if he had befriended the creature in the first place. On the other hand Frankenstein was also an isolated individual, although his isolation from society was brought on himself. The novel shows the shallowness of people in society by showing what the monster had to endure because of his appearance, as well as the moral irresponsibility of Frankenstein as a scientist. Frankenstein was always the villain deep down as he attempted to play God, which I don’t think should be attempted by any human being. He was obsessed with the fact that he could create life, but never once to considered if it was the right thing to do. I think Shelley is basing the whole novel on, not what Frankenstein actually did, but what he fails to do.  The way the creature is portrayed in 3rd person narrative allows us to see the creature as a hero, villain and a victim. I believe that the creature viewed Frankenstein as a father figure and was mentally tortured when his own creator neglected him. He had nothing to live for, except revenge.

Is Modern Hip Hop Music - 965 Words

Within the last two decades, young Native Americans have chosen to express themselves through the lyrical broadcast that is modern hip hop music. Not many substantial records of Native American Hip Hop exist before the founding of popular internet websites such as RedHipHop.com. RedHipHop went up on the internet in 1999 and disappeared in 2003. The web site connected users with hip hop blogs and downloadable MP3s. (RED HIPHOP) Soon after, NativeHipHop.net went up and began to gain traction. Due to the increasing adoption of the internet and hosting sites like YouTube, NativeHipHop has held a long record of frequent visitors and consistent updates. For example, on November 4th 2014 NativeHipHop.net was updated with a new song representing the Cree Nation. (Native Hip Hop.net) This song features multiple artists of both genders and illustrates a narrative about their lives. The song received over 8000 page views in the first two weeks of being online. 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