I really enjoyed the film Arranged. i thought that it was a great introduction to their topic, East mets West. I really liked how these two women met and interacted with eachother. i thought that the principal at the school was a great example of western culture and how we sometimes look at the East. i liked how one of the women left her house beause her mom was driving her crazy about her arranged marriage. i thought that it was great how she went to her cousins house and asked her what she thought. the cousin could not live in her house anymore because of her family, so she went of and lived the way she wanted to. she became westernized, wearing what she watned, saying what she wanted, and lived the way she watned. She then invited her cousin to a party to have her see what it was like. i new that she was going to feel awkward and out of place and unconfortable. i think that this was a wake up call for her that life at home is not all bad. i think that she appreciated her culutre more because of the party.
i loved the activity that the two women did in their class about allowing and knowing others differences and to be accepting of them. i believe that this shows students not to judge because you are different. i really enjoyed this film! great Start GROUP!!

Last week our class finished reading "Memed, My Hawk". Our class had a discussion about this book. This book was about a boy whose family is being starved and punished by a controlling landowner. He then ends up killing the landowner and his nephew. The boy goes to his uncle and tells him that he needs to tell him something. The boy confessed to his uncle that he had killed them, and his uncle was happy and proud of his nephew. PROUD? killing someone. i do understand that this man was a very mean landowner but killing?? nobody has the right to kill. the boy is then has no other option but to live in the mountain side becoming a brigand
when i think of an outlaw i think of the tv show Bonanza. this is an old tv show that takes place out west in Texas. the people have guns and horses, bandannas.

The guest speaker, Professor Mustafa Mirzeler was very useful and different. He talked more about the history with the Middle East( Turkey) and related it to his personal life living there which i thought was very great and something that we could see and relate too it was almost something that we could visually see, and i am a big hands on observing learner. i liked how Mr. Mustafa told us that the book memed My Hawks author was from his home village and how the story takes place in his village. i also like how he told us how his town was labeled as a poor village, but he said that he never felt poor, he always had food and clothing.Another part that i liked was how he said that mulberry trees were the important/deciding factor when deciding where to live. The question that you would ask when you wanted to claim the land was "how many mulberry split here?" When Mr. Mustafa said that he does not want to go back to his home land because it would sadden him i felt sad. Everyday everything around us changes, Everything has to be better than before!

Next Mr. Mustafa talked about the honor killings.He said that Honor is very important. To me i think of my name and what it stands for. My name reflects on my whole family. So if i do something wrong my whole family will suffer from it because we all share the same name. Another thing that he talked about was how family members get forced into killing.. FORCED??? You are not forced to do anything. It is up to you whether you do something or not!! i look at little children and how peer pressure plays such a huge part in their lives. i thought it was sad how if you did not go through with the killing then the townspeople would go and take your family/women and rape them...HOW Cruel!!! What a great community! The last thing that caught my attention was how he explained how he was supposed to do an honor killing on his own sister.WHAT!! How sad! how much pressure for a 10 year old...you dont want to disobey your father but its your sister.you love them both what do u do?? i wonder what he would have done?? i couldn't do it, i know that!! my family is so close, my siblings are my best friends! i am so glad that God opened another door for that family!

In class we watched a video called Women on the front line. This video was very disturbing and to me is very wrong.This movie was about honor killings. killing people for honor is just not right. Killing is killing. murder is murder. You are still taking a life. When they went to go look for the young girls grave i thought that it was very sad how they could not even find where she was buried. How sad! i cold not even think of the thought of killing any one in my family. i love my family.Yes we sometimes get into fights or maybe they might disappoint me or i might even disappoint them but going and killing them or they killing me is way to extreme and out of the question, way out there. Family is always there for u no matter what happens. And why is it only women that are killed?

i just finished watching the movie Paradise Now. This film was very interesting. I myself have negative views on martyrs. I do not like how martyrs say how it is Gods will.. God does not want us to commit suicide. This is considered a sin! How do they think that committing suicide is considered being heroic or courageous. to me committing suicide is the cowardly way because that person does not want to deal with life and its struggles. Another thing that i do not understand is how martyrs or people in the middle east are mad and angry with the system and then go and commit suicide and kill others with them inst that the same thing as what they are mad about to me this is considered as being a hypocrite " do as i say not what i do" How does their idea of settling something better than what they are mad about? Why end your life trying to make the world better and thinking that when you do commit suicide that things will change. If things change don't you want to live through the change.There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. When i think of martyrs the first thing that comes to my mind is 911..All of those innocent people died so that the martyrs could make a point. i am just so lucky that no one i new was in the building or the planes. i thank God everyday that i am alive and living. I live life to the fullest each and every day because i know that is what God wants me to do!

The two short stories we had to read were interesting and made me think. The family was so mad and swore threat the wife robbed them of their legal rights. It seemed that the family was made because their father married a younger woman which i think that i would be a little worried to.I think that it was sad that the father was bribing to divorce his wife if they went to get a lawyer. When a family gets a divorce are you looked down upon? i think that it is sad that the dad and the brother fought so much. How the dad spit in his sons face,and how the brother threw something at his father drawing blood. Me and my family sometimes have our arguments and disagree on something but i dont think that i could throw something at my family. How sad that the dad called the police and the brother was taken to jail and then died a year later. To me Family should not turn on one another. you should stick together. After the dad passed away the family was just worried about where the dad had the key to the cupboard so that they could get their inheritances. I believe that money can tare a family apart everyone wants their fare share. i liked how the end when the daughter saw the women who "Stole" their fortune and how she was not mad she simply said "i remember you...perhaps you remember me?"

I finished reading Gold Dust! To be honest i did not know what to expect when reading the first couple of paragraphs, but as i kept reading i became interested and could not put it down. In the book i liked how Ukhayyad and his piebald camel had so many adventures together. i also liked how Ukhayyad related so much of his life to God and if God was testing him. Ukhayyad i feel knew that good would come out of any situation he was in because of his faith. i am a christian i believe that God tests us everyday and puts many challenges in our paths in life we just need to have patients and know that everything happens for a reason and have faith and this is what i believe Ukahayyad had. i liked how Ukhayyad and his camel were there for each other in the desert. i also like how this book was descriptive like in the desert. To me this shows the truth and the reality of life in the desert and how hard it is live in the desert.i did not like the ending! I almost cried when they had the piebald camel. i thought to myself, Ukhayyed and his camel had been through so much and the men were killing him/ torturing him. i think for my next paper i am going to write about either life in the desert and the struggles that are present in peoples lives or about how when Ukahayyad received the camel when he entered manhood so what boys have to do to enter into man hood or maybe both..