Most of my day Monday morning was spent reading over handbooks, educational material, newsletters and whatnot (honestly it was pretty boring). Later in the day after a chat with my supervisor I began to work on one of their projects called Faith and Fashion. Here is the main objection of this project.
"This project is a powerful stepping-stone in enabling young Muslim women to demonstrate their understanding of and commitment to Islam, which they will pass on to future generations – through their own families, community leadership and engagement with wider society. It will help them shape how future generations understand British Muslim identities, helping others to make informed choices about their appearance. The publicity for this project will help shift the public discourse on Islamic women’s clothing to one of Muslim women’s leadership within the community. "
I am currently adding on to the work that one of their past interns had started by looking into Muslim fashion that have walked the run way and the clothing history that Muslim women have worn. My main assignment for day two had been to research fashion and clothing from the Abbasid period. I examined particular aspects of clothing from fabrics, dyes and cuts used in particular garments and from certain types of individuals. For example I found out that it was typical of dancers to wear garments made out of materials of silk or cotton in shades of green, red or pink.
On Tuesday I also had the opportunity to visit Our Lady's Convent High School for an educational secession. The topic for today was Image, Modesty and Clothing. The students break into three groups and read Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts on the topic and then have a short discussion with a speaker from each of the religions. This being a christian/catholic school (and their last day) it was quite surprising to me how open all of the girls were to ask questions. For many of them it was based off of the words they were given. In one group we were examining a Jewish text from proverbs and it said "Fear in the Lord" in conjunction with how a woman should live their life. Many students questioned this. It seemed like a few of the students were ignorant to the fact that many of the holy texts have been translated quite a few times before they could read it in English and thus certain passages and words have a different meanings and connotations. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and one of the students said that she liked my accent :) which almost made my day.
What make my day was that I got to ride in a CAR. For the past two weeks now I have really been missing cars and knowing the fact that i cannot drive for a while. But prior to leaving the school the Jewish speaker Hazel asked if anyone needed a life and Claire (the TFF leader) and I said that we would love one to the nearest underground. While the drive was only 10 minutes it may have been the best 10 minutes that I have had here thus far. Oh and the other thing is that I found out that the next Harry Potter film will come out in a little over two weeks...eek!
No comments:
Post a Comment