It’s been a whirlwind of a week: got stranded in Amsterdam on account of deadly snow, got an article rejected by a magazine (oh, the pain!), baked cupcakes on an industrial scale for charity, and received more support for my film and sexuality discussion project.
But it has also been a really good week for online reading. Some articles hit so close to home – particularly about what it feels like having Britain’s great new idea of identity cards forced down the throats of foreign residents like me. Now, it’s hard enough for me being a non-EU passport holder – from the humiliating amount of scrutiny over my national origins and whereabouts when traveling by air within Europe, the often disheartening job prospects, and of course to the intensely laborious visa applications – with all that and more, it’s hard not feel like I’m not wanted here. The Guardian’s Noorjehan Barmania in her column, This Muslim Life shares my deeply-felt agony:
There are other subtle changes that suggest the long fingers of the government are sneaking into my life. For instance, a few weeks ago came an unusual request. To comply with a Home Office wish to establish the legitimacy of foreign workers, my employer said, everyone had to provide a copy of their passport. If our passport were foreign – South African, in my case – copies of any supporting documentation were necessary to confirm that we were legitimate UK residents.
I dragged my heels, complying under protest, feeling as if I was being watched, and dismayed that it seemed necessary to watch people like me.
This comes at a time when it is possible for me to make an application for British citizenship, but the prevailing climate of suspicion makes me worry. Does Britain really want its foreign immigrants? That slogan “British jobs for British workers” is suddenly everywhere, creating a distinctly xenophobic mood.
Read the rest here.
Courtney at Feministing talks about that dreaded biological clock:
Ever since I saw Marissa Tomei do that bit in my cousin Vinny, “I got a biological clock and it’s ticking like this [stomp stomp stomp]!” I can’t get her out of my head whenever I hear people talk about that mysterious time ticker of fertility. Especially in my early 20s, it seemed mostly comical. Or outrageous–when being used as a fear mongering tactic of folks who wanted women barefoot, pregnant, and too distracted to run the revolution.
Read the rest here.
There are double standards aplenty when it comes to gender and alcohol – which I may write about soon. The recent attack on women in the Indian town of Mangalore is an example of this, writes Poorna Shetty:
As someone who is from Mangalore, and whose family has always enjoyed a good drink (including both grandmothers, and not for “medicinal purposes” either), the double standards in the Asian community has always been puzzling. One rule for the boys, one rule for the girls is surely a dying ideology that began its decline 20 years ago. Now, as British Asian women hold key roles in major corporate organisations and become power players in finance and media, it’s pretty unforgivable.
Read the rest here.
Other noteworthy reads:
Alicia Izharuddin 