Answers,

Now, though, I'm in the questions mood. ask me anything, signed, unsigned, private whatever..... I don't think you guys could come up with something that I won't answer....

Myssk asks: *paraphrasing* Muslim?? Did you grow up outside of the US or something??

Nope, nope, nope. Boy - how to run through this one....I was born in Washington DC, and lived there until I was five. My mother embraced Islam when I was two, and from two until *thinks* 18, I was about as Muslim as you could get. She got married when I was five, and - honestly, I dug the dude until I hit about 11/12 or so. From then until 15, when she divorced the bum for the third (and in Muslim fatwah/law FINAL) time, I hated his guts with a deep burning fiery passion. He - my mother allowed him to turn her into a meek little mousy woman, who couldn't take care of herself, and didn't believe in herself or her own intelligence. Gah. Anyhow. At 15, I started school for the first time, and after my first year, told my mom that I wasn't Muslim anymore. I wouldn't reconcile who I was and who I wanted to be with the strictures of the religion as I grew up in it. I know, most likely better than most people, how the spirit of a faith can be corrupted into a law, but - it was the law that was the faith I knew, not the spirit. And that faith was - misogynistic, violent, and quite shamelessly patriarchial - no real suprise for a Middle Eastern faith, but - I felt that if I remained Muslim, I would be commiting a worse sin of hypocrisy than if I abandoned the faith altogether. Me & my mom came to an 'agreement' that I would still wear the outer symbols of the faith (headpiece and long skirts/pants, long sleeves) until I graduated.

The day after my high school graduation, I took off the headpiece, and wore a short skirt and a tank top in public for the first time in my life. It felt strange as HELL, but - I got over it pretty quickly.  Any remaining signs that I was once Muslim?  *thinks* I still hum a few arabic songs, I still Salaam folx who I know are Muslim, and I kinda keep track of when Ramadan is. Other than that? *shakes head* I know that I've been shaped by the faith, but I couldn't possibly put my finger on what things are a part of me that I wouldn't be if I hadn't been Muslim. *laugh* Except - I might not want to be a midwife, funnily enough.