My Reflection

Women rights. In the religion of Islam. Something so simple to understand; yet something so easy to have false beliefs about. This is an issue that needs to be regarded. So in trying to make this world a better place, I created a website to attack the most believed misconceptions on Muslim women.

The duration of my research I have learned things that I wasn't even intending to research about. I learned more about the rules and regulations of Islam that support the peaceful life of a Muslim woman, not oppressing their lives at all. The main concept I learned was everything is a choice. Nothing is forced at all, which is a major misconception on the lives of us women. A visual that I thought was an important one was about the hijab the Muslim women wear to cover themselves: Mary, mother of Jesus, I had found, also wore the hijab. I felt this to be a strong visual because it represented modesty, and was able to support my advocation project. I was searching in Google Images for the perfect picture, and this portrait of Mary fitted well.

Coming up with this topic of misconceptions of women in Islam, I first thought, how would I make this an interesting advocation... Then I realized, there are so many ideas that I am able to present and explain to my audience. I started feeling more comfortable with my topic, because while working on this project, I realized I will enjoy presenting my matter.

In my website, I took the top three misconceptions of women in Islam: 1. We are forced to wear a hijab; 2. We have limited rights, and; 3. We have a destination of being a housewife for life. I can understand why people think of Muslim woman in that behavior: the media has an enormous influence on what people believe. I am strongly willing to advocate against the false beliefs on Muslim women in this world. A thought that had come to mind while working on this was, do I sound too serious? Islam is a really tense topic these days, and there is always an atmosphere of awkwardness when Islam is being discussed. I just want everyone to be comfortable with what I say and present. Presenting this topic, I hope that I could change any negative beliefs or thoughts that someone may have, and having created my website, I am proud that I am sending a message throughout the world.

http://sites.google.com/site/misconceptionsonthemuslimwoman/

My Action of Advocating

Everyone has something they feel passionate about, whether it's for change, improvement, or the cease of an action. Something that I would advocate for is improving the disappearance of misconceptions against Muslim women in the world . Living in America, I have grown up with misconceptions that I have not realized were misconceptions until I was older. Being a Muslim, I have had misconceptions against myself. I strongly feel for this. I want to advocate for the awareness of Muslim women and our rights.
The way I would bring this about is through media: making posters/designs on billboards that depict a misconception, but showing against its' being a misconception. My audience is older teenagers and adults. I would work with a team, or individually if I have to, and compose illustrations for solving misconceptions. Another way I would try and prove misconceptions wrong is taking this case to radio shows. There are many discussions on various topics over the radio, and it's a great way to communicate to people throughout the world, letting them hear what is needed to be heard about misconceptions. Doing radio shows is something I feel confident about because I have an uncle that was recommended to participate in a radio talk-show about gay rights. So if my uncle made it to the radio about a strong topic, I believe I can too, and hope for change.

*My Screenshot*

I love music and art. Although this painting isn't too much of a good one... When capturing this screenshot, I wasn't sure if it was one that I wanted. However, I left it to be.. This screen shot was taken while watching Lady Gaga's Just Dance. It is a song that I enjoy listening and moving to. When there are a lot of things on my mind, I usually scribble or compose something, ANYTHING, on paint. It's a good way for me to just...relax..i guess...-and listen to music. :)

How does composing change shape in digital spaces...? Well, composing changes A LOT! You could do ANYTHING... In the world today, composing in digital spaces is taken to its best advantage possible by us people. It changes shape because of the different kinds of people that compose in different ways, and there are so many layouts, editing, and composing of literally anything that changes how the screen in front of us looks like.

We could better understand digital composing processes by simply being creative, and being open to other's creativeness. This helps build our understanding of the process, and to be more broad minded. :)