I am a Muslim Woman

November 21, 2001 | Furi Setio Rini

[Ronin]

Hello,

My name is Furi Setio Rini and I am a Muslim woman. I am 20 years old and live in Jakarta, Indonesia. I am attending my third year of medical school at Trisatki University. My friend, Ronin, asked me to write this because he is very disturbed about the hatred of Islam that he is seeing on your board.

What can I say about me? Well, I think I am an average Indonesian girl. I like movies and music. I love to shop for new clothes. Sometimes I eat too much. I do not like the music that is too loud. I don't like politics and I don't understand them.

I have to laugh when I hear western people talk about Muslim women. Somehow they think that all of us are beaten by men and treated like animals. If you had ever seen my father, my brothers and me, running away from my mother when she was angry, you would know how silly that is.

I have never worn a veil. I wear make up and I use lipstick. Except on the days I go to Mosque. On those days I clean myself as much as I can. I do not believe that it makes much difference to God, but I want him to see me with my true face, and heart.

I have two brothers. One of them is older, the other is younger than me. I guess that they are like brothers everywhere. Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. Sometimes I wish I could kill them. But no, that is a lie. Even when I think I hate them, I love them. They are my brothers, my family. I love and respect my father and my mother. I adore my father and hope to find a husband just like him.

I have not been kissed yet. And I have not been held as a woman wants to be held. Yes, I want it. Yes, I dream about it. But I can wait until I find the man I will marry. And no -- it will not be a marriage arranged by my parents. I will choose my husband, and he will choose me. We will marry because we love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives with each other. God willing.

I am studying to be a doctor. It is my best dream and ambition to be a doctor in a small village where doctors are rare. I want to be able to help the most common people of my country. I want to make life better for them. I want to bring happy and healthy babies to loving mothers and proud fathers. I want to give comfort to the old people who have so much to teach us. I want to share my love with true and real results.

I am not perfect. I am quite lazy sometimes and I have to force myself to studies on days when it is too hot, or at times when there are so many other interesting things to do. But this is a story about Muslim women, so maybe I should talk about that a little. What is Islam to me? This is a question that is very hard for me to answer. Islam is in my blood. I pray to God each day. I ask for health and happiness for my family, my friends and my country. More than that I cannot say. I love God and I pray to Him daily. . Is that any different from you?

I pray to God each day for wisdom. But the newspapers and the television and the radio shows me nothing but images I do not want to see. I can't stand the pictures I see.

I hate war. I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!

I hate it almost as much as I hate pediatrics class. Not because I hate newborn babies, I love them. I want my own babies. But, I hate learning about the illnesses and the horrible conditions that can happen when a baby gets sick.

My heart cries. Sometimes, just opening the textbook is a horror. To see a stillborn baby makes a small death inside me. But I must learn, because if I cannot learn to treat them and make them well, more babies may die. I cannot think of anything worse.

I think that most Indonesian girls are like me. And, most Indonesian boys are like boys everywhere. They like cars and sports. They play music too loud. When they think they are so cool and exciting, they are usually very boring. The television and radio you see is not showing you the proper vision of my country or my people. We live and we love. We go to restaurants, movies, and clubs.

I do not drink alcohol, but I do not find that a hardship. (I did have a glass of red wine once. It did not taste very good.) My father and my brother smoke cigarettes, but I don't. No, we do not eat pork.

Men say that the words of God are in the Holy Quran, the Christian Bible and in the Jewish books. I do not know about that. I read the Holy Quran and try to live my life in the teachings that it contains. But inside my heart I know the only commandment of God is love. I love God. And I know that God is love.

So, this is my testament. It is not very profound.

I am a Muslim woman. I love God. God is love. I love you all.

Furi Setio Reni

[dixiemelody]

But inside my heart I know the only commandment of God is love.
Sorry, but wrong. God has more commandments than love. People don't want to think of having to suffer consequences for their sin, so they choose to only think of God as love. There is much more. But thank God for Jesus Christ who suffered for us. Islam is not the way to Heaven. We can only get their through Jesus Christ. I'm sure she is a nice girl, but she is in the dark about salvation and someone should help her see the light.

[crazykatz]

AGREE!!

[beGlad]

"I don't like politics and I don't understand them."

Sounds just like many American women. Sad.

[crazykatz]

BUMP!!!!!!

[abner]

Is there any way we can ask her questions? A reasonable q & a session would be more productive. I would love to know her opinion on the WTC attacks which she did not mention. I think that is part of the problem, most Muslims ignore that elephant in the living room. Or NYC as the case is.

[xm177e2]

Very nice. But to post this here, in my opinion, is an insult. I think I speak for most of the people at FR when I say that we are quite aware that not all Muslim women wear veils, are beaten, etc. etc. We are not morons, like Ms. Rini thinks we are.

Apparently you posted just a minute too soon (look at post #5 hehehe)

[Thinkin' Gal]

Jordan Times

20 November 2001

Man kills sister over family honour

By Rana Husseini

AMMAN –– Police in Ajloun apprehended a 35-year-old man who reportedly confessed to killing his younger married sister for reasons of family honour on Sunday, official sources said.

The victim, Fadia G., 20, received several bullets to different parts of her body by her enraged brother in their family home in Anjara, a small village outside Ajloun, the source told The Jordan Times on Monday.

The suspect then turned himself in to police shortly after the murder was committed, the source added.

According to the source, the victim was engaged in an affair with the man who later became her husband after their affair was discovered.

“The two were wed in a civil ceremony by the [Ajloun] governor three months ago,” the source said.

However, the suspect did not approve of his sister's marriage and plotted to kill her, the source added.

On Sunday, the source said, the suspect walked into the room where his sister was and shot her to death.

Fadia became the 18th woman reported murdered in the Kingdom for family honour since the beginning of the year.

http://www.jordantimes.com/Tue/homenews/homenews8.htm

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

the newspapers and the television and the radio shows me nothing but images I do not want to see. I can't stand the pictures I see.

Of course. You must understand, you are being shown what you do not want to see for a purpose--to seduce you into looking. To entice and entrap you, to make you think the world is full of evil around every corner. In short, to make you feel that you have to know "what is going on in the world"--and that the way to learn that is to look at those pictures and hear those reports.

It is hogwash. Those reports may be true--probably are--but they represent only a very small portion of reality even if so; they are a half-truth. Look to the truth that endures.

[ken21]

is this for real?

[RWG]

How do we know who the author really is? Even if it is a woman she could be a liar on behalf of a political cause.

[Fighting Irish]

You are probably a very nice young lady...however, your so called "Holy Quran" advocates the murder of everyone that is not of the Islam faith.

Jesus, of the *true* lineage of Abraham never condoned physical violence. So for you to compare the not so holy Quran and the christian bible is disengenious.

[crazykatz]

I have had SEVERAL Bosnian muslims tell me that it was the Jews who destroyed the WTC!!

The stupidity of these people is HORRID!! They said a muslim would NOT do such things....yep, muhammed atta was a good Jewish boy from the Bronx.....NOT!!!!!!

[Clinton's a rapist]

Most rank-and-file Nazi voters where just regular folks, too. So what?

[razorback-bert]

Yea, I smell something other than a simple woman of Islam.

[RLK]

I find some people to be naive about the true meaning and nature of their beliefs.

[LarryLied]

If a group I was affialated with was committing atrocities around the world, I would address that issue if someone asked me to write such a piece. At the very least, I would mention the dead.

[isthisnickcool]

20 years old? This is written by a pre-schooler. No matter, Muslims have proven themselves to be people of the lie anyway. Just another cultists spewing BS.

[Alouette]

Here's a picture of Muslim women taken at a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia. Does she remember it? Was she there? Would she care to comment on the sign being held up by the young lady?

Indonesian Muslim protesters shout anti-U.S. and Israel slogans during a protest in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Sept. 28, 2001. More than 2,000 people rallied in the center of Jakarta on Friday demonstrating against a feared U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Except on the days I go to Mosque

Can you ask her how she feels about the fact that in Saudi Arabia, the seat of the holiest places in Islam, that women aren't allowed in many mosques and are "encouraged to pray at home" (their words)? In the mosques that do allow women, they have to enter through a different entrance than the men do.

[rko1933]

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