AuDN4T

Reflecting on Quebec’s law around banning religious head coverings feels very hurtful. Not that I am personally impacted, but I understand that Muslim women see this a part of their identity. Forcing them to remove their head coverings is …unjust.

I’ve had friends who didn’t wear head coverings – and this was a choice they made at that moment. But they also made the decision to wear hijabs later in life. Other friends didn’t understand this and scrutinized them for it. It was kind of upsetting when you see a friend not supporting their friend’s decisions or beliefs. If you don’t understand, ask why. But ultimately they don’t owe you an answer. But going the route of assumptions and forceful opinions on a person and their decision just creates further division in society… and intolerance of differences.

There are Sikhs who decide to cut their hair. There are Sikhs who don’t cut their hair. That’s their decision.

There may be things in Holy Books that are considered a sin or haram but for others it might not. Just like the numbers 13 and 4 are seen as unlucky or mean death. If people want to believe in these things, let them but also be understanding that things in other cultures are different and that’s fine. We learn so much from each other on cultural differences.

Even with Halloween – European cultures find it so obscure and a devil’s event. I’ve heard my mom countlessly talk about it being a devil’s holiday. It’s an old school way of looking at it. I’ve recently had someone of Islamic faith have the same opinion. That’s fine. Though, some kids might feel like they want to partake in the holiday because it’s just a time to have fun and dress up. It’s an art form of sorts.

There are so many different religious traditions that have beautiful meanings. Even the Prayer Flags. They promote so much positivity into this world. Even in the Ukrainian culture – pysankas – Ukrainian Easter eggs have pagan undertones… despite paganism being considered to be a no-no amongst Ukrainian Christians. But those pagan symbols are a beautiful pattern or image to look at. We adopt traditions from the past and from each other. It’s how we evolve as humans.

Even with languages they evolve – you see different dialects when people in different regions create new words or slang. I think back to the Ukrainian language – you have regional dialects. Dialects from the first wave of Ukrainians in Canada was very Western Ukraine based. Galician / Halychyna. This dialect remained for 100+ years and when those Ukrainians head back to the motherland, people perceive them as a grandpa speaking. That language was so preserved in a way with English-isms added. Meanwhile formal Ukrainian was created and seen as the standard. Despite dialects still existing in smaller towns. And dialects are seen as less than, which is unfortunate because there are some very interesting words in different dialects. You see this in other cultures. I’ve heard about someone of Italian descent taking Italian language classes and being made fun of for speaking a different dialect than their family.

Why can’t we just embrace those differences?