“Pass me the remote, please.” said Bella.
“For what? I hope you don’t want to change the channel because you know the Choice Music
Top Tens for this week just started and I haven’t seen my favorite music video yet.”, replied Joe.
“But this is just unfair. You’ve been seeing TV channels of your choice for quite a long while and I’ve just been looking on and viewing shows against my interest and you still don’t want to release the remote. The Big Brother Reality show has been running since and I would like to see what is happening in the house. I have really missed the show. You have no choice but to pass me the remote if you don’t want trouble.” said Bella.
“But I seriously think your penchant for this show is getting excessive. I remember seeing you watching the show after I came home around 4:00 pm yesterday and you were still at it until Mom changed the channel to view the news at 10. I just hope your ardency for that show would not lead you to applying to participate in the show when you have the opportunity. Mom may nearly kill you if you try it. You can have the remote, I’m going out.” said Joe.
“Look at this one talking. So what about you and your penchant for music? You remember that day when you were rushed to hospital after a motorcycle hit you from behind when loud music filled your ears from both sides of the headphone. The motorcyclist proclaimed that he had tried to prevent such occurrence by pressing the horn multiple times but you were just too engrossed in your music and you couldn’t hear the alarm because you got both ears blocked with the headphone with loud music playing in it. See, if you let the lifestyle of those gangsters and rappers who smoke weed influence you and you start smoking weed, Mom may nearly kill you.” replied Bella feeling satisfied that she gave him a suitable reply.
That was part of their lives – Mr. Uthman and his family. Muslim names, but lived secular lifestyles. However, the places where they were recognized with Islam in their lives included passports and documents and that they were given Muslim names. And as for where the names “Bella” and “Joe” came from, they were actually not given those names during their infant ages, rather they were names they adopted for themselves. Because of their uncontrolled hankering for the secular lifestyle, they had the tendency to be ashamed of their Muslim names. They both also had their career choices they wished to chase and they felt a Muslim name or identity would not befit those choices. So Zaynab was Bella and Hassan was Joe.
The family of Mr. Uthman was quite rich, and this made them exposed to various opportunities in the worldly interests. The Children attended a sophisticated international secondary school, and were also privileged to travel to western countries for summer vacations and holidays. They were also sociable individuals, and they consequentially met different people and attended different occasions. All of these lines point that they were immensely exposed to secular lifestyle and it profoundly affected them. Secondary school eventually ended for Bella. She became a grown lady, her mind occupied with various aspirations in her worldly interests.
Bella, being an extrovert, was also outspoken. She therefore hoped to explore opportunities into the media and entertainment world. Joe being an ardent lover of music, hoped to become a musician.
Secondary school ended for Bella, the journey to secure admission into the university began. There was not really much difficulty in the process, as private and sophisticated universities in the country were not attended by a large number of people. That was because it took a huge amount of money to maintain and upgrade the assets of the institution, in addition to the fat salaries their staffs were given all of which consequentially contributed to the expensive rates of the tuition and other fees. There was a high percentage of poor people in the country and these people often found it difficult to afford such requirements. So, the percentage of people who could afford was lower than that of people who could not which caused the competition to get admitted into such universities to be relatively low.
Bella eventually gained admission into the university and was even given the course of her choice – Media and Performing Arts. Her joy heightened as a result and she felt she was making progress in her aspirations. Bella arrived school and was shown to her hostel which she was to share with three other people. There, she met people – these secular set of people whose religious beliefs she knew not and did not really care about, Adele, Ellen and Genevieve. However, there were some things about the personalities of these three ladies that caught Bella’s interest. All of them – including Bella were striving to become celebrated figures and rank high in their relevance in the society. Adele was a student in the Theatre Arts department, and she was aspiring to become an actress and model, and have a conspicuous mark in the entertainment and modeling industries. Ellen who was a political science student had the itch to engage in political affairs and to take up public posts and offices. As for Genevieve, she wanted to be a boss of her own enterprises and acquire various establishments in her name. What was she studying? – Business Management. They all saw that they shared some things in common and were all motivated to unite and combine ideas, and to strive towards attaining some accomplishments. One of the ideas that came up in the process which they all agreed to was to join a movement that propagates and supports the idea of women empowerment and feminism. Various programs did they engage in and different experiences did they have. These experiences however affected their mentalities and their actions.
“Hey girls! What do you girls think about what the president said in the last program we attended? I was so motivated by her words and have been having this strong itch to carry on with this movement. I feel this movement provides solutions to the problems we encounter in satisfying our desire of a remarkable women societal relevance.” said Bella.
“Could you not perceive sense in what she was saying? And I could not just help but reason with her as I have witnessed some true life cases affected by some things discussed in the last program. I have witnessed cases of some widows who were full housewives, being deprived of the right to their deceased husband’s wealth after his death for some reasons, making them poor and strive lamentably to survive. I just don’t think I can cope being in such a deplorable situation. If those women had acquired some establishments to their names and were earning money before such calamity of their husband’s death struck them, they would likely not have been in such condition. As for me, whoever it is that I am going to marry, we must agree to equal rights between us in the house. If this agreement cannot be reached, then no marriage. That is my own plan.” said Genevieve.
“I even consider myself not to be an exception. Yes, I have witnessed some cases too concerned with this topic. And even in my case, some of the women affected are close to me. They are my relatives. That was how one of my aunts foolishly accepted the idea of being a full house wife when she got married. After having three children for her husbands, the idiot felt he should marry another wife. He married another wife, who is much younger and more presentable in physical appearance than my aunt, and guess what happened. He absconded the house with the new wife, leaving my aunt to take care of herself and three children. As in, one, two, three children. Till date, we haven’t seen the idiot. And as for my other aunt, look I don’t even want to talk about it. I consider her situation to be even more deplorable than the former. As for me, if I haven’t acquired my own multi million mansion that houses a fleet of cars of sophisticated fashion, and also a substantial amount of money in my bank account, I will not get married. I don’t even think I want to marry. If marriage will cause problems for me in the course of chasing my dreams, I will just do away with any plans for marriage. Come on, I have to make this money. I have to run things. I have to be a BIG girl.” said Adele.
”Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh” (They all said raising their voices)
“That is my girl. You’re on point babe. Ride on.” said Genevieve.
”As for me, I’m taking mine to another level. For me, it is not just about women equality with men. It is also about women dominance over men. As in, I’m dreaming for a world where the major leadership roles across all nations of the world will be handled by women. I’m dreaming for a world where a woman will be generally considered as the head of the house who goes out to search for income to sustain the family, while the husbands will be the ones feeding the babies and changing their diapers. If not that it does not naturally happen, I would wish for the husbands to conceive, carry the fetuses and even deliver the babies.” said Ellen.
(They all laughed)
“Seriously, I’m having this feeling that we would not regret in these choices we have made. I anticipate an auspicious life ahead for us.” said Bella.