About Cooking with Fire

Please refer to Time Magazine - Portraits of the Women of Afghanistan.

Note - this is not for the weak of heart.

You can access it here: www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,308943282001_2007270,00.html

Yeah, this is a hot button issue. It's hard to understand on so many levels. Why are these women the way they are?

Cooking with Fire was a story for me that epitomized my friends who were first, second, third generation Anglo-Indian. What I found is that the chances are the stigmas still hang over their heads. I couldn't get away from one truth, though. I believed that because women of this origination were immune to it in this country simply because they were born in this country. You'd think that wouldn't you?

The fact is that it is as prevalent in this country as any other. Women of this origination are put to the same test. I'm sure that for as many women who will say they aren't there are just as many who get what I'm talking about.

Cooking with Fire is a snapshot of this. It's what I see, and the dynamic that is happening. It isn't to say that all Muslims are this way. It's my way of saying that there are those who are that way.

Recently, I had a friend who was born Islamic who had to have surgery. She was so upset. Not because the surgery was going to occur, but because her mother was freaked out because she'd have a scar. To me, it was a stupid argument. To her family, it was the end of the world, or in the very least, the end of her chances to ever being in a fitful marriage.

This is what this story is about. This is what we, as American Women need to know. I'm guilty of this and it totally disgusts me that I am.

We can't sit in judgment of these women, because we can't expect miracles. There isn't anything written in the Constitution that says – this is how you should act. Is it better in America for women of this origination? I think it is. Does it boil down to brass tacks? I'm not so sure.

We are a culture of judging and then thinking about it. We don't understand something so whatever we're looking at is immediately screwed up and wrong. We need to stop that.

My two cents—

Bella