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Lily Panyacosit Shields's avatar

Beautifully written Hawa! Your article makes me think of Rumi's quote: Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

It's much harder to look inside and realize that we are the result of so much conditioning and programming and to even recognize that. I feel like one of the things I have been working on doing actively has been untangling who I really am, from the way my parents raised me, from social conditioning and programming that has been my birthright by virtue of having been born into this capitalistic, patriarachal society. And what am I not looking at? What privileges am I actively (but not aware of) seeking to protect?

That quote from Rosi Braidotti was chilling. And yes, capitalism is totally built on scarcity, it thrived in a post world war time, when the world felt so scarce and dangerous. And I, like you, no longer want to live in scarcity! We are abundant! Thank you for pulling your words together like this!

Lily Panyacosit Shields

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Maryum Qayum's avatar

Hi Hawa!

My father was a medic for the Mujahideen, and he met your Uncle, rip, at Kohi Safi. He said that he went up there three times and met him once, so it was either in 1984 or 1985.

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