Sexism within Engineering classrooms....

Lets talk about things I hate strongly dislike; 

I really hate bugs and ugly insects, may God forgive me but I do hate them. 

I hate being disappointed.

I hate being sad/feeling guilty

I hate being sick 

I hate when ignorant close minded people try to make a legit argument with me even though what I say is irrelevant to them and will not change their view no matter what. 

Most importantly I hate racism, sexism etc

as you may already know, I am a muslim hijabi (scarfed) living in the most islamophobic country in the world-America...so as that life can already be difficult for many. But thankfully I have very thick skin and people usually change their minds ones they get to know me. 

I am also a civil and environmental engineering majored FEMALE. enough said. knowing that its 2012 and its been years since females have lost their lives and fought for just being heard, still nothing seems to have changed the mind of some males. all theyve learned to do was SAY they "accept, respect, cherish, value" females opinions. Nothing but talk. 

of course I said SOME men not all, as I am not trying to come off as a hypocrite talking about sexism towards females and being sexist toward males. 

I do believe that there are somethings men are better at that women- (ie hunting a woolly mammoth) but at the same time there are somethings females are better at than the male race. However, even-though this is whith most it doesn't happen with ALL. these "stereotypes" varry depending on the individual. 

Almost ALL the males ive had classes with (all my engineering classes) have "looked" down on us females, and always ALWAYS expected us to do worse because we are "stupider"...that is until the marks come out and those few males that get pissed and angry and swear its unfair all because A GIRL  did better than him. 

I had many incidence like this, just recently after I got a lab-report back (which I worked extremely hard on) a male friend of mine was so eager to know what my grade was (they're always eager to know your grades in order to compare your stupidity with their "bad luck") and after he saw my grade and lab which was way more done than his, all he said with an angry tone was that "the grader likes girls"    WHAT?!?!, are u serious? so if im a female and I do better than a male its because the professor  or grader likes girls more, yet if you do better its because your smarter? get out of here!

it really such a sucky feeling when people dont even LISTEN to your opinion, for example if a guy asks a question and you have an answer and his friend doesn't and no matter how much YOU explain it they will assume your wrong and not take you seriously. or if your having an argument with a male and HE IS wrong and your not the others males will believe his argument over yours. for example I was having an argument about Islam to this other Muslim male which happens to be in engineering classes, clearly what he was stating was WRONG. yet somehow, the listeners (also 2 males) believe him over me and they just wanted to end the argument saying its okay and they were laughing and not taking me seriously I even caught one of the males winking at this muslim to stop just so the argument would stop, and of course being the strong female that I am I made sure I called him out saying that I saw his winking. we ended the argument by saying we will ask the sheikh on the Thursday night lecture held in our university. I made sure to let him know that I WILL NOT forget about it and we will ask it in front of everyone including the majority of male muslims there. later on that night after a few hours he texted me with "you were right, I asked my sister and she was actually married before he saw her hair I just got confused" so no need to embarrass him on Thursday. I appreciate his honesty but I do not appreciate that he made me look like an idiot in fornt of the non-Mulsim males and did not appreciate that he did not go out of his way to make sure they get the right truthful answer to their question rather than believing a lie...which is very serious when it comes to Islam. 

I can go on for hours about the events that I have encounter being a female in engineering not to mention the professors and staff. this makes me so angry but motivates me more to work harder so they can be even angrier that me "just a female" is getting higher grades than them ;)

xoxo-SL

my addiction to a book....(A Thousand Splendid Suns review)

When I was in senior year of high school, one of my most looked up to teachers had said to me "You should read A Thousand Splendid Suns". I was extremely happy that SHE the beautiful blond haired, intelligent, bitchy and lets face it-hot English teacher had suggested this to ME out of all students (she saw how much I enjoyed The Kite Runner- Also by the same author). "It is in my top 10 Favorite books, defiantly in the top 3" she continued. That last sentence was all she needed to convince me that I MUST read this book. 

3 years later I found myself in a book store inside a shopping mall in Dubai, U.A.E , as I was walking to the register to pay, "That book" jumped out at me- not literately but you know what I mean....and I just HAD to get it.  I started reading another book and was too lazy to start reading this book...I came back to the US and not till this month that I have decided to start it....and let me tell you I HAVE NEVER read a book faster in my life. I have managed to finish all 448 pages within 4 days. Not just ANY 4 days, actually it was in the week where I had nothing but engineering exams (the week before spring break). How did I do it? I have no idea.

I would stay up later at night (as I was up late anyways to study) just to read it, until my brain can no longer focus that is. I would wake up earlier than I had to and read it. I would read it at work at the office and get annoyed when a client comes by. I was too excited to go to English class since its soooo pointless (and ironically filled with all engineering majored student) just so that I could read during our 50 min. Usually, its 50 min of my life wasted listening to pointless crap, more like hearing pointless crap not listening. I would also walk from class to class my head down reading, friends and strangers poked fun of me of course but I could careless about them, I was too busy trying to figure out Laila's next move in the book. 

 It was just.......uhh! no words can explain how Amazing this book is. I cant get over it....its sooooooooooooo WONDERFUL, CRAZY, SAD, CAPTURING, EMOTIONAL, SPECTACULAR, and most of all ADDICTIVE. I can go on forever about it, but I defiantly suggest it to all of you out there.

Khaled Hosseini is a genius....I cant wait till he comes out with more and more books! im getting excited just thinking about it. 

WARNING: (if you read this book)

• You willl cry like a baby.
• You will laugh. 
• You will smile.
• You will get extremely angry at times- sometimes even at the author of the book.
• You will think about the characters everywhere you go. 

Unless you are a cold-hearted bitch with an ice cube in the place of your heart. You might want to consider the warnings above ;)

hope all of you are doing well!
 

xoxo-SL