Ibtisam Mahameed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ibtisam Mahameed - Essay Example She helps them enhance their confidence and then introduce them to peer groups of the three main religions – Christianity, Judaism, as well as Islam (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). For a number of years, Mahameed has been offering advice to Jewish and Arab women concerning their status in the society. As a religious woman – Muslim, she has worked with religious Druze, Christian and Jewish women on promoting peace through learning about each other’s religions, as well as cultures, and spreading them to other religions. She is currently on the board members of Middleway, a group for promoting a peaceful, non-violence community, and she was instrumental in helping establish the Women’s Interfaith Encounter, a women’s program of the IEA – Interfaith Encounter Association (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). As we can see, Ibtisam Mahameed is a very influential woman, one that can be contrasted to the likes of Mother Teresa and Wangari Mathai of Kenya due to her work. This paper will dwell on this prominent Arab woman who has gone against all odds to establish herself in a nation that disregards the female race. It will dwell on her background, works, influences and achievements. Background Ibtisam Mahameed is a member of the Arab-Palestinian minority in Israel, a group, which lost most of its terrain, assets, rights and freedom, in the Israel’s War of Independence, in 1948. ... She has eight siblings – three brothers and five sisters, and she and her husband, a house painter, have three children. She is currently in her early 50’s. She states that when she was growing up, extremely few girls in the Arab community had schooling rights, but her parents were incredibly supportive, and she managed to complete high school. Since then, she has studied educational administration and management. As a religious woman, particularly Muslim, Mahameed claims that she is obliged to wear traditional garments (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). Unfortunately, the Israeli community around her associates every religious Muslim with potential terrorism and extremism. Her peace activist work needs her to travel a lot and alone (not with her family members) around Israel and throughout the work. Therefore, she is obliged to spend nights away from her family members, a matter that is very odd in the traditional Arab community (Jerusalem Peacemakers 1). In such a community, the woman is expected always to be at home fending for her family while the husband goes to work. This is why harsh rules are imposed on women and working in the Arab world. In the beginning, Mahameed says that some members of her family found it very hard to accept her association with Jews and Christians, as well as her work for Arab-Jewish co-existence (Global Oneness Project 1). The family members who found that odd even went to the extent of not talking to her, but now support her. She claims that her family pays a social price due to her activism. For instance, her daughter was the main candidate for a teaching job in Mahameed’s home town, but she was denied the opportunity as the village elders felt

Change and Development in the English Language22 Essay

Change and Development in the English Language22 - Essay Example However, later this practice was reversed. At the end of Late West Saxon era there were again changes made to the vowels structure. Vowels were usually lengthened in open syllables (13th century), except when trisyllabic laxing would apply. Remaining unstressed vowels merged into //. (IPA transcription text of text 174-Late Saxon english , Last line last word). Similary in the S. Midland era, further changes to the vowels were made. The changes in vowels in this era is known as "Great Vowel Shift. The changes in Great Vowel Shift were that all long vowels raised or diphthongized. /a/, //, /e/ become //, /e/, /i/, respectively. (IPA Transcription text 174-S.Midland English, 1st line second word) ,//, /o/ become /o/, /u/, respectively. (IPA Transcription text 174-S.Midland English,5th line 1st word), and also /i/, /u/ become /i/ and /u/, later /ai/. Apart from changes in vowel, the other main change was Changes in Diphthong. Inherited height-harmonic diphthongs were monophthongized by the loss of the second component, with the length remaining the same. // and // became // and //. (as appeared throughtout in IPA transcription text of text 174-Late Saxon english for e-g in the first line second word second alphabet). In S. Midlands Loss of most remaining diphthongs. Like /ou/ (and former /u/, merged into /ou/ in Early Middle English) became /o/ and /ei/ became /e/ after the shift causing the long mid mergers. (as appeared in IPA transcription Text 174 S Midlands, 4th line 8 word) There were also changes made in Syllables which was first step of transition towards the development of modern English. In Late-West Saxon era, there was Middle English open syllable lengthening: Vowels were usually lengthened in open syllables (13th century), except when trisyllabic laxing would apply (as discussed in the vowels part. In S.Midlands there was a Loss of // in final syllables. How many different dialects of english and prnounciation do we hear nowadays. All these were part of development of English from Late West Saxon Era and S.Midland's era. The major pronounciation that took place in Late West Saxon era was Voiced fricatives became independent phonemes through borrowing and other sound changes and /sw/ before back vowel becomes /s/; /mb/ becomes /m/. (as in Sword and lamb became sord and lam in pronounciation). In the S.Midland era, there were some pronounciation changes as well. This era is marked by the development of some the common accents including some in Northern England, East Anglia, South Wales. Thus, the development of English has a history to tell. It has seen thousand of years of development before it has come in its modern form. It has become a common language because it is a mixture of many languages particulary German and who knows how many other languages had played their part in its development. English, at first was difficult but it was more towards the German. But as the times passed various changes like Changes in Vowels , Diaphtongs, and Syllables made it easy to read, write and speak. Thus, due to this progress, changes and development of English, we see it today as a language of common-culture and people from different parts of the World use it as their means of communication. References : Wikipedia.com