My family

Hi there, i'm a 20 years old girl..Egyptian muslim girl and that's excalty the problem! first of all i'm a muslim because my family is muslim but in fact i don't believe in islam that much i do believe in God though..problem is i can't get along with my family basicly because of this..they want to force me into it and they insist on my wearing hijab although i feel like i'm chocking when i wear it..i don't get to choose my own clothes ..i don't get to choose my own hobbies because everything i'm into is wrong and forbbiden to them..i'm into stand-up comedy and dancing but i can't do anything about it ! i can't leave the house because it is wrong for a girl to get a job and live on her own..i feel like i'm in prison and sometimes i can't even breath i don't know what to do i tried to talk to mom on letting me take off the hijab and do what i want and love to do and she said no and threatened to throw me out of the house if i even talked about this again..even my two best friends that we have been together since we were little kids don't want nothing to do with me because "i don't respect our religion"..problem is i wanna be free but i can't here..and i know that everywhere people hate muslims and think that we are terrorists and that's why i'm terrifed to leave Egypt and live in another country..so i'm not free here and i won't be free anywhere else ! i really don't know what to do now i'm about to have a mental break down because of this and i feel so helpless !!

Do you have other friends who feel the same? Find some unity with them. If not, maybe leaving the country is an option, but current refugee crisis in region may make that difficult. Your problem is I imagine a problem for many in Egypt and other countries under threat from extremism. Wish I could help, but there's so many to help.

Hi D. Here in the UK we dont hate Muslims, yes there are plenty of racists and people who stereotype but unfortunately you get them everywhere. Fortunately they are the minority and our laws say that Muslims have the right to practice their religion and allowances have to be made so that you can even if that means setting aside time and space during work hours for you to pray. Get googling girlie, there will be someone out there with a success story of getting out of a very similar situation to yours and I'm sure you're not the only young lady in your situation. I think you should be free to practice a religion you believe in, not that you are forced to follow. What would happen if you were kicked out of your home? Realistically?

(Just a one-off from me) Utterly agree. I know it's a cliche (and that I'm not the only one) but - some of my best friends are Muslim (3). The others are Catholic (4), including my husband, and born-again Christians (3). And one is a pagan (kid you not). But we're all foreign or predominantly so (in fact, MOST Brits are mongrels). And I'm not fond of man-made religion full-stop, albeit highly spiritual. But my, for *huge* want of a better word, atheism is not aimed at individual people because to me it's no different to foreign languages and finding different ways and means to describe and explain one, massively complex phenomenon. We ALL hang out in the same group and are very close, the diversity making for some very meaty conversations about life, the universe and everything (or strife, the looniverse and every fink, as we put it ;-p). If everyone was the same, dressed the same, ate the same, thought the same, etc., life would be very boring. I appreciate that it would leave time and resources, finally, to concentrate ON the things that matter, like finding out why we're all here. But it would at the same time constitute an attempt to cheat ones way up the ladder to knowledge and enlightenment. Well, there are no perks without work in this life (nor in any corner of it). Ever. You have to go through the struggles involved in the natural process and, if you want to speed it up, find permitted and acceptable short-cuts to do so.. clever ways, not lazy ones. (It's like a cross-country race, where someone secretly short-cuts across a field. "I won!". Er, no, you didn't. You just lost covertly instead of openly. Self-delude, why don't you.) If people fight over different sets of labels, descriptions and explanations out of a desperation for certainty over what existence is all about or feel badgered by the mental hard work involved in having to get their heads around an entire menu instead of one set dish, then they're using the fact of diversification as their EXCUSE to have something to fight about. Take away religion (and politics, finance, territory) and you could bet your bum they'd find something ELSE to squabble about. Only squabbles aren't quite so funny and dismiss-able when instead of name-calling, pinching and kicking, and throwing their teddies at one another, what they're throwing are bullets, grenades and bombs and who knows what else. Still, sell ("Ker-ching ker-ching!") or give kids in grown-up suits dangerous toys and substances to play with and, that's what you get. (Yawn.) Yes, 'today' it's the turn of Muslim extremists rather than Catholic/whatever extremists to try to force their beliefs down other peoples' necks. If only all people realised that there's no such thing as BETTER. Just same where it matters but different where it doesn't. We could *all* be wearing the hijab 'tomorrow' and - would we all suddenly or in record time experience spiritual enlightenment and inner and world peace? NO. Those 'drugs wouldn't work' either, and so next it would become the first or Nth turn of yet ANOTHER religion and its prescriptions to climb out of the woodwork and assert its so-called superiority as the so-called solution. (Yawn.) People who can be bothered to use their grey matter do realise this and don't ever focus their frustration onto individuals or groups, instead realising it's all just a sneaky form of CROWD CONTROL, THOUGHT CONTROL, LAZY MacGOVERNING in the quest for unchallenge-able POWER. Sadly, what people in the UK *are* fed up with is people from other 'houses', invited in by a government that wants life-loyal voters ("Ker-ching ker-ching!"), all trying to cram into our titchy tiny 'bungalow' because living in over-crowded conditions is uncomfortable, unhealthy and downright foolhardy. Plus, guests, even long-stay ones, shouldn't start 're-arranging the furniture' and 'changing the routines' of other house-owners; it's very rude, pompous and arrogant, and never gets a good reception no matter *whose* house it is. The same situation was developing in Spain, actually, regarding all the Brits and Germans, etc., who loved the 'house' but didn't want to 'sit down at the table with everyone else for supper' or 'make conversation' and instead 'stayed in their bedrooms or out in the garden, sunbathing' and refusing to even try to learn to speak the host and hostess's language. Nor did they want to help out with the housework, shopping, cooking and paying the bills. Rude. So, theoretically, now probably isn't a good time to think about relocating here. However, that doesn't take into account the practical - that some people are leaving or have already left. AND the fact that you, let's face it, want to *join in and contribute*. So, yes, you sound like you'd make a perfectly pleasant, well-behaved guest, meaning, I can't see the majority of my fellow housemates having a problem with that. But you can't please them all and get on with *everyone* anyway - no matter which house/where on the planet you go. Not even in your own 'house' (as your own account confirms). So yes, get Googling. ***************** I'll just pop Violetta's question back in the front of the queue for her: "What would happen if you were kicked out of your home? Realistically?"

(Oops, typo - "Violette's")

Thank you Soulmate (I do enjoy reading your posts)

(Thank-you and "backatcha", V.)