Chapter 4: A Difficult Time

Now, my father was gone every other day. He changed it to every two days where he would stay here for two, and stay at Maha's for two. My mother, sister and I began to dislike his presence so much that we kind of liked when he was gone. We could breathe. 

At our apartment, our lease was ending, and our landlord was trying to raise our rent. My parents wanted to move, but every time my father went to "look for an apartment" that was in our price range and in the same area, he came back and said there was nothing at all. He wanted us to move near his new wife so he wouldn't have to travel as much. Shocked at how he would uproot his first family to accommodate his new wife, I took my brother, who was four, and walked for hours around the town looking for an apartment. As doormen of buildings looked strangely at me and quietly commented on how this was men's work and that a woman should not be walking around searching for a house, I found one right down the street from our current home. It was in our price range, and furnished. It was across the street from the mosque my father supposedly prayed at. Had he even been looking for a place when he said he was? 

At this point, I was getting tired of doing all this work he should have been. I was the only one fluent in Egyptian Arabic and I was relied on heavily by my mother; however there were things a fifteen year old girl should not have to deal with. I remember a time on the weekend when my father woke my sister and I up and ordered us to go pay the phone bill. As I got dressed in my Isdaal (a long dress from head to do, which made it unnecessary to wear a Hijab since my head was covered) and Niqab, I wondered what my father was doing that made him too busy to walk to the telephone company to pay the bill. I saw him sitting on the balcony reading books. I walked with my sister to the telephone company, even hotter than my father would have been as we were completely covered. I waited in the line of men at the telephone company not understanding why I had to do this. I felt weird. This was not a female's chore. This was not even a child's chore.

Lesson Learned: Do not blindfollow. Raise your children to love God and understand him, not to just follow laws and have them deal with it. You will end up raising a hypocrite. If you truly love your child, you want them to be a true believer in their heart. Show them the love of good, and show them your love.