My Travel Bucket List

For those of you who are reading this and know me already, then you know that when it comes to travelling, I'm a huge sucker for certain places. And even if you don't know me, I will share with you my Travel Bucket List!

1. So the first place of the bat is Dubai. It has always been a symbolic place for me as my dad was born there, and I loved visiting there when I was younger but going there as an adult would definitely be a different experience altogether.



2. The second place I have always wanted to visit is New York City with my friends and family. I know this might seem cliche and all, but who wouldn't want to visit the city that never sleeps?!



3. The next place I have always wanted to visit was Indonesia. Since I did an assignment on the culture and food of Indonesia for a business class 4 years ago, it felt like this certainly was a place that I wanted to go to before I died.



4. Malaysia has always been on my Bucket List, and its because of its deep rooted cultures, such amazing views, and skyscrapers, that I have made this a place I want to travel to in the near future.




So these are all the places that I currently want to visit. Sure this list is definitely going to expand way above my budget in the next couple years, but I'll try to visit these places! Whether it is the food, the culture, or vast variety of shopping brands, all of these places are great for tourists and provide a nice time off for vacation or the break.

**note: pictures don't belong to me; obviously**

Hijab and Fashion

Many women of Islam feel pressured to abide to Westernized culture and their "easy-going" and "liberating" lifestyle.

In this post, I will explain how Islamic rules regarding women and their dressing/articles of clothing are in fact liberating. For the most part when I started high school, I wanted to just fit in. Whether it was the new hip cashmere cardigan, or the American Eagle jeans, I cherished to plainly blend in.

But I always was intrigued with the Hijab and how women specifically in Western/non-Islamic countries had the courage and inner ability to wear it in an environment that at times wasn't welcoming to Islam or its ideologies.

As grade 9 passed by, I started doing more research because I always felt a deep connection and safeness with the Hijab since I was a kid (even though I rarely wore it in public). As I was researching, I found out that Hijab literally meant to conceal or curtain oneself. Plus I began to learn about the reasons why Muslimas are told to wear the Hijab and dress modestly in the Quran. It wasn't a fashion statement but in fact the method for men to not look at women in an objectifying way.

Now living in a Western country, I not only saw this in the media, but I also had first-handed experience with being objectified, and completely understood where Islam came from when it says that women should cover.

Not to please men. But to be looked at as a person and not a sexual object.

Now while I see the Hijab in this perspective; the correct one, many see it as a means of oppression, and that is because although people are literate, media has brainwashed their minds into a form of illiteracy.

I see the Western women who is objectified. Who has eyes roaming around her cleavage, and down her legs as she cascades down the street oblivious to the way people are summing her up. Based not on her knowledge but on her beauty and what she has to display.

Islam says to cover up these adornments, so people don't think inappropriately of you and in a manner lower than what you really are worth. Because at the end of the day, it isn't my body who defines me but it is my mind.