DELTAWOMEN MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2012 Sense CHAPTER 1 A Note from the editor Either a woman or a man, we are all living with our senses. Some of us even lack one or two. Most of us even have our very own mixture of senses we use every day to survive. Senses are one of the most unique things that every woman owns and defines herself with. In this issue of DeltaWomen we have scientific and personal articles, poems, photographs, art and interviews just to decode the mystery of Sense in women. Elaheh Zohrevandi CHAPTER 2 Good Sense of Defeat by Sahar Rashidi CHAPTER 2 Good Sense of Defeat You may wonder how one can say that defeat has a good feeling. Or you may read the title of the article and smile to yourself. But I believe in it. Sense is often construed to mean the "Good Sense". This article means to connect energy with the mind to find this sense within yourself. At the moment, you may have been deserted by your family or you may have lost your invested money or you may have failed in your exams. But even if it is so, please laugh out. You will find the good sense of defeat. When something bad happens, you may think that all the lights in the world have been turned off, and you see only darkness. When you experience defeat, you feel like luck has left you and death is your luck. You don't find a solution to your problem. The solution plays hide-and-seek with you and life plays you. You feel like you are going up in a dark cave. You hear other creatures breathing but you don't see them; you feel afraid, you want to leave the cave. But you never know that you can even find life in that cave. You have to look more carefully and you have to try to listen. If you do that, you will find success. When you believe in defeat, you want to cry or want to find whoever shows up and that is because you don't want to accept that you did something wrong; you close your eyes. Please open them and breathe and laugh. You have to laugh to yourself and to the bitter world that you made for yourself. You were lost in the darkness of the cave. You have to sit down and think. Ask yourself why. You 3 have to find an answer. In time, you will touch the good sense of defeat because you can think and realize that you neglected something, or did something with precipitation. When you see your problem, you realize that defeat is not always bitter and sometimes actually is very sweet. You can find your way in the cave; you will succeed in finding the daylight. Life continues. I know that saying this is easy and that acting on it is difficult. Not everyone can do such a thing as "the perfect solution" . If you think of the effect of the small flap on the aircraft performance in a flight and how it can change the world, you realize that you play a big part in this world. When you find the good sense of defeat, you won't be a loser. You will play a better part than before. You will know that defeat is the last step to gain success. When you are defeated, you will laugh and still be happy as you have a new opportunity to review your actions in order to reach your target. Always laugh and change every sense with that happiness. Always expect the worst. Then, you can move freely just like a roaring river that moves through the rocks. You won't fear the rocks; they will fear your fierce movements. You will split them apart, step by step. The Good Sense of defeat is HOPE. 4 CHAPTER 3 The Woman's Senses by Mohammed R. Monifi CHAPTER 3 Taste The Woman’s Senses " Taste this". I will not taste your fruit. Devil told my parents to taste the fruit. The witch told White Snow to taste the fruit. Falling down. lying down. I will not taste your fruit. Smell I don't need your repellent flowers To Kirthi Gita Jayakumar, the kind heart That lose their fragrance in the passing hours. The earth grants me a spring gift, the white roses. Sight Washed by Morning Dew; dried by Sunrays. I have my own eyes; I don't need yours. Touch Beautiful for your eyes; not beautiful for my eyes. I am wild woman, never tamed, never touched. My sight doesn't believe in yours; you big liar. I touch who touch me. Don't be hushed. My eyes freeze you if you look; you'll find no fire. Who is soft? Who is rough? With my hand I know. Hearing You are the roughest one. Leave me and to the nature go. I don't want to hear your more lies. Don't call us " my Dollies; my sexy Babies". Don't ruin my sitting: the morning has invited me. I want to listen to the birds' orchestra on the tree. 6 CHAPTER 4 In Flying Colors! Of Spring and Sense by Laíze Cândida CHAPTER 4 "Building a Better Society". My blog campaign is called "Fly Higher and Be Yourself". What do I want with it? Of course I don't In Flying Colors! Of Spring want to find the cure for our humankind mistakes. I'm sure I can't, because I'm just one woman in a billion. My goal is touching and Sense somebody else's heart and mind lost in the darkness, like I was some months ago. If it's one, ten or a hundred hearts, it's none of my business. If the message is good, we naturally will spread it to the others. The message of my campaign could be used for anything. All of us have wings, like birds and butterflies. But due to external reasons, we use our wings to stay on the ground or fly to our dreams and beyond. In other words, we choose to get over our darkness or Dear Women and Girls, crying for ourselves forever, by opening our ears only to the others. A very wise woman, my mother, always tells me how the others don't like to see ourselves listening to the voice of our hearts. Some of First of all, it's my first article here. Nice to meet you, I am Laíze them just want to say disgusting insults about us and drink our blood (also known as Läyeh), a Brazilian graduate in Law, passionate for until we feel weak. If we aren't strong enough to fly higher than writing and advocating women’s and children's rights. You can call we're used to, we can't build a better society. I know it isn't an easy me your sister, like I always call you. We are in a beautiful month. task to find our strength and get over it, but we must try. September, in my country, means the beginning of spring. In some One of my most read books mentions the difference between a ways, spring has an intrinsic relation with the theme of this month, "nice girl" and a "powerful woman": The powerful woman loves sense. The word "spring" means "revolution, changing" nowadays. herself first, so she has more self-confidence than the average. Based And sense, according to my dictionary, has a half page of meanings, on this statement, I propose to each reader of this ezine make a but the only one that deserved my attention was "a strong but simple exercise: Think about the most powerful woman that you u n c l e a r f e e l i n g " . know and then think about yourself. Do you know which is the These two words, spring and sense, have a strong relation with the difference between your role model and yourself ? Those "strong but current moment of my life. Half of my year was cold and nonsense. unclear feelings" that don't let you listen to your heart's voice and After some months of sense and reflections, I'm finally reaching my follow your dreams. They don't make you love yourself to be spring. Last month, I released a campaign in my personal blog, stronger enough and fly higher. Love, but a love for yourself and because of International Youth Day 2012, whose theme was your life. It's, in my opinion, the essence of success. Material things 8 come and go quickly; it's the consequence of what we do. Don't make material things the first objective of your life. Let's fly higher and...Discover our power. One more wish is union. You can take my hand and fly with me. It's our spring; I call you for some action. I could let this message forgotten in a corner of Internet, but I decided to go ahead. There are lots of sisters living an unwanted reality in this world. Some of you know that you're in the bottom, but instead of getting over it, just give up. Raise your head and change your attitudes step by step. Do something nice for yourself, because I believe that you h a v e t h e p o w e r, s i s t e r ! After reading my words, I hope you can reflect and think how you deserve more than you have.