Sunday, May 24, 2015

Vanity in Kuwait starts in KG

Anyone who has been to Avenues or anywhere in Kuwait can see how vain some women are. A lot of them have to wear loads of makeup, perfect eyebrows, contacts, fake eyelashes and plumped up lips all of which are frowned upon in Islam besides makeup but even that shouldn't make you look like a completely different person. As new contouring techniques come out and women strive to be the most beautiful female on Instagran it will only get worse.

I often wondered when does vanity start in Kuwait and today I have found out, it starts in KG. My daughter who is Kuwaiti by birth but has a mixed heritage is constantly being picked on in the government schools because she has curly hair. Before she started school she never had a problem other than the fact that she's the only one with that texture hair. I have always told her she is beautiful and her hair is a gift from God and to embrace it.

When we go out she is always told how nice her hair is but once she started the government school she hates it. She tells me no one else has curly hair and she wants straight hair to the point of crying if she has to wear it down. Tomorrow is her KG graduation and she had pictures today so I fixed her curly hair and immediately she started freaking out crying and saying it's not nice. She continued all the way to school walking in with her hands on her head trying to hide her hair.

When she got home she told me her teacher told her that she has to have straight hair for tomorrow. Teachers are supposed to be educators and nurturers of fragile minds not making a child feel like she is less because of her hair. The teachers already have a problem because my kids are not fluent in Arabic and tend to pick on them already. I've heard stories from halfie Kuwaiti citizens and they have often said they were picked on in the government schools because they were mixed.

It's sad to think that the early years of children's lives are spent learning what is and isn't socially accepted instead of learning to love themselves for who they are. We have complained already because of the singling out of the kids but no one cares. After a hot day on the playground my son was sweaty of course and the nurse told him he stinks and to tell his mom  he needs a shower. What is wrong with these educators? I can watch my kids on the playground from my apartment window and I often see them getting hit and teachers are off to the side chit chatting.

Teaching is not just putting on make up, Cartier bracelets and Valentino heels, it's about teaching children life skills and learning how the world works. It's ugly enough out there without having to get it from your teachers. No, my child will not have her hair straightened, she will have the natural curls she was blessed with and I dare anyone to say something.

I really try my best not to piss off the teachers because they will make school hell for them. It's all about the parents, who they are, what family they are from and how much money they have. If you spoil the teachers with gifts and small talk then your child will be included in the plays and will stand out and if you complain and disagree then your child will be picked on and tormented. My goal is to have my children learn to read and write Arabic, once they gain that I will probably move them to a bilingual school. My daughter is not her hair as India Arie says.

I am not my hair video by India Arie.

5 comments:

  1. OMG what I wouldn't give to have hair like that! Curly. Trends come and go. Tomorrow it will be curly hair again.

    What is all the vanity getting the women here? And for that matter, the men? Its so superficial! When it comes down to substance, here's what you get: divorced. Because she's at the salon and he's at the gym and both are doing it to attract members of the opposite sex who are NOT their spouses (a man doesn't spend all his time working to get a 6 pack when he just wants one woman).

    I've had so many friends with "halfie" kids that have moved out of Kuwait because their kids were picked on. The private tuition costs are so high that it is hard to be able to afford those schools. Vain women with vain, suspicious husbands are getting "acceptable" jobs as teachers in government schools and robbing other people's children of their opportunity to flourish as unique individuals with attributes that GOD GAVE THEM.

    I'm sorry you and your daughter have to go through this. I'm REALLY protective of my dog - I can't even imagine how it would be as a parent of a human child here.

    If you are looking for someone to walk up to that teacher, anonymously bitch slap her (maybe while wearing niqab) and walk away - I'm your girl! I'll wear gloves so as not to taint my delicate hands with the many layers of make-up....

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  2. Thanks girl, today was my first experience with Kuwaiti KG graduation, I did pass by my daughter's classroom, called her over and fixed her hair in front of the teachers. I arrived at 8 to save seats, it was supposed to start at 9.....around 930 after no VIP people showed up the program started. It was cute and very long. Then the awards from parents (brown noser women) to teachers were given by around 4-5 mothers, so that is why THEIR children are up front and VIP, whatever. Finally it ended after 11 am, wow. When I left I realized her costly hair piece that matched her specially designed fancy school dress was missing from her outfit and of course no one at the school answered. Now I have to hunt them down to get it.

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  3. Ahhh I hate this! As a former teacher in a Saudi-majority school, I was disturbed by the girls having heat-straightened hair everyday. It was from the more bedouin families while the girls who came from families educated outside wore their cute Saudi curls comfortably. Also I have Unfollowed so many people on Instagram because it's just a big narcissism festival about who gets the most Likes and Follows based on their makeup/fake pictures. I used to have a makeup account and was Followed by some of the top names in the social media beauty industry but it was getting too much -- girls were going crazy from it. It even affected me at work when my bosses and coworkers started Following me and making drama over the last makeup look I did. No more makeup accounts for me LoL

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  4. I can't see myself doing that to my daughter, we love her curls as she is the only in the family with them and it sets her apart from all the 'clones' in the world. I swear when I look at IG I can hardly distinguish between the females because they all look the same!! But the beauty industry fawns all over these females making it the 'accepted' look of today so everyone is running to get a nose job, even men.

    Do men not realize they don't really know who they are marrying or what their kids will come out looking like because of the fixtures? Just ask the Chinese man who sued his wife when his kid came out ugly, he requested a DNA test until she told him she had plastic surgery and he won the case!

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  5. Im half Kuwaiti and Ive always been in an American school. She'll learn arabic from an american/bilingual/international school. I did! Govn schools aren't as good as they used to be.

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