Posted by From the archives from LTU-207-73-64-49.LTU.EDU (207.73.64.49) on Monday, June 10, 2002 at 9:41AM :
A Letter To The Parents By: Reem T. Samona
I want to talk to all the Chaldean Mothers and Fathers. For centuries Chaldean Women have been 2nd class to Chaldean men. All women were good for was to cook, clean, and reproduce. They had arranged marriages and no teen childhood. Then our parent’s generation moved to America, the land of opportunity, wanting to give us a better life and a chance to have human rights. Cut still the double standard between boys and girls are nowhere near fair. Girls are disciplined without being heard. It doesn’t even matter to the parents that they are smart girls who want more out of life. We live in a country with women athletes and lady Senators. We learn that women can do anything a man can do… unless you are Chaldean. We’ve heard what some of your daughters had to say; now its time that you listen. This is a letter to all the Mothers and Fathers who are Chaldean.
Dear Mothers and Fathers,
Why is it ok for our brothers to go out at night and not come home until he feels like it? You don’t call him asking where he is or who he’s with. You don’t even ask when he’ll be home. All he has to do is say, “Mom I’m going out.” as he walks out the door.
Mothers, why is it that when we want to go out we have to beg and have to tell you where we’re going and who we are going with. We even have to tell you if guys will be there, or give you a good reason to why we want to go. After telling us what time we’ll be home you call us every ten minutes asking us what we’re doing to make sure we really are at the place we told you we’d be. Why do you do that?
Fathers, why is it ok for our brothers to start dating at any age, but then you demand us to wait until after we are twenty, then twenty-one, twenty- two…? Wouldn’t you rather have us introduce you to our boyfriend than sneak behind your back? How come when a girl calls our brother you don’t care, but when a friend who happens to be a boy calls us you interrogate us and assume that he’s our boyfriend. Mothers, Fathers, we go to school with boys. Just because they are in our class and call our houses doesn’t mean we’re dating!
In high school when everyone goes to Spring Break we are the only ones left behind in Michigan. And no Fathers, the whether here is not the same in April! We already know what goes on during Spring Break we are smart girls. We hope you know that we would never do anything to put ourselves down or blacken our family’s name. Nothing will happen to us, we are not going alone or blind; our friends are our sisters. We are just like you, we look after our own and take care of each other. No one will take advantage of us!
Mothers and Fathers, we are not asking you to let us do everything we want, but just give us a chance. Let us go where we tell you we are going and trust that we’ll be good girls. And if you really want to know something, ask us, we’ll tell you. If we see that you trust us than we’ll let you in our lives. Build a relationship with us, there is a lot we don’t know about you and we know all that you don’t know about us.
We know that you’re scared, but Mothers do you really think we are bad? Fathers do you really fear something will happen to us? Or is it that you think and fear that another Chaldean person will see us and think that you’re bad parents? You are so worried that people will talk about how bad it is to let your daughters go out. Well, Mothers, Fathers, all we could say to that is yeah someone probably will see us. They probably will talk because that’s what people do; but if another Chaldean saw us at a club or at a restaurant past eight o’clock wouldn’t that mean that they were there too? So they really can’t talk now can they?
Besides, we are the people you raised us to be. We won’t fail or disappoint you. We won’t ruin your good name because it’s our name too! We are proud to be Chaldean girls, proud of our heritage and proud to be your daughters. So have a little faith in us and unless you are embarrassed of the little girls you raised, trust us. We learned from other people’s mistakes and we are not so little anymore. If we do make a mistake, let it be our mistake. Let us learn from it. We’ll be fine really… and if not, we’ll ask for your help. After all, we’ll always be your baby girls you just have to let us grow.
Love,
Your Chaldean daughters of today.
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