I'm out of here:

Mehreen here.

Blogging can be fun, blogging can teach a lot and I’ve learned one thing from all of this blogging over the years that people can be exceptionally disgusting, assumptive and terribly intrusive of your personal life. I usually get a lot of hate mail; racist stuff, bigoted remarks, sexist slurs, kill-yourself anons, generally demeaning messages. I’ve learned to ignore them, to let them go, to develop a thick skin when this happens. It’s fine. People are capable of being unkind with their words.

But then sometimes some messages simply ruin your morale and put you down for a long while. This has been happening a lot lately. Sometimes I get anonymous messages on this blog about how I’m a “bitch” and how I “promote myself” and I ignored it. But recently some users on Tumblr have actively pursued harassing me and, frankly, it’s not the best feeling ever.

I have, for years now, dedicated my time to discuss gender issues within Muslim communities from different angles - external, internal. That, yes, there is oppression in Muslim communities against women. That, also, there is liberation and empowerment of women too. That gender politics in theological domains remain extremely complicated. That in developing countries, class trumps gender and dictates who will reign and who will suffer. I have taught students about it, I have written about it, hell I’ve made comics about it. As a student of Islamic jurisprudence and gender studies in Islam, I have learned and taught as much as I could and will continue to.

But not on this blog anymore. I’m tired of the hate sent here. I am sick of not only white racists saying horrible things about me, about my culture without understanding the context but I am equally disappointed in the POC who assume ridiculous things about my personal life. I have better places to go.

Which is why I am leaving OBGDT. I do hope you all continue to learn that oppression occurs in varied degrees and that I would never condone oppression by clerical method or societal pressure but that I would always make an effort to learn about the layers in between class, gender, political, economic, religious and other stratification(s).

Juthika will continue here. Hope you all have fun.

Good bye.