Friday, October 7, 2011

City Sisters

I stumbled upon this series today, aired on tvalhijrah at 12noon. it was already half an hour through when i flipped to the channel after finished watching usrah on tv9 with my mother. the series include a group of muslimah from united kingdoms, gathered together, beautifully attired and completely covered in abayas and scarves, talking and discussing about these days issues, especially concerning muslimah all around the world. today's issue was a bit hazy to me since i watched it in the middle, but towards the end they did some recap of previous episodes and i got the general idea. they discussed women, islam and they bring in new members too. even new sisters who just recently converted into islam.
i got interested to know more about the show, so i 'yahooed' it, heh. i found the official website here:

as i browsed through the website, i found out that this show's presenters came from different walks of life, from single women to married ones with families and jobs and different obligations and races. however, all of them shared the common similarity which is they are all muslims, and they are there to share and voice out their knowledges and opinions regarding islam. quite exraordinary when reading the audiences' comments regarding the show. how the show proved to be one of the significant tools for them to know and understand islam better. and these comments came from muslimahs in non-muslim countries all over the world. it shows that this series has helped women to strengthen their faith, especially those whom we know as 'saudara/i baru' or new sisters amidst non-muslim community, which can be hard to do.
they also put up summaries of previous episodes and i got to read all of them. the topics vary from 'living for akhirah' to 'attaining taqwa' to 'peer pressure' to 'education and careers for sisters'. and they talked about them in a simple straight forward manner, so that viewers can easily understand.
it's interesting to know that a small group of muslimahs in a non-muslim country manage to provide such a thorough insight of islam and broadcast it worldwide, compared to us, here, in a muslim country where wearing hijab is now a matter of trend instead of obligation. there is a point to ponder there.
which brings me to point out that there is a lot of programs for muslimah locally. we should be grateful that the awareness is there, although still weak since the programs sometimes skidded away from the original path of guiding our women towards understanding islam better. maybe we should provide more interesting talks added with travelling to siginifcant places, instead of overwhelming the screen with the newest trends of hijabs and busana.. or islamic dramas with the actresses freely flaunting their crowns when they are no longer shooting.
media plays a vital role in guiding people, especially those who enjoy them. it's true that we are targetting the youths of the nation to be better person. it's a commendable effort when shows such as imam muda and ustazah pilihan start to bring out more knowledge about islam. let's just pray that these shows will not stray away from their true intentions.
media is there to provide knowledge, the right knowledge to people, to youths, not to confuse them further. islam is to be understood, learned and practised, and media is one of the significant tools to provide that. let's just hope it won't be misused with all the gimicks and the extravaganza that seemed to flood the channels these days.
or else, it might be best to just have a simple show like the City Sisters where peers sit down and talk and travel occasionally, and still can change their comrades all around the world into being better persons and strengthening their faith in the religion of islam. which is actually what we should aim to do. really.