أفكاري

Ya habibi, I’m so proud of my people. Who else can go from such hardships to absolute success? Have ya’ll read about Skakira Abdi? She’s a pickleball player in Minnesota and recently paired up with Harambee Sports to put on a free pickleball camp for kids in grades 6^th-8^th to learn the sport.

I feel so emotional watching her lead the youth in learning a new sport. Especially because our culture has a tendency to not allow women to play sport. Now, I’m a strict believer in that that is a culture thing, and not a religion thing. Our prophet (PBUH) strongly encourages all Muslims to become as strong and capable as you can, so the fact that somehow long the way women have been kept from strengthening our bodies really makes me angry. And it’s so anti Islamic.

We have a profound concept called Amanah, part of my own understanding of this is that our physical form is not truly our own but rather a sacred trust bestowed upon us my Allah (SWT). In surah al-Baqarah (2:195) Allah commands: “And do not throw yourselves into destruction with your own hands.” Mufassirs interpreted this to mean that it is prohibited to neglect one’s health be engaging behaviors that damage the body.

We need to have proper nutrition, stay physically active and attend to our mental health. One of the best ways to do that is via exercise. Talk to anyone who regularly works out, and you’ll see that if it’s good for our bodies, it’s good for our health AND our spirituality. My goodness, it’s even an act of worship (ibadah). We can only express gratitude to our Creator by demonstrating our commitment to use His gifts responsibly.

But Skakira has moved past that and is becoming a pillar in her community, mashallah. And moreover, she’s leading the way in a new sport! Apparently, pickleball is the fastest growing racket sport with over 48 million adults playing this year. In the states that’s about 19% of the total adult population having played the sport in the past 12 months.

It’s such an easy sport to play and its even easier to find somewhere to play. Most of the pickleball courts have pickleball court booking software that you just use on your phone to book a court. This prevents long wait times or confusion. And it’s super convenient and who of us aren’t always on our phones? Lets use them to get out of the house and go move our bodies.

This growth is even more apparent when looking at the appeal to the youth. The most explosive recent growth has been between 18-34. In Ontario there are about 9,000 Sudanese and most of us are from the south. How amazing would it be is we could come together to build not only our bodies but our faith?

Something that I would never in a million years is have a child. But as I get older, I realize that this is an option for me. I’ve been integrated into the healthcare system in Canada, I no longer have to give birth in an ongoing humanitarian crisis. I don’t have to travel by foot or by donkey to visit a doctor, I can just hop on the bus (a car is in the works!) and go to the hospital if I go with an OB.

There’s also aculture of midwives here if I so choose and I’m just learning about the work that doulas do too. Back home we have birth attendants, who are kinda like midwives here but with all the displacement it’s not like they’ve stuck around. 1.3 million babies were born in Sudan in 2024, but so much of those tiny lives are at risk. The best place to go back home would have been the Port Sudan hospital, usually they have about 15 deliveries a day, but the numbers have since doubled. It is not a safe place to even be as a human, and especially not as a pregnant woman.

But بفضل الله I do not have to worry about that, I was learning about giving birth in the west and the availability of doulas. Especially birth doulas. The offer labour support from active labour and stay with you till about an hour after birth. It feels funny that I need to hire someone, but I’m not sure I can trust my partner to show up for me. Plus he’s never been to a birth before, how would he know what to do?

So now I need to make the decision if having children away from my homeland is something that I want to do or not. My mind is still not made up and then on top of it all I need to figure out the system here. I’ve even heard of people having babies at home here and that people think it’s weird. Ummmm that’s weird. People have babies in their home all the time back home. I think it’s a bit weird to have the process so medicalized, high-risk pregnancies aside. On that note I’m so grateful that I have access to the top ICU or NICUs here in Canada, for me or my community.

How can one even think of bringing a baby into this world? It’s such a big thought and this world is so terrible. But life always finds a way.