Bertemu Tita

Di hari jumat, pagi-pagi sekali aku dan suami pergi ke tempat mama Mesir. Kami berdua sengaja tidak sarapan di rumah karena, kami janji akan berada di rumah tuan rumah kami itu paling lambat pukul sembilan pagi.

Akhirnya kami sarapan di restoran to'meya dekat rumah mama di daerah sekitar mu'tamarot, tempat dimana pameran buku internasional biasa digelas setiap tahunnya. Selesai makan kami cepat-cepat ke rumah mama karena si Noha sudah dari tadi miss call hp kami.

Sampai di sana, ala mak.... mereka belum pada siap-siap! Kami kira, begitu kami datang langsung cabut ke Syubro, tempat Tita tinggal, tapi ternyata mereka baru pada bangun, cuma mama yang kelihatannya sudah bangun dari tadi. Karena aku lihat rumah sudah rapi. Mama bilang hari ini dia bangun pagi-pagi sekali langsung mencuci baju, membersihkan rumah dan dapur dan tugas rumah lainnya. Sedangkan anak-anaknya asyik tidur.

Hampir satu jam kami menunggu mereka siap-siap, Baba baru bangun, Noha juga. Huh payah deh.

Akhirnya berangkat juga kami ke Syubro. Ini pertama kalinya aku pergi ke sana. Dilihat dari gaya arsitektur bangunannya, Syubro memang bisa disebut kota lama, orang-orang Mesir bilang "Misr qodim". Kata baba uang sewa di daerah Syubro hanya 5 Le perbulannya. Aku pertama sih kaget, kok ada rumah yang sewanya hanya lima pound Mesir setiap bulannya, tapi setelah kulihat rumahnya yang memang sudah sangat tua ya..maklum lah. Di dalamnya nggak ada apa-apa, udah" butut". (hehehe)

Tapi lumayan loh buat mahasiswa. Tapi daerah Syubro nggak terkenal buat para pelajar asing. Distrik 10 tempat ku tinggal di sanalah kompleks pelajar asing tinggal. Dari berbagai negara khususnya orang-orang Asia.

Pertama kali masuk rumah Tita, istri Amu Sodik menyambut kami dengan ramah. Setelah itu Tita menyapa kami dengan senyumnya yang manis. Tita sudah berumur tapi kharisma kecantikannya masih tampak. Badannya masih sehat, segar. Tapi memang terkadang orang tua, nggak jauh dari pikun. Kami selalu ditanya "Gimana Mesir menurut kalian, Hilwa?" hampir 30 kali Tita bertanya dengan kalimat yang sama. Aku dan mas hanya tersenyum dan menjawab hal yang sama yang sudah kami ulang sekitar tiga puluhan juga.

Baba selalu pergi ke tempat Tita setiap hari Jumat, dan Jumat ini kami diajak mengunjungi ibunda baba yang tersayang ini. Tita sangat senang kami berkunjung ke rumah, beliau bercerita kebanggaannya pada Baba Mohammad.

Aku juga ngefens berat sama baba. Orangnya memang baik, nggak banyak ngomong. Kalau aku ada masalah pasti baba datang.

Selain Tita, di rumah itu keluarga Amu Sodik juga tinggal. Amu Sodik punya tiga anak, dua laki-laki, Muhammad dan Mustofa, satu Perempuan Syaima namanya. Dia pintar berbahasa Inggris dan Perancis, kami sempat cakap dengan bahasa Perancis dan Inggris. Keluarga itu bahagia sekali dan menyuruh kami untuk main ke sana lagi.

Beberapa jam setelah sholat jumat, kami pun pamit pulang. Tita senang sekali. Kami pulang ke rumah baba, di sana mama masak ikan bakar. Hmm enak deh akhirnya kami makan bersama dan satu jam kemudian kami pamit pulang.

Jumat yang menyenangkan.

Tapi...OOps aku punya banyak tugas kuliyah yang belum selesai.

Wah ngelembur nih....

Liburan Yang Hampir Berakhir

Hampir lima belas hari liburan termin pertama terlewati, rasanya tidak terasa masa-masa ini akan berakhir. Para mahasiswa Al-Azhar putri benar-benar memanfaatkannya untuk beristirahat. Pasalnya mereka begitu lelah saat menjalani perkuliahan, apalagi mereka yang tinggal di luar Kairo, penuh perjuangan hingga bisa sampai ke kampus.

Cara menghabiskan masa liburan tentunya berbeda antara satu dan yang lainnya. Bagi mereka yang rajin dan tidak mau menghabiskan waktu dengan cara percuma, mungkin saja menghabiskan waktunya dengan membaca habis semua mata kuliyah yang tersisa untuk termin kedua karena buku-buku diktat sudah tersedia, sehingga mereka memanfaatkannya untuk mempelajarinya agar tidak terlalu berat menghadapi termin kedua yang harus menghafalkan empat juz Al-Quran bagi mahasiswa asing dan 7,5 juz bagi mahasiswa berbangsa Arab.

Hawa udara di Kairo begitu dingin sehingga kadang pula hanya menghabiskan waktu dengan ditemani selimut alias tidur panjang.

Yang hobi jalan-jalan, tidak melewatkan begitu saja masa liburan ini, mereka menjelajah tempat-tempat pariwisata yang ditawarkan Mesir dengan pesonanya yang khas.

Semua punya cara sendiri-sendiri dalam menikamati liburannya. Ya bagaimanapun juga kita menikmati liburan jangan sampai kebablasan karena minggu ini kita sudah ditunggu oleh para duktur yang siap membagi ilmunya bagi para mahasiswanya.

Oke selamat liburan dan selamat menempuh termin dua, GOODLUCK.

Tentang Pernikahan Dini

Pernikahan dini menjadi inspirasi untuk tulisan saya, entah mengapa saya tertarik membahasnya. Di samping karena pengalaman pribadi, lingkungan di sekitar pun mendukung.

Saya membatasi lingkungan sekitar ini khusus untuk mahasiswa Indonesia yang sedang belajar di lembah sungai nil ini, dan tidak mencakup orang-orang Mesir. Karena mereka punya bahasan tersendiri mengenai pernikahan yang tidak kalah uniknya dan punya problematika tersendiri yang menarik untuk dibahas.

Namun sekarang saya terlebih dahulu membahas tentang pernikahan dini-nya para mahasiswa Indonesia di Kairo.

Ketika saya menginjakan kaki pertama kali di bumi para nabi ini, tidak pernah terbersit sedikit pun keinginan menikah di usia belia. Entah mungkin karena sudah takdir Tuhan akhirnya aku pun menikah di sini.

Sebelumnya aku sempat ragu apakah aku bisa belajar sambil membina rumah tangga? Tetapi saat aku mendengar seminar tentang pernikahan dini dengan Fauzil Adhim saat beliau berkunjung ke Kairo, aku pun menjadi tercerahkan.

Didukung oleh banyaknya seniorku yang juga menikah di usia dini, rata-rata mereka menikah di saat sudah memiliki seseorang yang mereka cintai.

Mereka beranggapan bahwa cinta itu akan sempurna bila diikat oleh tali pernikahan karena dengan begitu hubungan kita menjadi halal.

Dalam ajaran islam, pernikahan adalah suatu "mitsaqon gholizho" suatu janji yang agung, didalamnya terdapat pahala yang besar jika kita membinanya dengan baik. Maka dalam, dengan menunaikan pernikahan berarti kita telah menyempurnakan separuh dari agama kita. Setiap aktifitas yang kita lakukan untuk membahagiakan pasangan akan diberi pahala yang besar jika dilakukan dengan penuh keikhlasan.

Dengan alas an itulah banyak mahasiswa Indonesia di sini yang lebih memilih untuk menikah dini. Dan bukan MBA alias Married By Accident. Lebih baik kita menghalalkan hubungan kita jika memang sudah saling mencintai, lebih berkah dan berpahala daripada pacaran luntang lantung nggak jelas ujungnya.

Apalagi pacaran yang sudah kebablasan dalam arti sudah melakukan hal-hal yang terlarang dalam ajaran agama. Makna cinta suci sudah mereka nodai dengan perbuatan yang tak selayaknya mereka lakukan sebelum melangsungkan pernikahan.

Maka lebih baik kalian menikah saja kalau sudah saling mencintai. Karena jika ingin menilai laki-laki itu serius dengan kita atau enggak lihat saja ekspresinya saat kita ajak dia untuk menikah. Kalau serius pasti dia akan menerima ajakan kita, kalau tidak ya…berarti dia Cuma ingin main-main saja.

Memangnya perempuan itu apa buat mainan para lelaki yang jelas. Sudah deh buat kawan-kawan seiman ayo jangan sampai terjerumus ke dalam pergaulan bebas yang tanpa batas. Ingat kita hidup di dunia ini hanya sementara. Kehidupan yang hakiki ada di akhirat, ayo nabung sebanyak-banyaknya untuk kehidupan kita kelak. Niatkan semua aktifitasmu untuk beribadah kepada Allah Sang pencipta alam semesta.

Concrete "to stem Java mud flow'

The mud flow has been relentlessA plan to drop concrete balls into the mouth of a "mud volcano" in East Java to stem its flow should go into action next week, Indonesian scientists say.
Hot mud and gas have been spewing out of the ground since May 2006; experts warn the torrent could continue for months, if not years, to come.
But the government-approved scheme could halt the flow within two to three months, the team behind the plan says.
Other geophysicists said it was a "long shot", but "could be worth a try".
Dr Umar Fauzi, who developed the idea with a team at the Bandung Institute of Technology, told the BBC News website the work was due to begin on 7 February, following approval from the government and the team managing the disaster.
Engineers will drop 1,000 1.5m-long metal chains into the mouth of the mud leak. Each chain has four concrete balls suspended from it; two with a 20cm diameter and two with a 40cm diameter.
They will begin slowly, Dr Fauzi explained; perhaps dropping five to 10 chains on the first day, then slowly increasing the number until they insert up to 50 chains per day.
Company blamed
"We aim to lower the chains deep down into the neck of the crater," he said. "This will not plug the volcano, but will force the mud to flow around the chain-balls, decreasing the mud's energy and slowing its flow."
Dr Bagus Nurhandoko, who helped develop the scheme, told Nature magazine: "It will make the mud tired. We're killing the mud softly."
The team is uncertain exactly how long stemming the flow could take.
"We will monitor the reaction of the volcano as we progress," he told BBC News. "How long it will take to stop the flow depends on the reaction, but we think it will take maybe two to three months."
The disaster, which began on 29 May 2006 in the Porong subdistrict of Sidoarjo in Eastern Java, close to Indonesia's second city of Surabaya, is thought to have been triggered by the drilling work of gas prospectors PT Lapindo Brantas.
The event has forced many thousand from their homes.
The Indonesian government has been working to halt the mud with a network of dams and by channelling some of it into the sea, but with little success so far.
The cost of this new scheme is estimated at 3 billion rupiah ($330,800); a government spokesman said PT Lapindo Brantas would pay the cost.
The concrete balls method would cost less than other proposed schemes to halt the mud volcano, Dr Fauzi said.
Brian Simpson, an engineer from Arup Geotechnics, said the plan was a "long shot" and would have to overcome many difficulties.

The mud leak has submerged several villages
One of the problems, he said, was by slowing the mud down, you would inevitably create pressure, and this pressure could dislodge the blockage or force open another path.
"However, saying that, when swallow holes or pipes form in dams, it is quite a normal procedure to throw in some fairly coarse material to gradually dam it up," he explained.
What it might do, he added, would be to buy the Indonesian authorities some time to create a more effective and final solution.
"However, now this volcano has been flowing for so long it is going to be extremely difficult to stop, but this scheme is probably worth a try, although I doubt it will work," he said.
Professor Richard Davies, of the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University, said: "This is completely unchartered territory - nobody has ever done this before. There is a possibility that the pressure may build, forcing open other vents, possibly exacerbating the situation."
Dr Mads Huuse, a geophysicist at the University of Aberdeen, said: "I don't think this idea has ever been tried before.
"If the mud doesn't just whirl straight past these balls, it could work.
"We think this is a man-made volcano caused by the drilling, and it could really go on for a very long while. Already 10,000-11,000 people are homeless," he added.
"It would be wonderful for them if this works."

Cairo Book Fair Sets Religious Tone

The Cairo Book Fair covers 80,000 square meters with some 1,400 stands of books and CDs [EPA]

Organisers of the Cairo Book Fair, the largest book exhibition of its kind in the Arab world, have said they expect some two million visitors on the fair's last day on Sunday.

Religious works have dominated the 39th annual Cairo Book Fair while literature and scientific texts have taken a back seat.

Millions of Cairenes have been thronging to the fair giving it an air of carnival on the vast exhibition grounds covering 80,000 square meters in northern Cairo with some 1,400 stands of books and CDs.

The fair easily dwarfs similar events held in Beirut, Abu Dhabi and Casablanca.
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"It is a representation of the conservatism in society," said Adel Abdel Moneim, an Arabic language and literature lecturer, who has been coming to the fair for years, referring to the vast numbers of inexpensive religious books on offer. "Still for someone who likes to read or follow new publications, the book fair every year is a golden chance," he said. 'Guest of honour'
Following the example of the Frankfurt Bookfair, the Cairo event has designated a country as a "guest of honor", with Italy this year following up from Germany's emergence last year. The event has included literary salons held far from the restless crowds surging through the crumbling fair grounds including one featuring Claudio Magris and Antonio Tabucchi, Italian intellectuals and Alaa al-Aswani and Gamal Ghitani, Egyptian writers, discussing cross-cultural communication. "We still have a long road to travel, but there are encouraging signs of dialogue between the cultures and that can take place through more mutual translations," said Antonio Badini, the Italian ambassador to Cairo. "It is true that the number of publishers from outside the Arab world were rather few and we are trying to encourage them to come," said Nasser al-Ansari, the fair organiser and head of the country's largest publisher, the General Egyptian Book Organisation. Naguib Mahfouz
By far the most popular figure at this year's book fair was recently deceased author Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt's own Nobel winner, whose novels about families in Cairo's popular quarters introduced Egyptian literature to millions around the world. "I think that his [Mahfouz's] books will be the great success of this fair," al-Ansari said.
"Apart from the religious books of course." Of the 700 Egyptian and Arab publishers at the fair, the vast majority stock religious books on their shelves.
"Even we reserve about a quarter of our catalog for them," al-Ansari said. Television preachers
Korans of all styles, from the simple to the leather-bound, share shelf space with collections of religious sayings and fatwas as well as their more modern incarnations on cassettes and compact disks. The collected works of late venerable preachers like Egypt's Sheikh Mohammed Shaarawi and Saudi Arabia's Abdel Aziz bin Baz were present as well, though there was stiff competition from the young "new look" television preachers like Amr Khaled. "It's become a real business, but this fundamentalism comes from Saudi Arabia and stays with the cynical encouragement of the powers that be," said Alaa al-Aswani, a best-selling Egyptian author whose social satire the "Yacoubian Building" has achieved fame far beyond Egypt's borders.
Anti-Christian
The fair also has its darker sides, with anti-Christian polemics advocating conversion to Islam as the only solution to a flawed religion and of course plenty of editions of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" for sale. "It makes up a big part of our success, especially among the 18 to 25 crowd," said Mahmud Abdallah of the Syrian-Egyptian Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi publishing house. "Allowing the sale of books like 'Mein Kampf' is a total scandal," said Mohammed Arkoun, professor emeritus of Islamic history at the Sorbonne, for whom the Arab cultural production, at least as seen through the lens of the Cairo Book Fair, "reflects above all, a certain emptiness."
Censor
Partly this could be because certain books didn't make it to the fair. As Lebanese publisher Dar al-Adab discovered when the boxes containing works by Milan Kundera, Nikos Kazantzakis and noted Egyptian authors Nawal al-Saadawi and Edward al-Kharrat were missing. "We knew from previous experience that the censor had banned them," said Nabil Nofal, a member of the sales team, adding that they never receive official notification or explanation for why the books weren't allowed. According to literary observers, subject matters involving sex, controversial politics and attacks on religion set off alarms among the censors.

EGYPT BLOGGER MAINTAINS INNOCENCE

The judge in Egypt's first trial prosecuting a blogger for writings critical of the country's religious authorities said on Thursday he will deliver his verdict on February 22.Lawyers for Abdel Kareem Nabil say he could face up to 11 years in prison if convicted of insulting Islam by the court in the city of Alexandria.
In a heated exchange during Thursday’s court session a prosecution lawyer accused 222-year-old Nabil of being an "apostate".

Nabil, who has been in detention since November, pleaded innocent to charges of insulting Islam, harming the peace and insulting President Hosni Mubarak.
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"I don't see what I have done," he said from the defendant’s cage. "I expressed my opinion...the intention was not anything like these [charges]."Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, has often denounced Islamic authorities and criticised Mubarak on his Arabic-language blog.
The judge, Ayman al-Akazi, said he would announce his verdict on February 22. The trial began in Alexandria on January 18.Amnesty call
Nabil's detention has caused outrage among human rights groups.
On Thursday Amnesty International called for Nabil's "immediate and unconditional release."
Nabil "is being prosecuted on account of the peaceful expression of his views about Islam and the al-Azhar religious authorities," Malcolm Smart, the group's Washington-based Middle East and North Africa Program director, said in a statement.
Nabil was thrown out of Al-Azhar University because of his writings and the institution pressed authorities to put him on trial.
Prosecution arguments in Thursday's session were given by a team of Islamist lawyers who volunteered to serve as the "representatives of the people," an arrangement allowed under Egyptian law.
The government's state prosecutors, who drew up the legal case against Nabil, were not present.
Nabil "has hurt every Muslim across the world," argued one of the lawyers, Mohammed Dawoud. He urged the judge to hand Karim the maximum punishment
Dawoud called Nabil an "apostate" sparking shouts from the defence lawyers and a heated exchange until the judge demanded order.Nabil's defence lawyers avoided making a case for Nabil's right to write about Islam, instead focusing on technical aspects and arguing that the prosecution's written case against Nabil was incomplete.
Seif el-Islam, the chief defence lawyer said the court should appoint an expert to examine the evidence. The defense has raised questions whether the Internet server was based in Egypt and therefore whether a crime was committed in Egypt.Blogger arrestsFellow defence lawyer Mohsen Bahnasawi argued that crimes related to the Internet were new in Egypt and that the penal code did not cover them.
Dawoud asked the judge to add a fourth charge of "insulting a sect," punishable with another five years in prison. The judge did not immediately respond.
"I want him [Nabil] to get the toughest punishment," Dawoud told The Associated Press. "I am on a jihad here ... If we leave the likes of him without punishment, it will be like a fire that consumes everything."
Egyptian security forces arrested a number of bloggers last year - usually in connection with their links to protests by democratic reform activists.
All have been released, except Nabil, who was the only one to deal with the sensitive topic of religion in his writings.
In his blog, where he uses the name Kareem Amer, Nabil was a fierce critic of conservative Muslims and in particularly of al-Azhar, which he denounced as "the university of terrorism".