Sip Of The Day

I watched the movie “The Stoning of Soraya M.” recently and it was quite disturbing. It’s an adaptation of a true story from Iran.

First, I found it hard to fathom that a human being could do such an unbelievably wicked thing to another human being, especially the people who is very close to them. In the movie the husband was trying every abominable ways he could to get rid of his wife so he could marry another younger girl. Well, eventually he succeeded at the price of his wife getting stoned to death.

Secondly, I found it hard to believe that women are still considered inferior species to men and have no power whatsoever to defend their fates in some countries. All the decisions are made by men.

Thirdly, the graphic is really disturbing. I was actually doubtful before I watched the movie whether I should watch it or not because I don’t like watching violence in a movie, but I chose to watch it because I like watching true stories and wanted to find out what happened, and I was actually a bit curious how someone was stoned to death. Well I found my answer in the movie that they were tied up and half of their body were buried under ground so there is no way they could run away.

I had many questions and reflections after watching the movie.. Everyday so many unjust things are happening in the world, people are suffering and sacrifices are being made. I’m sure many people have also experienced something similar to what Soraya experienced, even myself albeit in a lesser extent, and some are lucky to be able to defend themselves and served with justice but some are not quite. It raised a big question to me about life and I keep looking for an answer.

Two words came to my mind, first is eternity. Until this second I still believe that there is a God who is just and fair and who is full of love. If the world is our final destination then, well bad luck for some people who have no power over their life and have their destiny handed to them by other people (eg. babies who were aborted). But I believe it’s not.. life on earth is temporary and there is something else which is permanent and it is Eternity. And I believe it is in eternity that everything will be just and fair, and no one could argue or question about God’s existence and His love anymore. And I also believe where and how we will spend eternity is determined by how we live our lives on earth. I just don’t think people who keep doing bad things all their lives and never turn back or redeemed would spend eternity in the same way as people who keep trying to do good all their lives.

Second word that came to my mind is Martyr. We read a lot about this in the bible, they are people who are wrongly accused, suffered greatly and sacrifice their lives for a greater good. All through history these kind of people keep showing up in different persons and names. As I wrote some time ago in this blog, I think it is actually a privilege to be a Martyr and not everyone is qualified to be one. I remember reading a story about someone from South Africa (I forgot his name!) who keeps fighting for removal of apartheid in South Africa. Ironically, before he could achieve his dreams, he was involved in a car accident and he did call the emergency number but nobody came to help him. When he called for the second time and mentioned his name, the operator said, “O sorry, you didn’t mention your name before, we didn’t know you are white. I’ll send someone straight away”. Because it took too long he died in the car accident, to the very same cause that he’s been fighting for all his life. But because of his death, it triggers one of the largest Anti-Apartheid movements and  not long after that Nelson Mandela came to rise. I could give other examples of someone doing a sacrifice and it triggers a big and better change, and they are all “martyrs” in my opinion (I know martyr is normally used for God related sacrifice, but I couldn’t find a more accurate word. The concept is the same). In the case of Soraya M., well her auntie told the story to a British journalist and that’s how the movie was produced.

I hope this is not too deep for a morning discussion lol.. it feels good to start writing again after I’ve been vacuum for few weeks.