The woman who stood up to Saudi stereotypes: Manal al Sharif

The Saudi woman who dared to drive is back in the news

"Manal Al Sharif is a Saudi woman who was courageous enough to be a face for an underground women rights movement in Saudi. You see, in Saudi there are many women and men who oppose how women are treated in Saudi, but rarely do you find someone who’s willing to come out in public and state their opposition.

You can’t blame them, though, since the consequences of such a stand touch upon every aspect of a person’s life. They could lose their livelihood and be harassed by co-workers, family, neighbours and even friends

A perpetual procrastinator finds a solution to her putting-things off:

"I decided to take a different approach. Instead of thinking “I need to do [insert whole mega-task here]“, I said to myself ”I will now spend one hour …….”

This was an achievable goal. I knew I probably would not get the whole job done in that time, but I knew I could work on it for that amount of time. Being a perfectionist, I tend to put off starting jobs if I think there is a chance I may fail. This was a way of setting myself up for success."

"“We have died enough. We die on a daily basis but what enrages me most is that our death is still primitive and happens so easily, which affirms our inability to learn more about it. It is like dying for the first time,” Satirist Muhammad Tommaleih, wrote, foreshadowing but not fearing death that will one day consume all.

The above quote by Tommaleih was featured in an article written in Arabic by Muhammad Shamma, a Jordanian journalist and radio presenter, who mourned Tommaleih, Jordan’s first and foremost satirical writer, who passed away on Monday, October 13."

"I haven't made bread in while so when I was looking for inspiration for a new recipe to go with this week's Bravo's “Around the World in 80 Plates” which is going to be in Florence, Italy (June 6th 10/9c),

I was to excited to see this bread on the menu of nearly every restaurant and bakery menu I came across. The dough is a snap to put together, very elastic to work with and for a homemade yeast bread, does not need a ton of rising time. It is truly a simple, delicious, classic Italian bread."