#5 Empathy

"He shook his head and held out his hand for the letter. Parvana folded it and gave it back to him. His hands trembled as he put the letter back in the envelope. she saw a tear fall from his eye. It rolled down his cheek until landed in his beard. 'My wife is dead.'" pg. 79

This paragraph shows how Deborah Ellis is a great empathic author. She makes the readers feel for the characters. Authors make the readers feel empathy by using descriptive words and words that make you feel a certain way. For example when you use the word trembled instead of shook it makes the writing better and more interesting. It helps the reader know what the characters are feeling.When I read that paragraph I feel sadness for the Taliban solider and I feel that Parvana would feel a bit awkward because a man who she thought was scary and mean was crying in front of her. Sometimes the author will use empathy right at the end of the chapter so the reader is dying to read more.

In the stories we are writing for Ms Weldon, I have a lot of empathetic moments. I have writing that makes you want to cry for the characters and others that make you want to jump for joy. Empathetic writing is not the easiest thing to do but when you think about what makes you happy or sad it gets easier. When I was writing my story and I wanted the reader to feel happy I thought of words that, to me, sound happy. I used ecstatic in stead of excited or depressed instead of very sad. I hope that if you every read my story that you will feel exactly the way I wanted you to.

Deborah Ellis is an exactly writer and I hope to, someday, be as good as her!

#4 Burqas

I walk down the busy market street with my 10 year old brother as my chaperon. I see a Taliban soldier on the other side of the street I fall to the ground and hide at my brothers feet. They ask my brother, is this a relative he answers, yes this is my sister. They leave us alone and move to the next group of men. As I stand up I ripe my burqa, the only thing I have keeping me safe from the Taliban is now ruined. My brother and I run home as fast as possible so I can borrow my mothers burqa and go back to work in the market place.

Woman in Muslim countries have to wear burqas, it is probably is very stuffy under the material, that only gives you about a 3 inch whole for you to see out of. Can you imagine wearing something like a burqa in the heat of Afghanistan. I think that I would faint from the heat. Woman have to still finish their everyday chores in their burqas. Something as easy as walking up stairs would be difficult because you would keep tripping over the fabric.

When you think about how the woman have to dress in Muslim countries we take it for granted that we can wear our shorts or our bikinis with out getting beaten or taken to jail. The woman are wearing burqas that goes down passed their ankles and here at SJK girls are getting mad when our teachers tell us our kilts are too short. We are lucky here in Canada that girls and woman have the same rights as men. Could you imagine a life where all the women in Canada had to cover themselves from head to toe? I couldn't.

If I had to wear a burka I think that I would get frustrated with it. I would probably keep tripping. If girls were forced to wear burkas in Canada I think that I would want to move to a different place because I don't think it's fair for there to be discrimination against a certain gender. If every Taliban soldier had to live a day like the women did I think the would stop making the them wear burqas.

I was researching on google, that some women like the burqas, I don't think I would. Some women like them because it is a part of their religion, but they still believe that the should not have to wear the burqas all the time. I think that I would hate the burqa and that I would get rid of it the first opportunity I had. But I guess it's all based on opinion. When I see the women wearing the burqas, it makes me think just how strong some women are. They just wont give up!