The first time i read about death of a blogger, was death of Azita, author of “Zane Rashti” ( Rashti woman), a 34 years old female blogger from a northern city in Iran who was living in Tehran, the capital. She had a challenge with breast cancer and was writing daily events of her life from a feminine point of view.
The time she started blogging, there were not many Iranians who knew what blog and blogging is. But i can say her death made a big difference in the Iranian blogsphere. Since a journalist wrote a report on her short life of blogging and her death in Hamshahri newspaper, a best selling paper in Iran.
Her death made me sad, for i was part of the farsi blogsphere that time and i was reader of her honest words and liked her style of writing. Now i read another news today, the sudden death of a young female blogger who battled for a freer media in the restrictive Saudi Arabia kingdom.
Hadeel Alhodaif died last Friday after failing to emerge from a coma she fell unexpectedly into last month, just two days after her 25th birthday. She was author of Heaven’s Steps.
I dont know why. She just reminds me of Azita, who dared cancer and battled for a better life with a better end maybe? And now about Hadeel, i have a similar feeling. Really i have the same sadness, the same mourning.
Did it happen for you that you have a musical instrument which nothing comes out of its strings but a harsh sound? Then someday you meet an expert musician and he/she plays a nice song with that instrument. And you understand how much that instrument is precious for you.
I think Azita, Hadeel and every other blogger are those musicians and they play string of our hearts with their words. Now those who are expert, will always leave a trace in mind.. They have no end..
I know i am not that expert composer. I am just happy that i have my shoutbox to dedicate it. From an Iranian female blogger, who will not forget Azita, and Hadeel and those i love their sincere words here, those who are buttling for a better world, those who leave a trace. It’s something from Iran, for a female Saudi blogger that i would not know her, if she didnt have a shoutbox too.
Just a Dedication to Hadeel..
May 26, 2008 at 11:38 pm
You’ve written a beautiful tribute to Hadeel. I love the metaphor of musical instruments for the words of a blogger. We do come to appreciate one another. We do come to “know” each other, in a different way than a face-to-face relationship, but also genuine. Why else would we blog?
We are a group of bloggers who read each other’s blogs with regularity. There are millions of active blogs these days, so surely there must be thousands of groups of bloggers like us who read each other’s blogs with regularity and come to appreciate one another.
And the circle widens.
May 27, 2008 at 12:11 am
Nice
May 27, 2008 at 12:46 am
As morbid as it sounds, I often wonder what would happen if one of my blogging friend’s passed on. How would I ever find out about it, especially if their family and friends did not know of their blog, and think to inform their readers? In my case, very few people from my everyday life know about my blog… maybe I should add a clause to my will: please inform my blogging friends that I have died, so they can pray for me! It sounds funny to write, but perhaps it is worth having some kind of system in place?
Actually, a couple of months ago we became very worried when one of the Ijtema.net editors went missing unexpectedly. Alhamdulillah, he returned a week later unharmed, but because of that incident all the team members have swapped phone numbers so we can get in touch if we are ever in same position again, Allah forbid.
May 27, 2008 at 1:19 am
Good idea, iMuslim. Do most bloggers keep their blogs private, inaccessible to the people with whom they interact directly, at home, at work, in a group of friends? I do. It’s part of the sincerity of my blog. No one can censor me, essepecially before I put my fingers to the keyboard. However, I am but a speck of sand in the blogoshpere.
Hadeel was so well known that her disappearence could not have been shrouded in mystery, though now it is shrouded in mystery of another kind. May Allah rest her soul, and make her work on Earth fruitful even now that she’s gone.
May 27, 2008 at 1:38 am
Interesting… my blog is separate from my life too. I’ll instruct my brother to post if anything ever goes wrong.
Shahrzad, this is such a beautiful post, you are a great musician yourself.
May 27, 2008 at 1:50 am
Grrr…I can’t read Arabic!!! And Google Reader makes the English translation incomprehensible!! I hope what they write truly is beautiful. I don’t know if I ever will be able to read Arabic because there are no schools around here that teach it, I refuse to use self-teaching software (because they are often inaccurate themselves), and unfortunately I live in the States and most people still view anything Mid-Eastern in negative tones, so it would dampen my efforts to learn Arab and Iranian.
(I don’t hold these views because I actually studied Islam years before the 9/11 incident — how come Americans hate being stereotyped, but we sure do mind stereotyping others?)
May 27, 2008 at 2:17 am
what a wonderful tribute to Hadeel. May Allah bring peace to her soul.
And, ahem….yes…no one knows about my blog and I wanted it that way. Althou, I am really active in other parts of the internet, but this blog…i wanted to keep this one to myself
May 27, 2008 at 2:19 am
Oh! Thats really sad.
Though I havent witness any situation as such, But I understand how difficult it must be for anyone.
As it is said, ‘ Live life in such a way that People shall smile as well as cry whenever remembered ‘.
May Allah grant her Jannat-al-Firdous
May 27, 2008 at 3:03 am
May Allah bless their souls…and bless everyone of us with Jannah ( Ameen ).
May 27, 2008 at 11:11 am
Innal lahe wa ina illaihe rajaoon. May their souls rest in peace.
I have fears similar to those of iMuslim.
And you my dear are the greatest musician. I love your music
May 27, 2008 at 7:59 pm
A moving tribute.
May 27, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I wonder the same as you iMuslim and Achelois. I wonder what would happen…
May 27, 2008 at 11:42 pm
We are all manifestations (spokes) emanating outward from out shared consciousness. The bloggers we respect and admire represent the goodness and humanity that we aspire for. Your kind words about these women remind us of that truth. Freedom of speech (especially in the blogosphere) is necessary to protect human rights and prevent oppression.
May 28, 2008 at 12:05 am
Assalamu’alaikum Sharzad
Beautiful tribute to our friend. Very touching.
Indeed you makes me remember of my sister that passed away last year just 3 day before Eid Fitr because of breast cancer too. At that time I was away over 10,000km in this Africa continent to be exact in Cotonou, Benin. First I received bad news while I was in queue to check-in to go to Cotonou from Bamako her house was gutted by fire while her still in hospital. I am very sad. Just 2 weeks before that I talked to her over the phone. She sounded tired but when I asked her, “are you sick”, her reply quite common for my elder sister, “ok I am no problem, just normal sickness!”.
Sharzad sorry to share my memoir about my sister
Thanks
May 28, 2008 at 1:14 am
May Allah give them Jannat al Firdaws….ameen
May 28, 2008 at 1:52 am
A question that popped into my head while reading this is: how long does a blog stay around after someone dies? Do most places have some sort of accounting of a user’s activities so that they notice when someone stops blogging? Or are the author’s of many blogs I’ve read already dead? In reading books, I have to assume a fairly recent book has a living author unless I’ve heard otherwise. I have to assume the death of the authors of very old books, but blogs? Does a lack of updates or recent postings within a year, two years or three mean the author lost interest, computer access, or that they died?
May 28, 2008 at 2:43 am
My condolences on the loss of your friend.
May 28, 2008 at 3:49 am
I’m really sorry about the loss of your friend, it’s hard finding out this way. We find out about so much about our blogging friends through their blogs, promotions at work, celebrations, pregnancies, marriages.. but death is hard because once that friend disappears, how do you really know what happened? I think there should be some system in place to inform others right away, it only seems right.
May 30, 2008 at 6:04 pm
“Shout box” interesting word…as an interpreter, I pay particular attention to words, and this one is interesting. I remember when I first came to the U.S. and heard the word “boom box”, I never associated it with a radio with loud speakers. You know Shahrazad, when I took an ‘art translation’ class, the first thing the instructor told the whole class (because we were all from different Spanish-speaking countries with different accents [although Americans have different accents depending on what state they're from]), and the first thing the instructor told us was to leave our “regional” sayings outside the door, and that we are all different instruments playing it’s part in this big symphony of life…may these blessed bloggers continue to resonate through time and space…