"When I was young, I liked to look at the starry sky and think what lies beyond the stars. Maybe there's a great creator at the end of the universe, and he created the whole universe." Rana Asrah, a Taiwanese woman, shares the story of how she became a Muslim and is helping to build a connection between Taiwan and Islamic cultures.
As Rana Asrah was growing up she came into contact with different religions such as Buddhism and Christianity. This happened even more when she was in college, as students from different religious societies invited Rana to join their activities. "But their doctrines didn't convince me. Until I had the chance to learn Islamic doctrines, and I discovered where my belief belonged," she says. In the Quran, the relationship between Allah and the world and all mankind is clear, and this fit her viewpoint of the universe. "Just one month after the first time I visited a mosque, I decided to become a Muslim," Rana recalls.
After she married her Pakistani husband, Rana Amran Ameen, she continued promoting South Asian culture. Rana Asrah said that Pakistan and India were once a single country which split in 1947 because of religion. But in many ways, the two countries share similar languages and customs such as tastes in food and fashions. Because her husband is from Pakistan, she has learned more about South Asia history and culture in the past few years.
Rana Amran Ameen is a trader who purchases clothing from India and Pakistan and sells it in Taiwan. He notes frankly that people in Taiwan are more familiar with India than Pakistan, so he concentrates more effort on selling Indian fashions here. Besides selling clothing, he also runs an Indian restaurant. "I was a school teacher for several years. To help my husband's business, I quit," Rana Asrah says. When she got involved in the restaurant business, she learned more about Indian dining culture. For example, curry is a generalized term which refers to South Asian dishes with a lot of spices; in Taiwan, many people still view curry as a particular kind of dish.
In addition, she also learned about materials and styles in South Asian fashion when she purchased clothing and jewelry from India and Pakistan with her husband to sell to Taiwan's market. "I must know more than my customers so I can explain the history of the dishes and clothing to them. If they know the stories behind the food and clothing, they will enjoy them more," Rana says. She adds that when she was young, she was keenly interested in ancient civilizations. Thus she felt no pressure in learning the history of South Asian customs and cultures. Besides, her Taiwanese customers liked to listen to her tell her stories.
Because Rana is interested in South Asian cultures and likes to share these with her friends and customers, she has supported and attended South Asian cultural events and performances in Taiwan as well, such as the Taichung Film Festival (for Indian movies), the Taiwan India Festival in the Taipei area, the Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival in Yilan, the New Moon Literary Award, the Coromandel Express (Indian music) Concert and the Happy Diwali Exhibition in Taipei.
Moreover, because their business is focused on South Asian cultures, people who like South Asian fashions such as Indian movies, Indian dance, and the beauty of Sali like to gather in Rana's shop and talk about their thoughts and experience. This has made Rana's shop a non-official center for South Asian cultures in Taipei.
When business people or officials from South Asia and Muslims from overseas come to Taiwan, they need to find a proper restaurant for dining, and Rana's restaurant, Taj Indian Restaurant, serves as a good choice. Rana hired an Indian chef with a license, so the chef knows how to prepare food properly to fit customers' religious rules. The restaurant also gained a Halal certificate (a certificate which proves that food is prepared under Islamic rules) and Muslim customers do not need to worry about breaking any rules. Besides the food, some performances have been held in the restaurant such as Qawalli parties and New Moon Literary Award Ceremonies.
Since one of Muslims' duties is to promote Islamic doctrines, Rana writes about her religion and life experiences on her blog and tries to introduce her Taiwanese readers to Islam from other aspects rather than watching TV news from the viewpoint of the American mainstream. "When some people talk about Islam, they tend to describe it in a negative tone, but that's not true," Rana says. She says she enjoys her life as a Muslim, her in-laws were very friendly to her, and she likes to share her delight with others, so she constantly updates her blog with diaries, introductions to movies about the Islamic world, and news about events related to Muslims in Taiwan.
Rana says she has liked recording incidents in her life since she was young, so it has long been her habit to write. For her, writing is a way to record her life and share her feelings with friends. When she read a column about readers' contributions to the United Daily News (聯合報), she thought she might give it a try and sent in some of her stories. The editor published her stories and encouraged her to write more and to collect her stories publication as a book. That was the story of her first book about her marriage and her experience of life in Pakistan—Spread Love, In Pakistan (愛在巴基斯坦蔓延).
"I hope more Muslims can share their experiences in writing. It would be helpful for people in Taiwan to know the reality of our life," Rana says. She is thankful to Vista Publishing Co. (遠景出版社) for publishing her book and the New Moon Literary Journal (新月文學報), which collects the stories of winners of the New Moon Literary Award. She says that because in Taiwan, unlike Buddhists, Taoists, and Christians, Muslims do not have access to many media to express their voices, most people in Taiwan do not know very much about Islamic doctrines and misunderstand much of the religion. She once hoped there would be a Muslim Journal in Taiwan to help spread Islam. After Vista Publishing Co. published her book, she discussed her idea with the editor and got a positive response—which led to the New Moon Literary Award and New Moon Literary Journal. Now Rana is the chief editor of the New Moon Literary Journal. Things seem to be going smoothly. "Allah had His plan," she says.
In Taiwan, people can choose their religions freely, and every religious organization can have its own publications. Rana says she hopes more Muslims will submit their stories to the New Moon Literary Journal. Out of curiosity I asked her, "In some American mainstream media, they say that in some Islamic countries, a woman's right to receive an education is limited. How do you feel about this?" She answers, "That is not Islamic doctrine. In the Quran, women have the same rights to vote and receive an education as men. Some people think that Islamic doctrines limit women's right to get an education, but that is a misunderstanding. What limits women's rights is local customs, not the doctrines of the Quran."
Rana then explains that when people see her wearing a head scarf, they always think that her husband asked her to do so, but that is not true. "When I decided to help his business, I started to wear the scarf. That was my decision. He even asked me if I was sure I wanted to wear it at that time," she recalls. She says that she prayed to Allah to bless her husband's business, and she thought wearing a head scarf would show her determination in praying. That was the true reason she began wearing a scarf. "My husband does not have the power to tell me what I should wear," she smiles.
Afterwards, Rana mentions that she hopes people will learn more about the Quran, whether or not they are Muslims. She thinks that even some Muslims do not read the Quran closely enough and have some misunderstanding about Islamic doctrines. For non-Muslims, she hopes that if they can read the Quran and its translations, they will have a fair opinion of Islam.
Because of her religion, Rana has been working to link Islam with the people of Taiwan, and because of her marriage, she has become a bridge between the cultures of Taiwan and South Asia. Her passion for writing means that people can learn more about her cross-cultural experiences. The next time you attend an Indian or Islamic culture event, you may see Rana and her husband there.
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