Hello there beautiful people!
My name is bint alshamsa and I’m going to be guest-blogging here at Feministe for the next two weeks. I’m not sure how to transition into a formal introduction, so I’ll just start by telling you a little about me.
I was born and raised in the wonderful city of New Orleans down in Dixie (i.e. the state of Louisiana). Like many people who were New Orleanians before Hurricane Katrina and Rita, I find myself splitting my time between there and the surrounding areas. Because of the health care crisis that exists in New Orleans, I’m forced to spend much of my time in Baton Rouge, so that I can get the treatments that I need.
That brings me to the next thing I suppose I should say. I’m a PWD. That’s short for “person with disabilities”. I have chondrosarcoma (a type of bone cancer that affects one in every ten million people), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), asthma and a host of health issues that go along with having these conditions.
At My Private Casbah (my blog), I tend to write about disability rights issues and my experiences as a 32 year-old woman of color attempting to engage in radical parenting. I am the mother of one child, an amazing teen-aged womanist and disability activist-in-training.
I’m really looking forward to interacting with folks for these next two weeks and I hope that we can have some really engaging and spirited conversations. If I’m lucky, maybe we can even challenge some assumptions that people tend to make about others.
I don’t wan to forget to mention the fact that I also have two rescued cats, a meezer named Noor and a tabby named Layla and I love, love, love them. They’re both really gorgeous. In fact, they are prettier than your cats, all of them. That is all.