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who converted to Islam before her.
It took Heather Matthews two months to go from the breast-exposing vacationer in a Spanish beach to the headscarf wearing dedicated mother.
How did this happen?
Well, she started studying Islam about a year ago to convince her ex-husband, who had converted to Islam, that it was all wrong.
The clincher seems to be her trip to the hedonistic beach in Ibiza, Spain. She went there and posed almost topless, but came back with a hijab covering her.
It never occurred to her that perhaps there is something in between. Turning over a new leaf doesn't mean latching on to the misogynistic Islam. There are other options!
But the bereft Heather had to fill her empty soul with something, and Islam fit the bill.
So what is the moral of the story: Don't go on vacation to Ibiza? Don't divorce? Don't read the Koran?
No. Why not something more moderate like not leaving one's soul so empty that anything with some promise of soothing it becomes the candidate?
Says the new convert Ms. Matthews:
People are probably thinking "Oh, it is just another one of Heather’s fads". It isn’t. It is what I’ve been searching for during the times I’ve been filling my life with instant gratification.
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I hate to say this, but the new Matthews actually does look happier. Her smile is broader, her eyes are less guarded, her skin no longer has the burnt tan, and her cheeks are rosy. She does have make-up on, but not the exaggerated mascara or the dark eye-shadow from her beach-girl days. Her eyebrows are clearly penciled in, but that could be because she lost most of the hair from over-plucking, as her "before" photo shows. She even looks like she's gained some healthy weight.
I don't doubt that Muslims are happy. And hijabed women are not constrained. Their religions gives them order and security. They can smile broadly behind their head scarves because they are protected. Unlike the young vacationers in hedonistic beaches, they are told not to go there, never to expose their skin beyond their face and hands, avoid alchol and other drugs like the devil, and marry and have children. And above all, follow the Koran not just to fill them up spiritually, but to show them their daily paths.
Who doesn't want that, after the chaos of modern life?