The Lone Star Crescent

Page 1

May 2009 Issue | Online: www.myCRESCENT.com | T: 214-306-7920 | Since 2006 FREE COPY

Confronting

Domestic Violence In The Community By Lena Dirbashi

Omar is not paying attention in class. His grades have slumped drastically in a matter of weeks. A once outgoing 14 year old has now shunned his classmates. Omar’s

Richland Hills near Ft. Worth. Dr. Ahmad started the MCC in 1995 as the first social and medical institution exclusively for the Muslim community in North Texas. The first few sessions were routine. Dr. Ahmad would ask Omar if there was anything going on in his life. Was he being teased at school? Was his teacher picking on him? The answer was always the same, “no, everything is fine.” Dr. Ahmad gets the first clue when Omar mentions on a side note that his parents argue a lot. When the session is over, Dr. Ahmad asks Sara how life was like at home. Sara’s eyes water, because for the first time, someone had given her the opportunity to talk about the trauma that has been going on in her marriage for years. Sara, 40, came to the United States with her husband in 1989 from Egypt on a visitor’s visa. He opened a restaurant business while she stayed at home raising her two children. The first sign of abuse came seven years ago when he threw plates on the floor, breaking dishes because the meal was cold.

mother, Sara, is alarmed when the teacher cautions her that if this is kept up, Omar may have to repeat the 8th grade. Sara takes her son to Dr. Basheer Ahmad, a psychiatrist and chairman of the Muslim Community Center (MCC) located in Continues on P.07 >>>

“The best of you is he who is best to his family, and I am the best of you to my family.” -Hadeeth

EDUCATION SPECIAL Call 214-306-7920 for advertising

ALSO INSIDE:

City Council Candidates reach out to growing number of Muslim voters in the area.

Dr. Nia MacKay elected as the President of Dallas-based Peacemakers Incorporated.

ABOUT DALLAS Third largest city in the state of Texas and eighth largest in the United States. Dallas is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea. With a population of over 1.3 million, the city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that, according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,300,006 making it the number one metropolitan area in population growth in the nation last year. It is also the largest metro area in Texas. DFW International is one of busiest and largest airports in the world.


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