Friday, November 27, 2015

In God We Trust - Ranti Aryani: Merentang Hijab dari Indonesia sampai Amerika

You might find this book quite boring just by taking a look at the cover because it's sort of too formal and stiff; well, it is, for me. I like to read an autobiography novels, but this one is the most rigid. However, it is a good autobiography written by Ranti Aryani, who was a former military officer in USA. It was first published in 2013 and told us about her ups and downs during the struggle to maintain her hijab back then.

Ranti Aryani, an Indonesian muslim, who was born and raised in Bogor, lived happily and well as the only daughter out of the other 3 brothers, which made her was so close with her dad and mom. Her childhood was sadly introduced with legal issues due to the company's problem faced by her mother. By time, more problems had come to her childhood life and slowly disrupted it. That's what started her to try to find out the meaning of life. Then she met someone who inspired her to learn more about her religion, and made her to attend a pesantren in between her busyness of studying at school. Her first struggle was when she decided to wear hijab when she'd started her study at SMPN IV Bogor. But, wearing hijab wasn't as easy as she thought before; instead, she had to undergo her early teenage life hard because at that time (in Soeharto's era) hijab was strongly prohibited to wear by the government. She and some of her friends kept their hijab at school, and finally they were permitted to wear it freely.

The struggle hadn't ended yet; after she got her bachelor degree in Indonesia and married to an American muslim, she had to move to the USA with his husband due to Indonesia's monetary crisis on 1998. Her struggle was much harder since the incident of WTC attack on September 11, 2001 was happened when she had moved to America--which caused the discrimination for Muslims was worse. In there, she also continued her study and enrolled for military officer (as a dentist). Still, it didn't get easier for her to get in there just because the matter of her hijab, though at the end she finally got accepted as a military dentist. Moreover, she got the Dental Corp Captain military rank there. Unfortunately, her 14 months of devotion in USAF should be passed by terrible discrimination because of the same reason.

All the storms that kept coming to her life made her realize that she should understand every lessons given by Allah swt. through those rain and storms. She then found a great man who led her to know herself better, and her understanding made her to feel and see that all of the problems in her life was the form of God's affection for her to make herself be a better human being and to teach her to have stronger soul for facing the future life.

Truthfully, sorry to say this again, I find this book quite boring, but once again it's a very good writing especially for those who are interested in religious or spiritual stories because this book is dominated by Mrs. Ranti's spiritual adventure. I'm actually not that kind of person, but I'm interested in this book because I like her adventure in America while struggling with her hijab through the hard discrimination there. It has inspired me to be brave to keep my hijab no matter how hard the storms try to ruin it.

So, are you as much interested in this story as mine? :)

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