 Speak Your PeaceShedding Light On Size Discrimination By ISAA Arab Nations President Fatima Parker "I was praying to leave the hospital. I went there with heavy bleeding and I left with depression." I am in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), a Muslim Arab Emirate in the Gulf, a very peaceful and oil-wealthy small country. This is a cosmopolitan country and a very good base for business and culture. They are very advanced in technology and Media. This is my second year here. A friend introduced me to a size acceptance website over two years ago. When I read it, I was in tears because I felt like a lost child that had found his mother. It said everything I was only thinking about and trying to convince myself and other people around me of. The more I read, the stronger I became. I was working for a television station then and wanted to help other people who where suffering as I was and teach them all that I have learned. Men here are not in as much pain as women. Due to the lifestyle of people here and the traditions, many things that women in the West can do, women here cannot. It is extremely hot to walk outside after the month of May. Women do not mix with men in gyms and pools. Moving around is very hard in this weather, so everything is done using an air-conditioned car. Fat people here have the same problems as in the west: fat phobic doctors, people look at you (negatively) in the street, no (plus-sized) clothes. Fat actors are mainly into comedy, girls find it hard to get married. Beauty is thin. This is not only in the UAE, it is all over the Arab world. The original people from here are very thin in nature. In the past, fat women were the ones that got a husband first, but now and due to the Western media, only the thin ones are sexy; the rest are ugly. I have been trying for two years to talk about size acceptance here; I have not been taken seriously. Anything with fat in it is a joke. I was told that this is not an important issue; that fat people bring it on themselves, they eat a lot. They live in closed communities here. The myth of fat people eating too much does not apply to all. I have been for over a year suffering from Anemia. I am 1.68 meters (5 feet, 5 inches tall) and 240 pounds. I eat as healthy as I can, but every time I am told that I am too fat, I reduce my food intake (which is not very much in the first place). I find that Doctors in the UK and here in the UAE have no idea about us big people. I was suffering from chest pains when I walked fast. Both doctors here and in the UK insisted on giving me an ECG (that turned out normal), then said go lose weight and exercise. I was not happy about their advice. I was too sick and in too much pain but according to them, it was my weight.
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