Mona Eltahawy Instagram – Happy Father’s Day to my Baba, who in that first picture is holding me 18 days after I was born, and can you see the big mouth I already had?!
My Baba and Mama have three children and my brother, sister, and I are so wonderfully different.
I post a similar caption every Father’s Day.
Today, and every day, I celebrate the ways my dad has taught my siblings and me that fatherhood means love, kindness, and a heart that is big enough to be proud of us in all our differences.
Before we began to more publicly use such phrases as positive depictions of fatherhood and masculinity, my dad modeled those ways for us, showing us what a loving, gentle, nurturing and supportive man and father could be.
I grew up with a love of film and endless curiosity because my dad would take me to the Saturday morning cartoons at the cinema and along the way would answer all the questions of his inquisitive little girl.
I grew up learning to pay attention to the world because I grew up watching the news with my dad—so much so that when I told him I wanted to be a journalist and not a doctor like my parents, he said do it!
And I grew up watching football with my dad and to love it (see the third picture where we’re watching the opening match of the men’s 2014 World Cup)—so much so that even though I support Manchester United and he and my brother and my brother’s family all support Liverpool, we still love watching matches together.
And I grew up arguing and debating issues with my dad—loudly and with gusto!—in ways that encouraged me to continue to ask questions and to question authority everywhere.
And for all of that, I am so grateful!
Thank you for all the ways you have encouraged and nurtured my curiosity—for film and football, for this world and the importance of justice and freedom for all of us who live in it—and how, together with Mama, you have shown my siblings and me how to be loving, kind, and big-hearted people in this world.
I love you, Baba!
Sending love to all Baba’s who nurture curiosity 💜✊🏽❤️
#fathersday | Posted on 16/Jun/2024 20:41:02
