Near where I work, there is a small shop that I frequently visit. Not long ago I went in to buy something and could not find it. I saw a boy stacking items on the shelves and asked him where I could find what I wanted.
He looked at me and made strange sounds and I thought he was playing some kind of strange joke. I repeated my question, using my hands to help me and then I heard a group of boys in the back of the shop laughing and making the same movements the boy was making. Then I looked more closely at the boy and saw tears in his eyes; suddenly I understood that he was deaf.
This almost made me physically ill. The boy understood what I wanted because he was able to read my lips. At that time I wished I could have vanished from the face of the earth. What I remember is talking to the boy and trying to apologize before I left the store in complete embarrassment.
Surely this was one of the most difficult situations that I have ever had to deal with. I had never met a deaf boy who was employed in any job. I never imagined that one day I would have to deal with a disabled or handicapped person. I thought that the deaf and the mute had their own places and that they seldom ventured out into what was the normal world for me.
Perhaps I could be excused for thinking this since I had never run across them anywhere — in banks, restaurants or shops. We don’t meet them in our schools or play with them when we are children.
What is society to these people who live behind walls of silence? They are trying to reach out to us but we are unaware and too often uncaring. When will we realize that they are people with souls and feelings just like us?
They are deaf and mute; they are not mentally ill. Some of them were fortunate enough to grow up in an understanding family and they learned to be independent. Others lived with families who treated them as if they were mentally ill and they tragically lock themselves away because they are afraid to face society. I will not talk about the violence that these people, especially women, face nor will I talk about the difficulties and lack of consideration they encounter when dealing with government departments, banks and hospitals.
I will not talk about the frustration they face because of neglect and violence that lead many of them to turn to drugs. What I will talk about is hope. A hope that was created by a woman from our country. She did not run away from the problem as I did but decided to do something about it. She came up with a project that would provide a life with dignity to these people. Not only that, she involved her father in carrying out the project.
This first part of the project is increasing society’s awareness of the needs of this particular group. This project wants to make the group feel that it is not a burden on society.
This project will give them confidence in themselves and also the hope of a future that they can look forward to and one in which they can live with dignity. The second part focuses on cooperative action and Islamic values by giving these people the chance to work in government departments, the media, shops, restaurants, banks, schools, universities and public libraries. This will not take much effort; it requires awareness only and preparing a place for them to work.
This project was the idea of Bayan Naser. Her father was the first to implement it in his stores by employing the deaf. He became an example to others about changing our views of those who live behind walls of silence. We look forward to other businessmen similarly involving themselves in this project. We want to break down this wall and bring those hiding behind it into the sunlight.
