Last week, Sabah, the iconic Lebanese actress and singer passed away at the age of 87. Sabah had been known for living her life to the fullest. She married 9 times and was very obsessed with her looks. In a bid to suppress signs of old age; she had to go under the knife several times.
Sabah was also known for her generosity, as she reportedly spent all her fortune on her family and loved ones and ended up broken in the final days of her life. Sabah was greatly loved by not only Lebanese but she was also very popular across the Arab world. Her art was appreciated at many levels. She used to act and sing with great passion. She simply created a legacy whether we agreed with her art or not. What was really sad and annoying was that during the past few years, Sabah’s age or should we say longevity became the central theme of various crude jokes. “The dinosaur,” “the woman whom death is afraid of,” “we will all die then Sabah will rest in peace” are some of the examples of the callousness of people toward others. We all believe that life and death is not in our hands, we don’t choose when to die or how many years are we going to live, we simply have the choice as to how to lead our lives, and Sabah made her choice to live her life to the fullest and without hiding anything from the public. One of the men she married was 37 years younger than her. Her choice to live her life was like a green card for the public to always discuss and criticize her on different levels, and to be honest that’s just normal, when you make choices you should take the responsibility and bear the consequences.
It is disgraceful to judge people in principle, but it is worse when we judge them and make joke of them just because they are alive, like they are breathing our share of air or depriving us of our share of food. We should open our eyes and just remind ourselves that there are certain things in life that we will never have the luxury to choose and age is one of them. Those people who made fun of Sabah would never know how they are going to end; they might simply die old and alone without anyone noticing them. It is vital to respect human lives and not joke about things that are not in our hands.
Another thing that really surprises me is the obsession with youthful looks. Why are we obsessed with staying young forever? We all like to appear good and groomed and it is fine but when these feelings turn into an obsession then there is something wrong. Why people are not allowed to age gracefully anymore? Why a woman is judged if she is having wrinkles? Why her decision not to undergo surgeries is not respected?
I believe we really need to think twice before we judge others either famous or not.
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@HatoonKadi
