Kursus Kahwin

It's almost 1am but my eyes and brain aren't shutting off yet, so here's an update:

I didn't have much of a weekend this week because the two days were spent in a Kursus Kahwin. Yup, I knew one only need to attend it once in a lifetime and since I have already attended one almost 11 years ago (time flies!), I am exempted now. But, I still went.

I went for a few reasons:

1. I went alone the first time round and my main niat at the time was to get the cert to proceed with the marriage registration. Pretty much that was it. My then other half and I were in the UK at the time and we couldn't come back for the course together so alone I went. Although I couldn't remember much now, but I can still remember how I felt 'alone' at the time. Having to spend almost 2 days with perfect strangers learning about marriage was quite a torture (I was only 23 years old or so at the time , so please excuse my self centred-ness). All I wanted was for the course to finish fast and leave hence didn't pay much attention to the content of the course. This time round, I went with my other half and a couple more friends in tow. I know it sounds silly but I felt more 'belonged' so my focus was more on the issues discussed knowing that my other-half was learning with me too. Lebih penghayatan lah bak kata omputeh!

2. I went because I wanted to learn this time round and that was truly the main reason. 11 years ago, I was a young, naive girl, plunging myself into marriage thinking that love conquers all (how silly I was eh). Today, much wiser (I hope), I am blessed to be given the chance to have another go at marriage insyaallah and I just want to make sure I am well-prepared this time round - mentally and spiritually, supported by sufficient knowledge. If attending another kursus kahwin is one of the ways to achieve that, so be it.

3. I am a curious girl, as curious as a cat (ok, maybe I am just a plain kepoh!). I was curious to know whether the syllabus of the course has changed 11 years on or whether the course is still dominated by male chauvanists championing polygamy at every chance they could as how it was back in the late 90s. I am happy to say, things have changed and improved. The topics may not have changed much but the presenters are now well-informed, updated and most importantly, non-biased. I smiled to myself whenever they talked about women's rights in marriage because those were hardly discussed during the course 11 years ago. Frankly, that gave me some form of relief and a ray of hope... maybe JAKIM, JAIS & JAWI have managed to kick or dilute out their old MCP officers afterall...