Tired of Being Called 'Uncultured' and Grabbed by My Aunt Over a History Debate
Assalamu alaikum, I need to get this off my chest because today was just awful and I feel like I'm losing it. My aunt (46f) is one of the most narrow-minded and toxic people I've ever met. She's obsessed with the past, blindly devoted to traditional Arab culture, hates anything Western, and is just so rigid and arrogant. The funny thing is she has a PhD in psychology but she's the most unhinged person when it comes to communication-no logic, no empathy, zero respect for personal boundaries. She just uses intimidation, shame, and power trips on everyone. Today, they were showing some documentary or clip about ancient Arab history on TV. I grew up in the digital age reading mystery novels, watching anime and Spacetoon, learning languages, getting into tech, and just being curious about the whole world. I love learning about everything without hating on other cultures or blindly idolizing one thing. She started questioning me about what I knew about that era. I gave her my honest take and she immediately started mocking me. She screamed that I'm detached from my identity, that I have zero culture, and that I'm just trying to copy the West just because I don't have this extreme obsession with ancient poetry and history like she does. I tried to explain my point of view calmly but you cannot reason with her. She worships ancient history and treats it like an absolute cult. When she realized I wasn't backing down or agreeing with her, she snapped. She grabbed my hand super hard, squeezing it to force me to look at her phone screen, forcing me to watch some random video showing ancient Arab poetry. I kept telling her to stop but she was pressing her phone into my face and squeezing my hand, saying, "Look at this, watch it." I felt so violated and suffocated. Like, who does that? Actually using physical force to make someone watch a video because they don't agree with your views? It's pathetic. She thinks having a degree makes her superior but she acts completely uneducated and abusive. I'm just so exhausted dealing with people who mistake toxicity and forced control for preserving culture. I'm keeping my distance from her from now on because I'm completely done trying to be polite. May Allah guide us all to what is right.