Saturday, August 11, 2007

Losing my religion.

I went to re-new my ID card the other day. Had to change from Miss to Mrs. since me and the Mr. are now officially married by Thai law, and I decided to change my religious status too. I used to be Buddhist but had stopped believing for more than 6 years now. I never really identified with the Theravadi Buddhism that's pre-dominant in Thailand anyway, so I didn't want it written on my ID that I do. Simple enough, I didn't expect to be turned in to 'the woman with no soul' at the city office.
Here's what happened.

I went in, got in line, had my photo taken, blah blah blah... Then the staff person asked for my blood type and religion. I told her B and to leave my religion as a blank, she said ok. On to the next que.

The woman who checked my info looked at my blank religion and said:
Her: You don't have a religion!?
Me: Yeah, can we leave that as a blank?
Her: But how can you not have a religion? Don't you believe in anything?
Me: I'm still looking around... (Thought:It's none of your business anyway!)
Her: What was your religion before?
Me: Buddhist.
Her: And now?
Me: Nothing. I'm still looking.
Her: Why aren't you Buddhist anymore?! (Voice getting louder and higher)
Me: I stopped believing in Buddhism...
Her: Hey! Hey! She doesn't have a religion! (Shouting to the person in the next stall)
What about your parents!? What do they have to say about this!
Me:....

I can't believe she actually started asking about what my parents thought. To a woman almost 30 years old, Married, heavily pregnant, what would that say about me if I still had to ask my parents for permission about my faith. I opened my mouth to tell her my father had passed away, and my mom didn't mind what I believed, but I just couldn't waste anymore words. I just shook my head. At that moment the person next to her told her 'It's ok for her not to have a religion, it's not important info.' So with no back up she just started going on about how the ID didn't look complete and so on and cranked out my card.

LADY, WOULD IT BE COMPLETE IF I LIED ON IT?! WOULD IT?!

sheesh...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi!
You really have to declare your religion on IDs in your country?
Here in Italy we don't even need to have it written wether we are married or not. ^__^
Hugs and congratulations for your baby!!!
Arian

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