July 11, 2009 • 9:00 am 0
I love political cartoons – they have a manner of capturing the zeitgeist that endures so much more profoundly than merely articles.
Here are a couple gathered from the Arab media in recent weeks:
'What a Vote in the Iranian Elections Is Really Worth' Cartoonist: 'Abdallah Jaber. Source: Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), June 26, 2009.
Filed under: Imagery, Iran, Politics, Pop culture , cartoons, Iran, Iranian riots, Politics
July 10, 2009 • 8:02 pm 0
Too many posts have been dedicated to the quirky fatwas emanating from Islamic scholars and I am deeply guilty of being tickled pink by such edicts on too many occasions.
It is refreshing then, that this time the outburst arrives courtesy of former Chief Rabbi Moderchai Eliyahu who has cautioned against the current trend of men “kow-tow[ing] to women”.
Top of the list of heinously wily activities committed by women to lure men from the riotous path is singing and accordingly soldiers have been advised to cover their ears, as “It’s better to go to jail than to obey the commander and hear a woman sing or play.”
It’s as though the Sirens have risen from the depths just to tempt the Israeli army. How mythic.
Next, is women giving speeches, particularly if she is prone to making hand gestures: “It’s very serious. One should watch out for these things”.
Indeed. Mute singing? Check. Rigid non-public speaking? Check. Anything else Rabbi?
Today at weddings everything is allowed – to dance, to look… a man dances with a woman he doesn’t know… men swap women. This is a very serious thing! Rabbis, repent! Admit: Say, ‘we were wrong. We won’t allow mixed dancing, mixed weddings, mixed sitting’. Because a woman wants to be looked at. But men don’t like them, because men know this is wrong. [Source]
Yes. I am deeply wicked. I force men to look at me even though it is a heinous and naughty activity.
Poor men. It must be tough carrying such a light load of the religious guilt.
At least it highlights another commonality the three key faiths share: guilt and the heaping of blame on women.
Sometimes we are more alike than we realize; even if it is through such cutting bonds of female disdain.
Filed under: Israel, Religion , faith, feminism, Israel, Judaism, Religion, women
• 12:20 pm 0
It seems the heat of this summer is spreading in more ways than one, as – hot on the heels of the burning of a pro-Palestinian bookshop in Paris and the hushed coverage of the murder of Marwa al-Sherbini – the French town of Ferminy, near St Etienne, is bracing itself for another night of riots.
Anger centers around the suicide verdict recorded by French authorities after 21-year-old Mohamed Benmouna died in police custody.
Arrested on extortion charges, the post-mortem recorded that Benmouna died after hanging himself from the plasterboard in his cell on Tuesday.
As Benmouna lay in a coma youths set fire to cars and a community center, triggering fears that a return to the street violence of 2005 was imminent.
Last night around 200 youths were dispersed after a sit-in, followed by the burning of a dozen vehicles and the mobilization of 200 police.
More worrying is that Benmouna’s death brings the total deaths in the police cells and prisons of France this year to 78.
It’s a staggering figure, particularly as the deaths are consistently attributed to suicide.
The conclusion that no violence was traced in the demise of Benmouna pales in relevance; rather, the rise in anti-Palestinian/Arab/Islamic sentiments could render it a further expedient to the already tense atmosphere.
Filed under: Africa, Europe, Middle East , Europe, France, North Africa, Society
July 9, 2009 • 9:16 pm 3
It’s quite chilling that the following news story did not – or barely – blipped on British news.
This week’s coverage has been utterly squiffy: headlining for what seemed an eternity was coverage of Michael Jackson’s funeral; the memorial to the victims of the London attacks in 2005 was relegated to second to last place.
Meanwhile, the murder of 32-year-old Marwa al-Sherbini in a courtroom in Dresden, Germany, did not even register.
Marwa was murdered in front of her three-year-old son and her husband, who was subsequently shot in the leg by security officers as he tried to stop the attacker stabbing his pregnant wife 18 times.
Her attacker, known only as Alex W., was in court after he called her a ‘terrorist’ and was subsequently fined 780 euros.
He was in the process of appealing when he attacked.
The case just gets worse and worse, yet somehow has been deemed almost un-newsworthy.
But this is news.
It is the only news that matters.
When an event such as this passes without note, yet the demise of a singer is covered for days, we must acknowledge that we are living in dark times indeed.
Filed under: Egypt, Europe , Europe, Germany, Islam, Islamophobia
• 11:31 am 0
Whether it is my Prospero-esque attachment to books, the fact that it occurred in Paris, or that the shop-owners only crime was to be pro-Palestinian, the following story is profoundly saddening:
In the event that took place last weekend, five armed masked people broke into the store, smashed computers and set fire to books. The store owners accused the Jewish Defense League for carrying out the attack.
Paris police arrested Wednesday four youths between the ages of 16 and 26, all members of the JDL, on suspicions that they carried out the attack. A fifth suspect has yet to be arrested. [Source]
Last night almost 300 protesters gathered outside the shop calling for the dismantlement of the JDL.
Speaking at the protest Olivia Zamour, owner of the shop and president of the group Euro-Palestine, condemned France’s lenient stance towards Israel:
Palestine is the heart of all the problems in the world. For 60 years already it is functioning as a laboratory showing the world how human rights can be taken from people. How does France consider itself a democracy when Palestine exists? If we accept this there, we will have here the same exact thing.
While her husband, Nicolas, reiterated that:
We are the second country in the world that sells weapons to Israel after the United States. Therefore, we have a great responsibility. France needs to stop seeing Muslims in its country as a scapegoat. The first step needs to be support of the Palestinian people, and not of Israel.
It could also be simply that the Zamours seem the sweetest and most peacefully vociferous activists that such wanton and cowardly violence is utterly undeserved and infuriating.
Filed under: Conflict Zones, Europe, Israel, Palestine, Religion , Europe, France, Israel, Palestine, Paris, Zionism
• 11:13 am 1
One of the unfortunate results of conflict zones hitting the headlines is the subsequent flurry of Hollywood movies based on regional anecdotes.
Often the filmmakers imagine they are doing the subjects a favour – if it is a human rights issue the gore and brutal emotion can be justified as ‘enhancing awareness’.
Mostly, they just go to town with bombastic stereotypes and a few crumbs of knowledge about the region, possibly gleaned from a fistful of hospital coffee table ‘real life’ magazines.
As a result, more damage is done as the reality is skewed, negative stereotypes reinforced and any semblance of empathy for the people of the region is crushed.
Which is why the latest effort, The Stoning of Soraya M. is causing outcry.
Ostensibly, the filmmakers are trying to raise awareness concerning a case that is alleged to have taken place in a rural Iranian village, circa 1985.
The main protagonist, Soraya, suffers the brutality of her aggressive husband who is yearning for a teenage bride.
To achieve his objective, he accuses Soraya of adultery and as the title suggests, a violent and tragic ending ensues.
What is more tragic is the depiction of the Iranian inhabitants as wanton savages itching for a good, old-fashioned stoning.
Such caricatures are best left to the Monty Python sketches – at least they softened the barbarity with irony.
The point of the movie is to highlight the plight of Soraya; in the process the Iranian people are portrayed in such a negative light that any understanding (or desire to understand further) is obliterated.
In light of the recent troubles this is merely rubbing salt in an open wound.
Iran has produced – and continues to produce – a number of the world’s most talented writers, musicians, poets, scientists, doctors, and academics.
To broad-brushstroke in such a manner only reinforces negative preconceptions.
That’s not to say the subject should not have been covered; it should.
Just perhaps with a little more sensitivity and the acknowledgement that for the majority of Iranians, such practices are equally intolerable.
Filed under: Culture, Iran, Pop culture , film, Iran
July 8, 2009 • 11:45 am 1
I’m slightly frazzled today (possibly as a result of yesterday’s frenetic typing) and as a consequence can only muster a vague eye-brow raise swiftly followed by “gurrr” at the following:
What makes the settlement issue so contentious, in fact, is the refusal of the Palestinian Authority to accept, and to guarantee the safety of, Jewish settlers on land that one day could be part of a Palestinian state. If Jews were able to live securely in West Bank villages under Palestinian control, just as more than 1.3 million Arabs live safely in Israel, what would there be to quarrel about? [Source]
Where to begin?
The settlement issue is “so contentious” because of this, this, and this.
Not to mention this.
Shooting up shepherds is not the way forward.
Let’s just clarify that before urging West Bank residents to extend the hand of peace.
Filed under: Conflict Zones, Israel, Middle East, Palestine , conflict, Palestine, Israel, Middle East, West Bank, settlers
July 7, 2009 • 12:49 pm 0
At last, I have tracked down the song that is the musical equivalent of a caffeine hit: Aven le Roma by the Hungarian folk geniuses, Nomada:
I shall be clattering frenetically for hours hereafter.
Filed under: Culture, Europe, Frivolities & Miscellaeny, Layla, Pop culture , Europe, folk, Hungary, music, Nomada
• 9:45 am 0
This just landed in my inbox:
Jenny Linnell is a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement(ISM) Rafah group, and an original crew member of one of the Free Gaza boats.
For the last year she has been accompanying Palestinians and documenting events in the Gaza strip, both before, during and after the war, the footage of which focuses on fishermen and farmers under fire and can be viewed here and here.
Since the end of May, Jenny and her colleague, Natalie Abou Shakra (Lebanon/UK) have attempted to return home via the border crossing at Rafah into Egypt, but have been continuously turned away.
Egyptian Border Guards informed the activists that they were being refused exit because of their work with the Free Gaza boats.
In addition, they were told that they would ‘never be let out’.
Naturally, it is vital that this treatment is not allowed to continue unchallenged, and accordingly bloggers and supporters of the Free Gaza cause are urged to assist in raising awareness about the case by ringing The Egyptian Embassy in London on 020 7499 3304/2401 and The British Foreign Office Middle East Desk 020 70088784.
Callers are advised by ISM to be “polite, but persistent and lengthy”.
Filed under: Conflict Zones, Egypt, Middle East, Palestine , activism, conflict, Egypt, Gaza, Middle East, Palestine
July 6, 2009 • 7:37 pm 2
I’m currently in the painstaking throes of compiling a proposal for a forthcoming conference on gender-based violence, with a focus on sexual identity in the Middle East, and have been struck by a number of research issues that have arisen.
Primarily, I am staggered by the relatively low count of publications – or recent publications – on sexual identity in the region.
This of course is fabulous news for a researcher, but after reading the following conclusion by As’ad AbuKhalil, aka the formidable Angry Arab, in his 1997 paper ‘Gender Boundaries and Sexual Categories in the Arab World’ [Feminist Issues], I have become slightly disconcerted and deeply indignant:
Homosexuals remain outside of the scope of academic studies. The study of homosexuality in Middle East studies will almost guarantee a future of academic unemployment. Moreover, many heterosexuals avoid the study of homosexuality for fear of the homosexual stigma, the fear of which still afflicts Western and Eastern societies. This has enabled homophobes and journalists in the East and West to study to [sic.] subject for pure ideological reasons. [p. 103]
Bearing in mind that this paper is 12-years-old, I wonder if the notion that studying “homosexuality in Middle East studies will almost guarantee a future of academic unemployment” is still the case?
If so, why?
Why is it even still taboo for any researcher, specifically Western?
The notion of a fear of a ‘homosexual stigma’ is befuddling, too – have we not advanced enough as a human race to not be concerned – at least in academic circles – that one might be thought of as a lesbian, purely because one writes on the matter?
If I write about goats, does it mean I am one? It is a silly analogy, but no less so than that of the above.
Perhaps this fear is a reality – but if so, it is an embarrassing reality and one that we should hang our heads in shame at.
Foremost, there should be no fear of such a stigma, for there is no shame in being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
Secondly, we should focus more on the research findings – in my case, finding ways to eliminate violence based on sexual identity – and less on the personal choices of the writer.
Filed under: Culture, Middle East , academia, Culture, gender, LGBT, Middle East
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