Caledoniyya

Let destiny run with slackened reins, and pass not the night but with careless mind.

Clotilde Reiss: Lover of Iran, Prisoner of Evin

Clotilde Reiss seems one of those rare, wonderful people who fall in love with a country at a young age and revel in the beauty of the language, culture and society for the rest of their lives.

First introduced to Iran by her Iranian nanny in Paris, Clotilde built upon her knowledge of Persian to become a fellow at the French Research Institute in Tehran, and most recently, a French teacher at a university in the city of Esfahan.

Residing in the Jolfa district, she bedecked her apartment with Persian rugs and became a favourite with her neighbours, who adopted her as one of their own.Clothilde Reiss

On July 1, en route to her departure to Beirut, 23-year-old Clotilde disappeared.

Confirmation has since been given that she is currently held in Evin prison on charges of espionage.

As would be expected, Clotilde participated in the recent demonstrations and – as one would – she subsequently accounted her experiences via e-mails and texts ameliorated by cellphone snapshots.

The crux of her detention hangs on one particular e-mail to a journalist in Tehran, though it has been deemed a “straightforward” account of events.

Despite Sarkozy’s heavy leaning on Iran, there has been no progress on her case.

At present, Clotilde is but one of many foreign nationals being detained: the Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, a freelance correspondent for Newsweek, and Hossein Rassam, a prominent political analyst at the British Embassy in Tehran, both remain imprisoned.

The riots have quietened, yet the injustice pervades.

I wonder how many innocent Iranians are also languishing in jail on trumped up charges; when the details are released it is questionable whether they will even reflect the true scale of detentions.

Such is the smaze of political unrest under a despotic regime: the reality is often inconceivably worse.

Filed under: Europe, Iran , , ,

No Honor in Honor Killings

This week has been tough on the news front and given the following account, it is about to get tougher.

Earlier this week a court in Amman opted to halve the jail term of 15 years granted to the unnamed 29-year-old who shot his sister 12 times last year in their home town of Mowaqqar.

Her crime? Being the victim of rape.

According to officials:

The woman disappeared from home for six months after she was raped last year. Police kept the woman in custody for protection and later handed her over to the family, but the brother shot her 12 times in different parts of her body once she arrived home, killing her immediately. [Source]

Murder is usually punishable by death in Jordan, but all too frequently the notion of ‘honor’ skews the judgement into leniency.

This is, of course, simply abominable.

The poor girl had suffered what no woman should ever have to and clearly was too terrified to return home – hence the disappearance.

Were the police aware that they were releasing her into an even more volatile environment? If so, was there anything else they could do?

Perhaps we should look away briefly from the perpetrators of the honor crimes and the scandalous judgements and ponder the frameworks in place for victims of rape.

If safe-houses were available potential victims of honor crimes could at least salvage some form of life from their trauma.

As it is, they are being thrown to the lions.

And the blood is on the hands of the courts, too, for commuting the sentences in the name of an archaic tradition.

It’s worth noting, as an addendum, that this sentencing came shortly before a 24-year-old farmer stabbed his sister to death on the basis of rumors that she was dating a man.

On average 20 women die a year in Jordan as victims of honor crimes.

With the court showing such empathy to the murderers there is little deterrent.

Life should mean life – there is no honor in killing another human being.

Khalas.

Filed under: Jordan, Middle East , , , ,

Cartoons from the Iranian Elections

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.

'What a Vote in the Iranian Elections Is Really Worth' Cartoonist: 'Abdallah Jaber. Source: Al-Jazirah (Saudi Arabia), June 26, 2009.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Imagery, Iran, Politics, Pop culture , , , ,

Men Cover Your Ears, Women Silence Your Songs

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 righteous 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 , , , , , ,

Europe’s Hot Summer

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.

Copyright F3Arrested 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 , , , ,

Marwa al-Sherbini

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 , , , ,

JDL Trash Parisian Palestinian Book Store

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 , , , , , ,

Sensationalism and Stereotypes

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.stoning-of-soraya-m

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 , ,

Hug A Settler

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 , , , , , ,

Audio-caffeine

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 , , , , ,

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