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What do we think of this? Empowering or condescending? Clever and artistic or obvious and cliche? I’m not sure how I feel about it, nor can I decide who the target audience is.
“More education for girls in Islamic countries”
UNICEF
Unimaginative, cliched, stereotypical, essentialising.
Not All Designations Are Equal: Representing Women in the Arab Revolutions and Beyond
From the brilliantly brilliant and spon-on article by Sana Saeed
Arab women are fighting against tyranny of their own shade are the exemplars of a two-fold revolution: one against state tyranny and the other against patriarchy. But when Arab women are fighting against imperialist and neo-colonialist state narratives and tanks, such as Palestinian women against Israeli occupation and apartheid, they just so happen to miss the mark of grazing a headline or an article topic.
Beyond the Arab World, there lies a greater and far more problematically represented (when represented) Muslim world; its diverse women are equally reduced to a narrow range of representations. We are quick to latch onto the brave Malalas and subversive, even if cliché,Aliaas (image in that link contains nudity) in order to appropriate them and fit their struggles into our set lenses of good and evil. But we rarely mention the names, let alone acknowledge the existence, of all the women resisting occupation, rape as a weapon, foreign attacks and poverty on a daily basis. FEMEN parades its White Woman’s Burden feminism under naked skin as though its 1960s-esque fleshly protests are not only attention-grabbing but revolutionary. Yet in 2004, mothers in the Indian state of Manipur (albeit not Muslim), stripped themselves naked (ditto on nudity in the image) to protest against the sexual violence perpetrated against them by Indian military forces. They were protesting rape and security sexual violence (yes—protests in India against rape have been happening for time now against sexual violence in Manipur, Assam, Kashmir, Gujarat). These protests, shocking in India at the time, made little to no international headlines. Maybe it is because there was no Facebook, no Twitter. No clogging internet information sharing to make us all momentarily and selectively care about other things in the world. And it was 2004, which was truly a whole other time. But there was Mukhtaran Bibi (Mukhtar Mai) in 2004, who seemed to have made more than just a few headlines, going viral on the social opinion circuits after becoming the face of “resistance” against Pakistani tribal patriarchy. What was the difference between the Manipur protests and Mukhtar Mai? Why do the actions of citizens ignite flames of condemnation within us in a way that we don’t always necessarily seem to find when the same horrendous actions, perhaps at an even grander scale, are carried out by state actors or are state-sanctioned? And why does this seem to be especially the case when the states in question are our allies in ideology and strategic regional interest? There was much condemnation from the West of the targeting of Malala Yousafzai whilst ignoring the deaths, widowing and orphaning of Pakistani women and girls at the hands of U.S. drones, “our” economic and political policies.
Something is a bit uneasy here.
Reposting, because y’all should read it!
Not All Designations Are Equal: Representing Women in the Arab Revolutions and Beyond
From the brilliantly brilliant and spon-on article by Sana Saeed
Arab women are fighting against tyranny of their own shade are the exemplars of a two-fold revolution: one against state tyranny and the other against patriarchy. But when Arab women are fighting against imperialist and neo-colonialist state narratives and tanks, such as Palestinian women against Israeli occupation and apartheid, they just so happen to miss the mark of grazing a headline or an article topic.
Beyond the Arab World, there lies a greater and far more problematically represented (when represented) Muslim world; its diverse women are equally reduced to a narrow range of representations. We are quick to latch onto the brave Malalas and subversive, even if cliché,Aliaas (image in that link contains nudity) in order to appropriate them and fit their struggles into our set lenses of good and evil. But we rarely mention the names, let alone acknowledge the existence, of all the women resisting occupation, rape as a weapon, foreign attacks and poverty on a daily basis. FEMEN parades its White Woman’s Burden feminism under naked skin as though its 1960s-esque fleshly protests are not only attention-grabbing but revolutionary. Yet in 2004, mothers in the Indian state of Manipur (albeit not Muslim), stripped themselves naked (ditto on nudity in the image) to protest against the sexual violence perpetrated against them by Indian military forces. They were protesting rape and security sexual violence (yes—protests in India against rape have been happening for time now against sexual violence in Manipur, Assam, Kashmir, Gujarat). These protests, shocking in India at the time, made little to no international headlines. Maybe it is because there was no Facebook, no Twitter. No clogging internet information sharing to make us all momentarily and selectively care about other things in the world. And it was 2004, which was truly a whole other time. But there was Mukhtaran Bibi (Mukhtar Mai) in 2004, who seemed to have made more than just a few headlines, going viral on the social opinion circuits after becoming the face of “resistance” against Pakistani tribal patriarchy. What was the difference between the Manipur protests and Mukhtar Mai? Why do the actions of citizens ignite flames of condemnation within us in a way that we don’t always necessarily seem to find when the same horrendous actions, perhaps at an even grander scale, are carried out by state actors or are state-sanctioned? And why does this seem to be especially the case when the states in question are our allies in ideology and strategic regional interest? There was much condemnation from the West of the targeting of Malala Yousafzai whilst ignoring the deaths, widowing and orphaning of Pakistani women and girls at the hands of U.S. drones, “our” economic and political policies.
Something is a bit uneasy here.
READ IT!
Ten young girls have been killed by a landmine explosion in eastern Afghanistan
We live in a world where mainstream media will not telecast (hypocritical) presidential tears, where moving odes by a dozen of bloggers and journalists and politicians for these Afghan children will never be shared because they don’t matter to begin with, where there are shameless alibis for mindless atrocities every single time they happen. A world where third world bodies are simply numbers once dead. This happened yesterday yet no one stepped away from their routine to gape at the horror of this tragedy. No one wrote letters to the mothers of these children, no one reached forward from the international community to console these fathers. No one bothered to understand why 700,000 mines and more than 15m other explosives still remain in the soil of Afghanistan where children, if they make the innocent mistake, strike an axe for wood, they die. They die and they are forgotten.
In a world like ours where crimes of magnanimous proportions are deliberately hidden from our sight, we lose these children every single day. Not only do we lose them but we are compelled to draw these comparisons of appalling inequality, indifference and injustice. Had this been an American child, we would have known. Media would urge us to remember. Down the lane, to recall. To register the innocent validly. But there are no obituaries, no candle light vigils, no heartfelt poems for third world bodies. There are prematurely politicized and posthumously examined to degrees that are inhumane.
What can one do? What can one do when their very memory becomes a tool in the hands of a hegemony that uses our ability to recognize against each other. This collective amnesia, this reckless erasure of common decency. Every Empire creates dichotomous lunacy, pitting human against human, cognizance against cognizance. What one can do is speak and share. These Afghan girls were as precious as any child in the world. They, too, dreamed and laughed.
I don’t anyone want to disrespect their memory by feeling pity; I want you all to at least try to understand the glaring dissimilarity in our collective reaction to these mishaps. Remember everyone. From the children shot in schools to the children killed in explosions, they all demand to be remembered. In warm, strong words and thoughts. Let that reflection go on so others know. So we may try to make this world a little better for our children. Please remember.
Rest in peace, dil azeez pariyon.
And no, I am not exaggerating. The vast majority of articles on queers who happen to be Arabs and/or Muslims that I’ve read have to throw in a reference to Iran. Usually by the third paragraph.
From Nothing “Normal” About It: Dialogue, Normalization, & Palestine On Campus
Made by
There you go.
Arab World: A Year In Pictures - Global Voices Authors’ Selection
Tunisia
Photo by Talel Nacer, used with permission
On January, 14, 2011 thousands of protesters gathered near the Interior Ministry building in Tunis calling for the fall of the regime of dictator Zeine El Abidine Ben Ali. Later on the same day, Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia.
Syria
Author unkown
A powerful message from “the occupied city of Kafar Nabel”, Syria.
Lebanon
Photo by KrikOrion, used with permission
Even though Lebanon has not witnessed a revolution in 2011, the Land of the Cedars was highly affected by the developpements and turmoil in the area. But for Lebanese it’s the high cost of living that is haunting them the most. Following each wage increase by the government and even before the plan is approved by parliament, prices soar tremendously.
Palestine
Photo by Jillian C. York, used under a CC license (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Palestine: “Marching United Towards Freedom”
Yemen
Copyright Shohdi Al-Sofi, used with permission
The peaceful massive marches of Yemen which never stopped throughout the year are a testimony of Yemenis’ steadfast and resilience and prove ultimately, like the billboard reads, that “victory is to the people”.
Bahrain
Picture posted on Twitter by @almakna
The above photograph, shared by @almakna on Twitter, shows the number of areas reportedly tear gassed by the Bahrain authorities in one night. On that particular day, I myself choked on the tear gas, spending the night and the following day sick and closely followed tweets and complaints by Twitter users from across the country.
Picture posted on Twitter by @SanabisVoice
This photograph, from the Sanabis Voice, shows empty teargas canisters, collected from a small area, in one day. Such photographs are found in abundance online, shared by netizens on social networking sites, and tell a story that has been recurring for 11 months - a story not much of the world cares about.
Egypt
Picture by rouelshimi, used under CC license (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
January 25, the first wave of protesters go to Tahrir square. It’s the dawn of the revolution.
Morocco
Copyright Amine Hachimoto. Used with permission.
The little girl looking up at this Moroccan Superman pausing in front of the parliament seems to be wondering if he can fly. Maybe he’s an ultra-nationalist trying to make a point? Or maybe he’s a supporter of the pro-reforms group February 20? It doesn’t really matter. Because behind this amazing photo by Amine Hachimoto lies a new reality in Morocco: 2011 is the year when the street has become the theater of nonviolent political expression. Something that is likely to continue in the years to come.
