Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice

Women and Hell

2012-01-23T23:42:00.000-05:00

1. will go to hell for being naked.
2. will go to hell for being made up.
3. will go to hell for being uncovered.
4. will go to hell because her eyes provoke lust.
5. will go to hell because her eye may provoke lust (just in case)
6. will go to hell because she went outside her house to begin with.

Egyptian Parliament: A (S)Nap Shot?

2012-01-23T17:19:00.001-05:00

The above is a picture of the first session of the newly elected Egyptian parliament that have been circulating on fb! When I first saw it, I thought we should all relax; at this rate, they won't be up to much mischief! But then I learned that one of the sleepers is actually blind and the other had a particularly tough day. In other words, things are not as they seem.

And to prove that they were not actually sleeping some of those folks tried to rock the boat by insisting on adding a few words to the regular parlimentarian oath.

More posturing of this sort is to be expected, but what matters is how much the salafis are going to force the Muslim Brotherhood to move more to the right.

Of course, the liberal (or non-Islamist) opposition, though a minority, does need to exert its own influence to hopefully pressure the dominant Brothers to move in the other direction, or at least stay where they are. Well, they can try.

But frankly the MB seem to be confident in their own power and are reaching a deal with the Military Council on their own, a deal that will not rock the boat of SCAF. In other words, it will not challenge the military economic privileges and will protect them from prosecution for murdering Egyptian citizens.

As to the women in the new parliament, I had a hard time finding them. I may need to get a more powerful prescription for my glasses.

Who is Afraid of Tawakkul Karaman?

2012-01-22T23:36:00.001-05:00

The Salafi preacher Khalid Abdullah seems determined not to let any woman activist escape his venomous attacks. His latest victim is Tawakkul Karman (also Tawakel Karman), the Yemeni activist who won the Nobel Piece Prize for her role in the Yemni revolution against Ali Abdullah Saleh. On his show, he plays a tape of an interview with her, but not before blurring her so she is unrecognizable. She doesn't even deserve to have rose substituted for her face the way salafi election posters did in the recent elections in Egypt. Instead, she appears as a blotch, a ghostly figure, not to be seen, and to be heard, grudgingly, and only to hang with her words.

But why is Karman the target of Abdullah's anger? For unlike the other women that Abdullah and his salafi friends have been character assassinating, such as Nuwara Negm, she has solid Islamist credentials as a high-ranking member of the main Islamist party in Yemen, Al Islah. She is the aristocracy of Islamist women activists and politicians.

Not according to him. "Who is she to be given the Nobel Prize and to be going here and there to give talks and and lectures?"

Here is why Khalid decided to take her down:

One: She believes Islam should be a source of inspiration not legislation. That is a no no in his book! And I would say in the book of the Muslim Brotherhood as well. Karman is clearly pushing the envelope on this one.

Two: She believes in a civic state as opposed to a religious state because she wants the state to be for all its citizens, including Christians and Jews. She believes a Yemeni Jew has the right to be president of the country. This is a big NO No for the salafis.

Three: She doesn't believe the Niqab, the full face covering (in case you still don't know what that is) is not of Islam and that she wore it for many years but eventually found it a barrier to communication. She calls on other women to do without it because she wants them to participate in public life without any barriers. Women should not be speaking from behind any walls, she says. Khalid's response to that is to blur the heck out of her. Clearly, the salafi version of women's choice is that a Muslim woman is allowed to say her opinion of the Niqab only if she agrees with it wholeheartedly and recommends it to all Muslim women.

Four: She doesn't have any problem dealing with the United Sates and the west generally as long as she uses their support to advance her agendas. In response, Khalid accuses her of being brainwashed and used. And to trash by association he mentions "training in Serbia"!!!

Khalid concludes his attack by expressing his regret that this woman is considered a Muslim at all. Clearly, on his Salafi measuring scale of who is a Muslim and who is not, she gets a zero.

Whose next on his assassination list? I'll keep you posted.

Liars: Powerful Rap from Egypt

2012-01-22T23:06:00.000-05:00

This song is part of the "Liars" alternative media campaign that is touring Egypt trying to get the truth out to the people about what is going on.

The Soundtrack of Revolution: Celebrating #Jan25 Through 25 Music Videos that Gave it Voice (Part 1)

2012-01-21T13:39:00.001-05:00

The Soundtrack of Revolution: Celebrating #Jan25 Through 25 Music Videos that Gave it Voice (Part 1)

Shokran: Thank You!

2012-01-20T09:41:00.001-05:00

Thanking many of the activists that made up the Egyptian revolution and are being attacked and character assassinated...Based on a Sayyid Darwish song. Love it!

Beating Nawara

2012-01-19T13:28:00.001-05:00

The incitement of some of the Egyptian media against activists must be taken seriously, as the physical attack on Nawara Negm attests. Nawara has been one of the brightest faces of the Egyptian revolution and its articulate conscience. I fear for her. The campaign against her began with character assassination delivered by Tawfiq Ukasha, in his program "Mesr Al Youm" (Egypt Today) (his how has been shut down for crossing the decency line). He mocked Nawara for her criticism of SCAF, telling her that he found her a groom who will reign her in, since nobody else can. Khalid Abdallah also wanted her to get married so she can stop attacking the salafis. An online vicious attach was conducted against her and her father, the leftist poet Ahmad Fouad Nagm. She was accused of being a foreign agent because her mother is a Shi'a. Then a law suit was filed against her, accusing her of inciting violence against the army!!!! And now, she was physically attacked by 25 people who accuse her of wanting to divide the people and the army.

This is serious. Not because it will silence Nawara. It won't. But because it will silence others and it will further isolate and discredit activists. The only protection they have is that of the people. The media is working on eroding that support and cracking the shield.

When Posing Nude Can Cost a Woman Her Homeland

2012-01-18T13:49:00.001-05:00

Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani is banned from returning to her homeland after posing nude for a French magazine. Of course the lesson women are being taught here is that their bodies do not belong to them, but to the whole nation. If you own your body, you lose your nation.

Well, that's arguable better than being accused of "spreading corruption on earth" for that can cost you your head.

Mahmoud Darwish Interview

2012-01-18T09:34:00.000-05:00

An unpublished interview with Mahmoud Darwish conducted by high school students. (Arabic)

فيوليت سلامة - بقى عايز تنساني: A Beautiful Palestinian Voice

2012-01-18T00:35:00.001-05:00

Award for the Dumbest Song goes to

2012-01-17T23:11:00.001-05:00

Tareq al Atrash for his song "Al Sigara." It's not enough that the whole song is a celebration of smoking, it's also sexist. The guy loves smoking so much that for him a cigarette is worth ten women: السيجارة بعشر نسوان". Oh, and the video clip masterpiece is directed by a woman.

Dumb and sexist. Go away people!

Occupation 101

2012-01-17T15:57:00.000-05:00

In East Jerusalem, Israeli soldiers arrested, blindfolded, and interrogated a six year old boy!

Transgendered in Kuwait

2012-01-17T09:34:00.002-05:00

Kuwait's laws that criminalize women who look like me (in appearance or behavior) allow for the prosecution and abuse of transgendered people, as Human Rights Watch reports.

How to Make Barbie More Desirable?

2012-01-17T09:19:00.005-05:00

Ban it!

Which is what the Iranian government is doing because in their view the dolls represent western decadence and un-Islamic values. This ban will make Barbie far more desirable than any bust increase or waste decrease or hair extension will do. Forced to go underground, Barbie will acquire an aura of danger and rebellion that will make it more desirable for girls and parents alike. (I'm not sure what the Iranian official attitude to Ken is, but if Barbie goes underground, he'd better follow). The ban is the best face lift that Barbie has received in a long time. Matel must be rejoicing.

I'm not a fan of Barbie, particularly the one that used to say "I'm no good at math!" (that model was discontinued after parents and feminists protested it). I confess that as a child I wanted one badly but it was out of reach because we couldn't afford it. Instead, my mom bought me a cheap kind of doll that was sold on carts in Ramallah. The kind that didn't even make it to a toy store. They were bald and boring and had only one outfit. I hated them. They were one step above the ones my grandmother would make from buttons and sticks and yarn. By the time I could afford a barbie, alas I was a feminist!

I feel bad for Sara and Dara, the local Iranian alternatives. For banning Barbie will not help them one bit. On the contrary, the government-sanctioned dolls will be seen as too uncool, too conformist, if not even sell outs. Too bad really-- they are pretty cute.

Protesting Rape

2012-01-16T15:26:00.002-05:00

Awesome young feminists in Lebanon organized a demonstration against rape and sexual harassment, demanding new laws that offer better protection against sexual violence outside and inside the home. The pouring rain failed to dampen their passion for justice.

Discrediting the Revolutionaries

2012-01-16T15:25:00.000-05:00

The Egyptian youth activists, The April 6th Movement, are on the defensive after the military council succeeded in discrediting them through the media as agents of outside forces, as this article shows. It does not mention, however, the active role the Muslim Brothers and Salafis played in this character assassination although they were the main beneficiaries of the youth revolutionary mobilization. Live and learn again and again and again.

Map of Palestine in the West Wing

2012-01-13T11:55:00.002-05:00

Guess who I will be voting for in the next election?

2012-01-13T11:51:00.001-05:00

A good article that reminds of some crucial facts regarding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law. The writer is responding to those who claim that settlements are not an obstacle to peace (HA!!) because they are built on only 1% of the land. Lara Friedman points out that, according to a new report by Peace Now, settlers control 50% of the land. Here are a couple of maps for the visually inclined.

The Wrong Kind of Family Values

2012-01-13T11:35:00.001-05:00

An important Ha'aretz editorial about the Israeli Supreme Court decision that Palestinians who are married to Israeli citizens DO NOT have the right to live in Israel with their spouses. The last word in the article is the key word: apartheid.

Tightening the Siege

2011-09-09T08:03:00.002-05:00

Tightening the Siege

“We travel like other people” (Mahmoud Darwish)

“Mamnou3,”* she said from behind the window. The harshness of the word was neither softened by its familiarity nor by the lazy gesture that accompanied it when she threw my application back to me.

It was eleven on a cloudless June day. I have been standing in line since 5 o’clock that morning. I was twenty-four. She looked eighteen. I ventured, “Why?”

Her laziness immediately turned into impatience. “Mamnou3!” She repeated, already looking at the next heavily stamped travel application in front of her. Then as if to end any possibility of any conversation, and my future with it, she uttered the dreaded words: “Roukh baitak!”**

There she was in my city, actually few blocks from my home, shooing me away in an Arabic accented with contempt, and deciding my life for me. Her military uniform, her gun which is never far from her, and the bureaucratic authority of an illegal occupation gave her words a finality designed to crush. Just like bulldozers.

These words were the final stamp that sealed my application—an application that I had submitted a month earlier requiring permission to travel from El Bireh in the West Bank to Boston in the United States after receiving a Fulbright scholarship via AMIDEAST. I had graduated from the English Department at Birzeit University two years earlier, despite checkpoints and closures that in my senior year alone totaled seven months. This scholarship was my only chance for graduate education.

But the gods of military occupation had decreed that summer that no one between the ages of eighteen and thirty is allowed to leave the West Bank until further notice. Of course there was no official announcement of such a decree. That would spoil the arbitrariness of it all and give the occupied the dangerous notion that they are owed any explanation at all. You just learn of it when you compare notes with other crushed souls who were told to go home.

I did go home. I cried for a day. Then I did the only thing we learn to do from every Palestinian taxi driver: find another way. I eventually had to obtain a Jordanian passport and a couple of months later I left the West Bank to Jordan. As soon as I arrived at the Jordanian side, my newly minted passport was confiscated and I had to report to the mukhabarat in Amman. But that’s another story for another fury.

The short of it is that I made it to Boston.

But three young Palestinian students, Hiba, Haya and Fouad, will not be able to attend their respective universities in the US where they got scholarships, unless Hamas officials reverse their decision to deny these three Gaza students permission to leave. Gazans have been under siege by Israel for years. Denial of freedom of movement is one of the most painful and ugly aspects of this siege. Sick people and students are particularly victimized by this policy. This reality forces the question: Do Gazans need a Hamas siege as well as an Israeli one? Have Hamas officials lost all sense of decency? Of all the things Hamas did in Gaza (and to keep this piece manageable I won’t list them), this is their stupidest and most immoral act yet.

And as if the decision is not terrible enough, the justification Hamas gave is so depressingly and outrageously benighted that I don’t know where to begin. According to one official, the students are not allowed to travel to study in the US because of cultural differences. Are you kidding me? Of course, there are cultural differences. That’s why you go to another country so you are exposed to these differences. This is what distinguishes true learning from fatwa churning! Is Hamas distributing a list of “acceptable” cultures we are allowed to interact with? What exactly is our culture that Hamas seeks to protect? And what happened to the seven million American Muslims who are part of American culture? Has Hamas never heard of them? And believe me when I say that any second grader in Gaza will tell you that Prophet Mohammad urged his fellow Muslims to “Seek knowledge even in China.” Did China at the time share the same culture with the Arabian Peninsula? More importantly, what gives Hamas the right to make such decisions for these students? Aren’t their parents responsible for these decisions? If not, then why wait till college? Why not start kidnapping kids from their parents to raise them on special Hamas farms (i.e year round summer camps)?

Another justification, related to the first and as inane, is that the students were going to live with American families! The horror! We can’t allow that, can we? We might as well just throw the kids to the wolves or to Haifa Wahbe! In the mind of Hamas and their elks, “American family” is an oxymoron. The American family disintegrated a long time ago when women burned their bras and gays held their first pride parade. Since then, the non-existing “American family” has been used as an example to warn good old Muslim boys and girls of what will happen to our families if, let’s say, we pass a law against domestic violence, permit women of a certain country to drive, or let men cut or even see women’s hair. As to those American families that still pretend to exist, they are immoral entities of unmanly fathers, divorced mothers, drug-addicted sons, and daughters who date! And the dog! Don’t forget the dog!!! No, no, “mamnou3.”

The third reason Hamas gave for their decision is that AMIDEAST, which granted the scholarsphis, did not coordinate with them. This is their most honest one yet; it’s about politics and power. Ignored by a US organization, they hold the three students hostages. Besieged, they lay their own siege, not on AMIDEAST, but on their own people. Because if you think the way politicians think, what are three students in the scheme of things? Let’s continue to sacrifice the people for the cause.

I’m angry and sad that Hiba, Haya and Fouad are not starting classes this fall. I hope Hamas will recognize that its decision is unjust and will allow those students to pursue their dreams. I also know that these students, if denied, will do what Hamas will not like: find another way.

*Arabic meaning “forbidden.”

** “Go home” mispronounced and misgendered.

Kama Sutra for Palestinian Intellectuals: or, How to Love Mahmoud Darwish

2011-08-03T17:43:00.013-05:00

The new Syrian TV drama "In the Presence of Absence," about the life of the poet Mahmoud Darwish, is giving some Palestinians an ulcer this Ramadan season. The series is being broadcast on several Arab satellite channels, including the Palestinian one. Some objected to the series before it was made because they thought those who were undertaking the project are doing it for profit and are not being faithful to the memory of Palestine's national poet. Their effort to stop it didn't pan out and now they are watching in horror as they see their beloved poet miscast, misrepresented, and twisted out of shape. The actor-criminal is one Firas Ibrahim that everyone seems to love to hate. Believe me, voodoo dolls of him will sell like hot qatayef in Rmallah.

They are lamenting that this great poet is being sacrificed on the altar of egos and art-for-profit. They are in a panic that the legacy of Darwish is in danger and that he is being mutilated for an audience that does not know much about him. Some of those objecting to this drama knew Darwish personally: they are friends, disciples, and colleagues. Some are readers who love the man for the poetry he wrote. I feel their pain!

But instead of using the occasion of a bad TV drama to celebrate the Darwish they love, to educate people about his poetry, to write articles that critique the drama they don't approve of, I'm sad to report that two thousand Palestinian intellectuals are demanding taking the offensive drama off the air. In other words, they are calling for censorship. Their love for Darwish seems to have obscured their vision.*

This is a travesty considering that these same artists and intellectuals have suffered (and continue to suffer) from censorship of their works and ideas. The main threat to not only Palestinian, but to Arab writers and artists, has always been those who try to silence them. The Israeli state tried to silence Darwish himself by imprisoning him and by putting him under house arrest for many years. His poem "Ana Yousuf Ya Abi" almost landed Lebanese singer Marcel Khalifeh in jail after Muslim authorities in Lebanon accused him of blaspheme (Khalifeh is now being attacked for his involvement in the making of this drama). Iraqi poet Muthaffar al Nawwab and Saudi novelist Abdel Rahman Mounif were sent to exile by their respective governments. Egyptian novelist and noble laureate Naguib Mahfouz was stabbed in the neck by someone who never read him but was told that he writes blasphemous books. Mahfouz was eighty two at the time. His book Awlad Haretna (translated as Children of Gabalawi), was banned from Egypt for decades. A month ago, Syrian singer Ibrahim Qashoush, nicknamed the Nightingale of the Revolution, was found dead in River Assi, with his throat carved out. And the list goes on and on!

In light of this reality, one hoped that intellectuals will mobilize to defend freedom of expression, not censorship.

And this should be their stance regardless of how good or bad the work in question is. Censors always have "good reasons" to justify silencing others: national security is often a popular excuse. Others are to defend traditional values, to protect religion, and to safe guard morality. In this case, the excuse is no better: to protect Darwish, his memory and legacy, from misrepresentation. Some are trembling at the artistic blaspheme being committed by bad acting and superficial dramatization. Others went as far as to call the series "national treason. This all reminds us that the challenge is to be against censoring even those you disagree with. Otherwise, you are just fending for your own tribe, something anathema to Darwish's art.

I find it also troubling that the language used to defend Darwish almost deifies him (Darwish the Great, Darwish the Giant, Darwish the Legend etc. etc). Therefore, I couldn't help notice that the biggest crime of the drama seems to be that it shows Darwish as a womanizer! That is blaspheme, according to Darwish's lovers! How dare they! This reminded me of a friend who threw a violent fit when he heard that the Syrian novelist Ghada al Samman published the love letters that she and Ghassan Kanafani exchanged during an affair they had. My friend thought that it was a crime against Palestine to show Kanafani in a the position of the weak lover, groveling to a woman. He (my friend not Kanafani) cursed al Samman with the most obscene curses he has in his repertoire. "How dare that so and so woman bring down our man," he fulminated. For him, Kanafani was not a man. He was a symbol of Palestinian manhood and such letters expose his weakness and therefore is a dagger in the heart of the Palestinian nation.

Something similar seems to be at work here. But that will be the subject of another post.

For now, let us remember that artists and writers are usually the first victims of censorship, whether populist or state sponsored. The best way to pay our tribute to Darwish is to affirm a principled, un-wavering commitment to freedom of expression. Yes, even for bad TV dramas!

* Zakaria Mouhammad is a bright exception.

On Real and Imaginary Oppressors of Women

2011-07-24T16:06:00.004-05:00

In an article in The Electronic Intifada entitled "Who is the Real Oppressor of Gaza Women's Rights," Yasmeen al Khoudary laments that when it comes to oppression of Palestinian women, the western media tends to focus on "trivial" issues while ignoring the "real" ones such as the occupation.

She may have a point, but the way she goes about it undermines her argument and raises major red flags for me. Partly because I've heard it all before. It's the broken record about priorities (for nationalists) and major vs. minor contradictions (for Marxists) etc. etc. But also because she basis her argument on the false assumption that Palestinian women in Gaza (or anywhere for that matter) have one oppressor. She calls that the "real" oppressor. Other sources of oppression are dismissed, minimized, trivialized, and ridiculed. Only the occupation oppresses Gazan women. Any other grievance is to be suspected and dismissed.

So, according to the article, when a young Gazan woman complains in front of a foreign diplomat about having to wear the hijab, the writer has to take her aside and chastise her for bringing up irrelevant issues. She reminds her that Hamas does "not ban women from not wearing it" (interesting way of putting it) and that if the girl comes from a conservative family or neighborhood that makes her veil, then it's a personal issue and not the fault of the government. Then she concludes: "There's a fine line between our mildly conservative traditions and the rules that Hamas imposes on our society, and the two need not be mixed for the sake of our image." In other words, Hamas's social policies over the past two decades are to be erased. The problem is that our society is "mildly conservative" (come on! who can't live with that!!) and to mix the two by blaming this conservatism on Hamas is to hurt our image!!!!

Ah, so it's all about image!!! The last thing we need is for those foreigners to think badly of us!

I'm sure that "quiet" young woman will be quieter from now on, having been told in effect that she is ignorant and that she failed the Palestinian people by bringing up such irrelevant topics. The chastiser, not surprisingly, fails to see that in shutting up her colleague (and writing an article about her folly) she is oppressing her as well. It's not the oppression of the occupation, but it is still "real."

It is possible to critique the western media and its biases without dismissing the other issues that do oppress women (and some men). Oppression is like disasters: it comes in multiple forms. It is possible to fight against the occupation AND to fight against other forms of oppression (social, patriarchal, national). We need to always remind the western media and OURSELVES before them that the fight against the occupation is a fight for self determination and freedom: of expression, of movement, of association, and of choice, collectively and individually.

The fact that some use women's rights or gay rights to whitewash and pinkwash the Israeli occupation does not mean we should stop fighting for these rights.

Otherwise, it's a half-assed liberation not worth dying for!

Norway: What Is Terrorism?

2011-07-23T10:22:00.000-05:00

A good article by Glenn Greewald on the initial coverage of the attacks in Norway.

Anonymous

2011-07-22T14:10:00.001-05:00

Attacks on Algerian Women

2011-07-22T10:29:00.001-05:00

Attacks on Algerian women go unpunished. The targets are women who live alone. Attackers use the accusation of prostitution as a license to kill. The government looks the other way.

For more details and to sign a petition, see here.

The Worst Clip of the Week

2011-07-22T09:06:00.002-05:00

Oh, what could be more entertaining than a "cat fight" (with apologies to our feline friends) between two women over a man? A mud-wrestling match doesn't even come close. This is so embarrassing, so idiotic, so uncool, so last century, and so degrading to women as to leave me at a loss for words. And the double whammy (beyond the Abdu/Khashab awful performance) is that the director is a woman: Batoul Arafah. Please retire, all three of you.

BTW, the text ads at the bottom of the screen advertise products for premature ejaculation and weak erections--just in case you were wondering who the target audience for the clip is.

The Mountain

2011-07-21T10:39:00.002-05:00

شوف الجبل واقف ولا هزته ريح،

شوف القمر عالي ولا يمكن يطيح.

وانا الجبل في عزتي وفي وقوفي،

والبدر من طولي توسد كتوفي.

ون كنت تبغي يا وفا العمر توضيح

ما اطيح من هزة ، ولا تهزني ريح

ما للزمن يا صاح غالي و صاحب

له قلب متقلب ، وله وجه شاحب.

وأنا لاوني من الزمن صرت ضايق،

بس اشكره جداً كشفلي حقايق

علمني كيف اتحدى, لو مت ما اطيح

ما اطيح من هزة ولا تهزني ريح

Mourning Juliano and Vittorio

2011-04-15T14:15:00.002-05:00

Our words are empty! How to mourn Vittorio and Juliano?

Don't tell me "The Mossad killed them" or the killers aren't us! That is only meant to make us feel better. To do damage control. Oh, our enemies did it. Must have. Because we are so beautiful we can never do something like this! Only if you've done your investigation and have evidence I will listen. Because I don't want us to feel better. Feeling better is betrayal. Blaming our shit on others will not make us cleaner.

Don't tell me the murders are against "our customs and traditions." The sentence infuriates me. This is the politicians favorite sentence (I heard it from the PA, Hamas, Fida, and the People's party) which they use to "denounce" the killings: "It's not part of our customs and traditions." As if we all have one set of "customs and traditions" to go by! As if we are not divided, as if differences don't exist between us, as if our "customs and traditions" are a magical wand that we wave in the face of the killers to make them cower in disgrace and shame. As if it's enough to unify us. Keep waving! But don't be surprised if somebody else's version of "customs and traditions" eat up yours! Didn't they say that it's against "our customs and traditions" to have girls and boys act together in The Freedom theatre? Didn't Hamas want to ban UN summer camps because they allow kids to sing and dance, which is against "our customs and traditions"? Isn't women smoking Argeela in public against "our customs and traditions"? Isn't it "against our customs and traditions" to torture and shoot your brothers, sisters, and neighbors? And haven't we been at it for years now? So stop fooling yourselves and fooling us! Instead, ask: Isn't it because Juliano's cultural and political project was also about questioning the sacred "customs and traditions" to create new values that he was not only killed but also not mourned the way he should have been?

Don't tell me that the PA and Hamas acted "wisely" and that this is a conspiracy to undermine law and order. Resist, my esteemed politicians, at least till the bodies are cold, before you use the death of these men to score political points. Do us a favor once in your life and look in the mirror. Ask yourself: How did WE bring this about?

Don't try to make me feel guilty that I'm mourning those two when there are so many Palestinians getting killed everyday. "Is it because he's Jewish or Italian that his life is worth mourning?" NO! It's because he's the "stranger" amongst us! It's because he's killed in my name. If you don't see this difference, then you don't see. Weren't Juliano and Vittorio killed because they loved beyond the tribe? Shouldn't we honor their fatal love with some nontribal love or our own?

And don't say RIP. It sounds like an insult. What rest? What peace? There shall be no rest. Only rage!

Vittorio Arrigoni Murdered

2011-04-15T10:41:00.000-05:00

The Hyperbole Award of the Week Goes to...

2011-04-08T18:41:00.002-05:00

It's a tie between two supporters of the Julian Schnabel's film "Miral." One is by actor Johnny Depp who described the film as

"an epic poem teetering on the edge of a dagger. "and academic Hamid Dabashi who claims the film "is a resolute act of truth and reconciliation, a visual pilgrimage—to Palestine, to find peace in the forgiving landscape of an unforgiving history that must one day overcome itself." (huhh?)

I appreciate the good intentions of all involved and their desire to support a Hollywood friend (in the first case) and the Palestinian cause (in the second). And I do recognize that some people don't want any narrative from any Palestinian point of view no matter how weak it is. Still, "Miral" doesn't deserve this praise. It's a weak film. Not because it tells the story only from the Palestinian point of view (as some anti-Palestinians claim), but because it tells badly the very little story it has.

"Arna's Children" Screening

2011-04-08T11:54:00.002-05:00

If you are in the DC area, please come to a free screening of Juliano Mer Khamis's award-winning film "Arna's Children" at 1:00 pm on Sunday, April 10th at the Johnson Center Cinema at George Mason University (Fairfax campus).

So Juliano lives!

Palestine for Dummies - Juliano Mer-Khamis (ENG)

2011-04-08T09:33:00.000-05:00

Interview with Juliano Mer Khamis

2011-04-06T11:52:00.002-05:00

This interview was conducted with Julian Mer Khamis in 2005 by Beshara Doumani.

Arna´s Children

2011-04-06T07:37:00.002-05:00

You can watch Julian Mer Khamis's film Arna's Children here.

Leading Palestinian Peace Activist & Theater Director, Juliano Mer-Khami...

2011-04-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

Support The Freedom Theatre

2011-04-05T14:09:00.003-05:00

http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/support.php

For Juliano Mer Khamis

2011-04-05T13:38:00.004-05:00

http://www.facebook.com/ForJulianoMerKhamis?ref=ts

Arna´s Children Trailer

2011-04-05T13:01:00.001-05:00

Directed by Juliano Mer Khamis

Juliano Mer Khamis Lives

2011-04-05T12:54:00.001-05:00

Juliano Mer Khamis, Palestinian director, actor, and activist, was assassinated yesterday in Jenin by masked gunmen who fired five bullets into his heart. The bullets were meant to kill a brave visionary man and all that he stood for: culture as resistance, freedom and dignity, and the future.

Juliano will live because his vision is the only way out. His work has touched the lives of many. They will make sure that he stays with us. And stay he must, for his loss is too dear to afford and too painful to endure.

Rachel Corrie's Fifth Grade Speech

2011-03-16T16:24:00.002-05:00

Eight years ago, an Israeli bulldozer ran over and killed Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist who was trying to stop demolitions of Palestinian homes. RIP Rachel. The world is less kind without you, but your memory reminds us of the good in it.

Below is a speech Rachel gave in fifth grade. It gives me chills to hear her.

خطاب القذافي باختصار....Qathafi speech in Libya

2011-02-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

2011-02-24T13:08:00.002-05:00

You can read here the first chapter in Libyan writer Hisham Matar's novel In the Country of Men.

"Where's My Money"?

2011-02-24T10:26:00.001-05:00

اللي فهمته من خطاب القذافى What I understood from Gaddafi's speech

2011-02-24T00:07:00.001-05:00

الشعب يريد تفسير الخطاب

Thanks to يناير يوم الثورة على التعذيب والفقر والفساد والبطالة 25. facebook page.

Ian McEwan Criticizes Israeli Policies in Acceptance Speech

2011-02-20T20:37:00.002-05:00

While British novelist Ian McEwan did not respond to calls to reject the Jerusalem Prize for literature, he used the occasion to criticize Israeli policies against the Palestinians. According to The Guardian, he said:

"But it was also nihilism that fired a rocket at the home of the Gazan doctor, Izzeldin Abuelaish, killing three of his daughters and a niece during the Gazan war. "And it is nihilism to make a long-term prison camp of the Gaza Strip. Nihilism has unleashed a tsunami of concrete across the occupied territories." The author referred to "continued evictions and relentless purchases of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the process of the right of return granted to Jews but not to Arabs, the so-called facts on the ground of hardening concrete over the future, over future generations of Palestinian and Israeli children who will inherit the conflict and find it even more difficult to resolve than it is today."

He called for an end to settlements and encroachments on Palestinian land."

Man Names New-Born "Facebook"

2011-02-20T13:40:00.002-05:00

An Egyptian man named his first-born daughter "Facebook" to celebrate the Egyptian revolution and the role social media played in it.

She is Facebook Gamal Ibrahim.

I understand the father's sentiment, but I really wish he went with another choice. "Mesr" [Egypt], "Thawra," [revolution], "Tahreer," [liberation] all make lovely female names. "Facebook"?? Not so much.

Let's hope the new Egyptian constitution will allow her to change her name when she's older.

Libyan Hisham Matar: "Once Upon a Life"

2011-02-20T09:44:00.003-05:00

This is a piece by the Libyan writer Hisham Matar that appeared in The Observer today. I'm looking forward to his new novel, Anatomy of a Disappearance. His first novel, In the Country of Men, is one of the best novels that I read in a long time. I blogged about it earlier here, and I teach it every opportunity I have. Everybody should read it. Then people will understand while Gaddafi must go. The brutality of his regime is captured brilliantly and so so movingly by Matar's fiction.

Libya: Live Radio

2011-02-19T17:14:00.002-05:00

This live radio from Benghazi in Libya--a station controlled by the rebels.

Arabic Literature Now: Between Area Studies and the New Comparatism

2011-02-19T16:57:00.001-05:00

A special issue of Comparative Literature Studies, "Arabic Literature Now: Between Area Studies and the New Comparatism" is out. It was edited by Wail Hassan and me and includes fine contributions from scholars of Arabic literature. Thanks to everyone who made it possible.

Time Magazine Cover: Finally an Image I Like

2011-02-19T16:48:00.000-05:00

Music of the Revolution: #Jan25 Egypt

2011-02-19T16:37:00.002-05:00

#This music video was made in solidarity with the Egyptian revolution by a group of artists including Omar Offendum, the Narcicyst, Ayah, and Amer Sulaiman. It's produced by the Palestinian American Sami Mattar. The lyrics are below.

"First they ignore you
Then they laugh at you
Then they fight you
Then you WIN"
- Ghandi

OMAR OFFENDUM:

I heard em say
The revolution wont be televised
Aljazeera proved em wrong
Twitter has him paralyzed
80 million strong
And ain't no longer gonna be terrorized
Organized - Mobilized - Vocalized
On the side of TRUTH
Um il-Dunya's living proof
That its a matter of time
before the chicken is home to roost
Bouazizi lit the...

and it slowly ignited the fire
within Arab people to fight it

From Tunis to Khan Younis
the new moon shines bright
as The Man's spoon was
as masses demand rights
and dispel rumors of disunity
communally removing the tumors
of rotten 7ukoomas
we're making headway
chanting down the dictators
getting rid of deadweight
opening the floodgates
like the streets of Jeddah
bawwabit il-thawra maftoo7a
oo ma ba2an sid'ha
we've been empowered to speak
and though the future is uncertain
man at least it isn't bleak
when our children can be raised
not in a cage - but on a peak
the inheritors of mother earth are meek

Freedom isn't given by oppressors
It's demanded by oppressed
Freedom lovers - Freedom fighters
Free to gather and protest
for their God-given rights
for a Freedom of the Press
we know Freedom is the answer
The only question is…

Who's next?

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now
Time to fight, because we are all we have now
Do you hear?
Calling out for back up
Try to keep a look out for better days

THE NARCICYST:

Weathering the storm, pleasure to be born,
news media disseminate at heaven's gate's level of alarm...
3rd Person Dictators couldn't sever them till dawn
3 mill in your streets, We will live in Peace....
you will see it.
But First God Rest the soul of those who choose to be free
from poverty they rose
knee deep in robbery
souls will plummet and burn like Mohammed Bouazizi...
All I see is...
Al-Jazeera Logos,
Pillars of the State can now hear their own souls,
Karma waits for no man,
your presidential charm and armor break,
out of place in your own homeland,
Now Dip like Mezza..
imagine a million human march to Gaza,
From Qahira to Baghdad, siyasatkom saa7ira…..
3alamat Al-akhira...

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now
Time to fight, because we are all we have now
Do you hear?
Calling out for back up
Try to keep a look out for better days

FREEWAY:

And that's where the beef ends
you should learn a lesson from oppression where it begins
black white yellow it don't matter what race
before you break us you can push us off the Deep end
different country same struggle we even
contemplate on squeezin when our kids ain't eating
only other difference is it's hot all year round there
winter time and your kids ain't freezing
but we all starving all grieving
and the people with the power ain't got heart enough to feed us
follow the procedures and I study my Quran
this is modern day signs we just waiting on Jesus
you should be the teacher of Quran to your kids
instead of wasting time watching Kelly Ripa and Regis
this is Egypt
home of the ruins last time we needed change it took Musa to move em
operation get rid of the pharoah
now we getting rid who ain't willing to share no
bread with the people we are all equal
true men of God, Fear God, don't fear no
person that's walking on the face of the earth
if he got a tank, knife, gun, bow or an arrow
long as there's breath
then there's still hope left
so let hope rise like the eye of a sparrow

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now
Time to fight, because we are all we have now
Do you hear?
Calling out for back up
Try to keep a look out for better days

AMIR SULAIMAN:

wont be just niggas
wont be just spiks
a rabs pakis rednecks and hicks
the leaders aint helping them feeding their kids
the leaders helping pigs eating their kids
got me back on my Elijah eating to live
run up in the white house like i got a key to the crib

the house and the senate
ousted in a minute
takes these streets to wall street

this ones for kemit

they on that ghandi
they on that che though
but that che turn cairo fuego
Hard for the press to find a Scapegoat
When evey man woman and child at the table
They think they John Adams
They think they Ben Franklin
they want democracy
what them arabs thinkin
the world leaders now can see when
keep people from eating
the people will eat them

AYAH:

Time to push, and we aint falling back now
Time to fight, because we are all we have now
Do you hear?
Calling out for back up
Try to keep a look out for better days

- -

Long Live the Egyptian Revolution!

2011-02-11T15:32:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to all Egyptians! Congratulations to all of us!

Omar Offendum - Destiny (Official Video HD)

2010-09-22T22:32:00.001-05:00

Making Up Boys

2010-09-21T08:05:00.003-05:00

An article about how some Afghani families, so pressured to have sons, make up ones by transforming one of their girls into a boy. It's as simple as a haircut and a pair of trousers! The "lucky" girl gets to ride a bike, play football, and get into fights with boys.

Then, when marriage beckons, the girl-boy is ruthlessly expelled from boy paradise and is asked to be a girl again: shy, confined, and good at cooking. Is it surprising that some of these girl-boys are disappointed and do not want to be girls again?

All of this is done not for the sake of the child, but for the sake of the parents' pride: they are too humiliated to have only girls and their social standing suffers. So they invent a son, at least for a while. As we say in Arabic, "el reeha wala el 3adam." (Translation: "better than nothing").

Of course when a girl chooses to be or become a boy, hell break loose. And when a boy chooses to be or become a girl, then civilization as we know it is threatened with annihilation. Religion, law, science, and love of country are deployed to put boys and girls in their so-called "natural" places.

And let us not romanticize this practice by using it to show how "queer" Afghanis can be. This is not about queerdom; it's about power and coercion.

Music: Beounce " I wish I were a boy"

Sabah and Mohammad Fawzy in "Masalan"

2010-09-17T23:51:00.003-05:00

Queer Politics and the Question of Palestine/Israel

2010-09-17T22:21:00.001-05:00

A new issue of the Gay and Lesbian Quarterly journal is out. It's about "Queer Politics and the Question of Palestine/Israel." Check it out here.

Princess Hijab Veils Paris

2010-09-16T10:20:00.003-05:00

Princess hijab is a graffitti artist who goes around Paris drawing niqabs over advertisements. You can say the French brought this upon themselves for their ridiculous obsession with the niqab, whose ban has passed into law. So their deepest fears, of an Islam that takes over their cities and subways, is realized in the guerrilla art of Princess Hijab who draws niqabs over both women and men.

In addition to the scare it is supposed to give the city, Princess hijab's art reminds us that veiling women or baring them are connected. This is why I would like to see her set loose in places where niqabs are marketed as the only right thing for women, without which the Umma would disintegrate.

You can watch the video about this artist here. An article is here.

Shadia Mansour's Musical Intifada

2010-09-16T07:54:00.003-05:00

An article and video about Shadia Mansour, who is rightly called the First Lady of Arabic Hip Hop.

The Narcicyst "Hamdulillah"

2010-09-15T14:21:00.003-05:00

Iraqi rapper The Narcicyst with Shadia Mansour.

Award for Most Moronic Song

2010-09-14T11:50:00.002-05:00

I think the degradation of Arabic pop music has reached a new low. To know what I mean, you can listen (as usual at your own risk) to this new song by Rasheedy, another Rotana clone (there are so many of them these days and they all look alike). His lowly masterpiece is called "Toz Feky."

I would give him some points for originality. For as far as I know there is no other Arabic song with this title or with this theme. Yes, there are plenty of songs bemoaning parting and accusing the lover of cruelty, coldness, betrayal etc. etc. Sure, things can get ugly, but this is something else altogether.

For this Karawan is so hurt for being dumped by his first love he sings about wanting to auction her. He will sell her because she's cheap, and he will make sure to tell buyers that she's good to play with but not to love. I guess he was so much in love that he didn't hear that slavery is OVER! (well, mostly). No wonder she dumped his moronic @##.

Then that brilliant climax: his last words to her are "Toz Feky." Buddy, that's what you say in the privacy of your fight, not to us, your poor listeners!

Now, I know that tastes vary and a jilted lover should be given some extra room to express his anger, disappointment, and heartbreak (future posts will show that you can have civilized break up songs). I also know that I'm getting old and may not appreciate the way members of the new generation express themselves. Still, I don't think talking to a woman as if she is chattel is cool regardless of your age, taste, or hate.

Lowkey - Tears To Laughter (Music Video) (Long Live Palestine)

2010-09-14T07:36:00.001-05:00

Eid Ad: "Once Upon a Time There was a City"

2010-09-03T18:29:00.004-05:00

It's about time that the Ghoul gets unothered!

Short Arab Films

2010-09-02T13:41:00.003-05:00

You can watch many short Arab films online here. There are films from Palestine, Morocco, the Gulf, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Lebanon. This is a project initiated by the Goethe Institute.

Digla: Egypt Rock 'n' Roll

2010-09-01T22:18:00.002-05:00

Getting Chomsky

2010-08-31T22:22:00.002-05:00

After his last visit to the Middle East, Chomsky was criticized by some people for statements he made. This article sets the record straight about what Chomsky said and what he didn't say. Of particular interest are his views on BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement) and on the one/two state solution debate.

Of course, this article is of no interest to those who try to build up their radical credentials by smearing Chomsly. I'm posting here for the benefit of the others.

No Justice For Palestinian Girl

2010-08-29T16:43:00.001-05:00

"An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday," The Guardian reports.

The Fabulous Elia Suleiman

2010-01-18T17:15:00.000-05:00

Sex Industry in Palestine

2009-12-09T13:14:00.005-05:00

A new report on sex trafficking in Palestinian society issued by SAWA, Amira Hass reports.

I haven't read the report, but from the way it's summarized, it leaves many questions untouched.

One thing I'm going to be watching for is the way this report will be used politically by different Palestinian groups. Ramallah has been cast since the siege on Gaza by those who oppose the PA as a den of vice. I have been hearing stories the delegitimized the cities for a few years now. Jerusalem was always "tainted." I won't be surprised if the women this report is advocating for will end up being used to tarnish political opponents. We'll see.

"What the Living Do"

2009-12-03T23:55:00.001-05:00

What the Living Do
From What the Living Do by Marie Howe

Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil probably fell down there.
And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up

waiting for the plumber I still haven't called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It's winter again: the sky's a deep, headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through

the open living-room windows because the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off.
For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking,

I've been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those
wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve,

I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it.
Parking. Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning.

What you finally gave up. We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss--we want more and more and then more of it.

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, and I'm gripped by a cherishing so deep

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I'm speechless:
I am living. I remember you.

From a Somali Woman To Her Executioners

2009-11-28T11:37:00.019-05:00

I was scared. Sometimes, I thought you would let me go, would forget about me. It had been months since you judged me and my belly got bigger and bigger. The bigger it got the closer I came to my due date, the date of my execution. I ate almost nothing and drank little, hoping that my belly would stop growing and you would forget about me. Some hopeful mornings I was certain that I would die in childbirth, the way my mother did. She gave birth to me and rushed away, leaving me all alone with you. I was a nobody. You would forget about me. You had guns to buy and wars to fight. What do you want with a woman like me?

I was scared when I heard his scream. I never heard him scream before. I only knew his whispers. When he told me how much he wanted me, how beautiful my eyes were, how he had to go now. I loved his nightly visits because after love-making he always covered me and because he wasn't one of you. His brother was, which is why you spared his life. I'm happy you did. You wanted me to watch. Your slaps forced me to open my eyes. From a distance, I kissed his blood-streaked back the way I kissed it when you weren't looking. And for a moment, I forget about you.

I was scared when I felt the first pains. I closed my eyes and waited for mercy. The women's voices urged me to push. I pulled it inside as hard as I could. I knew that if it stayed in me long enough you would forget about me. I held to it the way a drowning man hold onto a dead body floating by. If it stays in me it will only hear the stories I tell. But it betrayed me again. I felt it slipping from between my legs, silent. Death came and missed me. My scream reminds you that I am ready for you.

I am scared when you force me to watch as you dig my standing grave. My water breaks again. How many deaths am I to give birth to? Other people are watching too. It's festive. It reminds me of Eid days, when as children you and I used to gather around storytellers in the marketplace. Today, I'm the heroine of your story. I am tall, so you have to dig deeper, which makes you hate me more. I stand. You arrange it so that I can only move my head. The first stone misses. I smile. The second misses too. My smile widens. But soon your aim gets better and I no longer can tell if I'm smiling or not. I don't have my hands to shield my face. You deny me that small mercy. Do I feel pain? I don't remember. All I remember is the glistening skin, my parted lips, and the scream of pleasure that brought you to me. Then my lover covers me. And I go to sleep.

Is it Right to Kill ?

2009-11-28T10:34:00.006-05:00

Last week, a Somali woman was stoned to death for having sex with a man. Another one will be stoned once she gives birth. A man was stoned to death because he committed adultery. And before that a rape victim was stoned to death for being raped.

All in the name of Islamic law as interpreted by illiterate, gun-wielding hooligans.

But wait. If the death sentence was delivered in the context of a stable Muslim state, following proper Islamic procedures, and was even carried out by a "civilized" lethal injection, would it be right?

Is it right to kill because two consenting adults had sex?

This is the issue. The argument that Islam makes it particularly hard to punish those who break the rule of no sex outside marriage does not address this issue. Yes, we need four adult witnesses who actually witness sexual intercourse (unmarried women's pregnant bellies complicate this a bit). And, yes, men and women are to be punished equally. But this strictness and egalitarianism do not change the fact that adultery and sex outside marriage are criminalized. True, it never stopped Muslims from having sex outside marriage, but that's not the issue either. The Somalia cases force me to think about one question only:

Is it right to kill because two consenting adults had sex?

That is the question.

Thanksgiving, the Palestinian Way

2009-11-26T18:25:00.004-05:00

On this Earth …

On this earth

There’s what’s worth living for

April’s hesitation

The smell of bread at dawn

A woman’s magic words for men

The writings of Aeschylus

The beginnings of love

Grass on a stone

Mothers standing on a string of a flute

And the invaders’ fear of memories

On this earth

There’s what’s worth living for

The end of September

A woman leaving her forties with all her beauty

Sun hour in prison

Clouds imitating a flock of creatures

People’s chants for those who face death with a smile

Tyrants’ fear of songs.

On this earth

There’s what’s worth living for

The lady of earth

The mother of beginnings

The mother of endings

She was called Palestine

She is later called Palestine

My lady, I deserve,

Because you are my lady,

I deserve life.

(my translation)

Masar: Trio Joubran

2009-11-25T17:36:00.000-05:00

Just Because

2009-11-24T21:21:00.001-05:00

About Zeina

2009-11-24T08:53:00.005-05:00

A bio- article in Al Akhbar newspaper (in Arabic) about a dear friend and one of my favorite people in the world: Zeina Za'tari. It's rare that you get up in the morning and read something good.

Freedom

2009-11-02T17:58:00.001-05:00

Some people might choose to think of this Mohammad Mounir's song as a song about Egypt. Certainly whoever put the video together (and the people who commented on it) think so. I can see why: it's called "Freedom" and has words like "martyr" and "refugee." Serious business. Grab a flag!

I prefer to see it as a love song that borrows the language of nationalism to express love for a woman--to legitimize a forbidden love, to be exact. I think this makes it more interesting and a bit subversive.

To say to one's country, as the song does, "Your love is freedom; in love, nothing is forbidden" should not raise any eyebrows. But to say it to the one you love, especially if your heart is "going against the current," will raise hell. No one wants to be a refugee in their own country, which is why the best line in the song makes no sense if you are thinking a country is the object of desire: "Hold me, take me, I'm a refugee, and I am true for the first time..." Well, unless you're asking for political asylum!

What I'm saying is that love songs can be powerful and legitimate without having to be about God and Country. Let's try listening to them that way and see what happens.

How Women's Bras Undermine the Muslim Nation

2009-10-20T08:00:00.008-05:00

According to this article by Alaa al Aswani, author of The Yacoubian Building, Chicago, and Friendly Fire, a Somali woman was arrested and publicly flogged for wearing a bra. Her charge was that wearing a bra is un-Islamic because it is an act of deception and misrepesentation. (here is the news report in English)

So if you hear that Somali women gathered in the public square and burned their bras, don't be surprised and don't attack them for aping western feminists, who, rumor has it, publicly burned their bras a while back to declare their independence from male standards of beauty and propriety. These bra-burning Somali women will be just following orders of men who care too much.

Why a woman wearing a bra is problematic for these male guardians of morality? I'm glad you asked. There are two scientific explanations:

If a woman is wearing a Victoria Secret push-up bra, she makes her breasts more outstanding than they originally are, even from under a long, thick robe. The resulting cleavage can undermine the social cohesion of Somali society, distract men from their guns, and result in chaos and fitna. That cannot be allowed, you would agree.

If a woman wears a sports bra, one that flattens her chest and minimizes her wiggle factor when she walks or runs, she is denying her femininity and is trying to look like men. And we all know how dangerous that can be. Not only does it signal the demise of the Muslim family, but it can lead to the end of the human race as we know it.

This is why Kuwait already has a law that punishes men and women who dress and walk in a gender-inappropriate way. And in Sudan Lubna al Hussein, the pant-wearing journalist, was arrested, put on trial, and fined for her role in wasting the time of the men of the nation, busy destroying their country.

Somali morality police should be credited for going beyond the surface appearances of pants and shirts and for zeroing on the parts that matter. Today they are after women's bras, and tomorrow they will go for women's thongs and boxer briefs. So Muslim women everywhere, be warned. And behave.

Bekhsoos: A Queer Arab Weekly

2009-10-19T08:00:00.006-05:00

The new issue of Bekhsoos: A Queer Arab Weekly is out. Take a look here.

This weekly on-line magazine is prepared by Meem, a community of lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer women in Lebanon.

While recently in Beirut for the Arab Feminisms Conference hosted by Al Bahithat, I was privileged to attend the editorial meeting when the previous issue of Bekhsoos was being planned. I was very impressed by the professionalism, intelligence, humor, and dedication of the young women who put it together. They gave me hope that a new generation of feminist and queer activists are on their way to make a difference, a big difference, in the future of Arab women and men.

Some may try to crush them with homophobic hostility, with close-minded accusations, or with the silence of indifference. But I have no doubt in my mind--and heart--that nothing will stop these women from their goal: a more just society that recognizes and celebrates sexual diversity, where sexual difference is no longer a mark of disease and shame.

It may be a long and rough journey till we arrive at that goal. But in the company of the wonderful women of Meem, it is bound to be a thrilling one!

"Freedom"

2009-09-28T07:40:00.006-05:00

What I'm saying is that love songs can be powerful and legitimate without having to be about God and Country. Let's try listening to them that way and see what happens.

Israel Committed War Crimes in Gaza

2009-09-16T08:02:00.002-05:00

The UN Fact-Finding Mission "concluded there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity," concluded the UN Report.

It's not the first time and it won't be the last and unfortunately nothing will come out of it. Still. for the record.

Breaking the Silence

2009-09-16T07:37:00.003-05:00

On a recent concert in Ramallah, arranged by Palestinian musician Khaled Joubran, and including several Arab and international musicians.

How the New York Times Whitewashes Israeli Settlers

2009-09-15T08:11:00.007-05:00

Only the majestic "paper of record," i.e. The New York Times, can get away with a five-page article on the Israeli settlers in the West Bank without mentioning once that settlements and outposts (which are settlements by another name) are illegal under international law. ILLEGAL!!! Write THAT!

The picture that accompanies the article infuriated me. The article infuriated me more. What's the message we get from both?

Israeli settlers are really mystic idealists who are interested in a higher truth. They are not violent. Their occasional violence towards the Palestinians is in response to the latter's attacks, which is why the only detailed violence we hear of in the article and elsewhere--the one with names and a story--shows them to be the victims.

Moreover, by showing them to be "different" from the majority of settlers and separate from the Israeli government and army, the article obscures the FACT that the settlement movement of the West Bank is imagined, sponsored, and protected by the Israeli political establishment. Illegal settlement of Palestinian land is official Israeli policy and not the work of some idealistic but misguided small group of mystic hard corers!! Damn it!

The reporter who barfed that article could have gotten some of these Facts in his piece if he dared talk to one or two Palestinians about settlements. But god and editorial policy and biased reporting forbid that such an outrageous thing be admitted.

And, oh, that picture. What's better to represent those harmless mystic pioneers than a mother bathing her baby on top of the mountain in the holy land wilderness! Move over Mary and baby Jesus! Here comes the modern version.

Ok. My morning is ruined!

Gold and Silver for Palestinian Athletes

2009-09-15T07:52:00.003-05:00

Palestinian athletes receive gold and silver medals in Asia Parlympic games in Japan.

"Marking a first for Palestine, Mo’men Al-Masry received the gold medal for his javelin throwing, while Walid Judeh received earned a silver medal in the same event."

The first sentence of the Maan article quoted above is one of the worst I've read in a long time: "Disabled members of the Al-Jazeera Sports Club in Gaza received top medals at the Asia Paralympic Games Championship in javelin throwing Sunday in Japan."

The only "disabled" I see in this story is the writer of that lame sentence.

More Fatwas to Tell Women What to Do

2009-09-15T07:43:00.003-05:00

Change is hitting Saudi Arabia like an earthquake. Nothing will stop it. The latest example is a new fatwa by a prominent Islamic personality who said that a Muslim woman is allowed to uncover her face in public.

If she is abroad.

And if she is being harassed.

What's next? Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a wild ride.

"Perhaps what the state of Israel fears most of all is the hope that people can live together based on justice and equality for all"

2009-09-12T10:45:00.003-05:00

An article about Israel's violent actions against the Palestinian popular non-violent resistance.

It's important to remember that his kind of resistance always existed and Israel always brutally suppressed it. It was the backbone of the First Intifada and it is what keeps the Palestinian cause and people alive. Israel hates it because it won't allow it to play the role of victim and it has the potential of neutralizing its superior military power. Palestinian politicians, across the political spectrum, pay lip service to it because they fear it's popular, non-hierarchical and democratic potential. Also they score more points against each other through the spectacular "armed" resistance, regardless of how ineffective the latter is.

On Masculinities

2009-09-09T22:27:00.003-05:00

Tarkan

Gay Killings in Iraq

2009-09-09T18:28:00.001-05:00

Excellent article about gay killings in Iraq by Rasha Moumneh.

Arab Jews (Mizrahim)

2009-09-09T09:06:00.003-05:00

A documentary by Al Jazeera TV on Arab Jews in Israel (Mizrahim). Unfortunately, there are no English subtitles though there should be. It's an hour long but well-worth viewing. (Thanks Smadar)

Most Palestinians Killed Were Civilians

2009-09-09T07:38:00.003-05:00

"The vast majority of the Palestinians killed in Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip last winter were innocent civilians rather than combatants, according to a new report to be published by the B'Tselem organization Wednesday morning. This is the opposite of what the Israel Defense Forces has said."

Not that Palestinians need this kind of prove to show them they were slaughtered. And not that this will sway the hearts of those who don't believe there is any such thing as a Palestinian civilian. But it is useful to give the lie to the Israeli occupation army.

Some Day

2009-09-09T07:31:00.003-05:00

(Thanks Rashid M)

Darwish and Trio Joubran: "Lessons from the Kama Sutra"

2009-09-08T08:09:00.003-05:00

An English translation of the poem is here.

Sabreen: "About a Human"

2009-09-07T10:53:00.003-05:00

"Neither the interrogation room will last
Nor the chains."

Picture of the Day

2009-09-07T10:49:00.002-05:00

from New York Times

Theft Continues: Israel Approves New Settlement Units

2009-09-07T10:31:00.003-05:00

455 new ugly colonial units will be built illegally on occupied land in the West Bank. Take that Obama! Take that international law!!!

Lubna al Hussain: Guilty but No Lashes

2009-09-07T10:02:00.012-05:00

A Sudanese court found the journalist Lubna Al Hussein guilty of wearing immodest clothing (i.e pants) and fined her $200 but no lashes. According to the law, Al Hussain could have received up to 40 lashes for her transgression of the ambiguous modesty rules. Other women have received that punishment, but remained silent. Al Hussein was the first to go pubic with her protest. (English here)

During the court session, 150 Sudanese women, some of them wearing pants, demonstrated in support of al Hussein. They were harassed by Islamist counter demonstrators who called them whores and demanded their punishment. The police attacked and arrested several women.

It's some sort of victory that Al Hussein didn't get flogged. But the fact that she was found "guilty" and was fined means that Sudanese women will not be safe until the law that punishes them for what they wear is no more.

And with women like al Hussein and her supporters, such unjust laws will not last.

Muslim Women Can Say Hello Now!

2009-09-07T09:50:00.005-05:00

A prominent Saudi preacher has ruled that a Muslim woman can greet a man and that her voice, as long as she limits her words to a greeting, is not off limits (the Arabic word is 3awra, for which I don't have an accurate translation).

What is the world coming to? The standards are getting lax by the minute. I'd blame it on globalization!

Amreeka: the trailer

2009-09-06T13:57:00.002-05:00

I haven't seen it, so I'm suspending judgement.

Take a Stand: An Appeal to Israeli Film Makers

2009-09-05T11:38:00.002-05:00

This appeal to Israeli film makers asks them to come out of their political closet and take a stand against the Israeli occupation. Specifically, it addresses the maker of the film The Bubble, that they must not allow themselves to use the Israeli LGBT community to whitewash the violent and racist practices of the state.

Israel Getting Its Way with Obama Administration. Surprise Surprise!

2009-08-27T21:29:00.005-05:00

"BERLIN - The Obama administration has agreed to Israel's request to remove East Jerusalem from negotiations on the impending settlement freeze," Haaretz reports.

The fact that settlements are illegal in occupied land is not subject to negotiations. East Jerusalem is occupied and settlements in it are illegal and must stop. It's not going to help Obama's credibility to go against international law. And no speech of his will make this right.

Empty Words Watch

2009-08-27T21:14:00.001-05:00

"Haniyeh sung the praises of Palestinian “steadfastness” during the war. “The Palestinians withstood the greatest air attack,” he said.

hummm!! What exactly were their options?