MSTSHRQ

realfakescientist:

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:10:27 +0100

كلام واقعى من الناس في الشارع..!! حسني مبارك وحش بس كان مهتم...

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:07:24 +0100

كلام واقعى من الناس في الشارع..!!

حسني مبارك وحش بس كان مهتم يالسياحة بصراحة ..
مبارك وحش بس بجد هو طور وبنى جيش يشرف ..
مبارك وحش بس الحقيقة عمل بنية تحتية قوية جداً..
مبارك وحش بس طلع اقمار صناعية ..
… مبارك وحش بس في عهده بصراحة طور الرياضة أوي ..
مبارك فاسد بس اخر ١٠ سنين بصراحة سعر الجنيه ثابت
مبارك وحش بس الحاجة الحلوة اللي فيه انه جمع ٣٦ مليار دولار احتياطي خلت سعر الجنيه ثابت ..
مبارك وحش بس بصراحة الشهادة لله كان محافظ اوي على الأمن في مصر وخلصها من الإرهاب ..
مبارك فاسد بس بنى مدن جديدة بحالها ..
مبارك وحش بس الحلو فيه ان كل الوزراء مدنيين ما عدا وزير الدفاع والداخلية ..
مبارك وحش بس الحلو فيه انه طور مطاراتنا اوي ..
مبارك وحش ..بص هو طبعا مبارك وحش بس بصراحة جاب مصانع مرسيدس وهيونداي وسامسونج مصر بالذات مش اي دولة عربية تانية …
مبارك وحش بس كان بيحترم القضاء وأحكمه والقانون والدستور جداً
ياعم بص هو مبارك وحش بس الحلو فيه انه كان محافظ على حدود مصر جدا الخارجية ..
مبارك وحش بس الحقيقة هو ومراته محو شلل الأطفال في مصر
مبارك وحش ولكن بصراحة باردة عمل حاجات ثقافية كتير زي مكتبة الاسكندرية ومتكب مبارك العامة ودار الاوبرا والقراءة للجميع

سمعت 10000 حاجة حلوة على مبارك بس برده وحش ومش مقتنعين خالص ان مفيش حد كامل او معصوم من الخطأ غير الانبياء!!

cityofbaghdad: city streets; sulaymaniyah, 2008 (via...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:28:03 +0100

cityofbaghdad:

city streets; sulaymaniyah, 2008 (via preemptivelovecoalition)

cityofbaghdad: portrait; karbala, 2012 (via steven richmond)

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:27:33 +0100

cityofbaghdad:

portrait; karbala, 2012 (via steven richmond)

cityofbaghdad: statue of the poet al-mutanabbi on mutanabbi...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:27:08 +0100

cityofbaghdad:

statue of the poet al-mutanabbi on mutanabbi street; baghdad, 2012 (via zagros.os)

cityofbaghdad: baghdad in tilt shift, 2011 (via joshrushing)

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:19:11 +0100

cityofbaghdad:

baghdad in tilt shift, 2011 (via joshrushing)

Professor Khalidi's translation of medieval Islamic text reveals new perspectives into Islamic thought

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:57:01 +0200

Professor Khalidi's translation of medieval Islamic text reveals new perspectives into Islamic thought :

A new English translation of a debate between two celebrated figures of the medieval Islamic era who diverge on notions of prophecy, miracles and the origins of science helps to dispel the notion of Islam as a rigid, monolithic religion.

A post I ran into on facebook today. Ill roughly translate what...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 03:44:00 +0200

A post I ran into on facebook today. Ill roughly translate what it says. If I am mistaken somewhere, please correct me.

“Today at the metro the word martyrs(shohada) standing above the door instead of Mubarak station* drew my attention so I took out the pen, lined through the word martyrs and wrote Mubarak station. Then I started praying to god to help me make it through the scene I imagined (would happen). Everyone saw me, they quarreled with me and cursed me. One of them said: son of a ****! He is not coming out of the jail and breaking the revolution!

I yelled at them: this is what will happen if you vote Shafiq. Your revolution will be broken and there will be no justice for the martyrs because of you. You will not be able to protest the way you just did because it will be your choice. Then I took out the pen again, overwrote the word Mubarak, and put two brackets saying: you have the opportunity now to write your own destiny.

Thanks got for the reaction that followed.”

*One of the metro stations in downtown Cairo was named Mubarak after the former president. The name was changed to Shohada (Martyrs) following the revolution. The same happened to Sadat metro station, which was changed to Dam al-Shohada ( the Blood of Martyrs).

original by Mohamed Aly, taken from Akhar Akhbar Midani Tahrir facebook page:

محمد على :
وانا في المترو النهرده لفت انتبهي كلمه الشهداء اللي مكان محط…ه مبارك فوق بوابات المترو
طلعت قلم وشطبت علي الشهداء وكتبت (محطه مبارك) ودعيت ربنا يعدي الموقف اللي في دماغي علي خير
كل الناس شافتني واتخانقت معايا وزعقتلي وواحد قاللي يابتوع مبارك ياولاد ال ## مش هايطلع من السجن ولا هتضيعوا الثوره
رديت عليهم بزعيق وقولتلهم ده اللي هيحصل لو انتخبتوا شفيق
ثورتكم هتضيع وهيضيع حق كل شهيد ضحي عشانكم
ووقتها مش هاتقدروا تعترضوا زي ما اعترضتم دلوقتي لانه هيبقي باختياركم
وطلعت القلم وشطبت مبارك وحطيت قوسين وقولتلهم انتوا اللي تقدروا تكتبوا مصيركم بإيدكم دلوقتي

والحمد لله علي رد الفعل اللي حصل وقتها

After the Battle, the new Yosri Nasrallah’s movie makes it...

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:22:45 +0200

After the Battle, the new Yosri Nasrallah’s movie makes it to the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival.

Pečat sa najpoznatijeg trga na svetu

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:44:43 +0200

Pečat sa najpoznatijeg trga na svetu

Tracks of Cairo

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 02:02:00 +0200

Tracks of Cairo:

Made by Alexander Brief and Johannes Roskamm Tracks of Cairo is a video road trip through the wide ranging music scene of Egypt’s capital in 2011, the year the Arab World’s uprisings began.
Listen to the sounds, the hopes and the disappointments of different Cairene musicians, with diverse music styles and backgrounds. Watch and listen to Fathy Salama, Mohamed Mounir, Wust el Balad, Dina El Wedidi, The Choir Project, Nass Makan, Maryam, Egyptronica, Mascara, Bikya and even more.

Where are the Children's Books about the Arab Spring?

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:16:00 +0100

At this year’s Cairo International Book Fair, the most sought-after books were those about Arab revolutions. Titles about revolution, in Arabic and in English, have also dominated prime bookstore shelf space. And yet few revolutionary titles have appeared for children.

The General Egyptian Book Organization recently published and lauded the celebratory children’s book “25 Songs of the 25 January Revolution.” In December of 2011, a French publishing house released the bilingual French/Arabic “The Revolutionary’s Pen,” which aims to explain the impetus behind the Tunisian revolution to children.

But while revolutionary novels, comics and diaries for adults have been published in a veritable torrent, new revolution-themed children’’s books have come at a trickle. In Cairo’s big bookstores, children’s-book sections look much as they did before January 2011.

Award-winning Lebanese children’s book author Fatima Sharafeddine has a new book in the works, called “Habbat Rayahon Qawayaton” (A Strong Wind Blew), which is dedicated “to Egypt, to the children of Egypt, to the children of all Arab revolutions.” In Sharafeddine’s book, which will be published by Dar al-Shorouk within the next six months, a strong wind blows and changes “all the world.”

But Sharafeddine’s story, told in rhymed verse, is one of very few. She said that, “in the Arab world, we do not realize that political events mean anything to the children; we do not notice that they are affected by it; they are generally excluded from the political scene and shielded from its terrible consequences.”

As a child, Sharafeddine was herself shielded in many ways from the Lebanese Civil War. But she still found the need to talk about the conflict and has written one of the few Arabic children’s books about war, a sensitive, hopeful story called “Fi Madinatee Harb” (In My City, There’s a War).

Certainly, there are some things from which children, particularly younger ones, should be shielded. Psychologist Dalia Danish, who lectured in Cairo last spring about post-traumatic stress disorder, suggested that children should not watch the news. However, Danish said that parents should answer children’s questions about current events: Children’s books are one positive way to open that conversation.

Nadine Kaadan, an acclaimed Syrian children’s book author, says that “most Syrian authors, and adults for that matter, are being very careful and avoidant in talking with kids about the crisis, because they don’t want to disturb them with stories of brutality and violence.”

But Kaadan feels that these issues, in the end, must be discussed. She has been looking for a way to write about events in Syria for children.

“It’s been on my mind since the uprising started, but I wasn’t clear on how to address it in a children’s book. The project slowly took shape as the events escalated from stage to stage, and I’ve finally decided that the story must center around how kids’ daily lives change during the crisis and how they are affected by all the uncertainty that is going on around them.”

Some Arabic children’s books, like Fatima al-Madol’s “El Wutn” (The Homeland), talk generally about a child’s relationship to his or her country. But few address the more confusing or difficult aspects of current events.

“I think it’s due to our educational culture in general in the Arab world, and our methods in dealing with children,” Kaadan said. “I would describe it more as ‘a need-to-know basis’ type of transmitting knowledge from parent to child, rather than an open and two-way conversation about situations that surround us or questions that the children may have, even if they’re very difficult to answer and are about the Arab Spring.”

Self-censorship also might be part of it, Kaadan said.

“I also feel that Arabic children’s publishers are overly cautious in dealing with issues that are considered taboo,” she said.

As she considers how to make her contribution to the literature of uprising, Kaadan says, she’s been particularly inspired by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi’s coming-of-age comic “Persepolis” (2000) and Egyptian author Walid Taher’s “The Black Dot” (2010), in which a group of children triumphs over a mysterious, oppressive dot.

Kaadan said it will be a challenge to create a book that, like “Persepolis” and “The Black Dot,” is both timeless and timely.

“It’s a challenge to strike a balance between creating a book that is universal, but also one that represents a historic and critical chapter in the Arab world for young readers,” Kaadan said.

source: Egypt Independent

THE FRUIT OF REVOLUTION

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:28:00 +0100

Little over a year ago, no political analyst I know would have argued that the leaders of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Yemen would be deposed in the immediate future. This set of leaders, cumulatively, had been in office for more than 100 years. Nor would anyone have projected that there would be uprisings in Bahrain and Syria. Clearly, 2011 was the Year of Revolution in the Arab World.

I believe that Arab revolutions have started, that they are widespread, and that they will succeed. The price of success will vary from one country to the other and will, in almost all cases, be more costly than need be. Nevertheless, these revolutions will redefine the relationship between the governed and governing in the Arab world. That is a momentous achievement in and of itself.

However, much more has occurred. Political parties have been legitimized, from Islamist political trends to liberal secular movements. Parliaments have been disbanded. Constitutions are being rewritten. Former officials have been killed, or are being put on trial. Most important, the average Arab feels empowered and is asserting his and her right to be governed democratically. It is self-evident in the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and now Syria, that the old axiom that authority rules is being challenged every day, almost to a fault.

Another positive development is that Arab governments and Arab societies are finally dealing openly with their reality. An Islamist opposition leader heads the newly established Moroccan government. Tunisia has distributed leadership positions in its interim arrangements between the majority and opposition. Islamist political parties gained a wide majority in Egyptian parliamentary elections, and voices of dissension are heard throughout the rest of the Arab world. Open discussion about the role of religion in society and government, as well as the role of the military and the powers of the executive branch versus legislative bodies, is ongoing and vibrant. The active engagement of youth–over 50 percent of the Arab population–in political expression is also of paramount importance, for theirs are the voices of the future. One cannot have a democratic or representative political system that is not reflective of society. It is this sense of empowerment and expression that ultimately provides the kernel of self confidence required to engage in public issues domestically, regionally, and internationally. And it is the inclusiveness of the system that gives it the credibility, which will ensure that it be taken seriously. These are among the strongest reasons for my optimism.

There were also disappointing and tragic events in 2011. The widespread use of force by the former Libyan regime against its people, the loss of Egyptian revolutionary martyrs in protests even after the change in Egyptian government, the killings in Yemen and Syria, and the human rights violations in Bahrain are all testimony to the high price of change. Regrettably, many of these losses could have been avoided had the entrenched regimes moved swiftly to accommodate the legitimate demands of the protesters. Where this did occur, such as in Morocco and Tunisia, less physical violence was witnessed and a political consensus towards the future seems to be emerging, though some real differences still simmer under the surface.

The Egyptian case is exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. As society stood up unified around the goal of “change” from January 25 to February 11, expectations for rapid transformation into a truly democratic Egyptian society were widespread. Together the people’s voices were clearly stronger than an entrenched and deep-rooted security system. Power in the country was being redefined. United, the people quickly succeeded in removing the head of state, reshuffling the government several times, and dissolving the parliament. Then the process lost track.

Egypt attempted to engage in democratic processes, such as competitive party elections, before developing a constitution, which should have provided the basic parameters for how the country would be governed in the future. As such, the united popular forces dispersed to compete for ownership of Egypt’s future without laying down the foundations of the new republic or creating a balanced playing field for the different stakeholders. In essence, they have embarked on picking the fruits of the revolution before actually nurturing it to ensure a bountiful harvest.

The real challenge of the coming period in Egypt will be the development of a constitution that is reflective of the strategic outlook of the nation, rather than the immediate political strengths of existing political trends. Going to parliamentary elections early has made this process all the more difficult and will lead to highly volatile debate in the weeks to come, as well as potentially numerous revisions in the years after a new constitution is agreed upon. As frustrated as some of the youth movements may feel, they are duty bound to rise above their differences and again unite to ensure that the new constitution guarantees the values of equality, democracy and the rule of law that they demanded so proudly a year ago.

For the constitutional process to have any chance of success, the provisions of the constitution must ensure four basic principles:

1. Transparency

Information should be accessible to Egyptians if they are to participate in determining the public interest. And they have the right to know how and why decisions were taken. Lack of clarity breeds corruption, while ambiguity fuels innuendo and false accusations.

2. Inclusiveness

The constitution must remain a foundational document for all Egyptians, irrespective of their beliefs, creed, gender, etc. If they are expected to sacrifice equally in war, or share the benefits of peace and prosperity, they must have equal rights and find pride in their national identity.

3. Accountability

To ensure productivity and integrity, Egyptians in positions of authority must know that they are to be held accountable for their actions. To encourage the respect necessary to participate in policy making, business, or public life, authority figures must recognize that their efforts have consequences.

4. Competitiveness

The constitution must create a system that does not only provide equal opportunity in theory, but in practice as well. Legalizing autocracy was not the objective of the revolution.

These four principles, applied to all of the sensitive issues in Egypt, be it the role of religion in politics, the rights of the individual, the roles of the military and political system, and the balance of power between the presidency, government and parliament, are the best possible assurance for the success of the Egyptian revolution.

These principles provide foundations for the political compromises that will be required to satisfy the different stakeholders and unite varying opinions. They create a framework through which all our most contentious issues may be introduced, torn apart, then finally and equitably resolved in the elegant chaos of the democratic process. Without such a framework the threat of renewed autocracy will never truly recede. With it, we may enjoy the fruits of January 25, and ensure a sustained, if belated, harvest for the years and generations to come.

Nabil Fahmy is the dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo. He served as Egypt’s ambassador to the United States from 1999–2008, and as envoy to Japan between 1997 and 1999.

The call of the curlew (novel and movie)

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:17:53 +0100

The end of 20^th century brought about change in Egyptian state and the society. The year 1798, was the year in which Egypt was paid a visit from the French that triggered a series of important events. This is the year when Napoleon set his feet on the Egyptian soil challenging Ottoman state in Egypt for the first time after centuries. It is after this period that Mohammad Ali, an Egyptian ruler with Balkan origins decided to set Egypt to the path of modernization and reform.

In anticipating and preparing the country for the challenges that the new era was posing in front of it, Mohammad Ali started Nahda or Egyptian renaissance sending the best of Egyptian youth in Europe and especiallyFranceto obtain western style education. This is the period in which Rifa’a Rafe’ el Tahtawi wrote his pieces on Paris and Parisians and the education of boys and girls and participated in opening of the first school for girls inCairo. Following his example, one of the most important Egyptian feminists, Qasim Amin came up with the titles such as “The Liberation of Women” and “The New Woman” in which he challenged prevailing social consensus on the role of women in the society arguing for more freedom of movement and education for women, whose position in a patriarchal Muslim society such as Egyptian was by that time largely uncontested.

Many other followed and by the beginning of the 20^th century, feminism inEgypt grew stronger and served as a useful means in consolidation of the nation against the peril posed by the British occupation. One of the most important female activists of that time and the member of Egyptian efendeyya was Hoda el Shaarawi, whose memoirs are excellent historical source of information on early feminist movement inEgypt and women participation in nationalist movement and the revolution of 1919. Her memoirs testify of her disappointment in Saad Zaghloul and other nationalist leaders when they refused to reward women’s contribution to the success of the revolution of 1919 by recognizing more freedom to women in the constitution of 1923.

It is in this period of early 20^th century that the story of Taha Hussein’s “The Call of the Curlew” is placed. Not unlike many other Egyptian writers, Taha Hussein too dedicates attention to the problem of tradition, modernity and women in Egyptian society. As we can see from the book, at this period Egypt was becoming more centralized a state, which brought about the government in the state province and along with the government the people who wear tarboosh. The state and creation of the national identity was not the only thing that had been going on in Egyptian society of that time. The modernization brought about factories and trains, it brought about incomprehensible, confusing differences that posed many challenges on tradition and isolated communities. The differences that had been until recently weeks of horse ride away had become just a couple of hours of train ride away.

These challenges were especially dangerous to young women like Taha Hussein’s Hanadi and Amna whose naivety makes them easy pray to what Hussein calls ogres-the evil creatures who pray on the young and innocent. He sees Amna running away in the night and he asks her about her path, about the possibilities and dangers that wait for her in her striving towards the town and the house that she finds safe. “Have you not thought of how the lives of weak and poor people, especially women, are filled with mishaps and calamities which are gradually discovered to be the origin of so much evil and crime? Have you forgotten the stories of your childhood that entertained you in the daytime but frightened you at night, and in which horrible ogres watch out for people passing along the roads?(51)”

There seems to be three types of women that Taha Hussein depicts in his novel. The first type are submissive village women like Zohra and Hanadi, who do not have any courage to stand against the male authority, in this case uncle. They accept their “faith” looking at the ground and being thankful for security that men in family can provide for them, and therefore they exchange their liberty for this false feeling of protection. Both in the book and in the movie characters of Zohra and Hanadi are depicted in the same pessimistic fashion with the exception that the mother is punished by going insane for betraying the daughter and indirectly causing her death. The scene of Hanadi’s killing has a strong impact in the book as Hussein prepares us for this moment. He depicts vividly idyllic pictures of the village evoking a feeling of safety that the women long for. But the safety exists only in submission. The murder of Hanadi in the movie seems to be too haste and the suffering of Amna too short in comparison to what Taha Hussein was able to describe in his words in the novel. The suffering and the desperation of Hanadi is much better depicted in the book where Taha Hussein exercises the mastery of words. He produces the feeling of unease, as if we can hear this beautiful restless bird in the dark of night calling the girls to reject all the limits and embrace the future and the simple joys of life.

The second type of women that both the movie and the book depict are women like Zannuba and Khadra whose morality and chastity is questioned buy the community, but they are nevertheless accepted. They seem to be shameless and outspoken, sexually active and seductive, but they do not have roots. There is no one who cares about their chastity so they enjoy a very uncommon portion of freedom. Zannuba’s experience help’s Amna pursue her revenge making the young officer fall in love with her madly. The third type of women that Taha Hussein distinguishes in the book is the modern and educated women such as Amna’s master Khadija and her mother. They are both kind hearted and open minded. Khadija, for example, does not let herself be limited by the class differences. She neglects all the barriers that separate her form Amna and she opens her heart to the poor peasant girl. The two of them study together and share secrets with each other. Khadija represents what Amna wants to be, she represents Amna’s break up with her previous identity and her embracing of the new values and prospects for a different future. However, when it comes to family responsibilities, Khadija is limited as in the same way her peasant counterparts are. She isrequired to get married for the man her parents select. However, her role in choosing the husband is in no way neglected, which we seen in the fact that after discovering the promiscuity of young state administrative, the Khadija’s family breaks up the engagement and leaves the town.

The fourth type of women that Taha Hussein represents in the novel is Amna. She is representative of the new class of young girls whose courage might be the means to break up with submissiveness, with male domination and kinship relations that value the honor and modesty more than the lives of women. Amna is liminal- she is torn between her identity of a peasant girl, simple and uneducated, submissive and simple minded and her future identity, the restless one that the bird keeps waking up in her in the dead of night. The movie is telling us so, but the book is telling us so in a much more poetic manner. Taha Hussein wants us to Admire this young soul as she trespasses from one to another reality, from Sa’eedy to Cairine accent, from ignorance to education, from submissiveness to revolt, from love to revenge and back to love. Her rite of passage becomes an extremely important one as she represents the challenge that the modern age had posed in front of the young women inEgypt. She is the women who emerges as an independent, not from a financial point of view only, but as well as someone who can stand against the predators, the ogres that Hussein is so worried could hurt her. The symbolic capital that she obtains in the house of Ma’mur helps her in her passing. She makes her way trough the feelings of hate and revenge and purifies herself in the love she discovers.

An interesting question about the differences between the book and the movie maybe lies in the fact that the movie ends in a completely different way than the book. It seems that from the perspective of Taha Hussein who was writing the book in 1920s optimistic and romantic ending was the appropriate way to finish the story about a young woman tormented by the ghosts of the past and the sounds of the curlew anticipating the future. It is interesting to note that the call of the curlew gets a completely different symbolism in the movie than it actually has in the book. The fact that the movie ends tragically with killing of the young engineer who defames Hanadi and with the arresting the uncle, makes the sound of the bird that we keep hearing throughout the movie different from the one Amna hears in her nights of despair. It announces another kind of future in the movie. It seems that the movie is more sensitive of the time it was made in so it does not allow a sexual predator and a murderer get away with their crimes, but it at the same time sends an implicit message that class differences and tradition prevail over love.

The Arab world's first ladies of oppression

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 07:52:00 +0100

Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma posing for the cameras at the Elysée palace with Nicolas and Carla Sarkozy, 9 December 2010. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images

Their husbands have run some of the most brutal regimes of the Arab world. But who are the women who stand by the dictators?

In December 2010, the French first lady Carla Bruni sat down to lunch under the gold chandeliers of the Elysée palace with Asma al-Assad, wife of the Syrian leader Bashar. As they sat demurely with their husbands around a butterfly-print tablecloth dominated by a pastel flower-arrangement, a photographer was ushered in to grab a picture for French celebrity magazines. After all, this was a communion of fashion’s high priestesses: a former Italian supermodel turned folk-singer entertaining a Chanel-loving, London-raised, former banker and conveniently westernised Middle Eastern first lady. French Elle had recently voted Asma “the most stylish woman in world politics”, Paris Match called her “an eastern Diana”, a “ray of light in a country full of shadow zones”.

Only days after the lunch, a desperate Tunisian vegetable seller would set himself alight, sparking the first revolution of the Arab spring. Already, as the Sarkozys’ butlers served the Assads crystal glasses of freshly squeezed juice from silver platters, there was unease among certain diplomats about the French president schmoozing the ruler of an oppressive dictatorship known for torture, brutality and political prisoners. But Nicolas Sarkozy, an expert on the importance of photogenic wives in politics, saw Asma as his insurance policy. “When we explained that this was the worst kind of tyrant, Sarkozy would say: ‘Bashar protects Christians, and with a wife as modern as his, he can’t be completely bad,’” the former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner later confided to journalists.

Now, after 11 months of bloody repression of the pro-democracy uprising in Syria, with thousands dead and tens of thousands of refugees spilled over Syria’s borders, Asma’s careful public-relations strategy as the gentle British-born face of the regime has crumbled. When she appeared smiling and immaculately dressed on Sunday alongside her husband to vote in a referendum on a new constitution, it only deepened opposition accusations that she has become a modern-day Marie-Antoinette. The row over a shockingly fawning, lengthy puff-piece in American Vogue last year depicting Asma’s Louboutin shoes and charity work, as well as a recent appearance at a rally hugging her children in support of her husband and an email to the Times explaining her backing of him, has reopened the debate about the role of dictators’ wives in the Arab spring.

“Every revolution has its Lady Macbeth,” sighed one Middle East expert in Paris. The dictators’ wives are all very different, united by the varying degrees of hatred they inspired, eye-watering fortunes, expensive wardrobes and often a state-sanctioned so-called “feminism” or, like Asma al-Assad, charity work as a public distraction against the brutal realities of the regime.

Leila Trabelsi, the politically ambitious wife of Tunisia’s Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, was easily the most detested, a monstrous symbol of nepotism and corruption, whose embezzlement of state wealth made Imelda Marcos’s nearly 3,000 pair of shoes seem trifling. Trabelsi sparked the sense of injustice that flamed the revolution, keeping a mafia-style hold of the nation’s economy, siphoning off riches to her and her husband’s family, who were thought to control 30-40% of the economy, running everything from customs to car-dealers, supermarket chains and banana importations. She and her relatives are accused of ordering people from their homes if they wanted their land, confiscating their businesses if they thought they could profit from them. Trabelsi took archaeological artefacts to decorate her palace rooms while her daughter and son in law flew in ice-cream from St-Tropez for dinner parties.

Described as the woman who sparked the Arab spring, Trabelsi, who liked to be called “Madame La Présidente”, inspires dread in the public imagination. A book by her butler recently described how she would ritually sacrifice chameleons to supposedly cast spells over her husband and how she punished one cook by plunging their hands into boiling oil. From exile in Saudi Arabia with her husband Ben Ali, the couple are seeking to appeal their sentencing in absentia last year to 35 years in jail accused of theft and unlawful possession of large sums of foreign currency, jewellery, archaeological artefacts, drugs and weapons – the first of several cases against them. After they fled, $27m (£17m) in cash and jewels, guns and 2kg of drugs were found at one of their lavish palaces outside Tunis.

Meanwhile, Suzanne, the half-Welsh wife of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, benefited from a fortune of billions in a country where around 40% of the population lives on less than £1.20 per day. She is now being investigated alongside her husband on allegations of crimes against the state and has relinquished disputed assets worth nearly £2.5m. Before the Egyptian revolution, whole newspaper pages were “allocated” to cover Suzanne’s “charitable engagements” and “actions” for women. But like Trabelsi, this was a facade. The Tunisian first lady headed several official women’s rights bodies, awarding herself prizes for feminism, while grassroots feminist democracy campaigners saw their members regularly beaten in the street by the regime’s police and political prisoners were raped in torture cells. Similarly, Suzanne Mubarak would jet off to meet Arab leaders’ wives to talk about women’s issues while independent women in Egypt were being heavily repressed.

Suzanne, 71, whose father was a doctor and mother a nurse from Pontypridd, married Mubarak when she was 17 and he was a 30-year-old army officer. One account described her lying weeping on the palace floor, refusing to leave during the uprising. She influenced government appointments, and was believed by some to have been clinging to power by pushing for her son to take over from his father.

In Libya, Colonel Gaddafi was perhaps more famous for his Ukrainian nurse and female bodyguards than his wife. But Safia Farkash, his second wife, a nurse when she met him, was still vastly wealthy, a symbol of public money siphoned off into the family’s pockets. His daughter Aisha, once described as the Claudia Schiffer of the region, a lawyer and part of Saddam Hussein’s defence team, was held up by her father as a model of modern women’s rights. Safia and Aisha fled over the Algerian border during the uprising. Mostly low-profile, Safia Gaddafi nonetheless occasionally attempted, particularly to the western media, to play the role of a simple wife and mother, humanising her husband. In the 1980s, she told the US press she was someone who was afraid of even a “dead chicken”, saying of Gaddafi: “If I thought he was a terrorist, I would not stay with him and have children with him. He is a human being.”

But the western media’s apparent thirst for a new, younger generation of glossy magazine-style, modern, educated Middle Eastern first ladies along the line of Jordan’s Queen Rania (ranked third most beautiful woman in the world by Harpers and Queen in 2005) seemed to have been sated by the arrival of Syria’s Asma al-Assad in 2000. “Curiously, the Assads before the revolution were seen as a modern young couple,” says Karim Bitar of Paris’s Institute for International and Strategic Relations. Then a new “cold, calculating” face emerged.

Asma was born in London to Syrian parents, a Harley Street surgeon and a diplomat, and raised in a pebble-dashed semi in Acton, going to a Church of England primary school and smart private secondary before taking a degree in computer science at King’s College London and a banking job for JP Morgan. She was a childhood friend of the Assads, 10 years younger than Bashar, who had come to London to study as an eye surgeon. She was also a Sunni Muslim whose father hailed from Homs, unlike Bashar’s minority Alawite clan. All this could be used, by a skilled PR team, as the soft face of a would-be reformist regime. “Who would choose Harvard over love?” Asma told one interviewer when asked if she hesitated about leaving her banking career and an MBA to become first lady of Syria. She said she would use her professional financial experience and “a critical judgment, being able to work under enormous pressure” in her new role running NGOs. In Damascus, she and her husband liked to be seen dining out, driving themselves around, a carefully constructed image of a carefree young couple who preferred the luxury of a vast apartment to the luxury of a palace. In Paris, she became famous for delivering a long speech on culture without notes while Christine Lagarde, now head of the IMF, looked on admiringly. In a 2009 CNN interview Asma condemned Israel’s offensive on the Gaza strip as “barbaric” and “as a mother and a human being” demanded its end. “This is the 21st century. Where in the world could this happen? Unfortunately it is happening,” she said in her measured, almost mechanical voice, with its clipped London tones. Those words have come back to haunt her.

The pinnacle of Asma’s international media charm offensive was a gushing piece in last March’s American Vogue, just before the Syrian uprising began and was met with a crackdown. The article has now mysteriously disappeared from the magazine’s website. Described as a “rose in the desert”, “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies”, Asma, dressed in jeans, heels and a T-shirt with “Happiness” emblazoned on the back, describes how her home, a triplex apartment, is run “on wildly democratic principles” – seemingly far from the brutal one-party state oppression going on outside.

Looking at her three children, she says: “We all vote on what we want, and where.” Pointing to the dining room chandelier, which is constructed from cut-out comic books, she says: “They outvoted us three to two on that.” Against a backdrop of designer bags, private jets and SUVs, Asma tells Vogue her “central mission” is “to change the mind-set of 6 million Syrians under 18”, encourage them to engage in what she calls “active citizenship”. Meanwhile pro-democracy activists were being rounded up and tortured.

In the Assad’s flat, a grid is drawn on a blackboard, with ticks for each member of the family. “We were having trouble with politeness, so we made a chart: ticks for when they spoke as they should, and a cross if they didn’t.” There is a cross next to Asma’s name. “I shouted,” she confesses. “I can’t talk about empowering young people, encouraging them to be creative and take responsibility, if I’m not like that with my own children.” Her husband was attracted to studying eye surgery “because it’s very precise […] and there is very little blood”. Driving themselves around in a city seemingly permeated by secret police, she describes the joys of not having an imposing presence of bodyguards, delighting in how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, while being driven to dinner by the Assads, marvelled at their seeming lack of security guards.

After the Vogue interview, as the regime’s bloody crackdown continued, Asma went quiet. Out of the blue, her office emailed a statement to the Times last month after it ran an article asking: “What does Assad’s wife, an intelligent, educated woman raised in liberal Britain and seemingly dedicated to good works, think of the evils being perpetrated daily across Syria […]? Is Asma Assad, 36, indifferent to the suffering being inflicted on her fellow Sunnis by her husband’s Alawite henchmen – or appalled? Has Syria’s Princess Diana become its Marie-Antoinette?” Her office’s statement said: “The president is the president of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the first lady supports him in that role.” It added: “The first lady’s very busy agenda is still focused on supporting the various charities she has long been involved with and rural development as well as supporting the president as needed. These days she is equally involved in bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue. She listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence.” Just before, she had appeared grinning from ear to ear with two of her children to support her husband as he spoke at a pro-regime rally, but did not speak herself.

Jane Kinninmont, senior researcher on the Middle East at the Chatham House thinktank in London, says the leaders’ wives in the Arab spring were of clear “symbolic importance”, though Asma al-Assad is different to Tunisia’s Leila Trabelsi, who had been a key source of unrest. “In Syria, the resistance is very focused on the regime,” says Kinninmont. “In the past, Bashar’s wife was something of an asset for him: young, charming, international, helpful to soften his image. Now that has fallen away. Vogue last March was a terrible error of judgment. The timing was particularly bad, but it was part of a wider trend for quite fluffy portraits of dictators’ wives as glamorous woman, saying ‘look how good our charity work is’. Glamorous, well-educated, well-dressed: the western media still falls for this pseudo aristocratic clap-trap. It’s all part of trying to give a pretty face to a regime.”

Kinninmont says the email from Asma’s office to the Times was “far too late” and came across as ridiculous. “Saying how she spent time comforting the families of victims of violence just seemed out of touch.”

In almost all Arab countries it is illegal to directly criticise the head of state, Kinninmont points out, adding that though sometimes people might dislike the wives personally it can also at times be a substitute for criticising the rulers. “In terms of what it is permissible to say, it’s a bit easier to criticise the wife,” she says. Sometimes a wife could be the focus of criticism themselves, or a softer target. But Kinninmont also blames the western media for creating a media bubble of glamorous first lady figures.

Asma al-Assad, at the start of her photogenic role as first lady, tried to keep a distance. Asked by NBC in 2007 about her role as leader’s wife, she said in her icy, careful tone: “That’s what I do, it’s not who I am. At the end of the day I’m the same person as I was before I married the president, and I’ll be the same person hopefully going forward.”

source: guardian.co.uk

thanks to Ivan P for sharing

Draga, s tobom nešto nije u redu Na ovogodišnjem FESTU 2012...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:18:00 +0100

Draga, s tobom nešto nije u redu

Na ovogodišnjem FESTU 2012 imaćemo priliku da vidimo tri filma koja nam dolaze sa arapskog govornog područja ili su urađeni u koprodukciji sa nekom od arapskih zemalja. To su palestinski film “Draga, s tobom nešto nije u redu”, jordanski film “Tranzitni gradovi” kao i dokumentatac o arapskom proleću “Trg Tahrir”.

Prvi film, Habibi, ra2sak 7’arban, koji je kod nas preveden sa Draga, s tobom nešto nije uredu je urađen u koprodukciji između Palestine, Emirata, Amerike i Holandije.

Film je snimnjen samo sredstvima koja su donirali pojedinci i organizacije širom sveta, prvi je film u poslednjih 15 godina čija je radnja smeštena u Gazu, i pokušava da na moderan način ispriča ljubavnu priču od Madžnunu (Ludaku) i Lejli, jednu od najpoznatijih ljubavnih priča iz klasične arapske književnosti.

Moderna verzija ove ljubavne priče prati dvoje mladih studenata koji bivaju prisiljeni da se sa Zapadne Obale, zbog okupacije, vrate u Gazu gde njihova ljubav biva ograničena izraelskim kontrolnim punktovima, ali i društvenim normama, što Kajsa odvodi u ludilo.

Režiserka Suzan Jusef kaže da je ideju za film dobila kada je radeći na svom dokumentarnom filmu “Zabranjeno Lutanje” (Forbidden to Wander”) videla grupu dece kako izvode ovu poznatu ljubavnu priču u praznoj sportskoj hali. Nedugo zatim i sama režiserka je pronašla ljubav na tlu Palestine prepoznajući da, prema njenim rečima, “arapsko društvo ima potrebu da izrazi ljubav a ne nasilje”. Nedostatak mogućnosti da pokaže i realizuje ovu ljubav, rezultira frustracijom koja prelazi u nasilje.

Da li i moderna verzija sadrži isti pesimizam kao i klasična tragedija, videćemo na festu za nekoliko dana.

Film možete pogledati 28.02. u 17:30 i 01.03. u 12:30

Muslim Brotherhood Takes Part in Emerging Hip Hop Culture in...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:04:00 +0100

Muslim Brotherhood Takes Part in Emerging Hip Hop Culture in Egypt

Egyptian hip hop culture has been underground for a while now, but only after the 25th of January revolution it started receiving public attention it deserves. Now even the Muslim Brotherhood, a well known conservative religious organization from Egypt, has recognized hip hop as a legitimate means to seek support of the youth.

Hip hop is more than just music genre: it’s an entire culture, with a specific visual identity, it is very forward and explicit, and it has long been used by marginalized groups and minorities to communicate ideas, promote their rights, criticize ruling elites and voice different grievances. Although we may find some similarities between hip-hop and the classical Arabic poetry where poets used rhymed verses to criticize or ridicule one another or members of rival tribes, hip hop never quite made it in Egyptian pop culture. That is, until recently.

Until a year ago, while I was in Cairo, it seemed that Egyptians didn’t appreciate graffiti as a means of communicating ideas and messages. Coming from a European country covered in all sorts of graffiti, I found it strange that a place with such a high level of inequality and dissatisfaction didn’t have young rebellious people who would use public spaces to express themselves.

It took only one Friday of Anger for it all to change. Egyptian January Revolution has started a long chain of events that completely transformed Egyptian streets in visual terms. The walls of Cairo and Alexandria, the two largest urban areas in Egypt are now covered with graffiti and stencils with messages like reality is just a point of view, wanted followed by the image of the police officer who shot at protesters, but also poetry, various political, cultural, social, religious and other messages with both universal and completely authentic references to common Egyptian and Arab history and identity.

Egyptian film industry also took part in affirmation of the newly emerging culture when a couple of months ago, young Egyptian director, Ahmad Abdallah el Sayed, inspired by the graffiti he saw on the walls in Alexandria, made a movie Microphone that promotes this new wave of Egyptian artists, painters, musicians and hip hop bands such as Y-crew, Mascara, Soot fe Zahma that emerged from under the desert sand where it lied buried during the decades of oppression.

This new culture is being carried on the shoulders of those liberal youths who decided to expand the crack in the wall of dictatorship. One of them is the singer Ramy Esam who was tortured by the military during the 25^th of January Revolution. Bands and artists such as Wust el Balad, Cairokee, Iskenderila, Zap Tharwat and others have also helped in maintaining revolutionary spirit among the youth by performing at squares and public spaces.

However, it wouldn’t be just to say that only these liberal youths are responsible for the success of Egyptian revolution. Religious forces in Egypt, especially Muslim Brotherhood, are politically very potent and their contribution to the revolution was significant. Still, the concern was that other than overthrowing of Mubarak’s corrupted regime, the Brotherhood didn’t share many common interests with liberal forces.

Having won majority of votes in the first round of parliamentary elections that took place on the 28th and 29^th of November, it became obvious that Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, founded after adoption of the constitutional changes, will inevitably play a significant role in the future of political life in Egypt. Considering that the Party’s program is focused on Islam, many people feared that Egypt might turn into an Islamic republic similar to that in Iran.

Although known to be conservative, Brothers have been showing symptoms of moderate Islam, a great interest in adoption of contemporary political strategies as well as flexibility. Thus, it comes as not-so-big-of-a-surprise that the Brotherhood has recognized its target group not only in the poor of Egypt who are naturally hypersensitive to its rhetoric of social justice and equality, but also in educated revolutionary youths who have been growing up in the cyberspace with almost unlimited access to information.

The first ever hip hop song to represent Muslim Brotherhood appeared on Youtube on Friday, the 2nd of December, and immediately went viral. In less than 24 hours the number of views almost reached 20000. „We protect the freedom and build the justice” says the lyrics of the song that reminds of the military oppression and predicts the change that is about to come in Egypt. It mentions Islamic republic as a solution for Egypt, but reminds that Islam is not about oppression but exactly the opposite. They mention Christians and Muslims and equal and adds that “We love all colors, we respect all kind of differences”.

By using the narrative that belongs to the underground culture and by addressing themselves to the youth, Brotherhood left opposition, but many of their supporters too confused . By creating this song, Brotherhood became a part of this newly emerging subculture showing that maybe it is not as monolithic and conservative as many fear. One of the Youtube commentators made an observation that the song is actually Eminem cover. I never listened to the guy, but however funny it might sound, if Muslim Brotherhood members are starting to listen to Eminem, then, maybe, things in Egypt are indeed changing for the better.

Salafijska stranka Nur (Svetlost) koja je na izborima osvojila...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:31:00 +0100

Salafijska stranka Nur (Svetlost) koja je na izborima osvojila 25% glasova. Evo čime su se oni promovisali. Dakle, opasnost od ekstremnog fundamentalizma postoji dok je ova stranka dobila četvrt glasova na izborima.

Interesantno da je korišćen egipatski dijalekat iako je poznato da se islamističke grupe (ali i svi ostali) protive njegovom korišćenju. Ipak, poznato je, političari su drolje.

Na ovom plakatu kaže sledeće:

Ja sam Abdel Moneim El Shehat

Ja sam onaj koji je rekao da je demokratija zabranjena

Ja sam onaj koji je rekao da je suprotstavljanje vladaru greh

Ja sam onaj koji prezire staroegipatsku civilizaciju

Ja sam onaj koji je nazvao revolucionare izdajnicima i kolaboracionistima

GLASAJTE ZA MENE DA BISTE UŠLI U RAJ!

Podela mesta u egipatskom Parlamentu nakon izbora.

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:05:31 +0100

Podela mesta u egipatskom Parlamentu nakon izbora.

*Sada smo već u eri posle parlamentarnih izbora i shvatili smo...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:41:00 +0100

*Sada smo već u eri posle parlamentarnih izbora i shvatili smo koga Egipćani najviše vole. To su Muslimanska braća, tj. njihova Stranka slobode i jednakosti (SSJ:)) koja je dobila pedeset posto glasova i koja sa salafijskom Nur partijom, tj. Partijom svetlosti čini skoro 80% Maglisa (Parlamenta)

Posle ovakvih rezultata, mene interesuje šta je svrha nezadovoljstva i besa u Egiptu? Zašto je skoro 80% glasalo za islamističke stranke te šta su ove nudile? Kakvim to životom žele da žive Egipćani? Šta je to što im nedostaje? Šta žele? Za čime pate? Kola? Putovanja? Klima uređaje? Meso na stolu? Da li je moguće da imaju ideale kapitalističkog društva a zagovaraju tzv. islamske vrednosti? Ili je priroda njihovog nezadovoljstva sasvim drugačija? Vidimo da se partija Muslimanske braće, koja je dobila najviše glasova na parlamentarnim izborima, oslanja na dva ključna principa demokratije: slobodu i jednakost. A ipak, ono što zabrinjava ceo zapadni svet je argument da je islam suprotan demokratiji i da se islamska pravda i jednakost zasnivaju na jednom univerzalnom i nepromenjivom ustavu (Kuranu i Suni) koji ne poznaje ljudska prava, prava žena, manjina itd. I donekle su u pravu: neke verzije islama sigurno jesu suprotne demokratiji, ali danas postoje, možemo slobodno reći, islami. Islam nije, kao što je nekada bio i kao što pokušavaju da nas ubede oni koji su kidnapovali glasove celih nacija i naroda, monolitni koherentni organizam, virus koji pokušava da uništi tekovine zapadne civilizacije i ljudske vrednosti. Danas je pristup informacijama mnogo teže kontrolisati nego ranije. I Mi i Oni možemo lakše da se upoznamo, razmenimo ideje, mišljenja, nezadovoljstva, lajkiramo statuse i fotke sa mora, babina, venčanja…Religijski autoritet je postao, zato, mnogo relativniji nego što je to bilo u prošlosti. Sa političkim je malo komplikovanije. Otuda pobedu muslimanske braće na parlamentarnim izborima u Egiptu ne treba, još, tumačiti kao pobedu fundamentalizma. Jer, Braća su dokazala, tokom istorije, svoju spremnost na kompromise.

Sa druge strane, na žalost, značajan procenat glasova (25) dobila je ekstremno radikalna salafijska partija Nur (Svetlost) čiji su politički stavovi, bar za mene, potpuno suludi. Njihova ideologija je zabrinjavajuća jer su oni okrenuti veoma regresivnoj verziji islamske države. Otvoreno podržavaju diskriminaciju religijskih manjina, uništavanje antičkih spomenika i mešaju religijsku dogmu pa čak i mitologiju sa političkom retorikom. Oni ne prihvataju različita tumačenja svetih spisa islama i smatraju ih jeresi. Oni ne prihvataju koncepte kao što je sloboda štampe, sloboda govora. Za njih je bilo koja vrsta neposlušnosti, jeres je se kosi sa njihovom bukvalnom interpretacijom islama (submission) kao potpune pokornosti. Oni doživljavaju egipatsku omladinu koja je i započela revoluciju i dovela do Mubarakove smene stranim plaćenicima, zapadnim špijunima i neprijateljima islama. Zalažu se za Islamsku republiku, verovatno po uzoru na Iran ili KSA. Čini mi se da se njih plaši Lama Abu Uda kad kaže da mi možemo do sutra da raspravljamo o progresivnom islamu i načinima da se unutar islamskih okvira postignu univerzalne ljudske vrednosti za sve, jer ćemo se na kraju, očajni i besni,okrenuti turskom modelu kao jedinom rešenju za Egipat.

Pitanje je sada kojim će putem krenuti Muslimanska braća jer oni drže konce u svojim rukama. Da li će se odlučiti za umereni Islam, saradnju sa Zapadom, održavanje mira sa Izraelom, zaštitu do sada postignutih ljudskih prava i eventualno njihovu ekspanziju u okviru mogućnosti koje pruža progresivni Islam. A možda će u koaliciju sa salafijama što će ih povesti iranskim i saudijskim primerom što verovatno ne bi bilo najbolje ideja s obzirom na to koliko je Zapad, a posebno Amerika zainteresovana za egiptski slučaj. Nestrpljiv sam da vidim kako će se stvari razvijati u narednih nekoliko meseci te kako će se vojska ponašati.