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Links, links, links...
Proof I've been a terrible blogger this summer: I had links from July stored in a "to be blogged" file on my browser. D'oh. Anyway, I culled them, and these two were still worth posting:
Morocco: A Young Blogger Greets the World from Global Voices
This is a super, super cute piece about a young girl blogger in Morocco, who started keeping her blog at age six. Since I have a kid and am an auntie to someone not much younger than Salma, I got all sorts of mushy at reading this--but I also really like it because, um, she produces Arabic I can read pretty easily. Shut up.
The Slow Death of Palestinian Democracy, by Mustafa Barghouti on the Foreign Policy blog
The slow implosion of Palestinian democracy has taken more than a decade, but it's still depressing to think about. The 1996 elections were some of the freest and fairest in the Arab world--and then it took a decade to hold others. Those produced a Hamas-led parliament that was never allowed to sit. Then this summer's municipal elections were cancelled. I'm neither a hardcore two-stater or one-stater with regards to the outcome of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: I could see either a single unified state or a pair of states being the project of a just resolution to the conflict. But it's moments like this when I just get too pessimistic to think about what would constitute a just solution. As long as everybody keeps fucking up with equal vigor, it's just going to stay a clusterfuck forever.
And now, on to some actually contemporary links! Le sigh.
Palestine: Sending A Message With Social Media - Global Voices
Interesting interview with Arjan El Fassed, one of the founders of Electronic Intifada, about using social media (Twitter in particular) for activism purposes. Includes a mention of his new project, where you can have a message spray painted on the separation wall Israel is building well inside the Green Line.
Sisterhood of Hope, by Nathalie Handal for Saudi Aramco World
Saudi Aramco World really does produce good general-interest reporting on the Middle East. And it's free, even the dead-tree version! I got this from Muslimah Media Watch, and was attracted by Nathalie Handal's name--she's a writer I've read quite a bit by. She's interviewing Zainab Salbi, the Iraqi-American who held found Women for Women International, which does development work with women in post-conflict zones. In addition to an interesting discussion of her work, I was struck by this quote near the beginning:
Arqoub’s Promise by Marwan Kraidy, from Foreign Policy's The Middle East Channel.
If you're interested in good daily pieces on Middle Eastern politics, The Middle East Channel is among the best sources out there, ideologically diverse and written by folks with a real background in what they talk about. Marwan Kraidy's a good choice to talk about pop culture and politics in the Arab World. He's talking about a recent controversial music video by Shatha Hassoun, an Iraqi-Moroccan pop star (and Star Academy winner--that's the American Idol equivalent) that is superficially about a woman bidding goodbye to her lover that has failed her, and not-so-subtley about the US Occupation of Iraq. The video is as cheesy as is standard for Arabic music videos: lots of eye makeup, windswept hair, slow walking to music, soulful, angst-ridden glances, and superimposed TRL-style graphics from the channel it aired on. I like how the departing soldier-lover has precisely one facial expression. But anything with an Iraqi woman shoving her American boytoy through a gate, locking it, and then writhing sensuously against it has got to make for interesting politics, right?
Park 51 Debate Opens Space for Muslim Women’s Voices, from Colorlines
I think this one is via MMW too. Michelle Chen writes, "he effort to humanize Muslim Americans in the public imagination may have a more subtle impact, especially if you look at who’s doing the talking. In a media world obsessed with the supposed chauvinism of Islam, Muslim women are carving out new spaces for representation." Er. Well. The thing is, Muslim women have long found it easier to get their voices heard by non-Muslim Americans. The reason is flat-out racism: Muslim men are frightening, and Muslim women are considered to be benign, even victims. Muslim women standing up to defend their menfolk (rather than begging protection from them) are enough of a man-bites-dog story to get press. I'm glad that there are women at the forefront of the pro-Park51 movement; it also doesn't shock me, considering the centrality of women to all the community organizing I've seen in Arab and Muslim New York. But this isn't a new thing; it's an old thing, and it's more problematic than it seems.
And, since watching the Shatha Hassoun video sent me down a rabbit hole of Arabic pop on YouTube, let me just close by linking to Ah W Nuss (Yes and a Half) and Ya Salam (...Oh peace, literally? but it's just an interjection? Translating song titles is hard) by Nancy Ajram, with English subtitles.
Morocco: A Young Blogger Greets the World from Global Voices
This is a super, super cute piece about a young girl blogger in Morocco, who started keeping her blog at age six. Since I have a kid and am an auntie to someone not much younger than Salma, I got all sorts of mushy at reading this--but I also really like it because, um, she produces Arabic I can read pretty easily. Shut up.
The Slow Death of Palestinian Democracy, by Mustafa Barghouti on the Foreign Policy blog
The slow implosion of Palestinian democracy has taken more than a decade, but it's still depressing to think about. The 1996 elections were some of the freest and fairest in the Arab world--and then it took a decade to hold others. Those produced a Hamas-led parliament that was never allowed to sit. Then this summer's municipal elections were cancelled. I'm neither a hardcore two-stater or one-stater with regards to the outcome of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: I could see either a single unified state or a pair of states being the project of a just resolution to the conflict. But it's moments like this when I just get too pessimistic to think about what would constitute a just solution. As long as everybody keeps fucking up with equal vigor, it's just going to stay a clusterfuck forever.
And now, on to some actually contemporary links! Le sigh.
Palestine: Sending A Message With Social Media - Global Voices
Interesting interview with Arjan El Fassed, one of the founders of Electronic Intifada, about using social media (Twitter in particular) for activism purposes. Includes a mention of his new project, where you can have a message spray painted on the separation wall Israel is building well inside the Green Line.
Sisterhood of Hope, by Nathalie Handal for Saudi Aramco World
Saudi Aramco World really does produce good general-interest reporting on the Middle East. And it's free, even the dead-tree version! I got this from Muslimah Media Watch, and was attracted by Nathalie Handal's name--she's a writer I've read quite a bit by. She's interviewing Zainab Salbi, the Iraqi-American who held found Women for Women International, which does development work with women in post-conflict zones. In addition to an interesting discussion of her work, I was struck by this quote near the beginning:
I wanted to show who I am, but I never showed who I am fully, because there was this background, this baggage out there, 20 years of baggage in Iraq. I was too shy and too embarrassed and, more importantly, too horrified—horrified that I would tell anybody that I knew Saddam Hussein. I literally believed that the minute I say it, people will no longer see me, and I still get emotional talking about it. I believed people will only see his face and not see what are my values, what I stand for, what I have accomplished, what are my dreams, what are my hopes.
Arqoub’s Promise by Marwan Kraidy, from Foreign Policy's The Middle East Channel.
If you're interested in good daily pieces on Middle Eastern politics, The Middle East Channel is among the best sources out there, ideologically diverse and written by folks with a real background in what they talk about. Marwan Kraidy's a good choice to talk about pop culture and politics in the Arab World. He's talking about a recent controversial music video by Shatha Hassoun, an Iraqi-Moroccan pop star (and Star Academy winner--that's the American Idol equivalent) that is superficially about a woman bidding goodbye to her lover that has failed her, and not-so-subtley about the US Occupation of Iraq. The video is as cheesy as is standard for Arabic music videos: lots of eye makeup, windswept hair, slow walking to music, soulful, angst-ridden glances, and superimposed TRL-style graphics from the channel it aired on. I like how the departing soldier-lover has precisely one facial expression. But anything with an Iraqi woman shoving her American boytoy through a gate, locking it, and then writhing sensuously against it has got to make for interesting politics, right?
Park 51 Debate Opens Space for Muslim Women’s Voices, from Colorlines
I think this one is via MMW too. Michelle Chen writes, "he effort to humanize Muslim Americans in the public imagination may have a more subtle impact, especially if you look at who’s doing the talking. In a media world obsessed with the supposed chauvinism of Islam, Muslim women are carving out new spaces for representation." Er. Well. The thing is, Muslim women have long found it easier to get their voices heard by non-Muslim Americans. The reason is flat-out racism: Muslim men are frightening, and Muslim women are considered to be benign, even victims. Muslim women standing up to defend their menfolk (rather than begging protection from them) are enough of a man-bites-dog story to get press. I'm glad that there are women at the forefront of the pro-Park51 movement; it also doesn't shock me, considering the centrality of women to all the community organizing I've seen in Arab and Muslim New York. But this isn't a new thing; it's an old thing, and it's more problematic than it seems.
And, since watching the Shatha Hassoun video sent me down a rabbit hole of Arabic pop on YouTube, let me just close by linking to Ah W Nuss (Yes and a Half) and Ya Salam (...Oh peace, literally? but it's just an interjection? Translating song titles is hard) by Nancy Ajram, with English subtitles.