Metamorph

X-Rayed Zantedeschia by Boo Beaumont.

It was winter. Lying in bed I watched us crack. You packed your bags, but left the black wedding suit labelled ‘Next’. Your manhood’s paraphernalia: cufflinks, ties, boxer shorts, the watch I bought you, cards, anniversarial vowing of undying devotion and my love for lemons that perhaps rubbed on you.

They brought me so far: watching flames in the fireplace tilting this way and that in his cottage, funereal music, phone calls through crackling lines, e-mails, freesias, endless cups of English tea, Farsi fereshteh, Palestinian fatit humus. ‘Have a warm soup dear! Keep calm and put the kettle on!’

It is autumn now. I stand on the wet grass with the viaduct behind me, each arch lit a different colour. X-Rayed flowers projected on the sandstone wall and round-headed sashes of the church.  Austere into sublime. We look, but don’t see what lies beneath a face. Images of inners exposed melt into each other. The scan shows how they regroup, disperse, tear, mend. Petals pulsate and reach out. The stoma and grana capture light, turn it into energy. Nectar. An eternal call answered. Breathe out! Cells dancing to the music of be. Soundtrack cyclical. A libretto without a tenor. Flora in f major. Life.That you could not pack.

Metamorph by Boo Beaumont. Durham Lumiere 2011

This piece was inspired by Boo Beaumont's Metamorph, Durham Lumiere 2011. See more of her work HERE

Is the Arab Spring Leaving Women in the Cold?

Jordanian women demonstrating, Jan, 2011 - copyrights 9 News

Some Arab women argue that the revolution is about regimes not gender equality and the majority of Arab men share their views. Although Arab women are active participant in the Arab uprisings menfolk are not supporting them. Not one single slogan called for equality of Arab women or drew attention to their inferior position. Most Arab men and some women fail to see gender equality as part and parcel of the process of democratisation. The ‘women’s question’ is key to unleashing liberal and modernist forces in the Arab world, but old practices and prejudices prevail. Therefore, the following challenges face Arab women:

• The state has tentacles in most women’s organisation and NGOs. Usually leaders of such organisations are stooges of the state. Like other civil organisations in the Arab world women’s organisation need to be ‘de-regimetised’. A painful, perhaps long, but necessary cleansing process.
• Many Arab women are collaborators in their own demise. Women of the Arab world are divided along political and interest group lines, rather than united by common aspirations and objectives. Many believe that women’s organisations are weak because they see themselves as rivals: bickering and manoeuvring for position. They need to unite instantly to fight for key positions in future governments
• One of the most important institutions in the Arab world is the family, where patterns of oppression are normally produced and reproduced. The Arab father (or the Arab ruler) aim to superimpose a consensus through “ritual and coercion”. After demonstrating in Arab capitals women went home to an archaic structure. Some were energised by the uprisings and decided to divorce their abusive husbands only to find that the whole system is tipped against them. Family Laws, mainly based on the Shari’a Islamic Law give them few rights, economic or otherwise and the legal justice system is male-biased
• Separation between mosque and state is a prerequisite for true liberal participatory democracy and gender-equality in the Arab world. Although the Muslim brotherhood was forced to disavow a long-held principle that neither a Coptic Christian nor a woman could run for president of Egypt many of their members will oppose nominating let alone electing a woman. See also the position of Islamist in Tunisia, or virginity tests conducted on arrested female demonstrators in Egypt etc.

A positive outcome of the ‘Arab Spring’ is that women learnt a number of tactics and strategies of civil disobedience and the skills are being used at every level: familial, local, national and even international. Women in the Arab world today are fighting for labour rights, betters schools, roads, clean water etc. The road is long and the perils are many, but in the fullness of time the outcome is guaranteed: Arab women, the last colony, will be liberated.

Read the full article in Critical Muslim, published on 25 October, 2011.

Marginalised Demonised Revolutionaries

Egyptian demonstrator in Tahrir Square, Cairo. Copyrights Hossam el-Hamalawy 

Adam Shatz concludes his article in the LRB by saying ‘if the Egyptian movement to be crushed it will be, in part, because of the conviction that ‘we are not them’.’ Egyptian men and women, Arabs and Muslims have been portrayed as other and inferior for so long that their uprising took the world by surprise. Neither the think tanks in Israel or USA predicted the spread of mass civil unrests in different parts of the Arab world. The lack of respect for Arabs and Muslims in the corridors of power and the way they are daily reduced and deformed on the pages of newspapers are some of the reasons behind that.

In 2007 The Guardian’s research into one week's news coverage showed that 91% of articles in national newspapers about Muslims were negative. The London mayor, Ken Livingstone, who commissioned the study, said that the findings were a ‘damning indictment’ of the media and urged editors and programme makers to review the way they portray Muslims. Livingstone said. ‘I think there is a demonisation of Islam going on which damages community relations and creates alarm among Muslims.’

According to Sander Gilman ‘such images both result from and result in action. Our fantasies about difference, our anxieties about our status, can result in medical theories about the Other which relegate human being to the status of laboratory animals . . . in racial theories that reduce the other to the status of exotic, either dangerous . . . or benign.’ Continuous reduction of ‘Muslims’ regardless of their race, ethnicity, culture or language  made places like Camp X possible, where the suspects, who were never put on trail and found guilty, are treated like animals.

Muslims are perceived as either ignorant and rich or bloody thirsty terrorists. Arabs, marginalised, demonised, racially abused in the West, treated as backward by many of the Israelis revolted against their oppressors. Egyptians got sick of their corrupt, brute dictator who doesn’t allow free speech, elections and tortures and imprisons and even ‘disappears’ his political opponents.

The initial reaction by the BBC was to ignore the news in Cairo, concentrate on Sharm el-Sheikh and British tourists and the whole ‘Egypt conflict’, as they called it, would go away. Many western commentators and journalists stated that the Egyptians and are not ready for and/or deserve democracy. The arguments can be summarised as such: democracy is for white people, Christians, Jews and Israelis and Muslims and Arabs do not deserve it. Cohen, cited by Adam Shatz, and some websites like Israel National News referred to the people in Tahrir Square as ‘mob’ conjuring up images of the dangerous and unruly Ottoman savage outside the walls of Vienna in 1529. Richard Cohen argued in the Washington Post that the west had to choose between two alternatives: human rights or history:

‘Those Americans and others who cheer the mobs in the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, who clamor for more robust anti-Mubarak statements from the Obama administration, would be wise to let Washington proceed slowly. Egypt and the entire Middle East are on the verge of convulsing. America needs to be on the right side of human rights. But it also needs to be on the right side of history. This time, the two may not be the same.’

If 9/11 hardened the Muslim Christian binaries and turned Arab dark features into triggers for alarms everywhere, at shopping centres, trains stations and airport 25/1 in Egypt softened those binaries and blow up static, ahistorical and clichéd representations of the Arab. The cracks between western propaganda and reductionism, for most of the reports in the British press were found ‘inaccurate and alarmist’, and flesh and blood Arabs and Muslims began to show. Egyptians, who have similar dark features to Mohammed Atta, proved to be genial, peace loving, press savvy, able to use social networks for maximum effect and steer media representations of their civil protests. Aljazeera’s live coverage is punctuated by the crowds shouting silmiyyeh ‘peaceful revolution’. Suddenly a shift in paradigms occurred and was reflected in the tone and content of the coverage. The fossilised image of the evil Muslim that can be traced back to the defeat of Moors in Spain and beyond was shaken. For the first time in a hundred years or more Arabs began to respect themselves and make their own history not Cohen’s. As a result some of the writing in the press on the revolt was tinged with admiration on this side of the divide. New formations are evolving in the western mind and psyche as we speak. This is one of the many triumphs of the Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan uprisings.

© Fadia Faqir. All rights reserved.

The Egyptian Malaise?

Egyptian man cleans the gate
 of Al-Qidissine Church

The bomb attack at the Al-Qidissine Coptic Church in Egypt's northern city of Alexandria that took place after Midnight mass on New Year's Day, killing 21 people and injuring about 100 others is a cowardly and despicable act. It hardened Copt-Muslim binaries and might lead Egypt into a tragic sectarian war. Moreover the attack is a symptom of the Egyptian political malaise. The failure of the Egyptian government to democratise and reform is contributing to greater instability in Egypt of which escalating anti-Christian violence is a symptom.

For the past 150 years Egypt was ruled by a dictator. The election process corrupted and the results rigged. According to Human Rights Watch during elections season in Egypt, political activism typically becomes focused and opposition parties and movements organize protests and meetings in which they call for free elections and structural reforms. Security officials view these activities with suspicion and frequently resort to arbitrary arrests and excessive use of force to disperse rallies and demonstrations. Plainclothes security agents beat demonstrators, and riot police allowed—and sometimes encouraged—thugs to beat and sexually assault women protestors and journalists.

The latest elections are no exception. Egyptians turning out to vote were subjected to violence and intimidation during election day, including beatings by security forces, and other violence as revealed by mobile phone footage posted on the internet. The ruling NDP party secured 420 of parliament's 508 seats, more than 80%, compared with about 70% in the last parliament, figures released by the elections commission showed. The Muslim Brotherhood and liberal Wafd party had refused to take part in Sunday's run-off after the NDP won 209 out of 211 seats in the first round of voting on 28 November, 2010.

Stakeholders?

President Husni Mubarak, who normally shows little respect for his people, urged Muslims and Christians to unite against terrorism. Words like ‘challenge’, ‘uproot’ and ‘eradicate’ were used in the past not in the context of opposition to his rule, but to get rid of terrorism, which the USA sees as one of his main roles in the region.

In a country where the ruling elite are corrupt, self-serving, dissent is penalised, religion is manipulated and the security apparatus are responsible for random acts of violence and regular law-breaking Egyptians have little autonomy. They have no say over who rules them and their government often acts without a mandate. Many think that their fate is not in their hands. Yet ironically the president is urging them to strengthen their resolve to deal with this crisis.

After another incident of sectarian violence Mubarak said, ‘Thinking people, preachers, intellectuals and media workers all bear a great responsibility to contain strife, ignorance and blind bigotry, and confront the repulsive sectarian tendencies that threaten the unity of our society and the cohesion of our people.’ The state does everything to stop Egyptians from being thinking people, intellectuals and free media workers, but its hypocrisy has no bounds. The president addressed them as if they were stakeholders although throughout his reign he did everything to stop them being just that. One minute they are kettled, controlled and another they are urged to be rational and responsible. Perhaps he finally realised that the problem of terrorism and sectarian violence will not be washed away without the help of civil society, the fabric of which he did everything within his power to weaken.

One way forward is for the state to deal with its people as full citizens regardless of their religion and honour their rights. Liberation, equality and democracy are interconnected. They have in common a concern with emancipation, freedom (personal and civic), human rights, integrity, dignity, equality, autonomy, power-sharing and pluralism. All citizens of the Arab world have obligations towards the state, but do not enjoy many political or civil rights. Ordinary people are not only arbitrarily deprived of some of their basic rights, but are virtual prisoners of the state, the objects of its random and ever-present violence. Despite the fact that Arab constitutions protect the rights of all individuals regardless of religion, gender, or race some individuals continue to be more equal than others. Arab constitutions remain ‘ink on paper’ having been designed mainly for the benefit of the western world.

Who is responsible?

The Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide bomber may have been responsible. The circumstances of the attack, compared with other incidents abroad, "clearly indicates that foreign elements undertook planning and execution." An al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq issued a threat against the Church in Egypt in November. A statement on an Islamist website posted about two weeks before the blast called for attacks on Egypt's churches, listing among them the one hit. No group was named in the statement.

In the Tablet Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK, said: ‘We are concerned that incidents of violence and terror against Christians in Egypt are increasingly spiralling out of control. They continue to go unchecked and unresolved, and their perpetrators are not brought to justice. This passiveness has sent out the message that Christians in Egypt are an easy and legitimate target. Today's event demonstrates this and puts matters on a wholly new level.’

According to a report by the Freedom of Religion and Belief Program - Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights ‘The judiciary, particularly sitting judges, does not often hear cases of sectarian violence, and it is extremely rare for such crimes to be referred to trial. On the other hand, the Public Prosecutor’s role in dealing with the violence is shameful: although Egyptian law gives that office the prerogatives of investigating judges authorized to conduct immediate, independent investigations to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice using evidence of their crimes to protect society from lawbreakers, the Public Prosecutor’s Office tends to aid the security establishment in imposing “reconciliation” procedures, even when these are against the law . . . At other times the Public Prosecutor conducts investigations for show that lack all evidence, which means that either the perpetrators are not identified or they are acquitted if they are referred to trial.’ These shambolic procedures are not unique to cases of sectarian violence or Egypt and can be found in other Arab countries when dealing with civil unrest.

The issue here is not who is responsible, but how the Egyptian government will deal with the attack and the perpetrators. Will they be imprisoned and tortured in the dark without public trial or will they be brought to justice? Will the affair be wrapped up and dealt with through archaic reconciliation rituals or conducted under the gaze and scrutiny of the national and international media? Will those responsible be held accountable and penalised openly, an example for others who contemplate such criminal acts?

Moreover, the growing problem of sectarian violence in Egypt cannot be dealt with in isolation. It is part and parcel of the states flagrant disregard for the International Bill of Human Rights and other human rights treaties, which Egypt is a signatory to. The state stopped applying such laws and treaties since it imposed emergency law during the Arab-Israeli War in 1967. Egyptians are living under Emergency Law since, except for an 18-month break in 1980. The law has been continuously extended every three years since 1981. Under the law, police powers are extended, constitutional rights suspended and censorship is legalised. The law sharply circumscribes any non-governmental political activity: street demonstration, non-approved political organizations, and unregistered financial donations are formally banned. Some 17,000 people are detained under the law, and estimates of political prisoners run as high as 30,000

That has to change for terrorism whether home-grown or foreign to be uprooted. Al-Qaeda feeds on anger, frustration and resentment. Terrible incidents, like the Alexandria bombing, show the need for Egypt to move towards participatory democracy and respect for human rights. This would deal with the causes rather than the symptoms of terrorism. The shock and anger of the people on the street will no doubt turn into healthy opposition to the defunct establishment as it did in the past. Perhaps the lives of those who were killed in Alexandria would not be lost in vain. The attack might strengthen the Egyptians resolve and unite them. And this would show not only in opposing terrorism whoever its sponsor is and challenging those who are determined to splinter Egypt, but in voting out Mubarak in the next round of elections. A legitimate regime in tune with the needs of the people will be better equipped to snuff out terrorism and sectarianism.

5 January, 2011 © FadiaFaqir. All rights reserved.

Tang of Orientalism

In his blog ‘Beat and dust: Tangier's tang of history’, published in the Guardian newspaper, 23 November, 2010, Sam Jordison explores the counter cultural heritage of Tangiers, which was once a hub for experimental writers Like Paul Bowles, Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs, Kenneth Williams and André Gide.

The writer has read some of the literature set or written there and went to Morocco to look for that fictitious landscape, the Tangiers of the mind. There is so much to take issue with in his colonialist, eerie piece, but I will concentrate on the following extract:

‘Then there's the Hotel el-Muniria, where Burroughs did most of his work on Naked Lunch. When I visited, it was shuttered up. It looked like a place that has never really seen better days – and may not see many more days of any kind at all. But the fact I couldn't get in didn't matter: there was more than enough atmosphere just from walking down the street, with its tang of urine and fear, and dark corners that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up even in the midday sun. The place hummed with the paranoia and disgust of Burroughs's sick masterpiece, which made me feel better equipped to understand the state of mind that could produce such a book.’

My experience of Hotel el-Muniria is totally different. The fact that I could get in did matter because I wouldn’t have slanted it without experiencing it first. We arrived in the afternoon, siesta time, and the place was quiet. There was a magical hush in the garden yet we were welcomed warmly by the receptionist and waiters. I still remember clearly that view. How rich was the architecture and the interior design! How beautiful the tea glasses and how delicious the gazelle horns ! How unique their civilisation! The air was warm when we walked out and laden with the scent of mint, dates and orange blossom. The streets were welcoming.

There was no tang of urine or fear and the place did not hum with paranoia or disgust. The paranoia experienced by Burrough was not related to the sedate landscape and its people, but to the amount of drugs he had injected and smoked. My copy of the Naked Lunch, given to me by playwright Trevor Griffiths, is old, published by Corgi in 1968. The book is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. The reader follows the narration of junkie William Lee, who takes on various aliases, from the US to Mexico, eventually to Tangier and the dreamlike Interzone. The vignettes (which Burroughs called "routines") are drawn from Burroughs' own experience in these places, and his addiction to drugs, heroin, morphine, and while in Tangier, ‘Majoun’, a strong marijuana mixture. The image of Morroco portrayed by Burrough is mostly a product of a drugged mind and unrelated to its complex reality then.

The location and the Moroccan people are incidental to Burrough and Jordison. The writing is mainly preoccupied with the self. The Moroccans, although the villains of the piece by implication, are consequential and neither the subject nor the object of the blog, which belongs to a long tradition of representing the other to consolidate your own subject status. The dominant subject in the above passage is built on conceptual binary of verbal fluency-power versus mutism-subalternity.

The Moroccans were muted and cannot speak in a way that would carry any sort of authority or meaning for Jordison without altering the relations of power/knowledge that constitute it as subaltern in the first place. The subaltern is invisible to the writer therefore it was ‘disappeared’. The country of Morocco and its people are irrelevant and are neither the subject nor the object of Jordison’s blog. The ‘cruel’ landscape was conveniently depopulated so he could represent it freely and to his own ends. The inability to see the native or engage with him/her reeks of Orientalism. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose! 

Please click on link to see Gregory Corso, Paul Bowles and William Burrough behind him two dead boys, shades of late Ian Sommerville and Michael Portman deceased crouching before garden wall, Villa Mouneria, Tangier 1961.