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Jan 18, 2016

كوماري

عزيزتي كوماري،
لا أعرف طبعاً إن كان اسمك كوماري أو غيره،
جرت العادة في الخليج أن يغيروا اسم الخادمة فور وصولها،
تقول لكِ الماما: “اسمك مريم/فاطمة/كوماري/جاندرا"
حتى قبل أن تعطيكِ دراعتك القطنية،

ذاتها التي استخدمتها كوماري التي سبقتك
قبل أن تهرب
وتصبح حرة
محشورة في غرفة واحدة مع ١٠ أخريات
استبدلن الجدران بصور بهتت تحت المكيفات.

Jan 16, 2016

Kumari

“Small Circle” by Arti Sandhu
Dear Kumari,
I, of course, do not know if Kumari was really your name,
It became a custom in the Gulf to change the name of the servant upon arrival,
The mama says to you, “Your name is Maryam/Fatima/Kumari/Chandra,”
Even before she gives you your cotton apron,
The same apron that the previous Kumari used
before she ran away
and became free
crowded in a single room with ten others
watching their pictures on the walls
fading under the air conditioners.

Manifesto Against the Woman

Weeks before the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Indian theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty published her book, Feminism without Borders, in which she discusses the hegemony of Western feminism and its deadly transnational effects. In doing so, Mohanty did not reveal a truth that other feminists had somehow missed. She did, however, theorize what she called “third world difference”–that brute pedestal upon which western feminists stand as they survey the world. Mohanty uses the term to critique the problematic practices and relationships through which western feminism purports to speak for third world women. Mohanty describes this “difference” as “that stable, ahistorical something.” Through this difference, or perhaps a chasm, middle class culture and its history becomes a “code” that subsumes everyone’s experiences and moves them at will.
Many question the importance of difference to feminist thought. These questions can often turn into simplistic lectures on the importance of the unity of women and a belief in their shared weakness. This belief relies on the commonly held notion that men are all-powerful in society. I do not, however, want to address the matter of the gender identity and daily experiences that a “woman” and “man” are presumed to have. What I do wish to address is this repulsive idea of unity. Mohanty makes an important point when she states that “patriarchy is always necessarily male dominance, and the religious, legal, economic, and familial systems are implicitly assumed to be constructed by men,” critiquing the widely-held belief that these institutions were simply dropped upon women from the heavens.
In this context of men allegedly creating patriarchal systems, women appear pessimistic and passive, victims even in their attempts to write a counter-narrative about their experiences and resistance. Questions about difference are marginalized and summarized as “automatic self-referential, individualist ideas of the political (or feminist) subject.” That is, the experiences of women in marginalized classes and groups, or subaltern groups, become simply a tool to measure the extents of gender oppression.
In that case, how can we use difference to dismantle western hegemony on the body of feminism?

Jan 14, 2016

The Persecuted Novelist of Dystopian Cairo

EGYPTIAN NOVELIST AHMED NAJE, 30, is facing charges for sexually explicit fiction following a complaint from a “concerned citizen” who read an excerpt of Naje’s Using Life [Istikhdam al-Hayat] in the literary weekly Akhbar al-Adab. Both Naje and his editor were charged in October with “infringing on public decency,” a crime that could send him to prison for two years. Earlier this month, Naje and his editor were acquitted in the second hearing of the case, but the prosecution has appealed the case and a retrial is being scheduled.
I have known Naje since we were teenagers, publishing and discussing literature on the internet. He too grew up in Kuwait before returning to his native Egypt to study journalism. Since then, we witnessed the trials and arrests of several writers in the Middle East. Just last month, our colleague Ashraf Fayadh was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for “spreading atheism” through his poetry. Meanwhile, other writers linger in jail, including the Omani poet Muawiya al-Rawahi, who is imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates for insulting state leaders.
Naje’s first novel Rogers was published in 2007 and later translated into the Italian in 2009. The novelist is recognized for his writings on contemporary art and indie music. With Clare Davies, he co-founded the art magazine Mhwln, dedicated to researching the history of contemporary art in Egypt. Naje’s second novel Using Life has been curated into exhibitions, an animated film, and a multimedia performance.
Using Life anticipates a dystopian end for Cairo at the hands of a secretive group of architects, and comic artist Ayman Zorkany provides the striking horizontal images of a city nearing its death. I asked Naje about his expository experiment on the themes of sex and drugs in a context of censorship and persecution. This interview began during Naje’s recent visit to New York and was later completed via email.
¤
MONA KAREEM: You are facing charges for "indecency and disturbing public morals." What exactly bothered the public prosecutor about chapter five of your novel?
AHMED NAJE: According to their investigations and official documents, my fiction registers as a confession to having had sex with Mrs. Milaqa (one of the characters in my novel), from kissing her knees all the way to taking off the condom. They also object to my use of words such as “pussy, cock, licking, sucking” and the scenes of hashish smoking.
Ironically, this chapter speaks of the happy days of Cairo, as opposed to the days of loss and siege dominant in the remaining chapters. This specific chapter is an attempt to describe what a happy day would look like for a young man in Cairo, but perhaps a happy life feels too provoking for the public prosecutor!
I think they have other objections too, like the fact that your text is now in the public domain, exposing a life of immorality via literature. How do we deal with such a moral code?
There is no single method to deal with persecution and censorship. For example, my novel was published in Beirut before being released in Egypt. While there is no regulated censorship on books printed in Egypt, any book coming from outside must be approved by the censorship office. Meaning the book had to pass official approval before distribution. However, this did not prevent a “concerned citizen” from submitting a complaint against me, nor did it stop the prosecution from pressing charges.
There are articles in the Egyptian constitution that protect the freedom to write and create in all forms, but the public prosecution has persistently stood against these rights. They work as guards for social morals and virtues, rather than for laws that protect freedoms. This is getting worse since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi became president. He came to power through an alliance with state institutions such as the judiciary, and together they share the responsibility of guarding their gains. El-Sisi looks after his interests while the judiciary dedicates itself to policing morality and teaching us virtues.
Lately, the Syndicate of Musicians and the Syndicate of Filmmakers were given the legal power to police artists and performances. They can, for example, raid a party or a concert to ask for legal permits. They can even arrest artists for “immoral acts” or performances. The moral code in Egypt is closely tied to the structure of power.

Jan 5, 2016

طوق من الشوك للشعر العراقي




نظمت مجموعة من الشعراء العراقيين قراءة شعرية في حقول ألغام بالقرب من محافظة بابل وسط العراق‮. ‬انتشرت عبر الفيسبوك صور الشعراء عراة وملطخين بالطين يلقون قصائدهم في فضاء صحراوي مفتوح‮. ‬وغطت وسائل الإعلام تجربة المجموعة في حالة دهشة من هذا الاقتراب الحميمي تجاه العنف‮. ‬

يؤكد أعضاء‮ "‬ميليشيا الثقافة‮" ‬أن قصائدهم لا ترثي أحداً،‮ ‬كما أنها لا تتوجه لجمهور مباشر لأنهم مؤمنون بموت المتلقي‮. ‬يقود الميليشيا تسعة شعراء هم أحمد ضياء،‮ ‬أحمد جبور،‮ ‬حسن تحسين،‮ ‬علي تاج الدين،‮ ‬علي ذرب،‮ ‬مازن المعموري،‮ ‬محمد كريم،‮ ‬كاظم خنجر ووسام علي.في القرن الماضي،‮ ‬كان سركون بولص قد رسم صورة عن العراقي في آخر الزمن منثوراً‮ ‬في طواحين بابل الصدئة‮. ‬وكان ذاك العراقي الأخير يفترض الحميمية مع الأشياء ويشغل باله بآخر ليس له وجود‮. ‬في حياته تظهر‮ "‬النكبات‮" ‬و"المجازر‮" ‬و"الأسوار‮" ‬لتقوم فوقها‮ "‬أوروك‮" ‬من جديد‮. ‬ولكن الآن بعد أن مات العراقي مع نهاية الوقت،‮ ‬صار علي أوروك أن تنام بلا رجعة‮. ‬لذا يحاول شعراء الميليشيا الانخراط في عدمية جديدة تقاطع الأبعاد وتنشغل باحتمالات قضاء اليوم‮. ‬فما جدوي‮ (‬بقايا بابل‮) ‬في القصيدة دون الدبابة التي سحقتها؟ كيف يمكن للواحد أن يعيش دون نصفه؟