'The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.'
(Nelson Mandela at The International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,4 December 1997)
The moments that we lay enwrapped in silence, re-playing the most beautiful of our waking dreams are the times I am reminded that life has yet to play all its joy cards.
The moments that we are in the same room but miles apart, wishing that life had never let our paths cross, watching all our waking dreams crumble is when I realize that you hurt me only because you can and mostly because I let you.
There exists amongst men, because they are men, a solidarity through which each shares responsibility for every injustice and every wrong committed in the world and especially for crimes that are committed in his presence or of which he cannot be ignorant. If I do not do whatever I can to prevent them, I am an accomplice in them. If I have risked my life in order to prevent the murder of other men, if I have stood silent, I feel guilty in a sense that cannot in any adequate fashion be understood jurisdicially or politically or morally... That I am still alive after such things have been done weighs on me as a guilt that cannot be expiated. Somewhere in the heart of human relations, an absolute command imposes itself: in case of criminal attack or of living conditions that threaten physical being, accept life for all together or not at all. - Karl Jaspers
I loved the movie. I loved the sound - track. The lyrics are so true;'the heart is like a child'. Infact I think that the heart always remains a child, devoid of the ability to be rational even at the best of times ... but then again we wouldn't want it any other way now... would we?
I’ve called this unveiled to mock the bullshit books and movies that Have got sold post 9/11 only because of opportunistic titles like ‘the unveiling’. ‘Islam unveiled’, ‘behind the veil’ and the books that got sold only because their covers showed women in hijab.
In this day and age, because neo- liberal democracies do not openly support racism or sexism. Orientalism often exists as a subtle undertone. One of the few areas where the subtlety rule completely falls away is the area of the hijab (veil).
Of course the real reason Muslim women are oppressed and long suffering is not because of the imperialist regimes that have desecrated their homes and families in the race towards military domination but because of a piece of cloth they choose to cover their heads with either as a religious or political choice. The little piece of cloth – might I add - that has got the collective knickers of many European governments in a knot.
Muslim women are shown as backward, un-educated and faceless. They have no individual personalities but are rather a huge blob shown either as a crying mother who has lost her son in Iraq or a women in a blue burqa walking behind her husband in Afghanistan.
So if they aren’t filmed against the background of a war-torn middle eastern country then it’s the old school harem and the beyond orientalist, Sherazadee and 1001 Arabian Nights scene.
This underwear add is the most blatantly orientalist bullshit I’ve seen since Walt Disney’s Aladdin. It ignores the very essence of why one would choose to dress modestly and feeds into the whole 'what's under the veil' obsession the west has. Now European men have a visual to excite their imagination when they look as Muslim women. It takes away from REAL issues of oppression and subjugation and allows the veiled Muslim women to be portrayed as a sex object. This time however you won’t have to ask men from the west to liberate them, more than once.
I am a few days late - I meant to post this on 4 April 2010 to commemorate the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action
Watching this video, I believe that every day should be anti-landmine day! And every day we should work towards the elimination of cluster munitions and other harmful weapons that continue to kill and maim innocents.
