Hatshepsut

Starting from next week I’ll be moving from Cairo to New York City where I’ll, hopefully, live for the next five years or so. This of course means that there will be no more posts for at least two months from today.

How do I feel about the move? Right now I’m in the middle of a whirl of emotions, however that is not something I’m bothered with, it’s just a natural reaction to such a big turning point in my life. What bothers me is people’s reaction to the fact that I am traveling on my own.

With the exception of my immediate family and some friends and colleagues who have been super supportive, everyone else, from close relatives to my credit card customer service guy whom I barely know, have reacted to the news of me leaving the country to pursue my graduate education with a half-hearted congratulations followed by a big “but”: “Mabrouk but are you going alone?” “Mabrouk, but isn’t that too long?” “Mabrouk, but are your parents okay with that?” after that follows the comment “well, it’s good for your professional life but you’ll be neglecting your personal one [which you will regret]” or, as is often the case, there would be this awkward silence with “but when will you get married?!” written all over their faces. This is finally followed with a look of pity as they gaze sadly at this poor future “spinster” (I’m only 23 years old).

These comments made me angry and offended at the beginning with all their disgusting innuendos about me being alone in a “morally loose” country and their predictions of a miserably lonely future for yours truly, but now they have left me feeling very sad and very frustrated.

One of my professors told me when she heard such a comment that people only say such things because they want to comfort themselves with the idea that while you might have done better than them in one aspect they are still better than you in another. However, while that might be true of some very, very few people I know, it isn’t the case with the many people and relatives who were genuinely sad for me. What this is, in my opinion, is just pure social bias against women because if I was a man no one would have thought or cared to ask or worry about when will I get married (unless I was approaching my 40th birthday) because when it comes to men there isn’t this crazy urge to get them married and knocked up as soon as possible. If I was a man no one would have expressed fear for my safety amid those non-believers, if I was a man no one would have told me to look for a nice Egyptian guy while I’m there and to avoid foreigners because while it’s okay for an Egyptian guy to come back home and show off his pretty white western wife it isn’t for Egyptian women.

When I get such reactions my responses vary depending on my mood. Sometimes, I just play the sweet, traditional good girl role and answer “Mahadesh ‘aref el naseeb fein” (No one knows where or when I’ll find Mr. Right), while other times I enjoy shocking people with the comment that I have no intention of getting married before I’m thirty and then sit back and enjoy the look of disbelief and fear on their faces as they try to bring this crazy girl back to her right mind. Other times I just shrug my shoulders, remain silent, allow them to look at me with pity and promise myself, while looking at those sorry excuses of human beings, that I’ll always do what I want and that I’ll enjoy every single moment of my life and won’t let such creatures confine me inside their little boxes with their dos and donts.

A while back I went into the Diwan bookstore in Zamalek only to find out that a book that I had spent around two weeks proof reading for publication is finally out (though as expected my name is not mentioned in it). This book is a compilation of all the issues of Al Fataah (The Young Woman), the first ever Women’s magazine in Egypt (and most probably in the Arab world) which was published from November 1892 till March 1894 by Hind Nofel.

What is impressive about this magazine is not just that it provides insight into the birth and development of women’s rights movement in the country but it also provides insight into the birth and development of journalism. Also, the hundreds of articles it contains are very representative of the age from the too ornate and flowery language that uses too many synonyms and images to the strong class consciousness that lurks behind many of the op-eds.

The magazine contains everything that is thought to be of benefit to the making of an upright and enlightened new woman. There are autobiographies of important and influential women (most of whom are European royalty or intellectuals and interestingly the very first woman portrayed in the very first issue of the magazine is Queen Victoria!). Many articles are dedicated to the art of home making, etiquette and health and every once in a while you find glossy magazine prototype articles describing the weddings of daughters of Egyptian nobility and the contents of their new houses. There are even articles summarizing some of the wacko 19^th century scientific theories on race.

My favorite articles are the op-eds in every issue, reading them you learn a lot about the contradictory conservative and liberal aspects that struggled for control within the minds of these early feminists. Thus, while for instance they strongly defended their belief that gender roles in society are manmade and not natural, you find them criticizing European and American suffragettes for wanting to trespass into the world of politics which is described as solely for men!

The women writing in the magazine show strong awareness of and ties with other contemporary women’s movements not only in Europe as expected but also in the USA. In fact, one of the magazine’s contributors, Estir Azhari, was invited and went to the 1893 Congress of Women that was held during the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

You can find the book, which was compiled and reprinted by the Women and Memory Forum as part of their goal to bring to light the underestimated size of women’s contributions to the Arab social and cultural history, at Diwan Bookstores in Zamalek and Heliopolis or at the headquarters of the WMF itself (83 Shehab St. Mohandesin, third floor). This compiled book also contains an interesting introduction by Professor Hoda Elsadda. However, in it the WMF made a few alterations to how some words are spelt to make them follow today’s modern standardized spelling (eg. In the 19^th century many Arabs tended to spell anything with a hamza with a ya’).

If you are in the USA, you can find the original copies of the magazine at the Yale University Library.

Why Good Girls Shouldn’t Travel On Their Own

Girl 1: Oh! So how long will you be studying abroad?

Girl 2: 5 years

Girl 1: Wow! FIVE YEARS! that’s too much

Girl 2: Well, it’s a PhD… you should apply too

Girl 1: Umm, I don’t know, i don’t think my dad will approve of me travelling abroad on my own for so long

Girl 2: why?

Girl 1: You know, because of what people would say

Girl 2: what would people say?!!

Girl 1: You know, that “this is a girl who has been all on her own for so long”… “God knows what she has been doing out there”… you know stuff like that…

Girl 2 (offended): Well only narrow and dirty minded people would think that way and i don’t think any sensible person should listen to them

Girl 1: I agree, but rumors of the sort can really affect one’s chances of getting married and that is why my dad won’t agree

Girl 2: Well, you don’t want to get married to a backward narrow minded retard, do you?

Interesting argument by Chomsky against pornography.

Just found out (through Muslima Media Watch) about the sad sudden death of 25 year old Saudi blogger, Hadeel Alhodaif.

(Hadeel in her childhood)

Hadeel, owner of the blog, Heaven’s Steps, was one of the leading and outspoken Saudi female bloggers.

Leading Saudi Woman Blogger Alhodaif Passes Away at 25
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News

For 25 days supporters and friends of Saudi blogger Hadeel Alhodaif have waited anxiously, hoping that she would emerge from the coma she fell into unexpectedly. But on Friday these hopes died as the 25-year-old writer and social critic — known for fearlessly using her real name in her criticisms — passed away.

… … …

When blogger Fouad Al-Farhan was detained late last year for openly defending a group of conservative academics that had been arrested for meeting and discussing the need for political reform, Alhodaif was the only Saudi woman who came out publicly calling for Al-Farhan’s immediate release. She started a “Free Fouad” website and created a forum on the social networking site Facebook to keep interested people up to date on the case.

“She was truly courageous speaking to the BBC Arabic eloquently and bravely about Al-Farhan’s detention when most Saudi bloggers wanted only to be quoted anonymously,” said a fellow blogger, who preferred to be quoted anonymously.

To read the full Arab News article click here. If you have a facebook account you can join a group created in her memory here.

An Arabic Wikipedia page of her is now also available.

Rest in Peace Hadeel

And the mission to cover up all the women of Egypt continues… but who is behind all these disgusting ads?

After Ursula posted about the lollipop, I found this candy ad via Wael Abbas

It says, “A veil to protect or eyes will molest” on the top while below it has a quote from the Quran that mentions how God wants people to walk in the right path while those who are sinful/lustful want you to deviate from it.

محطة مترو جمال عبد الناصر

موظف في الخمسينات من عمره معلقا بصوت عال على عملية استبدال ارضية المحطة برخام: كسروا، كسروا و احنا ندفع

Last week the name of Dalal Mughrabi was repeatedly mentioned in the news in connection with the Lebanese-Israeli exchange of prisoners (another victory for Hizbullah). 30 years after her death, Dalal’s corpse finally made it back to her family. But who is Dalal Mughrabi?

Dalal was one of the earliest known Palestinian freedom fighters. Born in 1958 in a refugee camp to a family that lived in Jaffa until 1948, when the Israelis won the war, killed and chased out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and established their current state, Dalal was raised in Beirut and secretly joined the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization).

In 1978 just before she turned 20 and having had received proper military training, Dalal was chosen to carry out the Kamal Al ‘Odwan Operation (the Israelis called it the Coastal Road Massacre) in retaliation for the assassination of several PLO leaders one of which was Kamal Odwan.

According to the plan, Dalal and her squad were to land near a coastal road heading towards Tel Aviv, hijack one of the military buses driving in that direction and head for the Knesset and in the process kill as many soldiers and Israeli leaders as possible. The mission was never accomplished. Half way through the process the Israeli military learned of what happened and a chase took place on the coastal road leading to the death of several civilians in the cross fire. After many hours of a vicious street war in which tens of Israeli soldiers were killed the 11 Palestinian fighters ran out of ammunition and finally the Israeli army squad, led by Ehud Barak, shot all of them to death.

When journalists arrived to report on the incident Ehud Barak shot several bullets on the already dead Dalal for the benefit of photographers and then proceeded to disarm her from the empty ammunition belt she had on and pulled her by the hair to allow for a better view of her face!

While Dalal and many other Palestinian martyrs are celebrated in the Arab world for their heroic attempts at liberating Palestine, in mainstream American and right-wing European media, as with anything Palestinian, the Zionist Israeli point of view is the only one heard.

One look at the English results of a Google search on Dalal will show how she is described as a murderer, terrorist and at best an extremist separatist who killed Israelis for no reason at all. She is blamed for the death of several civilians who died in the cross fire, and the Israeli operation that followed hers (which led to the death of hundreds of unarmed Palestinians) is not seen as a brutal act of force but as a natural outcome to her operation. You see, when your country is colonized by people who mass-murder your people and steal their land, you are expected to just watch and do nothing or you are an evil, evil terrorist.

This is the only English post on Dalal that I found that is worth reading, though I have a few reservations to it. If you know of any other non-Zionist English articles on her please send me the link.

One final comment I want to add is that in her will, Dalal Mughrabi, asked that she be buried in her country, Palestine, after her death, why was her body returned in the exchange, I don’t understand.

Remember the magazine of the Young Women’s Forum that I posted about a while ago? Well the magazine is finally on line and you can now download it from here. Their second issue will be coming out soon.

The Phantom of the Egyptian National Archive

College girl 1: You know, this place was built very long ago by one man who had many books. He was the only one who knew all its where abouts and when he died and new librarians took over strange things happened to any one who went to this very old section of the storage rooms down in the basement…

College girl 2 (with fear in her voice): Really?!

College girl 1: Yes, it was so scary down there no body ever went there again, they sealed the whole sectioin off…

Overheard by: someone who has been wondering why half of the books she needs (which according to the index cards of the damn library are said to exist in the library storage shelves) are never found by the incompetent “librarians”.