Hatshepsut

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 toffee 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”.

It’s finally the end of school year at Cairo University and as usual this period just gets on my nerves with all the papers I have to correct and the exams I had to supervise. Anyway, what makes this year, 2008, special is that Cairo University is celebrating its centennial. I’ll write in more depth about the event later but for now I will just give you a very brief history along with a few pictures.

As early as the first decade of the 19th century with Mohammad Ali Pasha’s modernisation project, Egyptian higher education schools that followed the European model were established. Yet it was not until December 1908 that these schools were brought together under what was first named the Egyptian University and then Foad I University and finally, after the 1952 military coup, Cairo university.

At the beginning Cairo University was located where the American University in Cairo is currently (in Downtown Tahrir square) but in 1929 the university moved from the rented mansion to its current campus.

Here are a few pics that belong to my department, more will come later:

Cairo University (then known as Foad I University) when the new campus was first inaugurated in 1928

The English Department, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University (Class of 1959)

The Cairo University English Department, Class of 1978

The English Department Class of 1995

Class of 2004

Being a student of literature I’m very active in my department’s cultural society which tries to keep students connected to the cultural scene in Egypt and the world. We host writers, publish a students’ magazine and organize outings to see plays and movies. Part of my job is to make posters for seminars hosted by the society.

At first the posters I designed didn’t seem to attract students so I tried using different colors of paper and pens as well as adding small designs in black and red on the side. For our last seminar we hosted novelist Sahar El Mougy to discuss her latest novel Noon, ن, and the idea of rewriting myth and as part of my experimentation with the posters, I used black paper and wrote with a silver marker. I also xeroxed the book cover and pasted it in a corner of the poster so if someone is passing and notices the book, they’d stop and read.

I was astonished at the remarks I heard about the poster. Students stopped to criticize the book cover instead of to read the announcement of the upcoming seminar. Some people and friends said that it was very daring of me to put the cover on the poster. I know I could have used the other cover (there are two publications of the book) but part of me wanted to see the reactions of the students. Cairo University is after all part of the Egyptian society with all its beliefs, thoughts and traditions.

Yet, in spite of knowing all that, the degree of contradiction and extremism was way beyond what I imagined. I overheard students asking how could they allow a book with such a cover to be published and others commenting on how dare I stick it on the walls of the department. They left me wondering what the hell they were doing studying literature. The book cover is a painting, a piece of art, and that all they could see in it is that the woman in the painting is half naked shocked me. It shocked me not only because they were unable to appreciate the artist’s talent, vision and technique but also because, like the rest of society, they are unable to appreciate the beauty of a woman’s body. For them a woman’s body ceases to be a symbol of life and becomes only a sexual entity that has to be covered up. This is a widespread attitude and what saddens me is that the women adopt it as well.

The poster didn’t last long on the wall. No one tore it off of course but there were obvious attempts to tear the picture of the book’s cover off the poster. I had glued it with UHU so when it wouldn’t come off, they scribbled all over it with a black marker like they do in magazines. I knew they would do such a thing eventually but what was really shocking was how narrow minded the students were. They all study humanities and they are not able to appreciate a work of art. I just wonder how they passed their aesthetics exam!

Enjy Hassan Aflaton (16 April 1924 - 17 April 1989) was one of the most influential female artists and feminist activists in Egypt. She was imprisoned between the years 1959 to 1963 during the crack down on Communists in the country and her husband, also a progressive communist like herself, died under torture. Issues of democracy, nationalism and peace as well as women’s rights played a strong role in her life and her art. The two most important feminist books she wrote are: “Thamanoun Million Emra’a Ma’na” (80 Million Women are With Us) and “Nahnou Al Nisaa’ Al Misriyat” (We, the Egyptian Women).

“A Prisoner Behind Bars” 1963

“The fisherman of Balteem” 1958

“Construction Workers” 1953

“Weeping Women” 1956

“The Camel Market” 1964

“Moulid El Manshiyah El Soghra” 1969

And the battle goes on…

By Sanna Negus
WeNews correspondent

Saudi women’s rights activists are pressing for reforms to lift the sharp restrictions they face in their conservative society. Some believe the time has finally come and they will soon have the right to drive. Sixth in a series on women and Islam.

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (WOMENSENEWS)–A woman drives a car in a grainy video posted on YouTube, her silhouette framed by a loose veil as she congratulates women on March 8, International Women’s Day. She is Wajiha al-Huweidar, a Saudi women’s rights advocate.

“Obviously, I’m driving my car in a remote area,” al-Huweidar says in Arabic. “Only in remote areas in Saudi Arabia are women allowed to drive, I’m sad to say. In cities–where they really need to drive–it is still forbidden.”

Hundreds of responses poured into YouTube: some praised her bravery, others called her a whore.

The same day the video was posted, al-Huweidar and other activists presented a petition signed by 126 women to the Saudi interior minister, Prince Nayef Bin Abd al-Aziz. The signatories are women with driving licenses from other countries, offering to teach their countrywomen how to turn the wheel.

In January the government signaled that the driving ban will be lifted, and many people seeking reforms in Saudi Arabia believe this is the year. In the meantime, it remains a lightning rod for women’s rights activists who see it as a first step toward easing the rules of male guardianship that follow their every move.

Al-Huweidar learned how to drive as a graduate student in Virginia over 10 years ago. For her, the driving ban is especially important because, unlike wealthy Saudi women, she cannot afford a chauffeur.

“Driving is not the most important thing, but it is a symbol of freedom,” al-Huweidar says from her home in Dhahran, a city in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province. “We want to achieve some kind of justification as humans.”

Women’s driving was officially forbidden in 1932, when the authoritarian monarchy was established. Saudis observe a strict form of Wahabbism that sharply curtails women’s freedom of movement under its interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law, which is observed across the legal system with the exception of secular tribunals for commercial disputes and complaints against government officials.

Saudi Arabia’s Sharia dictates that in order to travel a woman needs permission from her “mahram,” a male guardian who is her husband or relative. The mahram is also necessary for education, marriage, financial transactions, having surgery; everything. In Saudi Arabia, women are never mature enough, legally speaking.

“Our biggest problem is that we have no say in the biggest questions of our lives; we have no control over them but, rather, depend on the mahram,” al-Huweidar says. “We want to correct this, but are starting from the simpler issues (such as driving) because they have nothing to do with Islam or taboos. They are rights taken away from women.”

Some theologians have voiced fears of women being harassed by men if they drive. Other influential religious scholars have pointed out that the driving ban is not based on Islam but on social beliefs. A February poll in the Arab News found that only 10 of 125 male respondents categorically rejected women behind the wheel.

Just got this by email:

جبهة الدفاع عن متظاهرى مصر [1]

البيان الثاني والعشرون

تفتيش منزل جورج إسحاق وإلقاء القبض عليه

ذهب جورج إسحاق عصر اليوم إلى  منزله الكائن بشارع البستان بوسط القاهرة حتى يخلد للراحة قليلا ثم يعود إلى نشاطه في التحضير لمؤتمر كفاية بشأن الرد على مزاعم السلطات المصرية بشأن أحداث المحلة وتظاهرات 7 ابريل ، لم تمر دقائق على دخوله المنزل إلا وكان امن الدولة يتعقبه ودخلوا إلى المنزل ووجدوا جورج وحيدا دون باقي الأسرة ، فانتشروا في كل أرجاء الشقة واخذوا ينقبون ويفتشون كل شبر فيها، وحصلوا على أوراق وكتب من المكتبة واهتموا بالبحث عن كتاب”رفة الفراشة” الذي أعده الناشط السياسي أحمد بهاء شعبان وهو كتاب يشرح فيه كيف نشأت حركة كفاية وماهية أنشطتها وآفاق تطورها حتى حصلوا عليه، كما حصلوا على تليفونه المحمول، ومنعوه من الاتصال بأي شخص أو أي جهة، وبعد حوالي ساعة من التفتيش والتنقيب حضرت زوجته التي كانت خارج المنزل وفوجئت بالمشهد، وظنت للحظات أنها أخطأت ودخلت مكان آخر غير شقتها فأجسام أفراد قوة الضبط الفارهة، ونظراتهم المقززة أصابتها بالضيق فانفعلت عليهم وطالبتهم بالخروج من المنزل ، إلا أنهم لم يستجيبوا لها، وعندما حاولوا الحصول على الكمبيوتر الخاص بشادي جورج رفضت تمكينهم  لان الكمبيوتر يخص شادي، ولا يخص والده ، فطلبوا تليفونها المحمول فذكرت لهم أنها لا تستخدم تليفون محمول، فقاموا بإلقاء القبض على جورج إسحاق واصطحبوه إلى مكان مجهول.

http://hmlc.katib.org/news

[1] تتكون الجبهة من المنظمات التالية ” مركز هشام مبارك للقانون -   رابطة الهلالي للحريات بنقابة المحامين-  جماعة المحامين الديمقراطيين-  مؤسسة الهلالي للحريات-  مؤسسة حرية الفكر والتعبير-  الجمعية المصرية للنهوض بالمشاركة المجتمعية- دار الخدمات النقابية والعمالية- جمعية حقوق الإنسان لمساعدة السجناء- مجموعة المساعدة القانونية لحقوق الإنسان- المركز العربي لاستقلال القضاء والمحاماة- مؤسسة أولاد الأرض-اللجنة التنسيقية للحقوق والحريات النقابية والعمالية-جمعية أنصار العدالة- لجنة الحريات بحزب التجمع- المنظمة العربية للإصلاح الجنائي- المؤسسة العربية لدعم المجتمع المدني وحقوق الإنسان- لجنة محامين المحلة”