Freedom

Some people might choose to think of this Mohammad Mounir's song as a song about Egypt. Certainly whoever put the video together (and the people who commented on it) think so. I can see why: it's called "Freedom" and has words like "martyr" and "refugee." Serious business. Grab a flag!

I prefer to see it as a love song that borrows the language of nationalism to express love for a woman--to legitimize a forbidden love, to be exact. I think this makes it more interesting and a bit subversive.

To say to one's country, as the song does, "Your love is freedom; in love, nothing is forbidden" should not raise any eyebrows. But to say it to the one you love, especially if your heart is "going against the current," will raise hell. No one wants to be a refugee in their own country, which is why the best line in the song makes no sense if you are thinking a country is the object of desire: "Hold me, take me, I'm a refugee, and I am true for the first time..." Well, unless you're asking for political asylum!

What I'm saying is that love songs can be powerful and legitimate without having to be about God and Country. Let's try listening to them that way and see what happens.

How Women's Bras Undermine the Muslim Nation

According to this article by Alaa al Aswani, author of The Yacoubian Building, Chicago, and Friendly Fire, a Somali woman was arrested and publicly flogged for wearing a bra. Her charge was that wearing a bra is un-Islamic because it is an act of deception and misrepesentation. (here is the news report in English)

So if you hear that Somali women gathered in the public square and burned their bras, don't be surprised and don't attack them for aping western feminists, who, rumor has it, publicly burned their bras a while back to declare their independence from male standards of beauty and propriety. These bra-burning Somali women will be just following orders of men who care too much.

Why a woman wearing a bra is problematic for these male guardians of morality? I'm glad you asked. There are two scientific explanations:

If a woman is wearing a Victoria Secret push-up bra, she makes her breasts more outstanding than they originally are, even from under a long, thick robe. The resulting cleavage can undermine the social cohesion of Somali society, distract men from their guns, and result in chaos and fitna. That cannot be allowed, you would agree.

If a woman wears a sports bra, one that flattens her chest and minimizes her wiggle factor when she walks or runs, she is denying her femininity and is trying to look like men. And we all know how dangerous that can be. Not only does it signal the demise of the Muslim family, but it can lead to the end of the human race as we know it.

This is why Kuwait already has a law that punishes men and women who dress and walk in a gender-inappropriate way. And in Sudan Lubna al Hussein, the pant-wearing journalist, was arrested, put on trial, and fined for her role in wasting the time of the men of the nation, busy destroying their country.

Somali morality police should be credited for going beyond the surface appearances of pants and shirts and for zeroing on the parts that matter. Today they are after women's bras, and tomorrow they will go for women's thongs and boxer briefs. So Muslim women everywhere, be warned. And behave.

Bekhsoos: A Queer Arab Weekly

The new issue of Bekhsoos: A Queer Arab Weekly is out. Take a look here.

This weekly on-line magazine is prepared by Meem, a community of lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer women in Lebanon.

While recently in Beirut for the Arab Feminisms Conference hosted by Al Bahithat, I was privileged to attend the editorial meeting when the previous issue of Bekhsoos was being planned. I was very impressed by the professionalism, intelligence, humor, and dedication of the young women who put it together. They gave me hope that a new generation of feminist and queer activists are on their way to make a difference, a big difference, in the future of Arab women and men.

Some may try to crush them with homophobic hostility, with close-minded accusations, or with the silence of indifference. But I have no doubt in my mind--and heart--that nothing will stop these women from their goal: a more just society that recognizes and celebrates sexual diversity, where sexual difference is no longer a mark of disease and shame.

It may be a long and rough journey till we arrive at that goal. But in the company of the wonderful women of Meem, it is bound to be a thrilling one!

"Freedom"

Some people might choose to think of this Mohammad Mounir's song as a song about Egypt. Certainly whoever put the video together (and the people who commented on it) think so. I can see why: it's called "Freedom" and has words like "martyr" and "refugee." Serious business. Grab a flag!

I prefer to see it as a love song that borrows the language of nationalism to express love for a woman--to legitimize a forbidden love, to be exact. I think this makes it more interesting and a bit subversive.

To say to one's country, as the song does, "Your love is freedom; in love, nothing is forbidden" should not raise any eyebrows. But to say it to the one you love, especially if your heart is "going against the current," will raise hell. No one wants to be a refugee in their own country, which is why the best line in the song makes no sense if you are thinking a country is the object of desire: "Hold me, take me, I'm a refugee, and I am true for the first time..." Well, unless you're asking for political asylum!

What I'm saying is that love songs can be powerful and legitimate without having to be about God and Country. Let's try listening to them that way and see what happens.

Israel Committed War Crimes in Gaza

The UN Fact-Finding Mission "concluded there is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity," concluded the UN Report.

It's not the first time and it won't be the last and unfortunately nothing will come out of it. Still. for the record.

Breaking the Silence

On a recent concert in Ramallah, arranged by Palestinian musician Khaled Joubran, and including several Arab and international musicians.

How the New York Times Whitewashes Israeli Settlers

Only the majestic "paper of record," i.e. The New York Times, can get away with a five-page article on the Israeli settlers in the West Bank without mentioning once that settlements and outposts (which are settlements by another name) are illegal under international law. ILLEGAL!!! Write THAT!

The picture that accompanies the article infuriated me. The article infuriated me more. What's the message we get from both?

Israeli settlers are really mystic idealists who are interested in a higher truth. They are not violent. Their occasional violence towards the Palestinians is in response to the latter's attacks, which is why the only detailed violence we hear of in the article and elsewhere--the one with names and a story--shows them to be the victims.

Moreover, by showing them to be "different" from the majority of settlers and separate from the Israeli government and army, the article obscures the FACT that the settlement movement of the West Bank is imagined, sponsored, and protected by the Israeli political establishment. Illegal settlement of Palestinian land is official Israeli policy and not the work of some idealistic but misguided small group of mystic hard corers!! Damn it!

The reporter who barfed that article could have gotten some of these Facts in his piece if he dared talk to one or two Palestinians about settlements. But god and editorial policy and biased reporting forbid that such an outrageous thing be admitted.

And, oh, that picture. What's better to represent those harmless mystic pioneers than a mother bathing her baby on top of the mountain in the holy land wilderness! Move over Mary and baby Jesus! Here comes the modern version.

Ok. My morning is ruined!

Gold and Silver for Palestinian Athletes

Palestinian athletes receive gold and silver medals in Asia Parlympic games in Japan.

"Marking a first for Palestine, Mo’men Al-Masry received the gold medal for his javelin throwing, while Walid Judeh received earned a silver medal in the same event."

The first sentence of the Maan article quoted above is one of the worst I've read in a long time: "Disabled members of the Al-Jazeera Sports Club in Gaza received top medals at the Asia Paralympic Games Championship in javelin throwing Sunday in Japan."

The only "disabled" I see in this story is the writer of that lame sentence.

More Fatwas to Tell Women What to Do

Change is hitting Saudi Arabia like an earthquake. Nothing will stop it. The latest example is a new fatwa by a prominent Islamic personality who said that a Muslim woman is allowed to uncover her face in public.

If she is abroad.

And if she is being harassed.

What's next? Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a wild ride.

"Perhaps what the state of Israel fears most of all is the hope that people can live together based on justice and equality for all"

An article about Israel's violent actions against the Palestinian popular non-violent resistance.

It's important to remember that his kind of resistance always existed and Israel always brutally suppressed it. It was the backbone of the First Intifada and it is what keeps the Palestinian cause and people alive. Israel hates it because it won't allow it to play the role of victim and it has the potential of neutralizing its superior military power. Palestinian politicians, across the political spectrum, pay lip service to it because they fear it's popular, non-hierarchical and democratic potential. Also they score more points against each other through the spectacular "armed" resistance, regardless of how ineffective the latter is.