C L O S E R

Symposium: Antropoloog zoekt maatschappelijke partner

Posted on August 25th, 2014 by martijn.
Categories: anthropology, Arts & culture, Headline, Notes from the Field.

Antropoloog zoekt maatschappelijke partner –

Kennisdeling buiten de muren van de universiteit –

3 september 2014

Aanleiding

Er is onder antropologen een toenemende aandacht voor kennisdeling buiten de muren van de universiteit. Antropologische blogs, websites, ingezonden stukken in de krant, documentaires en tentoonstellingen, het is er allemaal. De inzet is vaak om een groter, niet-academisch publiek te bereiken. Kennisdeling (valorisatie) wordt daarbij in toenemende mate gezien als kerntaak van universiteiten en als voorwaarde gesteld door organisaties als NWO.

Tijdens het symposium ‘Antropoloog zoekt maatschappelijke partner’ wordt gezamenlijk gekeken naar effectieve en innovatieve methoden om antropologische inzichten te delen met een breder publiek. Wat zijn de kansen? En wat levert het op?

Lokatie: Amsterdam Museum, Kalverstraat 92, Auditorium

Datum en tijd: 3 september 2014, 10.00-16.00 uur

Panel I: kennis delen via tentoonstellingen
Museale presentaties lenen zich goed voor het delen van antropologische kennis. Samenwerking van antropologen en musea kan stimuleren dat mensen elkaar ontmoeten, in gesprek gaan, reflecteren, uitwisselen, et cetera. Vraagstukken daarbij zijn:

• Wie is het publiek? Wat weet het publiek? Wat wil het publiek graag weten?
• Hoe is de samenwerking met participanten? In hoeverre is het museum een platform, een podium, een (neutrale) ontmoetingsplaats? Wie zijn de stakeholders (bijvoorbeeld politici, beleidsmakers, kunstenaars)?

Panel II: communiceren via de (sociale) media
Sociale media zoals Facebook en Twitter bieden nieuwe mogelijkheden voor antropologen om in contact te staan met de participanten in hun onderzoek en met de buitenwereld in het algemeen. Vraagstukken daarbij zijn:

• De vluchtigheid van sociale media: hoe verhoudt actualiteit zich tot kwaliteit, laagdrempeligheid zich tot diepgang, serieus zich tot leuk en luchtig, weetjes/anekdotische informatie zich tot kennisdeling? Voor wie doe je het? Wie is je publiek? Wat is de beste toon om je publiek aan te spreken? Likes and shares: hoe meet je succes?

Toegang gratis, aanmelding verplicht: rsvp@amsterdammuseum.nl o.v.v. van aanmelding symposium.

Programma
10.00-10.15 inloop + koffie/thee

10.15-10.30 opening symposium door Paul Spies, directeur Amsterdam Museum
10.30-12.00 Panel I – Tentoonstellingen – o.l.v. Martijn de Koning
Bekeerd, moslim worden – moslim zijn

Vanessa Vroon-Najem (UvA-AISSR)
Saskia Aukema (Zazquia Fotografie)
Kabra masker

Annemarie de Wildt (Amsterdam Museum)
Markus Balkenhol (Meertens Instituut/Imagine IC)
Chicks, Kicks & Glory
Jasmijn Rana (FU-Berlin)
Alia Azzouzi (communicatie- & tentoonstellingsadviseur)

12.00-12.45 Bezichtiging expositie Bekeerd en Kabra masker
12.45-13.30 Lunch

13.30-15.00 Panel II Sociale Media- o.l.v. Jasmijn Rana
Martijn de Koning – Communiceren via Facebook (UvA-AISSR/RU) (Closer Blog)
Linda Duits – Communiceren via Twitter (Diep/ICON) (@lalalalinder)
Lenie Brouwer – Communiceren via blogs (VU) (Standplaatswereld.nl)

15.00-16.00 Vragen & discussie o.l.v. Alia Azzouzi
16.00-17.00 Napraten in museumcafé Mokum

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Documentary: Return to Homs

Posted on May 11th, 2014 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

How do you get from being a pacifist antigovernment protest leader to being a homegrown guerrilla fighter?

Journeyman Pictures : documentaries : Return to Homs (HD)

Nineteen-year-old Basset is the goalkeeper for the Syrian national soccer team. When revolution breaks out the charismatic young man becomes an iconic protest leader and singer. His songs reflect his dream of peaceful liberation from Assad’s brutal regime. Osama is a 24-year-old media activist and pacifist wielding his camera to document the revolution. But when the army cracks down and their beloved Homs becomes a bombed-out ghost town, these two peaceful protesters take up arms and transform into renegade insurgents, with devastating results.

Former star goalkeeper of the national soccer team, Abdul Basset Saroot, transformed over three years from a pacifist antigovernment protest leader into a homegrown guerrilla fighter. He saw colleagues die from army sniper bullets and disappear in government detention. He suffered a grievous leg wound and, his friends say, is now surviving on well water and seven olives a day.

Nowadays Abdul Basset Saroot is considered a terrorist by President Bashar al-Assad’s government. He is the main character in the film, “Return to Homs.” The film won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance. The film is made by Damascus-based-husband-and-wife-film producers Orwa Nyrabia and Diana El Jeiroudi.

Journeyman Pictures : documentaries : Return to Homs (HD)

“This is Homs, but I don’t know where I am,” Basset says with characteristic joviality as he wanders through the destroyed buildings and rubble-filled streets of the city. They are the streets Basset and Osama grew up in, now a barren battlefield. In fractured homes, discarded living rooms speak of thousands of disrupted lives. Osama is disorientated by this completely new reality, “like an immigrant discovering a new city”.

As the siege takes hold in Homs, these two friends gather together a circle of brave but ragtag comrades, determined to protect the trapped civilians and help to get them out of the city. Surviving on a diet of just a few olives and a single glass of dirty water a day, this handful of stranded amateur fighters hold out against the snipers, tanks and mortars of the Syrian Army. They scuttle through the ghost town like rats, resourceful and single-minded.

Soon bravado gives way to despair as the reality of their David and Goliath battle takes hold. Sitting in a destroyed hallway lit by streaks of sunshine that make their way through the rubble, the normally optimistic Basset seems broken. Osama has been captured and the fight is not going well. “I no longer have it in me to do this. All my close friends are gone. I’m fed up man.”

Yet out of despair grows a renewed, more bitter determination. “Will this revolution ever end?” the film’s director Derki asks. “Sure – they’re not immortal”, smiles Basset. Pushed out of the city by Assad’s forces, he prepares his men for a dangerous return to Homs. “Kill me, but just open up an exit for the people”, the brave young leader cries.

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Jeugdjournaal – The Voice of Anasheed

Posted on April 6th, 2014 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

Anasheed is islamitische acapella muziek die al eeuwenlang in talloze varianten voorkomt en ook sterk beïnvloed is door allerlei regionale invloeden en, tegenwoordig, ook door de mondiale muziekcultuur. Niet alles wordt als ‘echte’ anasheed beschouwd; dan moet het meestal toch Arabischtalig zijn zonder gebruik van muziekinstrumenten. Opvallend vind ik altijd dat veel jongeren die het Arabisch niet verstaan ook naar anasheed luisteren. Soms ter ontspanning, soms om ‘God op te zoeken’, soms als morele reminder en soms om steviger in het geloof te staan; en vaak een combinatie van dit alles. Ontspanning is zeker belangrijk en bij veel tieners kun je de anasheed dan ook naast andere muziek op hun iPod vinden.

Er zijn al jaren anasheedwedstrijden, ook in Nederland. Anasheedstars is zo’n wedstrijd georganiseerd door de Voice of Anasheed organiseert allerlei projecten, educatieve activiteiten en evenementen zoals de ‘de Anasheedtour’ waarbij geld is ingezameld voor het scholenproject van Maroc Relief.

In het jeugdjournaal van vandaag een item over Anasheedstars is een coachingstraject van de The Voice of Anasheed waarin leerlingen worden getraind om anasheed te zingen op een hoger niveau. Er zijn twee poules met elk vijf basisscholen. Per poule gaan de twee beste islamitische basisscholen door naar de finale. De leerlingen hebben voor de competitie zelf twee liedjes uitgekozen om voor te dragen. Ze worden beoordeeld door deskundige juryleden en ook het publiek kan stemmen. Aan de Voice of Anasheed doen verschillende koren mee van islamitische scholen die natuurlijk allemaal proberen de beste worden.

Ditmaal is de winneer de Al Amana school in Ede.

Hieronder enkele andere talenten:

&

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Eszter Spat – Yezidis and Following the Peacock

Posted on October 17th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: anthropology, Arts & culture, Religion Other, Ritual and Religious Experience, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

Eszter Spat obtained her Ph.D. at the Central European University, Department of Medieval Studies in 2009. Her post-doctoral research, “Processes of Integration, Identity Construction and the Role of Religion: The Case of the Iraqi Yezidis,” studies the role Yezidi religion in the Kurdish national movement, as well as the impact of modernity and Kurdish nationalism on the construction of Yezidi identity, and the transformation of Yezidi oral tradition and religious institutions in Northern Iraq. She is the author of Late Antique Motifs in Yezidi Oral Tradition and Yezidis.

There appears to be an increased interest in Yezidis in the last decades and one wonders how that is related to global and region political circumstances. They are part of identity politics among Kurds but apparently recently some Yezidis claim to be a people by themselves instead of being part of a Kurdish nation while others argue they are the original Kurds. Eszter Spat made a documentary, Following the Peacock, about the Yezidis and their ritual of parading the Peacock; a seldom, if ever, observed ritual by outsiders.

I deleted the film but the pictures you see here are all taken by Eszter Spat

On Facebook I saw reactions about this documentary that amounted to ‘leave these people and let them continue their secret religion in peace’ and that saw this documentary as an example of an Orientalist perspective by a Western scholar about people and their religion. I’m not specialized enough in the Kurdish regions and identity politics and I’m also not a specialist in Yezidi identity politics, culture and religion. Nevertheless, I do think this is an interesting and carefully made documentary about Yezidi people who recently appear to open up to outsiders.

All pictures taken by Eszter Spat. Used with kind permission

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In Memoriam Dara Faizi: The Netherlands for the Netherlanders

Posted on October 1st, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, islamophobia, Multiculti Issues.

Yesterday Afghan-Dutch comedian Dara Faizi died. Only 25 years old he was trying to build himself a career and he already had his own show ‘Gevaarlijke gedachten’. In the spring of 2013 he invented his alter ego Bijan; a refugee from Iran (Faizi was an Afghan refugee) who has always felt like a Dutchman. To accomplish his integration into Dutch society Bijan created a new political party Leefbaar Holland (Liveable Holland – referring to a series of parties with similar names that can be characterised as populist, secular, anti-immigrant). This new party aims to stop immigration to the Netherlands.

The next video is a campaign video for this party. Through this satire Dara Faizi wanted to confront people with their own prejudices and for a short period of time people on social media actually wondered if this party was real or not. Faizi’s campaign was the prelude to the movie Refugees, who need them which appeared in the theaters in the major Dutch cities. In the campaign video Faizi plays with different realities, different discourses and identities, challenging the usual expected and accepted answers to questions such as ‘Who am I’ and ‘What am I supposed to be’.

I never met him in person, but I followed his career and actually used the video a few times in some of the courses I teach. So I guess this is sort of a tribute to him.

The trailer of the film Refugees, who needs them?

7 comments.

Longing for Mecca in Leiden – The Pilgrim’s Journey

Posted on September 11th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

In May 2013 it was 400 years ago that the first professor of Arabic at Leiden, Thomas Erpenius (1584–1624), gave his inaugural speech on the ‘Excellence and Dignity of the Arabic Language’. Arabic studies at Leiden are a deeply rooted tradition that enjoys worldwide fame with scholars such as Scaliger, Erpenius, Golius, De Goeje and Snouck Hurgronje. Behind the Leiden professors and the university there was a full fledged local infrastructure of Oriental printers such as Elzevier and Brill, booksellers and auctioneers. Many festivities are part of this 400 years of Arabic celebration. One of the interesting activities, already passed, was the city tour.  In this tour people would walk the historical centre of Leiden and see the remains of this influence of Arab culture on Leiden and Leiden scholars; crescents on the facade of the Leiden city hall, a mosque in the Rembrandtstraat, the gilded Turk in the facade of V & D, the University with ancient manuscripts in Arabic, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje’s house and much more.

This autumn, a unique exhibition about the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, opens at the National Museum of Ethnology. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art (see also MIddle East Online) is  to be lending some 80 works to the first major exhibition in the Netherlands devoted to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Also the British Libraryand the King Abdulaziz Library in Riyadh contribute. In this exhibition, Longing for Mecca – The Pilgrim’s Journey‘ Magnificent objects, personal stories and in-depth reports will present a comprehensive picture of this impressive pilgrimage, in which millions of people from all over the world take part each year. The exhibition is a collaboration with the British Museum in London (Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam). This will be the first ever exhibition of this magnitude about the Hajj to be held in the Netherlands. The exhibition will also appear at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha and the Arab World Institute (AWI) in Paris.

For one-quarter of the world’s population, Mecca is the place that you must have visited once in your life. All over the world Muslims face the holy city at prayer. The pilgrimage is undertaken by millions of believers every year. The city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is only accessible to Muslims. Others know it only from photographs of crowds of pilgrims circling the sacred Ka’ba. Such is the importance of this pilgrimage that in many languages, the word ‘Mecca’ has become synonymous for paradise (in phrases such as ‘Amsterdam is a Mecca for devotees of architecture’). An article in Asharq Al-Awsat tells us the following

While the British Museum’s exhibition traced the ancient Hajj routes through Africa (and particularly Timbuktu, Mali), the exhibitions in Doha, Paris and Leiden will tackle different aspects of the Muslim holy journey of Hajj. Porter said the Hajj: The Journey through Art in Doha will focus on Qatari art collections; therefore, they will not need the items exhibited in the British Museum.

“As for the Leiden exhibition [Longing for Mecca: The pilgrim’s journey], it will be very interesting. The exhibition will differ in terms of the stories told by Muslims there. The museum in Leiden borrowed the same items we exhibited here; however, they developed their own storyline.”

The Paris exhibition will tackle a different aspect of Hajj. Due to France’s geographical proximity to North Africa and the proportion of North African immigrants in the country, the exhibition is set to trace the historical and cultural ties between the two cultures.

What distinguished the British Museum’s exhibition is its contemporary aspect by showcasing contemporary works of art about Hajj, an aspect which will be covered in the forthcoming exhibitions, Porter added.
Paris

Next year, the AWI will hold an exhibition on the past and future of Hajj. Items on display will be borrowed from several French museums and Saudi institutions.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Muna Khazindar, the AWI’s president said: “We are trying to persuade some owners in Saudi Arabia to lend us some of the rare items related to the journey of Hajj.”

Khazindar stressed that both the number and the identity of the items that will be exhibited are not yet known; however, the AWI will borrow items from “King Saud University, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and several other French museums.”

When we asked her whether the AWI is coordinating with the other two sides that will host the Hajj exhibition, Khazindar revealed that each side “works alone and prepares for the exhibition in their own way.”

Khazindar confirmed that there will be contemporary items in the AWI version of the exhibition.

“We have not determined what works to exhibit; however, the Saudi artists who dealt with Hajj are well-known, such as Ahmed Mater and Shadia Alem.”
Doha

On October 9, 2013 the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha will hold Hajj: The Journey through Art, tackling the artistic aspect of the Muslim holy journey of Hajj. Despite being based on the British Museum’s exhibition, 90 percent of the Doha items will come from Qatari art collections.

The exhibition will examine the holy journey from a unique perspective by focusing on three main issues: the routes taken by pilgrims, Hajj rituals from an artistic perspective, and the experience of pilgrims during the Hajj and on their way back from Mecca.

Dr. Munia Shikhab Abu Daya, the keeper of manuscripts at Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art, will be in charge of the exhibition and have stressed that some of the items on display have never been exhibited before.
Leiden

The National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Netherlands, will hold Longing for Mecca: The pilgrim’s journey from September 10. It will present different pictures of the ancient Hajj routes through eastern Asia.

Laut Mollz, the coordinator of the exhibition, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the exhibition “aims at communicating with Muslims here.”

“In collaboration with the British Museum, we will be able to exhibit some of the items that were on display in London. However, we will concentrate on the items from the Netherlands. For example, the Amsterdam University Library owns a very valuable collection, as does the Troben Museum,” Mollz explained.

Among its items, Longing for Mecca: The pilgrim’s journey will include photos dating back to the 19th.

Besides this, the exhibition will allocate an entire section narrating anecdotes told by pilgrims of Moroccan, Turkish, Somali, Iranian and Iraqi origins. The exhibition will also highlight the Hajj routes from Indonesia, given its importance as a former Dutch settlement.

Mecca occupies a more prominent place in Dutch culture and history than many, perhaps, are aware. Hundreds of thousands of residents of this kingdom have made the pilgrimage in the past; from Indonesia, Suriname, and the Netherlands. Mecca, and the pilgrimage, are therefore bound up with Dutch history and culture. For hundreds of years, the Hajj has inspired artists and rulers to make, or commission, magnificent objects. Together with the British Museum, the National Museum of Ethnology has gathered over 250 unique items from some of the best Islamic collections in the world. They are enormously diverse, ranging in time from the tenth century to the present day, with origins from Indonesia to Morocco.

What is that attracts the pilgrims? What desire, or longing, drives them to go? What rituals do they perform? What trials and tribulations do they encounter, what manner of purification do they undergo? What are their unforgettable impressions and experiences ? on their journey, in Mecca itself, and after their return? On the basis of individual stories, this exhibition will provide a unique, personal insight into one of the greatest spiritual, cultural and religious phenomena in the world.

Go and visit!

0 comments.

Longing for Mecca in Leiden – The Pilgrim's Journey

Posted on September 11th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

In May 2013 it was 400 years ago that the first professor of Arabic at Leiden, Thomas Erpenius (1584–1624), gave his inaugural speech on the ‘Excellence and Dignity of the Arabic Language’. Arabic studies at Leiden are a deeply rooted tradition that enjoys worldwide fame with scholars such as Scaliger, Erpenius, Golius, De Goeje and Snouck Hurgronje. Behind the Leiden professors and the university there was a full fledged local infrastructure of Oriental printers such as Elzevier and Brill, booksellers and auctioneers. Many festivities are part of this 400 years of Arabic celebration. One of the interesting activities, already passed, was the city tour.  In this tour people would walk the historical centre of Leiden and see the remains of this influence of Arab culture on Leiden and Leiden scholars; crescents on the facade of the Leiden city hall, a mosque in the Rembrandtstraat, the gilded Turk in the facade of V & D, the University with ancient manuscripts in Arabic, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje’s house and much more.

This autumn, a unique exhibition about the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, opens at the National Museum of Ethnology. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art (see also MIddle East Online) is  to be lending some 80 works to the first major exhibition in the Netherlands devoted to the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Also the British Libraryand the King Abdulaziz Library in Riyadh contribute. In this exhibition, Longing for Mecca – The Pilgrim’s Journey‘ Magnificent objects, personal stories and in-depth reports will present a comprehensive picture of this impressive pilgrimage, in which millions of people from all over the world take part each year. The exhibition is a collaboration with the British Museum in London (Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam). This will be the first ever exhibition of this magnitude about the Hajj to be held in the Netherlands. The exhibition will also appear at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha and the Arab World Institute (AWI) in Paris.

For one-quarter of the world’s population, Mecca is the place that you must have visited once in your life. All over the world Muslims face the holy city at prayer. The pilgrimage is undertaken by millions of believers every year. The city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is only accessible to Muslims. Others know it only from photographs of crowds of pilgrims circling the sacred Ka’ba. Such is the importance of this pilgrimage that in many languages, the word ‘Mecca’ has become synonymous for paradise (in phrases such as ‘Amsterdam is a Mecca for devotees of architecture’). An article in Asharq Al-Awsat tells us the following

While the British Museum’s exhibition traced the ancient Hajj routes through Africa (and particularly Timbuktu, Mali), the exhibitions in Doha, Paris and Leiden will tackle different aspects of the Muslim holy journey of Hajj. Porter said the Hajj: The Journey through Art in Doha will focus on Qatari art collections; therefore, they will not need the items exhibited in the British Museum.

“As for the Leiden exhibition [Longing for Mecca: The pilgrim’s journey], it will be very interesting. The exhibition will differ in terms of the stories told by Muslims there. The museum in Leiden borrowed the same items we exhibited here; however, they developed their own storyline.”

The Paris exhibition will tackle a different aspect of Hajj. Due to France’s geographical proximity to North Africa and the proportion of North African immigrants in the country, the exhibition is set to trace the historical and cultural ties between the two cultures.

What distinguished the British Museum’s exhibition is its contemporary aspect by showcasing contemporary works of art about Hajj, an aspect which will be covered in the forthcoming exhibitions, Porter added.
Paris

Next year, the AWI will hold an exhibition on the past and future of Hajj. Items on display will be borrowed from several French museums and Saudi institutions.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Muna Khazindar, the AWI’s president said: “We are trying to persuade some owners in Saudi Arabia to lend us some of the rare items related to the journey of Hajj.”

Khazindar stressed that both the number and the identity of the items that will be exhibited are not yet known; however, the AWI will borrow items from “King Saud University, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and several other French museums.”

When we asked her whether the AWI is coordinating with the other two sides that will host the Hajj exhibition, Khazindar revealed that each side “works alone and prepares for the exhibition in their own way.”

Khazindar confirmed that there will be contemporary items in the AWI version of the exhibition.

“We have not determined what works to exhibit; however, the Saudi artists who dealt with Hajj are well-known, such as Ahmed Mater and Shadia Alem.”
Doha

On October 9, 2013 the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha will hold Hajj: The Journey through Art, tackling the artistic aspect of the Muslim holy journey of Hajj. Despite being based on the British Museum’s exhibition, 90 percent of the Doha items will come from Qatari art collections.

The exhibition will examine the holy journey from a unique perspective by focusing on three main issues: the routes taken by pilgrims, Hajj rituals from an artistic perspective, and the experience of pilgrims during the Hajj and on their way back from Mecca.

Dr. Munia Shikhab Abu Daya, the keeper of manuscripts at Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art, will be in charge of the exhibition and have stressed that some of the items on display have never been exhibited before.
Leiden

The National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Netherlands, will hold Longing for Mecca: The pilgrim’s journey from September 10. It will present different pictures of the ancient Hajj routes through eastern Asia.

Laut Mollz, the coordinator of the exhibition, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the exhibition “aims at communicating with Muslims here.”

“In collaboration with the British Museum, we will be able to exhibit some of the items that were on display in London. However, we will concentrate on the items from the Netherlands. For example, the Amsterdam University Library owns a very valuable collection, as does the Troben Museum,” Mollz explained.

Among its items, Longing for Mecca: The pilgrim’s journey will include photos dating back to the 19th.

Besides this, the exhibition will allocate an entire section narrating anecdotes told by pilgrims of Moroccan, Turkish, Somali, Iranian and Iraqi origins. The exhibition will also highlight the Hajj routes from Indonesia, given its importance as a former Dutch settlement.

Mecca occupies a more prominent place in Dutch culture and history than many, perhaps, are aware. Hundreds of thousands of residents of this kingdom have made the pilgrimage in the past; from Indonesia, Suriname, and the Netherlands. Mecca, and the pilgrimage, are therefore bound up with Dutch history and culture. For hundreds of years, the Hajj has inspired artists and rulers to make, or commission, magnificent objects. Together with the British Museum, the National Museum of Ethnology has gathered over 250 unique items from some of the best Islamic collections in the world. They are enormously diverse, ranging in time from the tenth century to the present day, with origins from Indonesia to Morocco.

What is that attracts the pilgrims? What desire, or longing, drives them to go? What rituals do they perform? What trials and tribulations do they encounter, what manner of purification do they undergo? What are their unforgettable impressions and experiences ? on their journey, in Mecca itself, and after their return? On the basis of individual stories, this exhibition will provide a unique, personal insight into one of the greatest spiritual, cultural and religious phenomena in the world.

Go and visit!

0 comments.

Hannah Arendt “Zur Person” Full Interview

Posted on July 28th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, Misc. News.

The Hannah Arendt Movie was released several months ago. The film is directed by Margarethe von Trotta and is produced as a biopic of influential German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s reporting on the 1961trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker— controversial both for her portrayal of Eichmann andt he Jewish councils — introduced her now-famous concept of the “Banality of Evil.” The film uses footage from the actual Eichmann trial and weaves a narrative that spans three countries. Watch the trailer:

Of course, this film probably (I haven’t seen it) does not do a very good job of providing some insight into Arendt’s thinking. The next old interview of with Günter Gaus with her does. She talks about the differences between philosophy and politics, about gender and philosophy. She clearly is not very positive about philosophy, philosophers and intellectual. Of course she also discusses the Eichmann controversy, anti-Semitism, Auschwitz, Germans and Jews and Judaism before and after the war, Zionism and Israel. The interview concludes with the topic of trust. The interview from 1964 was later published as “What Remains? Language Remains” in The Portable Hannah Arendt. The video is in German but with English subtitles:

The most fascinating part for me in the interview has been captured nicely by Zachary Braiterman on jewish philosophy place:

In the interview, Arendt’s more general remarks about the Holocaust, the political, and those bitter words about the Eichmann controversy come first. What follows is peculiar. There are warm words about what she pictures as the intimate old worldless, i.e. apolitical Jewish world that existed just prior to the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. And then come those words from The Human Condition that touch upon trust as the basis of politics and the human condition.

But that’s what makes no sense, because the former comments about trust stand in direct contradiction to what she herself says, what she herself knows about Auschwitz. This goes much deeper than the precariousness of the human condition, as since theorized by Judith Butler. For Arendt, Auschwitz outstrips political enmity. She says this in the interview. The Holocaust would represent the abyss and abjection that grind trust and the human condition into dust. Auschwitz throws the human condition into complete confusion. If you ask me, there’s no judgment, not of Eichmann, and not of the heads of the Jewish Councils that can sort this out, restore the polis and politics, “the world,” this “space of appearance,” and make it right.

And then you see it. This is what thinking looks like. After that last word, there’s silence, absolute silence. The camera continues to roll for about 8 interminable seconds. Arendt sits there motionless, as if struck dumb. Her eyes just blink, and her mouth saddens. There’s this sense of having stumbled into something deep, counterintuitive, and true about the human condition, counterintuitive and painful because it makes no sense in relation to the Holocaust and to Eichmann and the heads of the Jewish Councils.

H/T: OpenCulture

0 comments.

Hannah Arendt "Zur Person" Full Interview

Posted on July 28th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, Misc. News.

The Hannah Arendt Movie was released several months ago. The film is directed by Margarethe von Trotta and is produced as a biopic of influential German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s reporting on the 1961trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker— controversial both for her portrayal of Eichmann andt he Jewish councils — introduced her now-famous concept of the “Banality of Evil.” The film uses footage from the actual Eichmann trial and weaves a narrative that spans three countries. Watch the trailer:

Of course, this film probably (I haven’t seen it) does not do a very good job of providing some insight into Arendt’s thinking. The next old interview of with Günter Gaus with her does. She talks about the differences between philosophy and politics, about gender and philosophy. She clearly is not very positive about philosophy, philosophers and intellectual. Of course she also discusses the Eichmann controversy, anti-Semitism, Auschwitz, Germans and Jews and Judaism before and after the war, Zionism and Israel. The interview concludes with the topic of trust. The interview from 1964 was later published as “What Remains? Language Remains” in The Portable Hannah Arendt. The video is in German but with English subtitles:

The most fascinating part for me in the interview has been captured nicely by Zachary Braiterman on jewish philosophy place:

In the interview, Arendt’s more general remarks about the Holocaust, the political, and those bitter words about the Eichmann controversy come first. What follows is peculiar. There are warm words about what she pictures as the intimate old worldless, i.e. apolitical Jewish world that existed just prior to the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. And then come those words from The Human Condition that touch upon trust as the basis of politics and the human condition.

But that’s what makes no sense, because the former comments about trust stand in direct contradiction to what she herself says, what she herself knows about Auschwitz. This goes much deeper than the precariousness of the human condition, as since theorized by Judith Butler. For Arendt, Auschwitz outstrips political enmity. She says this in the interview. The Holocaust would represent the abyss and abjection that grind trust and the human condition into dust. Auschwitz throws the human condition into complete confusion. If you ask me, there’s no judgment, not of Eichmann, and not of the heads of the Jewish Councils that can sort this out, restore the polis and politics, “the world,” this “space of appearance,” and make it right.

And then you see it. This is what thinking looks like. After that last word, there’s silence, absolute silence. The camera continues to roll for about 8 interminable seconds. Arendt sits there motionless, as if struck dumb. Her eyes just blink, and her mouth saddens. There’s this sense of having stumbled into something deep, counterintuitive, and true about the human condition, counterintuitive and painful because it makes no sense in relation to the Holocaust and to Eichmann and the heads of the Jewish Councils.

H/T: OpenCulture

0 comments.

Hallo dan! – X Factor, Sevval en Inspiratie

Posted on April 27th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

Gisteravond een doodgewone uitzending van X Factor. Maar dan gebeurt er klaarblijkelijk ook iets bijzonders. Sevval Kayhan komt op.
Gordon: Ow, moslima!
Candy Dulfer: Jaa..Nou dat heb ik nog nooit gezien. Met een gitaar!
Ali B: Merhaba
Sevval: Merhaba.
Ali B: Je gaat zoiets zingen voor ons. Daar ben ik heel benieuwd naar. Heb je nog een doel? Een speciale droom of zo?
Sevval: Ja ik wil heel graag mensen inspireren. En ik wil laten zien van…kijk…er zijn heel veel vooroordelen, maar als je naar mij kijkt dan ben ik heel vrij en ik doe gewoon wat ik wil.
Ali B: Wow.
Gordon: Mooi.

Sevval zingt een eigen nummer.

Ali B. vindt het liedje, hallo (in verschillende talen) zo mogelijk nog inspirerender dan de boodschap. En Gordon vindt het heel bijzonder dat een moslima dit doet. Nu zijn er genoeg Nederlandse artiesten die moslim zijn, maar ze zijn of hier niet zo bekend of treden slechts in beperkte kring op. Zo bijzonder is het dus ook weer niet, maar op de Nederlandse televisie wel.

Natuurlijk zijn dergelijke reacties moeilijk los te zien van het intens islamofobische karakter van het Nederlandse islamdebat. Vandaar ook de tweet van Fatima Elatik denk ik:

Dit is het nieuwe Nederland mensen. #vrijheid en #OneLove X Factor Auditie Sevval – Hello youtu.be/zdR3F-RNDDE

— Fatima Elatik (@FatimaElatik) 26 april 2013

Tweets about “sevval xfactor”

Zie hier een kort interview op RTL met haar:

Op Youtube is overigens meer materiaal van haar te vinden, bijv:

Intussen ook opgepikt door Turkse media: Haber365 – Hollanda’y? Gözya?lar?na Bo?an Türk K?z?

3 comments.

Blogtournee Arabieren kijken: Oriëntalisme en gewone mensen

Posted on March 24th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: anthropology, Arts & culture, Headline, islamophobia, Multiculti Issues, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

Inleiding: Hassnae Bouazza en orientalisme

Eén van de meest voorkomende fenomenen in dit land en andere Europese landen is orientalisme. Toch wordt er maar zelden over gesproken. Eén van de weinigen die dit recent op televisie deed was Hassnae Bouazza bij Pauw en Witteman, nadat journalist Bart Schut Marokkanen in Nederland verweet een ‘racismeprobleem’ te hebben; iets wat hij wist omdat ze dat in Marokko ook hebben. Bouazza stelde de racistische denktrant van dat artikel aan de kaak in een debatje bij Pauw en Witteman en stelde onder meer dat Bart Schut zich in zijn verdediging op orientalistische beelden beriep (vanaf 5.35):

Nu zal niemand ontkennen dat iedere vorm van samenleven eigen in- en uitsluitingsmechanismen kent en dat daar racisme een fundamentele rol bij speelt. Zo ook als het gaat om ideeën over één van de meest tot de verbeelding sprekende regio’s in de wereld: het Midden-Oosten. In populair taalgebruik bestaat een sterk beeld van wat voor mensen daar leven: islamitisch, onderdrukte maar ook verleidelijke vrouwen, zand, achtergebleven, corrupt, ondemocratisch, gewelddadig, irrationeel, mysterieus, statisch en intolerant zijn maar een paar van de termen die velen meteen te binnen schieten. Dat deze blik op het Midden-Oosten generaliserend, onjuist en onethisch is, zal voor velen vanzelfsprekend zijn, maar toch doen we het vaak. Soms bewust, soms onbewust.

Eén van de belangrijkste intellectuelen van de 20^e eeuw, Edward Said, was één van de eersten die een dergelijke blik aan de kaak stelde in zijn beroemde boek Orientalism uit 1977. Said betoogt hier dat er een patroon zit in de wijze waarop het Westen zich een beeld vormt van het Oosten. In deze kijk op het Midden-Oosten wordt het Oosten tot object gereduceerd en meer precies een object dat achterlijk is en door het Westen geholpen moet worden, in bedwang moet worden gehouden en bevrijd moet worden. Een beeld dat, zo laat Said zien, nauw samenhangt met kolonialisme en imperialisme en ideeën over de superiorieit van het Westen.

Om orientalisme te kunnen zien en uiteen te kunnen rafelen, moet je natuurlijk wel weten hoe het er daarginder daadwerkelijk aan toe gaat. Eén van de manieren om dit te doen, is te kijken naar het alledaagse leven van mensen en op welke wijze bijvoorbeeld kleding, seksualiteit, populaire cultuur, moraal en religie een rol spelen. Eerder deed Joris Luyendijk dit voor wat betreft cultuur en politiek in zijn boek Het zijn net mensen en de meest recente aanwinst in dit ‘genre’ is ‘Arabieren Kijken’ waarin Hassnae Bouazza de lezer meeneemt op een soms ontroerende, soms hilarische en vaak verbazingwekkende tour door het Midden-Oosten. ‘Arabieren kijken’ is daarbij een mooie titel die niet alleen verwijst naar wat Arabieren zoal op televisie kijken, maar ook naar onze blik op Arabieren.

De analyse van cultuur na televisie

Said heeft de nodige kritiek gekregen op zijn stelling. Hij baseert zijn argumenten voornamelijk op Frankrijk en Engeland, met hun lange koloniale geschiedenis, en negeert bijvoorbeeld de Duitse invloed op de orientalistiek. En waar hij aandacht vraagt voor de diversiteit en complexiteit van het Oosten, behandelt hij het Westen als min of meer homogeen. Zijn argumenten zijn wel de opmaat geweest voor een kritische reflectie onder onderzoekers over hun werk over het Oosten en in die reflectie is Said’s stelling ook voortdurend verfijnd. Onze blik op het Midden-Oosten heeft dan ook niet alleen te maken met kolonialisme, maar ook met de opkomst van natie-staten en nationalisme, veranderingen in de universitaire werelden en de opkomst van allerlei media zoals kranten, radio, televisie en internet.

Bouazza kiest voor een heel specifieke manier om een portret te maken van de Arabische wereld: wat verschijnt er zoal op televisie? Ik heb recensenten gezien die zich afvragen wat daar de waarde van is, maar volgens mij is het een voltreffer. In de laatste 50-60 jaar zijn het juist technologische ontwikkelingen geweest die het onderscheid tussen het Oosten en het Westen onder druk zetten. In een beroemd essay The Interpretation of Culture(s) After Television stelde antropologe Lila Abu-Lughod dat de alomtegenwoordigheid van televisie in het dagelijks leven van mensen dit medium bij uitstek geschikt maakt voor een rijke etnografie van dat dagelijks leven. In dat essay beschrijft Abu-Lughod hoe vrouwen zich identificeren met de beslommeringen die in tal van tv-programma’s zoals soaps te zien zijn en zich tegelijkertijd ook realiseren dat die soaps gaan over een andere wereld dan die van hen. Zoals Hassnae Bouazza heel goed laat zien, doorbreekt televisie grenzen, schept het nieuwe grenzen en bevestigt het oude en nieuwe grenzen. Televisie zorgt ervoor dat nieuwe repertoires, debatten en praktijken het dagelijks leven van mensen binnenkomen die aanvankelijk ver van hun bed waren: Cairo, Alexandrië, Hollywood, Mumbai en Tokio. Daarbij wordt televisie op de ene plaats geproduceerd en op diverse andere plekken geconsumeerd op diverse manieren. Cultuur, en meer in het bijzonder noties als ‘Westerse’ of ‘Oosterse’ cultuur zijn dan niet  langer relevant als verklaring voor het gedrag van mensen, maar zijn juist fenomenen die verklaard moeten worden.

Seksualiteit

Een belangrijk thema in het boek van Hassnae is seksualiteit. Seksualiteit speelt een belangrijke rol in oriëntalistische beeldvorming over het Midden-Oosten en islam. In zijn werk Desiring Arabs laat wetenschapper Joseph Massad, een student van Edward Said, zien hoe opvattingen over homoseksualiteit onder Arabische auteurs veranderd zijn. Tot zo rond 1800 kende de Arabisch-islamitische wereld geen eenduidige indeling in homoseksualiteit en heteroseksualiteit: de poëzie kent tal van loftuitingen over liefde tussen mannen en het werd zowel oogluikend toegelaten als streng bestraft. Massad toont aan dat deze vage grenzen veranderden door de invloed van, toen, nieuwe en Westerse noties over seksuele identiteit en normaliteit. Deze waren onder andere gebaseerd op een medische en psychologische notie van homo- en heteroseksualiteit. Volgens Massad is hier sprake van seksueel kolonialisme doordat Arabieren deze noties zo goed als geheel hebben over genomen. Het gevolg daarvan is, althans volgens Massad, dat het stimuleren van rechten van homo’s ertoe heeft geleid dat voorheen getolereerde seksuele levensstijlen nu worden verbonden met imperialisme, decadentie en verloedering. Dat lijkt tegenstrijdig met zijn idee dat Arabieren die nieuwe noties over homoseksualiteit juist vrijwillig hebben overgenomen. In een bespreking van Massads werk, toont Michiel Leezenberg zich hier heel kritisch over:

Toch is Massads analyse in laatste instantie te eenzijdig: hij stelt namelijk Arabieren teveel voor als de passieve partner in het contact met westerlingen, en reproduceert daarmee zelf de oriëntalistische mythe dat de niet-westerse wereld na eeuwen van culturele sluimer en stagnatie werd gewekt door het Westen. De mythe dat de geschiedenis van de moderniserende Arabische wereld slechts bestaat uit een reeks reacties op westerse ideeën en ontwikkelingen gaat echter voorbij aan de interne dynamiek van die Arabische wereld. Centraal daarin staat de vorming van moderne natiestaten, die hun bevolking omvormden tot moderne burgers met een eenduidig gedefinieerde en strikt gereguleerde nationale, religieuze, en seksuele identiteit. Dit kwam pas na WO II goed op gang: in Marokko bestond tot in de jaren zestig een verregaande tolerantie van homoseksuele contacten. Reve en de Beat Generation konden daarover meepraten.

Hassnae laat niet alleen de verdeeldheid onder mensen in het Midden-Oosten over homoseksualiteit zien en hoe homoseksualiteit onderdeel is van de samenlevingen en toch weer niet, maar ook hoe Arabieren zelf bijdragen aan het courant worden van een moderne constructie van homoseksualiteit. Juist doordat religieuze voorlieden zich voortdurend daar tegen keren krijgt een dergelijke constructie een vanzelfsprekendheid en raakt het nauw verbonden met gesloten noties van nationale en religieuze identiteit.

Stereotypen

In haar boek stelt Hassnae het volgende:

Arabier en en moslims leer je kennen door plaats te nemen op hun bank en aan hun keukentafel. Niet via boeken of artikelen die de regio en de mensen als een monolithisch blok beschrijven en die je in je comfortabele oordelen bevestigen. De  realiteit is altijd gelaagder en complexer . Ook de Arabische.

We kunnen zonder meer stellen dat Hassnae, mede ook door een  mooie, scherpe en af en toe ontroerende schrijfstijl, erin slaagt om die complexiteit en gelaagdheid te laten zien. Juist doordat ze focust op het alledaagse en op haar eigen ervaringen. Toch wist Volkskrant journalist Muller in een bespreking het volgende te melden over het idee dat mensen doen wat ze zelf willen:

 Zou het? Vrijwel haar hele boek wijst onbedoeld anders uit.

Hoe vrijgevochten en zelfstandig je ook denkt te zijn, de traditie is onbarmhartig. Ook voor de vrijgevochten schrijfster. Dat blijkt uit het roerende verhaal over de dood en begrafenis van haar vader. Als hij op zijn verzoek in Marokko wordt begraven, mag zij er niet bij zijn. Ze is immers vrouw. Bouazza is eerst radeloos en dan woedend. Al snel merkt ze echter dat de meeste vrouwen haar verontwaardiging niet delen en die traditie als iets vanzelfsprekends zien. ‘Ik projecteerde mijn eigen ongenoegen op alle moslimvrouwen.’ Misschien geldt die projectie wel de hele Arabische wereld.

Nu zou je kunnen stellen ‘dan heb je het dus gewoon niet begrepen’. En dat denk ik ook, maar ik vrees dat dat onbegrip vele mensen geldt. Achter dit onbegrip zit een oriëntalistische oppositie tussen vrijheid en traditie. Wij, in het Westen, hebben onze tradities achter ons gelaten en daar tegenover staat het Midden-Oosten dat nog steeds tradities heeft en waar mensen dus onvrij zijn. Opnieuw een schijnstelling die we ook vaak tegenkomen als het gaat om religie. Er zit echter een wereld aan nuances tussen absolute vrijheid (die niet bestaat)  en absolute dwang. Mensen kunnen zich conformeren, proberen tradities zich eigen te maken, enzovoorts. En omdat ze dat doen onder wisselende omstandigheden is het resultaat overal anders. Daarbij is het goed mogelijk om vrij te zijn door je te onderwerpen aan wat je ziet als traditie. Vergelijk het met een topsporter die zich zich jarenlang in het zweet werkt met rigide trainingsschema’s met maar één doel: goud. Hij of zij kiest er zelf voor omdat het doel telt en als het lukt is de zelfverwezenlijking compleet.

Maar hier zit een nog wat ander dilemma dat niet alleen typisch is voor het soort boeken als Arabieren Kijken, maar ook voor onderzoekers die zich met islam en het Midden-Oosten bezighouden. In het artikel The Humanity Game: Art, Islam, and the War on Terror, stelt antropologe Jessica Winegar dat bepaalde culturele evenementen,  die bedoeld zijn om stereotypen over islam en het Midden-Oosten te ontkrachten, uiteindelijk helemaal niet zo ver verwijderd zijn van de retoriek en negatieve stereotypen van de clash of civilizations. Dat geldt ook voor Hassnae’s boek. Uiteindelijk zijn de thema’s die ze behandelt precies die thema’s die in het publieke debat teren op het dramatisch uitvergroten van kleine verschillen en gebeurtenissen. Dat betekent dat, onbedoeld, juist die thema’s nog eens stollen tot zogenaamde belangrijke kenmerken van ‘het’ Midden-Oosten en ‘de’ Arabieren. Tevens laat ook Hassnae’s boek een specifiek beeld van de menselijkheid zien: moslims zijn gewone mensen die van vrijheid houden, die te maken hebben met tradities en religie en zich er tegelijkertijd wel en niet aan houden, maar er zijn ook ‘zeloten’. Alsof de laatste categorie op de een of andere manier uitgesloten is van ons idee van (mede-)menselijkheid. Ze laat wel, terecht, de intolerante oppositie van salafisten tegen kunst en literatuur zien, maar heeft weinig oog voor de kunstvormen van salafisten zelf. Natuurlijk, velen zullen dat geen kunst noemen, maar dat laat vooral zien dat de definitie van kunst deels bepaald wordt door politieke oordelen. Wat haar voorkeur heeft, moge duidelijk zijn. En ook dat van vele lezers volgens wie de ogen geopend zijn en volgens wie eindelijk iemand een genuanceerd beeld laat zien van het Midden-Oosten.

De vraag is dan opnieuw, en tot haar verdienste stelt Hassnae die vraag ook voortdurend, projecteren we hier niet onze eigen voorkeuren voor een gewenste wereld op het Midden-Oosten en op dit boek? En laten we ons niet teveel leiden door onze eigen voorkeuren van mede-medemenselijkheid? Ik schrijf met nadruk ‘we’ omdat dit net zo goed geldt voor wetenschappers die in meer toegankelijk en in wetenschappelijk werk zich bezighouden met het ‘ontkrachten’ van stereotypen. Bereiken we eigenlijk wel ons doel? En meer nog, doen we het eigenlijk wel ooit goed? Nee dus, maar het is wel goed om kritisch daarover te reflecteren en de dilemma’s te laten zien. Hier zit dan wel weer de waarde van het persoonlijke verhaal van Hassnae; ze laat namelijk helder zien waar ze staat. Het mooie van Hassnae’s boek is dan ook dat het prikkelt tot nadenken juist door de afwisseling van persoonlijke verhalen en haar inkijkjes  in media, seksualiteit, kunst en cultuur.

Geschreven in het kader van de Blogtour Arabieren kijken. Gisteren bij Boekenbijlage. Morgen bij Carolien Geurtsen.

8 comments.

Marriage as punishment: documentary about women’s rights in Morocco

Posted on March 15th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Arts & culture, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Headline, Morocco.

Guest Author: Hasna Ankal

Little sister of Amina Filalli holding the picture of Amina. © Riley Dufurrena

Nadir Bouhmouch, a 22-year-old film student in the US, was determined to shoot a documentary during his summer vacation in Morocco. The suicide of the 16-year-old Amina Filali from Larache, who presumably was forced to marry her rapist, gave him the idea to use her story as the main topic for a documentary about women’s rights in his country of birth. He named the film 475 – When Marriage Becomes Punishment, with 475 referring to the article of the Moroccan penal code that made Filali’s marriage possible.

Bouhmouch released the film online on 21 February this year, in commemoration of another Moroccan woman: on 21 February 2011 Fadoua Laroui set herself on fire after she was excluded from a social housing scheme as a single mother. He also chose February because in that month the 20 February Movement, a Moroccan movement that organises demonstrations for democracy, marked its second anniversary.

As a way to protest he didn’t ask the Moroccan authorities for permission to make the documentary. “We didn’t want any permission”, he says. By ‘we’ he is referring to the members of Guerrilla Cinema, a collective of young Moroccan film makers who want to make films without censorship. “To make films without permission is a form of civil disobedience. This is a protest against the government’s regulation of films. We didn’t want to be endorsed by something we don’t believe in.”

For Bouhmouch and his crew the obstacles were limited to a few questionings by local judges and a wali (regional governor) who allowed the film makers to film because they were students. Sometimes it’s obvious the film was made by students lacking expensive professional material. “That was to not attract any attention. It’s a clandestine way of making films at Guerrilla Cinema: not always with a big stick with a microphone, no big camera and no interviews in public. We minimised our crew and that has aesthetic and technical consequences.”

The film crew during an interview with the father of Amina Filali in Larache, August 2012. © Hamza Mahfoudi

The idea for the documentary came a year ago when Moroccan activists started a discussion in Morocco about women’s rights and the unjust laws. “I didn’t even know such a law existed, or at least not in the way media presented it, because it sounded very barbaric.” Based on article 475 of the Moroccan penal code a rapist could avoid punishment if he would marry his victim. Could, because in January 2013 the minister of Justice announced plans to change this law.

When watching the film it soon becomes clear there are different versions to Filali’s story. “We don’t know what exactly happened either”, Bouhmouch says. “The media presented a typical orientalist story of a Muslim girl who became a victim of what is illustrated as a barbaric culture. We discovered that there were different stories. I think Amina had a relationship, but got raped while she was in that relationship. The Moroccan government doesn’t recognise rape within a relationship or marriage. We discovered a very complex story and that is what the media missed.” Bouhmouch concludes further that Amina’s family wanted a marriage after her relationship became public, and that her rapist’s parents didn’t want a daughter-in-law who lost her virginity. “So her parents brought the case to court to force them to get married. For girls like Amina in that situation there is no other option but to agree.”

In his film Bouhmouch shows a second story: that of the second wife of Amina Filali’s father. This woman reveals how her husband is making her life hell with abuse. This story sharply contrasts with her husband declaring in front of the camera how he mourns his daughter’s fate and wishes no woman would be treated like that. “His attitude resembles that of the Moroccan government. It is extremely patriarchal: it discriminates women in its own country but then talks about how it fights inequality in international fora”, Bouhmouch explains.

‘It’s not your fault’

But for the film crew the goal of the documentary was not to change the law, but to restart a discussion about feminism. Bouhmouch: “I don’t want to tell people what to think of the case. I am a man too and have been exposed to a patriarchal society in both Morocco and the United States, so I also have this type of mindset.” The women in his crew reminded him of this. “Working with Houda Lamqaddam was great”, he says. Lamqaddam, 21 years old and a student in computer science and communication, became a rape victim when she was 17. She is a co-producer and narrator of 475 – When Marriage Becomes Punishment.

Last year when many Moroccans were discussing the death of Amina Filali and women’s rights online, Lamqaddam wrote on her blog about her experience as a rape victim. “I wanted to enter into the debate with my voice. I wanted to say to people that they should stop with the way they talk about rape victims. It was all about ‘how they feel’ and ‘what they should do’. For once I wanted to speak out myself.” On her blog she called on other girls and women to not hesitate to file a complaint if they were raped. ‘It’s not your fault’, she reassured them. She also wrote about how her family supported her all along. “Online I also received support after writing my story, but it felt so unfair: this support should go to a lot more women.”

The crew with Khadija Riyadi (president of the Moroccan human rights association AMDH). From left to right: Layla Belmahi, Nadir Bouhmouch, Khadija Riyadi, Amina Benalioulha, Youness Belghazi, Houda Lamqaddam and Hamza Mahfoudi. © Naji Tbel

It is Lamqaddam with whom the second wife of Amina Filali’s father shares her story in the film. “That was heartbreaking”, says Lamqaddam. “First because she told us a story no one had asked about. There were journalists and activists who went to talk with Amina Filali’s family and neighbours, but as a second wife she stayed in the background. She came to us herself. We were there with three people who had inferior filming equipment and an Iphone while the rest of the crew was elsewhere. She spoke, we recorded, and it felt as if there was nothing we could do for her.” Now this second wife is in contact with women’s organisations who could help her get a divorce.

Whether such women’s organisations can bring feminism forward in Morocco is a question to which Lamqaddam’s answer is mixed. “There are women who do a really good job, but their hands are tied by the government. Actually there are two kinds of women’s organisations. Either they exist for ‘make believe’: to show on television how we have human rights organisations in Morocco and to show to foreign government bodies that our government cares about women’s rights, because that is often a condition for financial support. Or there are women’s organisations of people who actually want to do something but can’t, because of the state structure that blocks them.”

‘Embarrassing’

The 18-year-old Layla Belmahi, another co-producer of 475 – When Marriage Becomes Punishment, also thinks the situation of Moroccan women deserves more attention. Belmahi is the founder of Woman Choufouch, the Moroccan version of the SlutWalk that denounces sexual harassment in the streets of Morocco. “Moroccan verbal harassment often start with the expression ‘Woman choufouch?’ (‘Can’t we even look?’)”, she explains. “We don’t just want media attention when a rape victim dies.” According to Belmahi Moroccan media and institutions make the work of women’s organisations unnecessarily difficult. “When an association wants a campaign on television, it has to pay the same airtime fee companies pay.” Until now Belmahi didn’t organise a demonstration against street harassment, but she and her supporters did participate with other associations in a sit-in for victims like Amina Filali.

Woman Choufouch, Guerrilla Cinema and the 20 February Movement have in common that they are led by the young generation of Moroccans who demand respect for human rights. Belmahi: “Activists are the most sensitive people in a society. They are the first to notice problems, to understand where they come from and to have the courage to denounce them.” Lamqaddam’s experience brings in a nuance. She noticed this kind of activists, too, sometimes see feminism as a luxury. “This even goes for some of my friends in the 20 February Movement who describe themselves as human rights activists or anarchists. If you talk with them about men and women, it’s still about the same gender roles. The way they talk about female politicians is embarrassing. For example, they nicknamed Nabila Mounib, who is the head of the socialist political party PSU, milf. That stands for mother I’d like to fuck. That’s how they describe attractive older women. This is something universal. Everytime I try to say something about this I’m the ‘hysterical feminist with no sense of humor’.”

That this mentality exists within the 20 February Movement troubles Lamqaddam. “The last thing we need is another structure that calls itself independent, free and positive and at the same time brings oppression with it.”

To watch the English version of the film:

Arab Version: HERE.

Hasna Ankal is editor of al.arte.magazine, journalist at Belgian newspaper Het Belang van Limburg, and a member of the Flemish youth press agency StampMedia. She writes about Islam, Amazigh culture, feminism, and Morocco. She wrote this piece for al. arte.magazine (Dutch and English) It is re-published here with permission of the author and al.arte.magazine. The photo’s have been used with kind permission of Nadir Bouhmouch.

1 comment.

Moderne inboorlingententoonstellingen: lering, vermaak ende racisme

Posted on October 20th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, Blind Horses, islamophobia, Multiculti Issues.

Het tentoonstellen (ja echt tentoonstellen) van zogenaamde inboorlingen was rond 1900 enorm populair in Europa. Dit gebeurde onder meer op de zogenaamde Wereldtentoonstellingen waar ieder land zijn kunst en bezittingen en kunde kon etaleren. Ook in Nederland kwam het tentoonstellen van ‘inboorlingen’  voor. En nee, daar werden niet de autochtone inwoners van het hedendaagse Nederland mee bedoeld, maar de autochtone inwoners van de koloniën. Kijk bijvoorbeeld de volgende reportage van Geschiedenis24: Amadou Seck: Het negerjongetje van de Nenijto

Vaak was er niet alleen sprake van een vertoon van inferioriteit van zwarte mensen, maar werden ook zogenaamde positieve gevolgen van bijvoorbeeld Afro-Amerikanen op de Amerikaanse maatschappij belicht; beide vanuit racistisch perspectief. Eén van de laatste grootste tentoonstellingen in Nederland werd in 1928 in Rotterdam georganiseerd tegelijkertijd met de Olympische Spelen in Amsterdam.

Eén van de beroemdste figuren in deze is Saartje Baarman ook wel bekend als de ‘hottentot-venus’. Lees HIER haar verhaal (en let ook op de rol van de wetenschap, waar ik toch behoorlijk plaatsvervangende schaamte van krijg).

Termen

De term ‘neger’ die daarbij werd gehanteerd, werd voor het eerst in de 17e eeuw gebruikt als benaming voor de ‘lading’ van een slavenschip en had tot 1863 de betekenis van ‘zwarte slaaf’. De term wordt, schat ik in, tegenwoordig door de meeste blanke Nederlanders niet meer verbonden met racisme en slavernij hetgeen vooral wijst op een racistische amnesie. Het zijn immers niet de zwarte burgers die de collectieve herinneringen en definities bepalen. Het stereotype kunnen we hedentendage makkelijk terugvinden als ‘zwarte piet’: donker kroeshaar, rode dikke lippen en brede mond. Daarnaast hebben stereotype afbeeldingen vaak platte en brede neuzen en donkere kleine ogen. Overigens lijkt het me onwaarschijnlijk dat mensen geen enkele connotatie bij de term hebben.

Afrikadorpen
Het laatste ‘negerdorp’ was te zien tijdens de Wereldtentoonstelling van 1958 in Brussel waar mensen uit de Belgische kolonie Congo tentoon werden gesteld. Dat moet een, op z’n zachtst gezegd, vreemde gewaarwording zijn geweest voor de Congolese inwonders van België… Een variant op deze tentoonstellingen zijn zogenaamde ‘afrika-dorpen’ zoals die in het verleden in het Afrikamuseum in Berg en Dal. Maar ook recenter kunnen we deze terugvinden bijvoorbeeld in 2005 in het Duitse Halle, en in 2010 in Houston. Ook dichterbij komt dit voor. Ouwehands Dierenpark in Rhenen heeft Umkhosi (‘Afrikaans dorp met Afrikaanse dieren‘) en het Limburgse Brunssum kende een eigen Afrikadorp in 2008: Meet Afrika and Embrace it in Brunssum.

Mediatentoonstelling
De laatste variant zijn zogenaamde realityshows. Denk aan programma’s zoals Holy Shit, Groeten uit en Tribe. Natuurlijk is hier niets ‘reality’ aan; het is ‘staged reality‘ waarbij terug gegrepen wordt op aloude stereotypen die verder worden uitgespeeld en uitvergroot voor de camera. Het toppunt, en zonder claim naar de realiteit, zijn programma’s als Ushi en Dushi waarin allerlei stereotypes over Japanners worden uitgespeeld. In alle gevallen gaat het om het versterken, presenteren en produceren van Westerse mythes over de Ander (waar dan ook vandaan). We zien dit ook terug in tentoonstellingen over Midden-Oosten die tegenwoordig, heel modern, interactief zijn. Bekijk bijvoorbeeld de volgende afbeeldingen gemaakt in het Haagse Museon over de Arabische wereld:

Foto: Zihni Özdil

Hier de stereotypen ‘woestijn’, ‘moskee’ met wat Arabisch en geometrische figuren. De volgende foto van het interactieve ‘Arab Cloud’:

Foto: Zihni Özdil

Opnieuw ‘woestijn’ ‘islam’ ‘moskee’ ‘olie’ ‘burqa’ ‘waterpijp’ ‘djellaba’ enzovoorts. En let ook even op de achtergrondafbeelding. In dit geval gaat het vooral om orientalisme waarbij mensen uit het Midden-Oosten vaak worden weergegeven als gepassioneerder, gewelddadiger en barbaars en als mensen die door hun cultuur bepaald worden. Het ‘barbaarse’ karakter van de ander (uit Afrika of het Midden-Oosten) is vaak gebruikt als legitimering voor kolonisering en slavernij die dan ook vooral beschavingsprojecten zouden zijn (iets wat we nu nog wel zien wanneer gewezen wordt op de ‘positieve’ effecten van kolonialisme). De ‘andere landen’ zouden dan ook minder ontwikkeld zijn, passief en daarom van nature aangewezen op een ondergeschike rol.

Lering ende vermaak
Of het nu de Wereldtentoonstellingen zijn of de Afrikadorpen of de hedendaagse tentoonstelling in het Museon, altijd was er de combinatie van educatie en vermaak. Die wereldtentoonstellingen zijn voor ons nu vanzelfsprekend racistisch (hoop ik althans), dat laatste is het wellicht niet. Maar het is wel racisme (of in het geval van Museon, orientalisme). Racisme is een structureel fenomeen dat ingebed is in de samenleving en waarop sommige samenlevingen zijn ontstaan. Het interactieve model van Museon of ‘Groeten uit’ is (of lijkt) wellicht ontdaan van de directe repressie die vroeger gepaard ging met racisme, maar inmiddels zijn we zaken als ‘zwarte piet’, ‘Groeten uit…’ als ‘gewoon’gaan beschouwen. Niet als racistisch, maar als onderdeel van de eigen cultuur en/of ‘onschuldig’ vermaak. De scherpe randjes zijn als het ware onzichtbaar gemaakt, maar berusten uiteindelijk op dezelfde beelden van de Ander die voorheen vaak leiden tot discriminatie, barrieres voor sociale stijging, vervolging en onderdrukking.

Ze leiden ook tot legitimering van al die zaken. En zijn soms nauw verbonden met collectieve herinneringen van groepen die ermee te maken hadden; slachtoffers niet de daders. Waar de Belgen trots hun ‘Congolezen’ lieten zien in Brussel hadden ze er 15 miljoen (!) gedood in Congo. Om maar eens wat te noemen. Degenen die tentoongesteld werden, waren overlevenden van de slachtpartijen (ik vraag me af of in dit geval de term genocide op zijn plaats is). De eerder genoemde Saartje Baartman werd tentoongesteld in een kooi door een dierentrainer en zelfs nu zijn de Fransen niet bereid haar lichaam naar Zuid-Afrika over te brengen; haar hersenen en geslachtsdelen worden bewaard in het Musée de l’Homme in Parijs.

Alleen mensen die niet als blank werden beschouwd (bijvoorbeeld ook Filipino’s) werden tentoongesteld en vaak op systematische wijze. Alleen degene die als de Ander werd beschouwd werd geherdefinieerd als object, handelswaar of dier. Westerse kunst werd tentoongesteld in kunstmusea; die van Afrikanen in Musea voor Volkenkunde. Daarbij ging het bijna altijd om mensen een ‘kijkje te gunnen’ bij andere ‘culturen’ of ‘volkeren’. En dan vaak op stereotype wijze. Alsof er een tentoonstelling werd ingericht met Nederlanders op klompen, met tulpen, wiet en ergens en kamertje voor euthanasie; met de claim dit is het Nederlandse volk. Want, bijvoorbeeld in het geval van het Museon, waar is de literatuur uit het Midden-Oosten? Waar zijn de christenen en de joden? Waar zijn de metropolen, waar is de Egyptische film? In het geval van Afrika waar zijn eveneens de steden, de zakencentra, de winkels, kunst en cultuur, de wetenschappen? In plaats daarvan is het enige wat we te zien krijgen de rokjes, ontblote lichamen, woestijn, islam, geweld en de grappige domme zwarte man en vrouw die ons westerlingen toch nooit begrijpt (en wij hen niet). Met andere woorden het enige wat we te zien krijgen is datgene wat past in onze stereotypes van culturele artefacten, primitiveit en barbarisme. Waar in het verleden bij de Afrikanen vooral ‘Pygmeeen’ (alsof dat één groep is) tentoon werden gesteld, gaat het nu in verbeeldingen van het Midden-Oosten vooral over de wilde moslimman.

Of het dan ook tegenwoordig een Amerikaanse Republikeinse activist is die zei dat een uit de dierentuin ontsnapte gorilla een voorvader was van Michelle Obama of een Bert Brussen van DeJaap die Marokkaans-Nederlandse jongeren rifapen noemt; het is racisme. Het is racisme omdat het beelden, termen en ideeën zijn die voortkomen uit een racistische traditie die is ingebed in de samenleving die daarmee een onzichtbare (voor veel blanken althans) racistische structuur kent. Dergelijke ideeën, beelden en termen staan niet op zichzelf en komen niet uit de lucht vallen en zijn nauw verbonden met machtsverhoudingen in een samenleving. Het is niet de zwarte vrouw of moslimvrouw die uiteindelijk en doorslagevend bepaalt wat racistisch of orientalistisch is; dat zijn over het algemeen blanke mannen omdat dat de groep is die het hier voor het zeggen heeft. Waar racistisch radicaal-rechts vaak onbehouwen en weinig bereflecteerd is en daarom afgewezen wordt (zo gaan we hier niet met elkaar om) is dat van de midden- en hogere klasse vaak meer verleidend. Men probeert het in zo in te kleden dat het logisch lijkt (nee ik bedoel niet alle moslims en Marokkaanse-Nederlanders, Surinaamse en Antilliaanse en Afrikaanse Nederlanders, maar alleen die criminelen, die intoleranten, enzovoorts). En misschien bedoelt men dat wel echt, maar feit blijft dat de ideeën en termen thuishoren in dezelfde racistische structuur al zijn ze wat verleiderlijker gemaakt net als de hedendaagse televisie en interactieve tentoonstellingen.

Ook het idee van een beschavingsoffensief kunnen we tegenwoordig nog steeds vinden. Die wilde vreemdeling in ons midden moet onschadelijk gemaakt worden. En we moeten Marokko gaan vertellen dat abortus echt een recht is (ongeacht wat de vrouwenorganisaties in dat land die al jaren met dat onderwerp bezig zijn willen). Of we moeten Irak binnenvallen want we moeten de Irakezen bevrijden van onderdrukking en hen democratie schenken ook al kost dat weet ik hoeveel doden. En net als in Nederlands-Indië ging het ook daar om vrede en veligheid.Het leidt ook, minder dramatisch maar op z’n minst vervelend, tot de politie die aan ethnic profiling doet, zoals keer op keer op keer op keer vastgesteld wordt. En ook de rechtspraak gaat niet vrijuit (zie ook toelichting HIER).

Blank privilege

Het onvermogen van met name blanke Nederlanders om bovenstaande uitsluitingsvormen te herkennen als racisme of voortkomend uit racistische structuren of de pogingen om het racisme te ontkennen zijn uitingen van blanke privileges.  Racistische incidenten die wel erkend worden (zoals recent in het voetbal) worden gezien als incidenten en niet als gevolg van een maatschappij die een racistische structuur heeft. Als daar al opgewezen wordt, dan wordt gesteld ja maar dat is (bijvoorbeeld) het voetbal of dat zijn nu eenmaal de voetbalsupporters.

Natuurlijk hebben ‘wij’ blanken geen last van zwarte piet als racisme; ‘wij’ zijn niet degenen wiens voorouders slaaf gemaakt zijn en gekoloniseerd zijn en degenen die nu in de Nederlandse samenleving een minderheidspositie in nemen. Stelt u zich voor dat we ieder jaar een feestdag invoeren waarbij iemand verkleed als Duitse soldaat zijn intrede doet op een paard met daarbij een groepje mensen verkleed als archetypische jood met tatoeage en al. Ik denk dat velen dan wél snappen waarom men dat als anti-semitisch, kwetsend, enzovoorts zien. Dat we het nu niet zien in het geval van bovengenoemde fenomenen is een gevolg van onze luxe positie als blanke meerderheid. Vandaar waarschijnlijk ook dat de woordvoerder van Alexander Pechtold (D66) kan beweren dat het onderwerp werkeloosheid onder allochtone jongeren niet interessant genoeg om naar de studio van De Halve Maan te komen. Eerder kon Pechtold wel meewerken aan een plan om de overlast van Marokkaans-Nederlandse jongeren terug te dringen. Want ja met overlast wordt de blanke voorkeurspositie wel onder druk gezet natuurlijk. Het is ook een gevolg van ons onderwijs waarin amper wordt ingegaan op de kwestie slavernij vanuit het oogpunt van de slaven en hun nakomelingen en waarin belangrijke episodes worden weggelaten. Immers, wat zegt de naam Tula? Of Trinta di Mei? (hint voor de laatste, één van de zeldzame keren dat het Nederlandse leger is ingezet tegen haar eigen bevolking).

Het blanke privilege draagt waarschijnlijk ook bij aan de dubbele moraal die we zo vaak zien. We kunnen wel massaal wijzen op het seksisme onder allochtone inwoners, maar hebben geen enkele moeite met ‘bikinibabes‘ in kranten of het afbeelden van naakte minderjarige meisjes op sites als Geenstijl. En als er gewezen wordt op racisme wordt het belachelijk gemaakt of er wordt gesteld dat het politiek correctgedrag is dat verhindert dat we problemen aan de kaak stellen of omdat het fenomeen ‘veel gelaagder‘ is dan racisme. Maar serieus mensen, als u geen problemen kunt benoemen zonder te vervallen in racistisch taalgebruik dan moet u toch echt uw eigen taalvaardigheden eens opschroeven.

De hier genoemde fenomenen zijn geen losstaande incidenten, maar komen voort uit en zijn onderdeel van een specifieke structuur en dat al tijden. Of we een en ander nu zien als lering ende vermaak of de beschuldiging van racisme als politieke correctheid, er is geen ontkomen aan. Racisme is een structureel fenomeen.

Met dank aan Zihni Özdil voor de foto’s. Bezoek zijn site: HIER.

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Material Religion – Popularizing Islam: Muslims and Materiality

Posted on October 17th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, anthropology, Arts & culture, ISIM/RU Research, Public Islam, Religion Other.

A short commentary of mine was published in the last issue of Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, Volume 8, Number 3, September 2012.
 Styles of Salafi Activism: Escaping the Divide

Dutch Salafi Muslims adopt different styles of activism that blur the binary opposition between the secular and the religious. In this short commentary I present two examples and reflect upon how Salafi activists attempt to escape the divide between the religious and the secular while at the same time triggering debates and policies that impose the dichotomy upon them.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/175183412X13415044209032

Source: Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, Volume 8, Number 3, September 2012 , pp. 400-401(2)

Publisher: Berg Publishers

This short article is part of the ‘In Conversation’ section of Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief in which (invited by prof. Annelies Moors) the authors reflect upon the division between the secular and the religious. The pieces in this section are:
In conversation

• Transgressing the Religious-Secular Divide? by Annelies Moors, pp. 399-399(1)
• Styles of Salafi Activism: Escaping the Divide by Martijn de Koning, pp. 400-401(2)
• Halal Arts: What’s in a Concept? by Jeanette Jouili, pp. 402-403(2)

The current issue of Material Religion (to which aforementioned articles belong) is a special issue: popularizing islam: muslims and materiality edited by prof. Annelies Moors. It includes the following articles:
Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief

Popularizing Islam: Muslims and Materiality-Introduction
pp. 272-279(8)
Author: Moors, Annelies
Abstract:

This special issue centers on how Islam becomes present in the public through material, tangible forms, including mosques, headscarves, and movies in a wide variety of locations, such as Morocco, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and the Netherlands. It zones in on how both nation-states and Islamic movements have developed new kinds of cultural politics, taking into account the twin forces of the state governance of Islam and consumer capitalism.

Constructing Authentic Houses of God: Religious Politics and Creative Iconographies in Dutch Mosque Design
pp. 280-307(28)
Author: Roose, Eric R.
Abstract:

Modern mosques in the West are all too often considered to be anachronistic pastiches of authentic historical examples that are literally out of place in the Muslim diaspora. Whereas this perspective has usually led to projections of nostalgia onto generalized communities, in this article I will take two prominent and enigmatic examples from the Netherlands and trace empirically how their designs have developed. Building on an expanding body of iconological studies of religious architecture, I will present an analysis of the different positions the Muslim patrons who initiated these buildings have taken up in Islamic politics. An empirical reconstruction of their prototypical selections, and how these were used to steer the architects towards the creation of desired drawings, makes their outcomes more intelligible. Whereas both mosques have been modeled on the same historical example, an underlying contestation of religious authorization has led to divergent forms of architectural authentication.

Formats, Fabrics, and Fashions: Muslim Headscarves Revisited
pp. 308-329(22)
Authors: Ünal, R. Arzu; Moors, Annelies
Abstract:

Changes in the sartorial practices of Dutch-Turkish women who wear Muslim headscarves may be summarized as a shift from sober, religiously inspired forms of dress towards colorful, more fashionable styles. A focus on the materiality of headscarves indicates, however, that the relation between Islam, dress, and fashion is more complex. The main motivation for the women to adopt headscarves, including the fashionable ones, is religious. They do so because they consider it a practice prescribed in the foundational Islamic texts and because presenting a pleasant, up-to-date look can be considered as a form of visual da’wa. At the same time, however, wearing particular styles of fashionable headscarves also performs other, non-religious, identities and forms of belonging, such as those pertaining to status, ethnicity, and professionalism. This is evident in how fabrics (such as silk) and shapes of headscarves (square or rectangular) matter. An investigation of headscarves as particular items of dress is, in turn, helpful to understand the limits of a focus on aesthetic styles and fashion. The headscarf format makes these items of dress easy to acquire and hard to discard, because they are often received as gifts. A woman’s attachment to particular headscarves-materializing social relations and functioning as souvenirs-goes beyond aesthetic styles and mitigates the force of fashion.

In the Name of Culture: Berber Activism and the Material Politics of “Popular Islam“ in Southeastern Morocco
pp. 330-353(24)
Author: Silverstein, Paul A.
Abstract:

After Moroccan independence in 1956, salafi critiques of the heterodox and heteroprax tendencies associated with “popular Islam“ (l’islam populaire, as elaborated in particular by French colonial ethnologists and legal scholars) became enshrined within state ideology and administration. In response, over the past twenty years, a burgeoning Berber (or Amazigh) cultural movement has espoused local religious beliefs and practices as more attuned to the authentic culture of North Africa, and sought the protection of such regional idioms in the name of human rights. This article explores how a set of Amazigh activists from southeastern Morocco, while in many cases avowing a politics of secularism (laïcité), nonetheless ambivalently embrace certain practices of “popular Islam“ as paramount elements of Berber culture, including pilgrimage to the tombs of “saints,“ the role of marabouts and Sufi brotherhoods, the pre-Islamic (Jewish or Christian) roots of ritual life, and the general inscription of the natural landscape with baraka. Their ideology ironically dovetails with recent attempts by state actors to (re-)construct a particular, non-fundamentalist Moroccan Islam as part of its participation in the global “war on terror.“ Such a material embrace of “popular Islam“ challenges scholastic categories.

Islamically Marked Bodies and Urban Space in Two Egyptian Films
pp. 354-373(20)
Author: Armbrust, Walter

Since the 1970s Egyptian cinema has grappled with two closely related issues. First, filmmakers sought to neutralize the occurrence of Islamically marked bodies through visual conventions that either carefully excised them from the urban fabric, or alternatively, cast them as a political challenge to the state’s modernist project. Secondly, filmmakers struggled to digest the material decline of urban space that had, in earlier eras, functioned as the aspirational site of modern life. Starting in the mid 1990s, as the ideology of economic liberalism gained traction in Egypt, new visual conventions for representing both piety and urban space began to emerge. In this article I examine these emerging conventions, instantiated in two films from the late Mubarak era: The Yacoubian Building (2006) and I Am Not With Them (2007). I argue that the apparent novelty of these emergent visual conventions-the depiction of Islamically marked bodies, and the displacement of location from the old urban center to the new suburbs-should be understood as cultural naturalizations of neoliberalism.

Watching Clone: Brazilian Soap Operas and Muslimness in Kyrgyzstan
pp. 374-396(23)
Author: McBrien, Julie
Abstract:

In 2004 Clone, a Brazilian soap opera that featured Moroccans and Brazilians as main characters, broadcast throughout post-Soviet Central Asia. The program rose to tremendous popularity in the Kyrgyzstani town of BazaarKorgon partly due to the romanticism of its imagery. The town’s residents said they were so taken by the soap opera because it was the first fictionalized program that featured Muslims as main characters that had aired in the post-Soviet period. While the rather orientalized images featured in the serial can be read as highly stereotypical, Bazaar-Korgonians nonetheless utilized the soap to widen conceptualizations of what “true“ Muslimness could be. Some even used it to support their efforts at religious piety. The soap opera was certainly not a religious object. Nevertheless, residents utilized it in explicitly religious projects. This forces us to consider the role that such ambiguously classifiable objects-those that fall outside of the undeniably religious/non-religious dialectic-play in “doing religion.

1 comment.

The Innocence Of Muslims – Three Not So Random Thoughts

Posted on October 1st, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Arts & culture, islamophobia, Notes from the Field, Public Islam, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

1. Anti-semitism: As far as I know, when the Innocence of Muslims was shown on Egyptian television, the host of the program mentioned that it was a production by a Copt living in Egypt. When I learned about the film however sometime later most of the news outlets were talking about a Jewish, Zionist, Israeli-American. Or variants thereof. And with lots of money. Where did this story came from? And why was it so easily believed at first? Because it fits nice with some ancient stereotypes on Jews? Now it appears that the makers deliberately presented themselves as Jewish, Zionist, Israeli-Americans with lots of money. This isn’t an innocent way of drawing attention to the wrong people in order to protect yourself, it is a deliberate choice to put the blame on the Jews. I think that merits some attention and discussion.
2. Politics of Aesthetics: Why does the idea that the film is of really poor quality matter in the discussion? One very often hears ‘Why are Muslims protesting over such a stupid movie?’ or ‘I don’t like the movie, it is poorly made, but Muslims should not use violence’. On what grounds is such an evaluation of the quality based? And if this was an Oscar winning movie (to mention just one contested standard of quality) would it then make sense to protest? Or if they won the Golden Calf (the Dutch film awards) violence is ok? What does an argument like that actually produce? It appears to allow people to distance themselves from both the filmmakers and Muslims. The former are provocateurs and amateurs with bad motives who don’t understand how to make a nice movie while the latter are irrational rioters who cannot distinguish between poor art and good art nor appreciate freedom of expression. What does that mean with regard to the type of art and protest that is expected, appreciated and allowed in particular societies (or circles within)? And what does that say about the people who use the argument; and yes I did as well in the beginning, but now it has started to bother me. It is like saying there are two aggressive irrational players fighting each other: the islamophobes vs. the Muslims and ‘we’ are the last refuge of the civilized world. Both groups are seen as to threaten modernity, peace and tolerance and just don’t have to qualities to appreciate the good life and share it with others? And instead of those Muslims and Islamophobes are we claiming to have the moral and aesthetic authority to be the Voice of ‘our’ moral community? And what is the role of the press in this?
3. On Seeing: Ok, if Muslims don’t want to be offended, then don’t watch the film! How many times did we hear that? But also, ‘Really, you are protesting, but you haven’t even seen the film?!’ So, if people do see the film, it is their own fault they feel offended (so don’t protest it is your own fault). If they do not watch it, they should not protest. Well, apparently people can share particular feelings and ideas without actually seeing them first hand. Apparently, there is another mechanism at work here, but more important is that both arguments only work to convince Muslims they should not protest at all and, again, make them look irrational. And the combination of the two is a trap; damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

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Visual Essay – Burqa: Freedom in Restriction, Restriction in Freedom

Posted on September 10th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues, Public Islam.

The Burqa Debate has been a hot topic in the Netherlands, and because of her own background (having lived both in Qatar and the Netherlands) it, according her,’naturally intrigued’ Dutch student Eline Floor to do an in depth research about it. A research that for her turned out to be a confrontation with the Self. She did interviews with an anthropologist specialized in Salafism, Dr. Ineke Roex, a Dutch-Moroccan woman wearing the niqab, and read some research of reports on the debate. One could say it is a debate with many layers and viewpoints, but she chose to focus on the topic of freedom, and who is to say, what freedom is defined to be? With this short film she hopes to open up peoples minds, and look at the issue in a way people can confront their own cultural biases.

Watch the visual essay:

Freedom in Restriction, Restriction in Freedom from Eline Floor on Vimeo.

The spoken word:

How can we define freedom in our globalized, multicultural world? What does it mean for the woman wearing a niqab, and the average Dutch woman? How does this affect our perception on the Burqa ban?

These are the questions I focused on in my research of the Burqa debate. Of course it is a debate with many layers; political, social, and cultural. This issue affecting an estimated 0.00003 percent of the population has sadly become a political symbol, a tool for Dutch parties, to reach their political agenda. Everybody in the Netherlands has something to say about it, but they never question why they say the things they say; to step out of their shoes, and really understand how they as humans perceive the situation.

We of course as Westerners have a different perception of what is free-will what people in Muslim cultures might have. “Some cultural anthropologists believe that free-will is a typically western concept, therefore the question whether women can autonomously wear a niqab, is therefore very much a Western question.” However, Westerners associate, “freedom with the uncovering of something that is hidden, opening what is closed.. not only figuratively but literally.” Contrastingly, the lady wearing the niqab explained me that, “a beautiful diamond is not exhibited, but only to loved ones;” for her closing rather than opening means spiritual freedom.

By speaking to an anthropologist specialized in Salafism, an strict Islamic group rooted in Saudi Arabia, I found that for Salafis in the Netherlands, freedom means the deepening in the Islam and being able to restrict oneself, for the purpose of their religion. In our Western society, so focused on individual freedom and responsibility, this is hard to imagine.

One must always strive to understand the hidden intention before making a judgment. Dr. Moors, researcher of the Burqa debate, found that most women wearing the niqab, wear it for the goal of practicing their religion to the fullest; to become a citizen of paradise after they die; the purpose of most monotheistic religions.

Some people are quick to judge, that their intention is to shut themselves off of society, but fail to see, that in in the context of the Netherlands, in essence they are liberated because they have the ability and strength to express them selves in a society which rejects the ‘burqa.’

Interestingly because these women live in two cultures in one country, both have had major influences on them. This means they have almost two perceptions of freedom. Dr. Moors explained, “they speak of freedom in two ways, firstly that they find freedom in practicing their religion, but at the same time they are also calling for the traditional Dutch perception of freedom,” where you can be who you want, dress how you want to dress.

I encourage you, whether you are a politician, a young person whether you have made your stance for or against, to analyze and educate oneself about the people in question before making a judgment. Although I acknowledge that a niqab does limit your possibilities to proliferate in society, if our intention is to emancipate them, then why do we force them to stay at home instead? The goal of our intention has clearly not been reached, making the Burqa ban is an complete and utter failure of intent. When we define a free person to be true to his desires, values and goals, one must ask oneself, is the Dutch government really free?

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Imagine IC – Mijn God: Over Jongeren en Geloof

Posted on September 8th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: (Upcoming) Events, Arts & culture, Public Islam, Religion Other, Ritual and Religious Experience, Young Muslims, Youth culture (as a practice).

Imagine IC is een culturele instelling in Amsterdam die zich vooral richt op ‘erfgoed van actueel samen leven’. De tentoonstellingen en manifestaties behandelen het dagelijks leven in een veranderende wereld. Een nieuw project van Imagine IC is ‘Mijn God’
Persbericht Mijn God | ImageIC

Imagine IC, Koštana Banovic en Rikko Voorberg presenteren: ‘Mijn God’. Een installatie en een programma vol verhalen van eigentijds geloven

Ruben bidt op Schiphol voor uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers. ‘Mijn God’ over jongeren en geloof bij imagineic.nl

 

Imagine IC programmeert van 29 augustus 2012 tot 3 maart 2013 ‘Mijn God’. In ‘Mijn God’ vertellen jonge gelovigen in korte documentaires het verhaal van hun overtuiging, hun dagelijks leven en de samenleving waaraan zij bouwen. De filmische installatie op 14 schermen is op uitnodiging van Imagine IC gemaakt door Koštana Banovic. Zij deed hiervoor veldonderzoek in en vanuit Amsterdam Nieuw-West en Zuidoost. De officiële opening vindt plaats op vrijdag 14 september als onderdeel van het Open Art Weekend in Amsterdam Zuidoost. Vanaf 19.00 uur gaat Rikko Voorberg (bekend van Denkstof bij de EO) met bekende rappers als Brainpower en Zanillya in gesprek over de invloed van het geloof in hun leven.

Voor steeds meer jongeren in Nederland is het geloof actueel, in het werk, als persoonlijke inspiratiebron en maatschappelijke drive, of als onderwerp van uiteenlopende opinies en soms verhit debat. Zij zoeken manieren van geloven die bij hun past. Ruben en Faysal zijn een van de acht hoofdpersonen in ‘Mijn God’. Ruben is betrokken bij het organiseren van bezoeken aan het vreemdelingendetentiecentrum Schiphol-Oost. Met geloofsgenoten bidt hij, buiten de hekken van de gevangenis, voor de uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers die daar gevangen zitten. ‘Ik geloof dat het mijn opdracht is om die mensen juist wél te zien’. Faysal vindt zijn plek voor zijn geloofspraktijk in de kickboksschool. Hier geeft hij les én afleiding aan jonge kinderen.

Koštana Banovic
Koštana Banovic is geïntrigeerd door actuele gelovigheid en rituelen. In succesvolle filmwerken als ‘May I Enter’ (2010) en ‘Ploha’ (2008) verbeeldt ze deze thema’s in respectievelijk Salvador-Bahia en Sarajevo. Voor Imagine IC werkt ze haar thematiek voor het eerst in haar loopbaan uit in Nederland. Met ‘Mijn God’ willen Imagine IC en Koštana Banovic bijdragen aan gedeelde kijken op, en gevoelens van nieuw Nederlanderschap, in deze tijden waarin dat onder druk van vele onzekerheden staat. Decennialang heette het ‘echt Nederlands’ om religie thuis te laten. Maar intussen staat het publieke domein, mede onder invloed van immigratie en globalisering, zichtbaar en hoorbaar bol van het geloof: de zelfbewuste manifestatie van gelovigen – met gospelfestivals, tv-preken of hoofddoeken – genereert opinie en debat.

Het geluid van het geloof
Imagine IC ontwikkelt in samenwerking met een jongerenredactie bij ‘Mijn God’ een korte serie debatten. Het eerste debat vindt plaats in oktober en bespreekt ‘Het geluid van het geloof’. Het vertrekt vanuit de installatie, die de kijker onderdompelt in niet alleen beelden maar ook de geluiden van religie en het dagelijks gelovig leven in een stad als Amsterdam. Met jongeren willen wij meer van deze geluiden verzamelen en een religieuze ‘soundscape’ maken anno nu.

Imagine IC pioniert in het erfgoed van actueel samen leven. Wij gaan op ontdekkingstocht naar het dagelijks leven van vandaag en presenteren dit als erfgoed van de toekomst. Imagine IC is samen met de Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam gevestigd in gebouw Frankemaheerd, op loopafstand van station Bijlmer Arena. Wij zijn voor publiek geopend van woensdag tot en met zaterdag. Zie voor de dagelijkse tijden www.imagineic.nl of bel 020-4894866. Bel ook voor school- of groepsbezoek.

‘Mijn God’ is een project van Imagine IC in samenwerking met Koštana Banovi?. Imagine IC wordt gefinancierd door het Ministerie van OCW (tot 2013) en de Stad Amsterdam. ‘Mijn God’ wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Stadsdeel Zuidoost, Universiteit van Amsterdam, De Alliantie, Kerk en Wereld, SNS Reaalfonds en Stichting DOEN. Koštana Banovi? bedankt verder Memphis Film & Television en Mondriaanfonds.

Mijn God onderzoekt de dynamische relatie tussen religie en het publieke domein dat tegen vele verwachtingen in zichtbaar en hoorbaar bol staat van geloven. Op vrijdag 14 september vindt de opening van de video-installatie Mijn God van Kostana Banovic plaats met rappers Brainpower, Zanillya en IamAisha onder leiding van Rikko Voorberg (EO Denkstof).

Naast de video-installatie bestaat Mijn God ook uit twee jongerendebatten. Er zijn nog mensen welkom voor de redactie van deze debatten:
Gezocht: jongeren voor redactie Mijn God | ImageIC

Speelt religie een rol in jouw leven? En heb je een verhaal daarover? Meld je dan aan voor de jongerenredactie van Mijn God! In het project Mijn God vertellen jonge gelovigen over hun religie, nieuwe rituelen en lifestyle.

Mijn God bestaat uit een video-installatie van kunstenaar Kostana Banovic en debat. Voor twee jongerendebatten draag je als jongerenredactielid onderwerpen aan, en werk je actief mee aan het programma en de communicatie. Mijn God vindt plaats in het najaar van 2012.

Wil je deel uitmaken van deze redactie? Neem dan contact op met projectleider Yassine Boussaid via yassine@imagineic.nl of bel naar 020-489 48 66.

Vrijdag 14 september
Lokatie: Frankemaheerd 2, Amsterdam. Routebeschrijving

Programma:
18.00 uur De deuren van de expositiezaal gaan open. Hapjes en drankjes staan voor u klaar.
19.00 uur Openingsprogramma onder leiding van Rikko Voorberg.
Q&A met Marlous Willemsen, directeur Imagine IC, en Kostana Banovic, beeldend kunstenaar en maker van Mijn God.
Faysal, hoofdpersoon in Mijn God, vertelt zijn verhaal.
Rapper Zanillya reageert.
Rikko, hoofdpersoon in Mijn God, vertelt zijn verhaal.
Rapper IamAisha reageert.
Optreden rapper Zanillya.
Zie ook Facebook.

0 comments.

Art, Islam & Europe

Posted on April 26th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

Arts, culture and religion are always interesting topics at hand. Often debates about how art represents a particular religion creates controversy exposing the many fault lines in society. Controversies about arts, religion and the relation between the two are therefore a sort of barometers of what matters in contemporary societies. Both arts and religion have the capacity to resist, challenge, mobilize and to transcend boundaries and create new boundaries. The next video Art, Islam & Europe shows all that. It is a short documentary to explore the perception of Islam as a civilisation and culture through contemporary art and artists influenced by eastern culture in Europe.

This Belief in Dialogue project, by the British Council, is enabling the Council to tackle current issues around cultural diversity, challenging misunderstandings and misconceptions of different communities. According to the Council, acknowledging the complex identities which form our pluralistic societies, Belief in Dialogue is exploring how to develop engagement for better global citizenship, help widening participation and building trust.

Credits:
director and footages : khéridine mabrouk
editor and color grading : maxime mathis
post production: shaaman.com
special thanks : benjamin laurent
additional images/
art videos by damir niksic
the film graffix from the Soux by pete stern
art and islam usa tour by musa syeed

It is interesting of course, and some stories, images and songs are certainly challenging and transgressing some boundaries. In their attempt to show, let’s say, a creative humanity of Muslims they do run into some pitfalls that Jessica Winegar points to in her article The Humanity Game: Art, Islam, and the War on Terror:

[…] the claims about art, humanity, and religion governing these arts events actually operate in the same discursive universe of the conflict (which often frames problems in religious terms) and thus may act to reproduce it. When art is used to show Middle Easterners’ humanity or to advance certain views of Islam, a very particular and politicized “bridge of understanding” is created that obfuscates, and perhaps refuses, other understandings […]

p. 653

Many, but not all of them, in the video are responding against what they perceive as common stereotypes of Islam. Furthermore since ‘Islamic art’ has become somewhat of an interesting market, labels, images and so on are commercialized. Combining this may mean that the artists are actually not transcending boundaries but re-affirming them. It is the urge to produce art labelled as Islamic or made by Muslims, ends up reproducing a particular framework which is often interpreted referring to Islam and the predicaments of Muslims in Europe. They certainly do open up and make visible trajectories of Islam and ways of being Muslim that often are not visible for the larger audience. It is a type of religiosity that is not so much interested in being Muslim by following a code of do’s and don’t but in being Muslim by experiencing it, expressing it in various ways and by seeking channels to find and produce thrills, experiences, emotions and all kinds of creative expressions.

0 comments.

Art, Islam & Europe

Posted on April 26th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

Arts, culture and religion are always interesting topics at hand. Often debates about how art represents a particular religion creates controversy exposing the many fault lines in society. Controversies about arts, religion and the relation between the two are therefore a sort of barometers of what matters in contemporary societies. Both arts and religion have the capacity to resist, challenge, mobilize and to transcend boundaries and create new boundaries. The next video Art, Islam & Europe shows all that. It is a short documentary to explore the perception of Islam as a civilisation and culture through contemporary art and artists influenced by eastern culture in Europe.

This Belief in Dialogue project, by the British Council, is enabling the Council to tackle current issues around cultural diversity, challenging misunderstandings and misconceptions of different communities. According to the Council, acknowledging the complex identities which form our pluralistic societies, Belief in Dialogue is exploring how to develop engagement for better global citizenship, help widening participation and building trust.

Credits:
director and footages : khéridine mabrouk
editor and color grading : maxime mathis
post production: shaaman.com
special thanks : benjamin laurent
additional images/
art videos by damir niksic
the film graffix from the Soux by pete stern
art and islam usa tour by musa syeed

It is interesting of course, and some stories, images and songs are certainly challenging and transgressing some boundaries. In their attempt to show, let’s say, a creative humanity of Muslims they do run into some pitfalls that Jessica Winegar points to in her article The Humanity Game: Art, Islam, and the War on Terror:

[…] the claims about art, humanity, and religion governing these arts events actually operate in the same discursive universe of the conflict (which often frames problems in religious terms) and thus may act to reproduce it. When art is used to show Middle Easterners’ humanity or to advance certain views of Islam, a very particular and politicized “bridge of understanding” is created that obfuscates, and perhaps refuses, other understandings […]

p. 653

Many, but not all of them, in the video are responding against what they perceive as common stereotypes of Islam. Furthermore since ‘Islamic art’ has become somewhat of an interesting market, labels, images and so on are commercialized. Combining this may mean that the artists are actually not transcending boundaries but re-affirming them. It is the urge to produce art labelled as Islamic or made by Muslims, ends up reproducing a particular framework which is often interpreted referring to Islam and the predicaments of Muslims in Europe. They certainly do open up and make visible trajectories of Islam and ways of being Muslim that often are not visible for the larger audience. It is a type of religiosity that is not so much interested in being Muslim by following a code of do’s and don’t but in being Muslim by experiencing it, expressing it in various ways and by seeking channels to find and produce thrills, experiences, emotions and all kinds of creative expressions.

0 comments.

Fashioning Faith

Posted on March 6th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Arts & culture, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues.

In a short documentary Yasmin Moll focuses on the intersections of faith and fashion, and how designers explore what it means to be young, female and Muslim in today’s America.

Muslim clothing designers in New York City struggle to combine high fashion with a high sense of piety. Their designs aim to stay true to Islamic principles of feminine modesty while attempting to break into a fashion scene marked more by exposed shoulders than covered hair. In the process these young women designers are redefining what it means to be a modern Muslim in contemporary America.

The video shows how women appeal to and engage with an Islamic ideal of modesty that is an important part of the debates on the nature of Islam in the transnational public space. At the same time this ideal is highly personal which allows women in New York City to combine their sense of what modesty is with stylish and youthful clothes. Most, but not all, women in the video regard wearing the veil as important in their attempt to be pious; the varieties of Islamic veiling in the documentary again show how women attach their own meaning and practices to the ideals of piety and modesty.

At the same time these women claim that their veil does not change them; this may seem contradictory but that is not necessarily so. When women in the documentary claim that the veil changes them, they refer to feelings of belonging and of being stylish. When they state it did not change them they refer to the debate on Islam and Muslim women that, according to them, frames Muslim women with veils as backward and oppressed; they do not suddenly go from being emancipated and liberated to being backward or oppressed only by wearing a hijab. In their attempt to redefine modesty and fashion they refer both to Islamic traditions and perceptions and debates on the position of women as well as to the debates on Islam in wider US society. Their Islam therefore is shaped both by US local circumstances and debates as well as by local and transnational debates among Muslims on women in Islam.

Fashioning Faith: a documentary by Yasmin Moll from Yasmin Moll on Vimeo.

0 comments.

Closer Cinema: The Power of Nightmares

Posted on November 22nd, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture.

The Power of Nightmares – The Rise of the Politics of Fear is a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis that consists of three parts. The film as a whole compares the rise of the radical Islamist movement and the American Neo-Conservative moment. The film was controversial in some circles mainly because of its argument that the threat of radical Islamism, and more specific that of Al Qaeda, is a myth produced and continously reproduced by many politicians all over the world, but in particular the American neo-conservatives who alledgly used the threat of Al Qaeda in order to mobilise people for their cause. Part 1, Baby It’s Cold Outside, goes into the origin of Islamism and neo-conservatism. In the second episode, The Phantom Victory, the radicalizing Islamist factions fight the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, backed by the then president Reagan whose administration was influenced by the neo-conservatives. In the third and last episode, The Shadows in the Cave, the film goes into the rise of Al Qaeda. Whereas Al Qaeda is not more than a loose network of terrorists, the US invented the idea of Al Qaeda as a central led organisation, a massive criminal organisation with an army like structure. Later his idea became the legitimization of the War on Terrorism. The documentary is best be seen as a cinematic essay. The central argument is well understood I think although Curtis does sometimes lump developments together in a way such that the accusation of it being a conspiracy theory is not far because it ignores that somewhere in the 1980s a group of militants deed indeed establish something that lead to the Al Qaeda of the 9/11 attacks.
Baby, it’s cold outside

The Phantom Victory

The Shadows in the Cave

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Dreams, Fear, Passion, Love and a 'Fokking' Golden Calf

Posted on October 3rd, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Arts & culture.

Last week the Gala of the Golden Calf took place in the Netherlands. This is the Dutch equivalent for the Oscar Night with awards for best films, actors and so on. One of the movies nominated was Rabat, a roadmovie about three friends who have to bring a taxi to Rabat, Morocco. First Nadir (Nasrdin Dchar) wants to go on his own but his friends Abdel (Achmed Akkabi) and Zakaria (Marwan Kenzari) invite themselves (as good friends do of course). During their travel through Holland, Belgium, France, Spain and Morocco they fall in love, get arrested and abused by the police, rejected into a club because they are foreigners. Their friendship gets a blow when it is discovered that Nadir has kept a secret from his two mates for life. Looks like an ordinary roadmovie as we have seen before, and to a certain extend it is. But it is a very good one, in particular showing the evolution of friendship.

(Watch the trailer with English subtitles HERE)

Nasrdin Dchar won the Golden Calf for best leading actor and delivered a strong speech in which he told the youth in the Netherlands to keep dreaming and live life to the max. He referred to a recent statement made by Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs who stated according to him (it was a little more nuanced) that it is understandable that people are afraid of foreigners. Dchar also testified his passion and his love for several people including his parents who were clearly touched. See his speech here (apologies for the poor English subtitles, but they to capture what he said):

His speech evoked many reactions; some applauding him for his stance others criticizing him for bringing politics into this evening and others who stated that this was incitement to hatred. And again for others he was the representation of the Dutch multicultural generation and the other Netherlands, an answer to Geert Wilders and minister Verhagen.

Note: ‘Fokking’ is Dutch slang for the F-word

0 comments.

Dreams, Fear, Passion, Love and a ‘Fokking’ Golden Calf

Posted on October 3rd, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Arts & culture.

Last week the Gala of the Golden Calf took place in the Netherlands. This is the Dutch equivalent for the Oscar Night with awards for best films, actors and so on. One of the movies nominated was Rabat, a roadmovie about three friends who have to bring a taxi to Rabat, Morocco. First Nadir (Nasrdin Dchar) wants to go on his own but his friends Abdel (Achmed Akkabi) and Zakaria (Marwan Kenzari) invite themselves (as good friends do of course). During their travel through Holland, Belgium, France, Spain and Morocco they fall in love, get arrested and abused by the police, rejected into a club because they are foreigners. Their friendship gets a blow when it is discovered that Nadir has kept a secret from his two mates for life. Looks like an ordinary roadmovie as we have seen before, and to a certain extend it is. But it is a very good one, in particular showing the evolution of friendship.

(Watch the trailer with English subtitles HERE)

Nasrdin Dchar won the Golden Calf for best leading actor and delivered a strong speech in which he told the youth in the Netherlands to keep dreaming and live life to the max. He referred to a recent statement made by Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs who stated according to him (it was a little more nuanced) that it is understandable that people are afraid of foreigners. Dchar also testified his passion and his love for several people including his parents who were clearly touched. See his speech here (apologies for the poor English subtitles, but they to capture what he said):

His speech evoked many reactions; some applauding him for his stance others criticizing him for bringing politics into this evening and others who stated that this was incitement to hatred. And again for others he was the representation of the Dutch multicultural generation and the other Netherlands, an answer to Geert Wilders and minister Verhagen.

Note: ‘Fokking’ is Dutch slang for the F-word

0 comments.

The Asylum Game – Failed Asylum Seekers Compete on TV

Posted on September 2nd, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, Multiculti Issues.

During the summer period Dutch public broadcasters come up with all kinds of new formats for TV progams. Several of those ideas are tried in the so called TV Lab in order to test the public response. One of these shows is the ‘Weg van Holland’. In this show failed asylum seekers can win 4.000 euros which helps them to make a new start in their country of origin to which they will send back. The winner is the person who demonstrates he or she knows their adopted country the best. TV viewers can also join the competition and compare their knowledge with that of the candidates. The winner among the TV viewers gets a (return!) ticket to the Caribbean island of Curacao.


The title of the program has a double ring to it. ‘Weg van Holland’ means both leaving Holland and loving Holland (probably this double meaning is best translated as ‘Holland, You’ve got to love it’.Radio Netherlands talked to the producers and the Refugee support network that supports the program (as well as Defence for Children). TV quiz for asylum seekers courts controversy | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

“My first reaction was: terrible idea, we’re not doing that. Then I looked into the issue more deeply and decided: we have to do this! Weg van Nederland focuses attention on the fact that, these days, many asylum seekers who are being expelled have children who have lived in the Netherlands for eight years or more. They have had a good education, speak perfect Dutch and have only seen their country of birth on television. We believe it’s time to stop and think about this.”

Sensitive
He emphasizes that the programme is not a hoax like De Grote Donorshow:
“The candidates are not actors, they are genuine unsuccessful asylum seekers who have to leave this country within a month or two.”

It’s a frivolous show about a serious issue. The VPRO is giving failed asylum seekers a public face and demonstrating how important they could be to the ageing population of the Netherlands. It’s a sensitive subject, as was illustrated recently by the case of Sahar, an Afghan girl who had been living in the Netherlands for ten years. Her planned expulsion was cancelled after a storm of emotional protests.

Investment
Wouter van Zandwijk of the refugee support group Vluchtelingenwerk says he can understand that people might find Weg van Nederland tasteless:

“The programme is sick but, let’s face it, the reality is sick too. The reality in this country is that people run out of legal options. Meanwhile, their children are receiving a good education and are integrating well. It makes you think: first you invest in people then, as you are about to harvest that investment – just before they all become hardworking Dutch taxpayers – that’s when you send them away.”

Frank Wiering comments: “The candidates are highly intelligent, self-assured people quite capable of deciding for themselves whether to take part or not. In terms of taste, I find a programme like Idols far more objectionable. First people are led to believe they are going to be big stars, then after three performances they’re headed off for a life of disappointment and drink.”

Knowledge
Van Zandwijk: “We’re hoping Weg van Nederland makes more people think about how we treat asylum seekers, that they understand more about what asylum seekers go through. Sometimes it takes far too long before they know whether they can stay. Vluchtelingenwerk would like a fast but careful asylum procedure. Young people who have spent so many years in the Netherlands are often more Dutch than Afghan or Somali and more at home here than in their country of origin.”

RNW compares the program with the Big Donor Show a few years ago in which the winner could receive a donor organ. It proved to be fake but was meant to draw attention to the shortage of organ donors in the Netherlands. So, I’m not sure how serious this program actually is. I doubt it. Words are misspelled in the program and they let the people carve out the shape of the country in cheese for example. Nevertheless in a Dutch press statement the broadcaster VPRO states that they play this game because they want to show how Dutch these asylum seekers have become over time. According to them they are real asylum seekers who really will leave the country. Furthermore the program makes the asylum seeker visible as a real person instead of a number.

The whole idea therefore is to show not only how restrictive Dutch asylum policies are but also how they actually work against the benefit of society by deporting asylum seekers who are successful and have internalized Dutch culture; the contestants are well educated and eloquent and include an aeronautical engineer from Cameroon and a Slavic languages student from Chechnya. This all happens on a very stereotypical level of course contributing to my impression that the show is a spoof.

The show also reminds me of a German program, based upon the (Dutch) Big Brother format, Foreigners Out! (Ausländer Raus! – Schlingensief Container) in which Schlingensief staged an interactive concentration camp right at the heart of Vienna tourist centre.

The whole asylum game (not only referring to this show) is indeed badly in need of some thorough analysis and debunking. Read for example the very useful piece of Anthony Burke on Australia. I watched part of the ‘Weg van Holland’ game and think they very clearly put forward the issues they said they wanted to highlight. I also thought it was mildly funny. As long as those people don’t really have to leave.

2 comments.

Religion & Film: Of Gods and Men

Posted on September 1st, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Arts & culture, Religion Other, Ritual and Religious Experience, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

In 1996, during the Algerian Civil War, seven monks of the Tibhrine monastery in Algeria (belonging to the Roman Catholic Trappist Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) were kidnapped. They were held for two months and killed. It remains unclear who the perpetrators were: the Armed Islamic Group (GIA – who claimed responsibility) or the Algerian army who may have killed them during an attempt to rescue them.

The film of Gods and Men is based on that event and follows the lives of French Catholic monks in the Atlas Mountains of Algeria in the 1990s. As the country is caught into a terrible civil war between an oppressive secularist state and radical Islamists, the Trappist brothers face the question of how to ‘love thy neighbour’.
Monks in Algeria: loving thy neighbor at gunpoint

Caught between the brutal Algerian government and the ruthless Islamists, the monks struggle to know and share God’s love and peace. What they experience alongside the beauty of the love they live out on a day-to-day basis in their monastic community is unbounded hatred, unspeakable violence, and, ultimately, unstoppable death seeping into their world. They must decide whether to remain in their monastery or flee the violence and return to France.

In their vocations, they seek to love and serve God by being “brothers to all”—in their monastic community and with all the people they encounter. All this becomes exponentially more complicated when new neighbors—a group of radical Islamists—come to the region. The battles between the Algerian government and the Islamists for influence and control unleash persistent horror and tragedy.

Love thy neighbors, all of them

The monks face a new question: What does it mean to share brotherly love at gun point? Over the years, the lives of the monks and the neighboring villagers became intertwined. The monks realize that if they leave, the consequences will be immense not only for themselves but also for the Muslim villagers who work in the monastery and whom the monks serve through a free medical clinic.

This is not a film about Christians vs. Muslims. Rather, this is a film about Christians trying—imperfectly but still genuinely—to love Muslims. And the monks must sort out what love means amid competing interpretive claims on the Muslim faith. In the Islamists’ political fanaticism and obsession with political power, the monks encounter a “distorted” Islam that stands in sharp contrast to the religious faith the monks experience in the lives of the Muslim villagers who live alongside the monastery in peace, Muslims who love their families and their neighbors.

The film is magnificent in the sense that it brings out the struggles each of the monks has with living together with others with whom they share many things but whom they also fear. It is in their prayers before God that these struggles are most clear. Trying to remain steadfast Christians and to respect Muslims against the background of the Civil War and trying not to resort to a dead end us vs. them game. The solution they found was ‘to love thy neighbour’ even at gunpoint.Journal of Religion & Film: Of Gods and Men (2010) by Wendy M. Wright

Each of the monks reacts differently to the felt sense of impending peril. But viewers are not treated to a story of one individual against many but to a story about genuine community in which individual struggle is honored and at the same time the integrity and deep bonds of the whole are acknowledged. The oscillation between common and individual dynamics is captured through the filmmakers’ choices. When the army wants to thrust its machines and armed men upon the monastery, Fr. Christian peremptorily refuses: this is the antithesis of the life of peace and hospitality (another one of those other Benedictine themes) that he has chosen. But his confreres gently but firmly call him out: we did not elect you to make your own unilateral decisions they say, reminding him of his appropriately humble and un-autocratic role as outlined by St. Benedict’s Rule. Alternately, the solitariness of Fr. Christian’s burden of leadership is evident as he paces alone across the remote windswept acres of the monastic lands while wild fowl wing across a vast expanse of sky and dwarf his silhouette.

[10] Thus begins a remarkable series of scenes that reveal the process of spiritual discernment, genuine listening to the Spirit of God as it is refracted through individual conscience, through community members, through others, and through the tradition. This is where the centrality of the liturgical office and the prayer to which the men return again and again becomes clear. The words of the midnight liturgy of Christmas echo powerfully as the shaken community gathers after the terrorists disappear into the night. Allusions to the crucified one and to the sacrifice of love resonate in the music the men sing. As the danger looms, they listen in the refectory to a reading by Carlo Corretto (a French spiritual writer and member of the Little Brothers of Jesus, a community inspired by hermit Charles de Foucauld who lived and was assassinated in the Algerian desert). Carretto’s words about surrender sink in, helping to sharpen the discernment the men are making. What is stability? What does it mean to vow fidelity to a community? What does it mean to follow the crucified God of Love? What is martyrdom? What of the people in the neighborhood to whom they have pledged their presence? The filmmakers use some dialogue to explore these questions but much of the questioning, both individually and communally, is visually expressed through facial close ups and by careful attention to the nuances of posture, gesture, tone of voice, and unspoken interactions among community members as they gather to decide together what they should do.

I think when used with articles and books that shed some more light on Algerian politics of the second half of the 20th century this film is excellent for teaching purposes.

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