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Islamic feminism and Muslim women's rights activism Finding God in the Party Platforms
"Are you Jewish?"
I nodded. My face flushed, and I looked down at my shaking hands. I taught Hebrew school at my synagogue. I received the Rabbi's Scholarship for Outstanding Work in the Jewish Community. I kept kosher. And I was 19 and pregnant.
"Ok that's good, because there is a philanthropic Jewish women's group that offers a scholarship of $250 to help cover costs. Would you be interested in that sort of thing?"
I wondered if I would have to write an essay or give them my SAT scores or show them my Bat Mitzvah certificate.
"How would I qualify?"
"By being pregnant, and by not wanting to be pregnant. And by being Jewish," she replied. "Look, I'll contact the president of the organization, and I can have a check made out to you by the end of the week. Sound good?"
It sounded great. And not because I had found a way to finance my abortion. But because for the first time since I found out I was pregnant, I realized that I wasn't the first-nor would I be the last-knocked up Nice Jewish Girl.Look. I know that some of you will not agree with my decision. In fact, some of you will be sickened by it. But I did what many other 19-year-old girls would do: I chose to stay in school. I chose to teach Hebrew on Sundays and Wednesdays. I chose parties at Hillel and ZBT and dating and weekends with friends. And I chose not to bring an unwanted child into the world. And there are a thousand different reasons why I do not regret my decision to have an abortion freshman year, and I am grateful that I was able to make that choice in a safe way.
And I am grateful that my body healed quickly and my heart … eventually.
And I am grateful that there were other Jewish women out there who understand that when you're young and scared, you need help.
This article originally appearedhere on Kveller.com, a website for those who want to add a Jewish twist to their parenting.
It always comes up when I least expect it, inevitably catching me off guard. It's an innocent question asked in the course of small talk at a party. It's an observation made by our Irish-Catholic plumber as he is fixing our sink. It's an article on The Huffington Post that I wasn't expecting to see.
It's the question of who is a Jew. And if you aren't a Jew, who can make you one?
My family history is both common and uncommon, especially in the decades since the Holocaust. My father's family is Jewish, but I'll never know for sure about my mother. Her maternal grandfather was almost certainly Jewish, and there may be reason to believe that her maternal grandmother was as well, but persecution and fear in northern Italy during WWII resulted in well-guarded family secrets, most of which died with my grandmother. I'll likely never know.
That's right. I will never know if I was born Jewish, and there are those who would not consider me Jewish now. I was raised in a secular home, and I found Judaism in college. My commitment to Judaism — to living a Jewish life with my Jewish husband in our Jewish home — was well solidified by the time we traveled to Israel and Italy in 2006. We visited my mother's family in Italy, but the Jewish community in Mantova was largely destroyed during World War II; the name of my maternal grandmother's hometown is carved into the stone wall at The Valley of the Communities at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Sadly, I was unable to learn more about my heritage.
It was a painful time for me, as I felt like a Jew and Judaism had become central to my life. I had had an adult bat mitzvah in 2001, I had been married by two rabbis in 2003, and my husband and I were already thinking about Jewish day school for our unborn children. The thought that I might be nothing more than a Semitophile was intolerable to me, especially as my husband and I started thinking more seriously about having children. I decided it was time to have a conversion ceremony.
I had done my research, and I knew that even the most Orthodox of conversions wouldn't guarantee that Israel would accept me as a Jew. (I'm not sure why I was so concerned about Israel at the time; we had no plans to make aliyah, and even if we did, I would be welcomed as the daughter and wife of Jews, just not as a Jew myself.) Even though I didn't identify as a halakhic Jew (one who follows all traditional Jewish laws), and didn't want to lead an Orthodox life, I fantasized about finding the three most religious men I could to witness my conversion. I wanted it to be as kosher as possible — not for me, but for the children I would have someday. I didn't ever want anyone to doubt their Jewish status.
The thing is, I just couldn't do it. I wasn't Orthodox, I wasn't going to become Orthodox, and I wasn't willing to misrepresent that fundamental truth. I would have no problem increasing my religious observance, but I will not deny or compromise my values. I believe women, gay men and lesbians should have all the same opportunities and responsibilities in the Jewish community as straight men. As I thought about it, I imagined describing my conversion to my children, telling them that even though our rabbi is a woman, we go to the men for the important issues. That didn't work for me.
Ultimately, I went to the mikveh (ritual bath) with three female Reconstructionist rabbis, three of the smartest, most thoughtful and most dedicated Jews and rabbis I know. Throughout the process, I was fully aware that there are those who will not consider me or my daughters Jewish. Even now, six years later, I am still taken by surprise when the plumber casually mentions that Judaism is passed down through the mother. It's as if I'm being outed as an imposter, nothing more than a goy trying to pass with a Jewish last name and a Star of David around her neck. Even so, I don't doubt my decision for a minute, and I would be honored to have those same three rabbis as my witnesses if I were to do it all over again.
In those moments, I take a breath, and remind myself that even though some believe that I may not have passed along halakhic Jewish status to my daughters, I will not relinquish my Jewishness (or theirs) to a small group of individuals who espouse a narrow understanding of what it means to be a Jew. I am raising my daughters in a Jewish home, with a Jewish education, and most importantly, with a strong Jewish neshama (soul). I am raising them with the knowledge that their mother didn't, and wouldn't, compromise her values, especially not on the important issues.
As for the Jewish community, we have a responsibility to address the ongoing challenges of conversion. The undeniable reality is that intermarriage is on the rise, and we must find a way to not only welcome the children of non-Jewish mothers, but to grant them full Jewish status. Ultimately, the different American Jewish denominations need to agree on the requirements of conversion. I don't know what this would look like, but I would hope that people much smarter and more Jewishly educated than me are working on the problem.
Republicans did their level best to slow down the Democrats' momentum last week by picking a fight on perhaps the only remaining issue on which they still think they have the upper hand with voters: faith.
The lack of the word "God" in the Democrats' platform, they contended, was proof of the "hostility President Obama and the Democratic Party establishment have toward religion and people of faith." So determined to create trouble around the initial absence of the word "God," Republican pundits missed the greater point: the Democratic platform was, in important ways, far more consistent with the Word of God than their own platform.
One of the indelible lessons from my time at Yale Divinity School and a lifetime of devotion to the Christian faith is that there is more to honoring God than reciting His name. If we're going to try to measure the Godliness of our politics, it shouldn't be by the number of times the word "God" is used, but by the strength of the values put forth in our policies.
It was striking to see how much the Democratic National Convention had matured in welcoming public expressions of faith since my first convention in 1988. The open embrace of faith by convention planners and party leaders was on display each day last week with opening and closing prayers offered by leaders of many faiths, delegate prayer gatherings each morning, and gatherings of the Faith Caucus throughout the week.
On the sidewalks of Charlotte, though, caricatures of faith leaders berated delegates, journalists, and bystanders. Occasional summer showers only barely cooled the heated exchanges. On several corners, angry street preachers stood on boxes with bullhorns, waving Bibles and shouting calls for repentance amidst graphic posters condemning Democrats to Hell with photos of aborted fetuses and placards proclaiming "God hates fags!"
Back inside the arena, Democrats' strong commitment to faith was on full display at the podium, too, with loud cheers from the floor Wednesday night for Sister Simone Campbell — one of the "Nuns on the Bus" — who declared "I am my sister's keeper" and repeated the declaration of the Catholic Bishops Conference that Congressman Ryan's budget failed a basic moral test because of the harm it would do to families living in poverty.
Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, himself a Methodist clergyman, lifted up the discussion and brought down the house with a positive, passionate, faith-filled call for bipartisanship and principled progress that elicited not only applause, but pronounced exclamations of "Amen!"
People of faith have long played a central role in shaping the values of the Democratic Party, even during its most tumultuous times. From Dr. Martin Luther King and African American churches' leadership in the civil rights movement to Rev. William Sloane Coffin and the anti-war movement, a faith-inspired focus on justice and peace, tolerance and inclusion have long driven the Democratic Party.
What matters more than whether in the party's platform the word "faith" was followed by the phrase "in God" was whether the values reflected in the platform showed an intention to honor God's call to us for action that shows His preference for the poor, His demands that we care for each other as neighbors and work to heal the sick, feed the hungry and protect those in need.
The Democratic platform fully embraces those values, but they are hard to find in the Republican platform.
Psalm 72 teaches us that to defend the cause of the poor and to give deliverance to the needy is one of our highest callings — a call that is repeated throughout books of the Torah and the New Testament. To reject the great tradition of a circle of protection defies God's will and undermines America's values.
As the last night of the convention came to a close, the soaring rhetoric of our President had barely finished echoing from the hall when the final benediction was offered by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, the same head of the Catholic Bishops Conference who had famously battled with Obama over access to contraception and religious liberty just months earlier. He'd offered the closing prayer at the Republican Convention in Tampa, too.
The patience and reverence showed by the thousands of delegates who prayed calmly with the Archbishop showed a party inclined to respect rather than conflict. Even when his reflection turned to explicit advocacy against abortion and marriage equality, the convention hall remained quiet. I held my breath in fear of a shouted objection or disrespecting catcall that would overshadow the positive tenor of the whole week, but none was uttered.
Ours has grown into a party, a platform and a convention that highlights the best of our values — traditions of respect for one another, of tolerance, of inclusion, and of a willingness to fight for a path forward that embraces our obligation to invest in each others' education, opportunity and prosperity.
Menteri Besar Kelantan, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, baru-baru ini memberi ceramah yang bertajuk 'Pertahankan Kerajaan Islam Kelantan', di Tumpat, Kelantan.
Turut berceramah termasuk Dato' Kamaruddin Jaafar, Che Abdullah Mat Nawi, Ustaj Hj Mokhtar Senik, Ustaz Nik Muhd Zawawi dan Ustaz Hamid Derani.The very recent phenomenon called Islamic feminism receives quite a lot of attention from academia and media alike. Although it is basically a discourse whose strategy and praxis is primarily script related, there seems to be an overt tendency to equate Islamic feminism with an ideology for a transnational social or political movement. As a perceived singular movement, Islamic feminism is often distinguished from two other supposedly singular movements, namely "Muslim feminism" and "Islamist feminism". With regard to India, however, these ideal types don't seem to be very helpful as analytical categories, as the growing influence and reference to Islamic feminism there simply cannot be associated with one distinct group of proponents or one movement exclusively.
Therefore, I will argue here that a clear distinction should rather be made between Islamic feminism as a discursive movement, and the distinct local, national or transnational social and political movements that are all increasingly referring to this discourse. In India, these movements in many cases precede the emergence of Islamic feminism in the
1990s. So by making this distinction, the focus of analysis can be shifted from the repeated finding of ideological divisions and frictions within a supposedly singular Islamic feminist movement to the focus on the enormous potential that this discourse obviously has for Muslim women's agency in general as well as for the emergence of new female subjectivities in India (and elsewhere) which in turn seem to challenge and change secular-national gender discourses.
Introduction: Indian Muslim citizens and the quest for modernity
For quite some time, the renewed orientation of many Muslims worldwide towards the normative sources of their religion has been equated with a perceived quest for the legitimacy of an "anti-Western," "dogmatic" or "rigid" Islam. That this is not necessarily the agenda behind it becomes very clear when one looks at recent developments in India. Faced with enormous political, social and economic challenges, more and more active "lay" Muslims in India are engaging in fresh interpretations of the Islamic tradition, which for them as citizens of a modern nation-state could help to build bridges towards the majority community or society in general and not detach them from it any further. This effort is not restricted to a tiny minority of Muslim intellectuals, as it is supported, for example, by sections of the newly emerging Muslim middle class in India and many grass-roots movements all over the country. One could even argue that the discussion of burning questions, such as education, reform, the political representation of Indian Muslims, and above all the legal and social status of Muslim women, has led to the emergence of a new public sphere in India in recent years which, in turn, is linked to many other transnational and/or local Muslim publics (see Eickelman and Anderson 1999 and Salvatore/Eickelman 2004). As Sikand points out, the language of this new Muslim public sphere is English, not Urdu, which may be one of the reasons why it has gone largely unnoticed by the academic community so far, since Urdu is still regarded by many as the preferred language of Indian Muslim discourse (Sikand 2006).
These new Muslim actors in local, national, and transnational spaces argue that believing Muslims do not depend on religious authorities in order to understand the Koran, but that they can rather and should indeed read and interpret the Koran for themselves. Thus, like other contemporary reform movements within Islam, their efforts can be seen as an answer to the perceived crisis of religious authority as well as the crisis of (political) representation, on the local, national and global level (see for instance Göle 2002 and 2004, Sharify-Funk 2004, Mahmood 2005 and 2006, and Krämer/Schmitdke 2006).
Especially with regard to India, not much attention has been paid to this discursive movement so far. This holds true also with regard to the emerging Muslim women's rights movement in India that came to life in the aftermath of the heated controversy on the religion-based personal laws for Muslims in India in the 1980s (Muslim Personal Law). Much more than in its initial phase, this emancipatory movement seems to be informed by and draw a lot of inspiration from the global discourse of Islamic feminism, which gained momentum in the 1990s (see for instance Badran 2007, Barlas 2002, Wadud 2006 and Moghadam 2007). Hence their claim to reform gender unjust laws within Muslim Personal Law is not necessarily based on the Indian constitution or the universal principle of human rights, but first and foremost on the authority of the Koran. The central argument of Islamic feminism is that the Koran guarantees a number of rights to women, which are constantly denied to them as a consequence of prevailing patriarchal interpretations.
As a perceived singular movement, Islamic feminism is often distinguished from"Muslim feminism" and "Islamist feminism". With regard to India, however, I will argue in this article that these ideal types are not very helpful as analytical categories, since the growing influence and reference to Islamic feminism simply cannot be associated with one distinct group of proponents or one movement exclusively. Therefore, I will suggest that a distinction should rather be made between Islamic feminism as a discursive movement, and the distinct organizations or movements that are all increasingly referring to it, and hence to focus more on the enormous potential that Islamic feminism has for Muslim women's subjectivity and agency in India.
Islamic feminism: discourse or social movement?
According to Moghadam, Islamic feminism is first and foremost a discourse whose strategy and praxis is primarily script related (Moghadam 2007). Nevertheless, there seems to be a clear tendency among observers to equate this discursive strategy or praxis with an ideology that generates or is expected to generate a transnational social or political movement, or – as the critics of Islamic feminism maintain – that is bound to fail in this respect. Accordingly, it is often stated that the Islamic feminist movement is confronted with "ideological divisions", a "weak interconnectedness", "internal conflicts" among Islamic feminists and "divisions weakening the movement as a whole" or with "frictions inside the movement" (Vatuk 2008). These observations are obviously based on the idea of a more or less coherent, singular movement grounded in Islamic feminism.
I will argue here, however, that in the specific Indian context, the very recent emergence of Islamic feminism can be best understood as a discursive praxis that is adapted by women's rights activists who, in many cases, have already been associated with local/regional or national women's movements and by actors within Islamic or "Islamist" movements and organizations alike, such as the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH). As we can observe in India and elsewhere, the increased turning of certain groups within these distinct movements to the global discourse of Islamic feminism does not mean that they become sort of "natural allies". Nor does it necessarily imply that these actors and different local movements feel the need to build networks or develop a common agenda, not to mention a singular movement.
Hence, rather than conceptualizing Islamic feminism as an ideology or category for a transnational social or political movement, it is considered here a discursive movement or strategy that is adapted by certain actors to specific and local contexts. This argument is corroborated by the fact that many Muslim women's rights activists who draw upon this discourse would never accept the label "feminist" or "Islamic feminist" as it still has a negative or ambiguous connotation in non-Western contexts (see, for instance, Abou-Bakr 2001 and Barlas 2005).
Critical absence of Muslim women in the grand historical narratives
Until very recently, observers were not at all convinced that Islamic feminism would ever come to light in India. In the eyes of Asghar Ali Engineer (2008) and Zarina Bhatty (2003), for instance, two essential preconditions for the long overdue appearance of an Islamic gender critique in India were missing, firstly a qur'anic hermeneutics based on gender equality and, secondly, the inclusion of Muslim women in women's and gender studies (Engineer 2006, Bhatty 2003).
Regarding the latter deficit, Tahera Aftab (2008) argues in her groundbreaking bibliography "Inscribing South Asian Muslim women" that studies on the history and contemporary situation of Muslim women in South Asia are generally scarce. According to Aftab, South Asian Muslim women are generally represented as "oppressed", "backward" and "victims of the double tyranny" of their religion and the specifically South Asian form of patriarchy which is grounded in the traditional Hindu view of femininity (Aftab 2008). Historians like Gail Minault (1998), Barbara Metcalf (1990) and Azra Asghar Ali (2000) – to mention just a few – have shown that Muslim women and men alike have constantly strived for new or re-definitions of existing women's rights since the second half of the 19th century (see also Pernau 2008).
Among them were and are until today many eminent writers and poetesses of the 20th and 21st century, such as Ismat Chughtai, Qurratulain Hyder, and Jilani Bano, to mention just these few. At present, the poetic voices (and sociopolitical actions) of Tamil author and poet Salma, Telugu poet Shajahanaand Urdu poet and social activist Jamila Nishat, among others, are getting some attention, not only in India or South Asia, but also on an international level.
But in spite of the manifold attempts to counter the essentialist construction of the Muslim woman as a "passive victim" by putting forward differentiated narratives and alternative images, the stereotypes seem to persist, especially in India.
As Nigar Ataulla, editor of India's largest-selling English-language Islamic magazine Islamic Voice (Bangalore), puts it, in the Indian context, whenever one talks of the status of Muslim women, the focus invariably falls on the notorious form of repudiation known as "triple talaq", the question of polygamy and the veil. She calls this essentialist perception of Muslim women a "dangerous triangle" (Ataulla 2006) and her observation is confirmed by a study on the perception of the Muslim minority in India. Especially when compared to women of other denominations, Muslim women are perceived as "submissive", "fragile" and "too weak to fight for their rights" (see Kidwai 2003, Schneider 2005).
"Inscribing" Muslim women into the grand narratives or making them more visible as social actors thus remains a very difficult undertaking. What makes it even more problematic is the fact that Muslims in India are still seen as an obvious community that draws its specificity from an inherent nature of its religion. On the one hand, it is overlooked in this perspective that, as members of Indian society, Indian Muslims are naturally involved in processes of economic change, nation-building and secularization just like any other section of the population. On the other hand, the role of the state is often neglected, especially with regard to the relationship between the state and patriarchal structures in society. The Indian state, however, has always been actively involved in the definition and construction of the family and private sphere. This can be best exemplified with regard to the history and post-colonial interventions of the Indian state in Muslim Personal Law (Chhachi 1999).
A watershed moment for the secular women's movement in India: The controversy over Muslim Personal Law
The long controversy surrounding the question whether religious family laws form an obstacle to democracy, national unity and progress of Indian society or rather a warrant for legal pluralism as a basis for the plurality of Indian society, reached its climax in the course of the oft-cited Shah Bano case in the mid-1980s. The fiercely disputed question of maintenance for repudiated or divorced Muslim wives was exploited, among others, by Hindu nationalist actors who called for the substitution of existing religionbased personal laws by a Uniform Civil Code as envisaged by the Indian constitution. In the course of the debate, it became clear that this "secular" civil code would in fact resemble more or less the already existing Hindu Code, since secularism for the representatives of Hindu nationalism in the context of this debate meant "secularism in a Hindu way" (see Schneider 2005:244ff.). Moreover, the avowed commitment to an overarching civil law code was increasingly equated with a "commitment to the nation". Muslim groups and individuals who argued for the retention of Muslim Personal Law as an integral part of their cultural rights were subsequently not only branded as "backward" and "misogynist" but increasingly also as "anti-national" and "unwilling to integrate" into Indian society (Schneider 2005:216ff.).
Faced with the growing polarization about this question, the Congress government under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi somewhat hastily adopted the so-called Muslim Women (Rights of Protection on Divorce) Bill in 1986. The law gave Muslim personal law priority over criminal law in maintenance issues, and by doing so effectively excluded Muslim women from seeking criminal procedure. By adopting this law, the Indian state also put an end to the repeated attempt of Muslim women since the 1980s to obtain maintenance under secular jurisdiction (Chhachhi 1999). It was thus the Indian state itself that, which by its legislative power, sought to re-establish and re-confirm the patriarchal, religiously justified control over Muslim women, as Chhachhi argues. It seems important to me to highlight this aspect, especially with respect to the controversy on Islamic feminism and the oft-repeated critique that it represents a "compromise with patriarchy" (see Moghissi 1999, Mojab 2001).
Regarding the development in India, one could rather argue that it is above all due to this entanglement between state intervention and patriarchal claims to power on the part of Muslim organizations like the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, that Muslim women's rights activists were forced to look for new ways to engage with religious and political discourse and to seek legitimacy within Islamic discourse. It is from this point of departure that recent feminist thinking in India stresses the necessity and possibility of reform within the framework of existing (religion-based) family laws as a viable way to achieve gender-just laws.
For the secular women's movement, which had gained strength since the 1970s, the Muslim Women Bill marked a watershed-moment in its postcolonial history. For secular women's rights activists, the whole agitation over Muslim women's rights on maintenance contained a series of bitter lessons of experience (Kumar 1995). Starting with the seeming ease with which the Indian state had bowed to the communitarian agenda, to the disregard for a key principle of liberalism, namely that religiously defined rights and religious freedom must not supersede individual rights.
For many decades, the diverse secular women's movement in India had been united by the idea that the State should encourage the society's cultural, social and political progress through legislation and thereby strengthen "national integration". This is also the reason for the movement's longstanding support for the claim for an overarching Civil Law code in India. And this, on the other hand, explains the appearance of a very peculiar argumentative alliance with regard to Muslim personal law in the 1980s, which was, among others, supported by extremist Hindu nationalist organizations such as the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and parts of the Indian women's movement (Schneider 2005:188 and 289).
Initial doubts with respect to the secular nation-state came up only in the context of the general critique of secularism from the mid-1980s onwards. Following this critique, the elitist assumption that social change and progress were inherent to the process of nation-building, was now more and more challenged. Faced with the appropriation of their claim for an overarching Civil Law Code by Hindu nationalist actors, these doubts grew stronger in the aftermath of the Shah Bano case. Especially the critique of wellknown women's rights activists such as Madhu Kishwar and Flavia Agnes were very important in this context. The disillusionment with the state and the realization that Hindu nationalist actors had more or less seized a genuine feminist demand led to a growing dissociation of feminist actors from this agenda. As a result of this, the claim for a Uniform Civil Code seems to be no longer supported by major women's organizations in India at present (Hasan 1999:138). It remains a debated issue, however, which strategies should be best followed in order to achieve greater gender equality under the existing religion-based laws, i.e. Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Parsi Laws.
Increasing visibility of Muslim women in public spheres
Contrary to the experience of the secular women's movement in India, the Shah Bano case and the adoption of the Muslim Women Bill represent a point of departure for the emerging Muslim women's rights movement in postcolonial India and a very recent phenomenon that is labeled as Islamic feminism. Many local Muslim women's rights groups and initiatives were founded in the late 1980s, such as the Goa Muslim Women's Association or Awaaz-e-Niswan in Mumbai.
Although many of these organizations have been active for more than 20 years, the English-language press in India, for instance, has only started to cover their activities and agenda to a significant extent from the late 1990s onwards (Schneider 2008). Especially during the last three years, quite a number of reports and interviews with Muslim women's rights activists have been published. Many of these articles put a focus on Muslim women's organizations and activists who question religious authorities, especially the Ulama, 1) strive for reforms of existing laws within the framework of Muslim Personal Law in order to strengthen the rights of Muslim women, 2) are planning to found a mosque for women, 3) point out that Islam as a religion does not discriminate or oppress women but rather the patriarchal system that has been established on the basis of a highly selective interpretation of the normative sources, especially the Koran.
Against the background of the absence of Muslim women from media discourse and their clichéd representation as "passive victims" of violence and discrimination within their religious community, the increasing visibility of self-conscious Muslim women's rights activists in Indian public spheres may indeed be seen as a surprise. More correctly, one could perhaps speak of a media-specific surprise in the sense of Niklas Luhmann (1996). Luhmann argues that one of the basic principles of modern mass media is that they always rely on what has been publicized before and thus concentrate on specific variations of what is already known (in German: "das Bekanntsein des Bekanntseins", Luhmann 1996). In that sense, the sudden representation of Muslim women's rights activists in the Indian English-language media may well be regarded as a media-specific surprise since they are depicted as an "unexpected and new variation" in the all too well known narrative on Muslim women in India that has persisted for decades.
Having said that, it is important to note that these new actors are not simply "discovered" by journalists who are looking for new stories, but that Muslim women's rights groups have also actively developed new public relations strategies for themselves and established good relations with the media in order to attain more attention for their agenda. And this increased media activism on their part could also help to explain why representations of Muslim feminist thinking and activism in the Indian media have become more frequent only very recently. Nonetheless, it remains a highly ambiguous relationship for many Muslim women's rights activists in India, as the predominantly negative and biased representation of the Muslim minority in Indian mass media has been and until the day continues to be a very central issue of concern and debate among Indian Muslims (Attaulla 2007).
From local grass-roots activism to nationwide agenda setting: Muslim women's rights activism and the struggle for legal reform
It becomes quite clear from Vatuk's (2008) pioneering ethnographic study of Muslim women's organizations in India that very few, if any, of them were initially founded in order to pursue the goal of legal reforms, nor to create more publicity for the Islamic feminist agenda. Most of them rather seem to have emerged from local grassroots initiatives, which are so typical for the vital civil society in India. Vatuk (2008), for example, describes that the main activities of the largest and best-known organization led by Muslim women, Awaaz-e-Niswan (AeN), concentrate around the professional education of poor women with the goal of enabling them to make a living for themselves and their children. In addition to that, AeN offers marriage counseling on a weekly basis.
These services are not only available to Muslim women exclusively. Nor does the way in which this counseling is carried out refer to a specific Muslim tradition, but rather follows a pattern which according to Vatuk is very typical for the world of feminist or women's NGOs in India (Vatuk 2008).
For these grass-roots initiatives, the increasing cooperation and networking of Muslim women's organizations on a national and even on an international level seems to be a more recent phenomenon. In these new contexts, the focus is not so much laid on help for individual women, but rather on a dialogue within the Muslim community, especially with the Ulama. As mentioned before, media campaigns and public relations strategies play a significant role on this level of activism: for example, when resolutions are passed on big conferences, they are immediately forwarded to the press and interview partners are made available. These organizations and networks often coordinate demonstrations in cooperation with secular women's organizations, and they organize so-called legal awareness camps for poor women in rural areas or urban slums as well as protest actions against so-called "anti-women fatwas" which mostly receive a lot of publicity (Engineer 2005).
The All-India Muslim Women's Rights Network (MWRN), which was founded in 1999 by activists from AeN and from the Mumbai-based Women's Research and Action Group (WRAG), is the most successful network with a nationwide radius. Every one or two years, they hold conferences, which at the same time serve as a meeting point for all the organizations which are active in this network. For instance, in 2005, about 300 delegates met in Lucknow and discussed questions such as the role of the State with respect to women's rights, the effects of communal violence on Muslim women and the challenges that Muslim women's rights activists are facing in India right now.
Between 1994-98, WRAG conducted an extensive study titled "Women & Law in the Muslim Community", with the declared aim of collecting, documenting and analyzing the diverse civil or family laws that are applied to Muslims in India. It is often overlooked that the term Muslim Personal Law does not refer to a codified or unified family law code and that laws may differ more or less significantly from region to region (see Mahmood 1986, 1993). One of the findings of this research project was that Muslim women in India clearly support the demand for reform of Muslim Personal Law in India (Nainar 2000). As WRAG describes on its homepage, it was this claim, which among other things, led to an increase in awareness-rising campaigns, which shall help to inform Muslim women about the rights that are guaranteed to them in the Koran and thereby encourage new impulses for debate on reform of MPL.
In 2006, a new organization by the name of Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) was founded for this specific goal. BMMA claims to be the first pan-Indian movement uniting Muslim women across the various existing castes and classes in Muslim Indian society. It is this organization that most explicitly states its reference to the global discourse of Islamic feminism in the formulation of goals by declaring that BMMA strives "to explore possibilities of reforming personal laws based on male dominance".
From the self-description and development of Muslim women's organizations in Mumbai, it becomes very clear that they are increasingly influenced by the discourse of Islamic feminism. At the same time, many of them remain firmly rooted in local grassroots initiatives and they also regard themselves as an integral part of the national women's movement in India.
A very similar development can be observed with regard to the well-known South Indian women's organization STEPS which was founded by Daud Sharifa Khanam in Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu in 1987. Like the Mumbai-based organization Awaaz-eNiswan, STEPS was not founded for Muslim women exclusively. Interestingly, STEPS dedicates a lot of space on its website to the self-description of the organization, its origins, motives and goals. According to this account, STEPS was originally founded to fight against the discrimination of and violence against young girls and women. In 2003, the organization announced its intention to establish a monthly jamaat assembly for Muslim women in order to provide them with a public space for articulation and information about the patriarchal interpretation of Islamic principles by male religious authorities.
This idea of a jamaat for women also seems to be a reaction to the growing frustration among Muslim women in Pudukottai about the decisions that are made by the (exclusively male) Jamaat members regarding questions of dowry, divorce, domestic violence, custody or child abuse. Provided that Muslim women even go to the local police station and seek help there, most of their complaints are transferred by police officers to the local Jamaat to which women have no access. Which means that the Jamaats make their opinion without even listening to the women and as a result of this, the judgments passed by them are often biased and one-sided (Bhatty 2008, Subramanian 2008).
In other words, by declaring their intention to found their own jamaat for Muslim women, STEPS activists fundamentally question the authority of the traditional Jamaat system as well as the legitimacy of its claim to exert control on the Muslim community.
What attracted a remarkable amount of media attention in this context, was the plan of these jamaat members to build a mosque exclusively for women. The mosque is to be erected on a site that had been donated to them especially for this purpose. Besides the prayer room and a coordination office for questions related to education or job vacancies for women, the jamaat activists are also planning to set up a center for education and research on Islamic law and jurisprudence. While Khanam and her fellow-activists have experienced a lot of support and media attention during the last two years, they are at the same time faced with massive resistance on the part of conservative Ulama all over India and have received several death threats.
Access to mosques for women, not only in the sense of a place for prayer but as a public space where women are allowed to actively engage in, remains a very controversial issue among Indian Muslims. Following role models such as Sharifa Khanam and others, similar plans to erect mosques for women can be observed in different regions of the country.
Despite the fact that they are faced with severe opposition and financial problems, the women activists in Pudukottai stick to their plan to build a mosque and Sharifa Khanam herself coordinates a big network of Muslim women in Tamil Nadu today.
So in her case, again, the formulation "from transnational discourse to local movement" only serves to highlight certain aspects of the development whereas the opposite "from local movement to transnational discourse" seems to be equally correct. Various local Muslim women's rights movements are clearly moving towards the global discourse of Islamic feminism, but this does not mean that they do not consider themselves as an integral part of a national women's movement any longer, nor does it mean that they don't function as grass-roots organizations on the local or regional level any more. Thus, even if the same actors are involved, the concept of a movement may refer to very different settings, frameworks, forms of organization and communication. The discursive strategy or praxis of Islamic feminism indeed seems to be only one, albeit increasingly important, among other discursive strategies that are involved by Muslim women's rights activists in India in their pursuit of gender-justice.
Seen in this perspective, recent developments in India clearly seem to underline Ahmed-Ghosh's argument that feminism in Muslim contexts cannot and should not be conceptualized in terms of mutually exclusive analytical categories such as "secular" or "Islamic" feminism but should rather be seen as a hybrid construction – in theory and practice (Ahmed-Ghosh 2008).
The question is, however, if this can be applied to the emergence of Islamic feminist thinking and activism within Islamic revivalist groups such as the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind as well? Or should we rather assume that the oft-cited assertion that Islamic feminism is an unwanted, albeit legitimate, child of political Islam simply does not hold true for India?
Islamic feminism within 'Islamist' groups: A different phenomenon altogether?
Islamic or "Islamist" organizations like the JIH were among the strongest proponents of a return to the normative sources of Islam and have thereby unknowingly created the precondition for Islamic feminism. The discourse of Islamic feminism is also based on the interpretation of the scriptural sources, although obviously not from a patriarchal or neo-patriarchal perspective, but from the perspective of gender justice. And this is exactly the reason why Islamic feminism has been called the "unwanted child of political Islam" by Ziba Mir-Hosseini. So if Islamic feminism is one of the unintended aftereffects of political Islam, as theoreticians of this discourse like Mir-Hosseini argue, a feminist qur'anic hermeneutics could surely be expected to emerge from within Islamic or "Islamist" groups such as the Jamaat-e-Islami (JIH) Hind, too. And indeed, there seems to be some evidence that such a development is actually also taking place inside the JIH.
For example, when approximately 30.000 followers of the women's wing of the JIH gathered in Hyderabad in February 2006, Nasira Khanum, the president of this suborganization was quoted saying: "Islam advocates protection of women rights but mendominated society hides the facts. Women themselves should know about their rights and learn to snatch them if denied".
On the same occasion, it was announced by Abdul Basith Anwaar, state Jamaat chief, that the organization would enroll women members in a big way to take up various issues confronting the woman today.
Interestingly, Vatuk states that by using this markedly feminist rhetoric, "the leader of a religiously orthodox Islamist mass organization (…) essentially echoes what the leaders of so many much smaller organizations with longstanding and serious commitments to the pursuit of feminist goals, have been striving for two decades to communicate to the Muslim clerical establishment and the Muslim community at large" (Vatuk 2008:518). So is it merely a "derivative discourse", to quote the famous phrase coined by Partha Chatterjee (1993), or does it represent a distinct development that has taken place within the JIH?
Contrary to Vatuk's (2008) assessment, Ahmad (2008) offers a very different perspective on this question. He uses the concept of Islamic feminism as an analytical category for what he calls a "transformative movement within Islamist groups in India".
In his view, this current grew stronger especially in the years following Maududi's death in 1979, and it was reinforced by the emergence of critical voices and a new generation that began questioning Maududi's "neo-patriarchal and misogynist ideology" (Ahmad 2008). In the 1990s, these voices had finally become so strong that they had coined a new critical language that could be labeled as Islamic feminism.
Thus, it becomes clear that the local dynamics of the transnational discourse of Islamic feminism in India display some unexpected features that have not been taken into consideration so far and certainly need to be analyzed in greater detail. I would argue, however, that further research on Islamic feminism in India should not be conceptualized on a "national" level exclusively. Especially with respect to the two South Asian sister organisations of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind in Pakistan and Bangladesh, i.e. Jamaat-eIslami Pakistan and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, there seem to be some interesting parallels, but also some significant differences that need be discussed more systematically in a comparative study of the dynamics of Islamic feminism in South Asia.
From the literature that has been published on Islamic feminism in India so far, it seems that a twofold dilemma manifests itself on a theoretical-conceptual level. Firstly, it has to be taken into account that many social actors who are subsumed under the category "Islamic feminist", would not necessarily accept this label for themselves, and this holds true not only with respect to India but also to Muslim women's rights activists in other countries. And secondly, I would argue that a clear distinction should be made between Islamic feminism as a discursive movement whose strategy and praxis is first and foremost based on texts, and the local, national or transnational movements that are now making use of this discursive praxis, but in many cases actually precede the emergence of Islamic feminism in the 1990s. By making this distinction, the focus of analysis can be shifted from the repeated finding of "ideological divisions and frictions" within an assumed, singular Islamic feminist movement to the focus on the "unifying potential" that this discourse may or may not possess for the different actors in women's movements and Islamic groups and perhaps even more importantly, to the question of their agency vis-à vis established religious authorities.
Notwithstanding this important differentiation, it is an indisputable fact that Islamic feminism as a discourse and strategy has become a very important point of reference for different groups and contexts in India. For the time being, the achievement of gender equality within the framework of Muslim Personal Law in India is certainly not in reach yet, and especially the tedious attempt to convince Ulama that gender-just rights are an imperative is exhausting for many Muslim women's rights activists. Ever since the foundation of the All-India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board (AIMWPLB) in February 2005, however, which attracted a lot of media attention in India and beyond, it can hardly be ignored any longer that Muslim women in India have an increasingly audible voice in the newly emerging Muslim public sphere. Like many of their male counterparts, they encourage believing Muslims to read and to interpret the Koran for themselves and to find new ways to bring their religious belief in accordance with the prerequisites of today's life. And perhaps even more pronounced, Muslim women argue that the "modernization" and future of the Muslim minority heavily depends on the achievement of gender equality within the community and on the recognition of Muslim women as active Indian citizens by the majority community.
[Nadja-Christina Schneider is a Junior Professor for Mediality and Intermediality in Asian and African Societies at Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. Her areas of research include media systems in South Asia; convergence/intermediality and new media forms; processes of medialisation; transcultural communication and Islam in India. One of her current research projects focuses on the translocal and local dynamics of Islamic feminism in India. She can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com]


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Thanks my friend. I am thrilled that you found the short story enjoyable enough to share with your readers. Your kind words always serve to inspire me a little bit more. May all of your moments be ones filled with truth, joy, and peace. Your friendship remains a sparkling gem in my life. Thank you.
Dịch vụ chuyên ship đặt hàng nhà sản xuất ở Trung Quốc
Đơn vị nhận order đặt hàng nhà sản xuất ở Trung Quốc
Dịch vụ nhận order đặt hàng nơi gia công tại Trung Quốc
How could I not repost it, Ron!!!?
It is a great story and truly uplifting. It is prescient in my life as I have had to weather the recent mortal departure of several colleagues. Without sounding too melodramatic, I have had a couple of "night of the soul" moments recently - when reflecting on "mortality". Pieces like "Lucky Raindrop" reaffirm the truth: don't get fooled by the manufactured illusion of "life"! There is SO much more.
All the best!

subset: commoncrawl


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Upcoming Events
Celebrate with 16 Wishes!
Tune in to Disney Channel Sunday, July 4th at 5:45 PM (ET) for another chance to see 16 Wishes! What could be better than time spent with family, food, and Abby Jensen?
Premiere Party Invites
Let the party begin! Send these printable Premiere Party invites to your friends, and enjoy the June 25th premiere of 16 Wishes together! EXTRA TREAT--the star invite is just like one from the 16 Wishes movie!
Just click on the image below, print, and send to all of your party VIPs!
International Update
Attention Canada! Please clear your calendar, call your friends, and start the party planning TODAY!
The Canadian premiere of 16 Wishes on the Family Channel is happening July 16th, so get ready!
Rock CAN Roll-Making Wishes Come True
Joining us Saturday, June 19th at the Borders in Century City Los Angeles? Please bring a non-perishable, healthy food donation for Rock CAN Roll, an organization providing food to hungry families around the country. Not only can you help this charity with your donated food on Saturday, but by buying select 16 Wishes items from Borders Books stores nationwide.
Not sure what to bring? Check out this guide from Rock CAN Roll for tips on the best way to give. Food List for Rock CAN Roll
Rock CAN Roll's Wish? That no one goes hungry. Please help make this wish come true!
"A Wish Comes True Everyday" Music Video Premiere!
June 18th 8/7 Central
Tune in to the Disney Channel during The Suite Life on Deck to see the world premiere of the "A Wish Comes True Everyday" music video for 16 Wishes! Not only will you get to see the much-awaited "Breakup in Paris" episode, but Debby's first music video as well!
Meet Debby and Jean-Luc at Borders!
June 19th 2:OO PM
Century City Borders
1O25O Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 9OO67
Debby Ryan & Jean-Luc Bilodeau will be signing autographs and getting to know fans excited for the June 25th premiere of 16 Wishes on Disney Channel!
June 3rd at 6:OO pm ET/ 3:OO pm PT
Radio Disney Takeover!
Debby Ryan is taking over Radio Disney with Ernie D. on Radio Disney, AM 111O in Los Angeles. Listen online and VOTE for Debby's song for the movie, "A Wish Comes True Everyday"!


text: When McGraw-Hill Cos. announced its plan to split the company in two last month, the move raised many questions. First, how would the market react to the plan that would create two new public companies: McGraw-Hill Markets and McGraw-Hill Education? In the first several days of trading, the market's reaction was emphatically positive. The company's share price jumped 17% as the market cheered the proposed creation of McGraw-Hill Education, which under the plan will become an independent business operating in the K-12, higher education and professional education markets. The other half of the company, McGraw-Hill Markets, will comprise Standard & Poor's, Platts, J.D. Power and Associates, McGraw-Hill Construction and the Aviation Week brand. Harold "Terry" McGraw III, currently chairman and president-CEO of McGraw-Hill Cos., will hold the same title at McGraw-Hill Markets. Second, the announcement raised questions about the split signaling the end of McGraw's hold on the CEO position. Others see the move as a sign of his security as the head of the newly created McGraw-Hill Markets. "If you would have asked me that two weeks ago, maybe," Mike Parker, managing director of AdMedia Partners, said when asked whether McGraw's tenure was in danger of ending. "But now the board has been willing to give Terry and other members of the management team a fair chance. So the answer is probably not at this point." Third, some questioned why the splitting off of McGraw-Hill's education business wasn't done earlier. Ultimately, the move to separate the education unit was at least 20 years in the making. McGraw-Hill has been looking to find a home for its education business for decades, said Robert Crosland, an industry consultant. In 1989, McGraw-Hill took one step out of the education business by merging its textbook publishing business with Macmillan Inc. to form a joint venture called Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Publishing Co. At the time, the deal created the second-largest textbook publisher in the U.S. The joint venture went sour when Robert Maxwell, the owner of Macmillan, died under mysterious circumstances in 1991 and his publishing empire, which included Macmillan, was liquidated. McGraw-Hill, taking advantage of an attractive price, eventually made a full-fledged re-entry into the education business by buying Macmillan in 1993 for a fraction of what Maxwell had paid for it five years earlier.


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Site File Loss
November 1, 2012 Leave a comment
Okay, so it turns out there was a file loss on the server that supports this site, and this is why folks are having trouble accessing most PDFs on the site. I have been able to restore the underlying file structure, but the files themselves still need to be restored. This means I will have to repopulate the site one file at a time.
As of November 1, I am in the process of doing so, but I have a lot going on in my teaching and research life at the moment, so it will take a while to do so. There was 2 years of stuff posted here that needs to be replaced! Slowly but surely, the files will come back online though. Thanks for your patience.


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Who says that summer is the "quiet time" for North Texas fundraisers? Even before schools are out, Dallas CASA is already staking claim for more than two weeks of its annual Parade of Playhouses. The annual favorite fundraiser that transforms NorthPark Center into a showcase of mini-cottages is scheduled to officially be on site starting Friday, July 7.
Built and donated by local designers, architects and builders, the 16 pint-size palaces include an Australian airline-themed house, a Rubik's cube and a space-theme house.
This year's collection includes houses from the international playhouse design by Nicollo Abe of Ontario, Canada; Riaan Kotze of Massachusetts, USA; Christiaan Luijk of Cape Town, South Africa; and Amrita Raja and Katharine Storr of London, United Kingdom.
According to Dallas CASA Executive Director/President Kathleen LaValle, ""The creativity, imagination and ingenuity that these playhouse builders and designers brings is simply astounding. The vulnerable children we serve need safe homes where they can heal from their physical and emotional injuries and begin dreaming of a future they could not dare to think about. We hope every builder, designer and organization donating a playhouse knows they are helping an abused child begin to build a new dream for themselves."
On Sunday, July 23, the mini-mansions will be raffled off. Interested? Raffle tickets are going for $5 each or five for $20 and can be purchased at event ticket tables or online during the 17-day run.
Thanks to the following people and organizations, who are aiding Dallas CASA's goal of providing all abused children with a Dallas CASA volunteer to help them through the child welfare system:
- Honorary Chair — Jim Thompson
- Parade Host — NorthPark Center
- Castle — Jim Thompson
Estate — SketchUp
- Mansion — Kappa Alpha Theta Dallas Alumni Chapter, Newton Thomas with Summit Funding Inc. and Pirch
- Villa — Bernbaum/Magadini Architects and Jackson Walker LLP
- Playhouse Architects and Builders — Austin Commercial, Beck Architecture LCC, Bob Borson, BufordHawthorne Homebuilders, Butscher Construction, Crest Cadillac/Crest Infiniti, Domiteaux and Baggett Architects, FP Construction, Guardian Exteriors Inc., Jay W. Grishby Jr., Harman, Holder Construction Company, LRO Residential, Omniplan Inc., Perk Homes, Redlee/SCS, Robert Hopson Construction Group, Schwob Building Company LTD., University of Oklahoma – College of Architecture and William P. Manning Company Inc.
The 22nd annual parade is the absolutely perfect event because it's free for the viewing, inside the air-conditioned center and helps Dallas CASA "continue its growth trajectory to serve all children in need."
* Graphic provided by Dallas CASA


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The Type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a widespread macromolecular structure that delivers protein effectors to both eukaryotic and prokaryotic recipient cells. The current model describes the T6SS as an inverted phage tail composed of a sheath‐like structure wrapped around a tube assembled by stacked Hcp hexamers. Although recent progress has been made to understand T6SS sheath assembly and dynamics, there is no evidence that Hcp forms tubes in vivo. Here we show that Hcp interacts with TssB, a component of the T6SS sheath. Using a cysteine substitution approach, we demonstrate that Hcp hexamers assemble tubes in an ordered manner with a head‐to‐tail stacking that are used as a scaffold for polymerization of the TssB/C sheath‐like structure. Finally, we show that VgrG but not TssB/C controls the proper assembly of the Hcp tubular structure. These results highlight the conservation in the assembly mechanisms between the T6SS and the bacteriophage tail tube/sheath.
This study shows that the Type VI secretion‐associated Hcp protein assembles into tubes in a head‐to‐tail manner. Hcp tube formation requires the VgrG protein and is necessary for proper polymerization of the TssB/C sheath.
The Type VI secretion system (T6SS) protein Hcp assembles tubes in a head‐to‐tail manner which is required for T6SS sheath polymerization.
Hcp1 interacts with the T6SS sheath by directly interacting with the TssB1 subunit.
The assembly of the Hcp tubes is controlled by VgrG.
In Gram‐negative bacteria, the secretion of toxin proteins is achieved by dedicated, specialized machineries called secretion systems. The Type VI secretion system (T6SS) is highly versatile as it delivers protein effectors in either eukaryotic or prokaryotic target cells [1], [2]. The T6SS is composed of 13 Tss (Type six subunits) core components that assemble a macromolecular complex spanning the cell envelope [2], [3]. The TssL, TssM and TssJ membrane proteins interact to form the trans‐envelope apparatus [4], [5]. A number of subunits are evolutionarily, structurally and mechanistically related to proteins that form the tail of contractile bacteriophages. VgrG is a composite protein, structurally related to the trimeric gp27/gp5 hub complex forming the cell‐puncturing device of bacteriophage T4 [6]. The membrane of the target cell is supposed to be disrupted by the tip of the VgrG protein that acts as a syringe. Recently, a PAAR‐like protein has been shown to associate with the tip of VgrG, and by recruiting effector proteins, has been proposed to translocate these proteins into the target cell [7]. The Hcp protein is structurally related to gpV, the major tail tube protein of phage λ. Hcp is an abundant protein of the T6SS that forms a ring‐shaped hexamer [8], [9], [10], [11]. While Hcp tubes have been visualized in vitro [12], the existence of such tubes in vivo has not been evidenced. In contractile bacteriophages, prior to contraction, the tail tube is surrounded by the sheath in an extended conformation [13]. Upon infection, the phage sheath undergoes an extensive structural transition leading to its contraction and propelling the tail tube towards the target cell interior [13]. Interestingly, the TssB (VipA) and TssC (VipB) proteins assemble large tubular structures extending into the cytoplasm [14], [15]. The TssB/C sub‐complex exhibits cogwheel‐like cross‐sections resembling the bacteriophage sheath [16]. Time‐lapse fluorescence microscopy further showed that these structures are highly dynamic, oscillating between extended and contracted conformations [14], [15], [17]. Based on homology with the bacteriophage it is thought that contraction of the TssB/C tubule propels the Hcp tube towards the exterior and the target cell. In agreement with this model, a recent study has shown that contraction of the T6SS sheath is correlated with prey cell lysis [17]. However, the existence of Hcp tubes has not been demonstrated in vivo. The Hcp crystal structure packing suggested that Hcp hexamers may stack either in a head‐to‐tail [8], head‐to‐head [10] or tail‐to‐tail [11] conformation. However, while the different modes of inter‐rings interactions observed for the different Hcp proteins may reflect differences during assembly, it is formally possible that these packing are crystallographic artifacts and are not physiologically relevant. Similarly, the mode of assembly of the tube protein of contractile tailed phages remains unsolved. Cryo‐electron microscopy images showed that the phage tail tube is a cylinder lacking discernable surface structures [9], [13]. However, the tail tubes of non‐contractile phages are composed of stacked hexamers positioned offset on each other [18]. We therefore reasoned that an in vivo approach might provide information on Hcp assembly. In this study, we engineered functional cysteine variants of the Hcp1 protein encoded within the enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) sci‐1 T6SS gene cluster. We substituted residues at specific positions that discriminate between head‐to‐tail, tail‐to‐tail and head‐to‐head packing. Our results provide strong support for a model in which Hcp1 hexamers form tubular structures in vivo. Importantly, we further demonstrate that the Hcp1 hexamers assemble in an ordered stacked, head‐to‐tail, manner and that this specific assembly is a controlled process requiring other sci‐1 gene products. Finally, we also provide evidence that Hcp1 interacts with the T6SS sheath via direct contacts with the TssB1 subunit and that Hcp1 tube formation is required for sheath polymerization.
Results and Discussion
Hcp is required for T6SS sheath assembly through interaction with TssB
While the TssB and TssC subunits have been postulated to engulf the putative Hcp conduit, experimental data regarding the relationship between Hcp and the sheath‐like proteins are lacking. As TssB1 and TssC1, Hcp1 mainly localizes in the cytoplasm (see further details in the Supplementary Text and Supplementary Fig S1). Using immunoprecipitation we isolated a complex between Hcp1, TssB1 and TssC1 (Fig 1A). This result is in agreement with bioinformatics analyses demonstrating that Hcp, TssB and TssC are functionally linked [19]. To gain further information, we probed pairwise interactions between Hcp1 and TssB1 and TssC1 using bacterial two‐hybrid and co‐immunoprecipitation assays (Fig 1B and C, Supplementary Text, Supplementary Fig S2). Both assays demonstrate that Hcp1 interacts specifically with TssB1, not with TssC1. Specificity experiments between the two T6SS encoded within the EAEC genome showed that Hcp1 does not interact with TssB2. Similarly, although Hcp2 interacts with TssB2, no interaction was detected between Hcp2 and TssB1 (Supplementary Text, Supplementary Fig S2). This set of data supports a model in which Hcp is wrapped by the TssB/C subunits as the bacteriophage tail tube is wrapped by the tail sheath. We next asked whether Hcp1 is required for assembly of the T6SS sheath structure. Several recent reports demonstrated that the TssB protein fused to the superfolder green fluorescent protein (sfGFP) assembles cytosolic tubular structures oscillating between extended and contracted conformations [14], [15], [17]. We engineered a plasmid‐borne TssB1‐sfGFP fusion. As previously described [20], [21], this fusion protein behaves similarly to the previously described TssB‐sfGFP proteins: (i) it assembles 1‐3 cytoplasmic sheaths per cell, and (ii) the sheath structures oscillate between extended and contracted conformations with dynamics occurring in tens of seconds (Fig 1D, WT). These structures are not visible in a strain deleted of the hcp1 gene, leaving a diffuse fluorescence within the cytoplasm (Fig 1D, Δhcp). This diffuse fluorescence phenotype was complemented by the expression of a WT hcp1 allele from a plasmid (Fig 1D, hcp+). The data suggest that Hcp is required for proper assembly of the T6SS sheath and that the TssB/C proteins build the sheath using the Hcp tube as a scaffold. This is reminiscent of the bacteriophage morphogenesis in which the sheath polymerizes on the tail tube [13], [22].
Hcp1 modelling and validation
The EAEC Hcp1 protein was modelled based on the available Hcp three‐dimensional crystal structures from P. aeruginosa, E. tarda and Y. pestis (PDB: 1Y12, 3HE1, 3EAA, 3V4H). The availability of multiple homologous structures offered the opportunity to build a robust multiple sequence alignment, improved and validated based on structural alignments.
To validate the EAEC Hcp1 model, we engineered the N115C variant, in which the asparagine residue at position 115 (Asn‐115) is substituted by a cysteine. The Asn‐115 residue is at the interface of two monomers within the hexamer, and is positioned to face the native cysteine residue (Cys‐38) of the adjacent monomer (Fig 2A). The N115C Hcp1 mutant is functional as shown by its ability to be released in a T6SS‐dependent manner (Supplementary Fig S3). Cells were treated with the oxidative agent copper phenanthroline, washed and free cysteines were blocked using N‐ethylmaleimide (NEM) to avoid artifactual disulfide bond formation upon cell lysis. Analysis of cytoplasmic extracts from cells producing the N115C Hcp1 variant by non‐reducing SDS‐PAGE showed that Hcp1‐N115C migrates as a ladder (Fig 2B), demonstrating formation of disulfide bridges between adjacent monomers. Overall these data validate the EAEC Hcp1 model and the experimental procedure. This model was further validated by the recently released structure of the Hcp1 protein [23].
Hcp1 hexamers assemble in a head‐to‐tail mode
To further evaluate the ability of Hcp1 to form tubular structures in vivo we reasoned that cysteine residues placed at the interface of two hexamers will form a disulfide bridge if Hcp hexamers polymerize. Our experiment approach draws its inspiration from the in vitro work of Ballister et al [12]. To identify the most probable interfaces between two Hcp hexamers, we modeled dodecamers in a head‐to‐tail, tail‐to‐tail or head‐to‐head orientation (Fig 3A‐C). Interestingly, each of the available Hcp crystal structures describes a different, unique mode of interaction between Hcp hexameric rings: head‐to‐tail (P. aeruginosa Hcp1, [8]), tail‐to‐tail (P. aeruginosa Hcp3, [11]), and head‐to‐head (E. tarda EvpC, [10]). The three templates therefore offer bases for structural predictions regarding all possible stacking modes of EAEC Hcp1 hexamers. In each dodecamer model, the main contact is established by one loop on either side, yielding a limited choice of targets for cysteine substitutions (Fig 3A–C).
Cysteine substitutions were introduced into a cysteine‐less (C38S) variant of the Hcp1 protein. For the head‐to‐tail assembly, cysteine residues were introduced at positions Gly96 (loop 4) and Ser158. Residues Gln24 (loop 1) and Ala95 (loop 4) were targeted for the tail‐to‐tail assembly, while residue Gly48 was mutated for the head‐to‐head assembly. All the Hcp1 variants accumulate at comparable levels and are functional as shown by their release in the extracellular milieu (Supplementary Fig S3).
SDS‐PAGE analyses of cytoplasmic extracts from oxidized cells producing the variants showed that the G96C‐S158C combination leads to the formation of a ladder corresponding to multiple oligomers, while the Q24C‐A95C and G48C combinations remain monomeric (Fig 3D). These data support the hypotheses that (i) Hcp1 assembles into tubular structures in vivo and (ii) that the hexamers are stacked in a head‐to‐tail manner within the tube.
To verify that hexamers are stacked in a head‐to‐tail manner, we engineered tryptophan variants with the rationale that insertion of a bulky tryptophan residue at the hexamer interface will destabilize the assembly of the tubular structure. Indeed, the Hcp1 S158W variant was not functional, as shown by Hcp release assay (Supplementary Fig S4). Identical results were obtained when residues located within the loop facing Ser138 (Asn93 and Gly96) were substituted by tryptophan residues (data not shown). Interestingly, fluorescence microscopy showed that production of the Hcp1 S158W protein prevents formation of dynamic TssB/C sheath structures (Fig 1D, hcpW+), suggesting that Hcp hexamers polymerization into tubes is a prerequisite for T6SS sheath assembly.
Aberrant Hcp1 assembly in the cytoplasm of a sci‐1 T6SS‐deficient strain
We then asked whether the assembly of the Hcp tube requires T6SS components. Formation of Hcp1 hexameric rings remains unaffected in the ∆sci‐1 strain (i.e., which carries a deletion of the sci‐1 T6SS gene cluster; Fig 4A). However, all the cysteine combinations (G96C‐S158C, Q24C‐A95C and G48C) led to the formation of dimers or higher oligomeric forms, demonstrating that, in absence of any T6SS subunit, Hcp1 hexamers can pack in head‐to‐tail, tail‐to‐tail and head‐to‐head assemblies (Fig 4A). From these data we concluded that, while Hcp1 spontaneously forms hexameric rings, proper assembly of Hcp1 tubes in vivo is tightly controlled by Sci‐1 T6SS components. During bacteriophage T4 biogenesis, a complex structure called the baseplate serves as a platform for tail tube/sheath polymerization and triggers sheath contraction as well [13]. The tube initiates its polymerization once the six wedges assemble onto the gp27‐gp5 hub complex [13]. We therefore tested whether Hcp1 assembles tubular structures in absence of VgrG1, the T6SS homologue of the hub complex. As shown in Fig 4B, Hcp1 hexamers do not assemble in head‐to‐tail only in vgrG1 cells, demonstrating that VgrG1 is required for proper assembly of Hcp1 tubes. However, VgrG1, when produced alone in the Δsci‐1 background, is not sufficient to restore the controlled Hcp1 assembly (Fig 4D). Finally, Hcp1 assembly is not impaired in tssB1C1 cells (Fig 4E), a result consistent with phage morphogenesis as bacteriophage T4 sheath‐less tails have been previously observed [22].
Conclusive remarks and outlook
The current models of Type VI secretion hypothesize that the Hcp proteins assemble into a structure resembling the bacteriophage tail tube [6]. Indeed, in vitro electron microscopy experiments showed that purified Hcp spontaneously assembles into small tubular edifices [6], [11]. In contractile bacteriophages, the tail tube is surrounded by the sheath and serves as a scaffold during sheath polymerization [13], [22]. In the T6SS, TssB and TssC form dynamic cytosolic structures resembling the phage sheath, providing further support to the assembly of similar contractile tail structures in both T6SS and bacteriophage T4 [14], [15], [16], [17], [20]. By analogy with the bacteriophage structure, the cytosolic portion of the T6SS is depicted as a sheath surrounding an Hcp tube. Here, we provide evidence that the EAEC Hcp1 protein interacts with the sheath‐like TssB1/C1 complex through direct contacts with TssB1. Recently, an interaction between Hcp and both TssB and TssC has been reported in Agrobacterium tumefaciens [24]. In our bacterial two‐hybrid and co‐immunoprecipitation assays, we did not detect an interaction between Hcp1 and TssC1. Furthermore, we noted that Hcp1‐TssB1 complex formation was of low affinity since chemical cross‐linking was required to detect this interaction in vivo. This low affinity is compatible with a model in which the Hcp tube slides within the sheath during contraction. In agreement with the results obtained by Kapitein et al using immunofluorescence microscopy [15], the comparison of T6SS sheath assembly in WT and hcp1 mutant strains using time‐lapse fluorescence microscopy further showed that Hcp1 is required for sheath polymerization: in absence of Hcp1, TssB1‐sfGFP dynamic structures were not observed and the fluorescence was diffuse. Additionally, we found that assembly of the sheath‐like structure is dependent on Hcp1 tube formation as a tryptophan substitution disrupting Hcp1 tubular edifices prevents formation of the T6SS sheath. Although the mechanism by which T6SS sheath polymerization is dependent on Hcp has not been determined here, our data suggest that the TssB/C proteins assemble the sheath using the Hcp tube as a framework, as proposed during bacteriophage T4 tail morphogenesis [13], [22].
The cysteine substitution approach revealed that Hcp1 assembles in an ordered manner in vivo in which hexameric rings stack head‐to‐tail onto one another. These results provide the first in vivo demonstration that Hcp subunits form a genuine tubular structure. While these novel data are key to a better understanding of the assembly mechanism of the T6SS, they also bring clues regarding phage structure. Indeed, due to the sheath density in cryo‐electron microscopy images, the assembly mode of the tail tube of contractile phages has not been described yet [13]. However, the tail tube of the non‐contractile bacteriophage λ is composed of 32 stacked hexamers of GpV [18]. Based on the data described here, and on the crystallographic observation that tailed bacteriophages and T6SS tubes are composed of similar building blocks [9], we propose that these tubes share a common organization. In the case of phages, the tail tube serves as a conduit for DNA and proteins delivery [13]. Interestingly, it was recently shown that protein toxins delivered by the T6SS can be loaded either onto the tip of the VgrG protein [7] or within the Hcp hexamer [25]. The formation of Hcp tubes therefore suggests that multiple toxins could be stored into the tube and delivered into the target cell by a single shot.
Importantly we show that proper assembly of the Hcp1 tube requires other T6SS subunits. Although the T6SS does not impact formation of the hexameric rings, implying that rings assemble spontaneously, one or several of the T6SS core components are required for proper polymerization of Hcp1 hexamers into tubes. We showed that while the TssB1 and TssC1 proteins are dispensable, VgrG1, the homologue of the gp27‐gp5 hub, is required – but not sufficient – to promote proper Hcp1 assembly. Indeed, during phage tail biogenesis, tube and sheath polymerization is primed by the hub and the tail initiator complex and occurs once the baseplate has been completed. In the T6SS, the components of the baseplate are yet to be identified. The in vivo assay developed in this study may then be used to probe the different subunits of the T6SS and determine which subunit(s) control the ordered Hcp1 assembly. Among other exciting open questions, whether the Hcp tube length is regulated by a tape measure protein such as the bacteriophage T4 gp29 protein and whether dedicated chaperones are required for proper assembly of the Hcp tubes are now under investigation.
In sum, we showed that (i) Hcp form tubes of stacked hexamers, (ii) Hcp tube formation is required for sheath polymerization, (iii) TssB and TssC are not required for Hcp tube formation and (iv) VgrG is required for Hcp assembly. This is reminiscent of phage morphogenesis in which (i) formation of the tail tube initiates onto the central hub of the baseplate and (ii) the sheath is dispensable for tube assembly but use it as a template during polymerization. It is worth to note that subtle differences exist between T6SS tail assembly and bacteriophage tail morphogenesis such as the observations that phage tail tube proteins do not assemble as hexamers by their own or that phage tail tubes are extremely stable. However, the commonalities underlined by this study emphasize that the general mechanism underlying the assembly of these structures is likely conserved.
Materials and Methods
See Supplementary Materials and Methods for details of homology modeling, design of cysteine variants, fractionation, Hcp1 release, bacterial two‐hybrid and co‐immunoprecipitation procedures, and Supplementary Table S1 for list of strains, plasmids and oligonucleotides used in this study.
Bacterial strains, growth conditions and chemicals
Escherichia coli K12 DH5α was used for cloning procedures. The EAEC strain 17‐2 and its Δsci‐1, Δhcp1, ΔvgrG1, ΔtssB1, ΔtssC1 and ΔtssB1‐C1 isogenic derivatives were used for this study. Strains were routinely grown in LB broth at 37°C, with aeration. Plasmids were maintained by the addition of ampicillin (100 μg/ml for K12, 200 μg/ml for EAEC) or chloramphenicol (40 μg/ml). Dichloro (1,10‐phenanthroline) copper(II) (Cu‐oP) and N‐ethylmaleimide (NEM) were purchased from Sigma‐Aldrich.
In vivo disulfide cross‐linking
3 × 1010 exponential growing cells (OD600 ~ 0.6) were incubated with 0.3 mM Cu‐oP for 20 min without agitation. Cells were then harvested by centrifugation and incubated in 10 mM HEPES (pH 7.4), Sucrose 30%, 1 mM EDTA and 2.5 mM NEM for 30 min on ice to block free thiol groups. Cells were pelleted by centrifugation and submitted to a fractionation procedure (see Supplementary Materials and Methods). Cytoplasmic extracts were mixed with loading buffer prior to analysis by SDS‐PAGE and immunoblotting.
Time‐lapse fluorescence microscopy
Overnight cultures of entero‐aggregative E. coli 17‐2 WT or mutant derivative strains carrying plasmid pBAD33‐TssB1–sfGFP were diluted 1:100 into M9 minimal medium supplemented with glycerol (0.2%), vitamin B1 (1 μg/ml), casaminoacids (40 μg/ml), LB (10% v/v) and chloramphenicol 40 μg/ml. Cells were then cultivated for 6 hours to an OD600nm ~ 1.0 in M9 minimal medium to maximize expression of the sci‐1 T6S gene cluster that is up‐regulated in iron‐depleted conditions [26]. Cells were washed in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), resuspended in PBS to an OD600nm ~ 50 and spotted on a thin pad of 1.5% agarose in PBS and covered with a cover slip. Microscopy recordings have been performed as previously described [17].
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Figure 1 [embr201337936-sup-0001-FigS1.pdf]
Supplementary Figure 2 [embr201337936-sup-0002-FigS2.pdf]
Supplementary Figure 3 [embr201337936-sup-0003-FigS3.pdf]
Supplementary Figure 4 [embr201337936-sup-0004-FigS4.pdf]
Supplementary Table 1 [embr201337936-sup-0005-TableS1.pdf]
Supplementary Information [embr201337936-sup-0006-SupportingInformation.pdf]
We thank Tâm Mignot for fluorescence microscopy, Laure Journet, Petr Leiman (EPFL, Switzerland) and the members of the Cascales, Lloubès, Cambillau, Bouveret and Sturgis research groups for discussion, Oliver Uderso, Isabelle Bringer and Annick Brun for technical assistance, Patrick Vieira and Lionel Messing for plasmids. Work in the E.C. laboratory is supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a grant from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR‐10‐JCJC‐1303‐03). Y.R.B. was supported by a doctoral fellowship from the French Ministère de la Recherche.
Authors contributions
YRB, JH and EC designed and conceived the experiments; YRB, JH and EC provided tools; YRB, JH and HC performed the experiments; YRB, JH and EC wrote the article.
FundingAgence Nationale de la Recherche ANR‐10‐JCJC‐1303‐03
- © 2014 The Authors


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In these uncertain times, we are often left wondering if the articles we read every day through social media are promoting real or fabricated news. Thankfully, some websites promise the facts alongside balanced, informed, and educated opinions on current events. Great, you are probably thinking, where can I find this place? Search no further! Say hello to the New York Times Online, a new collaboration between Marywood University and the New York Times, thanks to the Learning Commons' own Michelle Sitko, Head of Continuing Digital Resources. You may have read articles from the New York Times before, but now you can access virtually everything NYTimes.com has to offer for free with your Marywood email. Read on to find out how!
On February 8, 2017, Sitko sent an email to the Marywood campus about New York Times Online. In the email she explained that all Marywood students, staff, and faculty could sign up at NYTimes.com/Passes with their Marywood email to receive free and complete access to the New York Times. Whereas before readers of the Times were required to pay after a certain amount of free online articles, anyone in the Marywood community is allowed to access the New York Times and its expansive archive online at no cost.
In addition to free articles and archives, New York
Times Online allows educators on campus to access the New York Times in Education site. To utilize this feature, navigate to NYTimesinEducation.com/Register and provide your Marywood email address. According to Sitko's email, "this site includes faculty-developed, AASCU aligned learning outcomes, [and] general instruction strategies to promote student achievement." Included in
the website is a number of activities for learning development and all are free to Marywood users.
Other notable features include the New York Times large and diverse collection of videos, TimesTopics, and mobile apps to integrate the New York Times into your busy life. To access the apps, go to NYTimes.com/Mobile.
But wait, there's more! With this new and exciting partnership comes the introduction of virtual reality to your mobile device. With the New York Times and your iPhone or Android device, you can activate virtual reality to experience videos and stories in 360-degree immersive video format. Try it out today by visiting the Knowledge Bar in the Learning Commons!
If you have any questions about the New York Times Online, you can contact Michelle Sitko at firstname.lastname@example.com or contact the Learning Commons Circulation Desk at (570) 961-4707.


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Ministry of Foreign Affairs
About Iran
Public Diplomacy
Consular Affairs
Contact Us
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi has delivereda letter from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
As the special envoy of the Iranian President, Sarmadi held talks with the Ugandan president in Kampala and exchanged views on the latest developments regarding the Iran nuclear deal and mutual relations.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister elaborated on the US'unilateral moves and the threats posed by Washington's destructive policies against global peace and security. He then called on independent states to adopt a united stance against such illogical policies and moves.
Sarmadi also described Trump's decision to unilaterally pull out of the JCPOA as a violation of the US' pledges under the deal and said the move stands in stark violation with the US'international commitments.
He then expressed hope that the remaining sides of the JCPOA could provide Iran with a full and comprehensive package to practically assure the Islamic Republic that it can enjoy its share of the economic benefits under the nuclear deal.
For his part, the Ugandan president underlined that his countryhas always welcomed and supported the JCPOA since it was signed in 2015 by Iran and the world powers and has closely and accurately monitored the developments of the multilateral deal.
He then expressed the hope that efforts by other parties to the nuclear deal to save it after the US withdrawal would pay off.
General Museveni also described the US' unilateral moves and policies as unacceptable and called for collective efforts by all independent states particularly the powerful ones to promote multilateralism in the world.
He also sent his regards to his Iranian counterpart and announced his country's will to expand mutual relations with Iran in all areas.
The meeting was also attended by Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa and the Director General of the Iranian Foreign Ministry's East Africa Department Malek-Hossein Givzad.


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Elements Of Life: Important Information Update!
March 8, 1998
March 17, 2003
March 6, 2004
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Improvising Thai Cucumber Relish
Although the true recipe for Thai ajard uses one kind of cucumber, I like to make mine by mixing different varieties of cucumber. This adds a surprising texture and taste to this simple recipe. I learned the principle of improvisation from older Thai cooks who make up their version of ajard by adding all sorts of seasonal vegetables including water chestnuts, lotus roots, radishes, shallots, young ginger or young garlic. Some would spice it up with chilies, coriander, fresh turmeric, as well as several kinds of mints and basil. For a truly over-the-top ajard, crushed roasted peanuts, crispy shallots and crispy garlic are added.
Cucumber is at its best now in farmer's markets. The peel is deep forest green and the inside translucent whitish meat is crispy and slightly sweet. Instead of the big and fat overgrown seeds, the center is filled with delicate, light green tiny immature seeds.
Pickling cucumber and lemon cucumber are just beginning their brief season. Both are very special treats. You don't have to use pickling cucumbers for making pickles. In fact, these smaller cucumbers remind me of the variety we have back in Thailand. I think the texture of these gherkins is crisper than the regular cucumber and thus they make very good salad additions.
I especially love lemon cucumber for its delicate, crunchy and slightly tangy taste. When I see it in the market, as I did this past Sunday, I hoarded as many as I could pack in my shopping basket. What I can't use for salads or in making a cool cucumber soup, I'll give to friends.
Cucumber is one of the best summer vegetables. It is a diuretic, filled with Vitamins C and A, fiber and potassium, keeping you hydrated and your blood pressure down. It is cooling and soothes and refreshes you, especially on a very hot summer days. Peeled skins and seeds can be blended and used to revitalize the skin after a full day in the sun. I don't even bother with the blending part. As I prepare the cucumbers for relish, I pile the peels and skins in one corner of my sink. After all the prep work it done, I just squish and slather them over my arms, hands, face and neck. I know I look like the devil, but after a nice shower my skin feels like a million dollars!
Cucumber Relish
Makes 2 to 3 servings
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar or agave syrup
1½ tablespoons distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon fish sauce (omit for vegetarian)
Mix all ingredients together until salt and sugar are dissolved. Set aside.
2 cups peeled, seeded and thinly sliced on diagonal varieties of cucumber
Mix the cucumber with the dressing and set aside for 10 minutes, serve.
Add at least 3 to 4 of the following ingredients into your cucumber dressing. Taste for balance. Otherwise, make another batch of dressing and add to your version of cucumber relish.
• 2 to 3 Tabasco chilies, coarsely chopped
• 1 to 2 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped cilantro
• 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped mint
• 1 to 2 radishes, slivered
• 1 to 2 strawberries, thinly sliced (or your choice of tangy fruits)
• 1/3 cup jicama slivers
• 1 tablespoon dry-roasted chopped peanuts or other kinds of nuts
• 1 tablespoon crispy shallot
• 1 tablespoon crispy garlic
7 comments:
- NickOlas! said...
Hello Su-Mei,
As as San Diego native, I cannot thank you or tell you just how grateful I am for your restaurants enough! I'm 24 and have grown up with Saffron... going with my mother, sister, family and friends. I'll surely be following your delectable recipes from now on!
I can say that we here at the San Diego Asian Film Foundation treasure our partnership with Saffron and hope to see you out at the festival with your new book!
- July 30, 2009 at 1:59 PM
- kristi said...
Someone brought in a newspaper clipping to knitting about the watermelon-chicken salad and we all wanted to eat it immediately! Thanks for sharing the recipe... but we're missing you!
- August 9, 2009 at 7:47 AM
- Arlenesfelt said...
Hello Su-Mei
We stopped in this afternoon to get a whole chicken with all it's delicious sides, which has become our latest Saffron obsession, when I saw your blog address. Though not the address you have posted, I googled you and found your delightful blog. I'll be tuning in regularly. We love and appreciate your restaurant where regardless of dietary restrictions one can eat fresh, clean, delicious food.
Thank you, Arlene and Burt Watson
- August 19, 2009 at 6:56 PM
- Su-Mei Yu said...
Dear Nick, Thank you for your lovely comments. I have a few customers such as yourself who grew up with Saffron and it always makes me a bit choke up with gratitude whenever someone such as your introduce yourself to me when I am in the restaurant. I hope we can meet face to face one of these days.
Unfortunately I am going to miss the festival this year because I will be in NY promoting the book, but Saffron will donate as usual. Keep up the good work. The films are always so much fun to watch. Su-Mei
- September 15, 2009 at 5:19 PM
- Su-Mei Yu said...
Dear Kristi,
Believe it or not, I was able to catch a moment here and there to knit while away. It kept be calm and occupied while I was on the 18 hours plane ride.
I miss you and the group too. Watermelon salad is still available at Saffron but only for another couple of weeks, since summer is virtually over! You are the best knitting teacher in the whole entire world! Su-Mei
- September 15, 2009 at 5:22 PM
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- December 21, 2009 at 8:29 AM
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- September 20, 2018 at 11:13 PM


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OMG Thank you for the wonderful response to the latest Eggface/Max Protein swag giveaway. We had a ton of entries. Thank you too for the lovely compliments about the blog. I appreciate it so much :) You all rock! I wish I had a tub for everyone or you could all come over and taste how awesome it is for yourself.
The random generator has selected:
Congratulations!!! You are the winners! Check your mail.
Thanks to SEI Pharmaceuticals for co-sponsoring this swag giveaway. For recipes using Max Protein (my favorite protein) click here or search Protein in the search box under my before & current picture.
To order Max Protein: just click on this link and at checkout enter the coupon code: eggface to receive 20% off your purchase.
Are you a business that wants to sponsor an Eggface swag giveaway? Contact Michelle at firstname.lastname@example.com Hoping to do a few swag giveaways a month. So keeping watching.
Thanks for playing everyone.
Drum roll...
This post may contain affiliate links. Posted by Michelle "Shelly" at Saturday, September 12, 2009
5 comments:
- Miss Soul said...
YAY! Thank you Shelly. You are offically the S.ugar H.oney I.ced T.ea!!! I danced around my living room in celebration
- September 12, 2009 at 1:42 PM
- Libby said...
I second what Miss Soul said! I am so pumped to try this and I really appreciate it!!! Thank you!!!!!
- September 12, 2009 at 1:59 PM
- Michelle "Shelly" said...
I was able to make the Post Office before 3 PM so they are on the way!
I hope you guys love it!
~Michelle "Shelly"
- September 12, 2009 at 3:52 PM
- Michelle "Shelly" said...
You've got mail: Tracking info :)
- September 13, 2009 at 6:20 PM
- Debbie said...
Just a short note to let u know how much I enjoy your website. Thanks for the recipes and not forgetting about our sweet tooth! You rock!!!! Debbie
- February 6, 2010 at 3:01 PM
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Awards: The Architect Balkrishna Doshi Wins the 2018 Pritzker Prize
7th March 2018
Docomomo International congratulates the architect Balkrishna Doshi for being announced the 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner.
Architect, urban planner, and educator for the past 70 years, Doshi has been instrumental in shaping the discourse of architecture throughout India and internationally. Influenced by masters of 20th-century architecture, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, and Louis Khan, Doshi has been able to interpret architecture and transform it into built works that respect eastern culture while enhancing the quality of living in India. His ethical and personal approach to architecture has touched lives of every socio-economic class across a broad spectrum of genres since the 1950s.
My works are an extension of my life, philosophy and dreams trying to create treasury of the architectural spirit. I owe this prestigious prize to my guru, Le Corbusier. His teachings led me to question identity and compelled me to discover new regionally adopted contemporary expression for a sustainable holistic habitat, comments Doshi. He continues, with all my humility and gratefulness I want to thank the Pritzker Jury for this deeply touching and rewarding recognition of my work. This reaffirms my belief that, life celebrates when lifestyle and architecture fuse.
Doshis architecture explores the relationships between fundamental needs of human life, connectivity to self and culture, and understanding of social traditions, within the context of a place and its environment, and through a response to Modernism. Childhood recollections, from the rhythms of the weather to the ringing of temple bells, inform his designs. He describes architecture as an extension of the body, and his ability to attentively address function while regarding climate, landscape, and urbanization is demonstrated through his choice of materials, overlapping spaces, and utilization of natural and harmonizing elements.
Docomomo International wishes the very best success for the architect Balkrishna Doshi.
More details: website


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Food and Fund Drives
Hosting a food or fund drive is easy and anyone can participate. You can host a food and/or fund drive at your place of business, school, church or with other groups.
Traditional food drives provide our partner agencies with a variety of greatly needed food items that go directly on their shelves to feed others. Every 4 pounds of donated food can provide 3 meals to a hungry neighbor!
Virtual Food Drives are green (i.e., no boxes, no bags, no transportation costs or carbon emissions). Shopping with us feeds more people. Every dollar donated feeds a person for a day.


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Primary tabs
Mr Larry Lannom
Professional Title: Other (please specify)
Other: VP and Director of Information Services
Primary domain: Information Management
Organization name: CNRI
Organization type: Academia/Research
City / Country: Reston, VA - United States
Short Bio
Last comments
Laurence W. Lannom Larry Lannom is Director of Information Services and Vice President at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), where he works with organizations in both the public and private sectors to develop experimental and pilot applications of advanced networking and information management technologies. His current work is focused on CNRI's Digital Object Architecture, which is based on the concept of the digital object, a uniform approach to representing digital information across computing and application environments, both now and into the future. He is responsible for the development and ongoing evolution of a series of infrastructure components needed to implement the architecture.