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A Home Safe From Fear: My American Dream · Global Voices
Tori Egherman

I started writing this in June 2015 after the shootings at the church in Charleston. It was like I’d been hit by a lightning bolt, witnessing yet another pogrom in the country that gave my Jewish family haven. I realized that I was living outside the shtetl walls, allowing the violence to continue unchecked because it wasn’t happening to me. I regurgitated pages and pages of words. As a resident of the Netherlands, I was facing my own paralysis in the face of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving in Europe. As a US citizen, I felt I was sitting out history. Some of that is here, creeping in once in a while. There is an emotional connection, yet I am stymied by my inability to act effectively. I am disgusted by my own limitations. By my need to earn a living, to pay taxes, to live within confines.
The small synagogue in Missouri where my mother’s family still worships. By Gsevy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
I sat on these words until recently. I cut away most of them and this is what’s left. It’s my American Dream. It’s the one my grandparents bequeathed to me: a home safe from fear.
There was a time when being Jewish was a form of blackness. When Jews were persecuted by the KKK and had to change their names from Cohen to Crane or Levy to Johnson; when Ari became Mark and Esther, Edith. My great uncle, the first of his family to be born in America, loved to tell a story about how he subverted a department store’s policy against hiring “Coloreds or Jews” by selling their umbrellas when it was raining and then pocketing the money. When my father, who was just a boy, played baseball for Hughes High School in Cincinnati, fans of the opposing team would chant, “Hughes, Hughes, niggers and Jews”. His high school yearbook reveals just one small and skinny dark-skinned boy.
“We were all seen as black,” my father explained to me. All those dark-haired children of immigrants.
His mother, my beloved grandmother, called Black people Schwartzes — black, in Yiddish. Despite her prejudices, she herself was often mistaken for “colored” and more than once was asked to ride at the back of the bus. In this day and age, the only place anyone would think she was black is Spokane, Washington or Ukraine.
Members of my family in the first half of the 20th century.
When my lucky relatives arrived in the United States sometime at the beginning of the 1900s — fleeing unimaginable persecution that would only become worse in the coming decades — they were able to make a home. They were able to become quickly and unapologetically American in small Midwestern cities. Cities with few, if any, Jews. America was a place that offered them safety and freedom.
There was no nostalgia in my family, no old world longing. Instead there was an active forgetting: a forgetting of the mother tongue, a denial of its very existence, a complete erasure of the past: so much so that the details of where my relatives came from remained a mystery for a long, long time.
My father’s mother came to America when she was six. Her last memory of Poland was a pogrom. One in which she saw her childhood friend torn apart by pigs. She told me this as a matter of fact. There were no traces of emotion in the telling — no attempts at gaining sympathy. The way she told it to me was dry and quick. She said that when she arrived home, her mother said to her: “Dina, it’s time we moved to America.”
The American dream. We had it. For us it was modest: a home without fear. A place where you looked forward, not back. A place where Jews weren’t killed by the millions and where the law sometimes restricted us, but not for long.
I have been two Americans at once: an American who was horrified by the overreach of state violence, most of which, I used to think, was directed outside our borders. And I was the grandchild of immigrants who knew with certainty that she owed her life to this amazing country and its protection. I can state with great certainty that had my family remained in Lithuania, Romania, or the Pale we would have been wiped out. Erased from the world like families in Syria and Rwanda and Biafra and Eritrea.
“I can state with great certainty that had my family remained in Lithuania, Romania, or the Pale we would have been wiped out. Erased from the world like families in Syria and Rwanda and Biafra and Eritrea.”
Over the years, I have come to understand that the American Dream that embraced my family did not embrace the families of dark-skinned people. The American dream could only be attained by people who could disappear into the visual tapestry of privilege. It might be true that in the first part of the 20th century Jews were visibly different and treated as pariahs, but by the latter part, the notion of what was white had broadened to include us. Looking Jewish was no longer a real thing, other than by choice.
Dark-skinned Americans have been facing racist structures so ingrained that those of us outside those structures didn’t even realize they existed. We knew that Black people and Jewish people faced discrimination when it came to buying and owning property, but not how structural it was and not how much more it hurt Blacks than white Jews. Mortgages and financing were refused to certain areas of cities that were predominantly Black (redlining). Real estate covenants prevented home sales to Blacks and Jews. Property was stolen. Family wealth destroyed. The government actively worked to prevent Black people from owning property. We knew about Jim Crow laws, but had forgotten sunset towns. And this was not just in the South. It was all over the country. And if you think it’s over, you’re wrong. Predatory credit schemes keep poor people poor and some banks may even check out your Facebook friends before issuing loans.
“We knew about Jim Crow laws, but had forgotten sunset towns. And this was not just in the South. It was all over the country. And if you think it’s over, you’re wrong.”
We’ve all seen it by now. Grieving families. Black men and women killed before our eyes. Families left without even the hope of justice. It is finally blindingly obvious to me that Black people in America have been undergoing pogrom after pogrom for generations. Black people in the United States have had their history dismissed. They have had their fears dismissed. They have been denied their future and their place in the world. Look it up. Rosewood, Florida. Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hurricane Katrina. Charleston. Too much tragedy for me to list. Too many pogroms.
Just as my great-grandmother once feared for her children, parents of Black children still fear for theirs. They share the same concerns. Will they come home whole and alive and unhurt? How can I protect them? What can I do? Where can I go?
Unlike my great-grandmother, Black people in the United States have nowhere to go. There is no place in the world inviting the huddled masses to their shores. We all know that. And it’s not like racist structures aren’t global. They are. Ask the Eritreans killed for their organs. Ask the Syrian families wasting away in refugee camps. Ask the refugees locked up by the Australian government. Ask the Latino-American families torn apart by heartbreaking policies.
Now, more than ever, it’s time for the United States to make good on its promise to its citizens and its promise to those seeking refuge. Life. Liberty. Home. We have to make the minorities among us feel safe. That is the very least of our responsibilities.
“Now, more than ever, it’s time for the United States to make good on its promise to its citizens and its promise to those seeking refuge. Life. Liberty. Home. We have to make the minorities among us feel safe. That is the very least of our responsibilities.”
We have to put aside our own pain and our own past and all that baggage we carry and make the American Dream of home and life without fear real for everyone.
This is why I support the #BlackLivesMatter movement. It’s not because my life or anyone else’s life matters less. It’s because I can’t unsee what I’ve seen. I can’t unknow what I know. I can’t not put myself in the shoes of a Black woman grieving for a loved one. I can’t erase history — or what I know of history. I know that when the lives of those around us have value, real value, and when we understand their history and see the patterns, we can change the patterns.
Me, I used to say, I’m the granddaughter of immigrants. It wasn’t my family who owned slaves or wrote the Jim Crow laws. No, we were busy being persecuted in Eastern Europe at a time when America was desperate for immigrants so that they could secure the country from the First Nations and the Mexicans. I could tell myself that I did not contribute to the past wrongs. At the time, I didn’t understand that those wrongs continued well into the present as well.
Little by little, my privilege became apparent to me. It started small. The ease with which I could get entry-level work. The cops who harassed an Hispanic couple for jaywalking when I was doing the same thing at the same time without notice. The cop who laughed at my friend and I as we were smoking weed in a parked car. My African-American colleagues who recounted police harassment as if it was normal. Because it was normal. They felt it every day. As my former colleague Malcolm Martin told me, “I can’t even remember the first time I was approached by the police.”
In more than a half century of life, the police have stopped me two times. Twice. Two times a month for my colleagues would not have even been remarkable.
And that’s the tip of the iceberg. It’s just what I can see. There have been so many ways I benefited with my apple cheeks and my Shirley Temple curls and my light skin. Most of them invisible to me. I still struggle, even with my privilege. It's not as though I have no fears. It's not as though I face no injustices.
I still carry centuries of pain buried deep in my DNA. There is a great sadness inside me. A looming apocalypse. A well-deserved fear. I’m not going to hide it away. I’m just not going to ask others to put my pain first. I’m not going to make its recognition a requirement for stepping in and doing what little I can.
A version of this article was previously published on Medium.

author: Tori Egherman


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After Two Decades, Jamaican Author Finally Unveils Book Dedicated to Marcus Garvey · Global Voices
Atiba Rogers

The cover of “Garvey's Ghost,” a new novel by Geoffrey Philp. Reproduced with permission.
It's not often that a writer describes a “criminal” as their hero, but the outlaw in question isn't just anyone — it's Jamaican-born civil rights leader Marcus Garvey. After 20 years of writing, Jamaican author Geoffrey Philp, whose children went to the same high school as Trayvon Martin (the African American teenager who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012), has finally published his first novel, “Garvey's Ghost.” It was released on August 17, 2016, (Marcus Garvey's birthday) by Carlong Publishers (Caribbean) Limited.
Why would Garvey be called a criminal? The founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) served a two-year sentence in 1925 in Atlanta, Georgia, after being convicted of mail fraud. He was then deported to Jamaica.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey is one of Jamaica's most revered national heroes. An eloquent spokesman for Pan-Africanism and black nationalism, he spread ideas of racial pride and economic self-sufficiency through his organization, and encouraged people to form an independent black nation in Africa, inspiring the “Back to Africa” movement espoused by many Rastafarians today.
Philp recognizes the historical importance and relevance of Garvey and his movement, and has advocated that President Barack Obama grant Garvey a presidential pardon.
Geoffrey Philp. Photo reproduced with permission.
Global Voices recently spoke to Philp about his new book and Garvey's relevance today:
Global Voices (GV): For readers who may not be aware, who was Marcus Garvey and why do you think he was important?
Geoffrey Philp (GP): Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was the leader of the largest movement for social and economic justice in the twentieth century. In 1914, he along with thirteen members founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and by 1920, after moving the headquarters to the United States, the movement had over 6 million followers worldwide. In 1922, at the height of the movement, Garvey was arrested by the Bureau of Investigation and charged with mail fraud. In 1925, Garvey began serving a five-year sentence in the US penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. After several appeals, his sentence was eventually commuted by President Calvin Coolidge, and he was deported to Jamaica. After running for office and winning posts in the local government, Garvey was again subjected to persecution by local law enforcement and he moved to England, where he died on June 10, 1940. In 1964, Garvey's body was returned to Jamaica and in 1969, he was awarded the nation's highest honour of National Hero.
Marcus Garvey is important for many reasons. Garvey was the first black leader to recognize the centrality of Africa in the destiny of the peoples of African descent and he was also the first to create a coherent blueprint for African liberation in his groundbreaking work, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. Many black leaders from Malcolm X to Jomo Kenyatta credit Marcus Garvey with opening their eyes to the urgency of African redemption. As Kwame Nkrumah said, “Long before many of us were even conscious of our own degradation, Marcus Garvey fought for African national and racial equality.”
GV: You are involved in a campaign seeking a pardon from President Obama for Garvey for the mail fraud conviction that had him deported from the United States. It still hasn't happened. Why are you so passionate about this and why is it necessary, in your view, for Garvey to be exonerated?
GP: The campaign to exonerate Marcus Garvey is very much alive. In fact, on August 17, 2016, Dr. Julius Garvey, Marcus Garvey's son, held a press conference at the National Press Club that brought together activists from all over the world to petition for a presidential pardon. Garvey's legal counsel explained in a recent interview: “Garvey's conviction and deportation facilitated the marginalization and silencing of his philosophy of racial justice, a strategy that focused primarily on economic empowerment for people of African descent throughout the world.”
The genius of Garvey's message should not be clouded by this obscene miscarriage of justice.
Marcus Garvey, National Hero of Jamaica, seated at his desk, 1924. Public domain. This work is from the George Grantham Bain collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work. Reproduction number LC-USZ61-1854 (b&w film copy neg.). Card #2003653533. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
GV: What has the life and legacy of Garvey meant to you personally?
GP: I believe in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality… Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
I also believe in the dignity of all human beings. Marcus Garvey stood for these ideals and he began his movement with the most downtrodden people on the planet, the people of his own race.
Since Garvey's time until now, we are still “kicked about,” exploited, abused, and murdered with impunity. Look at the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Who would believe that a hundred and twenty-nine years after Garvey's birth, peoples of African descent would still be subject to the same kinds of brutality and still have to assert that their lives have value – and not just as chattel?
Garvey also needs to be exonerated because he did not commit a crime. This fact has been demonstrated by the research and testimony of many scholars during hearings at the House of Representatives in 1987.Twenty years later, on January 10, 2007, Representative Charles Rangel introduced H. Con. Res. 24 to the 110th Congress: “Expressing the sense of the Congress that the President should grant a pardon to Marcus Mosiah Garvey to clear his name and affirm his innocence of crimes for which he was unjustly prosecuted and convicted.”
The whole purpose of Garvey's imprisonment was to halt the progress of Africans at home and abroad and for the sake of peoples of African descent, this injustice must be reversed.
GV: You've been sitting on this novel, “Garvey's Ghost,” for a long time. What got it kickstarted again and what is it about?
GP: I wouldn't say that I've been sitting on the novel for twenty years. I would say, however, that it had been rejected by publishers since I wrote the first draft, which was inspired by what happened to a friend of mine over twenty years ago, when her daughter ran away from home. And even though she was running away from home, she still saw herself as a “good” Jamaican girl. She had made the bed and tucked the corners of the sheets neatly under the corners of the mattress. That image stayed with me for a long time.
Since then, the manuscript went through many incarnations and rejections. The final draft came with the death of Trayvon Martin, who went to the same high school as my three children. His death hit close to home. And it gave me the reason why Jasmine Bailey would run away from home. Jasmine felt hopeless and helpless. She wanted to do something, anything, that wouldn't make her feel so impotent in the face of such grave injustice.
So, at its base, “Garvey’s Ghost” is about a young woman who runs away from home and her mother’s attempts to find her.
GV: How does your novel combine fact and fiction, and to what end?
GP: “Garvey's Ghost” is a mashup of real people, places, and things in Miami and Jamaica. For example, after I had the inspiration for the novel, I needed to figure out the plot and the characters. The writer John Gardener said, “Character is the life of fiction,” so before I write the first word of any story, I ask myself questions such as, “What does the character do for a living?” I thought about this for a long time, but I couldn't come up with a decent answer. Then, one Friday afternoon as I was having dinner with my wife at a local Chinese restaurant, I suddenly realized that I was surrounded by elderly Jewish men and women who were accompanied by their live-in nurses, many of whom were Jamaican. That was it. Jasmine's mother was a live-in nurse for an elderly Jewish woman.
So, why do I combine fiction and fact and “to what end?” I want to tell a good story! A storyteller's currency is plausibility. Of course, I have my own interests and ideas, but who wants to read a story where the writer is just preaching and screaming her ideas at you? I am not a propagandist. I am an artist. The story comes first. But you have to, as the poet Emily Dickinson advised, “tell it slant.”
GV: Who should read “Garvey's Ghost?”
GP: Garvey's Ghost is for anyone who is interested in finding out what happens next to a young woman who disappears from her mother's home in the middle of the night.
GV: Garvey was a proponent of going back to Africa. What was his thinking at the time, and does that philosophy still resonate today? Or have the descendants of African slaves integrated and settled where they are? And if they did decide to return, how do you think they would be able to move forward?
GP: Garvey was not a proponent of a wholesale back to Africa movement. He wrote in The Philosophy and opinions of Marcus Garvey, “We do not want all the Negroes in Africa. Some are no good here, and naturally will be no good there. The no-good Negro will naturally die in fifty years. The Negro who is wrangling about and fighting for social equality will naturally pass away in fifty years, and yield his place to the progressive Negro who wants a society and country of his own.”
Garvey wanted black people to have their “own place under the sun.” You have to remember that at that time, black people were subject to Jim Crow laws, colonialism in North, Central, and South America, and were confronted with crimes against humanity by every colonial power. For example, in the European scramble for Africa, King Leopold of Belgium (the Butcher of the Congo) massacred 10 million Africans in the Congo and one of his favourite tactics was to cut off the hands of Africans as souvenirs.
As Garvey envisioned it, Africa would an inspiration and a homeland that offered protection to Africans at home and abroad.
Of course, times have changed since then, but the idea of African redemption remains. And in this Garvey was almost prophetic when he said in The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey: “We shall march out, yes, as black American citizens, as black British subjects, as black French citizens, as black Italians or as black Spaniards, but we shall march out with a greater loyalty, the loyalty of race. We shall march out in answer to the cry of our fathers, who cry out to us for the redemption of our own country, our motherland, Africa.”
So, African redemption can be achieved in our own backyards as long as we are engaged in the principles that Garvey envisioned: Redemption, Education, Self-Reliance, Purpose, Entrepreneurship, Community, and Tradition (RESPECT).
GV: Do you think Garvey paid a price for his pride?
GP: Not only did Garvey pay a price for his pride, he paid a price for his black pride. It is the price that many black men have paid — even when they are not proud — but they are perceived as “uppity” because they have an ounce of ambition.
GV: Is there an individual who you think is carrying the torch for him today?
GP: There are many individuals who are carrying Garvey's torch in small and large ways. Here in South Florida, I can think of Garvey activists such as Ras Don Rico Ricketts of LionSplash, Dr. Michael Barnett, I. Jabulani Tafari, and Priest Douglass Smith of the Rootz Foundation. Further afield, I can think of Garveyites such as Mwariama Kamau, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Justin Hansford, Dr. Claire Nelson, Yaw Davis, Goulda Downer, Melvin Foote, Attallah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, Quito Swan, Nkechi Taifa, Shaka Barak, and of course, Dr. Julius Garvey.
Reggae icon Winston Rodney, alias Burning Spear, helped to keep Garvey's name in the public consciousness through his music, including the album “Garvey's Ghost.” Photographed live at Slim's in San Fransisco. Shot from camcorded videofilm 29-30 September 2008 by user Caspiax. Public Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons
But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the great Burning Spear, to whom the book is livicated and who kept Garvey’s name alive in popular culture; the scholars, Tony Martin, Robert Hill, Colin Grant, Rupert Lewis, Carolyn Cooper, and Carolyn Boyce-Davies, whose work guided me these many years and gave me insights into Garvey’s life.
Now, as far as the big torch is concerned, Garvey was incomparable. He was a once in a lifetime experience.
GV: “We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind,” according to Garvey. Words from that quote are popularly associated with lyrics in Bob Marley's “Redemption Song.” How does that resonate with you and what do you think other people should take away from that quote?
GP: Bob Marley, like Marcus Garvey, brought a message of redemption and enlightenment to the world, so it is no wonder that Bob would use Garvey’s words in his songs. My students would say that Marley and Garvey were “woke.”
We all need to be “woke.” Because if we aren’t “woke,” then we will end up in the situation that James Baldwin spoke about in his conversation with Nikki Giovanni: “What the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself. You become a collaborator, an accomplice of your own murderers, because you believe the same things they do.”
So, I tell my students, if you want to be “woke,” read the books of Franz Fanon, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lourde, bell hooks, Nikki Giovanni, Malcolm X, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ralph Ellison and Michelle Alexander. And that's just a start.
Reading and storytelling open the imagination to other possibilities so we won’t remain enthralled in the numbing narratives within our culture, which encourage silence and/or neutrality in the face of injustice. As Elie Wiesel said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, “We must always take sides… Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
GV: What is your experience as a Jamaican diaspora author like?
GP: When I came to Miami in 1979, no one had ever heard of Jamaican writers such as Roger Mais, Orlando Patterson, Dennis Scott, or Mervyn Morris. A few had heard about [St. Lucian poet and playwright] Derek Walcott, but you could count them on one hand. Thirty odd years later, we have had huge turnouts for writers such as Marlon James – well, who hasn't heard about Marlon James? – Kwame Dawes, [Haitian writer] Edwidge Danticat, [Trinidadian novelist] Elizabeth Nunez, and Colin Channer.
But what is even more rewarding is that we can now say we have a community of Caribbean writers such as (if I've left off a few names it's not because of malice or bad mind) Donna Aza Weir Soley, Fabienne Sylvia Josaphat-Merritt, Jaquira Díaz, Sandra Castillo, Max Freesney Pierre, Anjanette Delgado, Adrian Castro, Carlos Pintado, Michele Jessica Fievre, and many, many more.
Our audience has grown so large that the Miami Book Fair International, which is celebrating its 33rd anniversary this year, has launched #ReadCaribbean, “to highlight the region’s authors and topics that get at the heart of the Caribbean experience.”
GV: How successful a tool has citizen media been for your writing?
GP: Citizen media (and I include Global Voices in this) have been invaluable in my attempts to have Garvey exonerated. I have written many stories and letters and sent them to media outlets in Jamaica, the Caribbean, North America, and England, which have not been published. Luckily, I didn’t have to depend on the gatekeepers to get the word out. Just by using the hashtag, #MarcusGarvey, I was able to meet many other Garveyites such as Mwariama Kamau, who is an administrator for the Facebook group, Millions for Marcus Garvey.
Also, with the use of a Facebook Page (Exonerate Marcus Garvey), Twitter, YouTube videos and my blog, I was able to gather and deliver (through Causes.com) over 11,000 signatures to my representative in Congress, Frederica Wilson.
GV: Do you have any other upcoming projects/materials?
GP: Right now, I've just completed the manuscript for a book of poems, “Letter from Marcus Garvey,” in which I try to tell the story of Marcus Garvey, not as an icon of black liberation, but as a man. A man who fought for what he believed in; who loved and was betrayed (on many levels) and as a man who fulfilled his destiny.
GV: Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add?
GP: I’d like to thank you and Global Voices for the wonderful opportunities you have given me to speak about my hero, Marcus Garvey, and to spread the word about my novel, Garvey's Ghost.
Bless.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Atiba Rogers


text:
Body Shamers Beware: These Pakistani Women Aren’t Going to Take It Anymore · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

Battling Body-Shaming at Books n’ Beans in Lahore. Photo Courtesy: Bully Poof Facebook Page
Lawyer and activist Zainab Chughtai, who is also the founder of BullyProof — a social awareness campaign that works to prevent bullying in Pakistani schools — is now taking on body shamers by holding sessions with students and sharing stories of young women who are fighting back.
A viral Facebook video features young women sharing everyday stories of being body shamed. “Have you looked at the way you lie down? You look so vulgar,” one woman reports she was told. “[As] a 14 year old [I] had to hear comments that I would never get a marriage proposal,” another adds.
At one point in the video, Chughtai herself shares a heartbreaking anecdote: “I was told that the grave that'll have to be dug for me would have to be pretty deep,” she says, fighting back tears. Another woman admitted to having an anxiety attack at the tender age of 15 because of all the body shaming she was put through: “I was taken to the hospital, where they found out that I had hyperthyroidism, a metabolic syndrome due to which I was gaining weight drastically.”
The personal testimonies of the women featured in the video triggered responses from young women facing similar experiences. Syeda ShahBano Ijaz shared how she's helping her young daughter overcome body image issues:
Zainab Chughtai: you have no idea how wonderful this is. I wish I could have been a part of it – because this body shaming was so bad for me as a kid. I try my best to make sure my daughter doesn't care about how she looks […] that she should respect her body as it is. I see her chubby thighs and know she will always have trouble buying pants but I want her to NOT care. What a long fight we have.
In June of this year, Pakistan's defence minister, Khawaja Asif, came under fire by both opposition lawmakers and citizens when he made misogynistic remarks against fellow parliamentarian Shireen Mazari. Asif, who was attempting to silence Mazari during a parliamentary discussion on power outages, said in an attempt to body shame her: “Someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet.” He added, “Make her voice more feminine.” Asif's remarks sparked an outcry and though he was forced to apologise, his attitude revealed how body shaming is often used to silence women.
Stand-up comedienne Faiza Saleem shared her experience of tackling body shaming through her comedy:
Never in my life have I had a more fulfilling experience. Body-shaming is an issue so close to my heart yet such a sensitive subject to talk about that I was afraid it would make audiences uncomfortable(unlike actual fat-shaming-everyone's cool with that). Yet, as I stood there with the support of nine amazing women, I could not have felt happier as the crowd laughed and hooted at every line I said. And when they stood up from their seats to tell me that they understood, I found it difficult to hold back my tears. United, we stand UP! This one's for all my fatties, with love.
Chughtai's campaign counters attempts at humiliating women about their bodies by educating both young women and men about bullying, with a particular focus on body shaming. She explains:
This is us taking back our own bodies, and owning our own skins. We are enough. I am enough. This is the beginning of something beautiful, and the first of many more such confessionals to come.

author: Sana Saleem


text:
Don’t Read Japanese? Four Blogs Bring Japanese Books to Life · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

A used bookstore in Fukui City, Japan. Photo by Nevin Thompson.
It is estimated that Japan publishes more than 50,000 books each year. While Japanese publishers may be producing more and more content — even as as readership declines — Japan is still home to more bookstores than the United States (which has more than double the population of Japan).
The country still likes to read, and there is an entire universe of Japanese books to explore. Even if you don't read Japanese, there are bloggers writing about Japanese literature. Here are four of them…
Devoted to literature from all over the world, A Little Blog of Books includes regular updates on the world of Japanese publishing.
Recent posts on Japanese books include a review of ‘The Nakano Thrift Shop’ by Kawakami Hiromi. About the book, Clare, who runs A Little Blog of Books, says:
Originally released in Japan in 2005, ‘The Nakano Thrift Shop’ tells the story of Hitomi Suganuma who starts working as a cashier selling second-hand goods in a thrift shop owned by the mysterious Haruo Nakano. He has several ex-wives and is having an affair with Sakiko while his older sister Masaya is an artist who regularly pops in and offers guidance. Meanwhile, Hitomi is largely preoccupied with another employee, the introverted Takeo, who helps Mr Nakano with house clearances.
Oe Kenzeburo, Haruki Murakami, Yoshida Shuichi and other Japanese writers are also reviewed on this site.
Based in the United Kingdom, Damian Flanagan blogs regularly about a lot of different subjects, including Japanese literature. Topics include Japan's strangest book and ill-fated Japanese literary superstar Mishima Yukio.
One of Flanagan's recent blog posts explores Shiba Ryotaro, one of the most popular writers of post-war Japan:
Shiba is a wildly popular Japanese author whose long historical sagas such as ‘Ryoma Sets Out’ (‘Ryoma ga Yuku’) and ‘Clouds Above the Hill’ (‘Oka no Ue no Kumo'; co-translated into English by Julie Carpenter) have sold 21 and 15 million copies respectively. I must confess that I have never read either of these best-selling books, but I am attracted to Shiba's voluminous travel writing – contained in a series called ‘On the Road’ (‘Gaido o Yuku’) – which describe both his journeys within Japan and to destinations across the world.
As part of his ‘On the Road’ series, Shiba Ryotaro wrote travelogues about many places around the world, including Ireland. Flanagan notes that Shiba had fresh insights that may not have occurred to a writer from a Western background:
When Shiba finally gets out to the West of Ireland and the Famine Road, he looks down at the sea and ponders why there was such a terrible famine when there were fish in the sea and such delicious seaweed to eat. Perhaps a fatuous observation, but one that highlights the profoundly different culinary heritages of two island nations.
Flanagan's blog transcends literature and is an all-round interesting read.
No-Sword is “a blog about Japanese language, literature, culture and art” by Japanese-to-English translator Matt Treyvaud. The blog frequently provides compelling insights about classical Japanese — and even Chinese — as well as the history and etymology of the English language.
While Treyvaud will blog about formal monkey linguistics or speech report constructions in Ainu, he has also translated, into contemporary English, ‘Botchan’ — one the most beloved books in Japanese literature.
About his translation, Treyvaud says:
This is my breakneck, two-fisted translation of , one of the funniest novels in modern Japanese literature. [It] has been given a comprehensive going-over — but one careful to preserve the profanity and urgency of the first edition!
‘Botchan’, written by Soseki Natsume and published in 1906, tells the comic story of a hapless teacher's short stint at teaching in rural Japan. It has long been required reading in Japanese schools.
Bathers queue for tickets to Dogo Onsen Honkan in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku. Dogo Onsen Honkan features prominently in Soseki's book ‘Botchan.’ Image by Nevin Thompson.
Treyvaud includes a short sample of his translation of this classic, which can be downloaded at a nominal price.
The Japanese Street View Blog explores, using Google Street View, scenes all over Japan. One blog post that should not be missed is devoted to Jimbo-cho, a district in central Tokyo famous for its used bookstores.
Screenshot from Street View Blog
The author says:
Kanda, Jimbocho has long been known as a book town. There are a lot of cafes that authors frequent when they want write, so it is also known as a town famous for its cafes. This time, I will take you on a small tour of Jimbocho with Street View.
The blog post is an in-depth guide to this “book town” in central Tokyo, and provides detailed directions to various bookstores in the neighborhood. And if you can't make it to Japan, the Google Street View scenes embedded in the blog post give a fascinating glimpse into this unique corner of Tokyo.

author: Nevin Thompson


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In This Traditional Turkish Candy Shop, a Daughter Takes Her Turn · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Arzu walks into her grandfather's candy shop in Istabul. She'll break with tradition and will take it over one day. Credit: Christina Asquith/PRI
This article by Nihal Kayali originally appeared on PRI.org on August 24, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
When it comes to making Turkish sweets, the Altan family sticks to tradition.
Since 1865, Altan Sekerleme candy shop has served handmade Turkish delights and akide hard candies from the same store nestled in the cobblestone streets of Istanbul’s Kucukpazar neighborhood. Steeped in the centuries-old commercial life of the former Ottoman capital, the family trade has been passed down from father to son for four generations.
But that tradition is about to change. Current manager Hakan Altan has one child: 27-year-old daughter Arzu. She’s a mathematical engineer with a masters in business development — not your typical Old City merchant.
In old Istanbul’s bazaars and back alleys, artisans continue to hawk their wares like they did in Ottoman times, when Istanbul was a Silk Road hub. Nowadays, caravan merchants have given way to tourists who help sustain skilled craftsmanship in the face of mass-produced goods. But the persistence of these historic trades has perpetuated one stubborn tradition — men still vastly outnumber women in the commercial life in the Old City.
Arzu has faced traditional attitudes toward women vendors in the Old City. “People think that women have less information than men,” she says.
Customers don’t trust her advice. “’Where is you father? Your father comes and I will ask him,’” they demand.
Turkey performs poorly when it comes to bringing women into the workplace. In the 2015 Global Gender Gap Report, Turkey ranked 130th out of 145 countries. Only about 30 percent of Turkish women are employed in paid work, according to TurkStat’s 2014 Household Labor Force Survey.
But women like Arzu are making inroads in business in Turkey. Women own 40 percent of small- and medium-sized business in Turkey according to the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. Among women with college degrees, 72 percent are employed.
Most of these women with college degrees do not work in the Old City. Arzu says that tradesmen in the Old City tend to think that women are not “physically or mentally” ready to work. And while Arzu doesn’t plan to work in the kitchen making sweets, she believes that women are invaluable as the brains behind small businesses.
“Women are more sensitive to the customers, more sensitive to the job,” she says. Arzu decries men who mansplain their work instead of thinking about their customers’ needs. “Men think in a more straight way, ‘This is my job and I do it.’”
Arzu has enjoyed an enriching education — her family encouraged her to pursue graduate school and to work in other companies to gain business experience. Later, they say, she can return to the candy shop when it is her time.
“When I come back here, I feel that I am at home,” says Arzu.
Her grandfather Abdullah Altan, now 93, still comes to the shop every day despite having passed the business on to his son Hakan. Abdullah is a neighborhood fixture on his wooden chair outside the storefront, jars of akide candy gems glinting in the window behind him.
“I left school in 1935 and started working here with my grandfather,” he recalls. He worked at Altan Sekerleme for 70 years, with just one four-year break — to fulfill his compulsory military service.
For his son Hakan, the Altan family trade is interwoven with Ottoman lore. He explains how Ottoman janissaries, the elite imperial army, would boil akide in large copper vats and deliver them to the sultan when they were pleased with their salaries.
When salaries shrunk, the janissaries would storm the palace with their empty cauldrons. In Turkish, to “raise the cauldrons” means to revolt.
Hakan is not one to raise the cauldrons against tradition. Quite literally, the shop has been using the same copper cauldrons for over 80 years.
But Hakan does worry about the traditional candy business. Sales typically spike at the end of Ramadan, when families deliver gifts of Turkish delights and akide to friends and relatives. He’s noticed that there’s less demand than in the past.
“Candy-making is a Turkish art, but it’s unclear how it will continue, as traditional customs, even the way people interact with each other — taking gifts to each other, meeting each other — is declining,” Hakan worries.
Not to mention Turkey’s cratering tourism industry. With multiple terrorist attacks targeting tourists in Istanbul this year, international visitors to Turkey have dropped by a third, according to the Tourism Ministry. July’s violent coup and subsequent political instability may only make matters worse for vendors in the Old City.
“Compared to past years, there’s a serious drop in sales,” acknowledges Hakan. “But we’ll be fine, we’ll make it through.”
Perhaps Arzu’s management expertise will come in handy. Armed with a masters degree in business development, Arzu feels ready to help move the business forward. She mentions tapping into a younger generation of customers as one of her primary business goals.
“Everyone trusts me that I can do it in the fifth generation,” she says. “This is the first generation of the women!”
As for her grandfather Abdullah? He has no qualms about a woman taking charge next generation.
“Of course, of course, of course it can happen. Of course! Why not?”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Japan’s Most Astonishing Summer Festival · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Screencap from Discover Nippon Official YouTube Channel.
The Aomori Nebuta Festival is one of Japan's biggest and most popular annual festivals. As the name suggests, it is held in Aomori, the capital city of the Aomori Prefecture on the northern tip of Honshu — though it also takes place in the old castle town of Hirosaki, where it's called the Nebuta Festival — and over three days in August, features dozens of thirty-foot-tall illuminated floats resembling famous historical and mythological Japanese characters. It is a spectacular sight, and of course results in equally astonishing posts on social media.
Aomori's Nebuta is One of Japan's 3 largest festivals. This large fancy warrior dolls are so Amazing!!! . . #三井寺合戦 新田四天王大暴れ 作: 北村 蓮明 #Nbuta #青森ねぶた #festival #ねぶた祭 #KSUKETRIP
A video posted by KSUKE (@ksuke_jpn) on
There are various theories about the origins of the Nebuta festival. It's argued the festival may be a variation of the Tanabata festival, typically celebrated in many parts of Tohoku, also during the month of August. Another theory suggests that the floats, drums and dancing have been passed down from more than a thousand years ago, when armies from western Japan traveled to the northeast to subjugate out the indigenous Emishi inhabitants of the region.
ねぶた〜〜めっちゃ良い席で見れて良かったよ〜〜迫力も凄かった〜〜. . #青森#ねぶた#ねぶた祭#お祭り#祭り#最高
A photo posted by yuka (@ukyuka) on
We're at the Nebuta Festival in Aomori. We snagged some great seats so we have a great view. It was super intense! #AomoriNebutaFestival #summerfestivals #thebest!
The early-August event in Aomori City attracts visitors from all over Japan, and from all over the world.
It's hard to imagine how big these things are… ねぶたの大きさがInstagramあまりわからないけど…
A photo posted by Jerel Henderson (@jerelh) on
The festival involves much more than just the giant, fantastically illuminated floats — flutes, drums and dancers all combine to create an unforgettable event. This year, one YouTube user uploaded an hour-long video that provides a good look at what the event involves:
An added bonus to this year's Nebuta Festival was that some Tokyoites got a taste of the event without having to travel all the way to Aomori. One community space in the capital city, Meguro Gajoen, hosted a two-month exhibition of Wa no Akari (Japanese-style illumination) in its culturally significant Hyakudan Kaidan (Hundred-Step Staircase) area.
和のあかりねぶた祭 #和のあかり #百段階段 #和のあかり百段階段展2016 #目黒雅叙園 #ねぶた祭 #目力 #迫力満点 #写真好きな人と繋がりたい #日本の夏 #夏の思い出 #夏の風物詩 #nikond600 #light #wp_japan #tokyo #airy_pics #instagramjapan #team_jp_flower #pics_jp #まつり #見応えたっぷり #retro_japan_ #pics_jp2016 #retro
A photo posted by Raka*(らか) (@rakafleur) on
Japanese-style illumination festival at the Hyakudan Kaidan in Meguro, Tokyo (2016) #wp_japan #tokyo #airy_pics #instagramjapan #team_jp_flower #pics_jp #retro_japan_ #pics_jp2016 #retro
久しぶりの目黒雅叙園 其の２ #四角い写真 #ねぶた祭 #目黒雅叙園
A photo posted by akinori.tsuru (@darknoid) on
I'm checking out Meguro Gajoen for the first time in a while: two floats are on display. #MeguroGajoen #NebutaFestival
Still, for many people who do make the trip to Aomori, the Nebuta Festival is the real thing — and a striking way to spend the summer:
[やってまれ、やってまれ〜〜] 北国の #夏祭り 、 #ねぶた祭 見に行きました .。. . 地上20メートルの #立ねぶた が、大迫力でしたよ〜.。. . 今週も夏を楽しみましょうね♡.。. . #北の国から2016 #祭 #夜祭り .。.
A photo posted by aiko (@hondaaiko0810) on
“Don't hold back! Don't hold back!” #SummerFestival in the north country. I went and saw the #NebutaFestival. The site of a sixty-foot-tall Nebuta float was amazing. Let's enjoy the rest of the summer!


text:
Staring Down the Barrel of a Pellet Gun Is Making Kashmir Blind · Global Voices
Sana Jamil

Photo from Never Forget Pakistan Facebook page showing photoshopped pellet gun wounds on the faces of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bollywood actors and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Dozens of people have died and thousands more were injured in the most recent surge of unrest in Indian-administrated Kashmir. The latest episode began after security forces killed Burhan Muzaffar Wani, commander of the Kashmiri separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen. Protests turned violent on July 10, 2016, when Indian military forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who defied a curfew.
Home to around 12 million people, Indian-administrated Kashmir is geographically divided between India and Pakistan; both countries have been involved in a decades-long dispute over claims to the valley. A number of politicians, separatist groups and rebels have been fighting for a right to self-determination. Today, Kashmir is the most densely militarised zone in the world, with a reported half a million soldiers.
Over 50 people have reportedly been killed, with over 1,000 people injured. Indian forces have reportedly been using pellet guns to disperse crowds, resulting in serious injuries — some of them fatal.
According to The Hindu, one Kashmiri hospital that treats only critical patients from as many as ten affected districts, had received 933 pellet cases as of the first week of August.
By then, many people had had enough. Kashmiri activist and journalist Najeeb Mubarki — as well as other netizens — tweeted photos of victims affected by the crackdown:
11 year old at #Kashmir hosp. his card reads ‘pellet injuries..damage eyes..liver and spleen grossly’ #KashmirSiege pic.twitter.com/ipaqjk8zPz
— najeeb mubarki (@najeebmubarki) July 12, 2016
An x ray of a #Kashmir boy hit by pellets…This evil weapon meant for beasts should be banned. @hrw @UN pic.twitter.com/flPyG0r1rO
— Wasim Khalid (@WasemKhalid) July 12, 2016
Once similar photos of red-eyed Kashmiris — some as young as nine years old — emerged, mainstream media began to pay a bit more attention, but the advocacy group Never Forget Pakistan felt the situation was even more dire. Will the world care more about the violence in Kashmir if it impacted people they know? This question was the impetus behind the awareness campaign #IndiaCantSee.
The campaign posted photos of famous celebrities like Indian premier Narendra Modi, cricketer Virat Kohli, actors Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachan, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, all with their faces photoshopped to show pellet injuries.
What if you knew the Victim? #IndiaCantSee #LetKashmirDecide https://t.co/FvNxTsrHNV
— Haseena ♕ (@anitaommer1) August 4, 2016
80 more injured & 6000 pellet cartridges used in #Kashmir so far by Indian Forces #IndiaCantSee #LetKashmirDecide pic.twitter.com/vxyQEolZ5M
— Jibran Nasir (@MJibranNasir) August 5, 2016
The campaign received a lot of traction, but critics say that it might have done more harm than good to the movement in Kashmir, since it was spearheaded by a Pakistani group. Kashmiri activists often face threats and smear campaigns, accusing them of working with the Pakistani state or extremist groups against Indian sovereignty. Indian writer and editor Chintan Girish Modi explained his reservations about the campaign:
This is why I'm skeptical of social media campaigns that grab eyeballs but are terribly thought through — causing more damage than good. After the Pakistani campaign that ran morphed images of Indian celebrities with make-believe injuries from pellet guns, there's now an Indian campaign with morphed images of Pakistani celebrities with similar injuries on their faces. The first campaign was done in the name of highlighting human rights abuses in Kashmir, and was appropriated by Pakistanis to talk about how Indian Administered Kashmir is so fucked up while Pakistan Administered Kashmir is oh-so-awesome. Zero ownership for how the Pakistani state supports terrorism/jihad (pick your term) in Kashmir. The second campaign was done by Indians who want Pakistanis to take a good long look at their terrible human rights record before they talk about AFSPA [the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Acts that give special powers to the Indian Armed Forces] and state sponsored armed violence/terrorism (pick your term) in Indian Administered Kashmir. I won't be surprised if Indians use this to prove their chest-thumping patriotism instead of looking at how we are alienating Kashmiris of all religions, and have our own terrible human rights record. Social media is such a powerful tool for dialogue and diplomacy but looks like it is being used for a digital war. Once again, the voices from Kashmir are being drowned out by Pakistanis and Indians.
We turned to the Global Voices community to ask authors and editors from the affected regions what they thought of the use of pellet guns in Kashmir. There was unanimous condemnation of the practice. Vishal Manve, an Indian journalist and Global Voices author, said:
The use of pellet guns on innocent Kashmiris should be banned at the earliest. It's inhumane, unethical, severely physically cripples civilians and is a grave human rights violation committed by the state. There is nothing non-life threatening about pellet guns as claimed by the Indian government. They maim, hurt, damage and cripple young children, women and youngsters who sometimes lose their eyesight due to these dangerous weapons.
Sana Jamal, a freelance journalist and writer from Islamabad, Pakistan, was very clear about her denunciation of the practice:
One glimpse at the deformed faces and maimed bodies of Kashmiri people is enough to speak of horrors caused by pellet shotguns.
Independent activist and blogger, Kisholoy Mukherjee, added:
It is absolutely NOT OK to use pellet guns or any form of violent means on people in Kashmir. The state machinery needs to listen to the demands of the people in the region. The only legitimate government is the one that is of the people, by the people and for the people. So the only way to stop the violence in Kashmir is for the government to first carry out a formal referendum on whether people in Kashmir want to remain with India or not.
From Sringar, Kashmir, Facebook user Shahnawaz Khan expressed his frustration over the support of pellet guns being used on protesters:
When the Indian trolls justify the state brutalities by saying that ‘Kashmirs are attacking our soldiers with stones’ do they realise the point they are making. They do, and they know it is the same point we are making, that it is Us vs Them, that we are not one, that we have nothing in common.
We are Kashmiris, they are Indians. Two separate nations, two different identities. One oppressed the another oppressor.
Renowned Kashmiri author and journalist Basharat Peer, who regularly writes about the human rights violations in Indian-administrated Kashmir, was overwhelmed by the violence:
One of the hardest things I have ever done in my life was to look at the morning paper in Srinagar today. A 14 year old girl blinded by the pellet guns of Indian troops while she was in her home.
Mirza Waheed, renowned Kashmiri novelist and journalist, described the Indian government's actions in the valley as corrupt:
India's definition of ‘integral part’ is perverse to say the least. A moral system that allows you to kill, maim and blind children is a corrupt one, to say the very least.
It is quite clear then that India, in its empiric hubris, in the brute arrogance germane to occupying powers, treats Kashmiris as one thing and one thing alone–a subject race that must be punished, pulverised, into submission.
It's also Iabundantly [sic] clear that historically India has treated Kashmir as nothing but a colony, a territory of conquest, a trophy that must be won by any means.
Only other state that routinely brutalises a people is Israel. India's thinking classes should be ashamed it's being done in their name.
Any way you look at it, Kashmiris, as a people, as a society, are facing hitherto unseen collective punishment at the hands of a hawkish state.
India has kept Kashmir under a ruthless, punitive siege for nearly a month now. I hear of enormous suffering and resilience every day.
The Kashmir valley has been mired in conflict for three decades now and Kashmiri voices are often muffled by the tussle between India and Pakistan. Despite curfews, internet blackouts and campaigns accused of misappropriating Kashmiri voices, Kashmiris are increasingly speaking out for themselves. Their voices join many others protesting in Delhi and Calcutta, calling for immediate demilitarization of the region.

author: Sana Jamil


text:
Another Contested Election in Gabon Sparks Civil Unrest · Global Voices
Lova Rakotomalala

Screen capture of video of conflict between police and protesters after the elections via France 24
Presidential elections took place in Gabon on August 27, 2016. On August 31, both the incumbent president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, and his main opponent, Jean Ping, announced that they won the elections. The official results, however, declared Ali Bongo Ondimba the winner, with a total of 177,722 votes to the incumbent, while Ping and his political party Union of Forces for Change collected 172,128 votes.
The news resulted in immediate and massive street protests from the opposition. During clashes between the police and protesters, at least five demonstrators were reported dead. In addition, 200 stores were ransacked and the national parliament building was set on fire:
#Gabon‘s national assembly set ablaze in the immediate aftermath of what many are calling a rigged election result: https://t.co/WjOEmyPZSa
— Jeffrey Smith (@Smith_JeffreyT) August 31, 2016
🔴 #Gabon2016 riots NOW people calling for HELP PLS @BreakingF24 @JTAtv5monde @BFMTV @itele @BBCBreaking @cnnbrk @RFI pic.twitter.com/6TYkNTrljO
— Gloria Mika (@gloriamika) September 2, 2016
Ali Bongo Ondimba versus Jean Ping via wikipedia
This is not the first time that elections have been highly contested in Gabon. The incumbent, Ali Bongo Ondimba, is the son of former despot Omar Bongo, who was the country's president from 1967 until his death in 2009. During his father's presidency, Ali Bongo Ondimba was minister of foreign affairs (1989 to 1991) and minister of defense (1999 to 2009). He was also the candidate of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) in the August 2009 presidential election in which, according to official results, he won with 42% of the vote. But one of his opponents, Andre Mba Obame, alleged that the elections were rigged and many of Obame's supporters protested in the streets of Port-Gentil.
Similar allegations are now being expressed by Jean Ping, who has enjoyed a long career as a diplomat and politician. As the chairperson of the Commission of the African Union from 2008 to 2012, Ping was often involved in trying to resolve electoral crises — Madagascar in 2009 and Côte d'Ivoire in 2010. Interestingly, he is now entrenched in a political crisis in his own country and will get to see whether his negotiation skills can be put to work for his own interest.
Alioune Tine, head of Amnesty International in West and Central Africa, explained what is at stake in Gabon:
Si vous multipliez les obstacles pour arriver à des élections transparentes et à une alternance pacifique, forcément vous aboutissez à des situations de cette nature. En Afrique centrale, on n’a pas l’impression que les gens veulent quitter le pouvoir. Surtout quand il s’agit d’une famille qui y est restée très longtemps. Il faut une équité dans la gestion des ressources. Il ne faut pas que ce soit un groupe, un clan ou une famille qui gardent tout. Les autres vont demander d’une façon ou d’une autre leur part du gâteau. Soit vous changez pacifiquement par des élections transparentes dont les résultats sont acceptés, et si vous ne le faites pas, vous ne pouvez espérer bénéficier d’une stabilité dans la durée. Il faut créer de véritables forces républicaines qui ne sont pas là pour défendre un régime. Nous avons demandé aux forces de sécurité gabonaises et aux autorités en place d’arrêter l’usage excessif de la force. Les gens doivent pouvoir exprimer leur mécontentement pacifiquement, sans avoir peur pour leur vie. Sans avoir peur pour leur intégrité physique.
If you multiply the obstacles to conduct transparent elections and have a peaceful transition, inevitably you will end up with situations of this nature. In Central Africa, we do not sense that the reigning elite is willing to yield power. Especially when it is a family that have remained in power for a long time. Countries must strive for equity in the management of resources and power. It cannot be the property of a single group, clan or family who keep holding on to everything. Others will ask in one way or another for a piece of the pie. Either you change peacefully through transparent elections whose results are accepted by the majority or if you do not, you can expect to receive a stability over time. We must put in place a genuine republican system that is not there just to defend a regime. We asked the Gabonese security forces and authorities in place to stop the excessive use of force. People need to express their discontent peacefully, without fear for their lives, without fear for their physical integrity.
Aside from the allegations of fraud and the street protests, things have changed drastically in Gabon between the 2009 and 2016 elections. For starters, Gabonese civil society has grown much further in getting organized and extending its network. As soon as the fraud allegations came to the fore, many local associations were able to verify and provide evidence of malfeasance when appropriate — which brings us directly to the next event in the Gabon crisis that suggests ill intentions may be at play from the current administration: internet censorship.
The following tweet illustrates without much doubt that the government willfully shut down the internet on the eve of the publication of the country's electoral results:
Internet shutdown in Gabon started Wednesday night #Gabon2016 #GabonVote pic.twitter.com/57zicxUWeQ
— Vote4Africa (@vote4africa) September 2, 2016
Julie Owono, Global Voices contributor and head of the African Desk at Internet Without Borders,  explained what is censored and how information is still being transmitted:
Des coupures nettes d'internet se sont produites  le 29, le 30 août et celle du 1er septembre. Nous avons été en contact avec des organisations de la société civile pour leur transmettre des outils qui permettent de contourner cette censure. Nous collaborons avec de nombreuses organisations internationales qui ont mis en place des tutoriels très simples pour mettre en place ces outils. Donc ça fonctionne quand même. Malheureusement, ce n'est pas toute la population gabonaise qui peut les utiliser. Ce sont seulement des comptes (des internautes, ndlr) qui ont un peu plus de connaissances technologiques, techniques, qui sont catalyseurs de tous les contenus qui sortent du Gabon. Donc aujourd'hui, c'est avec ces comptes-là que nous sommes en communication
Internet outages were observed on the 29th and 30th of August and the 1st of September. We have been in contact with civil society organizations to train them in using tools to circumvent internet censorship. We are working with many international organizations that have implemented simple tutorials to develop these tools. So the internet still works. Unfortunately, not all Gabonese people can use them [the tools]. So far, only users who have in-depth technical knowledge can use them and therefore they are the catalysts for all content coming out of Gabon. So today, it is with some of these accounts that we are in communication.
Clashes are still underway in some cities and the country seems destined to be stuck in a political quagmire for a little while.

author: Lova Rakotomalala


text:
A Muralist Is Painting Weeds Around the World to Represent the Margins of Society · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Artist Mona Caron paints a mural of a platago lanceolata in San Francisco. Credit: Andrea Laue | http://www.sparebeauty.com
This article by Ali Budner originally appeared on PRI.org on August 31, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
If you’re wandering around, say, Sao Paulo, Brazil, or Athens, Greece, or San Francisco, California — you just might stumble upon a weed grown as tall as a building … on the building, that is.
Mural artist Mona Caron uses city walls all over the world as canvases for her magnified portraits of wild plants. She says they represent what survives at the margins of society. And she wants us to pay closer attention.
Caron lives in San Francisco, but hails from the Italian part of Switzerland. She started out her career doing sweeping bird's-eye views of cities, and has been known as the cityscape artist for a long time.
But then something happened a few years ago. She began doing the opposite — painting tiny things large. Specifically, weeds, the little wild plants that grow in cracks of sidewalk everywhere, the plants that people step on. “The less attention we pay it,” Caron says, “the larger I’m gonna paint it!”
“I don’t paint dainty little grandmotherly botanical illustrations,” Caron says. To her, weeds are plants that have power.
Mural artist Mona Caron uses city walls all over the world as canvases for her magnified portraits of wild plants. Credit: Andrea Laue | http://www.sparebeauty.com
And she has painted her giant weed murals now in dozens of cities worldwide. There’s a dandelion on the rooftop of a mosque in San Francisco, another giant dandelion in Switzerland, a stinging nettle in Barcelona. She even painted an unidentified weed that she found in one of the largest slums in Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat.
“And so it’s kind of funny,” she points out, “how this idea seems to have no borders just like weeds themselves.” Weeds are plants that have spread internationally because of globalization. Similarly, says Caron, this project has taken hold everywhere “because you don’t need much language to explain it.”
From a motorized scissor lift 25 feet up in the air, Caron scratches charcoal lines on a bumpy beige wall, then sprays green paint from a can between the lines. She’s working on a Ribwort plantain — Plantago lanceolata — on a four-story office building in San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill neighborhood.
Towering off to the left you see the Transamerica pyramid. When she saw it, Caron thought, “You know what? I’m gonna rival that! I’m gonna put a plant there!”
She uses the word “weed” kind of provocatively. She knows it’s a derogatory term that can refer to invasive species or simply plants we didn’t cultivate or don’t want around.
Caron also knows that weeds often have medicinal or edible properties. But she says that’s not the reason she highlights them in her murals. “Really what I try to highlight,” she says, “is this transgressive act of bringing life back to something that seemed to be dead.”
Credit: Andrea Laue | http://www.sparebeauty.com
For example, in Union City, California, she picked the very first flowering plant that came back to the devastated terrain of a former superfund site. She said “Ok you’re the one. You’re the one who’s gonna be seven stories tall.”
People often tell Caron that her plants look realistic. But she insists that they are not. She paints them from below at a heroic angle to make them more imposing. And she says people have stopped to ask her, “Wow what is that amazing plant? Is that some kind of orchid or something incredible?!” She tells them, “No, you just stepped on it.”
Because in the end, Caron says, “any little bit of nature is actually incredibly beautiful if you take the time to look at it.”
Watch Mona Caron stop-motion animation of her painting:


text:
A Poor Indian Farmer Carrying His Dead Wife Becomes the Symbol of an Inefficient Health System · Global Voices
Rezwan

A tribal man, along with his 12-year-old daughter, walked around 10km carrying his wife's body on his shoulders as he failed to get a vehicle to transport it from a government hospital in Odisha's Kalahandi district where she died. (Screenshot from YouTube Video)
On August 24, 2016, 48-year-old Daana Majhi took his ailing wife, Amanga Dei Manjhi, to a government hospital in Kalahandi district in the Indian state of Odisha. She was suffering from tuberculosis and died around midnight.
Soon after, it is reported, the hospital asked Daana to take her away, but he was denied a free mortuary van to carry the dead body to his home. He pleaded with hospital authorities to arrange for a vehicle, but nobody helped him. The poor tribal farmer did not have enough money to rent a vehicle, so he decided to carry the body on his shoulder to the village for cremation. The hospital has since claimed that he walked away with her body without informing them.
Accompanied with his 12-year-old daughter, Daana wrapped his late wife's body in pieces of cloth and walked for about 10 kilometers towards his home. As dawn approached, people noticed him carrying his wife on his shoulder; at this point, his home in Melaghara village was still 50 km away. Local TV journalist Ajit Singh recorded a video of them that was shared by many people in India; after pulling some strings, local people arranged an ambulance and also managed to collect some donations to be put towards the funeral.
As the video — and other images — of Daana carrying his dead wife went viral, social media users exploded with anger:
We live in a country where a journalist didn't help a poor man carry his wife's dead body to his home so that he could make a news on it.
— Gब्बR (@imAbhishek_J) August 25, 2016
A CM gets cops to carry him on their shoulders so his shoes don't get wet. While a man carries his dead wife alone to the ghat. Waah India!
— deep halder (@daipayanhalder) August 26, 2016
Should I support sports where lakhs r spent to arrange buses to felicitate winners while a man cant get even rickshaw to carry a dead body?
— punjAAP !! (@AapKiQasam) August 25, 2016
Daana is not the only person to face such insensitive treatment from a public health facility. On Friday, September 2, 2016, in Odisha's Malkangiri district, a man had to walk 6 km carrying his seven-year-old daughter's body, as the ambulance transporting them allegedly left them midway. When ambulance staff found out that the girl had died en route to the hospital, they asked her parents to get out of the ambulance and take their daughter with them. A First Information Report (FIR) has since been lodged at the Malkangiri police station against the driver, as well as a pharmacist and an attendant who were in the ambulance.
Unfortunately, there have been more such instances:
A man forced to carry his mothers dead body on his bike after an ambulance driver refused to take the corpse( M.P) pic.twitter.com/1D8H3LRpQy
— MUDIT AGARWAL (@mudit_aggarwal) September 1, 2016
The Odisha Human Rights Commission is currently probing an incident in which hospital workers in the Balasore district allegedly broke a corpse at the hip so that they could carry it in a bundle. The body was that of Taramani Barik, an 85-year-old widow who was run over by a goods train. After the accident, there was no ambulance available and no one to pay for a rented vehicle to take the body for an autopsy 30 km away to the district headquarters hospital.
These incidents all point to an anomaly in the area's health services. Among India's 19 states, Odisha ranks close to the bottom of the Human Development Index. Writing in Medium, Siddhartha Sharma noted that the Odisha state has two schemes to address such issues. There is Harishchandra Sahayata Yojana (assistance to the poor and destitute for last rites), which provides financial help to those unable to conduct last rites for their deceased family members — a program that also covers the cremation of unclaimed dead bodies. In addition, under the Mahaparayana Scheme 37, government hospitals are supplied with 40 vehicles and approximately 100 staff members to assist in carrying dead bodies. Siddhartha asked:
The state enjoys the privilege of two schemes for one purpose but why wasn’t the citizenry able to avail it?
Aparajita Mishra, at Being Indian, also had questions:
When Daana was carrying the corpse with his crying daughter, people assisted him by calling some ‘influential people’. Why do we rely on the crutches of power to get the job done?
Finally, TS Sudhir wrote at Huffington Post:
Frankly if these are acche din [good times, a slogan of the ruling party], India was better off in the dark ages. Frankly, Mr Prime Minister, Balochistan can wait, let us fix our Kalahandis [people of Kalahandi district, Odisha] first.

author: Rezwan


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Hijab-Wearing Football Club in Thailand’s Deep South Is a Space for Diversity · Global Voices
Prachatai

Buku FC teammates at their first practice. Photo by Fadila Hamidong, courtesy of Prachatai.
This edited article by Thaweeporn Kummetha is from Prachatai, an independent news site in Thailand, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement. The text was translated by Asaree Thaitrakulpanich.
A note to readers: Most of Thailand is Buddhist, while Thailand's Deep South has a Malay Muslim majority population, and some groups here seek to establish a separate state.
The only thing many people know about Thailand’s Deep South region, called “Patani” by the locals, is the conflict that has claimed more than 6,500 lives over the past 12 years. Both state and private funding pours into the region, in efforts to resolve the violence through a peace process.
Nevertheless, Anticha Saengchai and Daranee Thongsiri, LGBT activists and the two owners of the Buku Books & More Pattani Bookstore, insist that Patani has no shortage of other social issues that need to be discussed, such as gender equality. Anticha and Daranee believe that women and LGBT people should have a say in the Deep South's peace process, ensuring them a voice in determining Patani’s future.
To further this cause, Anticha and Daranee have created a football club called Buku FC to provide local women and LGBT individuals a space to express themselves. In an interview with Prachatai, Anticha talked about the project:
Football is seen as a male sport, and a space for men. Women often go to football fields with the role solely as spectator, cheering on men who are playing. But in actuality anyone, regardless of sex, can kick a round ball. By starting a football club and encouraging women to join, we are saying to Patani society that women can do the same things men do. We want to convey to the women who come to play with us is the idea that they really can do things they may have thought they couldn’t, such as self-expression and leadership. We believe that the simple activity of football will affect other parts of their lives.
While Buku FC encourages women and LGBT individuals to join, anyone can play on the team, regardless of sex, gender, age, religion, beliefs, or political views. The only requirement is that the person should view the world through a “Gender Lens,” or an understanding of gender.
We intend the football field to be a microcosm of society, where people of any gender can coexist equally with respect for each others’ bodies and spaces. If it’s possible for that to happen in society at large, then we believe that it’s possible for our little rectangular football field, too. We want to demonstrate that whether man, woman, LGBT, or people with different levels of skill, we can all play the same game with the same set of rules, without the big people bullying the little people.
Buku FC, under the slogan “Football for Peace and Equality,” had its first practice on August 13, 2016, at the Victory Stadium in Mueang district, Pattani Province. There were 20 participants, including 17 women and three men. Most of the players were students at the Prince of Songkla University's Pattani campus. Everyone seemed excited to play in a formal stadium—especially the women, most of whom were playing football for the first time.
Waeasmir Waemano and Sawani Mama, students at the Pattani campus of Prince of Songkla University, say they want society to see that women can play football, and do so even while wearing hijabs. Photo by Fadila Hamidong, courtesy of Prachatai.
Waeasmir Waemano, a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Political Science in the Pattani campus of Prince of Songkla University, told Prachatai:
People often view football as being a man’s sport, so women think that it is inappropriate to play football, and they don’t dare. In the Deep South, people think that it’s not appropriate for women to play football because it’s a sport that requires you to raise your legs to kick. However, the world is changing and society in the Deep South must keep up.
Although Waeasmir plays sports regularly since she is on the futsal team at her university, she still feels hesitant about playing outside of her university at Victory Stadium, next to which is a football field where the players are exclusively male.
If I play sports outside the university, I get strange looks from people, as they think ‘Huh, a Muslim woman playing football.’ People in the Deep South are concerned about the body and they feel it is inappropriate [for women to play football], because when we run, parts of our body shake.
Sawani Mama, a third-year student in the same department as Waeasmir, expressed her concerns about her body and sports. She was afraid that others would judge her because it is inappropriate to run during football. Therefore, she solved this problem by wearing two layers of loose-fitting shirts and a hijab covering her entire chest.
Sometimes I still worry that while I run, my breasts will heave, or something like that. But I’m wearing loose shirts, a hijab, and even lipstick to play football. So I feel that all of these things go together, no problem.
The two women agree that playing football is an activity that both promotes their self-expression, and is a way of telling society that women can play the same sports as men.
Anticha added that, in order for the women on the team to feel more comfortable playing, the men have not yet participated with them in a co-ed game. They could practice together, with the men leading the warm-up exercises or acting as goalies. After everyone understands the rules and respects each other and the differences between their bodies, we may open a space for men and women to play in the same game in the future, she explained.
Buku FC team-mates warm-up before playing football. Photo by Fadila Hamidong, courtesy of Prachatai.
Anticha stated that women in the Deep South do not have many opportunities to exercise. Part of it is due to gender roles and women’s responsibility to take care of the house, their husbands, and their children. Teenage girls also have to help their mothers with the housework, and it is less acceptable for them to exercise in public than it is for teenage boys.
Moreover, exercise often requires women to wear pants and move their limbs about in the same space as other men, discouraging Deep South Muslim women from exercising. Of course, men and boys do not have this limitation, said Anticha. Public parks and playing fields are almost completely taken over by men.
Anticha believes there should be more support to create female exercise spaces in the Deep South, such as female swimming pools, which will give women peace of mind as they exercise.

author: Prachatai


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Hundreds of Thousands Join Saudi Women-Led Campaign to End Male Guardianship in the Kingdom · Global Voices
Zuhour Mahmoud

Screengrab from Human Rights Watch's ‘Imprisoned – End Male Guardianship in Saudi Arabia’. Source: YouTube Video.
As part of the efforts to end the draconian laws against women in the Gulf state, Saudi women launched a campaign demanding an end to male guardianship for basic practices such as work, property ownership and travel.
Using the hashtag #TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship and its Arabic version #سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولاية (which translates to ‘Saudi women demand the end of guardianship’), hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide took part in this campaign.
The campaign was sponsored by Human Rights Watch and follows the release of its lengthy report entitled “Boxed In: Women and Saudi Arabia’s Male Guardianship System”. In it, the international human rights organization explains that:
In Saudi Arabia, a woman’s life is controlled by a man from birth until death. Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian, normally a father or husband, but in some cases a brother or even a son, who has the power to make a range of critical decisions on her behalf. As dozens of Saudi women told Human Rights Watch, the male guardianship system is the most significant impediment to realizing women’s rights in the country, effectively rendering adult women legal minors who cannot make key decisions for themselves.
The report included three short videos illustrating the effects of the system on women’s lives, as well as statements from Saudi women’s rights activists and citizens who find the law to be socially and economically crippling.
As one Saudi activist and former school principal, 44-year-old Hayat, told Human Rights Watch on December 7, 2015:
The guardianship system also impacts women’s ability to seek work inside Saudi Arabia and to pursue opportunities abroad that might advance their careers. Specifically, women may not apply for a passport without male guardian approval and require permission to travel outside the country. Women also cannot study abroad on a government scholarship without guardian approval and, while not always enforced, officially require a male relative to accompany them throughout the course of their studies.
It can mess with your head and the way you look at yourself. How do you respect yourself or how [can] your family respect you, if he is your legal guardian?
Human Rights Watch also explained that the religious reasons supposedly justifying the male guardianship system have been repeatedly challenged:
Saudi Arabia’s imposition of the guardianship system is grounded in the most restrictive interpretation of an ambiguous Quranic verse—an interpretation challenged by dozens of Saudi women, including professors and Islamic feminists, who spoke to Human Rights Watch. Religious scholars also challenge the interpretation, including a former Saudi judge who told Human Rights Watch that the country’s imposition of guardianship is not required by Sharia and the former head of the religious police, also a respected religious scholar, who said Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving is not mandated by Islamic law in 2013.
This is why, among many reasons, the guardianship system is being challenged — on Twitter and elsewhere — by Saudi women and their supporters. According to Vocativ, as of August 4, 2016, at least 170,000 tweets have been posted in both Arabic and English.
Ghada Al Zahrani, who tweets at @hanoohopi, wrote:
Saudi women suffer from the worst kind of slavery#TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship#سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولايه53
— غاده الزهراني (@hanoohopi) 2 September 2016
Saudi Twitter user Maram Mohammad Al Ajlan highlighted the fact that Saudi Arabia has promised to end male guardianship on two occasions, in 2009 and in 2013:
مازلنا ننتظر….#معا_لإنهاء_ولاية_الرجل_على_المرأة#TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship#سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولايه29pic.twitter.com/Pb4V1VjXZU
— مرام محمد العجلان (@MaramAjlan) 16 August 2016
We are still waiting… Saudi Arabia has promised the United Nations Human Rights Council twice (2009 and 2013) to end the male guardianship system
Ri, who tweets at @ipergh, shared a photo of graffiti she did on a wall in Riyadh, which reads “we demand the fall of male guardianship of Saudi women”:
طلعت بنفسي الان وكتبت باحد جدران مدينة الرياض ❤ باسمي واسم كل سعوديه منضاله #سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولايه9 pic.twitter.com/CviMmVc7XV
— Ri (@ipergh) 4 August 2016
I did it myself and sprayed on one of the walls of Riyadh. In my name and in the name of every Saudi fighter
Abdullah Moqhem Al Moqhem tweeted to his more than 20,000 followers:
مطالبة النساء ب#سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولاية
لا تعني فصل المرأة عن زوجها أو أبيها وأخوتها، كل مايطالبن به امتلاكهن حق تقرير مصيرهن بالحياة
— عبدالله مُقحم المقحم (@abdullh44882) 28 August 2016
Women’s demands to end the male guardianship doesn’t mean the separation of women from their husbands, fathers or brothers. All they’re asking for is a right to choose their own fate in life.
Mohammad Ali Mahmoud shared with his 35,000-plus followers his belief that:
المرأة التي تؤمن بكمال إنسانيتها؛ ستطالب بإسقاط الولاية، والتي ترى نفسها ناقصة الأهلية؛ ستطالب بتثبيتها #سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولاية
— محمد علي المحمود (@ma573573) 1 September 2016
A woman who fully believes in her humanity will call for the end of male guardianship whereas a woman who does not will call for keeping it.
Hajar, who tweets at @chanhxo, said that she will defend women's rights regardless of their nationality.
#سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولاية
وراح اوقف مع حقوق المرأة ولين أموت.سوا سعوديه افغانيه لكل أمرأة مظلومة مراح أرضى على نساء بلدي ولا غيرهم.
— hajar (@chanhxo) 22 August 2016
I will stand with women’s rights until my death. Whether Saudi or Afghani, I will not accept injustice against women
The campaign also attracted substantial international support. One blogger at “The Paludians” tweeted her solidarity from Italy:
Solidarty to Saudi Women from Italy, hope can rise in a new world that respect you, also here in Europe. #togetherToEndMaleGuardianship
— Zoina's_underbelly (@z_01_na) 1 September 2016
Pakistani-Indian blogger Dr. Ilmana Fasih, who blogs at ‘Blind to Bounds’, added:
Solidarity with the #women of #SaudiArabia from #Canada#Pakistan#India. #TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship#سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولايه
— Ilmana (@ZEEMANA) 31 August 2016
Of course, not everyone was pleased with the campaign. The hashtag also received some criticism, mainly from ultra-conservative Saudi men who find the movement to liberate women from male guardianship a part of the “liberal agenda” to corrupt Saudi society:
#سعوديات_نطالب_باسقاط_الولاية مايتم تداوله عبرالاعلام والتواصل الاجتماعي من ساقطات نكرة مراهقات مغرربهم لايمثلن #السعودية ولاالمرأةالسعودية
— أبو عبدالله (@mohammad_aad) 22 August 2016
What is being passed around in the media and social networking websites by manipulated teenage whores doesn’t represent Saudi Arabia or Saudi women.
Such positions are not surprising, considering that Saudi Arabia was ranked 134th out of 145 countries by the World Economic Forum's 2015 Global Gender Gap Report, but Saudi women continue to fight in the hope that the status quo will soon change.

author: Zuhour Mahmoud


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Jailed Iranian Nuclear Scientist Tweets About His New Conditional Freedom · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Omid Kokabee talks to his supporters directly through Twitter upon his conditional release from prison. Screenshot from author's Twitter account.
The day after his conditional release from Evin Prison in northwestern Tehran, Twitter became the platform of choice to communicate Iranian nuclear scientist Omid Kokabee's first public message after years of incarceration:
Hello, World!
— Omid Kokabee (@Kokabee) August 30, 2016
The 34-year-old physicist spent the last five years in prison for refusing to work on Iran's military and nuclear research. He was granted a conditional release on August 29, 2016.
In a statement to Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA), Kokabee's lawyer, Saeed Khalili, explained:
The Judiciary Chief approved a ruling by Branch 36 of the Tehran Appeals Court that says Omid Kokabee qualifies for conditional release and therefore he will not be returning to prison.
Kokabee himself talked about the injustice of his arrest in an open letter that he wrote from jail in 2013:
Is it a sin that I don’t want, under any circumstances, to get involved in security and military activities? I have just turned 30 years old after spending two years in prison, when I am eager to pursue scientific research.
Kokabee's Twitter debut comes four months after the world took notice of his plight, thanks to a global Twitterstorm. Just prior to the unexpected death of American musician Prince, the #FreeOmid hashtag led Twitter's worldwide trends:
برای ثبت در تاریخ
هشتگ #FreeOmid در رتبه اول ترند جهانی توییتر pic.twitter.com/ouOOj3URIq
— Persian Banoo (@persianbanoo) April 21, 2016
For the historic record, the #freeOmid hashtag is in first place for worldwide Twitter trends
While in prison, Kokabee suffered from kidney stones and other serious illnesses, explaining that the lack of proper medical attention — which is common for political prisoners in Iran — was the reason his health was in critical condition. On April 20, 2016, Kokabee had an operation to remove one of his kidneys, but advocates, friends and family members were convinced that his health would not recover if the conditions of his incarceration remained the same.
Cartoonist Assad Bina Khahi depicts the Twitterstorm that was undertaken in support of Omid's freedom to seek medical treatment for his cancer outside of prison in April. The cartoon was drawn for Farda Cartoon, a section of the Iranian news website Radio Farda and posted here with permission.
The government eventually granted him medical furlough on May 25, 2016, a little more than a month after he had the surgery to remove his cancerous kidney. Many suspect that the international attention — including the Twitter campaigns — had an impact on the government's decision.
The campaign is ongoing, since Kokabee's conditional release does not allow him to leave Iran and return to the United States, where he was finishing his postdoctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin. He was arrested on January 30, 2011 at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, while on his way back to pursue his studies.
In a nod to the explosion of support and calls for his release under the #freeOmid hashtag, Kokabee also thanked his supporters in a heartwarming tweet:
درود به تک تک شما دوستان نازنینم که هرگز فراموشم نکردید و همواره مایه دلگرمی ام برای اندیشه به آینده ای زیبا هستید. دوستتون دارم#freeomid
— Omid Kokabee (@Kokabee) September 3, 2016
Greetings to each and every one of you dear friends who never forgot me and were always there to warm my heart to hopes towards a beautiful future. I love you. #freeOmid
In a separate case, Shahram Amiri, another incarcerated Iranian physicist was executed earlier in August. While his arrest was also related to the country's nuclear programme, he was accused of espionage.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Protests Erupt in Brazil as Rousseff’s Impeachment Is Confirmed · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

A protester holds a sign that says “direct elections now” in São Paulo. Behind him are two Israeli-manufactured bullet-proof trucks owned by the police. Photo: Mídia Ninja, CC-BY-SA 2.0
The Brazilian Senate overwhelmingly voted to remove Dilma Rousseff from office during the last week of August after a year-long impeachment process that has paralyzed South America's largest country, exposing deep divisions among its society. Rousseff will be replaced for the remainder of her term by Michel Temer, her former running mate who help lead the campaign to oust her.
Protests against Rousseff's impeachment took place in several Brazilian cities this week. São Paulo had daily protests since August 29 — all of them met violently by the police who used stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets against demonstrators. On August 31, the day when the impeachment was sealed and which saw the largest protest, university student Débora Fabri was hit in the face by bomb shrapnel and spent the night at a local hospital. She later wrote on her Facebook page that she has been blinded in her left eye.
Rousseff was found guilty of manipulating the federal budget to hide a growing recession. During her defense, she emphasized her personal honesty and lack of involvement with the corruption schemes that have marred the country's politics for decades. Sixty-one percent of Brazil's 81 senators have been convicted or investigated for corruption.
After being sworn in, the new president, Michel Temer, addressed the nation in a television broadcast during which he called for national unity and rebuffed those who call the process a coup d'état. Temer and his supporters in the legislature have endorsed reforms in Brazil's pension funds, as well as changes to labor relations and cuts in government spending that will affect Brazil's universal public healthcare system.
Rousseff was elected in 2014 with 51 percent of the vote on a platform that promised to expand social programs, although in 2015 she herself stepped back from some of those promises, pivoting to milder fiscal adjustments that would actually cut social security benefits.
Débora Fabri, 19, has been blinded in her left eye by bomb shrapnel used by police forces in a protest in São Paulo on August 31st. Photo: Mel Coelho/Mamana Foto Coletivo. Published with permission.
Protesters are mobilizing against what they see as a maneuver by a corruption-marred congress to remove a democratically elected president, push neoliberal reforms, get a better grip on power and halt the Lava-Jato investigations on corruption that implicate them.
Although social movements that are historically connected to Rousseff's Worker's Party — like the Central Union of Workers (CUT) and the Landless Worker's Movement (MST) — have supported the demonstrations, most of those involved are not necessarily demanding Rousseff's return. Instead, they are asking for new general elections. Global Voices reporters who witnessed the protests in São Paulo noticed a smaller presence of Worker's Party flags and banners at this week's demonstrations, which were organized via social media. Most of those who attended appear to be under the age of 25.
Photographer Fernando Fernandes was hit by rubber bullet on the mouth on Thursday in São Paulo. Photo: Mídia Ninja, CC-BY-SA 2.0
Protests have kicked off at the Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP) on Paulista Avenue, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Demonstrators are deciding on the spot where in the city to march. On Tuesday and Wednesday, protesters tried to walk to the offices of the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, which they regard as being supportive of Rousseff's impeachment. On Thursday, they decided to march to the headquarters of the Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB), the political party of current president Michel Temer. Each day, the police would disperse protesters before they could reach their destination, and on Friday, a demonstration organized mostly by black feminist movements wasn't allowed to march at all.
Protesters reacted to police attacks by building barricades along the streets on which they wanted to march and in two protests, demonstrators vandalized a few banks. On August 31, a police car that was parked in the Largo do Arouche area of São Paulo was also smashed.
Protests on Avenida Paulista decide by acclamation where to march. Photo: Mídia Ninja CC-BY-SA 2.0
During the week, the police temporarily detained several people, while many others, like university student Débora Fabri, were badly hurt. According to reports, police assaulted two photographers on August 31, smashing one of their cameras. The very next day, another photographer, Fernando Fernandes, was hit in the mouth with a rubber bullet.
A video by activist Caio Castor shows police beating up protesters in Avenida Nove de Julho on Thursday, just as the demonstration was making its way to the city center.
An editorial titled “Fascists on the Loose”, which was published in Folha de S. Paulo, the same privately owned newspaper that is thought to be pro-Rousseff's impeachment, sparked outrage on social media when it accused some protesters of provoking the police and damaging public and private property. The piece demanded that police divide protesters into peaceful and violent and punish the latter accordingly, calling them “delinquents” and “fascists”.
Protesters wrote “coup mongers” at the gates of newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. Photo: Mídia Ninja CC-BY-SA 2.0.
During the week, as protesters planned a massive protest scheduled for Sunday, September 4 on the Avenida Paulista, the state government had issued a note forbidding any demonstrations to take place, as the avenue will be part of the torch route for the Paralympic Games. This initially sparked outrage on social media as well, but after a meeting mediated by São Paulo's mayor, the governor decided to allow protesters to hold their demonstration after the torch goes through. On Facebook, more than 50,000 people have either confirmed their attendance or showed interest in Sunday's event.

author: Taisa Sganzerla