text:
Sleeping or Dead – Part 1: “Everything  Screams Death” · Global Voices
سرمد الجيلاني

Solitary Confinement, Old Dubbo Gaol. PHOTO: Corrie Barklimore (CC BY 2.0)
This is the first instalment in “Sleeping or Dead”, a six-part series by activist Sarmad Al Jilane about his experiences in a Syrian prison.
Away from our blue, virtual world, you look at yourself and find that you’re the only one whose pertinences have disappeared. They slowly ooze out, exposing pain as a truth that you can clearly see, both inside and out. A truth that lives up to its name. One that becomes a list of feelings and expressions, not metaphors.
But when you come back to the real world and beyond the charm of the theatre and the pretty stage and actors, and open the door that leads backstage, people turn into flesh and blood and everything screams death. Doubt vanishes and you’re assured of your existence despite the earth’s revolving on its pivot of doom, and you realize that you are here, trapped behind walls built by your parents, and before them your grandparents, brick by brick.
They arrested my father and me three times, but that wasn’t enough for me to “learn a lesson” as the Security Branch Chief said, vowing that the fourth time would be a charm. He proved his dominance over us by breaking even our simplest concepts.
Five young men, plucked from the beautiful garden of our revolution during a peaceful protest. It was enough for the entire city to shatter the darkness of night with shouts of “Allahu Akbar”. All neighborhoods arose except mine. And for the first time it was quiet, idle, when it shouldn’t have been—even though I never expected much from a city packed with regime security branches and their accomplices.
The third night. Things became quiet after the main electricity supply unit of the neighborhood was disabled. I broke the silence shouting “Allahu Akbar” several times from the rooftop of my house. I heard my voice echo through the silence. A few minutes later, friends felt safe enough to join me. I wasn’t alone. There were many friends, real friends who joined me; together we formed a beautiful image that lived up to my expectations. At that moment you realize that you’re letting the genie out, but you just don’t care.
A call from my father: “Get ready—we meet at the Military Security Branch”. The call ended.
I discovered then that no matter how much honey you swallow, nothing can bring your voice back after such full-throated shouting, before you reach a security branch. I arrived there. Colonel Ghassan was sitting with several of his men, my father and now me.
Colonel Ghassan starts talking: “Let me hear you shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, or are you only brave enough to do it when you’re away from us?” His eyes were fixed on me, dripping hatred. “And you have the guts to look me in the eye instead of looking at the floor!”.
What I did then wasn’t out of courage. I was 18, visiting the same branch office for the fourth time. It was probably foolishness, vanity or revolution. I was so confident answering: “I didn’t expect you’d forget my voice since yesterday. And I don’t think I ever stopped looking you in the eye, so why today?”
It was the shortest conversation that could ever bring as much suffering as it did to me afterwards—despite that, I don’t regret it. “Throw him into solitary, and take his father back to solitary too”.
“Take his father back to solitary”. That stinking sentence, the stench of which lingers in my nose to this day. It became a ‘syndrome’ that tortured me mentally for months.
I cross the yard. First office is where I leave my belongings. I return to the yard and go into the second office, which precedes the corridor to the solitary cells. I memorize it fully before going in. It seems like my cell is going to be larger this time, unlike the ones I’m usually given. I have to share it with only one other inmate, and I can sit immediately without having to wait my turn as I customarily have to do.
After a few minutes which felt like a lifetime, the officer left the cell, and I used the known communication method of tapping the wall with my fist. I could tell he was a “first-timer”. After long hesitation he answered me. Neither of the solitary cells near me seem to have a distinguished, middle-aged man who looks like me and is called The Doctor. My face has no features in this total darkness, and there are no doctors here; we are all numbers. “Perhaps he sounds like me??” All answers deny his existence. Maybe they took him to the big cells. Maybe they took him to interrogation immediately. The investigator assured me they would release him if I stayed. Liars. I wish I could find a scarecrow to scare away all those crows feasting on the orchard of my head.
I hear the shouts of Allahu Akbar in the distance. It must be 10 pm, the time at which the shouts occur each day. The door opens. I was always convinced that black was the color of doom until I saw the yellow light of the corridor which brought us the horrible Raad.
“Out for interrogation”. Now I figured out the secret: to protect the security of the State from us and prevent us from unleashing the traitor and the terrorist living inside us, they speak in an Alawite dialect, their sectarian blackmail card and the narrow angle from which they view life. This is not a home, this is not a country, it’s a curse they call co-existence in order to make the criminal of their clan a hero.
I enter the interrogation room to find Abu Imad with his slim short body, at least to me. He starts his “friendly” conversation despite the facial expressions he can’t hide: “Son, you’re still young, you can make many things out of your life, things that are more important than hanging out with vagabonds going out in protests that will die out soon”. I kept my silence. I have memorized this by heart. I don’t really remember when receiving a friendly talk followed by insults and beating became a normal way of communication to me. I didn’t care much about when and how. Something inside told me to get used to receiving punishment in spite of not having done anything wrong to justify it. To get used to receiving punishment in all forms.
He has orders to remove as much of my flesh as he can. He likes to call them “confessions”. He starts with a plastic tube, probably used for sewage work. Your tormentor enjoys your screams. Give him his joy, you’re no match, and your screams cannot be contained. My screams did not please him enough, so he exchanged the tube for a cable. During my first detention I wondered if the investigator used to work in junk collection or if this was equipment that came with the job. A thick power cable made out of four cables braided together to give us this great invention, in their eyes.
It was just an hour, during which three of them took turns, while I stayed on the same shift. My body grew numb and I lost my voice so I couldn’t scream anymore. He felt the coldness and didn’t like it, so he poked me with an electrical prod. An electric current ran through my body. An electric current that would be enough to re-power my neighborhood. My semi-naked body lying on the floor was a perfect conductor. The numbness is gone and the pain is back. Two horrible hours after which he decided to call it a night. I guess it was around midnight. I decided to go back to sleep, or let’s say it was my only choice.
A few hours passed; to me they felt like minutes. The call for morning prayers. The door opens and the doom light shines in. “Outside, you bugger”. I answer in my exhausted teenager’s voice: “Sir, my father must be worried sick”. “Shut up and move, you’re getting transferred.” This was a first. On the previous occasions it was a release from prison. Where are they taking me?!

author: سرمد الجيلاني


text:
Hong Kong Introduces Restrictions on High-Rise Window Cleaning to Protect Maids, and Employers Are Upset · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

A typical window in Hong Kong residential skyscrapers. Screen capture from YouTube video
Over the past seven years, on average every year one migrant domestic helper has died in Hong Kong from falling out of residential skyscrapers while cleaning the exterior of windows. After a 35-year-old Filipino woman fell to her death doing just that in an apartment on the 49th floor of a building in August, domestic helper groups in Hong Kong took the issue to the streets, demanding that the Hong Kong government address the problem of their work safety.
Dolores Balladares, a spokeswoman for Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body, told the press at the time:
For us it’s hard to say no when employers ask us to clean windows, but it’s scary […] It’s about time for the government to protect the workers.
While Hong Kong's authorities did not immediately respond to the workers’ demands, the Philippines consulate ordered in mid-October that all its citizens’ work contracts should include a clause stating that the cleaning of the exterior of windows will not be included in a domestic helper’s duties.
As anticipated, groups representing domestic helper employers opposed the new contractual terms. The Philippines consulate agreed to delay the effective day of the new contract for one month to November 14 after the Hong Kong government raised concerns and agreed to tackle the issue as soon as possible.
Finally, at the end of October, Hong Kong's labour department put forth a new proposal that domestic helpers should only clean windows with fixed grilles under another adult’s supervision. The proposal, which follows the practice in Singapore, is acceptable to countries that are a major exporter of domestic labour, according to a Hong Kong government source. But employers groups do not accept the “under another adult's supervision” term, arguing that they don’t have the time to oversee a domestic helper in that way.
Throughout the entire controversy, many employers have simply argued that it is not dangerous to clean the exterior of windows, and others have insisted that it is domestic helpers’ duty and they should be trained to do the task. For example, one of the employers’ petitions demands the Philippines Labour Department to:
monitor the quality of domestic workers, including the excessive time they spend on their phones, taking loans, theft, framing their employers, engagement in sex work, and poor behaviours alike. […] They should educate their people on how to become a positive labourer overseas, so they can earn foreign money for their country and their families.
The above stand is not atypical. Similar comments are easily found on social media. Comments below were selected from a Facebook news thread on non-profit online media Standnews's profile:
刀會切到，火會燒傷，滾水滾油熨斗會燙傷，即係乜都唔使做！
咁應該將抹窗呢部分嘅人工從每月$4210 中剔除！
抺窗真係危險嘅 個個都危險啦 咁邊個可以抺呢?! 如果做足安全措施就可以抺, 點解家傭就唔得呢?!
One can cut oneself using a knife, burn oneself when lighting a fire, boiling water and oil and ironing clothes. Does it mean that they don’t need to perform these duties?
If they cut the cleaning window duty, [we] should also cut that part of the salary from the monthly HK $4,120 [approximately US $550 dollars] pay check.
Cleaning windows is dangerous for everyone. Then who is to perform the task? If all it takes is security protection measures, why can’t domestic workers perform the duty?
Most of the newly built middle-class apartment buildings in Hong Kong are skyscrapers with huge windows. Leaning outside to clean the outside of the windows can be dangerous. Labour activist Leo Tang highlighted the failure of local laws to protect migrant domestic helpers:
家居屬於私人地方，但我們很少注意到，這其實也是外傭的辦公室，僱主有責任提供恰當、安全的工作環境。根據香港現行的《職業安全及健康條例》，大部分職場的僱主必須提供恰當的工具、設定辦公室工作安全指引等等。然而，此條例卻豁免了家務工僱主履行條例的責任，忽視了私人家居已成為香港十分之一勞動人口的職場，這自然令移工僱主的職安意識薄弱。在一個電台節目裏，竟然有僱主團體提出要讓外傭抹窗時佩戴安全帶，不禁令人悲從中來——要戴安全帶的工作，幾乎都有高空跌下的危險，這是付四千多元便可以聘用的人員做的嗎？
The home is a private domain, but it is also the migrant domestic helper's work space. It is the employer's responsibility to provide an appropriate and safe working environment. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance, employers should provide suitable tools, equipment and safety guidelines for their employees. Yet employers of migrant domestic helpers are exempted from such a legal obligation. The fact that a domestic setting is also a work space for 10% of the total labour force in Hong Kong has been ignored, and employers of domestic helpers have little awareness of work safety. In a recent radio program, a representative from an employers group even suggested that domestic helpers could wear a safety belt when cleaning the exterior of windows. Such a suggestion is pathetic — wearing a safety belt means that you are aware of the danger of falling from high rises — do you really expect such a duty to be done by helpers who receive about HK $4,000 [US $550 dollars] a month?
Unfortunately, the mistreatment of migrant domestic helpers in Hong Kong is nothing new. The recently released Global Slavery Index 2016 reported that at least 29,500 people out of Hong Kong’s more than 7 million population are trapped in modern slavery. A local human rights group, Justice Center, believes that the figure should be higher as the organization’s recent survey finds 17 percent of migrant domestic helpers is carrying out “forced labour.” The figure is equal to about 55,000 of the city’s 320,000 helpers.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Oiwan Lam


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How To Talk About the Chicago Cubs Win With Your Non-American Friends · Global Voices
Allen Smithee

Remix of public domain images by Allen Smithee
Baseball is rarely, if ever, a topic of conversation around Global Voices’ multi-national virtual water cooler. But with a Chicagoan in our ranks and the sheer miraculousness of the Chicago Cubs win in the World Series last night, it was inevitable that the topic would work its way into the discussion on one of our Slack channels, and quickly become viral….
The Chicagoan started it, of course.
Chicagoan: Still basking in my city's historic world series win last night…. i may or may not be fully functional today.
Caribbean: World Series, you say? Remind me which other countries were competing again. :wink: But congrats anyway!
Wisconsinite resident in Europe: Canada! :stuck_out_tongue:
Caribbean: Ha, you have a point, Wisconsinite, but not a very strong one!
South Asian: Real shocker that the Cubs finally won. A baseball miracle—waiting for the Hollywood version. Crazy aside: a little girl randomly struck up a conversation with me at the park yesterday, saying that her father's always traveling to Cubs games and they never win. Her grandfather was with her, and he was wearing a faded Michigan baseball cap, so I told him that was my alma mater. Then we got talking. Turned out he was a journalist, worked on a bunch on free press issues around the world, and worked for the Knight Foundation before retiring. We have a bunch of friends in common. Baseball brings people together in weird ways.
Chicagoan: Caribbean, you're looking at me like it was my idea to name the series after a NY newspaper...?
Caribbean: Of course not, but I fully expect you to spearhead a campaign to change the name of the tournament to something more rational, like “Cross-Border Series”. The use of the term “world” in contexts like this is one of the reasons a type like Trump can run for president.
Wisconsinite: Apparently, it's been an entire evolution. [Quotes source that traces the history of the tournament’s title]. The more you know!
South American: I’m staying off social media today. Too many bandwagon fans. I went to one Cubs game in my life, never have I seen so many people less interested in the game itself. It was just an excuse to drink and annoy people around them.
Chicagoan: If White Sox fans can jump on the bandwagon, so can you! Baseball: it brings people together. Brought to you by a second generation Asian-American.
Wisconsinite: (I should mention in all this, I'm a Milwaukee Brewers fan, and the Cubs are our mortal enemies, so I'm not celebrating)
Chicagoan: LOL, I'll spearhead the effort to rename it “the series of the privileged white american male”.
Caribbean: Isn’t that name already taken?
South Asian: hahahahahahahaha
South American: There are players in the major leagues from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Curacao, Brazil, Germany, Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan. Not quite the melting pot that is European football, but not bad.
South Asian: And Pakistan too, this time! I thought I would add that in for good measure.
Caribbean: Again, this demonstrates the bogusness of US anti-immigrant sentiment.
South American: Never thought I’d be talking baseball on our Slack channel! Who is from Pakistan?
South Asian: Farhan Zaidi, the Dodgers’ general manager, is a Canadian-American with Pakistani roots.
Middle Easterner: Cricket is almost baseball's cousin.
Caribbean: Cricket is baseball’s cousin who went to university.
South Asian: I can't deal with most spectator sports. With cricket or baseball, at least I understand the game. Four years at a football-crazy college and I learnt nothing. Went to two games, I think. Or maybe two half-games. What the brain doesn't want to learn, the brain doesn't want to learn.
Caribbean: The only spectator sports I enjoy are test cricket (the shorter forms I dislike for exactly the reasons South American outlines) and tennis. All the others can take a hike.
Middle Easterner: Football = soccer, South Asian?
Caribbean: No, American football.
Middle Easterner: I never understood American football, for how many movies I saw. American football for me is: Sumo + running + a weird ball
South Asian: I don't get soccer either. Although, I am frequently told I should watch it for the hot men.
Caribbean: Haha! I myself am a World Cup-only soccer fan.
Wisconsinite: I'm pretty versed in American football and love it, so I can offer lessons for anyone interested :stuck_out_tongue:
Then our resident Canadian shows up out of nowhere.
Canadian: One of the only things I know about baseball is how unlikely it was for the Cubs to win, because this folk song refers to it as the only thing so impossible it can compare to the likelihood that “I will love you again, like I used to”.

author: Allen Smithee


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In Oman, Independent Media Suspended Until Further Notice · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Censorship graffiti image via Pixabay. CC0, public domain.
Oman's first independent online newspaper, Albalad, put an end to its operations on October 30.
#البلد | إدارة صحيفة البلد تعلن إغلاق موقعها الإخباري … وداعاً أيها القارئ العزيز. #عُمانhttps://t.co/nxSTzeYhrP pic.twitter.com/8TbYzHdXxv
— صحيفة البلد (@albaladoman) October 30, 2016
The management of Albalad newspaper announces the closure of its news site…goodbye dear readers.
The newspaper launched in 2012 and covered a range of topics in Oman including politics, economy and culture. Editorial staff have not specified the reason behind the closure.
In a message addressed to their readers, they described pressures they had faced in the past, but said that they decided to stop “of [their] own accord.”
تعرضت الصحيفة للكثير من الضغوط…وكانت كل تلك الضغوط تمر علينا، ونحتفظ بها لأنفسنا، لأنها جزء من مهنة الصحافة، ومن خصوصية العمل، بقت معنا خلال السنوات الماضية. لكننا نقف اليوم في لحظة صعبة، أن نتخذ قرار الإغلاق دون أن نكون تحت ضغط من أحد، إنه قرار نابع من إدارة وفريق هذا المشروع الذي عمل ليل نهار لأجل القارئ العزيز. إننا نعتذر بشدة للجمهور والقارئ العزيز عن هذا القرار … لكن الظروف الراهنة تقول: ” حان لها أن تتوقف بإرادة تامة”.
the newspaper came under a lot of pressures…We kept those pressures to ourselves, since they are part of the journalism profession and a characteristic of the job. Those pressures remained with us. But, today we stand in front of a difficult moment: making the closure decision without being subjected to pressure from anyone. It is a decision made by the management and the team of this project that worked day and night for our dear readers…We sincerely apologize to our audience but the current circumstances say: “it is time we stop of our own accord”
Following Albalad's closure announcement, Omanis on Twitter mourned the decision and the state of free expression in the country.
@albaladoman البلد تغلق … ما الذي يحدث بمستقبل الصحافة في عمان .
— احمد الشيزاوي (@ahmedalshezawi) October 30, 2016
Albalad closes…What is happening to the future of the press in Oman.
@albaladoman @HabibaAlHinai للأسف لا نملك صوت حر أو منبر حر لصحافة حرة أو للتعبير الحر بإختصار لا توجد حرية رأي وصلنا القرن ال21 ياللعار !!!
— qatan ✋ (@y3een77) October 30, 2016
unfortunately, we do not have a free voice or a platform for a free press or free expression. In brief, there is no freedom of speech. We are in the 21st century what a shame.
Albalad's closure coincides with a broader crackdown on press freedom in Oman. Last August, the government closed the daily newspaper Alzamn and suspended its website over a report on government interference with the judiciary. The 27 July report accused government officials of pressuring judges in the country's Supreme Court to overturn a verdict in an inheritance case. Three of Azamn's journalists, including its editor in-chief, were detained and sentenced to jail for charges that included “disturbing public order” and “undermining the prestige of the State”.
The shutdown at Alzamn
Editor-in-chief Ibrahim Al-Maamari was found guilty of “disturbing public order”, “misuse of the Internet” “publishing the details of a civil case”, and “undermining the prestige of the state”. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and a fine of 3,000 Omani Riyals (US $7,800). He was also banned from working as a journalist for a period of one year.
Editorial secretary Yousef Al-Haj was convicted of “breaching public order”, “misusing the Internet”, “undermining the prestige of the state”, “publishing the details of a civil case”, violating a media coverage ban and slander. He was also sentenced to three years in jail, a fine of 3,000 Omani Riyals, and banned from working as a journalist for a year.
Reporter Zaher Al-Abri was sentenced to one-year in jail and fined a thousand Omani riyals (US $2600) for using “an information network for the dissemination of material that might be prejudicial to public order”.
Source: the Gulf Center for Human Rights
Earlier this year, another independent media outlet, Mowatin, stopped publishing “until further notice”. In a brief statement issued on 14 January, the magazine referred to “circumstances beyond its control”, in particular its desire to “guarantee the safety” of its journalists and writers. According to the Gulf Center for Human Rights, the magazine was facing “consistent harassment” from the Internal Security Services (ISS), the country's national security intelligence agency.
A stable and small country of four million people, famous for its natural wonders, the Sultanate of Oman “has one of the most restrictive” legal frameworks governing press freedom in the Arab region, according to the 2015 Freedom on the Press report. Is the closure of three independent media this year the final blow to press freedom in Oman?

author: Afef Abrougui


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Indian Shooter Heena Sidhu Says ‘No’ to Iran’s Hijab Rule, and Social Media Rallies Behind Her · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

Heena Sidhu after winning gold at the Women's 10m Air Pistol championship at the Munich 2013 ISSF World Cup Final. Screengrab from an YouTube video uploaded by ISSF (International Shooting Sport Federation)
Refusing to adhere to Iran's mandatory hijab for women, Indian ace shooter Heena Sidhu has pulled out of the 9th Asian Airgun Shooting Championship, to be held in Iran in December this year.
Standing by her decision to stay away from the competition, Heena took to Twitter and her official Facebook page to explain her thoughts. On 29 October, she tweeted:
Im not a revolutionary. But I feel dat making it mandatory for even a sportsperson to wear hijab is not in the spirit of a Sport. (2)
— Heena sidhu (@HeenaSidhu10) October 29, 2016
She went on to say that it was a personal decision and she would not like to see it politicized and that the focus should be on the competition and not on hijab.
Heena's stand has found a lot of support online, both within India as well as among a section of liberal Iranians.
Indian cricket commentator and journalist Harsha Bhogle tweeted his support:
Absolutely with you @HeenaSidhu10. Forcing athletes to adhere to local dress restrictions at an international meet is poor.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 29, 2016
Comedian Sorabh Pant said:
Heena Sidhu pulls out of the Asian Airgun Championships in Iran because of a compulsory hijab rule.
A ridiculous rule.
And, a brave stance.
— Sorabh Pant (@hankypanty) October 31, 2016
Referring to a recent visit to Iran by India's Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, where the minister was seen covering her head, blogger SamSays tweeted:
Even SushmaSwaraj complied with forced hijab dress code in Iran by covering her head with a shawl. Well done #HeenaSidhu for taking a stand.
— SamSays (@samjawed65) October 29, 2016
A lot of support is pouring in on her official Facebook page as well.
Heena's decision to not give into the hijab requirement is being seen as a welcome step by liberal Iranians and applauded by activists fighting against the mandatory hijab imposed on Iranian women. Award-winning Iranian journalist in exile Masih Alinejad, who runs the Facebook page called My Stealthy Freedom which showcases Iranian women discarding the hijab in public, wrote on youth-oriented news platform Youth Ki Awaaz
In Iran, women are also fighting in their own ways against the compulsory hijab. When Heena chose to protest against the compulsory hijab in Iran, I shared her photo on the My Stealthy Freedom campaign page and my Instagram. Many women inside Iran applauded her actions, cheering her as a sister in the same fight.
This is not the first instance of a sportsperson protesting the hijab requirement in Iran. US chess champion Nazi Paikidze-Barnes recently withdrew from a chess championship scheduled to take place in Iran in December for the same reason and is petitioning to have the competition relocated.

author: Aparna Ray


text:
‘My Life for Iran’: The 4th Anniversary of Iranian Activist Sattar Beheshti’s Death · Global Voices
Hamid Yazdan Panah

Sattar Beheshti's mother, Gohar Eshghi holds a photo of her son in protest of his murder by government interrogators. Eshghi has become a symbol of resistance to Iran's repression of online freedom of expression. Photo from ICHRI.
On October 30, 2012, Sattar Beheshti was arrested by the Iranian Cyber Police. His alleged crime was posting his political opinions on social media, which included a harsh rebuke of the regime in Iran addressed to the Supreme Leader. Beheshti would never see home again.
Prison authorities contacted his family on November 6, 2012 and asked them to collect his body. Beheshti had been beaten to death.
Four years after his death, Beheshti has come to embody the spirit of resistance in Iran, in an ongoing struggle against freedom of expression and government repression.
Sattar Behesti, a blogger who died under torture by a prison interrogator, with his mother. Photo courtesy of International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran
Iran provides a compelling example of the dynamic interplay between state actors and online activists. The rise of the Internet led to many opportunities, but also new strategies by the state to clamp down on this new sphere that offered a welcome respite from the heavily controlled state media. Online activism became a key component of nationwide protests in 2009 against electoral fraud and deep rooted grievances against the ruling establishment.
The government turned to brute force to squash the physical manifestations of the protests, and turned to new heavy forms of information controls to stop the movement online. This included a brief shut down of the nation's Internet connection, as well as online monitoring and surveillance of activists. The online space has long been seen as the realistic alternative for opposition and free expression against Iran's repressive public spaces, even more so after the 2009 crackdown. Yet this online activism has been replete with risks — as the Beheshti case has demonstrated.
The 35-year-old Beheshti was a day laborer from a lower-income neighborhood outside of Tehran. By night he vented his frustrations and expressed his views on a blog called “My Life for Iran.” His blog's name was a subtle play on a slogan that had become popular in anti-government rallies. Beheshti had reportedly been arrested during student protests in 1999, and remained outspoken in his political views.
Beheshti’s blog posts centered on the arrest and imprisonment of activists and expressed anger and frustration over the daily injustices that took place in Iran. Throughout October 2012 his posts changed in tone and nature. He would boldly express his defiance towards the regime, crossing red lines, such as openly criticizing the Supreme Leader. Such open dissidence, especially of the country's highest ruling figure, was known to be reprimanded heavily.
On October 22, Beheshti addressed Ayatollah Khamenei in a provocative post that would cement his fate at the hands of authorities:
I can call you an artist in the art of killing. Believe me, I consider you an artist.
The day before his arrest, Beheshti posted an ominous final blog entry. “They threatened me yesterday and said, ‘Your mother will soon wear black because you don't shut your big mouth.'” However Beheshti added, “I will not remain silent even at the moment of my death.”
Beheshti was arrested on October 30 by the Cyber Police (or FATA) and taken to Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Days after being detained, Beheshti died under mysterious circumstances on November 3. According to reports, Beheshti died of internal bleeding, hemorrhaging in his lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain. After Beheshti’s death, 41 political prisoners in Evin Prison signed a letter claiming that signs of torture were “clearly visible” on his body while he was held at Evin’s Section 350.
Akbar Taghizadeh, the FATA interrogator responsible for beating Beheshti, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison, two years in exile, and 74 lashes. Beheshti’s family refused to accept the trial or verdict. His mother, Gohar Eshghi was quoted saying:
We and our lawyer did not attend the so-called trial sessions and we left judgment [in this case] to future generations and history.
The regime in Iran attempted to turn Beheshti’s death into an isolated incident by reprimanding those involved in his death and claiming that a thorough investigation had taken place. Yet Beheshti's case was neither the first, nor will it be the last in Iran.
In 2009, Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, a 29-year-old Iranian blogger and journalist, died in Evin while serving a two-and-a-half year sentence. Sayafi’s case garnered headlines as one of the first bloggers in the world to die while serving his prison sentence.
The regime has not shied away from death sentences for online activities. On August 4, 2008, Iran executed blogger Yaghoob Mehrnehad, a political activist and member of Iran's Baloch minority. Mehrnehad was accused of being a member of Baloch militant organizations, while others have maintained that he was targeted for his writing.
In 2011, Iran began a second wave of targeting activists. Several people such as Vahid Asghari and Mehdi Alizadeh were given death sentences, convicted on charges of anti-government agitation, insulting Islam and immortal activity. Others, like web designer Saeed Malekpour, are not activists, but were tried, convicted and sentenced to death nonetheless. Some of these sentences including Malekpour's have since been overturned, while others have ended in executions — Alizadeh was put to death this past September — but Iran continues to target activists, particularly those who leave a digital footprint.
While today marks the fourth anniversary of Sattar Beheshti’s death, his mother still carries Beheshti's tradition of defiance, as she has refused to remain silent about her country's injustices. She is often pictured at home with the portraits of other Iranian dissidents who were killed. Her home has since become a meeting place for Iranian dissidents, and like the mothers whose children were killed by the the country's former ruler, the Shah, she has became a symbol of resistance for Iranians. She has repeated her calls for justice not only for her son but for all Iranian dissidents:
As a mother – more importantly than this, specifically as the mother of Sattar Beheshti – my resolve is uncompromising: I will show to those who pretend to be on the side of the people that I will not flee from anything.
The regime's policies were no doubt intended to silence Beheshti, but his words now echo throughout the world as an expression of what is felt but not said in the hearts and minds of millions of Iranians.

author: Hamid Yazdan Panah


text:
Russian ‘Sex Evangelist’ Wants Women to Be Honest About Faking Orgasms · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

An activist in Russia is attempting to launch a new online flashmob designed to publicize women’s struggle with ignorant and inconsiderate sexual partners. Built around the hashtag #честныйоргазм (“#HonestOrgasm”), the new campaign by “sex evangelist” Elena Rydkina encourages women to share life stories about times they faked orgasms to please partners who failed to bring them to climax, either out of cluelessness or indifference.
Elena Rydkina. Photo: Instagram
“According to statistics, roughly 70 percent of women don’t experience an orgasm during sex,” Rydkina wrote on Facebook and Instagram on Nov. 3, saying that only one in three women “win the biological lottery.”
Rydkina, who is now 25, says she spent seven years faking her orgasms, until finally realizing that “imitation deprived me of the incentive to learn to understand what I actually enjoy, and it deprived my partners of the chance to please me.” “It turned the whole process into some torturous, cheap sitcom,” she wrote on Facebook.
In July, another hashtag campaign spread through social media in Ukraine and Russia. In the #IAmNotAfraidToSayIt movement, Internet users shared personal stories about sexual harassment, sexual violence, and domestic violence. The flashmob produced many bold and brave private revelations by women and some men, helping to make sexual aggression more visible in Ukrainian and Russian society. The movement also led to a handful of contentious allegations against prominent political activists, with more than a few ugly recriminations.
So far, after about ten hours, #HonestOrgasm doesn’t seem to be catching on. Rydkina’s Facebook post does have more than 200 likes, however, aided no doubt by the short video attached, which shows her nude on a bed, wiggling and holding a sign that reads “#честныйоргазм.” (The video has been viewed more than 4,000 times.)
A video posted by Elena Rydkina (@purerydkina) on
According to a search on Facebook, only two other users have volunteered their own stories using the hashtag, though Rydkina says she is welcoming anonymous submissions, which she has already begun sharing on her own Facebook page.
According to an interview with the website Sluttygirlproblems.com earlier this year, Elena Rydkina left a career in biotech to become a promoter for a mobile app called “Pure,” a subscription-only dating app that combines elements of Tinder and Snapchat.
Rydkina says her work for Pure and her social activism are aimed in large part at overcoming “slut-shaming.” Growing up in a small town in Siberia, she says she was stigmatized in her hometown for being polyamorous, despite her efforts at the time to live monogamously, she says.
Rydkina is also a cofounder at “Sexprosvet.” According to the project’s website, Sexprosvet is a forum for popular-science conversations about sex, sexuality, and erotica.

author: Kevin Rothrock


text:
Chinese Activist Who Wore ‘Xitler’ T-Shirt Goes Missing in Detention · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Photo: Twitter/Kwon Pyong.
This post was written by Catherine Lai and originally published on Hong Kong Free Press on November 3, 2016. The version below is published on Global Voices under a partnership agreement.
A 28-year-old activist named Kwon Pyong was reportedly detained in Jilin, China after he shared plans to wear a t-shirt with messages expressing sentiments against Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The t-shirt, seen above, combines the President's family name, Xi, with the name Hitler.
He previously told a friend that he was planning to wear a t-shirt with anti-Xi messages on the street on October 1, China’s National Day. Friends of Kwon Pyong – who is ethnically Korean and previously studied abroad in the US – say that they have been unable to reach him for a month.
A friend of Kwon's named Gu Yi, who is studying abroad in the US, said he received a message from Kwon on September 30 that said “something [bad] happened”. Gu has been unable to contact him since. An officer at the Yanji police department confirmed to US-backed Radio Free Asia that Kwon is currently in police custody. Officers at the same police department who answered the phone were unable to confirm Kwon’s detention with Hong Kong Free Press.
Gu said that Kwon was previously called in to talk with state security officers after he sent postcards to detained human rights lawyers. Gu told Radio Free Asia:
But then he told me on Sept. 30 that he planned to walk around in that T-shirt. I told him not to do it, but he insisted […] We didn’t think he would run into trouble because he had worn that kind of t-shirt before.
Kwon actively tweeted about topics including China’s crackdown on lawyers, the Tiananmen massacre, Tibet, Hong Kong independence, human rights, and other sentiments opposing the Chinese government:
I pretty much love to see that a independent HK will raise up in the future. https://t.co/9WHb6AbTv4
— BraveJohnny (@kwonpyong) September 26, 2016
At the end of August, Kwon posted a photo of himself with the t-shirt on Twitter, saying that “Xitler” was inspired by a tweet from former Tiananmen Square student leader and activist Rose Tang. Below the word “Xitler” are Chinese phrases saying “Xi Baozi” (steamed buns) and “Big Spender” – both pejorative terms referring to the Chinese leader. The background of the photo may have included enough details to reveal his whereabouts in China.
Tang commented on his arrest:
He’s one of a very small number of young Chinese who have been outspoken in criticising the Chinese government on Twitter using their real names. Beijing has been cracking down on Chinese Twitter users for a number of years but his case signals a new wave of crackdowns on young Twitter users in its attempts to diminish the rare and sparse sparks of a pro-democracy and human rights movement which has been stymied since Xi Jinping took office.
US-based group the Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars issued a statement condemning his detention and calling for Kwon’s release.
Gu is helping to organise people around the world to wear t-shirts resembling Kwon’s and protest outside Chinese consulates and embassies around the world.
Xitler's T-shirt

author: Hong Kong Free Press


text:
Demystifying Social Media Censorship — in Arabic, Spanish and English · Global Voices
عفاف عبروقي

Images from OnlineCensorship.org's “Weekly Takedown.”
From Facebook banning photos of female breasts (if they include the nipple) to YouTube's prohibition on “shocking” violent content, social media companies play a powerful role in deciding what types of speech are most commonly seen and heard on the Internet.
These and other leading platforms have terms of use that restrict several types of content including nudity, hate speech, and violence. But these difficult-to-define rules are always subject to interpretation.
There have been numerous free-speech violations due to the overzealous implementation of these terms from the part of social media platforms. Last year, Twitter mistakenly suspended the account of activist and user Iyad el-Baghdadi, after the site's moderators suspected that his account belonged to ISIS leader Abubaker el-Baghdadi. In another of example from the Arab region, earlier this year, Facebook removed a photo by Tunisian photographer Karim Kammoun. The photo displays bruises on the naked body of a woman victim of domestic violence.
Social media sites also remove user posts in response to government requests. Governments sometimes ask platforms to remove content with a clear and legitimate aim of protecting children from sexual exploitation, or countering violent extremist propaganda. But they also have been known exploit these policies to pressure social networking sites to remove content that would otherwise be protected by human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.
The Turkish government remains by far the most exploitative of these policies, as it tops the list of governments that made content removal requests to Twitter over the first six months of 2016 with 2493 requests. In addition, during the second half of 2015, Facebook restricted access to 2078 pieces of content in response to requests made by Turkish authorities under internet law number  5651 which bans personal rights violations and the defamation of the Turkish republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
According to Turkish activists, their government also exploits these policies to prevent its citizens from criticizing the authorities, disseminating content related to the Kurdish cause, and even to ban coverage of political events that are of interest to the public. For instance, in March 2014, Twitter restricted access to the user account @oyyokhirsiza inside Turkey, for publishing tweets accusing a former government official of corruption, under its country-withheld content policy.
Just last month, Facebook disabled multiple accounts and pages belonging to Palestinian journalists and news sites. This came just a few weeks after the Israeli government announced an agreement with the company to remove what its describes as “inciting” content. Although Facebook later apologized for these actions, activists in Palestine and the region remain skeptical about the site's commitment to transparency and impartiality when it comes to implementing its content-removal policies.
This assemblage of public and private interests and policies is difficult to understand from the vantage point of social media users — companies release some information about what they do and do not censor, but plenty of it never reaches the public eye.
Onlinecensorship.org, a project the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Visualizing Impact (and friend of Global Voices) is working to change this by crowd-sourcing reports submitted by users who have had their content removed or accounts suspended on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google+ and Instagram.
Users can submit a report if a social media platform removes their posts or suspends their accounts through the onlinecensorship.org reporting tool. The site also explains how users can appeal to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Flickr, and Google+ the removal of their posts or the suspension of their accounts.
Screenshot of onlinecensorship.org About page.
Just last month, the group launched an Arabic version of their website onlinecenorship.org. EFF's Jillian York who is one of the site's co-founders (and a Global Voices board member), explained that the recent series of bans on content from Palestine made them expedite the rollout of the website's Arabic version.
For Onlinecensorship.org, Facebook is the most frequently reported platform. While most reports came from the United States, followed by Canada, York says that by making the website available in other languages they hope to “increase diversity in the data,” and “compare between countries or regions of the world what social media censorship looks like.”

author: عفاف عبروقي


text:
Fear of Justice? Decolonisation? Gambians Speculate About Country’s Wish to Quit International Criminal Court · Global Voices
Demba Kandeh

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh who has been in power since 1994 is widely accused of human rights violations. Public domain photo by the White House uploaded online by Wikipedia user Alifazal.
Following an announcement to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), Gambians have dismissed the government's reasoning. Activists and ordinary people both at home and abroad are discussing what they perceive as the “real” reasons the government decision to withdraw the country from the ICC.
The government has accused the world body of unfairly targeting African leaders while ignoring leaders of the Western world. While announcing the withdrawal, Gambia's Minister of Information Sheriff Bojang said that the ICC is “an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans.”
The announcement follows moves by South Africa and Burundi to quit the court.
Since its establishment in 2002, the ICC has opened inquiries involving nine nations – all except one involve African nations. Early this year, members of the African Union backed a Kenyan proposal to push for withdrawal from the court.
Independent presidential candidate Dr. Isatou Touray in a press release condemned the Gambian government's wish to withdraw and said it reflected current President Yahya Jammeh's rule:
Fellow Gambians the removal of the Gambia from the ICC, just like the withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 2013 is an unconstitutional act that reflects once more President Jammeh’s disregard for the constitution and the laws of the Gambia.
Dr. Touray, a human rights activist, is the first Gambian woman to launch a bid for the presidency. Presidential elections will be held in the Gambia on 1 December 2016. In October 2013, the country left the Commonwealth, calling it an “extension of colonialism”.
But for Mama Linguere Sarr, a Gambian journalist and activist based based in Sweden, the government is withdrawing from the ICC for fear of justice. In September 2016, President Jammeh removed his interior minister and longtime friend Ousman Sonko. Shortly after his dismissal, Ousman Sonko, who has been named in extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, sought asylum in Sweden.
Breaking!! #Gambia withdraws from ICC. This follows the dictator's fear that his ex Interior Minister will incriminate him to gain asylum
— MamaLinguere Sarr (@mamasarr) October 25, 2016
However, some people agree with the government's desire to withdraw from the ICC, hailing it as part of a decolonisation project. Benjamin Mpofu wrote on Facebook:
The act of continental defiance against a court system created to perpetuate a racist justice system is critical and the timing of it all reminds me of the 50s and 60s when former colonies raged against the machine thanks to the weakening of the colonisers due to the world war. The current redesigning of the worlds geopolitics presents the perfect time for Africa to advocate for its own interests. The project of decolonisation in its totality must begin and leaving the ICC creates that very precedent.
But for lawyer Malick Jallow, the decisions of African countries to quit the ICC is based on the wrong premise. He wrote:
I have followed the debate on the recent declarations regarding withdrawal by a few African Countries from the ICC, including The Gambia. A lot of it confirms my long held notion that the ICC and International criminal justice is perhaps the most misunderstood concept in Africa.
The ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who is Gambian, has since responded to the departure of African states to leave the ICC. “We must remain strong,” Bensouda told reporters in the Hague last week. Bensouda previously served in President Jammeh's government, appointed as minister of justice in 1998, serving as the chief advisor of government on legal matters. But she was sacked two years later.
The Gambia is yet to submit divorce papers to formally begin the withdrawal, but analysts are optimistic that there is no turning point for the tiny West African state. Over the years, the country has increasingly shifted its focus from the West to the East. In 2016, it opened an embassy in Russia and resumed diplomatic ties with mainland China (both countries are not members of the ICC).

author: Demba Kandeh


text:
Iran’s Keywan Karimi: The Filmmaker as Graffiti Artist · Global Voices
Mahdi Ganjavi

A scene from Keywan Karimi's documentary “Writing on the City” filmed in Sadat Abad, Tehran, Iran. PHOTO: Arxe2014 via Wikimedia Commons
By Mahdi Ganjavi
Iranian filmmaker Keywan Karimi’s first feature, Drum, was recently screened at the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week. Karimi, who, due to the political content of his previous documentary, “Writing on the City” (2015), was sentenced by Iran’s judicial court to six years in prison, made Drum while waiting for that sentence to be executed.
On August 6, a few days after the lineup for Venice Critics’ Week was unveiled, Vatan Emruz, a conservative daily based in Tehran, published a long article condemning the Venice festival for selecting Drum. The piece reminded readers that Karimi had been sentenced for making a documentary that supported the post-election uprising of 2009, and expressed outrage that “instead of enduring his judicial sentence,” Karimi “[had] made yet another film!”
Karimi is not the first Iranian filmmaker to continue his career despite judicial pressure. Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasuolof were arrested in 2010 for “filming without permit”, yet risked more severe judicial punishment and continued to make films.
The primary intention of the Vatan Emruz article was to defame “Western” festivals for supporting films by “outlaw directors” who “demonize” Iran. The article acknowledged, nonetheless, that a new tradition is emerging in Iranian Cinema, and cited “Drum” (2016), Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and Mohammad Rasoulof’s Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2015) as examples of this new movement.
The Cinema of the Excluded
In the article, “Keywan Karimi, narrator of Tehran’s walls”, Maryam Hanifi and Azad Aziziyan argue that Iran’s post-revolution filmmakers can be divided into three categories: propagandists, moderate social critics, and radical social critics. The work of this third and most recent group, according to the authors, constitutes the “Cinema of the Excluded”, and they argue that Karimi’s oeuvre is a part of this wave.
While I agree with Hanifi and Aziziyan that a new group of radical filmmakers has emerged in Iranian cinema, I think the idea of a “Cinema of the Excluded” should be developed, both to take account of the long tradition of such a cinema in Iran, and also to differentiate earlier examples from the shift that occurred in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential election.
Many Iranian filmmakers have been social critics, and have made films that tell the stories of excluded communities: Suhrab Shahid Sales and Amir Naderi come to mind. After the revolution in 1979 some of them—Naderi, for example—left Iran. Others, like Nasir Taqwa’i, stopped making films. In the last few years, as digital technology has made filmmaking cheaper and more accessible, this type of cinema has experienced a revival. Thanks to the solidarity of filmmakers in other countries and the support of Iranian civil society, a few recently banned directors have dared to defy serious judicial and political pressures and make films.
The illegal conditions of these films’ production have proven fertile ground for the filmmakers to “decenter” themselves in terms of style and technique. A brief comparison between the work of Jafar Panahi and Keywan Karimi demonstrates how their circumstances have influenced the form and structure of their films.
Not all Panahi’s films fall into the “Cinema of Excluded” category, but three of his recent works definitely do: This is Not a Film (2011), Closed Curtain (2013) and Taxi (2015). Panahi is a master of “factasy”, a word coined by the cultural critic Hamid Dabashi to refer to the combination of fact and fantasy. For this, Panahi is very much indebted to Abbas Kiarostami. Prohibited under Iranian law from making films, however, Panahi has based his recent narratives on his own life, becoming in the process the embodiment of the “outlaw director” in contemporary Iran. By employing “factasy” as a narrative technique, he has been able to deliver bold social criticism.
Unlike Panahi, almost all of Karimi’s films could be said to fall into the “Cinema of the Excluded” category. His work is an exemplar of the style, for several reasons. To begin with, his last few films were written and directed during periods when he was either being summoned for interrogation, or on trial. His protagonists have often been members of excluded communities: night watchmen (The Adventure of Married Couples); Kurdish gas smugglers (Broken Border); graffiti artists (Writing on the City); retired army men who have lost their dreams and homes in an earthquake (Anti-Earthquake Conex).
Karimi does not reduce the challenges of Iranian society to a mere “cultural” conflict between tradition and modernity. He invites the audience to look deeper, at the internal relationship between culture and conditions of production, exploring the way, for instance, that a passion for life deteriorates in the process of making a living (The Adventure of Married Couples); or how people could lose their lives in the process (Broken Border); or the thirst to reclaim human desires prohibited by law (Anti-Earthquake Conex). They also counter formal ideological historiography by reviving political histories that have been systematically oppressed (Writing on the City).
What is the goal of the “Cinema of the Excluded”? The translator Behruz Safdari argues that Keywan Karimi’s cinema is an “authentic” art that invites its audience not only to become conscious of their surroundings but also to change them. According to the filmmaker and critic Ardawan Tarakemeh, in representing a city “the main question is whose city is being represented. Is it the city of the bourgeois or petty bourgeois class? Or the city of the poor, the outcasts? For whom one is representing it? And against whom?” Tarakemeh contends that the city as represented in Karimi’s films is the city of the outcasts—one that tends to be erased in official ideological representations.
Drum: Cinema as an Extension of Graffiti
Drum is based on a novel by Ali Morad Fada’i Nia. Written in 1960, the novel is set during the peak of Tehran’s oil boom-driven modernization, a period which, in Karimi’s view, has strong resonances with post Nuclear-Deal Iran, as both periods embrace the dream of capital—“we are better if we are richer”—resulting in a “culture of greed.” For Karimi, Fada’I Nia, though dismissed by his contemporaries, was among the few intellectuals of 60’s who radically criticized the social order that was emerging as a result of capitalism.
In Drum Karimi, who has roots in photography, invites us to luxuriate in the film’s beauty, while puzzling us with its storyline. A lawyer receives a mysterious package from a man, who is soon killed. Threatened by a gang of outlaw officials, the lawyer holds on to the package, until the gang’s threats mount to the point where they kill his beloved. Evoking an abstract, timeless and dream-like atmosphere, Karimi tells a story of oppression and individual resistance which ends with the absurdly accidental and joyless victory of the protagonist. There is little dialogue, and the pace is very slow, echoing the style filmmakers such as Aki Kaurismaki and Bela Tarr.
In light of the pressures under which Drum was made, Karimi has described his stylistic approach as “crisis aesthetics.” In an interview I did with the filmmaker I asked him what that meant. “I believe there is a recent phenomenon,” he told me.
“This has arisen as a result of recent developments, not only in Iran, but globally. It is the state of crisis that has taken root all over the world. I mean crisis in the Agambenian sense of the word, meaning a state that can result in the suspension of law.
“Law can be suspended twice in a society. The first is when the people suspend it by means of revolution. The second is when the law suspends itself to establish a police state. In such a state of crisis nothing is predictable, yet all things are anticipated. During the past six seven years, the police state has established itself in the entire world, and in Iran too. Everyone is mistrustful of one other. Something might happen any moment. The artistic works produced in this recent period should arise from this state of crisis; meaning that they have to have a kind of crisis aesthetic, not the aesthetic of the previous era.”
The aesthetic of his film, said Karimi, is an direct outgrowth of his circumstances. “The condition of my life is crisis. As a person facing a prison sentence, I was unable to make decisions about my future, and I still can’t…. My day starts around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, when I become sure that an agent has not come for me. Paranoia flourishes in such circumstances.
“This state of crisis in which I live has influenced the form of my film. The simple fact that my shooting permit was for only 17 days changed everything. Sometimes you had to shoot something in case you would not be able to continue. I couldn’t record dialogue, so I had to add all the sound at the sound mixing stage— there is no natural sound in the film. I thought if they let me start editing, then I will do something creative about the sound. And I did something creative. This is a movie composed of 84 scenes with no cuts.”
Karimi does not exoticize his situation. He universalizes his personal experience, referring to the similarity of the West and the rest in the contemporary world. “I am the rest,” he says, pointing to the unpredictability of daily life in a police state, a condition to which we are all getting accustomed, to the point that it is now affecting the way we make our films.
For Karimi, therefore, a director is like a graffiti artist, an outlaw who lacks the comforts of the conventional painter, and whose art reflects the conditions of its production. Through his work, he invites us to be aware of the state of crisis in which we live, to creatively resist the limitations that such a state imposes.
Mahdi Ganjavi is a Ph.D. student in the department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at University of Toronto. His essays and reviews have been published in the International Journal of Lifelong Education, Encyclopedia Iranica, The Bullet, Radio-Zamaneh and Ajam Media Collective.

author: Mahdi Ganjavi


text:
It Took 2.5 Years, But Lebanon Finally Has a President Again · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

Supporters of Michel Aoun gathering in Beirut. Photo by Hassan Chamoun.
On October 31, 2016, after a 2.5-year power vacuum, the Lebanese parliament finally elected a president of the republic: Michel Aoun.
Aoun, a 81-year-old former army commander known by his supporters as “The General,” is the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and leader of the Change and Reform Bloc. He managed to get 84 votes in the first round (86 votes were required) and 83 votes in the second round (18 more than the 65 votes needed for a simple majority), making him Lebanon's 13th president. Besides giving the country an elected leader, Aoun's success is that he will return tothe Presidential Palace after he was forced out, by Syrian troops, as interim prime minister in October 1990. Until 2005, he lived in exile in France.
Celebrations, mostly by FPM supporters, broke out in many parts of the country. Lebanese journalist and blogger at Beirut Syndrome Kareem Chehayeb filmed one party in Beirut:
Fireworks. Music blasting. People singing and cheering…My ears. #Aoun #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/EYvJsS7p2P
— Kareem Chehayeb (@chehayebk) 31 October 2016
As is custom in Lebanon, many see Aoun's win in both geopolitical and sectarian terms. More specifically, critics and analysts say his election is a victory for Iran, due to the fact that Aoun was allied Hezbollah's choice and that a major obstacle to his presidency was the opposition of Saudi-backed leader Saad Hariri. In fact, the Iranian government, which holds significant influence over Hezbollah, immediately praised Aoun's election, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei even called it “the triumph of the Resistance Axis.” Bashar Al Assad wasted no time to call Aoun and congratulate him.
In contrast, Hariri, who ended up endorsing Aoun and securing the latter's majority, called it a “big sacrifice.” Hariri endorsing Aoun was a surprise to the former's followers, many of whom still oppose the move. Given that he is now going to be prime minister, again, it seems clear that Hariri made the required political calculations to maintain some influence. As the Washington Bureau Chief for Al-Hayat Newspaper Joyce Karam wrote, “the Aoun-Hariri deal is a pact for power and survival by both leaders and a statement of the shifting realpolitik alliances in Lebanon.”
Karam also explains how Hariri is being challenged “from within” his traditional base:
Minister of justice Ashraf Rifi has delivered a significant blow to Hariri in Tripoli and is emerging as a potential rival in garnering both local and regional support. Coming on the heels of a Saudi shift away from Lebanon toward Yemen, Syria, and in some cases Africa, the former prime minister was left with few options. Accepting Aoun was the most immediate vehicle to ease Hariri’s woes and secure even temporarily his political future.
But that is not necessarily how most people on the ground view the situation. While there are no sociological surveys to establish scientifically what people believe, anecdotal evidence suggests that Lebanese Christians generally favored Aoun, particularly after the endorsement of his former enemy Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces.
Lebanese journalist for the Wall Street Journal Maria Abi-Habib said the election of Aoun should be seen as “a win for an overwhelming majority of Christians who support him” rather than the result of geopolitical calculations. The “Christian vote” often takes center stage in political analysis as the position of president of the republic is a seat reserved exclusively to a Christian Maronite, part of Lebanon's so-called Confessional System, which aims, not without its fair share of criticism, to maintain a “balance” between Lebanon's numerous sects.
Aoun's win is being framed as a win for Hezbollah / Iran. Why can't it be a win for overwhelming majority of Christians who support him? /1
— Maria Abi-Habib (@Abihabib) 31 October 2016
As for how we got here, Lebanese blogger Ramez Dagher, who writes at Moulahazat, authored an article titled “How Michel Aoun Became the President” on October 31. In about 5,000 words, he summarized the two dozen political commentaries he's written over the past three years. In those texts, he argues that alliances in Lebanon are nothing but temporary phenomena depending on regional trends and internal discord.
It's important to note that no elections have been held in Lebanon since 2009, meaning that the parliament that chose Aoun to serve as president is illegitimate, technically speaking. As Dagher explains:
There is nothing democratic about the 2016 Lebanese presidential election. The president will stay till 2022, and was elected by the parliament of 2009. Everyone who wasn’t 21 at the time didn’t participate in the electoral process, and that means that anyone aged 33 or less would have had no say about who rules from Baabda Palace in 2022. And even those who indirectly elected the president by electing in 2009 the parliament that chose him, they picked their representatives in a completely different context: They voted for one of two coalitions that were completely different at the time, in a completely different regional and local context: There was no Syrian Civil War at the time, no Arab Spring, no ISIS. Hezbollah was still fighting Israel, not fighting Israel and in Syria. March 8 and March 14 had only tried to rule together once, between 2008 and 2009, not three times (2008-2009, 2009-2011, 2014-2016). There was no trash crisis, no garbage protests, no alternative political group back then. Moreover, you can’t deny quorum until the parliament elects you, and then come back to say your election was democratic. Especially if the current parliament that elected you as president is unconstitutional in the first place (and I’m quoting the constitutional council here)
Shortly before the elections, a video of Aoun started circulating on social media showing him saying just that: the parliament is illegitimate and therefore cannot elect a president. He said it during a news conference on July 7, 2015, and repeated it in March 2016.
This video was uploaded by the “You Stink” Movement, which led protests against the “trash crisis” and corruption in the summer of 2015. On Facebook, the group used the hashtag “#كلن_يعني_كلن” (“All Means All,” and “They are all corrupt”), a popular chant repeated during the protests.
What a shame… a shameless lie to the Lebanese people. Note: these are his words, not ours. Press conference on July 7, 2016 with OTV channel [Lebanese tv station belonging to the FPM]
Angry Lebanese mocked the elections online, widely describing the process as a circus. A notable source of laughter was how House Speaker Nabih Berri, during the election, was repeatedly forced to tell lawmakers to return to their seats, at one point complaining that members of parliament were behaving like “a school of hooligans.”
One Twitter user shared a video produced by Lebanese news station Al Jadid, showing members of parliament joking and laughing amid the chaos. The Arabic branch of AJ+ shared a similar video.
رئيس البرلمان اللبناني نبيه برى مدير في مدرسة المشاغبين 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/CG0335HZD9
— Mashael (@Mshaal80) 1 November 2016
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, is like a headmaster in a school of disrespectful students! pic.twitter.com/CG0335HZD9
One lawmaker, Walid Joumblatt, who heads the mostly Druze Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and is known publicly for his rather eccentric tweeting habits, was on Twitter throughout the session, uploading images of Ancient Rome:
بدأ التصويت 👀👀🕶🕶👏👏⚡⚡🌎🌎 pic.twitter.com/OOprJhC0QI
— Walid Joumblatt (@walidjoumblatt) 31 October 2016
Voting has begun
عاش الرئيس 👏👏👏🎷🎷🎷🎺🎺🎺🗣🗣🗣✌✌✌⚡⚡⚡ pic.twitter.com/r6z9D7oCm0
— Walid Joumblatt (@walidjoumblatt) 31 October 2016
Long live the leader
Two of the votes cast were also the source of a number of jokes. One MP voted for fictional character “Zorba the Greek,” while another voted for Lebanese singer and model Myriam Klink (who is a supporter of Michel Aoun).
In today's Presidential election in #Lebanon‘s parliament, Michel Aoun won but Zorba The Greek got one vote 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/QZquJ2Zlxc
— Walid (@walid970721) 31 October 2016
Mryiam Klink occupying the parliament #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/IcSXLdPNxz
— Ahmad M. Yassine (@Lobnene_Blog) 31 October 2016
And as Nadine Mazloum of Newsroom Nomad noted, the election was riddled with corruption even before it started:
Two MPs should not have been allowed into Parliament, but alas, for the sake of consensus, they were.
The first is Issam Sawaya, who reportedly left Lebanon shortly after his election in 2009, only to return for the Presidential bid. The second is the highly controversial Okab Sakr, who has been outside Lebanon since news of his involvement in a Syrian arms deal emerged in 2012. Sakr came to vote, but no mention of his involvement in the arms deal was made.
I don’t know about you, but the last time I checked, MPs were elected to serve as the representatives of their people. If they can’t do the job, its best that they resign to make way for others who can.
With this rocky start for Aoun's presidency, only time will tell what comes next for Lebanon.

author: Elia J. Ayoub


text:
Pro-Kurdish Party’s Leaders Arrested in Turkey Amid Strengthening Crackdown · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. Creative commons.
In a development spelling more gloom for an embattled ethnic minority and highlighting the ever-deepening political crisis in the country, the co-leaders of Turkey's opposition People's Democratic Party (HDP) most noted for defending the rights of ethnic Kurds have been arrested, media reported.
HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag were reported by Turkish news agencies, Reuters and the BBC as being arrested October 3 along with at least nine other party members in connection with an anti-terror investigation. Dermitas, who like other opposition politicians did not endorse the bloody coup attempt that took place in Turkey in July, has been relentlessly critical of president Recep Tayiip Erdogan's policies towards Kurds, including in an interview published the day of his arrest.
'Erdogan, AKP Will Pay Political Price for Purge of Kurds, Alawites & Leftists': Demirtas – https://t.co/T1V8Zp2f5r https://t.co/buxrhZ8MBU
— KurdishQuestion.com (@KurdishQuestion) October 4, 2016
Even for the Turkish government controlled by the dominant Justice and Development Party (AKP) the move carries some risks as Dermitas and Yuskedag have earned reputations among left-leaning Turks, foreign governments and international organisations as principled, combative politicians.
#BREAKING Germany summons Turkish envoy over Kurdish MP arrests
— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 4, 2016
Selahattin Dermitas will go down history as one of the greatest humanitarian politicians. He almost makes me want to become a politician.
— Rojava (@braincomplexa) August 9, 2016
The arrests however will be popular with Turkish nationalists, who conflate HDP with the pro-independence Kurdish militants with whom the government recommenced hostilities last summer.
Dermitas' sophistry. No mention of his familial links to PKK or fact that he acts as their mouthpiece  https://t.co/1R7H9z1wh9
— Behar 萨德 (@BeharSadr) April 14, 2016
HDP stormed into the parliament for the first time in June 2015 in the first of two general elections held in Turkey last year, on the back of considerable support from both the Turkish community and young urban voters supportive of the Gezi Park movement that was suppressed using heavy-handed policing two years before.
When the vote was held again following a failure to form a coalition government, HDP only sneaked past the 10% vote share threshold and into the legislature following an AKP electoral campaign full of fear and intimidation that helped them regain a parliamentary majority.
In May Turkey's parliament voted for legislation to strip lawmakers of immunity from prosecution that critics said was intended specifically to target HDP.
The party was excluded from a public and highly politicized show of national unity organised by the government and including all the other parties from the parliament shortly after the coup attempt took place.
Turkey's government blames the coup on secretive US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, figurehead of the global Hizmet social and religious movement.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


text:
Slovenians Are More Interested in Melania Trump’s Local Lawyer Than Stories About Her Past · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

A billboard in Skopje, Macedonia advertising Lisca from Sevnica, Slovenia, the leading lingerie company in the region hailing from Melania Trump's home town. Photo: Global Voices, CC-BY.
What do Slovenians talk about when they talk about their emigre compatriot, Melania Trump? Taking a look online, interest lies not so much in some scandalous gossip from her past, but in her choice of a local Slovenian lawyer to help her with a defamation lawsuit.
After her husband, businessman Donald Trump, started his presidential campaign, several international media outlets, such as CNN, Washington Post and the Guardian, visited Slovenia in search of scoops on Melania Trump's past. They did not find much to report on.
Born in 1970 as Melanija Knavs, she spent her early years in the town of Sevnica, whose claim to international renown came from the presence of the factory for the lingerie brand Lisca. The reports present the future Mrs. Trump as a normal kid growing up in then-socialist Yugoslavia, who started her modeling career in her teens and then moved abroad through her work, first to Italy, then to the US.
A local Slovenian tabloid called Suzy, however, attempted to stir the pot when it alleged that she was involved in an escort agency during her modeling career. The report failed to draw much media attention, especially after Melania Trump sued American blogger Webster Tarpley and British tabloid The Daily Mail, both of which relayed the accusation, in American court. The Daily Mail retracted the story and apologized.
Mrs. Trump then proceeded to sue Suzy and others for defamation in Slovenia in September.
It seems social media users in Slovenia find Melania Trump's choice of Slovenian lawyer interesting. Melania Trump employed former information commissioner Nataša Pirc Musar, who has a strong reputation as being a champion of truth and democracy.
Her business association with the Trumps has raised some eyebrows in liberal circles, but given the negative reputation of the defendants, some are arguing that Pirc Musar's activity of confronting sensationalism can be considered consistent with her previous work. “You could say Trump is doing something good for a change” sums up many of the sentiments expressed on Slovenian social media.
Pirc Musar actively uses Twitter, and has kept her followers informed about her work for Melania Trump.
Pripravljamo odziv Melanie Trump na današnje neresnične zapise Bojana Požarja.
— Nataša Pirc Musar (@nmusar) October 19, 2016
We are preparing Melania Trump's response to the false writings by Bojan Požar.
The responses to the above tweet about preparing a legal response to the allegations presented by Bojan Požar, a controversial TV journalist and blogger who is among those being sued by Melania Trump, included cheers and encouragement to “hit him hard” with fines.
Before her marriage to Donald Trump and his presidential campaign, Melania Trump was not overly famous in her native Slovenia, which she left in 1996 when she immigrated to the US.
Donald Trump himself had some international visibility in the former Yugoslav countries due to his cameos in Hollywood movies and TV series, but he established his big celebrity status in the region only after 2004, through his reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

author: Filip Stojanovski


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Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Census Shows the Demography of Division and the Reality of Illiteracy · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Senior citizens playing chess on the street in Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Photo: F. Stojanovski, CC-BY.
Initial results of the census in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) showed that decades of nationalistic politics have entrenched ethnic and religious differences, reconfirming the ethnic cleansing ‘gains’ from the 1990s war. They also pointed to an urgent need for more education, since high levels of illiteracy — including computer illiteracy — affect its capacity to compete in the modern world.
Feminist and digital rights activist Valentina Hvale Pellizzer drew attention to the side-strapped census issue through a comprehensive analysis published on her blog.
Pellizzer noted that, as expected, all stakeholders were dissatisfied after the publishing of the census results. Contrary to advice by civil society, this major statistical operation was conducted with poor preparation and implementation, and without clear measures against management negligence or for the protection of people's personal data:
Political parties representing the three main ethnic blocks campaigned with a focus on reaffirming the demography of division through three questions: ethnicity, religion and ‘mother language’.
Civil society fought and lost its battle to have those questions as optional instead of compulsory […] so the only choice for people was about getting creative in responding or selecting ‘do not want to declare/state my ethnicity, religion or mother tongue’ option. Twenty years after the war, the priority of the parties was to claim victory, or to bring the ethnic rhetoric of victimhood to a new stage.
For years, due to disagreement on how to aggregate divergences among the three statistic agencies in BiH (the state agency and agencies from the two political entities, Republika Srpska and the Federation), the only census data publicly available was the overall number of people living in the country and in the main cities. Naturally, this allowed for much speculation, similarly to other multi-ethnic Balkan countries. Macedonia, for instance, has not had a census since 2002, even though by law this basic statistical operation needs to take place every ten years.
Under pressure by the international community, the BiH Agency for Statistics published the results just one day before the very last deadline, on June 30, 2016. The agency also created the open data web site popis2013.ba, which — more than three months later — still lacks all the promised visual and interactive elements, instead displaying a demotivating message, “Soon” (“Uskoro”). However, it does provide downloads of PDF and Excel files with the demographic data, which Pellizzer used as the basis for her analysis.
According to the results, most BiH citizens, which number more than 3.5 million, consider themselves as members of one of the three main ethnic communities — Bosniak, Serb and Croat. They speak the corresponding ethnic language and declared in the survey that they are religious, affiliated with the faiths of Islam, Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, respectively.
Population by ethnic/national affiliation, level BIH (the whole country), FBIH (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina), RS (Republika Srpska), BD (Brčko District). Source: Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013 final result, Bosnia and Herzegovina Agency for statistics.
Choosing the designation of Bosnian (“bosanski”), and not the more ethnic version of Bosniaks (“bošnjački”) for the language of the Bosniaks, the biggest ethnic group, was the cause of yet another institutional crisis between the main ethnic Bosniak and Serb parties.
The released results also showed that out of 3.5 million residents, over 96,000 belong to the “others” — ethnic communities which are not one of the “big three” — while 27,000 refused to declare any ethnic affiliation, and 6,000 respondents selected “unknown”. No details were released on the numbers comprising the “others”, including the Roma.
Pellizzer made the observation that if the 130,054 inhabitants who do not consider themselves members of the three major ethnic groups all lived in the same town, it would be the third largest town in the country, after Sarajevo and Banja Luka:
In this little town would also live a majority of 118,612 agnostic/atheist/do not declares/others or unknowns with just 63,066 people speaking a language different from the mother language of the three main ethnic groups, a language which the current results defined as other/unknown. And this ‘town’ would summarize the overall size of the multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity of post-war Bosnia Herzegovina.
It seems that, with the exception of major cities like Sarajevo and Tuzla, most BiH citizens live in segregated territorial units, without much contact across ethnic lines.
The census failed to provide meaningful results on people with disabilities, as the questions were incorrectly formulated. “Disability remains marginalized by the census as an additional lost opportunity of bringing clarity and relevant information for a better planning of resources,” Pellizzer wrote. This Twitter user added:
#BiH ima najviše NEPISMENIH i najmanje visokoobrazovanih u regiji #popisBiH
to je vijest, sve ostalo je politika
— shpary (@shpary) June 30, 2016
BiH has the highest number of ILLITERATE citizens and the lowest number of citizens with high education in the region. Now, that's the real news about the census, everything else is politicking!
The census also showed that almost 3% of the population — mostly women and girls — is illiterate. Available data on education shows that over a million citizens have either only primary level education or none at all. Data on computer literacy shows that 1.1 million people are computer illiterate, unable to process a text, create a table, or use e-mail and the internet.
Computer Literacy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Source: Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2013 final result, Bosnia and Herzegovina Agency for statistics.
In the wrap up of her analysis, Pellizzer concluded that nearly half of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not well equipped enough to either participate in or benefit from today's information age; there was also a worrisome gender gap:
If we have more than half of the population […] barely able to use computers and navigate the current digital environment how can we even talk about employment and qualification of workers? Which future are we suggesting when women/girls are suffering a double gap in education: literacy and digital literacy? […]
Bosnia Herzegovina is a country of illiterates, with an adult, aging population. The average age is 39.5 years old. Adults are very challenged in changing their own behavior, so how they can turn around the negative trends of politics, the economy and social welfare of their country? This late, imperfect, incomplete and contested census is more than scary.
Education should be the most serious, urgent and strategic problem for the plethora of politicians constantly ready, at each electoral round, administrative or political, to spend millions of words in campaigning about how they will build or rebuild their country, entity, cantons, or municipality.
In December 2016, the International Monitoring Operation is supposed to provide an “approval” on the census results.


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Jamaica Plans to Give a Historical Pardon to National Heroes and Freedom Fighters · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

A modern fretwork depiction of the Christmas Rebellion led by National Hero Sam Sharpe at Westgate Shopping Centre in Montego Bay. Commissioned by architect Cosmo Whyte, designed by Margaret Robson and built by Will Robson and the Magic Toy Crew. By Jazzypom (Own work). CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Monday, October 17 was National Heroes Day in Jamaica. The subsequent week, Heritage Week, is the busiest on the Jamaican cultural calendar. This year has been no exception.
Leading up to the date, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia “Babsy” Grange announced in parliament that the criminal records of four national heroes and a number of freedom fighters involved in four significant events throughout Jamaican history were to be expunged and a statutory pardon issued:
The Cabinet has approved drafting instructions in respect of legislation which will cause the expungement of the criminal records of notable freedom fighters, national heroes, supporters, sympathizers and participants by association who were involved in the 1760 Chief Tacky’s St. Mary rebellion, the 1831/32 Christmas rebellion, the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion and the 1929 campaign of the People's Political Party.
The last item refers to Jamaica’s first modern political party, founded by Marcus Mosiah Garvey  — perhaps the most admired national hero among Jamaicans. Garvey was charged with contempt of court in September 1929, after criticizing Jamaica's legal system as “oppressive” and calling for laws to punish judges who were unfair. He was convicted and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and a 100-pound-sterling fine.
This move follows the Holness administration’s recent belated attempts to bolster a failed petition to the White House to grant Garvey a posthumous presidential pardon for his 1923 conviction for mail fraud, for which he was deported from the United States to Jamaica.
The public response to the government's move was largely positive. The issue was discussed on the Running African radio show on Irie FM. Since the legislative process may take some time, one Jamaican listener urged on Facebook that the matter be prioritised.
On the prime minister's Facebook page, Jamaicans also commented, such as Jam San:
It's about time! Thank you M. Grange!
One Twitter user spoke up about the importance of other national heroes not being left out of the pardon:
#happyheroesday #Jamaica exonerate #criminal Records of our #NationalHeroesDay pls #Bogle #Sharp #Gordon #Garvey they were liberators 🇯🇲👊🏾 pic.twitter.com/vtQ0wSYi17
— Selecta Princess (@selectaprincess) October 17, 2016
Paul Bogle, a Baptist deacon living in rural St. Thomas (apparently free born) was a strong supporter of another national hero, George William Gordon. In 1865, he led a protest march to Morant Bay Court House, where hundreds of slaves were killed in a confrontation with colonial forces. Bogle was captured and hanged soon after. Gordon, a landowner in the same parish who campaigned for justice for enslaved Jamaicans, was arrested, charged and executed for his involvement in the Morant Bay rebellion. Samuel “Daddy” Sharpe, also a Baptist leader in Montego Bay, organized the Christmas Rebellion of 1831. What was intended as a non-violent protest was brutally suppressed by the military, with hundreds killed or subsequently executed. Sharpe was hanged in 1832.
Interestingly, Chief Tacky, who led one of the earliest slave rebellions, is not a national hero. His pardon is of particular interest to activist Derrick “Black X” Robinson, a resident of St. Mary, who has campaigned for years for Tacky to achieve official national hero status. In recent years, Robinson has made an annual pilgrimage — on foot — from the Tacky monument in Port Maria, to the capital, Kingston, a distance of about 26 miles. He paid an official visit to then opposition leader Andrew Holness in 2014.
Just before Heritage Week began, Minister Grange and Prime Minister Holness were busy celebrating the island’s medal-winning athletes at the Rio Olympic Games. Holness tweeted a photograph of himself sharing a joke with sprinters Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt:
#Sub10King @officialasafa & #legend @usainbolt. Jamaica is a blessed country. pic.twitter.com/C9ue4PU7R0
— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) October 15, 2016
These are Jamaica’s modern-day cultural heroes — not exactly freedom fighters, but helping to keep the flag flying.

author: Emma Lewis


text:
Kehinde Wiley Reimagines Old Portraits Because ‘If Black Lives Matter, They Deserve to Be in Paintings’ · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

This image shows some detail from “Mary Comforter of the Afflicted,” a stained-glass portrait by Kehinde Wiley. Credit: Courtesy of Kehinde Wiley
This story by William Troop originally appeared on PRI.org on November 2, 2016. It is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
New York-based visual artist Kehinde Wiley says he’s not very religious. You might think otherwise from looking at some of his work.
Wiley currently has a show at the Petit Palais in Paris called “Lamentation.” It features 10 monumental works in stained glass and oil on canvas. Each portrays a traditional religious scene, in the style used by European artists during the Renaissance. Wiley reimagines each scene, placing at its center a modern-day person of color, wearing shorts and tank tops and the like.
The results are both beautiful and surprising to the viewer. See for yourself. Below, on the left, is a stained-glass portrait from the 16th century called “Saint Ursula and the virgin martyrs,” by an unknown artist. And on the right is Wiley’s modern reinterpretation.
Wiley describes what he does as an “intervention.”
Pictured here is “Saint Ursula and the virgin martyrs,” originally from 1535, alongside Kehinde Wiley's modern-day version from 2014. Credit: (L): © Victoria & Albert Museum, London; (R) Courtesy of Kehinde Wiley
“By and large,” he says, “most of the work that we see in the great museums throughout the world are populated with people who don’t happen to look like me. As a child, I grew up studying and worshiping those great works of Western European painting. But I also wanted to fulfill the goal of feeling a certain personal presence in that work.”
In other words, Wiley wanted to see himself in those grand heroic portraits. And as an artist, he sees an opportunity to take those centuries-old depictions of glory, and use them to make a statement that’s very much about the present.
“At its best, what art does is, it points to who we as human beings and what we as human beings value. And if Black Lives Matter, they deserve to be in paintings.”
This pictures the “Arms of Nicolaas Ruterius, Bishop of Arras,” a stained-glass portrait by Kehinde Wiley from 2014. Credit: Courtesy of Kehinde Wiley
Wiley says the reaction at the opening of his show in Paris last month was profound.
“I’ve never had so many museum guards walk up to me like they did in Paris, where they said, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never seen this many black bodies in a public space,’” says Wiley.
He says the guards who came up to him were a cross section of French society: black, white and North African. And he attributes their reaction to the power of his big, stained-glass portraits.
“The resplendent light coming out of that stained glass is not about nationhood, it’s not about race. It’s about being powerful in the world, glowing literally,” he says. “And if art can be at the service of anything, it’s about letting us see a state of grace for those people who rarely get to be able to be seen that way.”
By the way, Wiley’s full body of work goes beyond religious iconography. It includes a series of projects he calls, “The World Stage.” Each project focuses on a different country around the globe, always with a black or brown body at the center of each portrait.
“The Three Graces” is an oil on canvas work by Kehinde Wiley in 2012. Credit: Courtesy of Kehinde Wiley
His current exhibit at the Petit Palais in Paris runs through January 2017. Wiley acknowledges that this is a delicate time for his work to be exhibited in France. Far-right politicians there have seen a surge in support because of concerns that too many refugees and immigrants are coming into the country.
“I think that it’s obviously something that we see here in America,” he says. “We see it in the Brexit. We also see it in France. And all of those black and brown bodies that are in places [like the recently dismantled migrant camp in Calais] called the Jungle … [those places] have to be remembered as places that were once places of refuge for Eastern Europeans, Jews and homosexuals.”
Wiley’s conclusion? “Europe has been a place of refuge. Why should it stop with black and brown bodies?”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Ethiopia’s Candidate to Lead the World Health Organization Contracts Foot-in-Mouth Disease · Global Voices
Endalkachew Chala

Tedros Adhanom. Creative Commons image by Russell Watkins/UK Department for International Development.
Ethiopia's candidate for Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, shocked many observers when he displayed a complete lack of knowledge about global health strategies during a candidates’ forum on November 2, 2016. Though Adhanom has served in the Ethiopian government as both minister of health and foreign affairs, he failed to answer a basic question about his claims that he is running a campaign on a framework that promotes the health needs of the developing world.
“Sorry, the question is not clear, can you clarify?” he answered, when a representative from Brazil asked him to explain why he claims to represent the developing world, when the agenda he advocated in his presentation espoused the health agenda of the developed world. Instead of answering the question, Adhanom tried to engage in a conversation with the Brazilian representative, apparently hoping to grasp what the question meant. Awkwardly, the moderator intervened, trying to help Adhanom understand the question.
Adhanom also stumbled with another question at the same forum, when asked about the technical cooperation of WHO member states:
The gentleman from Brazil might have ended @DrTedros candidacy to be the @WHO Director-General by asking a simple question. #NoTedros pic.twitter.com/mMXKhNaiix
— Andualem X (@AndualemX) November 5, 2016
This embarrassing performance could hurt Adhanom’s current political campaign for the post of head of the global health body. Recently, he was relieved of his ministerial duties in the Ethiopian government, following a cabinet reshuffle. During his presentation last week, Adhanom said the Ethiopian government replaced him with a new foreign minister, so he could focus on the campaign.
I thank the Government of Ethiopia for letting me now focus on my candidacy for Director-General of the World Health Organization.
— Tedros Adhanom (@DrTedros) November 3, 2016
Though he's endorsed by African Union, Adhanom has been under continuous assault from prominent members of Ethiopian civil society and opposition groups, who argue that his ties with the Ethiopian regime should disqualify him from leading WHO. These groups have also started an online petition.
When Adhanom launched his campaign in April 2016, Ethiopia was beset by anti-government protests. Citing the government's violent actions against protesters, 20 Ethiopian political and civic organizations signed a letter declaring Adhanom unfit to lead the World Health Organization, saying he is the face of the regime.
The letter read: “Mr. Adhanom did not lend confidence as a public health figure while he served as the Minister of Health in Ethiopia. […] His tenure as head of the Federal Ministry of Health was fraught with mismanagement and incompetence.”
The letter refers to an audit conducted by the Office of the Inspector General, which was prompted by reports of “mismanagement of money and incompetence.” Subsequent research available on the Internet confirmed that the audit uncovered detailed evidence of financial mismanagement.
In a separate letter, one activist outlined his reasons why Mr. Adhanom should not be allowed anywhere near the World Health Organization.
The human rights website “Al Mariam” also offers a strong denunciation of Adhanom's WHO candidacy:
Adhanom’s shallowness and cluelessness in matters of foreign policy and diplomacy are simply incredible.
His public speeches and statements generally lack not only substance and coherence, but are simply nonsensical. In July 2015, Adhanom said  Ethiopia  is a democracy with one hundred percent of the vote! (Of course, so did Obama. Two “nonsenses” don’t make one bit of sense!)
Adhanom’s diplomatic speeches are chock full of platitudes, clichés, buzzwords and hokum. He has a distinct proclivity to frame complex issues in worn out and left over phrases from the days of student activism of his late boss, thugmaster Meles Zenawi.
Adhanom manifests little understanding of international diplomacy and appears to lack even an elementary understanding of international law, treaties and conventions.
Meanwhile, Adhanom has been making the case that he would bring a fresh perspective to the WHO's leadership. Other than the African Union, some pro-government diaspora groups and international figures have also backed his candidacy.
Adhanom has relied heavily on social media to build his “brand” in Ethiopia — a country where access to social media is highly limited. Access isn't so restricted, however, that Adhanom's gaffes at the Nov. 2 forum haven't led to mockery online, where critics have enjoyed making fun of his surprising ignorance.
On Twitter, the hashtag #NoTedros4WHO gained popularity, with many users arguing that Adhanom has disqualified himself from holding any position at the WHO.
#OromoRevolution #AmharaResistance Tedy did you say English is my first language? Sustainable development goals on my mind :-) pic.twitter.com/ChsoXewz5s
— Birhanu M Lenjiso (@BirhanuLenjiso) November 6, 2016

author: Endalkachew Chala