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‘This too shall pass,’ sings Turkish pop star · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

A screenshot from the music video released on February 17 by Tarkan.
Tarkan, one of Turkey's mega popstars, released a new music video on February 17. The singer announced the release of the video to his 3.9 million Twitter followers. The video, titled “Geççek” (it too shall pass) has already gathered 3.8 million views since its release, as of this article's publication. The lyrics of the song immediately triggered a wave of reaction online, with some claiming it is about the COVID-19 pandemic, others arguing it alludes to political conflict in Turkey, and some saying the meaning is up for interpretation.
Klip yayında…
YouTube kanalımda😉https://t.co/XRyVRzCkLJ#Geççek #YoutubeShorts 😘 pic.twitter.com/VsoqmbYJjg
— Tarkan (@tarkan) February 17, 2022
The video is live…
On my YouTube channel.
Kimisi politik anlar, kimisi pandemi anlar, kimisi dünyadaki kötülükler anlar ve kimileri de başka şeyler. Anladığındır, hissettiğindir o şarkı senin için. Sanatçının hislerini ve sebeplerini sorgulamayın, kendi hissettiklerinize odaklanın, keyif alın. Sanat böyle birşey. #geççek
— Şahan Gökbakar (@sgokbakar) February 17, 2022
Some would understand and interpret this song as political, some about pandemic, some about all the bad things happening in the world and some about other things. That song is about how you understand and what you feel. Don't question the artist's feelings or reasons, concentrate instead on what you are feeling. This is what art is about.
Geççek addresses a number of ongoing issues in the country, such as the global pandemic and its impact on citizens. In the video, there are people stuck at home, in lockdowns, having online meetings, wearing masks on public transportation. The video continues to show images of factory workers, students, children, and even people stranded in Istanbul's notorious traffic. In order to reach his diverse audience, the singer, almost robotically enters a room full of computers, where he hacks into the network and begins streaming a music video onto people's devices, billboards and even in the metaverse where Tarkan sings in a virtual game, played by a young boy at home.
Prior to releasing his song, the 49-year-old star, reportedly said:
About a year ago, I went through a tough period when my mood was not very good. Many things such as the pandemic, the sad events happening in the world, the alarming course of humanity, the destruction of nature, affected me very negatively, and I felt like I was losing hope.
It was during that time, that the music and words for this song resonated inside me. ‘It shall pass, of course, this too shall pass, you will see, the day of hope’. I told myself, I have to write a song that will be good for all of us. I thought maybe this song would console us a little, give us morale and hope.
I hope ‘Geççek’ brings a smile to your face and will be good for all of us.
#Geççek and #gitçek (will leave) has been trending on Turkish Twitter.
Turkish megastar #tarkan broke the internet tonight with the release of his new song #geççek which means this too shall pass.
Hopeful happy people ✌🏻😄
— Çağan Yüce Üçer (@blenderella) February 17, 2022
Musicians in Turkey are known for chiming in on sensitive issues in the country through their music. In 2019, 20 rappers or MCs came together and released Susamam (cannot stay silent) which addressed a number of issues in Turkey. Most recently, veteran singer-songwriter Sezen Aksu released a song called “Hunter,” in response to sexist attacks leveled against the singer for another song she released in 2017, which was criticized for being sacrilegious.
I cannot be the only one who thinks Tarkan’s new song is incredibly political.
“These days too shall pass…
When that time comes, we’ll dance with bells on…
They’ll go just as they came…
Everything ends…
This ordeal will end…
Just leave us be…”pic.twitter.com/TAYuoMcDHt
— Can Okar (@canokar) February 17, 2022
Some Turkish artists described Tarkan's new song as “protest pop,” while opposition politicians chimed in about the song on Twitter.
Tarkan’ın “geççek” şarkısı ilk protest pop şarkı olarak tarihe geçti. Bir isim koymamış, yoksa adresi belli! Tebrikler @tarkan aynen geççek! 👍😎
— Atilla Taş (@AtillaTasNet) February 17, 2022
Tarkan's “geççek” song makes history as the first protest pop song. There is no mentioning of a name in the song, otherwise it is clear who the song was addressed to! Congratulations! You are right, it will pass!
Umut dolu bir şarkı @tarkan 👏 https://t.co/YlQQIa7LQK
— Özlem ÇERÇİOĞLU (@OZLEM_CERCIOGLU) February 17, 2022
A song full of hope.
But the song hasn't escaped criticism. According to journalist Murat Özer, writing for Diriliş Postası, a newspaper known for its closeness to the ruling government, it was the main opposition Republican People Party (CHP) that commissioned the song. The journalist was speaking on a live TV show on February 17 shortly after the song was released. When Özer was asked to prove this statement, the journalist said the song was shared widely by the members of the opposition party.
Similar to Özer, the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) parliament member, Alpay Özalan said in a tweet it was a sad sight for the opposition. “They [the opposition] have no projects or programs. They are consoled with a singer who has turned into a troll. An opposition with Tarkan pinned as their hope cannot govern even a coop, let alone govern the state.”
Hacı Yakışıklı, another journalist writing for a pro-government newspaper, suggested the song was written on the orders from Gülen movement, or “FETÖ” who stand accused of orchestrating the coup attempt in 2016, reported the Bianet online newspaper.
The fact that many interpreted the lyrics as a song not only about the pandemic is not surprising, wrote journalist Mahmut Çınar in his opinion piece, for Gazete Duvar, an online newspaper. “But this is what being a star entails I think. It is not easy to follow the Covid agenda and at the same time, send a message to the people overwhelmed by the current government and the economic crisis which is the result of its politics with a chic song.”


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Website of NGO Hong Kong Watch partially blocked amid rising fears of internet censorship · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Photo via HK Free Press. Used with Permission.
The following report was published by Hong Kong Free Press on February 15, 2022. It is republished on Global Voices via a content partnership agreement.
The website of NGO Hong Kong Watch appears to have been partially blocked in Hong Kong amid fears of rising internet censorship in the city.
The apparent blocking of the UK-based NGO’s website comes after a handful of pro-democracy and Taiwan-linked websites have become inaccessible. However, the Hong Kong Watch site was still accessible via VPN (Virtual Private Network) circumnavigation tools when tested by HKFP on Tuesday, and it remains available to some internet service providers.
The CEO of Hong Kong Watch, Benedict Rogers, said in a statement that the city’s future as a financial hub depends on access to information. “If this is not just a technical malfunction, and Hongkongers will no longer be able to access our website because of the National Security Law, then this is a serious blow to internet freedom,” he said.
“With the steady drip of website removals, there are fears that China could begin introducing its Great Internet Firewall into the city. With time this could have serious ramifications for the continued presence of western technology companies in the city.”
Reports are emerging that @hk_watch website can no longer be accessed through certain networks in Hong Kong.
We are hearing that the website cannot be accessed via PCCW, CMHK, HKBN and Navigator networks among others.https://t.co/WR24b4lVKJ
— Hong Kong Watch (@hk_watch) February 14, 2022
Last May, access to anti-government website HKChronicles was blocked. The site collected information during the months-long anti-extradition protests in 2019 and operated as a pro-democracy doxxing platform, revealing the personal information of police officers and pro-Beijing supporters. It highlighted cases of alleged police brutality.
Websites for the Transitional Justice Commission and HK Charter 2021 also appear to have been previously blocked.
HKFP has reached out to PCCW, Smartone, HKBN, 3 Hong Kong and China Mobile for comment.
Photo: HKChronicles screenshot. Used with permission
In June 2020, Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution — bypassing the local legislature — following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts, which were broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure.
The move gave police sweeping new powers, alarming democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China. However, the authorities say it has restored stability and peace to the city.
Responding to a request for comment, the Police Public Relations Branch (PPRB) told HKFP that “The Police will not comment on specific cases.”
However, the PPRB wrote that, pursuant to Article 43 of the national security law, “the Police may require service provider(s) to take a disabling action on electronic message(s) on an electronic platform the publication of which is likely to constitute an offence endangering national security or is likely to cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security.”
Photo: GovHK. Used with permission.
The PPRB also cited the national security law’s Article 3, which “stipulates that the executive authorities of the HKSAR shall effectively prevent and suppress any act or activity endangering national security.” This is “only applicable to electronic message(s) on an electronic platform the publication of which is likely to constitute an offence endangering national security or is likely to cause the occurrence of an offence endangering national security.”
Social media pages for Hong Kong Watch remain accessible.
Meanwhile, a doxxing website targeting pro-democracy protesters, as well as journalists, remains accessible in Hong Kong, seven months after HKFP alerted the authorities to its existence through media inquiries. Since 2019, the HK Leaks website has openly maintained an online database of personal data belonging to more than 2,000 Hong Kong democrats, protesters, and journalists.
ID card numbers, headshots, home addresses, and phone numbers are often included. Historically, the site has been hosted on Russian servers and promoted by groups linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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‘Mas’ in a time of mourning: How the spirit of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival shines through · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A costume from the Carnival band Vulgar Fraction‘s 2022 presentation, ‘Mas Mourning—Becoming Wreaths,’ by designer Robert Young. Photo by Jason Audain, used with permission.
With its irresistible soca rhythms, colourful masquerade, fetes and steel pan competitions leading up to the two-day street festival preceding Ash Wednesday, Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is typically a joyous celebration — and one that was born out of deep pain.
The 1881 Canboulay Riots, which are reenacted each year, are a startling reminder that Carnival's freedom of expression, its refreshingly wanton bacchanalia, its imagination and creativity, were hard won. Derived from the Latin carne vale — literally translated as “farewell to the flesh,” meaning a last wild frolic before the deprivation of the Christian Lenten season — Carnival's very name points to the fact that life and death, joy and sadness are inextricably intertwined.
For this year's Carnival, which, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be stripped down to a basic display that the government has dubbed “A Taste of Carnival,” designer Robert Young, who brings out a “mas” (masquerade) band called Vulgar Fraction, has chosen to examine the presence of death in what is arguably the country's most life-affirming festival.
“Mas Mourning — Becoming Wreaths” was launched on February 17 at Young's atelier in the heart of Belmont, a neighbourhood on the fringes of the Queen's Park Savannah that is famous for producing outstanding Carnival designers, musicians and photographers.
In a departure from most Carnival band launches, where the focus is on costume presentation and sales, a panel that included cultural studies scholar Marsha Pearce, rapso artist Wendell Manwarren, singer/songwriter Addelon Braveboy and art therapist Celeste Walters, discussed how “the mas explores remembering, commemorating, celebrating,” particularly during this time of pandemic, when so many have lost so much.
The theme of the mas is certainly timely; it feels like the world has been trapped in a state of collective mourning for the past two years, whether it be for loved ones struck down by coronavirus, for connection, or in the case of Carnival lovers, for the festival itself, which was cancelled in 2021 because of the pandemic.
Pearce, whose student cohort at the University of the West Indies (UWI) will participate in the band, was careful to explain that revellers can “become wreaths” either instinctively or by intention. Both, she said, are “future-oriented acts,” but one leads to closure; the other to connection and community.
A post shared by robertanthonyoung (@insideready)
It is an idea expertly bought into existence through the lens of photographer Jason Audain, who is passionate about preserving the legacy of Trinidad and Tobago's traditional mas through portraiture. In a series of photographs shared on Robert Young's Instagram page, the costumes, which are predominantly constructed out of dried banana leaves and tropical flowers in keeping with the funereal wreath theme, come to beautifully stark and uncomfortably compelling life.
As Pearce pointed out, the word “wreath” is linked to “writhe”: twisting around in mental anguish or physical pain, emotionally closed off. “What would happen,” she asked, “if we opened ourselves up?” Growth would take place, she imagines. Healing. New beginnings. Movement, as opposed to the “going nowhereness” the pandemic has thrust upon us. A celebration of life. It is what Carnival is all about, and seemingly can be again — even with health protocols in place; even with no physical street parade — once we think of “self as a community through the art of mas.”
A post shared by robertanthonyoung (@insideready)
Making a distinction between grief (an internal process with no fixed timeline) and mourning (the externalisation of that grief), Walters believes that Carnival has always offered participants the tools with which to process and transform. She has started thinking of art, she explained, as an expressive behaviour rather than a skill.
Manwarren, as a prolific rapso artist and theatre performer, can probably attest to it being both, but in the Carnival space, he stresses, art is much more than just celebration; it also offers the opportunity to commemorate loss. He recounted a February 4, 2020 WhatsApp conversation he had with the late creative powerhouse Tony Hall, who called it a time of “sacred energy” and “stillness” — a “Strasser time.”
In referencing Wilfred Strasser, who in the late 1940s would portray masquerades that were almost like still life renditions in their restraint and artistry, Hall was making the point that Carnival is “not always about the spectacle.” Paired with Hall's view on the pandemic, which is that “there is a possibility for there to be a settling into the essence of the universe,” it is a radical thought.
A post shared by robertanthonyoung (@insideready)
“Carnival time,” Manwarren continued, “is the oldest time we have,” a “contemporary manifestation of energy and imagination” that is “influenced by tradition,” while constantly reinventing itself. He even suggested that the pandemic may be an opportunity — perhaps missed by the authorities charged with facilitating it — to examine what Carnival really is.
“We are in charge of it,” he says. “People need to reconnect to that. Carnival is us; it's ours. Mas [doesn't] make sense — you can't apply logic to it — it's a vibration, it's an expression. How can you manage something when you don't even understand what the thing is?”
A key aspect to the process of becoming wreaths in Vulgar Fraction's Carnival portrayal is that once it is over, masqueraders must take off their costumes and leave them somewhere, akin to laying a wreath on a grave. This harkens back to the age-old Carnival tradition of opening the mas, which is done first in the wee hours of Carnival Friday morning with the re-enactment of Canboulay, then through the elemental, pre-dawn ritual of J'ouvert on Carnival Monday, and closing it off on Carnival Tuesday night with Last Lap, an acknowledgement that the sacred annual custom has come to an end.
A post shared by robertanthonyoung (@insideready)
Musicologist Patrice Cox-Neaves told Global Voices in a telephone interview, “It is these rituals, their opening and closing, which connect spirituality and Carnival,” or as panellist Addelon Braveboy put it, “Everything has a spirit, concealed in the masquerade of our body.”
It is these concepts of celebration and mourning, life and death, that Young is attempting to make people understand are not opposite ends of some intangible spectrum but rather, threads of the same fabric, looping into one another and bringing a deeper, transformative meaning to the Carnival experience every time we choose to put on a costume and “play a mas.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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The Beijing Winter Olympics: A wedding adjacent to a funeral · Global Voices
Kok Bayraq

Boycott Xinjiang advert on New York University's campus, New York, NY, October 7, 2020. Photo by Themomenthasarrived2020 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics kicked off on February 4, with the Uyghur genocide still raging in East Turkestan (“Xinjiang” to China). This is the same as a wedding taking place next to a funeral. One of the most common and long-held rules of etiquette is not to hold a wedding on the day of a neighbor’s funeral. How is this rule so easily broken, and whom does it harm? As a veteran Uyghur journalist, my place in this scenario is on the funeral stage, so even though my heart is full of pain, my conscience is at ease, and my pen is free. Let me drop a few lines for future generations to memorize.
How did this happen?
Is it because the media and human rights organizations have been unable to fully expose the genocide? No! The world has seen 380 camps on satellite images, leaked Chinese secret documents, and a sharp decline in Uighur birth rates over the past two years. The world has heard the grievances of relatives of Uighurs living in nearly 40 countries and the testimony of more than 30 camp witnesses. As Uyghur leader Rabiye Qadir has said, investigators do not even need to go into the region to determine genocide.
The Uyghur genocide has been on the international agenda for at least three years. China is, of course, denying the accusation, and many countries that are economically dependent on dictatorships support China. It is easy for a primary school student to know who is honest and who is insincere just by looking at the list of those who support and oppose China’s Uyghur policy. Look at the reality:
These are the eight countries that have recognized the violence against the Uyghurs as genocide: the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Belgium, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands.
On January 19, 2021, Mike Pompeo, the United States Secretary of State stated that “the People's Republic of China, under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party, has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uighurs …” On February 23, Canada’s parliament declared China’s treatment of Uyghurs genocide. Lawmakers also voted to pass an amendment asking Canada to call on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing “if the Chinese government continues this genocide.”
On January 20 this year, France's parliament issued a resolution stating that the National Assembly “officially recognises the violence perpetrated by the People's Republic of China against the Uyghurs as constituting crimes against humanity and genocide.”
In an interview with NBC News, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed China’s Uyghur policy:
I met certain Uyghurs , what I heard with my own ears, that on the whole they welcome the policies of the Chinese authorities in this area.
But he didn’t mention who they were, whether representing the Uyghurs or the regime. He continued:
They believe that China has done a great deal for people who live in this part of the country ….”
Putin has not hidden his pro-China stance, saying “Moscow doesn’t see Beijing as a threat but as a friendly nation.”
Also, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has said China's take on the Uighur issue was completely different from what was being reported in the Western media:
Because of our extreme proximity and relationship with China, we actually accept the Chinese version.
This reality shows that holding the Olympics in Beijing is the result of money prevailing over morality, power over justice, in the second decade of the 21 century.
What does it mean to hand the Winter Olympics to China? Obviously, this is nothing more than saying to China, “What you are doing is nothing, and even if you do something worse, there is no power in the world to stop you.”
Badiucao‘s Boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics. Photo by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
In response to a question about his message to the oppressed Uyghur population of China, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, in his pre-Games news conference, said:
… with regard to … the Uyghur population, the position of the IOC must be, given the political neutrality, that we’re not commenting on political issues.
Does Thomas Bach see the eight countries that have recognized the Uyghur genocide as “hostile forces that do not see China’s development,” as China does?
IOC Vice-President John Coates recently said that “The IOC does place a very high emphasis on human rights,” but he went on to state that pressuring Beijing about Xinjiang was not in the IOC’s “remit.”
Clearly, there are certain political issues in every country, and no one expects all political issues to be resolved by the Olympics. However, when politics runs in the direction of committing genocide, the world has the right to expect an appropriate stance on the matter — that of stopping the murderers instead of colluding with them.
“We have to respect the sovereignty of the countries who are hosting the Games,” Coates said.
Genocide is not a matter of sovereignty; it is destruction against human beings and an act against the rule of nature and the order of the universe. No state has the right to commit or lead others to commit genocide, and any charter of an organization that tolerates genocide is complicit.
At the end of the pre-Games conference, Bach contradicted his previous statement of making “no comment on politics” by speaking for tennis star Peng Shuai. When Bach was asked why he had not said one word in three months about Peng’s chilling sexual assault allegation against a former top Chinese official, he answered, “If she wants to have an inquiry, of course, we would also support her in this, but it must be her decision.” The real root of the problem is that Peng Shuai cannot make her own decisions in this matter, and she cannot speak as she wants.
Are IOC leaders that naïve, or do they lack the vision to understand the concept of genocide and what it is like to be voiceless in a one-party regime?
Recent research by “The Daily Beast” revealed that the business interests of some IOC members suggest that their links to Beijing go beyond sports. The investigation found that IOC VP Coates is chairman of William Inglis & Son Ltd., an Australian thoroughbred horse auctioneer. At one Inglis sale in 2019, horses worth over A$3.5 million were sold to the “secretive” China Horse Club, and this has attracted scrutiny for its mysterious membership and ownership structures. A further A$1.5 million (USD 1.5 million) worth of horses was sold to the club at another auction last year. In total, Inglis’s auctions last year saw horses worth A$18,861,500 (over USD 13 million) sold to buyers based in China.
The report also mentions participation in Inglis’s cup of horses from the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region. Inglis has organized the sale of a number of horses to at least one major Xinjiang owner and breeder. The province, plays an important part in China’s horse industry, with Chinese tycoons establishing stables and breeding and training programs there.
Coates is not the only of the IOC’s 101 members to resist suggestions that the organization might do anything to apply pressure to Beijing with regard to human rights abuse.
IOC President Bach attracted criticism during his IOC election campaign and one rival, a Swiss lawyer, insisted: “[Bach] uses his position to his benefit so that he can gain contracts for the companies he represents.”
Bach's statement that “we do not get involved in politics” is not only betraying oppressed people, including Uyghurs, but also the Olympic goal of contributing to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit.
Let’s put aside the national and international impact of the Olympics in Beijing; just imagine part of a possible scene of genocide based on previous testimonies, which include torture tracking, detention and abuse.
At the opening ceremony, Chinese officials posed with an athlete of Uyghur descent lighting the torch in the opening ceremonies. In a column, the Jerusalem Post compared the scene to the Olympic Games in Nazi Germany in 1936.
Yes, there is no report about mass murder in “Xinjiang.”It may not stem from the mercies of Xi Jinping, and actually, the police-state status of the region would not allow it to be reported. The 1948 Genocide Convention offers a broader definition of genocide that includes “mental harm,” preventing births or “forcibly transferring children,” when part of a systematic effort to destroy a particular group — all of which apply to the situation in “Xinjiang.”
What makes the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics unique? The answer is: The scene, the wedding taking place adjacent to a funeral As I recall my eight loved ones who are being detained in the terrific camps now, I say loudly that these are the Genocidal Olympics! The Bloody Olympics! The Complicity Olympics!

author: Kok Bayraq


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Malaysian artist Fahmi Reza faces police probe and two charges for satirical posters · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Free speech advocates express solidarity with Fahmi Reza. Photo from a Twitter post by the Centre for Independent Journalism. Used with permission.
Malaysian graphic artist Fahmi Reza was summoned by the police in January 22 and was slapped with two charges this month for publishing posters that mocked authorities on social media. Rahmi has already paid MYR 8,000 (approximately USD 2,000) in bail this year. Human rights groups have decried the police probe and the filing of charges against Fahmi as a reflection of the shrinking space for freedom of expression in the country.
On 25 January, Fahmi was summoned by the police and made to give a statement over a complaint against a poster he had made which modified the coat of arms of the Malaysian state of Pahang, which was heavily flooded in December 2021. The flash flood was blamed on rampant logging in the state, and Fahmi’s poster featured a tree and two axes with an inscription that read “House of Balak.” Balak means log or timber in Malay.
On 10 February, Fahmi was charged under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) for a 2021 poster caricaturing the country’s former Health Minister. The poster was satirizing the Minister’s decision to shorten the COVID-19 quarantine period for Cabinet Ministers returning from abroad on official visits.
Section 233 of the CMA “criminalizes speech with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person, including anonymous communications.”
On 17 February, Fahmi was slapped with another charge under the same law for a different poster which mocked the June 2021 order by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to allow alcohol production during the COVID-19 lockdown despite the regulation that only “essential services” were allowed to operate. Malaysia has a Muslim majority population.
Fahmi wrote a defiant tweet after posting bail for the second time this year:
I'm out on bail! One shouldn't be afraid to stand up for our right to freedom of expression because it instills courage in others to stand up with you. They can jail a rebel, but they can't jail the rebellion. #SatireIsNotACrime pic.twitter.com/WD7r9zEZMt
— Fahmi Reza (@kuasasiswa) February 17, 2022
Nalini Elumalai, senior Malaysia program officer of ARTICLE 19, urged the government to stop what she described as a “witch-hunt” against Fahmi:
The government’s use of retaliatory criminal charges in an attempt to intimidate Fahmi Reza only succeeds in exposing their malicious witch-hunt against him. Their campaign of harassment and criminalization of expression must stop.
The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) reminded authorities that satire is a protected form of expression:
Gov leaders must learn to take public criticism and dissent in stride and stop going after critics like #FahmiReza for poking fun at them. Uphold our freedom of expression!
— Centre for Independent Journalism (@CIJ_Malaysia) February 10, 2022
ARTICLE 19 and CIJ are among the groups which have been pushing for the review and repeal of “draconian” laws like the CMA.
Opposition lawmaker Lim Guan Eng cited Fahmi’s case to warn against the rising attacks on the right to freedom of expression under the new government:
Clearly the public space for criticism and freedom of expression is slowly but surely disappearing under an extremist regime that has no regard for democracy and the dangers of corruption.
This is not the first time that Fahmi has faced harassment for his online work. He was threatened by authorities in 2016 for posting clown memes mocking the country’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was embroiled in a corruption scandal. And he was detained for one day on April 23, 2021, after the police received a complaint over a satirical Spotify playlist ridiculing Malaysian Queen Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah.

author: Mong Palatino


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‘We got used to the war’: life for a frontline family in Ukraine · Global Voices
openDemocracy

Svitlana and Oleksiy Savkevych. Image courtesy of Democratic Governance East, USAID Ukraine, used with permission.
This article by Tetiana Bezruk appeared on OpenDemocracy on February 18, 2022. It is republished as part of a content-sharing partnership and has been edited to fit the GV style.
My apartment building in Kyiv is on the outskirts of the city, near a pine forest. There is no metro line in the area. That means there is no “principal bomb shelter” as the city mayor, Vitaliy Klichko, calls them.
Life hasn’t changed much in the last two weeks, whether in my neighbourhood or in the city centre, in comparison with December or November last year.
The only thing that’s really different is that all my friends discuss whether Russia will conduct a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That’s why some people have enrolled in local territorial defence units or first aid courses, while others have taken their children out of the city.
“Russia doesn’t need to invade Kyiv directly; it can come up with something else,” one of my colleagues suggested.
Indeed, my colleague and I made a plan that if mobile networks and the internet went down on February 16, the day the international media had reported the Russian invasion would start, we would meet near one of the city’s cinemas at 4pm that day. In the end, we didn’t have to meet.
But when Kyiv residents began to pack their emergency bags, and foreign journalists once again returned to Ukraine, I remembered two acquaintances — Svitlana and Oleksiy Savkevych, a couple who live with their children in the small town of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, on the outskirts of occupied Donetsk.
Oleksiy is a freelance translator. He was born and raised in Donetsk, where he graduated from university. He met his wife Svitlana as a student. In 2001, the couple got married and moved into a detached house in Avdiivka. A tram used to run the few kilometres or so from the town to Donetsk. Until 2014, Oleksiy believed his small town would eventually become an administrative district of Donetsk. Avdiivka already had a reputation as a Donetsk suburb, and was popular with students and workers.
Oleksiy and I are speaking via Zoom. He is in Avdiivka, I am in Kyiv. On the screen I see that new year bunting is still hanging in the Savkevychs’ home. Oleksiy is sitting opposite a window from where, he says, he can see a multistorey building — and where pro-Russian militants set up the first checkpoint in the city in 2014.
“To be honest, I don’t know what I can tell you,” said Oleksiy. “Residents of frontline cities are already used to this [situation]. This is not the first time we have been living with this expectation of danger.”
For Oleksiy, the war began when the Russian military, the so-called ‘little green men’ — masked soldiers in unmarked army uniforms — appeared in Crimea and occupied it in 2014. At that time, he thought that if the annexation of Crimea was possible, the same could happen in the two easternmost regions of Ukraine: Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas.
I’ve got used to the war, it’s even embarrassing for me to explain it to visitors to our city sometimes. We have a railway track nearby. Guests used to visit and ask: ‘How do you live here? You can hear the trains. How can you sleep with the noise?’ And now there are no trains, but there’s war. You get used to all the noises that become part of your life. People don’t understand this; it is difficult for them to understand how you can live with it.
In spring 2014, Oleksiy and his family went to visit their relatives in Ilovaisk, a town on the other side of Donetsk, which later saw heavy fighting — he remembers even then seeing roadblocks. Later, he saw pro-Russian militants manning a checkpoint on his own street in Avdiivka.
“It was then that I realised that the checkpoint was dangerous, and so I sent my wife and children to the sea,” he said. That was June 2014.
“I stayed in the city, and called them up every day regularly. ‘Well, how is it?’ my wife would ask, and I would say, ‘No, Sveta, it seems it’s still not a good idea [to return]. It’s still dangerous.’”
The Savkevуch family left Avdiivka in the difficult winter of 2015, when the city was heavily shelled. They moved to a city 25 kilometres away and rented a house there for two months. Oleksiy admits that it was a difficult decision, but a necessary one. Otherwise, he said, he would have been putting his children at risk. That year they studied remotely, and if their school had not re-opened in 2016, the family would most likely have moved closer to Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine. But back in Avdiivka, Svitlana chaired the school’s parent committee, and as the new school year approached, she had to deal with organisational issues at school. Oleksiy was asked to volunteer.
“It was then that I realised for myself that our city had not let me go,” he reflected.
Then came the winter of 2017, when there was fierce fighting around Avdiivka. “If in 2015 everything was very chaotic and the city was paralysed, with my friend and I helping the few organisations that were getting disabled people out of town, then in 2017 everything was much better organised,” he said.
Avdiivka, 23 July 2017. Image by OSCE/Mariia Aleksevych on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
“That was also a ‘hot’ winter, but maybe only for a week or two,” he recalled, adding that at the time his family did not consider leaving because of the fighting.
As Oleksiy and I talk, I realise that he measures the war by his children’s ages. “It was then, yes, then, because the children were younger,” or, “Well, this is quite recent, because the children were older.”
Oleksiy told me he has never had a direct conversation with his children about what war is.
I remember, at the end of May 2014, I could not get home [from Donetsk] by bus because the road to Avdiivka was blocked. And I went on foot. I remember walking along a new, deserted road that had been laid from Donetsk to [the nearby town of] Svyatohirsk. I don’t think it will ever be restored. And I looked along the road and saw a shot-up car. I come home to Avdiivka, and there’s a contrast right in front of me: my children, who were younger then, playing war.
Because his children were always with adults, Oleksiy said, he and his wife never had to explain what they should do during shelling.
“When the mornings were loud, we all made decisions together on how best to proceed. A couple of times, when [the shelling] dragged on, we slept in the basement; it was very damp there. And on other days, when we heard that it was dangerous, we chose the safest area from our point of view, the corridor, where there are no windows,” he explained.
Oleksiy recalled the sounds he would hear during shelling. “You’d hear a strong whistle, which I remember from 2015… That meant the shelling was close. It wasn’t always possible to determine where the shell was flying.”
This time, Oleksiy admits that his family have not prepared emergency backpacks or anything similar. Nothing has changed for the family: the children have school; Svitlana has a job in the local library; Oleksiy has a job as a freelance translator. He said the town was recently discussing staging its summer arts festival, Avdiivka FM, to be held for the fifth time since 2018.
It’s not like we get up every day and think [that the Russian army is going to capture Avdiivka]… Firstly, we don’t hear [firing]. But nothing has changed so far.
However, more journalists have begun to come to the city. And we get more questions like: what will you do if Avdiivka is suddenly captured? The answer: leave, of course.

author: openDemocracy


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Global Voices seeks Project Writer for participatory research project · Global Voices
Rising Voices

Illustration remixed by Rising Voices utilizing the Data Security by Anwar Hossain from NounProject.com
Note: we are no longer accepting applications for this position.
Rising Voices, the digital inclusion initiative of Global Voices, is seeking a skilled writer familiar with mixed methods research to help communicate the findings of our participatory research project, “Indigenous and minority language community needs for secure technologies.”
The research project aims to support current members of Rising Voices’ networks of digital activists working in indigenous, minority, or low-resourced language communities in identifying their local language communities’ digital safety needs; setting priorities regarding data privacy and security, communications, and advocacy; and raising awareness and mobilizing their communities to act upon these priorities.
For this stage of the project, we will select 18 researchers from Latin America, Asia, and Africa who will collect data on the challenges, opportunities, and needs of their language communities in regard to digital safety and security. Each researcher will work in collaboration with our project team to produce a report that will provide the basis for 18 articles to be written by the Project Writer and published on Global Voices. These articles will eventually be translated into relevant languages to further engage these communities.
The Project Writer will also collaborate with our visual designer on the production of 18 infographics (one for each case study), contributing concepts and text for use in the designs. In addition, the Project Writer will assist in outreach efforts to disseminate the articles and infographics.
This position is a part-time position based on the completion of deliverables and tasks taking place between the period mid-March and August 2022. The bulk of the writing will take place during the months of May and June.
There is no geographic requirement associated with this position. Please note that Global Voices has no office or physical headquarters. Candidates must be comfortable setting their own schedules, meeting deadlines, and working in a wholly virtual environment.
We strongly welcome candidates from outside North America and Western Europe and encourage people currently contributing to Global Voices to apply.
Email a résumé, a cover letter in English that highlights your work and explains why you would be a great fit for this role. Include a writing sample that best showcases your work, either in PDF format or with an URL. Please send to rising@globalvoices.org, with the subject line: Project Writer: [your name].
The application deadline is 11:59pm ET (GMT -5) on March 8, 2022.

author: Rising Voices


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Jordan’s personal data protection draft bill: is it enough? · Global Voices
SMEX

Jordan's parliament is currently reviewing a personal data protection draft bill presented by the government. The assembly's legal committee could edit the draft, but current version has raised concerns. Image of the assembly's hall, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
The article was first published by SMEX on February 16, 2022. An edited version is published as part of an agreement with Global Voices.
As Jordan moves towards new legislations that will culminate in laws that enshrine digital security, questions are being asked about whether the Personal Data Protection Law will really see the light, and, more importantly, whether it be implemented independently.
On December 30, 2021, the Jordanian Council of Ministers approved the 2021 Personal Data Protection Draft Law, which has been under deliberation since 2013, and submitted it to the House of Representatives. The latter then referred it to the Parliamentary Economic and Investment Committee on January 24, as a matter of urgency, to carry out the necessary constitutional deliberations. The draft law aims to establish a legal framework that strikes a balance between the individual rights to personal data protection mechanisms on one hand, and information processing and cyberspace storage mandates on the other.
“The draft law aims to establish regulatory frameworks on the storage, processing, and circulation of data within a clear set of limitations and obligations securing the trust needed to engage in the digital economy and encourage e-commerce and e-services in the Kingdom,” the director of policies and strategies at the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Engineer Tawfiq Abu Baker, told SMEX.
The draft law has raised several concerns, specifically regarding the proposed structure and establishment of the data protection authority. Article 4 of the proposed bill stipulates that the data protection committee shall be chaired by the Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, which denies the committee — a supposedly supervisory body — its much needed independence.
In an interview with SMEX, Executive Director of the Jordan Open-Source Association (JOSA) Issa Mahasneh warned that “the proposed structure indicates a clear conflict of interest. The executive authority is represented by the Ministry and members of the security services within the committee. As the most prominent collectors of information, these entities will not only effectively organize and manage the protection of data but will also be processing it.”
Mahasneh further asks:
Can the data protection committee under the currently proposed structure investigate complaints related to privacy violations if,  for example, the perpetrators fall under the executive authority?
At the same time, expert on media legislation and digital rights and freedoms Dr. Nahla Al-Momani told SMEX: “There are attempts to bring more diversity into the authority and promote its independence.” She evoked best practices for appointing the head of the committee, including “holding deliberations and appointing a chair through a vote, all while striking a balance within the committee by involving civil society, the government, experts, and independent institutions.”
But will the government implement best practices? Engineer Tawfiq Abu Baker confirmed that the government is “aware of best practices for data organization.”
Abu Baker attributed the authority’s lack of independence to “limited financial resources and the Jordanian parliament’s plan to integrate authorities and ministries.”
As such, the Directorate for the Protection of Personal Data, established by the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, will handle legislation pertaining to data protection and will receive reports and complaints related to the violation of legal provision. He added that the directorate will “draft regulations and observe the level of maturity in the data sector.”
In addition to the dilemma surrounding the data processing authority, the wording of the draft law remains contentious as it uses broad and generic language. For example, Article 15 on exceptions not only allows the processing of personal data without the express and documented consent of the concerned person, but also authorizes access to the information for several bodies, such as the “judiciary” and the “prosecutor.”
These loopholes “pave the way for illegal data processing without the consent of the person concerned and grant several entities access to this information. It is a violation of fundamental rights and undermines the spirit and purpose of the law, and it deprives citizens of their right to be forgotten if they wish to,” according to Al-Momani.
Abu Baker argued that sometimes “concerned institutions” might need to access personal data and not have time to wait for permission, something the law refers to in many of its articles, saying that sometimes “a competent public authority” needs access to implement “tasks mandated by law,” for or medical or crime-related purposes.
Article 16 of the law enshrines the concerned person’s right to object to processing decisions that may have a financial or moral impact on them, and the processing party must thus respond to their request. According to Article 17, the said party must also inform the person whose data it wishes to process, in writing or electronically, before initiating the process. It must also specify the period throughout which the personal data will be processed, and provide that this duration is not extended without the concerned person’s consent.
The 2021 Personal Data Protection Draft Law is addressed to all agencies, institutions, companies, and parties that collect electronic or non-electronic files or records or personal data, whether inside or outside the Kingdom. Every natural person has the right to protect their data, which may not be collected, processed, disclosed, divulged, or circulated without the concerned person’s prior consent. The provisions of this law apply to data that is collected or processed before it enters into force.
“The law offers one strong advantage, and that is the need to secure citizens’ prior consent before using their data,” said Al-Momani. Article 8 stresses that the consent should be “explicit and in writing and shall be granted for a specified time and purpose. The law also stipulates that citizens should be informed in advance of their data’s fate and reasons for collection. It also criminalizes the processing of data for reasons other than the purpose intended.
In Article 20, the draft law also guarantees citizens the right to be forgotten and remain anonymous, and allows anyone to access, view, or erase their personal data, and demand that it be amended in the event of misinformation or inconsistency with their directives or their religious, political, or other affiliations. More importantly, the law also criminalizes refraining from deleting the stored data after a citizen’s request, Al-Momani confirmed.
According to Abu Baker, the law covers all personal data relating to a natural person, which will aid in their direct or indirect identification, irrespective of its source or form. This includes data associated with the individual person or to their familial status or whereabouts, in addition to sensitive information that directly or indirectly reveals their origin, race, opinions, political affiliations, or religious beliefs. The law also addresses data pertaining to financial status, health, physical, mental or genetic condition, biometric fingerprints, criminal record, or any information or data that the council deems sensitive if its disclosure or misuse would cause harm to the person concerned.
“Data protection is a pressing need, not a luxury,” stressed Mahasneh. He called for addressing specific aspects left out by the draft law, particularly in light of the government’s efforts to digitize services and paperwork and shift to a smart national identity system, including each citizen’s biometric data. The smart identity project includes biometric identifiers such as the “iris identifier and fingerprint of the identity holder. At a later stage, the national identity card will contain additional information on the holder’s health insurance, social security number, etc.,” added Mahasneh. “It is, therefore, necessary to provide additional protection for biometric data while imposing harsher penalties in relation thereto.”

author: SMEX


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What does Russia’s new “hostage-taking” law mean for social media companies? · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Image by Roskomsvoboda. CC BY-SA 4.0.
A new law that came into force in 2021 imposes new obligations on popular foreign websites and social media platforms with over half a million daily users, obliging them to register legal entities in Russia, essentially “grounding” the companies and placing them more firmly under Russian jurisdiction.  In 10 simple questions and answers, Russian digital rights group Roskomsvoboda explains the possible repercussions of the new “grounding” legislation. RuNet Echo translates these for the Global Voices audience.
On 16 February, 2022 Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor announced that by the end of the month it would consider the issue of sanctions targeting companies that have not yet begun to comply with the demands of the “hostage-taking” law.
From January 1, 2022 owners of foreign information and social media websites with a daily audience of over 500,000 Russian users, are required to:
– create a local subsidiary, headquarters or legal entity able to represent them in the Russian Federation;
– register an official company account with the Roskomnadzor website;
– publish on their website an electronic feedback form for Russian citzens and organizations.
According to an explanatory note appended to the new law, platforms like Facebook and Twitter don't have official headquarters on Russian soil. Even Google LLC and Apple Rus LLC , which operate in Russia, are not official legal representatives of their parent companies. Meanwhile, de-facto the websites and platforms of foreign IT companies are used by Russian citizens, who are provided with services (including paid ones or in exchange for viewing advertising targeted at a Russian audience) and whose personal data is being processed.
The law expects the local subsidiaries to bear responsibility when tech giants violate the norms of Russian legislation, to interact with the local state agencies, and to limit the dissemination of information that violates Russian laws in the Russian Federation.
The law introduces a fairly broad range of requirements and measures that can limit or complicate the activities of foreign technology companies in Russia. Adhering to them will create additional risks, fiscal and financial pressure connected, for instance, with opening subsidiaries in the Russian Federation.
Certainly, these requirements will simplify the interactions between regulatory bodies and foreign companies. But if full compliance with Russian laws demands expenses that are incompatible with the revenue from the local market, many foreign tech companies may simply choose to leave.
The law will have unexpectedly dire consequences for non-profit projects, such as Wikipedia, though they're not on the radar as the target of the regulations. First of all, the new norms demand the creation of a legal office in Russia (i.e., retain lawyers to represent companies in courts); a non-profit like Wikipedia simply doesn't have funding for this, according to its spokesperson. Secondly, if Wikipedia's Russian subsidiary requires so much personnel, it will necessitate funding from abroad, which will automatically lead to the NGO being labelled a “foreign agent,” preventing it from doing any useful work in the country.
Experts believe that Russian authorities can penalize local offices in cases where their parent companies fail to comply with various demands, for instance, failing to introduce political censorship and block posts and content that state officials find unacceptable.
On November 22, 2021 state regulator Roskomnadzsor published a list of technology and internet companies who fall under the new law. Currently, it includes 13 foreign companies:
As of February 16 only Apple and Spotify have fully fulfilled the regulator's demands. Twitter has registered an official company account on Roskomnadzor's website, whereas TikTok, Likeme (Likee) and Viber have both opened company accounts with Roskomnadzor and placed electronic feedback forms on their websites. Besides this, TikTok has begun the process of creating a legal entity for an office in Russia, Likeme has forwarded the paperwork for creating a Russian legal entity, and Viber has sent evidence of opening a Russian office to Roskomnadzor (though the paperwork didn't satisfy the regulator's requirements).
Companies that have currently not fulfilled any of the new demands include Google, Meta/Facebook, Telegram, Zoom, Discord, Pinterest, and Twitch. However, Zoom has allegedly expressed their willingness to do so.
Two other foreign companies — gaming platform Wargaming and online shopping giant AliExpress — are not currently on Roskomnadzor's list, but both have preemptively registered legal entities in Russia.
Based on the law's coersive measures, companies could face bans on:
The companies will also be required to inform their users about violations of the laws of the Russian Federation.
By the end of February Roskomnadzor will consider sanctions against those companies that fail to comply with the new requirements. First and foremost, this will involve economic penalties related to advertising that are meant to send a message: “If you don't want to do this the civilized way, you will lose money.” However, the State Duma (parliament) has noted that companies might also anticipate administrative sanctions, i.e. turnover-based fines (the Duma subcommittee on  information policy has already developed the requisite amendments to the Code of Administrative Violations).
If social media platforms and tech giants leave Russia, this could affect both the industry and ordinary users, as foreign corporations provide significant platforms for advertising, promotions, sales, communications, etc.
Besides, should the new requirements be ignored, the law gives Roskomnadzor yet another lever for throttling or blocking access to an online service. Online services might begin to remove mobile applications more readily, as well as take down all kinds of content and anything else Roskomnadzor requires. Internet businesses will be under even more pressure, as their options for avoiding the regulator's demands become fewer and fewer. In the end, this will strike a blow to freedom of information for everyone, including Russian users.
The balkanization of the internet has already begun, and internet services are trying to adapt to the ever-changing splintering market in different parts of the world. Videos, podcasts and even entertainment content will keep disappearing from the Russian internet in plain sight, according to our experts. At the same time, such an approach will create further demand for various circumvention technologies and tools that help restore access to information.
Yes, the most evident example at the moment can be seen in Turkey. A number of internet companies there have yet to open their local offices (though social media giants Meta/Facebook and TikTok have complied — GV).
It all depends on how important the Russian market is for them. We suspect that the majority of companies will send “hostages” to the country. But the key question is not local offices, but the measures companies might take to delete all of the content that Roskomnadzor expects them to remove.
Our market is fairly large and no single company seeking to grow and scale their services will voluntarily leave such vast and potentially profitable markets as Russia. However, Big Tech is facing pressure across the globe. Companies and platforms are reviewing their policies, and it remains unclear how the various national laws that restrict access to information will interact with international norms and the platforms’ own terms of service. It's quite possible that we will see some other companies leave the market, as was the case with LinkedIn and Zello.

author: RuNet Echo


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Beirut: a taste of crisis through a cup of coffee · Global Voices
Omar Boutine

Al Hamra in Beirut has long been a mecca for coffee lovers of the city, as well as tourists. Today, the boulevard and its roasteries stand empty and abandoned. Image by Omar Boutine and used with his permission.
Hamra, a famous boulevard in Beirut, is a coffee lover’s haven — or perhaps it would be more apt to say that it was. Ranked by the World Bank among the top 10, if not three, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century, Lebanon’s economic collapse, compounded by the tragic Beirut blast in 2020, has unraveled Hamra’s urban fabric and killed its cherished coffee culture.
The district’s once-bustling coffee shops sit eerily quiet, empty but for waiters shuffling aimlessly back and forth in the dark — for Hamra, like much of the rest of Beirut, suffers from regular power outages.
“The last time I went to a coffee shop was last week, but I didn’t get any coffee,” Christeen, a 20-year-old international business major at the Lebanese American University (LAU), says. “It’s too expensive. I only went there to meet up with friends and socialize.”
Fewer and fewer customers have been frequenting Hamra’s coffee bars, roasteries, and cafes, which is not surprising considering that the Lebanese economy has been in meltdown since 2019. The national currency, the pound, lost nearly 95 percent of its value by the beginning of 2022. In the aftermath of the crisis, prices multiplied, the value of salaries and wages crashed, large segments of the Lebanese population plunged into poverty, and businesses across the country struggled to stay afloat. The national minimum wage, which equaled LBP 675,000 or USD 450 at the 1,500 LBP-to-USD exchange rate, lost 84 percent of its value in 2021, plummeting in value to a mere USD 72 a month.
The resultant damage to Hamra's coffee culture is palpable. With coffee prices rapidly inflating amid a fluctuating exchange rate, many cash-strapped, coffee-loving Beirutis have been forced to do without. For many of the city’s beleaguered residents, a casual recreational outing to meet a friend, smoke a shisha, and enjoy a cup of coffee in one of Hamra’s many coffeehouses has long become a thing of the past.
“I’m not drinking as much coffee as I used to,” says Manar, a 21-year-old media and communications student at the American University of Beirut (AUB). “It’s become so expensive. Before the crisis I used to like to have several cups of coffee a day on Bliss Street but now I limit my consumption to one cup per day. It’s easier on my wallet, and I can brew my own coffee at home”.
Hamra street, in the heart of Beirut, and its coffee shops have survived the tiny country's turbulent history of civil wars, invasions, assassinations and violence. However, the ongoing economic crisis has proven to be a  powerful foe.
A single shot of espresso now averages LBP 20,000 at some venues, while, at others, a cup of Turkish coffee now costs LBP 25,000. Both a cappuccino and a flat white coffee cost LBP 40,000 in some places. For context, the daily minimum wage stands at LBP 30,000, in a country where fuel and medicine prices are constantly on the uptick, and the price of food is at an all-time high — up by 600 percent since 2019.
According to Christeen:
Coffee has become an unjustifiable expense that has to be weighed carefully against other more vital expenses.
The consequences on people’s coffee consumption habits have been severe.
Beirutis flabbergasted by the rapid rise in the prices of their daily coffees need not look too far to determine the cause. In a country that relies on imports to meet most of its consumer needs — from food to coffee to the razor blades used in barbershops — everything is impacted by the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound against the dollar.
“We don’t grow coffee locally in Lebanon,” says Ali Harb, of Good 2 Go, a café on Rue Makdisi off Hamra’s Main Street. “Café owners buy the coffee from a company called Barista, which imports its products from abroad. This sometimes makes it difficult for us to obtain certain types of coffee, such as decaf. The price of the coffee depends on the exchange rate at which it was bought. When my customers demand to know why the prices of their coffees did not decrease with the fluctuations in the exchange rate, I tell them that it’s because we’ve already bought the coffee at an inflated price, so we have no choice but to sell it at an inflated price.”
But, for many in Beirut, something bigger than affordable coffee prices is at stake.
“It’s not just a question of not being able to afford a cup of coffee,” Manar adds.
The district’s entire coffee culture is being affected. The crisis has impacted not only the frequency of coffee consumption in Hamra, but also our relationship to the cafes where we used to spend our time. It’s not about the coffee being consumed — it’s about the relationships that we built with the cafes and with the people with whom we’re sharing a cup of coffee. All that has been affected by the crisis. The cafes are empty. They’re not as busy as they used to be. Hamra’s coffee culture is dying. The crisis is killing it.

author: Omar Boutine


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Undertones: How extremist Hindu nationalists use Instagram · Global Voices
Civic Media Observatory

Image under CC0 1.0 (Public Domain Dedication)
Welcome to Undertones, the Civic Media Observatory newsletter! In each edition we'll analyze an event, emerging trend, or a complex story, identifying key narratives of urgent public interest, delving deep into the context and subtext of local, vernacular and multilingual media. Undertones also offers an entry point into the public datasets that underpin our Observatory work.
A group of Hindutva nationalist Instagram accounts is spreading inflammatory Hindu nationalist propaganda ahead of India’s legislative elections that begin this month. Presidential elections are scheduled for mid-2022.
Accounts such as “World of Hindus” and “not_a_liberal-” use sexist, casteist, and communalist memes and comments, manipulated videos, and disinformation to mobilize people to attack minorities and join the campaign to establish a Hindu nation in India.
The target audience for these accounts is mainly young Hindu men. Posts often appeal to – and question – their masculinity. But women also engage with the content, mostly by upholding sexist narratives and shaming other women who oppose the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Communal violence refers to attacks based on ethnic or religious affiliation – and it is no longer limited to Islamophobia. In addition to Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Dalits are being attacked physically and online, as well as discriminated against by the country’s laws.
Any criticism of Hindutva – a socio-political project aiming for the fusion of India and Hinduism – and the Hindu religion is met with violence. Calls for the genocide of minorities, attacks on mosques, and the closing of churches are increasingly common.
These narratives are shared on social media, with Instagram being one of the platforms where they go unfettered.
See these examples of memes, photos, and videos on Instagram promoting violence as a means to create a Hindu state as well as support for the ruling BJP party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. You can view all 15 analyzed items here.
In a meme, the Instagram page “isupportyogi2022” states that if “Hindus are not brave enough to pick up a sword to protect their religion or dharma, they should vote for leaders who are powerful enough to do that and fight to protect their religion.” The hashtags directly refer to India’s upcoming elections and support the BJP party.
The meme expresses the message that the face of Hinduism has changed: it is no longer kind, timid, and tolerant, but rather a powerful, formidable force. The post also evokes feelings of Hindutva nationalism, using it to shame its audience and questions readers’ devotion to their religion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and monk-turned-Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath – both presented in a menacing light – are the standard-bearers of Hindutva.
The narratives expressed in this post are: “Hindus are under threat,” “Yogi Adityanath is the future of Hindu Rashtra”, and “Only BJP can save India and lead it towards Hindu prosperity.”
More analysis of this item here.
Rambhakt Gopal, an increasingly well-known Hindu nationalist who threatened to open fire on student protesters in 2020, now calls himself “Godse 2.0,” in reference to Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India's nonviolent independence movement against British colonial rule, in 1948. Gopal’s taking the name Godse reflects a belief among Hindu nationalists that Gandhi’s killing was justified, and calls on other Hindu men to “save the country.”
In Gopal’s video on Instagram, a group of men is shown walking through a Muslim neighborhood chanting what appear to be Hindutva and religious slogans in a show of intimidation. The caption says that “the Hindu religion must be protected.” At the time of analysis, the item had 1,853 likes on Instagram.
In 2020, Gopal was photographed pointing a gun at student protesters. He was released and acquitted of all charges despite evidence that he was inciting violence. According to Delhi police, Gopal was radicalized by “viewing videos on social media.”
The BJP and other political movements have introduced and normalized a strong Islamophobic narrative, blaming Muslims for violence against Hindus, and manipulating the public into thinking that Hindus are under threat and need to protect themselves.
The narratives expressed in this post are: “Enemies of Hindutva are enemies of India”, “Hindus are under threat”, and “Only BJP can save India and lead it towards Hindu prosperity.”
More analysis of this item here.
One of the key ways in which Islamophobia is institutionalized in India is through the trope of the “oppressed Muslim woman.” This Instagram post by “Hindurastra2” celebrates the interfaith relationship between a Muslim woman, who wears a hijab, and a Hindu man, who has a red tilak on his forehead. The image appears to have been manipulated.
The caption reads that the pair “will be together for seven lives” and that the woman will not be a victim of divorce. In other words, she has been saved by being in a relationship with a Hindu man, as the Hindu religion is allegedly more progressive than Islam.
At a time when the conversion of Hindus to other religions is actively discouraged (see this media item on India’s anti-conversion law and the conspiracy of “love jihad”), conversion to Hinduism is being subtly encouraged, as changing the religious demography of India is one of the key tenets of Hindutva ideology.
The narrative expressed in this item is: “Muslim women should be rescued from the oppressiveness of Islam.” This narrative has been in existence for decades but has gained ground since the BJP took power. In 2019, for instance, the BJP outlawed a Muslim divorce practice called “Triple Talaq”, arguing that it “saves thousands of women.”
More analysis of this item here.

author: Civic Media Observatory


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World sports bodies express concern about Kenya’s Copyright Bill · Global Voices
Richard Wanjohi

“Choose who's in charge: live TV debate with candidates for next Commission President #TellEUROPE” by European Parliament is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
A coalition of global sports bodies wrote an open letter to the Kenyan government in December 2021, expressing their concern about the Kenya Copyright Amendment Bill currently before the Kenyan parliament, noting it may make sports content less accessible in the nation.
The Coalition is worried the proposed amendments to repeal sections 35B, 35C, and 35D of the Copyright Act will allow take-down notices to be annulled. Take-down notices enable copyright holders and related rights holders to control their work and the ability to make it available on online platforms. According to analysts, the amendments may enable content piracy to flourish.
Take-down notices are used by copyright owners worldwide to compel online platforms to remove content that infringes on copyright.
If the Amendment Bill is passed into law, Kenya will be going against the grain with global trends. Take-down notices safeguard the intellectual property rights of copyright holders in their works. They are important for sports rights owners, who remove unauthorized content, which is crucial in protecting the value of live sport. Some fear the amendment may cause the average Kenyan to lose out on sports entertainment because content platforms may withdraw their services.
In some parts of the world, especially Europe, copyright laws and take-down notices are being strengthened to more tightly control live sports environment. The bill will may prevent Kenya from participating in the African Growth and Opportunity Agreement (AGOA) program. This is one of the additional provisions of renewal that requires a demonstrated commitment to copyright protection as a prerequisite to signing, threatening investor confidence.
The Sports Rights Owner Coalition (SROC) Chairman Mark Lichtenstein said that its members are “extremely concerned” over the potential changes to the Kenya Copyright Act. The Coalition is an alliance of more than 50 international and national sports bodies, representing some of the world’s leading sports codes and competitions, such as the English Premier League, London Marathon, World Tennis Association (WTA), UEFA, Rugby World Cup among others.
The 2019 Copyright Amendment Bill, incorporates principles from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Internet treaties of 1996, which aim at preventing unauthorized access to and use of creative works. According to the Kenya Copyright Board (KeCOBO) Executive Director, Edward Sigei:
Take-down notices are a critical tool for copyright holders and related rights holders to fight digital content piracy by controlling the distribution and economic viability of their work and how it is accessed online.
The KeCOBO is a champion of the Partners Against Piracy (PAP), a collaboration of like-minded corporate Industry associations and individual rights holders to help fight piracy. PAP came out in support of the Sports Rights Owner Coalition’s statement.
Across the world, they help to safeguard the intellectual property rights of sports rights owners. If rights owners cannot request that pirated sports content is taken down immediately, that will threaten the future of live sports broadcasts in Kenya. Why would international sports media allow sports broadcasts in Kenya, if they have no way of stopping them from being pirated?
Consumption of illegal content — especially sports — has been prevalent in Kenya and Africa in general which led the KeCOBO to develop a multi-sectoral approach to combating piracy, cybercrime, and illegal content.
Kenyan lawmaker John Kiarie, who sits on the Kenyan Parliment's ICT Committee, penned an op-ed titled “Copyright law changes threat to IP rights.” He noted that the proposed repeals represent the “biggest setback in the history of copyrights and is akin to disarming Kenyan authors and right holders.” He added that the “infringement of copyright online, even as trade-in content is now mainly digital, is rife making the provision in the Act very critical.”
The Sports Rights Owners Coalition furhter pointed out that in Europe policy makers are strengthening not weakening the effectiveness of take-down notices, particualrly live content. The Coalition also stated that were the Amendment Bill to be enacted, it could have devastating consequences for both the Kenyan economy and Kenyan consumers. The rights holders from sport and other creative industries are extremely unlikely to license their content in a jurisdiction that effectively legitimizes piracy — thereby denying consumers watching their favourite sports and televisions shows.
“Kenyan parliament in Nairobi” by *SHERWOOD* is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
On the February 16, 2022, the Kenyan Parliament was asked to drop the Amendment Bill with the sponsor of the Amendment, Gladys Wanga, a lady lawmaker looking to drop the proposals altogether.
There have been reactions on the intended changes on Twitter as shown below;
The proposed Repeal of Sections 35B, 35C & 35D, by the Copyright (Amendment) Bill 2021 contravenes Provisions of the Constitution of Kenya#HandsOffSection35B
Copyright act
— Beryle kisumu (@beryle_kisumu) February 15, 2022
PAP also fears that the proposed bill contravenes provisions on intellectual property rights in Kenya’s Constitution, which it suggests are akin to al other proprietary rights#HandsOffSection35B
Copyright act pic.twitter.com/88PSMgf9jw
— Julian Mbappe🌹 (@naitwaNorah) February 15, 2022

author: Richard Wanjohi


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Azerbaijan keeps quiet on Ukraine crisis as President Aliyev visits Moscow · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

A screenshot from a video report by state news agency Azertag showing President Ilham Aliyev and the first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva arrive in Moscow on February 21, 2022.
After Vladimir Putin signed his now-infamous decree on February 21, recognizing the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in Ukraine, and ordering forces into the separatist regions to carry out what he described as “peacekeeping functions,” Western heads of states began weighing in with statements condemning the decision. One country that kept quiet was Azerbaijan.
That same day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the first lady Mehriban Aliyeva were on an official visit to Moscow where they were greeted by the guard of honor and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister. At the time of writing this story, Azerbaijan’s ministry of foreign affairs had remained silent on the escalation.
As was much of Azerbaijan's pro-government media.
It's noteworthy that President Aliyev's visit to Russia was first announced by the Kremlin's press service. Even as no official statements were released on the escalation in tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and the media was quiet, social media users were discussing Aliyev's visit and criticizing the move, while others expressed their support for Ukraine, replacing their profile photos with Ukraine's national flag.
The following day, on February 22, instead of releasing any official statements, the President of Azerbaijan reportedly visited the tomb of the unknown soldier in Moscow ahead of the scheduled meeting with Putin.
The closest thing to a statement came late in the afternoon on February 22 from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party's Elman Nasirov of the Azerbaijan National Parliament who said there was nothing surprising in the decision announced last night by President Putin. “As noted in his address to the Russian people, in the current situation, they [Kremlin] were forced to take this step due to security issues,” the MP was quoted saying according to reporting by Azerbaijan Service for Radio Liberty.
Nasirov was referring to Putin's claim of protecting the security of the Donbas population. The Donbas region in eastern Ukraine has been a powder keg for tensions between Russia and Ukraine since 2014. According to the International Crisis Group, “the war pits Ukrainian government forces against Russia-backed separatists for control over much of the two heavily industrialized regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, also known as Donbas.”
Just one month ago, President Ilham Aliyev visited Ukraine on an official visit, during which the two leaders signed a joint declaration stating “the support for their countries’ territorial integrity and the desire to jointly counter hybrid threats,” reported Reuters. During a joint press conference following the signing of the declaration, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the declaration reaffirmed their “desire to ensure peace and stability in the Black Sea-Caspian region and beyond,” reported Reuters.
On February 22, President Aliyev discussed an “entire range of matters regarding the further development of bilateral political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian relations,” with Russia's President Putin, said the Kremlin's press office. “Also on the agenda is a review of the implementation of the November 9, 2020, January 11, 2021, and November 26, 2021, agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, including measures to resume economic and transport ties in the South Caucasus. Following the talks, the parties will sign a declaration on allied interaction that will elevate relations between Russia and Azerbaijan to an allied level,” read the rest of the press statement.
The contents of the agreement remained largely unknown to the general public until the two presidents finally signed the document that consisted of 43 articles.
Ahead of the meeting between the heads of the states, former Azerbaijani diplomat Nahid Jafarov, said Azerbaijan's inadequate foreign policy has resulted in an over-dependence on Russia in the nation on his personal Facebook page.
Azerbaijani state does not have a sound foreign policy. There is a foreign policy led by Ilham Aliyev's policy. This policy is unsuitable for the people and the state of Azerbaijan. It is suitable only for the leadership of Ilham Aliyev. He engages with countries like Russia to protect his leadership.
Anar Mammadli, former political prisoner and the head of a local non-governmental organization engaged in election monitoring echoed Jafarov's sentiments. “We should accept that the partnership agreements signed between the states led by authoritarian regimes, does not imply a partnership signed between the states, rather these are agreements signed between the regimes,” wrote Mammadli. “So long as in countries like Russia and Azerbaijan there is absence of elected, pluralist political regimes, we will keep witnessing more partnership agreements signed of this nature.”
But opinions of the agreement changed little after the document was signed. Speaking with Azadliq Radio, the Azerbaijan Service for Radio Liberty, political analyst and journalist, Rauf Mirkadirov said, “Azerbaijan basically endorsed Russia's foreign policy by not only going to Moscow, but also by signing the document.” Mirkadirov also said that Aliyev's visit was planned by Moscow, to show the rest of the world there were still foreign leaders who supported Putin.
During a meeting between the two leaders, President Ilham Aliyev refrained from making any direct statements or comments on the recent escalation between Russia and Ukraine. And for a good reason, because as of February 22, and according to the signed agreement, the two sides will “refrain from any actions, including those carried out through third states, directed against each other.”

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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Azerbaijani journalist and queer activist murdered · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

“San Francisco LGBTQ Pride Parade 2019” by davidyuweb is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Avaz Hafizli, 24, journalist and queer rights activist was murdered by a family member on February 22. His death sparked a public outcry on social media platforms, with many activists criticizing Azerbaijan's history of inaction when addressing hate crimes, specifically those targeting marginalized groups in the country.
The culprits of this death are the society, the Azerbaijani government and state security agencies.
Despite the fact that we reported every incidence to the police, they never considered the complaints, even terminating it arbitrarily, never punishing the perpetrator↩
— Lili Nazarov #BayramaNeOldu (@lilinazarov) February 22, 2022
#AvazHafizli,the reporter of #Kanal13 internet channel, also #LQBT activist has been killed, allegedly by his cousin. 5 month before he had chained himself to the lattice of Chief Prosecutors’ Office protesting the threats to LGBT community in #Azerbaijan. @prokurorluq pic.twitter.com/7OmXCVs6Kc
— Leyla Mustafayeva (@LeylaMustafaeva) February 22, 2022
Hafizli's friends said the LGBTQ+ community lost a dear friend, someone who has been at the forefront of advocating for the protection and recognition of the LGBTQ+ community in Azerbaijan.
Our courageus friend, LGBTQ+ activist and journalist Avaz Hafizli is killed today. Azerbaijani goverment is directly responsible for his death by justifying the killing of so many queers and fueling systematic homophobia/transphobia. We will not forget!
— Sevinj Samadzade (@SamadzadeSevinj) February 22, 2022
In September 2021, Hafizli chained himself to a fence outside the Prosecutor General Office to protest the institution's lack of swift action against blogger Sevinj Huseynova, who openly called for violence against queer citizens in the country. Huseynova also targeted Hafizli after which, according to the journalist's own accounts, his family disowned him. Hafizli also attempted to commit suicide after being targeted by the blogger.
According to ILGA Europe, an international non-governmental organization advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms, Azerbaijan occupies the last place among 49 countries on the organization's Rainbow Index.
In recent years, the Azerbaijan government intensified crackdowns against the LGBTQ+ community. In 2017, at least 83 people were detained by the police for being gay or transgender. The detainees reported being tortured and blackmailed. The same year, at least four Azerbaijani citizens who identified as LGBTQ+ committed suicide.
In 2018, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the Azerbaijan government was using Israel’s Verint Systems surveillance equipment and software to identify citizens’ sexual orientation through Facebook.
More than a dozen LGBTQ+ people were arrested in 2019, most of whom were transgender sex workers who were solicited and then arrested according to Meydan TV and Minority Magazine reporting.
In March 2021, Minority Magazine reported a new movement calling itself “Pure Blood” which was mobilizing via Telegram to target  LGBTQ+ people in Azerbaijan.
Then in the summer of 2021, during PRIDE month, Minority Magazine documented more attacks against LGBTQ+ people.
For many who face discrimination and violence, there is little recourse through the police or any official judicial channels. For instance, in November of last year, a trans woman and her partner were attacked on the street in the capital, Baku. Knowing the police's poor track record with queer citizens, they decided not to file an official complaint, fearing reprisals and potential privacy violations.
The anti-LGBTQ+ narrative in Azerbaijan is pervasive among politicians, celebrities, and public figures, according to OC Media research that focused on the extent of homophobic hate speech in the country by analyzing media reports.
According to this research, LGBTQ+ members also face discrimination in military service. In Azerbaijan those who identify as LGBTQ+ are exempted from compulsory military service under Article 18, paragraph b of the Regulation on Military Medical Examinations, which states a person is considered unfit or partially fit for military service on the basis of personality disorders and under Article 17/b, which indicates reactive psychoses and neurotic disorders.
Blogger Sevinj Huseynova is not the only one who has made open calls for violence against the LGBTQ+ community. According to Minority Magazine, in January 2022, a religious cleric Haji Tayyar Huseynli, described members of LGBTQ+ community as “filth” and said same-sex couples engaging in intercourse should be sentenced to death. “That is, according to religious rules, those who commit this heinous act must be killed. This is the demand of religion,” Huseynli told a local news platform in an interview.
According to the statement issued by the Prosecutor General Office, Hafizli was killed by his cousin who was under the influence of alcohol, after the two had an argument. The office said an investigation has been launched.
However, activists in Azerbaijan fear not much will come out of it. Writing on her Facebook page, civic activist, Gulnara Mehdiyeva said, “LGBTQ people are of no importance to Azerbaijani law. They are not considered human beings, and neither the prosecutor's office, nor the State Security Service, nor any other body wants to move a finger to prevent mass killings. The Azerbaijani government is directly guilty of legitimizing the killing of LGBTQ people at all levels.”


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Indigenous LGBTQIA+ Brazilians break the silence and taboos on sexual diversity · Global Voices
Amazônia Real

The subject is still taboo, but sexual diversity has been increasingly discussed, among Brazilian Indigenous. The image above shows the cacica Majur | Photo: Personal archive/Used with permission by Amazônia Real
This text, written by Keka Werneck, was originally published on the Amazônia Real website, in December 2021. It is republished here under a partnership agreement, with some changes.
Majur began to realize her identity as a girl at the age of 12. In Apido Paru village, on the Indigenous land of Tadarimana in Rondonópolis, in Mato Grosso state in Brazil's Amazon, where she was born and lives, this was never a problematic question. For a time, however, the woman of the Boe Bororo ethnicity did not fully understand what was happening within herself.
Today, at the age of 30, she identifies as a transsexual woman and is going through her gender transition, while also becoming a cacica (Indigenous chief), due to the retirement of her 79-year-old father for health reasons.
Since perceiving herself as trans, Majur has left the male name Gilmar Traytowu in the past, and has built her identity as a woman.
“I am undergoing [the transition] in stages. First, taking female hormones, under the supervision of an endocrinologist in Rondonópolis,” she told Amazônia Real in an interview.
Majur was hoping to access the transition treatment at no charge through the Unified Health System (SUS, the public health system in Brazil), but due to a delay, she decided to pay for the procedures.
In her village, in a state in central-western Brazil, Majur has always been respected. Now, as cacica, leading a community of about 800 people, she says that the respect has grown. She knows this is not the reality for most LGBTQIA+ Indigenous people, though.
“We, being Indigenous as well as LGBT, suffer double prejudice. While I have never suffered it from my parents, [I have] from some relatives, though, and in society generally as well,” she explained.
Even with the opportunity to leave the village to study, she decided to stay and work alongside her people. While she is single, she raises two nieces as if they were her own daughters — one of them, she says, has already given her “two little grandchildren.”
“I always say that our sexual [orientation] does not define our personality, we are what we are, not what homophobic society wants us to be,” she said, adding that she always thanks Aroe Eimejera, the “God, the Chief of Souls, the Chief of Spirits” of the Bororo people, for being well.
The Amazonian stylist Sioduhi | Photo: Jéssica Lagoas/Used with permission from Amazônia Real
A still taboo subject, sexual diversity in the villages has been gaining space with more Indigenous people deciding to break the silence.
At 25, Amazonian stylist Sioduhi, from the Pira-Tapuya people (also called Waíkahana), remembers how difficult it was to realize he was gay.
“This realization weighed heavily on me, specifically because I was born in an area with heavy colonization, which is the Upper Rio Negro in Amazonas. There is a high number of Catholics and Protestants there. It’s a place where colonization impacts in such a way that we all suffer from the process of integrationism,” he said.
Aware of his role in society, he has sought to guide this debate in a more open way.
“As an Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, stylist, who also has a certain influence, I have been talking more about these issues, which are still very delicate, due to the construction of binarism (man-woman) and Christian guilt, which is still very strong. We were told that we are going to hell,” he said.
When he decided to pursue his dream of becoming a stylist, he carried all this burden and history to São Paulo, which is reflected in his creative process. The alienation, and spiritual and moral violence also all went with him. It is not rare that an Indigenous LGBTQIA+ person ends up feeling isolated and oppressed within their own territory.
For the Waíkahana people, Sioduhi means “ancestral spirit of a baiá,” the singer of the sacred ceremonies. He was born and raised in the Mariwá community, in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, in Upper Rio Negro in Amazonas state. The region has the greatest diversity of Indigenous ethnicities, with 23 different peoples.
At the age of 12, he moved to the city to study. Three years ago, Sioduhi arrived in Pedras city, in São Paulo state. Resisting is what he has learned to do, being Indigenous, gay, and chasing his childhood dream of becoming a stylist. He created the label Sioduhi Studio, for Indigenous fashion.
Anthropologist Bárbara Arisi | Photo: Personal archive/Used with permission from Amazônia Real
Barbara Arisi, Ph.D. in anthropology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), is a researcher on sexual diversity among Indigenous people.
“My doctoral research was with the Matis, who live in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory, near the border with Peru, where the Javari River separates the two countries,” she explained.
The Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory is in Amazonas State and is Brazil's second-largest Indigenous territory. More than 6,000 recently contacted and isolated Indigenous people live there.
The researcher's first book, “Gay Indians in Brazil: untold stories of the colonization of indigenous sexualities,” was published in 2017 by the Swiss publisher Springer, and talks about the untold history of Indigenous sexualities before the arrival of the Portuguese and Spanish.
“Chroniclers, priests, Jesuits, and Dominican friars recorded the presence of other non-monogamous, non-heterosexual sexual practices that the Indigenous peoples, as well as many other Indigenous people around the world, had accepted in the community, before European colonization,” explained the anthropologist.
“Heterosexism, the violence against practices that people would later call homosexual, is part of a process of Catholic cultural imposition over Indigenous practices relating to ways of establishing families, sexuality, affection.”
Her second book, “Queer Natives in Latin America: forbidden chapters of colonial history,” was published this year. It provides an overview of the scant literature on the subject as well as accounts of contemporary, queer, and transgender Indigenous figures.
“The book is about everything we found concerning material in archaeology, in the chroniclers’ records up to the more contemporary period, about how some Indigenous people today say they are ‘pueblos maricas,’ for example, a term used in South America,” she emphasized.
The book also provides information about Indigenous American and Canadian academics who call for the number two to be included in the diversity acronym: LGBTQIA2+. This is because they are Indigenous and not comfortable with binarism. They call themselves two-spirit, a native term. A similar term in Brazil would be “Indigenous queer”.
Tarisson Nawa | Photo: Personal archive/Used with permission from Amazônia Rea
For the Nawa people in the northern state of Acre, according to journalist José Tarisson Costa da Silva, an Indigenous gay man, there are accounts that their ancestors expressed their sexuality in such a comfortable way that it was not necessary to declare one's sexual orientation.
“Sexuality didn't have this hierarchy or relationship of violence with people, with different practices. Nowadays, asserting oneself as an Indigenous LGBTQIA+ person is fundamental to the struggle, and for recognition. It is the difference within the difference,” he explained.
Tarisson Nawa, who currently lives in Manaus, capital of Amazonas state, highlighted that the issue of gender within Indigenous peoples is now being raised by Indigenous women's movements
“Because gender struggles bring about other ways of being and living within the territory,” Tarisson observed. “Together with the women's struggle, [and] the struggle for territory, linked to gender issues there are also issues of sexuality,” he said.
He notes that in most territories colonization directly affected the sexuality of Indigenous peoples, impacting their affections, sensibilities, and ways of making relationships. Just as it altered, and continues to affect, their societal organization.
“I have my reservations about saying that everything is a product of the violence of colonization. I'm not denying it, it is a fact that colonization had an impact, but we have to take into account that in Brazil there are 305 Indigenous peoples. The diversity is immense, it is difficult to measure to what extent the fluidity of gender and sexuality existed in all these territories before colonization,” he said.
For anthropologist Barbara Arisi, discrimination and prejudice against sexual diversity among Indigenous people depends on the context. While many communities, such as Majur's, are accepting, others are not.
“I always think that Indigenous communities are more accepting of people, but that doesn't mean all of them, it varies greatly, there are many peoples, you can't speak generically.”

author: Amazônia Real