Monthly Archives: November 2013

Burqa Avenger

CyberOrient, Ethics, Film and Video, Gender and Sexuality, Pakistan

Most of the debate over a Muslim woman who wears the burqa, niqab or hijab centers on how this restricts her freedom of choice. Those who are against the burqa argue that it is a preeminent icon of patriarchy and that societal pressure, valorized with religious rhetoric, does not give a Muslim woman a true sense of choice. The issue is hottest in Western contexts, where a woman wearing a burqa or niqab stands out almost as much as if she was walking around naked. On the other side, there are Muslim women who insist they are exercising free choice and choosing to dress in the conservative manner they want. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, the burqa is inevitably seen as an item that limits a woman’s movement or protects her, not one of empowerment.

So here comes Burqa Avenger to the rescue. This is a video cartoon series in which the star is a female Superwoman/Spiderwoman/Batwoman takeoff, a contemporary way of commanding the right and forbidding the wrong. The series itself is state-of-the-art in its cinematic presentation. You can even get a free app for a Burqa Avenger game on your iphone. As in all cartoons, the characters tend to be stereotypes. Of course, this makes the good stand out from the evil in a stark way that is seldom the case in real life. But the inspiration for the series is to provide young Muslim girls with a positive role model. Continue reading Burqa Avenger →

The Damning of Dammaj

"Arab Spring", Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Destruction in northern Yemen caused by the civil wars with the Houthis, 2004-10 ; Photo: Mike Healy/IRIN


“Catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Yemen’s Dammaj

DUBAI, 6 November 2013 (IRIN) – A fresh outbreak of sectarian fighting in northern Yemen between militants of the Houthi-led Shia movement and (Sunni) Salafists has entered a second week with at least 50 people killed, according to a senior government health official, and aid workers getting little access to the besieged village of Dammaj, a Salafist stronghold.

Humanitarians are concerned that thousands of vulnerable civilians, some of them injured and sick, are unable to flee as Houthi forces continue to bombard the village from surrounding hills. In a statement last week the Houthis said a Salafi religious centre in Dammaj, Sa’dah Governorate, was being used to recruit Sunni fighters.

Attempts at a ceasefire on 5 November failed, and a further six people were reported killed overnight, with further fighting today, according to the government hospital in Dammaj.

“The humanitarian situation is catastrophic. There is no food, no medicine, no fuel, artillery shelling is non-stop and they are using all kinds of arms,” said Ahmad al-Wade’i, director of the hospital. “Diseases are spreading in a catastrophic way. Every day that passes the suffering of the people increases.”

The fresh fighting puts at risk a fragile truce that ended the civil war in the north in 2010. An escalation of the conflict around Dammaj could spill over to the neighbouring governorates of Hajjah, Amran and Al Jawf. Continue reading The Damning of Dammaj →

Democracy … the West … and Islam: Part Two

"Arab Spring", Development, Ethics, Islam: Introduction, Islamic History, Yemen


By Samira Ali BinDaair, Sanaa, Republic of Yemen

[for Part One of this essay, click here]

Islam and Democracy

“Al-adala” (Justice) is a keyword in Islam, and Islam like the great religions preceding it came to regulate man’s life on earth and Allah sent many prophets to admonish the people who had gone to excesses and violated “Nawamis al-kawn” (Allah’s laws governing human interaction with the cosmos). Islam came to complete all the preceding messages in its being comprehensive, encompassing both the spiritual and material. When it is said in the Holy Quran that Allah has created man and jinn to worship Him, obedience to Allah’s laws of how man is to conduct himself on earth is part of that process of worship. In reading the Hadith literature (sayings of the Prophet PBH) and the Sira (biography of the Prophet,PBH), one can see how Islamic teachings were operationalized and exemplified, and what stands out is the absolute sense of justice in Islam.

The way Islamic affairs are to be conducted is through a consultative process (Shura) and in fact the concept of Shura is so important in Islam that a whole Sura (chapter) has been devoted to Shura. In Surat al Shura (ayya 38), it says: “Those who hearken to their Lord and establish regular prayer ….. who conduct their affairs by mutual consultation”. In choosing their leaders, Muslims should undertake the “Mubaya” ( declaring allegiance through the process of “Ijmaa” ( general consensus). No one practiced Shura more than the Prophet (PBH) himself. He always consulted with young and old on all matters. He consulted with Um Salama and Zainab bint Gahsh (wives of the Prophet) and respected their opinions. When the message was first revealed to him, he consulted with Khadija (his first wife) who reassured him and allayed his fears and consulted with her couisin Waraka ibn Nofal Christian monk at the time) who in turn reassured him that it was the angel Gabriel who had also been sent to prophets before him. During the battle of the “Khandak” (trenches) Salman Al-Farisi had informed the Prophet(PBH) about building trenches in battles as practiced in Persia where he came from; this was then adopted by the Muslims. The Prophet(PBH) was not autocratic and left some worldly matters to others who knew better than him. When when farmers in Medina asked him about cross pollination in date planting, his answer was:”You know better about these affairs”. Continue reading Democracy … the West … and Islam: Part Two →

Democracy … the West … and Islam: Part One

"Arab Spring", Development, Islam: Introduction, Islamic History, Qur'an, Yemen


Yemeni man voting; photo by Hani Mohammed/AP

By Samira Ali BinDaair, Sanaa, Republic of Yemen

This essay is an attempt at shedding some light on the relationship between democracy, Islam and the Western world and in the process dispelling some of the misconceptions about the chasm between Islam and democracy. It is nowhere easy for the entire society to have unanimity on any given issue let alone such a complex one as what constitutes good governance and the best political system to be adopted. The Arab world has tried it all but I would like to point out that any system when transplanted and adopted without the necessary conditions for its success is bound to fail, leading to the condemnation of the system rather than analysis of the causes of failure in implementation.
Democracy as a pure concept

I would like to start with the concept of democracy which some Muslims have rejected on the basis of its emanating from the West within secular governments and secular ideas. However, if one examines the concept in its pure form it simply means rule of the people by the people for the people. To demystify it further, what it simply boils down to is that people have a voice in national affairs and choice of their leader and by virtue of the same fact are able to remove the leader through general consensus and legal means if the leader proves to be incapable of living up to the responsibilities entrusted to him/her. Continue reading Democracy … the West … and Islam: Part One →

A Wolff in Shepherd’s Clothing, #3

Bible and Holy Land, Books You Should Read, Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Kurds, Lithographs, Orientalism, Travel, Turkey


Dervish,; photograph by Sevryugin Anton (1830 – 1933), the official photographer of the Imperial Court of Iran

In the early 19th century there was a florescence of Protestant missionary interest in saving Muslim, Jewish and other kinds of Christian souls in the Middle East. This thread continues excerpts from one of the earliest accounts from the 19th century, that of Joseph Wolff (1795-1862), a convert from Judaism to Christianity. In 1837 he published a diary of his travels. Like a number of Christians visiting the Muslim world, Wolff is more impressed by Muslim sobriety and devotion in their ritual than he is by the Christians he sees:

There is also an intriguing encounter between the Christian missionary and a Kurdish Muslim dervish:

Chalk one up for the Kurdish dervish over the atheists of Europe.

Women picturing women

Gender and Sexuality, Iran, Photography, Yemen


A lieutenant in the elite female counterterrorism unit patrols the women’s barracks in Sanaa, Yemen. Photo from the “Women of Vision” exhibit. Photography by Stephanie Sinclair

Associated Press, WASHINGTON (AP) – The National Geographic Museum in Washington has a new exhibit featuring the photography of 11 award-winning female photojournalists.

The exhibit is kicking off a three-year tour for “Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment.” It features nearly 100 photographs depicting a variety of cultures and topics. The exhibit is on view in Washington until March 9.

The photographers tackled subjects ranging from memory and teenage brain chemistry to social issues like child marriage and modern-day slavery. Visitors will also see how National Geographic magazine photo editors work with photographers to select images to tell a story.

The photographers featured in the exhibit are: Lynsey Addario, Kitra Cahana, Jodi Cobb, Diane Cook, Carolyn Drake, Lynn Johnson, Beverly Joubert, Erika Larsen, Stephanie Sinclair, Maggie Steber and Amy Toensing.


Women – mostly widows – train for police force jobs at a firing range near Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo from the “Women of Vision” exhibit. Photography by Lynsey Addario

For all the pictures, click here:

Tabsir Redux: Tancred of the New Crusade

Judaism, Literature, Orientalism


Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was one of the most colorful and literary of British Prime Ministers in the latter half of the 19th century. Among his novels was one about a young conservative English lord named Tancred who made a spiritual quest to the “Holy Land.” This is his Tancred, of The New Crusade, originally published in 1877. In the novel Tancred is disillusioned with the lack of morality in British politics. Instead of taking his inherited place in high society, he chooses instead to go on a quest for spiritual meaning to the land where his religion began. Disraeli, as novelist, uses the Levant as a backdrop for his psychological portrait of young Tancred, but it is as much about the foibles of the British political scene as it is an “Orientalist” rendering of the cradle of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The novel is full of intrigue, as adventure stories should be. It has not made canonization as a “great” work, but it is still worth a read (if you can find a copy). Continue reading Tabsir Redux: Tancred of the New Crusade →

Shock Value and nothing to snore about

Ethics, Gender and Sexuality, Islam in America, Islamophobia


Billboard ad of SnoreStop, top: the actress sans hijab, bottom

Given the range of images available with a click and the sensationalism-hungry news media, it is hard to find anything that has shock value anymore. PETA asks Hollywood celebs and beauty queens to take off their clothes so rich people will shun mink fur. But there is so much nudity on the web that it hardly raises an eyebrow any more. Spencer Tunick, the Brooklyn photographer who invites several thousand people to don their clothes for a mass aesthetic photograph, sends few shock waves through the media. Gay marriage is slowly becoming a Blue State inevitability; even the new pope has asked Catholics to chill over the hot button moral issues that abort civil dialogue. So what can still be shocking? How about a billboard ad showing an American soldier embracing a Muslim woman in hijab?

This is an ad put up by “SnoreStop,” a pharmaceutical company with a slogan of “keeping you together.” Having identified one of the primary causes of relationship breakups (ahem), they offer a medicalized kit for only $14.95 that will pinpoint where your snoring occurs and zap it with a pill. Here is how the website explains it:

Every night in America and throughout the world millions of spouses have to make a decision about leaving the bedroom in order to get a good night’s sleep, which destroys all intimacy. When we lack a good night’s sleep, we break down emotionally, mentally, and physically. Moreover, snorers have sex less often or have a decreased interest in sex due to being tired. SnoreStop® saves relationships by ‘bringing peace to the bedroom.

Green Pharmaceuticals, a “woman-owned company,” is turning heads (the oldest and easiest way to stop snoring, although the company does not note this) with an ad that will definitely be a cup of tea for conservatives. According to a spokesperson the ad is not just about selling a product but making a wholesome point about people being together. So they went and looked for real couples and found the oddest couple an ad maker could imagine. Yes, this is supposedly a “real couple,” Jamie Sutton or Paul Evans (depending on the news source) and Aleah or Lexy, although it does not appear that the Aleah or Lexy normally wears a hijab, nor if either of them suffer from the trauma of snoring. As it happens “Aleah” is Lexy Panterra and she has a saucy video in which there is no niqab in sight but plenty of flesh. And it seems her boyfriend is not the soldier in the ad. No niqab, no snoring (well, I can not confirm this) and no soldier husband (or at least no longer). Her boyfriend is, appropriately for Instagram fame, Aladdin. How shocking: an ad campaign that deceives in order to sell a product that nobody probably needs. Continue reading Shock Value and nothing to snore about →