Anyway, she is home, and therefore our TV is almost completely dedicated to two channels… Iqraa and Rotana Music! Yup, I understand the gap is huge… but who am I to object, when she says

 A day for you and a day for God…

So…

I have been watching a lot of Arabian music video clips lately.  Again and again, the audacity displayed there, is mesmerizing… There is a fierce current of resistance against the rigid social rules of 7aram and 3eib  ( حرام وعيب) that govern our lives in the Middle East and that hold us all to higher moral standards. This current revolves around one thing… sexuality!

TV is still the most widely used medium in the Arab world, and the contradictions that are highlighted by this medium are massive. While some innocent girls get killed for honour almost on weekly basis these days, Arab sex symbols slither their curvy bodies and low cut dresses on Arabian national TVs almost constantly to the delight of the masses, which makes me wonder if we are at the threshold of a sex revolution in the Arab world?

There is something taking place, it is new and it is, definitely revolutionary. What is interesting about it is that there has been no obvious evolutionary process involved… it happened swiftly, sometime in last ten years, as a result of globalization and IT revolution. Young Arabs discovered a new sphere that allows them to bypass the strict social rules. Thousands, if not millions, of young Arabs are tuning to cyber forums and social-networking sites such as Facebook, chatting, posting videos on YouTube and Ikbis and writing blogs, most of them with overtly social and sexual themes. (Contrary to what the world thinks..i.e. politics)

The question that poses itself here is how does this revolution affect Arab societies, especially that intellectual discussion about sex is still not afoot with what is taking place in reality?

If I take a quick glance around me, I see that sex education is still not a priority in the educational systems, and if it is, teachers are still not qualified.  Arabs still have a false feeling of safety, which explains why the Middle East is the second fastest spreading HIV epidemic in the world. Today there are around 380,000 reported cases.  Last year alone 36,000 new cases were reported in the Arab world in comparison to 15,000 in the whole continent of Europe! The whole continent with all its liberalism and freedom and sexuality….

So where are we? What are the ramifications of this revolution on our societies? Are we going to catch up with our ancestors in the prime of the Islamic empire, who celebrated sexuality and understood the value of the intellectual debate? And how are we going to protect our youngsters whose first line of protection (I.e. culture and traditions), that had, seemingly, been working for us is failing to protect them?

Now in the spirit of sexuality and HIV, I recommend the movie all about my mother. I have probably written about it previously… but I still think that Almodovar is the only director who can get away with such concepts in such a creative way. It is an interesting watch.

 Jordan times

AMMAN - Stereotyping of each other by Danes and Arabs has increased since a Danish newspaper published offensive cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in 2005, according to participants in a discussion last week.

Danish, Jordanian and Lebanese comedians, filmmakers and media representatives explored stereotypes of Danes and Arabs at the event, organised by the Danish Centre for Culture and Development, the Danish embassy in Amman and Jordan’s Royal Film Commission…. [continue reading....]

A few years ago, I went to Jerash with a friend. As we were touring the city, Ahmad, a young kid from Jerash, approached us offering his services to be our guide for 3 JDs… And even though, I usually refuse, this kid charmed me with his sense of humour and persistence.

 As we were walking, we came across huge stone basins (I can’t think of a better way to describe them). I asked him what were they. “Bath tubs” he said.  “ohh” I said, “This is how they bathed their horses? I did not know”. Ahmad looked at me with a smile and explained that  these basins were not for horses but for people!  I was amused, and so I asked him playfully“what?  People used to bathe in the streets. Why? Did they have no shame? “ He looked at me as if I said the most stupid thing on earth, and said “Of course they had no shame, they were Christians!”

Where would a young kid from Jerash dream up this scenario? why would he think that Christians have no shame?

Where do Arabs come up with their stereotypes on the west?

The thing is stereotyping is a normal human behaviour, we use stereotypes to classify and make sense of the world around us…. , the world is divided in two groups, the in-group, which is the group we are associated with, it is always superior. There is the out-group, which is the rest of the world… and of course the rest of the world is inferior!

We are exposed to stereotypes at a very early age, through stories, books, cartoons.  Stereotypes also come from the society, mainly people’s comments on places and other people and of course from media.

Growing up, I used to watch the “foreign” Thursday movie on channel 3.  These movies were either very violent or discussed social issues that had nothing to do with us or our society… I remember people thinking that this was an American plot to import violence and sexuality (safaleh سفالة  was the preferred term) to our side of the world! 

I don’t know about that, but I do know that my generation grew up thinking that all foreign women were loose. That they all had sex like they have meals… and that they all have children outside wedlock…  The other stereotype we grew up with is that that the west hates us (what a hateful feeling I got when I watched back to the future and the terrorist was Arab, and what a hateful feeling I got from the English patient, in which he shows Egyptians as stupid thoughtless people who are like monkeys more than human beings…

Today, I don’t even get surprised… I do think that Hollywood systematic uses Arabs to increase the rating of any movie… violence sells, dirt sells and using the Arabs is really super easy.

The point is a lot of our own stereotypes about the west, are actually built by the west!

This is one of my favourite Hajjaj cartoons. Kathy the American comes to Jordan wearing clothes that barely cover her body… this is a stereotype that I grew up. My mother, who is a foreigner was very strict, because she understood the Arab stereotypes on foreign women.  She told us often that people would judge us harshly for having a foreign mother. And it was very true,  we were always singled out as being the daughters of the foreigner, even though what we did was exactly what hundreds of thousands of girls our age did!

 It was fun taking part in the event that was organized by the Danish Embassy on Thursday.  It was insightful, rich and lively. I particularly enjoyed hearing the Ambassador’s perspective on stereotypes.  H.E. Thomas F. Lund-Sørensen is an extremely nice person.

 I also liked  Omar Marzouk, a stand up comedian.Marzouk, who is Dane from Egyptian origins made several jokes about being confused about whose side to take, as someone who considers himself to be Muslim, Arab and a Dane at the same time. He also made fun of how people around the world always pick on Arabs and treat them like terrorists, especially while flying.  When he was asked why he was chosen to be part of this project, he answered casually, that he was asked to come because he is the only Danish product that still sells in the Middle East!

Lebanese Ahmad Ghosein and Dane Georg Larsen then showed us a documentary “An Arab comes to Town” that covers the lives of several Arabs in Denmark.  Larsen mentioned that he wanted to know about the Arabs in Denmark, who they are, how they live…etc. It was a good movie, nicely produced and very informative since in showed that young Arabs face different issues in different places.  

Adam Hannestad’s  showed  the role of media in enforcing and suppressing stereotypes.  He gave several examples of successful Arabs in Danes. Adam spoke of how an Egyptian changed his attitude towards him when he knew he was Muslim. “All Danes are stupid, except for you!”

When I am preparing a seminar, I don’t maintain that calm pompous dignity with which I face my audience during the seminar! And this IS the problem. I have been becoming aware of how structured and rigid I am. It could be that I come from a business background where time means money and I have to be aware of every minute, or it could be my Arabic thirst to compete and prove myrself and become the best. We all want to be the mudeer, dont we? I definitely don’t think many Europeans need to prove anything, their social system takes care of them. Their health, education and retirement days are taken care of, so many of these people are perfectly happy pushing the same button at work for thirty years, if not more! And unleash the energy in planning their vacations to go to exotic place like hunting in South Africa or backpacking around Europe! and honestly lucky them, i guess this is what makes Europe the great place it is.

Ok picture it… an Arab lady trying to convince two English ladies to do as she wishes, because of course, she is right!…my partners are charming voluptuous Rayenne, who is of French and Brazilian origins but grew up in London, and classy feminine Rahima who is a Bengali and who also grew up here in London. Their methods are loose and unorganized and really don’t get things done! Although very smart and we ended up our seminar with a round of applauds which is not the everyday case. It was hard getting my partners to organize themselves and get down to results without giving them the idea that we Arabs are ruthless, authoritarian, bastards… So I used my best tone that I learnt in social occassions in Amman and used sentences like “I think what you are trying to say is…?” and “if I understood correctly…” replacing sentences like “min 3eini bint 3ammi…” and “tikramou…” or ” inta o2mor…” which are not translatable! I mean if I say you order or from my eye my cousin…i would have got a HA?!!

oh the seminar was about child labour and human rights. … “friends” is on TV, that episode where Brad Pitt is also on the show… does anyone agree that Angelina Jolie is really the one controlling the relationship and he is like a toutou?.. Anyway… mish mawdou3na…

We met one time before, and we agreed to group the class into five categories and have them prepare arguments in their roles. One category is the children, another one is the parents, the third category is the owners of the mine, the fourth category is the government and the fifth one is the international aid workers! And what an interesting contradicting combination of ideas resulted… ifft my head is still swirelling with excitement!

One example I argued , was that the west wants to impose certain ideas on the third world countries, such as democracy, liberty in women clothing and education, which are very nobel but naiive. The west believes that education in the antidote of child labour in the third world, but what about the western children who are targetted as consumers, who are very aware of brands. These children start feeling low self esteem and shame at very early age, because of their families’ inability to buy them stuff like the other kids, so they go work to make little money to be able to afford these things… in this case these children are also forced to work… why is it not considered child labour and is encouraged, while the idea of children who are forced to work because their families will starve otherwise and have absolutely no other way is banned and condemned?? Not that I am defending the idea…but well…

Anyway… I really don’t want to talk about this anymore… I want to make myself a nice warm cup of tea and watch friends… a girl can relax every now and then…. can’t she?

I am not going to go into the song or video clip… I wondered yesterday why do we try too hard to be Americanized or westernized in everything even in our Arabic songs? This lead me to another question, maybe the reason is rooted much deeper inside us, historically and ideologically… were we always Arabs? and if not when did we become Arabs?

Well, honestly searching this whole Arab identity, made me feel how ignorant I am! I have always thought we were always Arabs and that Arabs and Muslims are synonyms! But that is very inaccurate. So forgive the shallowness of what I will write, I am not intending to give a lesson in history here, and obviously there is much much more to how we became Arabs. Even though these are random, isolated facts, for me they gave me a direction of where to start if I am interested to know more.

Basically, the idea of an Arab identity is fresh of the over, it is that new!! it started among the French educated intellectuals of Syria in the late nineteenth century, in an effort to mobilize both Christians and Muslims to throw off the domination of the Ottoman Empire which was doing really badly. Before that Arab had referred to the Bedouins and the inhabitants of Arabia. And we were known in different names.

During World War 1 the idea of Arab nationalism emerged again as an important idea, this time it took the form of the Arab revolt, with the help of the English. England played a major role afterwards in promoting Arabism in the Middle East, obviously to serve their own interests and so the area gradually became Arab! In 1941, Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Minister proposed the creation of an Arab league, which became a reality in 1945.

The Millions of inhabitants of this area, resisted the idea for a long time, because of their doubts of why they changed from Asians or Africans or whatever other identities we had to Arabs, but this was changed drastically with Gamal Abd Al Nasser, who became a national hero by nationalizing the Suez Canal and leading a war against Israel in 1956… After that the masses embraced the idea lovingly.

If you are curious to know morw, get on the internet to find out more

He is a major pillar of the Arabic political song which motivated thousands of workers and intellectuals rebellious against decadent times and ambitious for better tomorrow. He lost his sight at the age of 5 months, after having contacted conjunctivitis. In 1945, Sheikh Imam met with a great Egyptian musician, Sheikh Darwish El Hariri by whom he was taught the fundamentals of music and Al Muwashahaat. Within a three-year period, Sheikh Imam was ready to perform at weddings and birthday events…

His attempts at song writing was not quite successful, but when Sheikh Imam met the poet Ahmad Fouad Najem in 1962, the two formed a duo where it became difficult to refer to one without the other. Working patiently and under difficult conditions, Sheikh Imam and Ahmad Fouad Najem developed the popular political song which advocates the interests of the poor and working peoples, or in other words, gave birth to an avant-guard hymn to justice.

Their activism led the Imam-Najem pair straight to prison in 1968, where they served three years. They were also frequent quests at Egypt’s state prisons during between 1972 and 1979. In the wake of President Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981, the authorities arrested Sheikh Imam on the grounds that he distributed 50 beer cans to the residents of “Hawsh Kadam,” his home town. In 1984, the Egyptian government lifted the restrictions on his freedom and the ban on his travel abroad.

The music of Sheikh Imam was marked by a form of totality that made his political song travel beyond the geographical location of its origin. It addressed issues other than those of Egypt and the conflicts peculiar of that setting; Sheikh Imam’s music appealed to non-Arab and Arab symbols like the Palestinian question.

Sheikh Imam gave a lot but received almost nothing in return, although his records were sold by the thousands all over the Arab world. Even his friends failed to give him the recognition that he rightly deserves. “Perhaps death is more merciful than the life he spent behind bars or lonely and bed-ridden in his last days,” commented a Lebanese writer. “But Sheikh Imam’s music will survive, played again in Arab times more shining and promising, and that will be the best celebration of his music and art.”

“Allah yir7amoh and yir7am ayam zaman… what else can be said??” as il 7ajeh sitty would say…. I feel I am 90 years old This entry is inspired by one of the comments left on this blog…. So thanks my friend.

I decided to look into our supposedly rich culture and startt a drive to promote Arabic culture! I have to admit from the first look I felt very frustrated reading Arabic, as I found Arab writers very negative and all heading in one direction, I was thinking that I wish to find one modern Arab writer who does not speak in riddles, or who addresses our issues in a light amusing way.

From a second look, I started changing my mind, I chose 6 writers today, all of them are very known, I chose them because I found their books extremely interesting:

Ahdaf Soueif:
Map of Love: In this novel the landscape of Egypt is beautifully brought alive when an English lady not only falls in love with her colonial country, but learns so much of its people.
In the eye of the sun: My absolutely favorite, a very powerful modern Arab book, the relationships and experiences of characters that Asia meets studying between Egypt and Britain, are interwoven to create a surprisingly sexy novel, full of wit, passion and grief.

Tayeb Saleh
Season of immigration to the north: is one of the most passionate books I have ever read, and I am not talking about a cheap love story, it is strong, mysterious, delicious and absolutely marvelous. Way to go Mr. Saleh.

Ahlam Mustaghnemi
I really wanted to read her, when I asked a the library man in Saudi if they hold her and he started scolding me, telling me that this is the beginning of the fall of our culture! When young ladies read whores like Ahlam! So naturally I think she is great! These books are recommended.
The Memory of the Body
The Chaos of the Senses

Mahmoud Taymour
He is an older writer, his books are generally good but there is one book I thought was very nice it is called shamroukh, it is talking about the life of one prince from the gulf, very sweet book.

Abdel Rahman Munif
one of the best writers, you could read in any culture, his masterpieace is 5 books called Cities of Salt where he gives a detailed history of Saudi in a very good fiction novel.

Hanan al sheikh
She is one of the most straight forward Arab writers. She says the truth bluntly, so that is one thing i appreciate in her writings.