CTlab virtual symposium on the Hamdan trial

[cross-posted to Culture Matters]

CTlab is hosting a virtual symposium on the Hamdan trial, and they’ve got a lot of people, including myself, poised to comment on Dr Brian Glyn Williams’ fascinating account of the trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver. Williams was an expert witness for the defense.

This week, Williams has been posting a five–part narrative account of his experience, and after the fifth installment, CTlab will post comments and observations from a panel of invited legal scholars and social scientists based in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

–L.L. Wynn

Beyond Occupation? Sarah Roy (Harvard) speaks at Macquarie Uni

The Macquarie University Centre for Middle East and North African Studies is hosting an open guest lecture by Harvard Professor Dr Sara Roy titled

“Beyond Occupation? Examining the New Reality in Israel and Palestine”

Tuesday 14 October 2-4 PM

Macquarie University, Building E6A, Room 133.

For more details regarding the talk please visit the Centre website at http://www.mq.edu.au/mec

New Books on Iraq at Glebebooks, Monday 22 Sep

Leilah Nadir & Michael Hastings on Baghdad
Two journalists discuss their very different books on Iraq with Peter Manning. Hastings’ I Lost My Love in Baghdad covers his experience as a war correspondent and the death of his girlfriend. Nadir’s book,The Orange Trees of Baghdad, is a family memoir of history and homeland.
Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm Sep 22 Cost: $10/$7 conc. Gleeclub welcome Venue: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe Bookings: Gleebooks www.gleebooks.com.au/events/ 02 9660 2333

The UAE: Paris of the East?

It seems from this short piece in the SMH/Guardian that the Emirates is remaking itself in the image of the “West”. But this attachment to western-centricism is at the cost of emphasising the rich historical culture of Arabia and its surrounds. The Gulf has also had a longer historical connection with both the east, India, Persia and China, and with the East African coastline, than with Western Europe. The effort shown by the rulers of the Emirates to replicate the “west” in Arabia is most unfortunate, not because the best of western culture is not impressive, but that it ignores the richness of the eastern and African culture achievements and also those of the Americas and the Pacific. Most of all it belies the claim made in the article by Sheikh Mohammed that the planned projects will help “interconencted global understanding” as a project of truly global projections would provide space for attractions that represent the cultural achievements from all around the world. I can’t help but see the project of westernising the Emirates as part of the reaction of some Islamic elites to the “clash of civilizations” discourse and the aggressive assault on non-western culture by neo-conservatives in the US and elsewhere. Looking forward to some debate regarding this, even if this is not an entry about Israel.

Noah Bassil

Another Struggle: Sexual Identity Politics in Unsettled Turkey

A very interesting article on a topic that, in the West, tends to be limited to examples of Muslim intolerance towards homosexuality. Transgender issues are notoriously under-reported too, but this article covers them well. 

From MERIP (Middle East Report Online):

Another Struggle: Sexual Identity Politics in Unsettled Turkey

Kerem Öktem

September 2008

(Kerem Öktem is a fellow at the European Studies Centre of St. Antony’s College at the University of Oxford.)

What happens when almost 3,000 men, women and transgender people march down the main street of a major Muslim metropolis, chanting against patriarchy, the military and restrictive public morals, waving the rainbow flag and hoisting banners decrying homophobia and demanding an end to discrimination? Or when a veiled transvestite carries a placard calling for freedom of education for women wearing the headscarf and, for transsexuals, the right to work?

International Conference on “Israel/Palestine: One State or Two?”

Call for Papers
International Conference on “Israel/Palestine: One State or Two?”

Paper proposals are requested for an international conference addressing the question of whether a two-state solution or a single constitutional democracy in Israel/Palestine offers the most promising path to future peace and security in the region.

The conference aims to envision in specific terms the likely outcomes of the two state peace process as well as the possible constitutional dimensions of a future single state. Conference speakers will be selected to represent a range of opinion, including proponents of one and two state models for Israel/Palestine. The conference will provide an opportunity to question whether a one state option could ever achieve sufficient political support or adequately protect the rights and security of both national communities. Drawing on the experiences, both successful and otherwise, of other multinational constitutional democracies, the conference will explore the potential of a state shaped by federalism, equal citizenship and respect for linguistic, cultural and religious rights to protect the rights and security of its inhabitants and to serve as a political framework for the amelioration or even resolution of protracted conflicts. Similarly, the capacity of potential two-state solutions to promote democracy, human rights and self-determination will be evaluated. The conference will explore the ways in which multiple models might deal with seemingly refractory issues such as refugees, Jerusalem, and deep-seated and legitimate concerns about security and liberty.

The conference is being planned by legal scholars from York University and Queen’s University but the conference itself is intended to be fully interdisciplinary in nature. The organizers have been assisted by an international advisory committee comprised of distinguished scholars and researchers. The conference aims to include contributions from scholars from disciplines such as law, political science, gender studies, geography, economics, and the arts, among others.

The conference will be held at York University, Toronto, Canada from June 22nd to 24th 2009.

Paper proposals should be no more than 500 words in length and should be submitted along with a biography or CV to onestateortwo@osgoode.yorku.ca by October 15, 2008. Applicants will be contacted by November 30, 2008.

For further information and the conference vision statement, please contact us at the above email address or visit the conference website at www.onestateortwo.com

Khaldoun contributor interviewed on 2SER

Reporter Jordan Bryon interviewed me about Barry O’Farrell’s attempts to censor Khaldoun this week.  The podcast of the interview is available online, if anyone is curious to hear what my voice sounds like!

–L.L. Wynn

Iraqi resistance literature

Dr Ziad Mouna of Cadmus Press just sent me some information in Arabic about a new book of short stories that Cadmus is publishing by an Iraqi writer, Kulshan al-Bayati.   The book’s title translates as “Ravings Under Occupation.”

Here’s a translation of the book’s back cover into English:

Occupation is an ugly crime that pushes a person to madness, ravings, and chatter; one is transformed by it into otherness, into a different being.

Under occupation, people rave in an unnatural way, chatter unnaturally, and behave differently, expressing their rejection of the invasion and its inhuman, immoral outcomes.

When Baghdad fell under invasion, Baghdad itself raved, its people raved as had never before been seen in the history of mental illnesses that have afflicted them…

Ravings Under Occupation is a literary work that brings together a collection of the ravings of people both aware and unaware. They rave under the effect of the occupation: ravings of the Iraqi resistance fighter who fights the occupation to the teeth; ravings of the lowliest agent who despises himself; ravings of those who were murdered mistakenly; ravings of women mourning the loss of their children and husbands; ravings of a poet who lost his verse; ravings of the lovers whose right to love in their homeland was crucified; ravings of the chief coroner in Baghdad who cannot halt the dead piling up in morgue refrigerators; ravings of the killed and the killers; ravings of the martyrs before their lord; ravings of the Caliphs of Baghdad and their women, one after the other; ravings of her [Baghdad’s] scholars and intellectuals; ravings of her idiots and simpletons.

Caramel showing at Dendys

As posted a while back, Caramel was the opening night movie at this year’s Sydney Arab Film Festival. The film proved so popular that tickets for the night, also Caramel‘s first screening in Australia, sold out. For those who missed the opportunity to see it the first time (or want to see it again!), Dendy’s are showing the film from the 18th of September 2008, with advance screenings on the 12th, 13th and 14th at 1:50pm (Dendy Opera Quays). Information on sessions starting from the 18th will be posted at http://www.dendy.com.au/ soon.

From the Dendy’s website, a short description of Caramel:

Caramel was Lebanon’s official submission to the 2007 Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film. It is a deliciously indulgent and intimate account of five women working together in a beauty parlour.

Beautiful Layal is oblivious to the gaze of a local admirer and instead fixates on a married man. Nisrine will soon be married but is afraid her fiancé will discover he isn’t her first lover. Rima has designs on one of her stunning, dark-haired customers. Jamal is an aspiring actress and is refusing to grow old, while ageing Rose is overwhelmed when she discovers true-love for the first time. As the women from different generations share in each others experiences and emotions, the beauty parlour becomes a colourful hub of friendship and wisdom. CARAMEL weaves a delicious tale of life and is as sweet and moreish as its title.

Miss Headscarf 2008

The first Miss Headscarf contest was judged a couple of months ago in Copenhagen, Denmark. The organisers developed the idea in response to the recent controversy surrounding the Mohammed cartoons and ensuing debates on the appropriateness of Muslim women’s headscarves in Denmark. (Entrants don’t have to be Muslim; anyone can enter by submitting a photo of themselves wearing a headscarf). The contest organisers see MIss Headscarf 2008 as a way to give a much-needed visibility to the views of “all the Muslim women who are seldom heard in the debate.” As one of the contestants said, “it’s about the time the media talked to us, and not about us all the time.” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/denmark/2044680/Miss-Headscarf-contest-for-Muslims-attacked.html)