An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...

 Am picking up where I left off… Behind every White Man there’s an indigenous « Savage ». White man, white woman --- this is not about skin color. And am tired of having to explain every word I use. The indigenous   savage as a construct, by the white man. Am sure the Natives of the Americas and those of Africa   will understand me.  On the other hand am not sure who makes me more   angry – the White Man or his Uncle toms, because Uncle Toms abound.  Back to the tacky trailer film, followed by another set of cartoons from oh la la - La République, followed by another set of posters draping the walls of New York subway stations, as if New Yorkers were not neurotically paranoid enough. Yes indeed Mohamed and the Savage Jihadist are nothing but one --- you just can’t see the connection, the fast convenient   9/11 connection, the 7- Eleven connection, the 24/7 connection… Rub in 9/11 whichever way you turn your head --- th...

I would like to continue where I left off, in some part II, knowing fully well that the Western/American film is not over yet... I hope you have realized by now that it is not about a 13mn video trailer in itself, but what about this trailer represents in the grand scheme of things. And in this post, I would like to stress on that word "representation".  How the Other is presented/represented on some ideological/cultural level (even though I have conceptual problems with the word Culture here, but I will still use it) and how this representation serves political ends. In my previous post, I talked about the hyper sexualization of the Other - and I gave a concrete example when I mentioned "the penis driven religion" called Islam. I have more vulgar representations of the Other, besides "penis driven" - another one I come across frequently is " with their asses up in the air" (referring to Muslim prostration during prayers). In themselves the...

It took me much courage to watch it - that "famous" film. I did it in phases, because I could not stomach the Sacred being trampled upon. In phase 1, I watched 6mn of it. In phase 2. I managed the whole film, more or less, because I kept skipping scenes. It's only a film I told myself...a bad one too, "artistically" speaking. But this is not a question about artfulness...it's about destructive creativity, and the film is only the needle that broke the camel's back. The whole incident (and what ensued) was most interesting to observe...a certain detachment is necessary only to get closer to the truth of the matter... Many levels to the story...a superimposition of levels, of meanings, of perceptions, of discourses, of realities... So I watched it. The first thing that struck me is the hyper sexualization of the "character" Mohamed. I was not surprised to later read that a certain American by the name of Klein who backed/supported/funde...

What ?  Hypocrites have morals ? Well yes, they  pretend  to have morals -- I call it a fake morality. One of the best examples of fake morality - i.e the morality of Hypocrites is Iraq. Masha'Allah, no one can supersede today's Iraqis with hypocrisy. They have graduated in Hypocrisy with Honors, and some even acquired a Doctorate in the art of Hypocrisy --- just like they are purchasing their "PhDs" in today's Iraq. Since 2003, when those ignorant, dumb, killers, psychopaths, fucked up idiots, clueless barbarians, stinking backward filth called the Americans (and the Brits) landed in Iraq, ever since that day Iraq has become a beacon of "morality" - the morality of Hypocrites. A mirror image of the "morality" of America and of course how could I forget the "morality" of Iran. Ever since this "liberation", "Human Rights & Individual Freedoms" - oh the worshiped words of Western "democracies" - h...

One of the good thing about listening to the radio like I do, is that one can catch news that are hardly covered by the mainstream press or covered much later, or not covered at all for political reasons. I heard in a news bulletin, that Antonio Gutterez of United Nations Commission for Refugees, spoke of a humanitarian crisis and tragedy taking place in Syria. He said that the number of killed according to him was higher than the 26'000 people as reported by the Syrian Human Rights activists.  He furthered added that that the residents of Homs and Aleppo were suffering severe shortages, and that he had never seen as many wounded being admitted in the only two functional hospitals in these respective cities. He also spoke of a clear "civil war" where both parties were totally unequal in armed power, referring to the Syrian forces using air power plus sophisticated weapons in comparison to the opposition who had only light artillery. And I did catch the total number of...

Many thoughts racing through my mind at this very late hour of night, very early hour of morning. For me it's still night...shrouded in Darkness. My thoughts race, like laser beams, I need to make sense of events. I have to make sense of events. I have to, it's imperative. I will consecrate this post to several Notes to Self, that I shall share out loud on this blog, I need to jot down everything. It does not matter if it does not make sense to you, it will eventually. Hence this post will be regularly updated with my own notes - hopefully all the pieces of the puzzle will fit in the end, as am sure they will. #SYRIA - IRAN  Just read a very important piece from the Wall Street Journal. Iran officially acknowledges that it will be sending Iranian Revolutionary Guards, plus hundreds of foot soldiers, as well as "civilian" Basijis to reinforce the Assad regime  i.e to fight along his side. Now, this is in itself is not news to me. Everyone knows that Iranian ope...

The message of Islam is first and foremost a message of Unicity of the Creator and by correlation Unity of the Creation. In that particular context, the unity of the believers and that of Muslims specifically. Yet, this unity in Faith is far from being present. The Shia-Sunni Fitna or divide is more than just a thorn in the body of Islam, it is actually a poisoned dagger that pits one brother against the other, and stabs in the back when one is unguarded. Such is the state of the Muslim Umma. Who started it, when did it start, why did it start ? It is a long story, and I can't in the limited space of this post go into all the historical details, into incidents that took place 1'400 years ago, political incidents to be more precise. I say political because they were political in nature. Centuries later, they re-surfaced with greater brutality, with greater vindictiveness, taking on the form of political treason and betrayal, the form of organized and systematic ethnic ...

This post is a message and an invitation to watch the historical Ramadan series, aired on Arabic TVs all over and which deal with the advent of Islam in 7th century Arabia, and recounts the story of one of the Caliphs - Omar (may God be pleased with him) The detailed historical research that has gone into making these episodes is priceless. It starts off BEFORE the advent of the Islamic message as revealed to the Prophet Mohammed (Peace & Blessings be upon him) and covers the Meccan and Hijra (exile /exodus) period to Medina until the prophet's death and after.  It gives excellent background information on pre-Islamic 7th century Arabia ; on the customs, traditions, belief system, tribal and clan system of the early Arabs...and the rest... I can't recommend it enough and am pleased to say that MBC the producer of this series have actually subtitled the early episodes into English and will do so for the remaining ones. This is a must for non Arabic speakers intereste...

My Twitter timeline was full of garbage today...not that it usually isn't but today it was extraordinarily so...a dazzling spectacle of people swooning over the "Olympics" with endless identical tweets, parroted from the same view...as if hundreds of people were just one-- automated, robotic, spectator...repeating the same crap over and over again...for over 5 hours...praising the sophisticated city of London, Mother England; that ample breast, that generous mother of nations, gathering her children, for a get together in some higher realm...the colorful multitude of her mixed races...gently rocked in her outstretched arms...crowned with a speech by her Majesty's to the tunes of Paul McCartney or God knows who...I say God knows who because I did not watch and will not watch...The Twitter garbage was enough of a scene. So in between those nauseating tweets, I tried focusing on the realities of the Empire, the White one...the British American one, the Western one... ...

I am inspired to write about the 99 Names, or the Divine Attributes. With my own limited  knowledge of Arabic linguistics (as opposed to language)  I shall try to piece together root words and meanings... This is not an academic exercise, this is my own personal attempt at understanding, connecting words, and get a sense of their original essential meaning. The Koran was revealed in Arabic during the Holy Month of Ramadan...and with my humble attempt, I shall try to be open and in tune to receive a tiny fragment of its meaning. And what better way to start than with the 99 Divine Attributes of ALLAH - God. This is not in some chronological order, I will work on it whenever am inspired to do so. So if the case may be I will add daily whatever comes to me. Again, I stress this is not an academic exercise but a personal one. In Arabic the root is the basis of the word, like a tree. A tree can't stand without roots. Roots provide the Essential nourishment.  And just ...

I don't understand why people balk at capitalism ...when it's too obvious that when you pay you get...whoever you are. I have attended talks where people balk at imperialism...they mention every single occupation under the sun except Iraq. Every single occupation from the day Columbus set sails, except Iraq. That would leave anyone wondering.... Iraq, as per the Pentagon spokesman, the largest armada of troop and artillery movement since World War II. One would expect at least a teeny weeny bit of a reference to that movement since World War II no ? Especially among our "anti imperialist" friends. But no, nothing, not even one single reference, not even passing by, not even a salute to some old dead man...Nothing. It's not like God forbid Iran was invaded and occupied. So why is Iraq still out of the Equation ? How many Khomeinis do you need to please before you utter the Truth ?

I am not in the habit of sharing my poetry on this blog. Somehow in my mind Arab Woman Blues, the mother blog is dedicated only for Iraq, and poetry is a personal matter, a private realm where analysis fails to capture Truth. Poetry, a garden, where one can stroll and occasionally play, and sometimes a secluded room where one can cry... But habits can be broken, and exceptions to the rule are allowed. This is not Moses Tablet with its Ten Commandments. This is my place, my little home, which I have kept freely open for you. So today I have decided something "revolutionary", I am posting my poem here and on my two other blogs. When I do something as "revolutionary" as this, it is usually because I have a message. Same applies when I advertise my posts, I only do so when I have a punctual message to send to the world. And am hoping through this humble poem, of possibly  no "literary value" (that should shut up critics) my message will come across. ...

I happen to like my own company, so I muse with myself. I play around with words in my head...I like to get to their roots, their essential meaning...words are windows, doors and gates... I thought of the word concubine nearly all day. I am not sure why this word popped out of nowhere. When Islam made its first breakthroughs in ancient Arabian society, it recognized two statuses for women - that of concubine and that of a free woman, hoping eventually to ease the concubine status to that of a free woman.  A free woman was defined as a woman who was not a captive - captive in the largest sense of the word.  I thought of that word concubine - in Arabic - Jarriah . And since my neighbors are a pain in the butt, it took me to the word Jarr   - meaning neighbor in Arabic and obviously since Iraq is almost always at the back of my mind, it took me to Iraq... And since am on Twitter, because am a lazy blogger, and prefer 140 characters to long posts, ( I also came to r...

I type in this title but inside of me a voice has died...a part of me is already dead and buried. Yet I still find myself typing...Iraq. Am I fooling myself ? Am not the kind that fools herself easily...even though I do understand that grand illusions are nice escapism...And naturally I want to escape from Iraq, and whatever Iraq has done to me. But something else inside of me is tenacious, persevering, even though I have lost much hope. I honestly don't know what it is, somehow a part of me refuses to put Iraq on the back burner. A part of me absolutely refuses the "done deal" idea. The game is larger than you and I, the plot was/is nothing but sheer Evil in its purest sense. America birthed an anti-Christ in the new Iraq. It resurrected an ancient devil that we had buried way back in the age of the Jahiliya, buried along with other skeletons from the age of Ignorance. It always takes two to "procreate". In Iraq, these two were and still are the United S...

You know, all the media presstitutes posted hundreds of tweets on that masquerade called the Arab League in Baghdad. We were left with the impression that Iraq has been taken under the benevolent Arab folded wing again... What Arab, what benevolence, what wing and what Iraq ?! People are delusional and the presstitutes get paid good money for your delusions. For starters, reality is there was an under representation of high ranking Arab leaders. Most sent delegates. Even though Nouri Al-Maliki and his sectarian puppet government tried very hard, the message was clear - we are here to discuss Syria whom you - Nouri Al-Maliki and your sectarian Shiite Iranian puppet government support. Syria was not only on the agenda, Syria was the agenda. The Iraqi puppet government made it clear that they are against "any foreign intervention in Syria as it will have a destabilizing effect." Furthermore, any foreign intervention will "lead to sectarian violence". Anyone with ...

Damn it, it's very late here...it's actually morning but Insomnia beat me to it. Actually it's not really Insomnia...this is just a pretext...it's actually words that have been waiting to be birthed at Sunrise... My eyes are wide open...I happen to sweat the not so small stuff...that kind of keeps me awake, alert...my poor body is probably paying the price...but then it would pay the price anyway... You see, my female body is a nothing... Texts and discourses wrote themselves on its well guarded virgin pages...everyone out there told me what my body is, or should be...size, height, weight, contours, circumference, concave, convex...hidden or covered, clothed or naked...spread out or tightly held...it's all been an injunction, the famous word...that word, that verb, and God was the word and maybe God is in my body...and maybe that God does not want to go to sleep...maybe that God in that form, has something to tell you...maybe.... It may not sound right..su...

I believe in clean fights. Fighting and cleaning, both - require honesty and courage ( I hate cleaning so I know what am talking about). Honesty to admit it's dirt and courage to fight it....That's called a clean fight in my book. Has the fight been clean ? Of course not. Is the dirt over ? Surely not. I often wondered, so what are we fighting then and who are we fighting ?  It's not as clear cut as it may seem. You know, the best imagery I have in mind right now, is that of an arranged marriage, where the bride really deep down, can't stand the sight of the groom and for the sake of "peace" says I accept. That kind of sums up our reality ... a forced marriage. You know what happens in forced marriages don't you ? On that proverbial night, the bride pretends and pretends some more...everyone expects her to be happy for being married off...and she acts along...she says to herself - it shall pass, he's my husband after all, I will grow to lov...

I haven't written in quite some time...it's not that am uninspired ...or maybe I am uninspired....or maybe too much is going on and an over flowing jar has the same effect as a jar with too little...besides I don't like to fill pages for the sake of filling pages...so I abstain. Abstinence from writing is like abstinence from cooking...you need to feel the hunger to want to cook, write again...and I haven't been hungry for words...except maybe in the past few days...no actually it's been there for quite some time. Am in the regular habit of buying myself flowers...some sort of ritual, if you like. And every time I go to buy some, I spend a generous amount of time smelling the flowers, I go from one bouquet to another and then back to the first bouquet...florists usually get irritated with me...but then they are not the only ones... I like to take my time in buying flowers...I like to feel them first, establish a rapport with them through my senses, then decide...