Small Update

Beit Al Suhaymi
Detail, Underside of Gazebo

Finals are almost over- The Ford Foundation, Amaan, and Orphan Caregivers' and their Training Program had mostly taken over my life for a short period of time.
After that, all I did was study mosques.
Ben is here. We've been hitting up some sights in Cairo together- pictures shall follow soon, however...
Blogging will be taking a break- the internet in my apartment has been disconnected due to a failure on our part to pay our bills.
We will be leaving shortly to eat delicious seafood in Alexandria (tomorrow), soak up some rays at the Red Sea (Dahab) climb Gabal Moussa (aka Mt Sinai) and perhaps venture into the carved rock formations of Colored Canyon near Nuweiba.
I arrive in Pakistan on the 8th of June.
Blogging will be interspersed until then, and will be mostly photographs and links.

Food for thought:
Did you know that women in Russia are simply not allowed to work the St. Petersburg underground Metro system on the grounds that the equipment is too heavy for them?
Apparently one uppity woman doesn't think that's okay.

War-

Detail of door
Mosque Complex of Azbak al Yusufi (1495)
Near the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun
Cairo, Egypt

This mornings most popular story on Reuters.com is a sad one, my friends. It involves a small Iraqi boy, U.S. forces, and a hand grenade.
Here's a plot summary, although I'd recommend you read the entire thing-
The U.S. military announced Saturday that they shot a 12 year old boy dead as they suspected him of being involved in throwing a hand grenade at them. Iraqi officials, however, do not believe that the boy was responsible.

"We have every reason to believe that insurgents are paying children to conduct these attacks or assist the attackers in some capacity, but undoubtedly placing the children in harm's way," said Major Derrick Cheng, a U.S. spokesman in northern Iraq.

This is not about a blame game. This is not about who shot who, or who was responsible. This is really about the casualties of a war-
It's bad enough that the calculated civilians deaths of the war in Iraq amount to somewhere between 91,912-100,339 people. Now children are being used to conduct attacks.
Where does this all end- The Bush administration declared it a War on Terror, but it just seems to me, more and more like it's a War of Terror.

Civil Society, Anyone?

Children on beach
Hawksbay, Karachi
Pakistan

Though I'm sure many of you are aware of this,
Arundhati Roy got herself in gear and headed over to Karachi to show solidarity with the Women's Action Forum for 'Women to Reclaim Public Spaces' a anti-Talibanization campaign.
While in Karachi, she spoke with a reporter from Dawn about 'Taliban' and what exactly it meant-
Arundhati Roy, writer extraordinaire, makes 'Taliban' into a semantics issue of sorts-

"I’m here to understand what they mean by this term." Roy asked in an interview with Pakistan's Dawn. "Do you mean a militant? Do you mean an ideology?"
and then she revealed her grand plan: "I think both needs to be fought. But if it’s an ideology it has to be fought differently, while if it’s a person with a gun then it has to be fought differently. We know from the history of the war on terror that a military strategy is only making matters worse all over the world."

Here's what I think about Arundhati Roy:
The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize (this may or may not have been a shout out to you, Caitlin), was genius- but it's her views on anti-globalization, her ideas of the negative environmental and economic consequences of dams, and her extremely strong views of Kashmiri separation that really won my respect.

Side note: One of the best things that Roy has said ever, was in regard to United States going to war in Afghanistan, when Roy wrote in her famous peace, War is Peace: President George Bush said, "We're a peaceful nation." America's favorite ambassador, Tony Blair (who also holds the portfolio of Prime Minister of the UK), echoed him: "We are peaceful people." So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is peace.

Here's what pisses me off: Why is it that a Keralite Christian who spent most of her life in India, has come to Karachi and said some of the most profound things about Pakistan and the War against Taliban that I've heard in a long while.

In her interview with Dawn, Arundhati Roy shares a story about a little boy who asks why women can’t be like plastic bags and banned. Roy says that the point is that "the plastic bag was made in a factory but so was the boy. He was made in a factory that is producing this kind of mind(set). (The question is) who owns that factory, who funds it? Unless we deal with that factory, dealing with the boy doesn’t help us. "

Sure, Kayani's realized the Taliban's an internal threat (finally)
Sure, the U.S. backing Nawaz Sharif means that Pakistan may return to united governing
but is killing people up in Swat Valley really going to stop the little Taliban boy from asking the kinds of question that he asked her? Probably not. When, when, when, are the Pakistani people going to mobilize to deal with the kind of factory mechanism that churns out the little boy in the Swat valley? There's the United State's War Against Terror being fought in a few regions of our country- that's for sure-
but really, isn't there a similar war that you and I can be fighting? One that attempts to educate young women and men, to provide the kinds of family planning and health education that our country may need-
Now, more than ever, the country could use the workings of a civil society- one that acts instead of the government for the welfare of our people.

Roy's interview with Dawn can be read here.

Sheikh Tantawi

Detail: Hathorian Head from Temple of Dendera's roof
(The Goddess Hathor was the Egyptian goddess of feminine love, motherhood, and joy)

For those of you how don't know Sheikh Muhhamad Sayyid Tantawi, he's the Grand Imam of Al Azhar Mosque and thereby the Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar University. Juan Cole described him as the "foremost Sunni Arab Authority."

As the story goes, Tantawi is Hosni's puppet, a glutton for the political prestige and monetary gains that Hosni can give him. Notable views of the Grand Sheikh include having condemned suicide bombings against Israelis, and having said that not wearing the hijab to school is the lesser of two evils in relation to the hijab ban in France. Additonally, Sheikh Tantawi opposed female genital circumcision, having gone on record to say that his own daughter has not been circumsized.

Tantawi's newest fatwa deals with abortion, and my personal feelings on the subject are mixed.
Essentially, Tantawi has sanctioned abortion in the case of raped women.
As always there are conditions.
Condition number one, as reported by Al Arabiya: The chastity of the woman.
What determine's the chastity of a woman? Well, according to Tantawi, if a girl is walking down the road on the way to university and is raped, she is considered chaste. Controversy ensues- the baby is already a fetus, say Azharite scholars! How do you determine her chastity, say the rest!
Condition number two, as reported by Almasry-Alyoum, quotes the sheikh:
"But if she feels comfortable with what happened, she can't have an abortion"

Erg. Abortion rights in Egypt have a ways to go-
My little monologue to Sheikh Tantawi:
1. Do you really believe that the chastity of women should ever play into question in the case of rape? A rape is a rape is a rape. Whether the woman is 'chaste' or not, she should never have to prove promiscuity in that situation.
2. Do you really believe that she would be comfortable with what happened. Let's see something like that happen to you, and then let me ask you if you're comfortable with that. Based on that, would you , my dear, like an abortion?

Food for thought- Friday 8th May

Boy with Ball
Siwa Town, near Shali Fortress
Egypt

Update from my personal life: Last Monday night, my lower back began aching. By Tuesday morning, it hurt so much that I was almost crying about it. Tuesday evening, Silke and I ended up at the hospital getting x-rays. Nothing is broken, however a terrible muscular sprain means that the doctors have ordered me on bed rest for four days.
In all honesty, bed-rest lasted about two days before I convinced myself, Silke, and Julia that I could most definitely walk to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf this morning (I needed a caffeinated beverage), and now I am back in pain and regretting my decision. After some blogging hiatus because of pain, I am back and ready to bitch.
A lot has happened in my hiatus, and so instead of blasting you with tens of thousands of blog posts, I'm just putting up some pertinent links to articles I felt it was absolutely essential that everyone read.

It's probably everything I would have covered in the last week, but wasn't able to. Some are funny, some are political- enjoy:

Women's Rights:

1. Tehran Bureau has beautifully covered the phenomenon of women (and men) lighting themselves on fire in order to kill themselves here. The article isn't as shocking as I'd hoped for it to be, however, it does bring up all of the relevant points- modernization, domestic abuse, as well as the effects of governments not looking after their people.

2. This article, by Dawn.com, discusses women in Karachi and recent effects of Talibanization in the city. Those of you who know me, have probably heard me speak about this, but this article does a more eloquent job of talking about it. It additionally addresses one my biggest beefs with Pakistanis and Karachiites- inability to mobilize.

3. The Aurat Foundation just released its quarterly report on violence against women. The News covers it here. It's as awful as you'd imagine it, but it's more difficult to digest when you realize that these are just the reported incidents.

Pakistan and Politics:

4. Kayani went on record to say that he fully understands the threat that the Taliban poses to Pakistan.

5. PM of Pakistan, Yusuf Raza Gilani is now saying no more peace deals with Taliban. Took you long enough Gilani, but good job.

6. Reuters suggests here, that there may be a return to unity government in Pakistan. Wtf, mate? Dawn seems to agree in this article. Weird, weird happenings.

Fun and Weird (courtesy of Ben and the roommates)

7. Latest hate group in Egypt? Emos. Everyone loves to hate them in the U.S. too, check out the SideWalk-Chalk-Drawing Rebels of Cairo here.

8. Russian prostitutes are complaining because the economic crisis means less sex more pillow talk. Reuters covers the story here.

9. Last but not least, a mission to break up an island in the Pacific made up of trash that's twice the size of Texas.

10. Updated, because it was too good not to add in here. Zardari's interview with Salon magazine. Even if you read nothing else in this list, please read this one. He compares Pakistan's economic situation to Chrysler, restates that Osama is no longer in existence and the best quote of all, that the nuclear arsenal is safe as it's not as if there's just one 'little button' for the Taliban to press. Pakistan, is this HONESTLY, the man you want in charge of your country?

Pakistan; a dance-

Scarves in the sunday bazaar
Karachi, Pakistan

The NYTimes has in recent weeks been writing some of the worst series of articles about my country-
However, today I rediscovered why I had fallen in love with the bold lines, clever opinions and familiar names of that newspaper.

Monsoon winds seem to have hit Cairo- the air is heavy and hot, and it seems ready to burst into sheets of hot rainfall at any second. This has affected my allergies, which have long been dormant. My nose has been leaking salty fluid everywhere, I sneeze every five seconds, and everyone who knows me knows how awfully I deal with being sick.
(In the words of Julia Nash "Aww, pathetic).
Instead of criticising, being outraged, or anything along those lines, I'm simply going to send you all to Sabrina Tavernise's article.
Enjoy it, it's beautifully written-

and for those of you who want something more:

In other Pakistan news, chairman of the party Tehrik-i-Insaaf has been banned from entering Karachi. Why? There aren't any laws that expressly forbid a Pakistani citizen from entering a city- but apparently Karachi is now beyond writ of government.
(Imran Khan, famous-Pakistani-cricketer-now-politician was attempting to board a flight from Lahore to Karachi when authorities told him he was unable to travel to Karachi. The chairman of one of Pakistan's least successful political parties was trying to raise funds for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust Cancer Hospital. Angry words have been documented, Imran Khan jaan has said that MQM, Karachi's largest political party, is a mafia, not a political party)