tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24954985997735955802024-02-19T16:04:41.936+04:00Rapt ReveriesScattered Here are My WordsAysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-32514450604628362212024-01-12T11:45:00.003+04:002024-01-12T11:45:39.589+04:00A young man turned war reporter asks…<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><br /></span></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">A young man turned war reporter asks; why should he continue to bare witness to the atrocities </span></span><span style="color: #242424; font-family: arial; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">around him when half the world refuses to listen and the other half cannot make it stop.</span></span></p><p style="font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #242424; font-family: arial; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><br /></span></p></h3><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh54FuP69XMU2tdtErQXdGeYGUvVzXZFQt7SuizA0gLI5KJZzElsVaxoosJWtKo8CXkGhws9ZOuNtaCMW89SWRwqY_ed92E70kHScaJEQV8uNsTseo1ObrVOQxudPHdrRwmI2E-EtpzZlY2PGyTSH-MlcO0lyQZ-6Zp9dkaUN-vy21XY_SqCn-hG0RWKUs/s950/Motaz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="950" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh54FuP69XMU2tdtErQXdGeYGUvVzXZFQt7SuizA0gLI5KJZzElsVaxoosJWtKo8CXkGhws9ZOuNtaCMW89SWRwqY_ed92E70kHScaJEQV8uNsTseo1ObrVOQxudPHdrRwmI2E-EtpzZlY2PGyTSH-MlcO0lyQZ-6Zp9dkaUN-vy21XY_SqCn-hG0RWKUs/w520-h304/Motaz.png" width="520" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="abb" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(107, 107, 107); color: #6b6b6b; font-family: sohne, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit;">Image: Motaz Azaiza via Instagram</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph yr ys uw ln b yt yu yv yw yx yy yz za kx zb zc zd lc ze zf zg lh zh zi zj zk il br" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3cf3" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A young man turned war reporter asks; why should he continue to bare witness to the atrocities around him when half the world refuses to listen and the other half cannot make it stop. In the dead of the night he mourns the blackness of his hair as he sees even his beard begin to show signs of the trauma that is his fate. He wants to the see the world, he wonders if he ever will, as the world sees him at his most vulnerable.</span></p><p><span style="color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="font-family: arial;">His questions are understandable, expected even, and yet reading through his post one question </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><span style="font-family: arial;">halted my thinking. The young man turned war reporter asks the whole world and no one at once:</span></span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph yr ys uw ln b yt yu yv yw yx yy yz za kx zb zc zd lc ze zf zg lh zh zi zj zk il br" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d1a6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“If I made it and stayed alive, will I be mentally able to enjoy a moment in my whole life?”</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph yr ys uw ln b yt yu yv yw yx yy yz za kx zb zc zd lc ze zf zg lh zh zi zj zk il br" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ed76" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Here lies the truth of this grave injustice. Those who survive are far more gone that those who perished.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph yr ys uw ln b yt yu yv yw yx yy yz za kx zb zc zd lc ze zf zg lh zh zi zj zk il br" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="df7e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Motaz and the brave reporters on the ground, of whom many have sacrificed their lives, have shown us. They have reported the devastation, the carnage and the agony. We bore witness yet the genocide continues and so, now he asks us not to talk about strength because we haven't been through it and he is right. How reckless the audacity of the world must seem to him, how ridiculous.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph yr ys uw ln b yt yu yv yw yx yy yz za kx zb zc zd lc ze zf zg lh zh zi zj zk il br" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d7eb" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After a brief pause I pictured young Motaz getting out, seeing the world and hoped, that when he does, his smile would not be burdened. That the screams can be quietened, the blood can be washed off and the rubble will not forever obstruct his vision. That is wishful thinking I suppose, for wars survived leave lasting scars and genocides witnessed will never let you go.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph yr ys uw ln b yt yu yv yw yx yy yz za kx zb zc zd lc ze zf zg lh zh zi zj zk il br" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ca44" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The words have forasken us but we continue to write because the brave souls of Gaza continue to bleed. It is as if we are part of an endless funeral procession. The grief comes in waves, it ebbs and flows but mostly it crashes onto our hearts with great force and leaves us breathless. Helpless.</span></p><p class="pw-post-body-paragraph yr ys uw ln b yt yu yv yw yx yy yz za kx zb zc zd lc ze zf zg lh zh zi zj zk il br" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="28a1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #242424; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2.14em 0px -0.46em; text-align: left; word-break: break-word;"><mark class="ais ait ap" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My thoughts are in Palestine this morning as they are every morning, and with young Motaz as he questions all that we have made real for him.</span></mark></p>Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-72902362258025362162022-10-05T12:31:00.000+04:002022-10-05T12:31:52.259+04:00Narrow vision of Iran’s protests is a Western media catastrophe<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Iran’s governmental regime has for decades enforced laws that are not only restrictive but ones that are also inhumanly implemented. Freedom of speech along with freedom of expression in almost all its forms is practically nonexistent. Protests have long been forcibly silenced with the aid of media blackouts.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In 2021 Iran saw the election of its new president Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline ally of the current supreme leader Ali Khamenei and seen as a frontrunner for his succession. With this new government came in full force the fist of the “Gasht-e-Ershad,” which translates as “guidance patrols” and is widely known as the “morality police”. It is a unit of Iran’s police forces tasked with enforcing the laws on Islamic dress code in public. The latest victim of this brutal enforcement is Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who after being detained by the ‘morality police’ for violating the law on headscarves succumbed while in their custody. Her demise has sparked protests in Iran and around the world demanding that the government end the reign of the ‘morality police’, a revision of the Iranian regime’s Islamic laws and justice for Amini.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The international media has been covering the protests with great zeal and rightfully so but as with much of this coverage we have yet again come to witness the narrow focus of the Western gaze. Yes, it is a worldwide responsibility for the media to keep its cameras rolling and its coverage live, aiding in the plight of an oppressed and unjustly treated people, but it is also the media’s responsibility to zoom out and understand that its rhetoric and analysis should encompass a wider perspective all the while considering the impact of their reporting. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Western media has casually named the worldwide protests over the outrageous killing of Amini the ‘Anti-Hijab Protests,’ with no regard to what such a naming would have on the hundreds of millions of Muslim women around the world who choose to cover their hair as a symbol of their religious faith. The manner in which the Western media packages and sells the news, be it unconsciously or with full knowledge of the consequences, has long played a negative role in portraying the majority of moderate Muslims who practise their faith in its true essence of peace and tolerance. Once again, we witness the erosion of this beautiful religion of peace at the hands of the media in the West. It seems nothing was learned from the racial profiling and emotional damage that the media has caused after the September 11 attacks of 2001 whose effects Arabs and Muslims in general still feel reverberating through most airport security checkpoints around the world. Muslim names, dark skin, long beards and headscarves are targets of unjust, racist and humiliating consequences of a media’s narrow coverage of news from the Middle East that the world must put up with for generations.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The so-called ‘morality police’ is a work of fiction that extremist governments have created to control their people, it has no background in the Islamic faith and never existed historically in any form since the dawn of this religion. It is and has always been a weapon for the collective mentality to control and silence individual expression. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sadly, Amini is not the first female to fall victim at the hands of the Iranian regime. In 2009’s Iranian presidential elections the world witnessed the final moments of Neda Agha-Soltan’s life broadcast through a cellphone camera, a student of philosophy and a music teacher, who was protesting the integrity of the elections and was shot in the chest; she was 26 years old. </span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">By painting the suffering of the Iranian people as a rage against Islam the Western media is not only misrepresenting these brave protests but demeaning them. The Iranian people are not protesting the ‘hijab’ or their faith, they are and have been for years protesting for freedom of expression of this faith, a freedom that is practised in Muslim countries around the world. The media need not cast its eyes away from this truth, the truth of a people’s true desire for freedom, and must be held accountable for the consequences of its categorical representation of the plight of oppressed people. </span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The coverage of such injustices should not create new ones. Muslim women around the world who choose to wear the hijab or dress modestly should not because of the Western media’s rhetoric suffer being viewed as oppressed, they should not be judged for their choices or painted as a target for harassment. The hijab is not a symbol of an oppressive regime as the media would like the world to associate it with, it is a symbol of respect for a faith Muslim women around the world wear with pride. </span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Muslim women have the freedom of choice, taking away this freedom is non-Islamic, it is dictatorship in Islamic clothing.</span></div><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i>This article was first published in the Gulf Today Newspaper on 04-10-2022.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8oSw1oNrqiJy4wn4n3XHLCgzrK0rKfKX1TLGAPhBrAe9N6OphXuGqZV2UnOZvQMr36LPBKpF3Bw6qik4A8a1nuYOq2e4DhJysnHZWfddFJB9Iq-vJmDNQzoyzLszgwDf0tGPrMHRT7roxQJPk2883ZOPGkcMORFt6dCl6cmQHVtU2tINq6Lv-zGTH/s916/Opinion%209%2004-10-2022%20copy%203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="916" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8oSw1oNrqiJy4wn4n3XHLCgzrK0rKfKX1TLGAPhBrAe9N6OphXuGqZV2UnOZvQMr36LPBKpF3Bw6qik4A8a1nuYOq2e4DhJysnHZWfddFJB9Iq-vJmDNQzoyzLszgwDf0tGPrMHRT7roxQJPk2883ZOPGkcMORFt6dCl6cmQHVtU2tINq6Lv-zGTH/w441-h211/Opinion%209%2004-10-2022%20copy%203.jpg" width="441" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i></span></div></span></div>Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-40986644716383912442022-06-22T18:40:00.001+04:002022-06-22T18:40:34.333+04:00The subjective morality of human rights<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> <span style="font-size: 16px;">The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born from the belly of one of modern history’s beasts, the Second World War. It came to life in retaliation to the horrific injustices that occurred, a noble armour that would shield every human and offer protection from the theft and desecration of what is rightfully ours, those “basic rights and fundamental freedoms.”</span></span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">The Declaration consists of 30 articles that draft its basic aims from the Four Freedoms State of the Union speech given by US President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941 proposing that freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and from fear are the fundamental rights that all humans must have. This notion of human rights, which has become a staple in today’s rhetoric and commonplace for many an argument, is barely eighty years old. The idea has survived and at times gained momentum, but what of the strength of this non-legally binding unified agreement? How protective are its powers really?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Governments continue to violate human rights daily. The United States of America has designated itself as the defender of these rights and has justified great wars in their name even as its human rights records have been abysmal. Iraq’s invasion that followed the September 11 attacks stands witness to a wholly unjustified war against a country that was not involved in the terror inflicted on New York City that fateful day. Freedoms and security were promised to the people of Iraq and the motive, the definite knowledge of Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was invaded, Saddam was neutralised, the Iraqi people are no closer to freedom today than they were in Saddam Hussein’s era and the mass destructive weapons… never existed. As per the human rights agreement someone should be held responsible for the atrocities that happened during this war and the sponsors of the crimes that have been committed on false pretences should have been prosecuted. None of that happened.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Figures show that even after the American military’s blatant use of torture and prisoner abuse in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison hundreds of governments continue to engage in torture to this day. The Israeli government continues to ignore UN resolutions, breaking international laws by bombing Gaza, terrorising civilians and building unsanctioned settlements on Palestinian land. The Chinese government is holding Uyghur Muslims in detention camps where an entire segment of the population is subjected to all kinds of abuse in order to denounce their faith. Journalists are being suffocated, silenced, even shot through bullet proof vests by governments who do not believe that freedom of speech is a right every person is entitled to, governments who fear words more than arms. Women’s rights remain a continuous battle around the globe; where education as a basic right is nothing but a dream and where possession of their own bodies is a debatable matter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The past decades have seen several wars ignited, as a result of which the United Nations recorded more than 100 million people have been forcibly displaced and seeking refuge. With this great influx of migration Western democracies saw their human rights idealism being challenged. <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727; font-size: 16px;">The European Union’s opinion on asylum-seeking migrants was one of the key issues that led to the catastrophic blow of losing the United Kingdom. As the numbers of migrants increased and news of boats filled with searching souls capsizing on the shores of the West reached the world, we began witnessing how governments’ idealism wavered and suddenly those non-negotiable rights were being negotiated.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">We hear the same term being used to make radically different arguments yet through actions it becomes obvious that the clarification does not comply with the justification, and we are left wondering, baffled by what hypocrisy is leading these debates and how articulate they have become in selling an oddly subjective form of idealism.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Human Rights are usually synonymous with the word democracy generalising from the onset that non-democratic governments are, by definition, ones that infringe on the rights of their citizens. The arguably biased International Human Rights law, which is viewed as one of modern humanity’s greatest achievements loses its power, is continuously being challenged, discredited and at times even ignored because of its ambiguity. Its Western leaning influence has left it tone-deaf to non-democratic societies and its unclear mechanisms of implementation has allowed for it to be challenged and defeated. An ambiguous law is a dangerous one because it allows for the concept to be misused, neglected or worse, weaponised. This is the reason why people are always left wondering how some injustices are justified by the nations who have drafted the law of rights and others are not.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">These questionings are on the forefront of recent debates on the war in Ukraine. As Ukrainians fled the bombings European nations absorbed over 5 million refugees in a span of 4 months. In isolation this is an admirable gesture, one that should have chests swell with pride to see humanity moving so fast in aid of its brethren yet unfortunately, this is not an isolated event. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, the situation in Libya and parts of Africa have forced millions out of their dismal lives in search of refuge to these same countries, who in over a decade have not taken in half the number of fleeing Ukrainians. Today the UK is under fire for its plan to deport Rwandan refugees, making way for ‘other’ migrants, with the knowledge that some will face irreversible harm.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">There are those who conceive of human rights as a given and those who conceive of human rights as agreed upon. There are those who conceive of human rights as to be fought for and those who conceive of them as principles to debate and most are wading in the turbulent waters between the practical and theoretical.</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">One would like to believe that the idealising of human rights in progressive nations is a notion that will prevail against all evils and will eventually blanket the world with the humanity that every person rightly deserves but we live in a world of absolute realism. There is no longer any room for ideals in a world governed by political gains, financial incentives and the enthusiastically cultivated individuality mindset. </div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(39, 39, 39); color: #272727;"><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Seeing as to how governments have failed in most cases to honour that which it held to be an absolute truth, one must insist that it is time we took another look at the laws of human rights, it is time we made it a legally binding agreement whose consequences are far more severe and absolute than to be vetoed by the mighty.</div><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This article was first published in Gulf Today newspaper on 22-06-2022.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="548" data-original-width="918" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj27v8UFRpKcFLYAu-tgYl-nAYu3yRBHzmbGr76FPcBbf0uBVXIe-VRpYbhQgZcyoMMqK42Sujv99zZTYhF6jKfz0jGdo-6FXBBdf1di9FHgAEl0eUQR8TWHErIa47mOFvoGDgfdK8KvBNi62dyomrkOrBsUTxCLzKkyOs8ahFJS5MRuJlHgde57xUl/w400-h239/GT%209-N%20copy.jpeg" width="400" /></div><br /><i><br /></i></span></div></span></span>Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-73013870720413428122018-06-13T23:15:00.002+04:002018-06-13T23:23:39.049+04:00History cannot remain masculine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">History is a past retold, a series of events that have been documented by those who have witnessed their occurrence. It is human nature to write of that which interests us, of facts that are deemed essential at the time of inscription and that is why history as is documented, is as much an interpretation, as it is a collection of facts. The names and events that have made it into history books have changed the world one way or the other, their existence and our knowledge of it is essential, but what of those names that were never uttered by history teachers, are their world-altering actions erased? Or do their trials and tribulations factor into the shaping of the future whether they are remembered or not?</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">If we casually flick through the history books we are most likely to see pages filled with iconic figures that have left their imprint on the world, most of which are men. Great and not-so-great men have both maimed and healed our world simultaneously and from their experiences we have much to learn. Even those of us who are not prolific in politics, sports or technology are instantaneously able to recognise an image of such men as Che Guevara, Maradona and Steve Jobs. Though just as it may be, to have such figures made iconic and embraced by pop-culture how many of those faces we see on posters, T-shirts and spray-painted on walls are of women? Does that mean that throughout history no woman has ever been iconic enough? Or is it that the telling of her story was not deemed essential to those documenting at the time of inscription? No female face would be so widely and easily identified except maybe those of whom who made it to the silver screen. Could you point out Florence Nightingale in a series of photos like you would Marilyn Monroe? Would you know the great Fatima al-Fihri’s contribution to the world just as you would Umm Kulthum’s?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">Throughout the world and specifically throughout the Middle-Eastern one, much to do with women is concealed. Women are mostly kept out of history books, and if they are marvellous enough to have made it into them their images most likely did not. This makes it impossible for people to know of them and for those searching for them it makes for an absolutely exhausting task, in turn their accomplishments and impact on the world are rendered obsolete and the chance of people learning from them non-existent. Just as is the way of the world, change is inevitable and for women’s struggle with history, change is coming.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-align: left;">Recently Muslim women have become more visible than they ever were, standing up to oppression and advocating the plight of minorities around the world. In a visual world where icons are required their images have helped immortalise their work. Malala Yousafzai’s survival and perseverance has become a representation of all women facing the horrors of extremism and the plight for female education. Young girls today have forces such as seventeen-year-old Ahed Tamimi, whose brave defiance in the face of Zionist settlers landed her in prison, catapulting her to icon-status for resistance against occupation around the world. Women have become revolutionary icons, Iranian Neda Agha-Soltan, a student, who died from a fatal shot to the head during protests in Tehran has become a symbol of an entire revolution. Along with Egypt’s Ghada Kamal Abdul Khaleq, known to the Western press as the Girl in the Blue Bra and affectionately dubbed Sitt el Banat (Leader of the Girls) in Egypt, whose image being dragged half-naked by police has become a source of artistic representation of oppression.</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">During the Women’s March against the Trump administration in the United States an image of Munira Ahmed wearing the American flag as a Hijab (headdress) became the representation of American tolerance and pro-immigration ideals. And the latest brave soul who was unfortunately taken too soon is Palestinian Razan Najjar, a twenty-one-year-old paramedic, who spent her days saving the lives of fellow countrymen and women peacefully protesting the Israeli occupation. She was killed in cold blood by an Israeli sniper while attending to the injured, she will forever be a symbol of humanity amidst bloodshed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Because we have borne witness to those women who have shattered glass ceilings and died for their rights we have the obligation to correct the errors of the past, to not let their work go unnoticed, to broadcast, interview, write and teach about those women who are changing our world. In the near future the images in history will differ and the faces who changed the world would no longer be reserved for the masculine. We always knew history to be a story told by him but the future will have one that is written by her as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper 10 June, 2018 </i></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2JCRplR" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2JCRplR<i style="font-family: inherit;"> </i></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of the article appeared on the same day in Al Khaleej newspaper </i></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2McgVg4">http://bit.ly/2McgVg4</a></span></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-85031099628038205832018-03-01T17:15:00.000+04:002018-06-13T23:16:19.203+04:00Barricaded in Ideological Bunkers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">The world has shrunk. The vastness that our ancestors experienced is no longer. We have paved roads, built bridges, rode the waves and flew among the clouds to make sure that no place was beyond our reach, we aimed for the moon and touched it. As a generation we are today the most connected we have ever been, the most exposed and yet our social and intellectual disconnect is ever so prevalent. Information is abundant, it flows through so many sources that what once was a river one waded through is now a flood we struggle to keep afloat in. How difficult it has become to decipher the truth from the fictitious, to trust one’s own eyes over the art of image distortion. Information is power and if readings have taught us anything, it is that power inevitably corrupts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">Realising that the information torrent is not to be restrained we built dams, cyber dams that attempted to identify us and according to our online actions, categorised and sorted information based on what the algorithms concluded our interests were. At the onset it seemed a logical solution to an impending problem, one is fed the information he/she is interested in and the rest is filtered out, but just like any experiment the long-term results tend to vary from immediate ones. In this case the negative effects have surpassed those of the initial problem for by altering the way we consume information we have altered the way we differentiate, analyse and digest it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">Bewildered by the sheer amount of information we have devised a way that has made us the most sorted culture we have ever been, categorised by apps and search engines we are no longer hiding from the other, we are blind to it. We have the choice to follow the news that is important to us, categorised into subjects of interest of course, we choose the images we would like to see and the people we have conversations with based on criteria that appeal to us, we have unconsciously placed ourselves in the information comfort zone. It is common knowledge that surrendering to the comfort zone limits one’s experiences and keeps them from mental and emotional growth yet people have found a way to sort themselves into these comfortable ideological bunkers in which only the familiar is available. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">Many of us no longer expose or surround ourselves with people who disagree with us politically or ideologically, we have the ability through a click of a button to silence those whose beliefs we find culturally offensive or merely different, and while this might be both convenient and comfortable it is also dangerous. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">The walls we build around us to keep the noise out only reverberate the same ideas, notions and beliefs we enforce, leaving no room for debate. When we opt out of an argument we are choosing to ignore opposing views thereby failing to understand the other. Humans are social creatures that thrive through connections, ones that cannot be made if we willingly close our minds henceforth closing our hearts to that which is different. As we seek out our preferred social settings we are contributing to the segregation of nations. There is great benefit in the variety of opinions and the outcomes of intellectual debates, a fostering of a more tolerant society one that is all the more enlightened for it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">It is fear that reinforces the walls we build, people are afraid to be swayed from their convictions, afraid to question their moral instincts and expose themselves to ideas that may challenge the fabric of their entire existence, but what are we if we are not seeking to better ourselves? </span><br />
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Change is nothing to be afraid of and if one’s curiosity changes them then they will be all the wiser for it. So read outside your preferred genre, expose your eyes to art that provokes you and engage in conversations with people who hail from worlds alien to your own, only then will you pave intellectual roads, build emotional bridges, ride diverse journeys, and fly among ideas that liberate. Aim for that which you fear and touch it for the closer we get to that which scares us the less afraid we become.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper 20 February, 2018 </i></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2BEkfh3">http://bit.ly/2BEkfh3</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of the article appeared on the same day in Al Khaleej newspaper<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1225549121"> </a></i><a href="http://bit.ly/2ocPrwD">http://bit.ly/2ocPrwD</a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-70739353273168038372018-03-01T17:06:00.000+04:002018-03-01T17:07:46.802+04:002017, The Year of Female Reckoning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">As a year comes to a close we tend to look back in reflection at its most memorable moments and although this year had many it remains distinguishable from the rest, for it is not often that we witness a tangible shift in perspective happen in the span of 12 months. 2017 has been the year of female reckoning whose path was paved by the electing of a man with sexual harassment cases filed against him and who was filmed speaking abhorrently about what ‘powerful men’ are allowed to do to women. The election of the 45th President to the land of the free ignited all kinds of protests but none as massive as the Women’s March that took place on January 21st, a day after the presidential oath was sworn, it was the largest single-day protest recorded in US history. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">Like it or not, Trump was the best thing to happen to women’s solidarity since the Suffragettes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">From that moment onwards the world got a sense of something stirring within the female community, suddenly more women began identifying with feminism a word that until recently was viewed as derogatory, and more men were finally recognising that gender-equality is not a demand to be made solely by women, it was a human right everyone should be advocating. The news during 2017 was peppered with issues such as gender-pay gap, violence against women, and sex discrimination in the workplace, terminology that has been deemed unfashionable and lost its potency in the US since the explosion of feminism in the 1970s. We saw the year end with two words and a hashtag placed in front of them that have been retweeted, shared and worn as a badge of honour by women around the world, the hashtag #MeToo, used by women to indicate their exposure to sexual harassment, was in the millions only a few days after the actress Alyssa Milano used it as a call for action against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. No one could predict the number of personal stories from all around the world that came pouring in via this hashtag and all of a sudden it was clear that sexual harassment is a worldwide pandemic that no woman or girl is immune to. The sheer magnitude of the #MeToo hashtag did not allow for any more excuses to be made, no longer was shaming the victim a possibility and brushing off sexual harassment as anything other than the predatory behaviour that it really is, was not a viable option anymore. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">This year saw great names fall and a lifetime of careers extinguished. Power, the one aspiration such men dream of, no longer legitimised their bullying and unwelcome advances. 2017 is the year that redefined what it means to be a ‘man of power’. Time magazine has chosen its person of the year for 2017 to be the ‘Silence Breakers’, the women who spoke out about their abusers, it listed women from different races, professions and age-groups whose voices helped push a stagnant female movement to a point of no return. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">The age-old patriarchy that has enforced its power on women since the dawn of time never changed, it had just assimilated into the new age and camouflaged its way into civil society creeping through the alleyways all the way up to the boardrooms of international conglomerates. It wears many masks and hides behind so many reasons but women recognise it wherever it appears. Girls feel it when they walk to school every day; women are haunted by it in places that are meant to be safe havens. For years women believed that because a man can never truly understand that icky feeling one gets as she is paid an unsolicited compliment or told a sexist joke or worse, that there was no use of trying to explain, that this was just how the world went. But even if it did, it shouldn’t, and there is no better time to change it. The shaming culture that has kept women’s mouths shut for so long is on its way towards extinction for the door to proclamation has been kicked open with the force of a thousand years of restraint and the injustices have been shouted out with the shrill of a thousand years of shamed silence. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: left;">2017 was the year of female reckoning and women have everything to look forward to.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i style="font-family: Tahoma;">This </i><span style="font-family: "tahoma";"><i>article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper 26 December, 2017 </i></span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2C36OFD">http://bit.ly/2C36OFD</a></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "tahoma";"><i>Arabic version of the article appeared on the same day in Al Khaleej newspaper </i></span></span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2C4E9jw">http://bit.ly/2C4E9jw</a></span></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-77603871228287387212017-07-01T17:05:00.000+04:002017-07-01T17:05:41.882+04:00Society between Fake News and WhatsApp knowledge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Donald Trump’s inauguration brought with it the term most used by this president and his office yet. The term ‘Fake News’ has been used by Trump and his team to oppose, debunk or slam any question they do not wish to answer. For the sake of clarification, this term means the spreading of false information that is manipulated to look like credible journalism mostly made possible and aided by social media. We have witnessed the leader of the Free World accuse prominent news agencies of falsifying information yet while viewers gawked at Trump’s administration the truth remains that most people around the world cannot distinguish between what is real news and what is fake. </div>
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Recent studies have shown that people tend to deem a piece of news false if its content stands in opposition to their ideological views and beliefs. Today the line between what is real and what is fake in the world of news has been well and truly blurred. The rapidity with which great quantities of information are dumped on people has created a silent infectious disease of mass confusion. This bombardment has left consumers of information exhausted, no longer having the energy to sift through the murk to discover the truth in a world of falsity and this is where the ailment of our society lies. People worldwide are receiving millions of fragmented stories, headlines and manipulated images on an hourly basis ranging from politics to health and even religion. </div>
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Message applications such as WhatsApp allow for the circulation of such information to the masses relying on a snowball effect starting from a single person’s contact list. The forwarding hysteria knows no time constraints for one could receive said message at any time of the day or night as if the fate of humanity depended on it. These ‘news/informative’ pieces whose origins are unknown and writers almost always anonymous are taken as truths thereby making their way into day to day conversations and even used as advice for self-medication remedies. The result is a culture that is guided by questionable information offering a shallow and debatable knowledge of the world. </div>
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As a direct consequence of this ‘surface-scratching’ culture we are witnessing the professional journalistic, scientific and educational institutions suffer for if readers no longer care about fact-checking, credibility or references where does that leave the entities that dedicate their entire resources towards their procurement? </div>
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It is indeed a sorrowful state that even in highly educated societies this affliction seems to be taking hold, a state that demands the valuing and aiding of credible sources. People must refuse to be a cog in the ‘Fake News’ churning machine by putting a halt to their instinctive forwarding habits for it is one thing to learn something false and another thing entirely to aid in teaching it as truth. </div>
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If a topic intrigues you, learn more about it, if a news piece moves you then find out the details and when approaching a conversation please do not make WhatsApp knowledge your only point of reference. </div>
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A society is but a sum of its parts and if its most crucial one, its knowledge, is although not lacking but has become tainted then a society’s future will be too. The stream of information that cuts through a society is ever-flowing; at times even flooding the world, much of it needs to be filtered because just like the rest of our planet we have managed to dump our waste in that too.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 26 Feb, 2017 </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/2mqGcX7">http://bit.ly/2mqGcX7</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Arabic version of this article was published in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/2mj0ogS">http://bit.ly/2mj0ogS</a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-48025818534740848802017-02-25T16:19:00.000+04:002017-02-25T16:19:49.506+04:00Off Arab screens millions marched for women<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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HE position of Arab women is very much still fragile in many countries in the region. We are witnessing more and more young Arab girls lost in translation between what they are told are the ideas of a foreign culture and that of fundamental rights. Much of the atrocities that are committed towards Arab women occur partly because the victim does not know that she has a basic right for her body to be hers, for her privacy to be respected and for her education to be a necessity not a privilege she receives if it is financially possible after her brother has been educated. The education system is neglecting feminist teachings and has failed to highlight the importance of gender equality and the issues that need to be discussed and rectified with regard to achieving a harmonious culture where both sexes are perceived equal. This is when the media must pick up where schooling left off yet it is evident that the Arab media too is casting a blind eye on the issues pertaining to women’s rights and gender equality in the Arab world.</div>
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On a day when a massive number of women and men around the world rallied to bring forth these essential issues that not only affect people but entire countries’ moral and economic conditions most Arab news channels failed to broadcast the event. Now, if it were a small crowd in some part of the world one would give these channels the benefit of the doubt and assume that on this first day of Trump’s presidency eyes would be projected elsewhere. But how can a rally like the Women’s March that saw numbers exceeding projected expectations, backed up by powerful female celebrity names and infecting countries all over the world be ignored? The sheer magnitude of the march that closed roads and delayed transportation in major cities across the globe only reaffirmed the idea that Arab news channels intentionally ignored this movement. This rally for female solidarity that happened only once before in modern history, when the Suffragettes moved for the right to vote, and nothing like it has been seen since, did not register as important for these news stations to highlight. </div>
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Our Arab mothers and sisters are suffering from injustices like domestic violence, sexual harassment, child marriages and honour killings, some are still fighting for their right to drive or travel without male custody therefore our powerful Arab media was not only expected to broadcast this particular one of a kind Women’s march it should have held panels to dissect the issues being brought forth in order for the Arab world to better understand that gender equality is not an idea that one believes in, it is a planned movement that requires an enormous effort on the part of both men and women to reach. This march was not about American women it was about all women, it portrayed an image of solidarity on a massive scale. It was a peaceful march that flowed like a sea of pink and it was glorious. For a woman like myself who at an early age was attuned to the injustices that the patriarchy had enforced on women and had spent many a sleepless night worried about the ways of this unbalanced world, watching the march, I could only wish my young eyes had witnessed something like this unfold, even if only to reassure me that I was not alone in my thoughts, that the actions my young mind deemed unfair were in fact so, and that the world as I knew it could in fact evolve. The more feminist readings one delves through the more you come to see that the movements have spread out and lost touch with one another, soon they had even started to fight amongst each other and it is at those times that one loses hope that a united front will ever be recovered from this wreckage of feminist ideas. The Women’s March had restored my faith as I am sure it has introduced the young generation to the new wave of feminism. A feminist movement that was made up of both sexes and all ages and creeds, one that did away with the arguments and stood arm in arm for a greater cause, a cause which the Arab media did not wish to project.</div>
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During the Egyptian revolution, it was quite evident that the women who organized and rallied against corrupt governments played a pivotal role in the future of Egypt, it was an example of the power of the female movement. The Women’s March did what it set out to do and that is to show the sheer magnitude of passion that the female voice can project and most importantly, for our future generations, it has shattered the falsity of the patriarch myth that women do not support other women. The Women’s March showed that women in fact do support their sisters and that men do too. This is an image that should be projected to the entire world so that all those who have had their rights taken away just because they were born of the opposite sex do not remain silent and so that all those who believe they have a right to deny someone their equal existence realise they are gravely mistaken. It is shameful that Arab television channels denied the Arab world from joining in the celebratory essence of this historic march for the Arab world has nothing to fear from the empowered Arab woman, it has everything to gain. </div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 25 January, 2017</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/2jofQFE" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2jofQFE </a></i></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-46091805707243939242017-02-25T16:15:00.000+04:002017-02-25T16:15:15.742+04:00Obama’s win gave young America hope, Hillary’s loss gave it a voice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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here are moments in history that one remembers not only as fact independent of circumstance but as moments that are whole inclusive of all their surroundings. In these moments one will recall not only the historical fact they had lived through but the exact place they were at when they heard it. I think it is safe to say that for most of the modern world Donald Trump’s scalding victory is one of those moments we will not soon forget. The reactions around the world differed, some laughed sarcastically, others uttered concern but there was one distinct sound heard by all, it was the sound the United States made as it gasped at the blow dealt by its own democracy. America had shot itself in the foot, shell-shocked it was frantically trying to assess the amount of damage its choices had caused. </div>
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The American people woke up to a disquieting realisation, one that hit the young generation harder than it had the rest. Trump’s victory meant that his rhetoric of hate and racism was one that echoed harder and farther than many imagined, it reiterated that America now stands not for freedom or liberty but for segregation and constraint. This was the generation that grew up listening to a rhetoric of hope galvanised by the Obama campaign, this is the generation that had hoped and was now witnessing the embodiment of all they hoped against materialising. The images broadcast the sheer pain and disappointment in their young faces, as they stood in shock, after the election results were announced. It was incredibly moving because one could see through their expressions that it was not Hillary’s victory they sought, it was the triumph over Trump’s ideals they longed for.</div>
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This massive blind-side was a result of many factors still being analysed and discussed weeks after Trump took to the stage and in a somewhat subdued demeanour recited the words he had never uttered during his two-year campaign. The world watched a softer Trump, a more gracious and docile Trump who seemed overwhelmed and more surprised than the rest of us at this favourable result. </div>
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The failure of the media to portray the darker side of America has led to the underestimation of the impact Trump’s hate-filled campaign would have. The Trump campaign capitalised on a misunderstood, somewhat forgotten America that the younger generation had no idea existed and, if they did, not in such a vast majority. Identity politics geared towards this materially deprived and culturally isolated America, which has grown substantially under the radar as a result of economic instability and lack of educational funding, gave them a label and certain admirable traits factoring in an ethnic heritage and in turn succeeding in creating a single crushing entity aimed at the prior government. They were fed up with the hyperbole of the Obama administration that promised economic stability and better employment opportunities, and saw Hillary as an extension of the same arm. </div>
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Witnessing the results of the US presidential elections was reminiscent of Egypt’s 2012 elections when an exhausted and angry Egyptian people chose to either abstain or vote against the old regime resulting in the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood representative, Mohamed Mursi. The shock culminated in an immense rally that saw hundreds of thousands of, mostly young, Egyptians rallying for his impeachment. Today we are witnessing a sight, that has not been seen in the United States since citizens rallied to impeach Richard Nixon some forty years ago. People rallying across the country to impeach Trump, their chants reaffirming that Trump is not their president.</div>
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Young Americans who saw their country as a symbol of cultural and religious diversity and truly believed it to be the land of the free are now dealing with a different reality. A reality that has chosen hate, misogyny and racism as its core values and that has spoken loud and clear for the rest of the world to hear, albeit considering America’s foreign policies its image to the rest of the world is one that is not far from that. Nevertheless, it has now, with Trump at the helm, become outspoken about it. It seems that after 8 years of the Obama administration preaching unity and inclusion for all a backlash was brewing under the fires of wars thousands of miles away and a highly globalised world moving at hyper-speed, leaving most of America reeling and finding solace in a sense of warped nationalism. </div>
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The long-term effect of Hillary’s loss could be more beneficial to the future of America than one might think. For if Obama’s reign placed hope in the hearts of the young and instilled in them a belief that differences must be embraced then Hillary’s crushing defeat has awakened them to the harsh realities of a hopeful indifference and raised their voices in opposition of all those ideals that would not only darken their future but the future of the entire world.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 22 November, 2016</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article appears in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/2fXBixl">http://bit.ly/2fXBixl</a></i></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-43818185881286464262016-10-21T09:50:00.000+04:002016-10-21T09:50:31.430+04:00The curious case of a Syrian refugee solved by the UAE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><strong><em>Time and time again the UAE has proved that there are no borders to the humanity of its leaders who at the mere knowledge of Sinjab’s case moved to offer him a safer life with no petitions or pleas needed</em></strong> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">n a daily basis the media is saturated with news about refugees escaping imminent death, heading towards unknown borders in hopes of finding a semblance of what their lives used to be. We read reports on the unfathomable numbers who will never reach the refuge they sought instead are drowned by the very waves they hoped would lead them to it. At times it seems as if the whole world has become a refugee and the few of us, who are privileged enough to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock instead of a siren, those of us who are enveloped by a veil of safety many of us fail to appreciate, have become desensitised to the migrating numbers, to the images of the dead, shrugging them away as a collective misery that this ailing part of the world must endure. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">In a sea of human beings, it is difficult, at times even impossible, to see the human as being. This is where the obligation of the media lies, where it must shed light on the afflicted person and bring them to light as an individual and not a statistic. In a report done by the United Arab Emirates’ Al Khaleej Newspaper one such case was brought to the forefront. The story of Khaldoun Sinjab, a Syrian refugee residing in Lebanon, who at the age of 17 was rendered quadriplegic by a diving accident. Sinjab was not always bed-ridden for prior to this debilitating accident he graduated top of his class in Damascus and was a champion swimmer on the Syrian national team. Yet while the accident paralysed his body it did not halt his spirit for Sinjab continued to study, with books propped up on a glass table he managed to master the English language and become proficient in computer programming. He later found a job and married, persevering through every curveball life threw at him. Sinjab continued to live life as one should, one day at a time and to the fullest of his abilities. As the war in Syria began to rage Sinjab was uprooted, like many, from his home and sought refuge in neighbouring Lebanon and while he continues to work he is continuously fearful for his life for in Lebanon electricity can shut down for almost 12 hours a day and with his complete dependence on a ventilator the threat of death by suffocation is very much an everyday reality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">There are many petitions online for Sinjab’s relocation, he has applied for refuge to Canada and the UK but his case has been rejected on the grounds that if he is employed then he is not in dire need of relocation. Such is life now, a person becomes a figure on a chart and falls victim to a technicality. For years Sinjab’s endless pleas to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have gone unanswered until his salvation came from a place he never sought. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">After the report on Sinjab was published in the United Arab Emirates his case was immediately taken up by the government who has followed up on his condition and has taken no more than a few months to relocate him and his family to Abu Dhabi where he is currently being overseen at the Cleveland Clinic. The efforts of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed and the immediacy in response of the UAE’s diligent Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed has shown that the UAE media’s voice is not only heard but also heeded. Time and time again the UAE has proved that there are no borders to the humanity of its leaders who at the mere knowledge of Sinjab’s case moved to offer him a safer life with no petitions or pleas needed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px;">Upon landing, although exhausted from the flight and overwhelmed by the number of medical crew there to assist him, photographers were moved to see the wide-eyed smile that was drawn on Sinjab’s face.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is at times like these that this writer does not only consider herself lucky but immensely proud to be a daughter of this greatly humane nation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article first appeared in The Gulf Today newspaper on 21, October, 2016 <a href="http://bit.ly/2ez4R72" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2ez4R72</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: xx-small;">Arabic version of this article appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/2dF6kuZ" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2dF6kuZ</a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-9762369382491503652016-05-29T10:36:00.000+04:002016-05-29T10:36:33.032+04:00UAE curriculums must lift the veil off female thinkers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As a young student enthusiastic about literature my school’s curriculum although included great works, it was noticeable to my young mind even then that they were mostly by male authors, poets, and philosophers. Being a young Arab girl the only rare glimpses of female works came in the form of novels by the Bronte sisters and other Western greats, and while I drank every drop of their ink I was mostly left unsatiated and ever yearning for a familiar female voice. For all the genius of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights neither their authors nor their protagonists shared much in common with this young Arab girl, although the cultural restrictions of England’s 1800s might have slightly resembled some of the aspects we as women lived through at the time, neither the political backdrop of my surroundings nor the struggles of my region were reflected in their foreign works, these women had never even felt that distinct burning that only the Arab sun can leave on one’s skin.</div>
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I experienced first hand the drought that our school curriculums suffered from when it came to the female mind. It left me searching for it on the stacked shelves of my school library and making the effort to hunt for those names that were not being introduced to me by the system. It is an ongoing search for after the many great female Arab minds that I have read I am still discovering greater ones that somehow I have still not come across. Since then the number of female Arab minds who have contributed generously to the literature, political and philosophical landscape of the region has more than doubled, yet the eager young ears today are still oblivious to these voices.</div>
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The UAE has seen impressive, one could even say unimaginable, advancements in all sectors and has cemented its position as a cultural hub for aspiring thinkers, artists and musicians from across the region and beyond. The Emirati woman has been offered opportunities that other women in neighbouring countries can only dream of, worse yet have to fight for, but it is not enough to give the opportunity without cultivating the mind. It is essential for the young generation to not only know that women can do anything they aspire to they must also understand the mindset that brought them there. Let them interpret and critique the ideas that brought about change, teach them to compare the poetry, the language and the stories and arm them with positive female examples that counter the assembly line of clichés the media has to offer.</div>
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Impressionable young students must be given true examples of the Arab woman through her own words, and when I say students I do not mean young girls alone for in order to raise a generation that truly believes in gender equality it is the young boys that have to listen first, those boys who will grow up to have female rivals at every stage of their professional careers. In order to foster greater respect for their future interactions as equals at par with each other in every way we must introduce them both to those female thinkers, those female warriors who have fought to create a distinct voice, that voice that emanates from an agony, a sense of injustice and suffocation from years of silence, that no male thinker, no matter how great, can mimic.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper May 29, 2016 <a href="http://bit.ly/1NVNw90">http://bit.ly/1NVNw90</a></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Arabic version of this article was published in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/1TNzCoG">http://bit.ly/1TNzCoG</a></span></i></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-61025506823983243662016-04-24T11:30:00.000+04:002016-04-24T11:30:04.851+04:00Syria — Is there anything left to salvage?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Since 2011 economists have been adding up the accumulating costs of the ongoing war in Syria. Year after year they have been recording the numbers that have come to point directly to the impending demise of the Syrian economy and studying what seems now an imaginable way to recovery. The latest estimate revealed by the World Bank predicts that $180 billion is needed to rebuild a war ravaged Syria. Another study by World Vision and Frontier Economics estimates that the war is costing Syria $4 billion a month in lost growth. The war has seen Syrian schools, hospitals and major infrastructure turned into rubble and with only 43% of the medical facilities functional the estimated life expectancy at birth has dropped to 15 years. World Vision is warning that without an internationally agreed reconstruction strategy ready to be implemented when the war is over, Syria’s fate would be no different than that of Afghanistan and Iraq.<br /><br />Planning, reconstructing and rebuilding are all words that bring forth a ray of hope in an otherwise grim reality, a reality whose facts show that this hope is far-fetched. After the fall of Gaddafi’s Libya the United Kingdom alone has spent 13 times more on bombing than rebuilding the country. The United States Department of Defense boasts a daily cost of $11.5 million spent on bombing Iraq and in 2009 was spending about $7 billion a month in Afghanistan. Considering that history shows us time and again dark precedents we are almost promised a battered Syria that will not recover for at least another 50 years. The problem with history is that it tends to repeat itself and if mankind fails to learn from it then one after the other every Arab country is destined to perish.<br /><br />Brick and mortar can be calculated, measured and rebuilt but what of lives lost? What of a nation of nomads that are roaming the world begging to be sheltered? What of the psychological damage that has befallen them as a result of this senseless chaos?<br /><br />The cost of war is like an immeasurable tremor that knows no borders, its shockwaves reverberating across the world resulting in universal suffering.<br /><br />Analysts have said the devastation caused by the Syrian war has reached World War II levels. With that in mind and the fact that there are mini wars happening in almost every other Arab country, that was unfortunate enough to be seduced by a false spring, this region is in fact going through the world’s third war. Once the dust settled on the Second World War much of Europe and Asia lay in ruins, there was nothing left to rebuild and the year 1945 was dubbed “Year Zero”. Millions dead and millions more had fled their homes seeing the birth of a new term, the DP, or “displaced person.” In modern day terms it would be what is known to us as the “refugee.” Once again history shows us that while the terminology changes the vicious cycle of war is more or less the same.<br /><br />The end of the Second World War saw great cities such as Warsaw, Tokyo and Berlin reduced to piles of ash and in our reality the great cities of Baghdad, Tripoli and Aleppo have succumbed to the same fate. The end also brought about the creation of new world superpowers, the once mighty Japan and Germany looked to be beyond recovery which left ample room for the United States and the Soviet Union to flex their political muscles. The war in Syria has resulted in an undeniable power shift in the Arab world as well where we witness the weakening of Iraq, Libya and Syria to have made room for other less geographically dominant countries to take the helm.<br /><br />Nevertheless, what was once Europe’s dark reality of defeating Adolf Hitler was now well behind it, recovery was possible for them because they bound together forming a grand alliance that had one thing on its agenda, the resuscitation of Europe, all of Europe. If Syria is to rise from the ashes it needs a united Arab world which has one thing on its agenda, not the falling of a dictator for we have seen many of those fall, but the reemergence of a prosperous Arab nation, one that is not reliant on foreign aid but is self-sustained and set on its way to become powerful once again.<br /><br />Let us assume that this hypothetical situation is not a mirage and that its existence is well within reach, the question remains, what would our history books teach? Will the truths be taught so that our future generations could learn from our past or will it be ignored, skipped over to better times just like post World War II Europe did, where Italy neglected to mention its fascist past and France’s history pages were freed from the pro-Nazi Vichy period?<br /></div>
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History is not always pessimistic for if World War II Europe has taught us anything it is that the rebuilding of cities is possible and the mending of a nation’s spirit can be achieved and therefore we remain hopeful that the new Arab powers will strive to sift through the ashes and salvage what they can to bring back what was lost and breathe life into what we thought dead.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today on 24 April, 2016 <a href="http://bit.ly/1SEPRXM" target="_blank"> http://bit.ly/1SEPRXM</a></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Article also appeared in Arabic in Al Khaleej Newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/24cArf7">http://bit.ly/24cArf7</a></i></span><br />
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-85538502606471335742016-04-17T11:15:00.001+04:002016-04-17T11:15:29.632+04:00Generation ‘Share’ knows nothing about privacy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It used to be that when one wanted to keep a conversation private all they had to do was shut the door, when one felt strong enough about a memory it was locked in a drawer and when moments were utterly precious they were appreciated instead of being documented for future enjoyment.</div>
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Those days are long gone, for the private generation is dwindling to make way for generation ‘share’. It is evolutionary I suppose, but with all the moments, memories and conversations being streamed, beamed and uploaded into clouds has the idea of privacy been mutilated? Slashed at and cut through by the hands of all the Tweeters, Instagramers and Snapchatters out there?<br />
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Having to explain to a child of today, who has learned to swipe before they can speak, that certain aspects of a person’s life must remain private for the preservation of one’s sanity is almost frivolous. At one point in time privacy was so sacred that the world agreed to make it a fundamental human right, we agreed then we forgot. The need for privacy is a universal human condition that is essential to the growth process of a human being yet somehow our obsession with sharing has blinded us to the most human of behaviours.<br />
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It used to be that the world had to come up with ingenious ploys to pry information out of our clenched hands. Privacy pirates even resorted to reverse psychology deploying efforts to convince us that having access to our information is in fact for our own safety. No schemes needed now for we divulge all without a care in the world, without a moment’s thought, because life is not lived if it’s not being shared.<br />
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Steve Jobs’ Apple Inc. was recently under fire for refusing to unlock and extract data from an iPhone at the request of the FBI. While the debate raged on whether or not Apple should adhere to the FBI request most people did not really care whether or not a company could hack into their personal devices and retrieve any information they wanted and more of them believed it was being done already! Let’s face it, nobody ever reads those lengthy privacy agreements and none of us really know what we are accepting when we eagerly click the ‘I Agree’ option on any of these products. We do that not because we are incapable of reading but rather because the lure of technology is such that it has made us indifferent about our once revered privacy.<br />
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The messaging service WhatsApp, which has been operating since 2010, has only last week assured its one billion users that their “private” conversations have now become “safe”. What that means for us users is that six years’ worth of private, intimate or critical information have been up for grabs to anyone, to WhatsApp’s defence they do mention that in their privacy agreement which of course none of us have read.</div>
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The question here is not whether or not companies are keeping our data secure once they have acquired it but rather do we really care if they are? Because in a world where one is identified and rewarded not by their productive input but rather for how much of their private lives they are willing to reveal, the more you share the more you become. And so it is inevitable that the day has come when we write about privacy with such nostalgia, analysing it as we would some unearthed fossil of a creature our human eyes had never fallen on. Our children might never understand why their parents’ conversations should not be broadcast and that their future selves would probably regret publishing every thought that ran through their young heads because privacy is a concept that must be relearned in an age where it has become a currency that cannot be cashed.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 17 April, 2016 </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1p8cWEb">http://bit.ly/1p8cWEb</a></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1184407566"> </a></i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1SmLQHl"><i>http://bit.ly/1SmLQHl</i></a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-10085965239423894862016-01-18T10:13:00.002+04:002016-01-18T10:13:53.027+04:00I never said Je suis Charlie<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #464646; float: left; font-family: times, Georgia; font-size: 53px; line-height: 0.8em; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 2px;">T</span>here was a time before last year’s gruesome attack when not many outside Paris had heard of a satirical publication called Charlie Hebdo. The terrorist shooting that left 11 people dead delivered a harsh blow to those of us who hold freedom of expression to be a birthright. The cold-blooded assassination of the Charlie Hebdo staff sent shockwaves throughout modern societies causing their leaders to flock to Paris and rally in solidarity with the French people in denouncing the attack on freedom of speech. It was also the reason the hashtag #JesuisCharlie trended worldwide with many Muslims using it to reiterate the fact that these monsters in no way represented the views of true Muslims.</div>
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<br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;" /><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">The issue following the dark ordeal was published on schedule and in solidarity people, those who had never heard of Charlie Hebdo and those who do not agree with the publication’s opinions or find its “satire” funny, went out and bought the issue. The post-attack issue went on to sell one million copies.</span><br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;" /><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">Last week Charlie Hebdo was in the news again, not as a symbol of freedom of expression, but as an example of how racism can be deviously disguised as art. After the alleged harassment ordeal experienced by German women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve at the hands of migrants Charlie Hebdo published a caricature which depicts the body of 3-year-old Syrian migrant Alan Kurdi, which washed up on Turkish shores after his boat capsized while seeking refuge, as growing up to become a monkey-faced rapist attacking German women. The photo of young Alan’s tiny body lying face down on the shore shook the world to the core, it was the physical embodiment of the absolute horror that human greed, ego and lust for power can create. Somehow, while the world tried to make sense of this child’s unfathomable fate Charlie Hebdo’s artists thought it would be “funny” to point at this lifeless tiny bundle of innocence and call him a rapist. Soon social media was abuzz with shocked reactions to this heartless and racist caricature which could not be seen as anything other than a hate-mongering piece of propaganda which has no place in the world we are living today.</span><br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;" /><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">I was not shocked at seeing such filth being churned out by Charlie Hebdo, as a matter of fact I was not expecting anything less. Like I said, most people had not heard of Charlie Hebdo before the attack and therefore had no way of knowing how unimaginably vile its work can be. The work being published by Charlie Hebdo is not unlike that of white-supremacist or religious extremists’ propaganda, subjugating any idea which it considers as ‘other’ and inciting segregation. Today, the United States government is considering removing racist terms from great works of literature and is being pressured to take down statues of prominent figures in American history for their involvement in the slave trade. For even though the US amendment lists freedom of speech it specifies that it is not, and can never be absolute.</span><br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;" /><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">We are living in a world which is being torn apart by intolerance and hate therefore the utmost care and sensitivity should be taken when approaching issues of great social or political impact. That is exactly why although horrified by the viciousness and unjustness of the attack on Charlie Hebdo and despite the intense fear I felt at the thought of losing journalistic freedoms I never once said je suis Charlie because let’s face it, neither you nor I are Charlie. We would never walk into a room and at the sight of a person who is different hurl profanities at them comparing them to animals. We would never be sat with people from different faiths and insult one’s religious views and idols. </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">And you and I would never in a million years think of a child’s lifeless body as a funny joke to laugh about. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">I never said je suis Charlie because I am not Charlie and will never be.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 18 January, 2016 </i></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1PkNKQW">http://bit.ly/1PkNKQW</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper </i></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1OzVajS">http://bit.ly/1OzVajS</a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-90994821473118419972015-10-20T19:12:00.000+04:002015-10-20T19:12:45.716+04:00It’s time for a law against domestic violence in the UAE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">From its inception the United Arab Emirates has dedicated all its resources to the betterment of society and the world in need with one mission in mind, to provide people with security, stability and respect for their rights. This is evident from the birth of this great nation and instilled by its founding fathers. The late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a laudable humanitarian and advocate of women’s rights, is famously known to have said: “No matter how many buildings, foundations, schools and hospitals we build, or how many bridges we raise, all these are material entities. The real spirit behind the progress is the human spirit.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">The UAE has come so far in so little time yet never lost sight of what it values the most, its citizens and the diverse people who have chosen to make it their home. This year, the UN Happiness Report ranked the UAE as the twenty-second happiest nation globally and the first among Arab countries. This does not happen by chance, it happens through the hard work and dedication of governments under the guidance of an enlightened leadership, which cares first and foremost about the human spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">The UAE has never witnessed a women’s rights movement simply because since its establishment the government has seen women as equals and therefore placed them at the forefront of all endeavours. The urgency for the inclusion of women was there from the very beginning with women’s education becoming one of the founding fathers’ first and most persistent priorities. Today the Emirati woman is as intrinsic in the country’s fabric as her male counterpart participating at every level of both government and private sectors, with many gaining international recognition for their achievements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">In a young nation such as this one it is understandable, even expected, to find outdated laws and issues that are not yet recognised under the country’s penal codes but domestic violence should not be one of them. There is no law governing domestic violence in the UAE, a fact that is neither acceptable nor emblematic of the country’s stance on human rights in general and specifically women’s rights. Ministry officials have shrugged at questions on the non-existence of such a crucial law citing that there is no legal definition of domestic abuse. This technicality cannot be the reason to dismiss the rising figures of domestic violence incidents where women have had no legal rights to leave their abusive relationships on the grounds of being physically harmed. Officials have also debated cultural issues stating outdated ideas of privacy among a family unit. If a woman fears for her life then she should be able to seek refuge, knowing that the law will preserve her rights if she wishes to remove herself from harm’s way regardless of what other members of her family believe. </span></div>
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Another excuse given by officials, who I must mention for the sake of this issue, are all men, is that while Western countries may consider some forms of abuse as domestic violence an Arab community could see it as family discipline. I could not make this up if I tried, officials have actually said these excuses out loud and continue to use them to hinder the process of passing this fundamental law. </div>
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Violence is violence and can in no way be misconstrued as discipline under any circumstance cultural or otherwise. If we are to fight discrimination and injustice against women we must start from the home for if a woman cannot be safe in her own house then she cannot be expected to feel safe anywhere.</div>
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The figures do not lie, domestic violence is on the rise and the lack of a law to protect women is not acceptable under any excuse. The UAE does not need the United Nations telling it that this is an infringement on human rights because the UAE believes it to be so and must now act to end the procrastination of the matter because the passing of this law reinforces what the UAE truly is, an avid advocate of human rights. </div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on October 18, 2015.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1LhB5iL">http://bit.ly/1LhB5iL</a></span></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-22319819379365709412015-09-20T11:26:00.000+04:002015-09-20T11:26:21.482+04:00Israel is no refuge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The migration crisis that has resulted from the clash of egos and sadistic extremism has reached its peak, with the past months witnessing a great outpouring of people seeking refuge from the Syrian inferno. European countries are now feeling the strain and their faith in human rights is being tested with the docking of every desperation-filled boat on their shores. If history has taught us anything, it is that wars have a way of affecting the whole world and not just the countries waging it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">The world is hurriedly trying to shelter those fleeing imminent death as the rest of it calls for a more permanent solution, peace talks and compromises instead of drones and beheadings. Meanwhile one government has flat out rejected the taking in of Syrian refugees, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. I would like you now to take a moment and let the irony sink in, for it could not have escaped the invading government of Israel as its Prime Minister went on explaining that “Israel is not indifferent to the human tragedy of the refugees”. As I read those words I wondered if all the whitewashing that this government has done cleaning its bloodstained hands has finally succeeded in erasing the past. Have Netanyahu and the world he was addressing really forgotten the year 1948 when the Exodus (Al Nakba) made refugees out of millions of Palestinians as Israel depopulated and destroyed entire villages establishing its independence on the rubble of homes it pillaged? To this day Palestinians suffer as refugees in many parts of the world as they watch the building of illegal settlements happening at record speeds. So the question is: How can a nation that has made a refugee out of an entire country be expected to speak about, let alone, take in another set of refugees?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Israel took in approximately 60,000 African migrants fleeing civil wars since 2006 and used them to fill the illegal settlements being built but today Israel’s migration record is awash with accusations of racist treatment and the deportation of African refugees while Netanyahu refers to them as “infiltrators” and Israeli right-wing groups claim they have “a right to be racist” to protect their country. Thousands of African migrants have protested in Tel Aviv after a video emerged showing a black Israeli soldier being assaulted by a policeman while Israeli’s NGOs are still reporting that African migrants are being deported to Rwanda with promises of job security of which there is none. With such a dismal migration track record, Israel’s constant disrespect for international law and blatant disregard for human rights why would this ‘democratic’ nation believe that the world expects it to take in those in need of shelter? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">Israel has begun building a fence on its eastern border to protect itself from these so-called ‘infiltrators’ and ‘terrorists’, resurrecting yet another wall to keep people out in the name of security. And proving once again that no government in the world can be as racist in its rhetoric or actions like that of Netanyahu’s. Israeli media reported that Syrian migrants in Italy still believe Israel to be the number one threat to the region. That is because although in dire need of a safe haven Syrians have not forgotten the plight of their Palestinian brethren and despite their desperation will not seek refuge from the government which has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, making a point that although the Arab world is undergoing one of time’s most challenging tests, pulled apart by the hands of greed and ignorance, the injustices of the past will never be erased by the injustices of today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today 20 Sept, 2015 </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1JiuK29">http://bit.ly/1JiuK29</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper 20 Sept, 2015 </i></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1KqYpIb" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1KqYpIb<i> </i></a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-56787128915757689582015-06-14T10:33:00.000+04:002015-06-14T10:33:03.078+04:00Israel does not kill children<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has revealed the 2014 list that names governments and insurgent groups whose actions lead to children’s rights being violated. This list is the result of the Security Council resolution established in 2009 to “take action” against those that continue to violate international laws on the rights and protection of children in armed conflicts. It is a crucial resolution indeed considering the unfathomable abuses that children deal with as an immediate result of wars, therefore when one goes through the list which includes groups in Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq, Syria, Yemen to name a few and does not find Israel among them, one is compelled to question this ludicrous decision. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">In 2014 alone the Israeli government’s seven-week bombardment of Gaza under the guise of ‘Operation Protective Edge’, according to UNICEF, has resulted in the deaths of 557 children, leaving 4,249 injured of which more than 1,000 were permanently disabled. Israel’s ruthless attack on Gaza civilians had seen 22 schools destroyed and 200 others damaged. The chief of UNICEF’s Gaza field office, Pernilla Ironside, had said in a press conference during the bombardment “there isn’t a single family in Gaza who hasn’t experienced death, injury, the loss of their home, extensive damage or displacement.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Considering the staggering documented facts of injustices and abuse that the Israeli government has inflicted on the children of Gaza in the past year alone it is nothing but logical to question the non-inclusion of this brutal government on the UN list. UN officials have cited the reason for Israel’s exclusion from the list was due to “difference of opinion among those on the ground.” How can opinions differ when faced with facts? How can they have more weight than lives?</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Political issues, which involve Israel, are always shrouded with a universal hypocrisy that sees the world blind to all that it otherwise stands for. Human rights are addressed everywhere but in Israel, international laws take severe effect everywhere except with Israel, humanity responds to all disasters except when they are committed by Israel. Why?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Because the Israeli government’s victim mentality maintains its same tired excuse that its actions are always a response to attacks, dodging accountability and whitewashing facts. The scale of these attacks does not matter for even if said attacks constitute a few aimless rockets, it warrants a magnificent Israeli retaliation with the most advanced military weaponry in the world and the death of children and civilians is nothing but collateral damage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">It has been reported that Israel supporters have done some intense lobbying before the report’s release, which seems to have paid off because all those Palestinian children who were killed in the world’s largest open-air prison have not been counted, it is as if they had never lived.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Crucial as it may be to name and shame those groups and countries who mercilessly massacre, traffic and abuse children but if it is to be influenced by outside powers then it is meaningless. What use is it for the parents of those children that their names have been erased, what “action” is to be taken when the government committing these heinous acts is unequivocally immune to international laws? For every damage the Israeli government has caused, for every life it has taken we hear the excuse that it was a mere unintended consequence of a military action, but does intent excuse death, and does it undo law? </span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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All this list has done is prove once more that some lives matter more than others but we are here to say to the UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki Moon, and to the world that the blood of Gaza’s children and the people of Palestine is the blood of the entire Arab nation and it shall never be erased or forgotten.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 14 June, 2015 <a href="http://bit.ly/1JNlsku">http://bit.ly/1JNlsku</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/1SekdMF">http://bit.ly/1SekdMF</a></i></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-44389008137474991762015-06-07T11:11:00.000+04:002015-06-07T11:11:08.898+04:00Dying to escape death<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In the past year the Mediterranean Sea has once again borne witness to the atrocities that mankind has committed against its own race. Thousands upon thousands of people fleeing abuse, poverty and impending death chose to cross the Mediterranean despite the unsafe and overcrowded boats, for the uncertainty of the sea seems more comforting than the certainty of their land’s future.</div>
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The UN Refugee Agency reports that more than 219,000 migrants have reached European shores in 2014 and considering the deteriorating situation of their region it is likely to double in the future. The majority of migrants come from corrupt or war-torn countries in Africa and the Middle East. The Arab Spring whose seeds failed to bloom anything other than a chaotic mess that requires only blood to grow has contributed immensely to the rising numbers of these migrants. These perilous journeys have seen thousands die at sea and many abused on these boats. The European Union is now being faced with the powerful wave of people approaching its shores and the human rights issues involved in their refusal of granting them entry. Predictions show that this problem is likely to escalate taking into consideration that this great migration has made a profitable business for human traffickers.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">The powers that be must realise that the instability and destruction their actions have caused are bound to spill over. Geography should be the ultimate deciding factor for every political dilemma, for proximity to an ailing land is bound to result in one’s infection. It is the natural human survival instinct that drives a person out of a burning building and so when political decisions fail to foresee further into the future and choose to burn entire continents in the process, scours of people will flee and head towards the safety of those nations immune to man-made disasters. When an entire segment of the world is burned and reduced to a lawless battleground for thugs and mercenaries, a land where government does not exist, where the slate of history is being wiped out and hope has drowned in gallons of innocent blood, the only respite comes in the form of the open seas and what lies beyond the horizon. So ships are boarded and pain is tolerated just a little while longer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">The EU is looking to increase the number of migrants/refugees granted entry to their countries yet although this is the immediate humane response to the crisis it is another example of governments seeking band-aid solutions based on reactionary decisions rather than long-term ones taken out of a more future-oriented outlook. Taking more people in will not end the increasing flow, as it is the EU is suffering from an ailing economy where bankruptcies and bailouts have become common. Those governments suffering from the war overspill must put pressure on the world to tackle the problem at the source. Taking effective measures to end these raging wars and help these people rebuild their lives is the only permanent solution, for only when the suffering of these nations is lifted these boats will cease to sail.</span></div>
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It is said that for legal purposes governments must distinguish between a migrant and a refugee, the difference being their “motivation”. If one flees a country with the intention of improving their future then he is considered a migrant, if he flees in order to survive then he is a refugee. Governments must label to distinguish, but migrant or refugee, one must not lose sight of the fact that they are people. Men, women and children who board those boats, whatever their motivation, they carry with them hope and considering the risk they are willingly taking it is hard to believe that even one of them does not have the “motivation” of improving their future.</div>
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Those 800 who perished when their boat capsized in the Mediterranean were not migrants or refugees, they were not a mere number flashing on our television screens, they were 800 people whose lives were determined for them by a group of politicians whose severing, dissecting and reattaching of their lands has turned their world into a monster that not even its creator can control. Coast guards watched them drown because they were not legally bound to help them and as their bodies sank slowly into the depths of the Mediterranean, the sea took them in knowing that there will be many more to come.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper June 7, 2015 <a href="http://bit.ly/1G3kP26" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1G3kP26 </a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version appeared in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/1Gszlnu">http://bit.ly/1Gszlnu</a></i></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-46930713605358928382015-05-24T10:39:00.000+04:002015-05-24T10:39:22.195+04:00Judgment Before Justice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">n 1973 India, a young nurse was brutally attacked, raped and left for dead at the hospital in which she worked. This monstrous attack left her in a vegetative state after being strangled by chains which cut off the oxygen supply to her brain. Her struggle began on that day and lasted 42 years. Aruna Shanbaug was 25 years old and engaged to be married, she was a bright nurse who cared for patients as if they were her own family.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">This crime was not registered as a rape by the doctors at the hospital for fear of it bringing shame to Aruna, it was a case of robbery and attempted murder as far as the courts were concerned. The monster (for no other word comes to mind) who committed this heinous attack was sentenced to seven years in prison, meanwhile, Aruna was sentenced to a lifetime of suffering. She remained in the hospital in which she used to work, cared for by the nurses who were once her colleagues. Every seven years or so the hospital would suggest freeing her bed only to back down after these nurses held a protest on Aruna’s behalf. The juxtaposition of this story reflects human nature at its best, the monsters that dwell among us and the angels who are there to ease our suffering, humanity is an ironic thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Aruna Shanbaug died last week. Forty-two years her fragile body lay on that bed, eyes open through the pain, silent, ageing. Those years should not be dismissed, Aruna survived to remind us that rape is not a crime like any other, rape is murder. The violation of one’s dignity and the vile inhumanity of the act leaves its victims alive yet dead inside and Aruna was the physical embodiment of that feeling. For 42 years she remained in order for us to witness that the scars these ‘crimes’ leave behind never fully heal. They never go away. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Societies have a peculiar way of relating, or more accurately non-relating, to rape maybe because it is so vicious, they choose to live in denial about it. With no other crime do people associate shame to the victim except with rape, why is that? Forty-two years on people are still debating this question. Society’s view of rape must be altered in order for laws to be enforced and severe punishment implemented. To this day, all over the world the victim of rape is not seen as just a victim. Questions linger around how the rape victim brought it upon herself, dissection of her background and attire takes place as if to look for any evidence that will assign a shared responsibility for the crime. There is nothing being shared, there is only something being taken, forcibly and without mercy. There is no rhyme or reason for such monstrosity, such darkness. It is all around us and it must be eradicated not excused.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">There is no point of relaying statistics on rape because for every figure given there are thousands missing, unreported. It is a shameful state we have created where a victim chooses to endure the pain and suffering, silenced by fear that judgment will come before justice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">For every Aruna story we hear there are hundreds of thousands that will never be heard, swept under the great rug of shame societies have so eloquently woven. It is up to us to speak up, to lift this heavy rug and reveal the ugliness it conceals. It is up to us to teach our children not to be afraid and to defend instead of condemn. Governments must be forced to take great measures in ensuring that this pandemic is wiped out through stricter laws, education and awareness campaigns. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Viciousness is part of the world we live in, some of us choose to ignore it with the rationalisation of wanting only positivity to flow our way. How selfish we have become! That the pain of others has become a hindrance to the fulfilment of our positive selves. Turning one’s head away from the world’s darkness does not make it disappear, facing it head-on does.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today newspaper on May 24, 2015 </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1ArFr4T">http://bit.ly/1ArFr4T</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article was published in Al Khaleej Newspaper </i><a href="http://bit.ly/1enB2WQ">http://bit.ly/1enB2WQ</a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-7235179314409284192015-03-10T10:58:00.000+04:002015-03-10T10:58:56.569+04:00The Cyber Cemetery: A virtual headstone for each one of us<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">F you can imagine a world before the Internet you would picture a place where your thoughts belonged to you alone, a world that is governed solely by your physical presence. To be heard in this world you were required to prove you had something worth listening to and only if you were talented enough, well versed enough and committed enough would your thoughts garner an audience. Through this meticulous journey towards making your voice heard you must have weighed and measured every word before it was uttered, every action before it manifested. Through this examination of one’s self you would’ve eventually etched your legacy, one that will remain long after you have gone.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">If this virgin world seems more like fiction than reality, you are probably one of the many who have grown accustomed to the ease with which sharing your every passing thought with the world has become. These thoughts will never know the struggle of being caged and your voice will never feel the strain of continuous shouting. This schizophrenic world requires us to live in two separate spaces, one physical and the other cyber. Many of us fail to make the connection between the two, losing ourselves in this newly formed identity we choose to project. In this world where I sit at my desk writing these words, people die, they pass on, people are mortal. In the cyber world we inhabit they do not. The immortality of one’s social media persona is real, for we leave behind years of comments, images and interactions that can never be taken back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">According to a report recently released by the research firm Internet Monitor, dead users of the social media world will soon outnumber those of the living. It estimates that at the moment there are some 20 million Facebook profiles that belong to people who have passed on. Through social media one becomes immortal, he continues to be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">These sobering figures are worth reflecting upon if only to reassess our online footprint. Does the social media persona you control reflect how you want to be remembered? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">The spontaneity with which we tend to share our musings with the world makes our online person more prone to spreading hasty generalisations and at times even hateful comments. The false security the glaring screen provides allows us to let our ugliness through. And the fact that this haste, hate and ugliness will remain floating through cyber space long after you are able to defend it is reason enough to make us take a step back from our keyboards and smartphones. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">After meeting many of my social media friends in the world of the tangible I can safely say that for some, their online personas do not do justice to their real life selves. I have come to realise that the most critical of the social media accounts are the least verbal in real life and I can assure you that most social media trolls have no physical troll land to dwell.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">As this cyber cemetery grows bloated with people’s endless thoughts, existing in a virtual limbo, we must do ourselves justice and try as best we can to be true to who we are. We must find a balance between our real selves and our cyber ones for, like it or not, it is the legacy we will leave behind. Make it one that you wish to be remembered by, one you would be proud of for it will be the shrine your loved ones will visit when their longing for you becomes at its heaviest. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This article was first published in The Gulf Today Newspaper, March 10, 2015 </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://bit.ly/18x2SMN">http://bit.ly/18x2SMN</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article was published in Al Khaleej Newspaper </i><a href="http://bit.ly/18x30fn">http://bit.ly/18x30fn</a></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-88591924793783005112014-07-06T02:05:00.000+04:002014-07-06T02:05:01.683+04:00The World Cup: A weapon of mass distraction<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of us might know Albert Camus as the French-Algerian novelist and philosopher whose arguments on existentialism transcended his time. We know him for his ability to force readers into facing the harshest questions and looking morality dead in the eye. One would find it somewhat strange to classify Camus as a sportsman as well, but that he was. Camus was a goalkeeper for his university team in Algeria who was inspired by football and the sense of responsibility it bestows on each player. Standing solitary between the goalposts Camus reflected on his absurd position of being at no fault if his team scores but fully to blame if the opposition did and is quoted to have said, “All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">I can relate to Camus’s appreciation for football for I too am an avid fan of the sport who revels in the poetry and artistic intellect of the game. I find the camaraderie that football brings to people from all walks of life inspiring. But every four years, when the biggest celebration of football takes place in the form of the World Cup, the true lover of the sport is no longer necessary and the football connoisseur feels outnumbered. Because for one month every four years, regardless of your passion for the sport or even your knowledge of the game’s rules, you find yourself entranced by the events unfolding as nations compete for one title. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">It is quite frightening to be able to create an event that transcends cultural and religious barriers, speaks to all ages, and overcomes gender differences. An event, which has the ability to keep the whole world captivated, one that is designed to be a psychological weapon of mass distraction. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">As the hypnotised masses have their heads turned towards television screens and their voices raised to cheer on their favourite teams, they would like to believe that there is no world outside the borders of the cup-hosting city, yet the world still moves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">The first World Cup was held in 1930 and has been played every four years ever since. As far as the history books have recorded there has been a great political movement shaking the world while these World Cups were being held. For the sake of this argument I wish to go back thirty years or so and bring to your attention the events that have unfolded in the Middle East during these cups. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">In 1982 the World Cup was being held in Spain and in that same month the Lebanon War began. As the fires raged in Lebanon the world screamed and hollered, not at the sight of the Israeli forces invading Southern Lebanon or at the sheer injustice and agony, they cheered for Kuwait’s team appearing in the World Cup for the first time and hollered as the Algerian team was knocked out from the first round. In 1982 Lebanon was at war and Italy won the World Cup.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">In 1990 the World Cup was being held in Italy and I recall this one vividly for the United Arab Emirates team was making its first appearance in the World Cup. That year Iraq invaded Kuwait and the seeds of war were planted in the Gulf, changing the way we view our region forever. West Germany won the cup and the Arab world lost the war.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">In 2002 and on the first day of the World Cup being held in South Korea and Japan Israeli troops entered the West Bank through Nablus as the Arab world cheered for the Tunisian and Saudi Arabian teams and the rest of the world fixated on the excitement they have been waiting for for four years. Brazil took that cup.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">In 2006 Germany hosted the World Cup and Israel launched Operation Summer Rains as it hailed attacks on the Gaza killings and injuring innocent Palestinians in its wake, Italy won.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">In 2010, South Africa hosted the World Cup, meanwhile the United States was backing Iranian protests against then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad where hundreds of protesters fell victim to military violence. Iran was being represented in the World Cup as their team wore green wristbands in solidarity with the opposition movement, the world complained about the annoying sounds of the vuvuzelas. Spain won that title.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">And here we are today, 2014 and Brazil is hosting this World Cup. We find ourselves once again being held captive by the exhilarating atmosphere and the great football being played. We got caught up cheering our only Arab representative in the World Cup, Algeria, meanwhile Iraq is being swallowed up by the worst case of extremism we have seen yet and succumbing to vicious sectarianism that is ripping it to shreds. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Israel is on the offensive once again threatening to bomb Gaza, the reasons are many, proof is optional and the result is one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">Who will take this World Cup is yet to be seen but the one thing we know for sure, if history has anything to teach us, is that some huge political plan is being hatched to be deployed four years from now as we settle in to watch the next World Cup hosted by Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><i>This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 6 July, 2014</i> <a href="http://bit.ly/1qYAHew" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1qYAHew</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><i>Arabic version published in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/1mvgpKd" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1mvgpKd</a></i></span><br />
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-28170322442729499022014-06-29T11:06:00.000+04:002014-06-29T11:06:57.200+04:00A beacon of hope amidst the hopeless<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">On a plane headed back to the United Arab Emirates I found myself staring at the airplane’s route map, and as the tiny plane icon inched its way across I couldn’t help but sigh at the state in which all the Arab nations we flew over are in. All the bloodshed, suffering and mindless wars, all that sectarianism, extremism and hate we were flying over. If I closed my eyes I could almost hear the sobbing of the Iraqi mother and the sighs of the Syrian refugee, I could swear I heard the cries of help from all the helpless souls of my nation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Yet as my plane hurtled through their dark skies, parting the clouds above their heads and leaving behind nothing but a trail of smoke, I realised that I am the one who is truly helpless. For I cannot wipe the tears of that Iraqi mother nor can I console the Syrian refugee. I cannot bring back this woman’s child or make a promise that this man will return home once again. I can only write of their sorrow and remind you all that their grieving souls need our voices to speak for them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Touching down on this great land, which stands as a beacon of peace amid the chaos, I pray may God bless the UAE and all the people who have chosen to make it their home and protect the Arab world.</span><span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon and Yemen... our Arab nation is haemorrhaging before our eyes. We continue to watch as great plans of divide and conquer are being realised and remain helpless as people of this great nation are being dismissed as collateral damage. Civilisations have been demolished and culture is being desecrated faster than I can write these words. The horror of it all is paralysing and yet we should not be still. We must act, we must shout and bring aid to those of us who suffer, for the pain of our fellow Arabs is bound to hurt us. We are one for better or worse and that should always be where we stand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">As my plane approached its final destination and I glimpsed the flickering lights of my home I heard the words of its founder echo. The late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the man who believed in unity and built his country as an example that such unity can be harmonious as well as powerful. The United Arab Emirates today stands monument to his words, “We believe in National, Gulf, Arab and Islamic unity. There is no doubt that our faith in the power of unity shall not waiver.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Landing in the UAE fills me with hope, for this country along with its current leadership continues to heed Sheikh Zayed’s words, coming to aid all those in need. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">In 2013, the UAE has jumped 18 points to become the world’s largest donor of official humanitarian assistance, actively supporting its Arab neighbours and the rest of the world. Proving that it is not the geographical size of a nation but its intentions that dictate its place in history. While some nations in the region continue to meddle in other countries’ affairs spreading hatred and inciting holy wars, the people of the UAE and its leadership carry a message of peace and respect for all faiths at a time when such ideas seem far-fetched. The general outlook of the UAE is to fight this hatred with productivity and put out the fires of destruction with a flood of hard work and resilience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">The UAE’s footprint has been a positive and productive one, holding on to the dream of true Arab unity that rises above corrupt political agendas and financial gains, Arab unity that stems from mutual respect for one another and the realisation that no amount of weapons or fleeting alliances can bring absolute power like the one which unity provides.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 29th June, 2014 <a href="http://bit.ly/1oeO8G9" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1oeO8G9</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Appeared in Arabic in Al Khaleej newspaper here <a href="http://bit.ly/TH5G2W" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/TH5G2W</a> </i></span></div>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-45259443761139427392014-02-09T12:05:00.001+04:002014-02-09T12:05:18.952+04:00Farewell my father<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Forever has the pen been the crutch I leaned on, the sword I
fought my battles with, today I curse it. I curse the pen that is forced to
write these words too soon. The same pen you put in my hands and taught me how
to use is now bidding you farewell. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">I search for the words to describe my sorrow, to make meaning of the emptiness but I fail. I fail because the words are no longer within me, I search for them and find them all around me flowing from the masses that have come to pay respects to a man they once knew, a man who has at one point touched their lives and helped change them forever.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Through teary eyes I hear stories of the man you were and I realise that it was not only me who has lost a father, an entire nation did. People from all walks of life speaking in different tongues told of your generosity, your patriotism, your wisdom and love for life. Each one of them came holding within a memory, a story, a moment that will live with them forever. For that we are grateful, for it assures us that you are in the hearts of all who knew you and in the minds of those who did not have the chance to.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Throughout my childhood I heard you speak of the importance of Arab unity and witnessed your sleepless nights over its slow deterioration. During our time together you instilled in us a love for this country that shall never falter. You spoke of your time with its founders, explained how the United Arab Emirates was birthed against all odds and insisted on the grave importance of protecting this nation at all costs. You loved this nation until the day your heart gave out and I can only hope you are able to see how much the nation loved you back.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">The Arab world mourns your death and feels burdened by your loss for you were one of its greatest fighters and its strongest voices.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">You were the patriot who gave his entire being to the foundation and future of this great nation. You were the man who fought to give a generation of women an education. You were the man who penned the truth when our world was surrounded with lies. You were the patriot who wanted nothing more than to see the Arab world united and flourishing.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Amongst all the responsibilities you shouldered and the endless quest to uphold the media ethics you respected, you were ever present as a father. You never failed to notice the slightest grimace on our faces, coming to our aid with your witty sense of humour and warm embrace assuring us that all will be well.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">You made sure that you were never absent, our daily conversations and light banter were your most cherished moments. You always said family comes first and we are forever grateful for that.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Your legacy will live on within us and through the work your beloved Dar Al Khaleej will continue to give for years to come. We will carry the torch and run with it to the ends of the earth for there is no better way to show you that our hearts grieve your loss every day but to live by your ethics and shout out your beliefs. Your words of wisdom and advice, your political and media prowess have been instilled in us and with them we shall continue on the road that you have paved.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Farewell my father, my mentor and my best friend. You are never gone for you are in our hearts and the hearts of all who knew you. You are here, heart and soul. Thank you for all that you have given us and all that you continue to give in spirit even after you have gone. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px;">Rest in peace my father, may you find in heaven your eternal resting place.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><i>This article was published in The Gulf Today on 9th Feb. 2014</i> <a href="http://bit.ly/1o66VDG" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1o66VDG</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>And Arabic version was published in Al Khaleej newspaper</i> <a href="http://bit.ly/LKuEKk" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/LKuEKk</a></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYmzm96SnVn_RWc1MdlGHiuK85RyKq3yWF80w7vxdXgvMkYd5SdPvIK6OfIynklZkKHpHMfY-CyvdqcoCydbHA2DFNRwKQuc9gyVqitxCO9Ccvh6kp6OQzqC2n-kv7xs-hlkhWtSN-ms/s1600/Dad.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTYmzm96SnVn_RWc1MdlGHiuK85RyKq3yWF80w7vxdXgvMkYd5SdPvIK6OfIynklZkKHpHMfY-CyvdqcoCydbHA2DFNRwKQuc9gyVqitxCO9Ccvh6kp6OQzqC2n-kv7xs-hlkhWtSN-ms/s320/Dad.jpg" /></a></div>
Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-40188336265078219602013-12-22T10:58:00.000+04:002013-12-22T10:58:37.714+04:00Caught between a war and a cold place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">In two years a humble revolution has turned into a raging war whose parties’ have become unrecognisable through the smoke of bombs and poisonous chemicals. For two years the world has watched and played the blame game, for two years Syria has bled.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">In two years the United Nations Refugee Agency reports that over two million Syrians have been forced to flee their country, their status changing from citizen to refugee. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Syria is now a battleground for the egotistical and the power hungry, for the religious extremist and the hired hit man. The rest has turned into rubble.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Lying in a warm bed one cannot shake off the image of the Syrian child who tries to fall asleep as the freezing wind cuts through his frail body. How can one enjoy this cool air wafting across the scorching Middle East after it has murdered children in refugee camps? </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Tattered tents are their shields against the harshness of winter, which seems to grow more ruthless as the years go on. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">In 1948, during the Jewish exodus approximately 725,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes by Israeli forces, they tied their house keys around their necks and fled for their lives with hopes that one day they shall return, they never did. The world remained silent.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Today, two million Syrians have been driven out of their homes by the very people vowing to protect them and the world’s silence is louder than ever.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">As politicians weigh courses of action against their political agendas the death toll weighs heavy on the conscience of the world. The once vibrant Syrian streets are now haunted by the souls of the innocent and the historic monuments that told of an unrivalled Arab civilisation no longer stand tall.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">As refugee camps face one of the harshest winters in the region’s recent history it becomes ever clearer that international aid is an immediate answer but it is not the final one. The war in Syria must end, the people of Syria must return to their homes and begin to rebuild. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Governments must seek a peaceful solution, for Syria has seen enough bloodshed. We have seen both the Iraqi and Libyan experiments fail as hundreds of people are still dying there every year, we have just become desensitised to the numbers. Military intervention and the injection of weapons only add to the conflict by creating more fighting factions than one can count, each with its own agenda. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Political compromises must be made so that enemies turn into allies in order to create more pressure on the Syrian government to act. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Until then, Syrians will continue to choose life over death. They will brave the bitter cold for the whiteness surrounding them remains gentler than the redness the artists of death chose to cover their homes with. They will continue to survive in the hope that while their winters might get colder, our hearts will not.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: Tahoma;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 22 Dec., 2013 </span></span><a href="http://bit.ly/1cK7aM7">http://bit.ly/1cK7aM7</a></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Arabic version of this article was published in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/1bYtML7">http://bit.ly/1bYtML7</a></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jKcIpd5InmZXJ9_1Isz5rPlms00DWwsmoXSVrniLfBz3pZ-_j-sLyxSg_Hs6347oNvKOvFjzD1dY5oo6Q3Djji-MWGMOajnibcFGrRVNIYcI97dzqpl-R_YDHOeRERPQ_JP2zqkfmTE/s1600/Cropped-Syria+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jKcIpd5InmZXJ9_1Isz5rPlms00DWwsmoXSVrniLfBz3pZ-_j-sLyxSg_Hs6347oNvKOvFjzD1dY5oo6Q3Djji-MWGMOajnibcFGrRVNIYcI97dzqpl-R_YDHOeRERPQ_JP2zqkfmTE/s320/Cropped-Syria+copy.jpg" /></a>
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Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2495498599773595580.post-30538292380686664772013-12-08T10:08:00.000+04:002013-12-08T10:08:58.224+04:00Broken hearts inspire minds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">The creative mind is in constant search of emotion, forever on an insatiable quest to feel. If not for joy, a painter’s brush would never stroke a canvas. If not for love, musical halls would echo only silence and if not for heartache, one’s pen would never run dry. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Of all the emotions a soul might experience it is the most painful that creativity craves. It is only when one hears his heart shattering into a thousand pieces that the urge to create seizes control. Loss, betrayal, a love that never was, all have at one point fuelled the talented, the gifted among us to create masterpieces some of which adorn the world’s museums today. </span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Sylvia Plath penned her most memorable poetry, the words her entire fame rests on, only after hearing the shattering of her heart upon learning of her husband’s affair. She spoke of a burst of inspiration of which the source could only be the agonising pain of betrayal. </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">The most famous of those who wallow in despair, the artist Edward Munch, painted many self-portraits but none reached the height of morbidity until he came to the realisation that he could never commit to the only woman he loved. From this suffering Self-portrait in Hell was birthed. A painting depicting Munch surrounded by flames, burning in an eternal fire of grief. </span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">The French author Stendhal was tormented by his unrequited love for a woman who treated him cruelly, for her he wrote his book De L’Amour (On Love) in an attempt to find logic in the illogical spirits of love. His lover’s ruthless rejection of his passion compelled him to dissect the anatomy of love. Having tired of looking for reason behind loving one who carelessly tramples over your heart, he finally wrote: “A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.”</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">The world is strewed with monuments to loss, grief and guilt. The Taj Mahal is a wonder of our world, yet is it a wonder because it is unfathomable for us to imagine a love so great as to outlast life? Or is it so because we wish to believe that it could? Mughal emperor Shah Jahan built this magnificent tomb in memory of his wife so that she might be remembered till eternity, this monument took sixteen years to construct. The world believes it was built by love but reading Shah Jahan’s own words on the Taj, one could say it was grief that built the Taj Mahal and it was sorrow that saw it through sixteen years till completion.</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Shah Jahan’s own words describe the mausoleum:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">“The sight of this mansion creates sorrowing sighs; and the sun and the moon shed tears from their eyes.” </span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">People flock to witness this monument to love yet all that is truly there is the physical manifestation of love being overshadowed by sadness, for it is the feeling of loss that raised the walls of this world wonder.</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">We have reached the age of denial, we have become happiness seekers, afraid to feel. We are told to think positive, to seek only joy. Stores overflow with books selling you ways to rid yourself of ‘negative’ feelings. Assuming you could package and sell happiness and that indeed you can be taught to rid yourself of unwanted feelings, what happens to the process of creation?</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">What happens when we willingly diffuse the power of other emotions? It is unfair, one could even say naïve, of us to deem all emotions that do not leave us relaxed, negative. We must continue to build, paint and scribe, channelling the intensity of our pain and sorrow instead of allowing them to consume us.</span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px;">Not intending to seem dark, but I am a firm believer that only when engulfed by darkness can we appreciate any source of light no matter how minute. I do wish you a lifetime of happiness but should the inevitable happen and sadness rears its head, I wish for you the strength to gather the scattered pieces of your shattered heart and a burst of creativity that shall bring you true fulfilment, who knows maybe even enrich our world.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Tahoma; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;">
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<div style="font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 8 Dec., 2013 <a href="http://bit.ly/J1LO5H">http://bit.ly/J1LO5H</a> </i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Arabic version of this article was published in Al Khaleej newspaper <a href="http://bit.ly/1borBg7">http://bit.ly/1borBg7</a> </span></i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNPjLpe_iPq6NBLqsMSahkqrQm4_3ciqZwSJMP4DOJ9D8tTdBl0_KHQRyGOoToa1CiGY78d3QTVQlpJ5f5Otvh53ph5Zr6G9FVI-7yO5TzteO7wvjgAIcGpc9C_o_WDta7y410x8BLqE/s1600/broken+hearts+P.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNPjLpe_iPq6NBLqsMSahkqrQm4_3ciqZwSJMP4DOJ9D8tTdBl0_KHQRyGOoToa1CiGY78d3QTVQlpJ5f5Otvh53ph5Zr6G9FVI-7yO5TzteO7wvjgAIcGpc9C_o_WDta7y410x8BLqE/s320/broken+hearts+P.jpg" /></a></div>
Aysha Taryamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04627786531427048518noreply@blogger.com0