I wrote about Drake’s years long flirtation with Arabic & Arab culturs, his new DJ Khaled diss & how Palestine is often used as a celebrity litmus test, even as Israel’s genocide & Palestinians themselves are ignored . https://t.co/68ggcZgB6I
Part of the hostility toward Marjane Satrapi is b/c she occupies an uncomfortable position for multiple audiences at once. For many Western readers she became a symbol of the Iranian woman who defies stereotypes, but in the process she was often turned into a different kind of stereotype: the secular liberal Iranian woman whose story could stand in for an entire society. People tend to struggle with that kind of complexity forgetting that one woman’s story is exactly that, one person’s account!
There is also a gendered dimension. Iranian women who achieve extraordinary visibility (whether Marjane Satrapi, Golshifteh Farahani, or Iran Daroodi) have often attracted a particular kind of scrutiny and resentment that their male counterparts do not face.
At the same time, some Western academics are uneasy with the way Satrapi’s work has been received. Her narratives have often been embraced by liberal audiences as evidence of women’s resistance to religious and political authority whereas scholars influenced by works such as Politics of Piety have challenged the assumption that Muslim women’s agency must take secular or liberal forms. The result is that Satrapi can become a flashpoint in larger debates about feminism, secularism, Islam, and representation.
So the criticism comes from different directions: diaspora misogyny, discomfort with her symbolic status in the West, and genuine intellectual disagreements about how women’s agency and freedom should be understood.
My motion calling on Canada to examine its risk of complicity in grave violations of international law in Gaza was defeated 40-12.
Here is the exchange that preceded the vote:
I'm sorry, I didn't realize Israel had now escalated to the "quadruple tap" where they just keep killing and killing as people try desperately to help the wounded
Marjane Satrapi’s death has reignited a debate over whether her work challenged Western stereotypes about Iran or reinforced them. The argument speaks to a larger question: Who gets to tell Iran's story?
By @Chrysographer & @DannyPostel in @newlinesmag. https://t.co/v4peaS5CRN
Marjane Satrapi’s death has reignited a debate over whether her work challenged Western stereotypes about Iran or reinforced them. The argument speaks to a larger question: Who gets to tell Iran's story? | @Chrysographer and @DannyPostel in @newlinesmag. https://t.co/uZBMAlL2i1
Who are the real Orientalists in the debate over Marjane Satrapi? My @newlinesmag colleague @Chrysographer & I sift through some of the arguments, consulted Iran scholars such as @nahid8 & @negaratduke, and quote the late artist herself, in her own words.
https://t.co/P4EGr92PlS
In an era of drone warfare, Israel’s capture of Beaufort Castle in southern Lebanon turned a medieval hilltop fortress into a flashpoint over history and the enduring symbolism of control, writes @Chrysographer. https://t.co/BA18TCkNDd
“Hassan al-Abbasi spent 13 years searching for proof that his nieces and nephews were alive. He was finally shown proof that they were not, delivered in the regime’s own words, in its own footage, in the obscene grammar of a charge impossible to apply to a child. The photographs that once traveled the world in appeals for their release will now have to do different work.”
https://t.co/IOUaHqhGll
“There’s a small category of athletes — very small, I think — who excite people with no interest in the athlete’s sport, or in sports at all. … Nadal possessed this kind of appeal.” @DannyPostel applauds the primal intensity of Rafa Nadal.
https://t.co/15wwG02NMQ
Me and @DannyPostel wrote about Marjane Satrapi’s legacy as a writer and the debate that’s been reignited about whether “Persepolis” was reinforcing orientalist stereotypes about Iran or subverting them:
NEW: Marjane Satrapi’s death has reignited a debate over whether her work challenged Western stereotypes about Iran or reinforced them. The argument speaks to a larger question: Who gets to tell Iran's story? | @Chrysographer and @DannyPostel in @newlinesmag. https://t.co/ydaRH6VkSd
Men used to go to war, now they also bet on it.
@EVYSTADIUM speaks to the men making millions of dollars on Polymarket and Kalshi, and experts who say that the gamification of catastrophe and human suffering will make people even number to it: https://t.co/ikrxpGeC3i
nyt can you please have some decency about a decorated war veteran combat surgeon who saved tammy duckworth's life, who treated 9/11 first responders and was in gaza during the genocide. i get that he's muslim and antizionist but this is a shameful and racist subheader!
I keep thinking about this photo taken yesterday.
Prime Minister of Canada, @MarkJCarney, stands in front of an Israeli flag speaking about how hate against any group of peoples is wrong. While, the International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid and illegal occupation in the West Bank and genocide in Gaza against Palestinians. This is hate and discrimination translated into systematic legal injustice and mass death and slaughter.
There is an obligation for Canada as a third party state to not be complicit in Israel’s crimes against humanity and violations of international law.
Standing in front of a flag of a state committing apartheid and genocide, while still sending weapons to Israel to commit these crimes, should demonstrate to all humanity and peace loving people in Canada to seriously question our politicians and confront this current reality for what it truly is.
Canada is deeply committed and embedded in the structural oppression against Palestinians, entrenching the systematic colonial rule of Western settler colonial states in a world where the rich and powerful can choose to continue to break all the international laws and obligations because they know consequences are beneath them.
I know so many good and decent people who refuse such a world and reality where impunity is enjoyed by the war criminals. Rather we fight for a world where human rights for all is defended without exception. Where our obligations to international law and the global community actually means something.
Ko Tinmaung, Rohingya Toronto based humanitarian, arrived at Toronto Airport last night after being kidnapped and tortured by the IOF for trying to bring aid to Gaza.
He was detained by @PeelPolice and not allowed to see his friends or parents who were waiting for him.
Ko was forced into a police vehicle and driven to a masjid in the middle of the night.
For comparison, just last week, Ontario welcomed weapons companies like Elbit and IAI – directly involved in genocide – with open arms.
"While all eyes will be on the celebrities as they descend to The Mecca to catch the Knicks play for their first championship in over 40 years, New York’s Arab communities — the Yemeni coffee shops, the Egyptian halal carts, the Moroccan bodega owners — will remain on the edge of their seats for each exhilarating moment."
| @DanielGHajjar https://t.co/6Ov4xdmgLC
Germany's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council ends in crushing failure
After Germany's reactions to events in Gaza, Venezuela, Lebanon and Iran, no one could believe that "its utmost priority will be respect for the rules of international law", if elected
I talked to a few Arab New Yorkers to see what it means for them that the Knicks are in the NBA Finals, given everything Arabs have endured politically in NYC over the last couple years. (I’m a Celtics fan, this was hard to write) https://t.co/fhcedP6GBu
I had asked about Israel using drones to broadcast recordings of crying children so they could shoot Palestinians who were lured out, targeting civilians in a horrific manner. Video by @decensorednews