Sawt al Niswa | صوت النسوة - Palestinian Women

Teta Sabra and Falasteen: this is a randomly generated history

deema kaedbey — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:00:00 +0000

سارة اميلين ابو غزال

Teta Sabra

It was 1992, in a small apartment in west Beirut. I had developed an attachment for men with thick beards surrounded by the yellowiest flowers one’s memory could preserve. Later I learned it was called “marj el zohor.” Much later I realized it was the first understanding of an extended Palestine I had developed, that my own little small existence continues in reverse, passing through these men in the fields, all the way to Palestine. I had composed a song for these men, a song that my mother made me entertain her guests with, a song about Marej El Zohor.

These are some of the early memories I have about connecting with the bigger and more extended Palestine. And for many years Palestine was about going in the Eid to visit “Teta Sabra”, my grandmother who lived somewhere around Sabra and Shatila, not really in the mokhayem, but not completely out of its range.

Teta Sabra’s version of Palestine had remained a sealed mystery, something that I still regret . How come I never asked her about her own version of the story? All I know about Palestine was narrated by my Sidi (grandfather) to his children, in which I assume they have passed it along, censoring many of the inconveniences that made their lives easier and their traumas lighter. Everyone must survive in the end of the day.

Falasteen

I find myself in need of not losing these memories, in connecting them together, building a narrative of where I come from. Sidi had told the story to his children, and his children never shared it again. I don’t know if the story was too complicated to be re told, if it was a humiliating burden on them. What I know of my history is details in incomplete bits and pieces, few sentences stolen from conversations here and there. I remember that Baba, despite his love of Falasteen, had this fear of those who worked for its liberation, including his sister.

I’m Palestinian and like all Palestinians, when I say her name, I get a choke-like feeling in my throat, and most probably my shoulders widen and my face gets a serious expression. I don’t know what that means though, being Palestinian. I know it means that I experience the world differently, I can shift through many stereotypes, from a victim all the way to a freedom fighter, that my sense of nationalism doesn’t serve only Palestinians but it serves one of the greatest battles of this world, the battle between good and evil. But I don’t what it means to be Palestinian away from these constructions, off TV screens, speeches, gadgets and songs. I don’t know what does being a Palestinian between oneself and to one’s self.

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Sawt al' Niswa

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Story

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Palestinian Fairies Project

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Open Editorial

deema kaedbey — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Sawt al Niswa

At the Palestinian Fairies Project we show the Palestinian Women’s experience for what we believe it to be: a tapestry of thoughts, feelings, memories and day-to-day realities that extend in various directions both in space and time. There are several principles that support our weaving together of the project. The first is our commitment to narrative as an essential function of the liberation struggle. The second is our belief that our largely diasporic existence as Palestinians makes it essential that diverse voices are consciously brought into the fold of the liberation struggle. And lastly, we believe that Palestinian Women’s voices have for too long been resigned to the margins of our histories and that there is a dire need to end this condition. These three principles interact with one another in the making of the Palestinian Fairies Project in ways that are potent and intricate. For example, while we believe that women’s voices are a large and important part of the diverse voices that make up the Palestinian experience, we also realize that there is a great deal of diversity that is inherent in Palestinian womanhood, too. Facilitating a rich relationship between these things is what we aim to do here.

Our reasons for taking on this project are both abstract and concrete, both personal and political, both long-term and immediate, both feminist and Palestinian… Our aim is to break down these conceptual and practical boundaries that cage our notions about Palestinian Womanhood so that we may arrive at a more effective and more fair course for the struggle. There is no mutual exclusivity between the fight for women’s rights and the liberation of Palestine – our submissions hammer into this wall with incisive analysis and sensual artistic renderings of the situation. Woman’s roles in the fields of development are unique and catalytic; the same can be said of her experiences in the resistance movement – the fertile area that these experiences offer for the greater fields and projects that they are part of will also be explored by our articles.

One might question whether we are overstating the role of such a narrative in the wider framework of the liberation struggle. To that we answer that the role of narrative, its functions and its effects, are indeed very difficult to gauge. But we can say with total confidence that these stories a necessary, an intrinsic part of the struggle. The history of our region and the fight for liberation is a testament to this. We have for so long tied our fight to the written word, and in particular, to the articulation of our identities…Sajjel!, Mahmoud Darwish famously once roared, Ana 3arabi…Our project recognizes this tradition and believes that we must revive it. But we must also restore it with the dynamism necessary to reflect our changing realities, and we do this by widening the net that the narrative casts on voices of Palestine. We subscribe to to teachings of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Audre Lorde that tell us that we must engage in a deep examination of the oppressive confines that are placed on language, by colonialism or sexism or heteronormativity, or all three, and to extract these confines in order to recreate and actualize our potentials. We understand this is as long process that can only be done through collective and conscious efforts. With that we bring to you our first issue…

We hope that you’ll enjoy and reflect on the exciting collection of articles that this issue offers. Chime in on the richly multifaceted conversation that Ghadeer Malek recreates with Palestinian rap artist, Sabreena da Witch. Let us know what you think about Yasmine Hmayel’s perspective of the new film by Just Vision, Budrus, which she examines from screening rooms in two very different geographical locations. Join Jehan Bseiso on a lyrical tour of her Palestinian childhood in the US. Finally, check out what Sawt’s Editor-in-Chief, Sara AbuGhazal, has to say about her very personal experience with the Palestinian Fairies. We hope you’ll join this conversation with your feed-back, your support, and most importantly with a contribution – written, audiovisual and otherwise– to the narratives we’re building.

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Sawt al' Niswa

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Opinions

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Palestinian Fairies Project

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A Feminist Encounter: Sabreena Da Witch

deema kaedbey — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Salma al Atassi

Ghadeer Malek

It had been long since I had connected with where I come from, when I came across a very special feminist encounter…

I met Sabreena Da Witch on women’s day 2010, and it all came together very nicely. I had watched her perform the night before at the closing fundraiser for Israeli Apartheid Week in Toronto. And now, a bunch of us sat together talking about what feminists coming together usually talk about: politics, which leads only to the most personal.

Sabreena had so much to say and we were all ears – we had all obsessively watched her movies and listened to her music for about a year now. And as expected, what she had to say resonated with us all; she was so raw in her expression on women’s issues, the meaning of justice and a national revolution. She carried a piece of home with her that was a part of all of us as Palestinian, Arab, women and feminist. There was a very special feeling to this gathering… almost like a coincidence.

Sabreena is part of a strong hip-hop movement happening all over the Arab world and especially in Palestine. Music is being used as a medium for speaking out and is now becoming a growing influence in Palestinian cultural resistance. It has become a popular avenue for self-expression to young people during a time when most spaces are sealed off to Palestinians. It also plays an important role in attempting to build bridges between the isolations suffered by Palestinians as a result of apartheid policies. Artists from Gaza, the West Bank and the Diaspora are using this common passion for speaking into the mike to sound voices of Palestinian struggles.

Hip-hop as a political force started to develop and take shape specifically during the second Intifada, a moment considered most crucial and defining amongst our generation in reviving a sense of national political struggle and identity. Sabreena’s own political awakening around Palestine also came in the wake of the second intifada:

“I didn’t know what Palestine is, I never was told what it is to be a Palestinian – the 2^nd intifada put that in my face. 13 Palestinians inside of Israel were shot – it just comes to show you that having an Israeli passport doesn’t make you any special.”

Of course once Israel was mentioned, we all started ranting about the hypocrisy of Zionism in preserving an image of itself as democratic, liberal and free to the West. Especially in issues related to women and queer people where Israel claims tolerance and equality but only uses these issues to showcase tokenistic gestures that are intended to mask Israel’s racism and spite towards Palestinians.

“I got fired from my work for speaking Arabic in Israel – democracy, it is not. If you live there for just 2 days, you will realize that if you are not Jewish then you are a nothing… this is what the state of Israel is for me, I’m always treated as a Palestinian, as an Arab, they make sure they remind you of that everyday. There isn’t even the illusion of a democracy.”

When it comes to speaking on women’s issues and Israel in the west, as feminist Palestinians living in the Diaspora, we all shared the experience of being asked numerous times why we thought critically of Israel where women have much more rights than women in Palestinian societies. It felt incredibly refreshing to have a Palestinian woman who lives in Israel and experiences it first-hand to respond to this:

“Israel never protected Arab women when it comes to honor killing; they know what is happening but they use it against Palestinians. So, if it is very obvious that a woman is to be killed, they just step out of it saying that it has nothing to do with us. It is not a country that is equal to all its citizens. They say to you these tribes have their own tribal issues. They don’t care about me.”

The issue of silencing Palestinians is very familiar to us as Palestinians living in the Diaspora. Israeli propaganda has infiltrated all mainstream media as well as popular cultural and academic spaces. The power of their lobby has succeeded in erasing out the existence of an alternative Palestinian voice. A famous example of this is the spotlight on Tel Aviv in the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009. Palestinians were outraged that after the brutal attack on Gaza a few months prior, Israel would be allowed to showcase itself as a modern developed state. This constant wiping out of Palestinian experiences not only plays to normalizing the state of Israel as an occupying colonizing force but also claims to speak of the Palestinian experience of this violence as well.

“I live what I live and no body can cancel that. You be an Arab woman and a Palestinian woman and come tell me what it is like, don’t tell me what my experience is! Don’t speak for me. Speak of your own experience as an Israeli or an American, and I will speak of mine.”

The intersection of women and Palestine proves to be challenging even within the hip-hop movement itself. Similar to national Palestinian resistance movements, national resistance through hip-hop contains a great deal of sexism and misogyny. Women artists face pressure to sing about Palestine before they can talk about their issues as women. Being Palestinian and a woman are perceived as mutually exclusive issues; together they are too distracting from the main nationalist agenda. Notice as well that this strand of thought is very similar to what we face when attempting to speak on justice for Palestine in mainstream queer rights spaces.

“I recall going to events were I was told that I’m not allowed to speak of women issues – politics first, they said to me, women rights are not our main subject. But I am Palestine. I’m a Palestinian person – whenever I speak, I speak of Palestine – whether it is right here or not, when I speak of women’s issues, I speak as a Palestinian woman – there is no such thing as we’ll take care of women’s rights later”

Women artists also have the added challenge of navigating cultural boundaries to be able to perform. Sabreena recalled difficult struggles with her family to accept her as a hip-hop artist. As she spoke, it seemed very obvious that at the core of her resistance for Palestine was her own struggle for her right to exist as a woman making her own choices, and somehow to the outside world the two couldn’t co-exist. The fight for a just and free Palestine excluded her as a woman.

“I was disappointed because I was treated as a woman first and then Palestinian. Even singing for Palestine gave me trouble, I would sing for Palestine and then my parents would yell for hours when I come home. I had to convince them every day to please let me perform.”

It was very obvious that the depth of our struggles as women is tied to this idea of women upholding the honor of our entire societies and culture. However, in order to be truly full in our analysis, we could not ignore the grander scheme of things and as feminists, we could not but point out how racism and sexism intermingle and inform one another to fulfill greater agendas of patriarchy existing everywhere.

“Up until I came to American, I had issues with the men in my community, they were the problem, Arab people don’t know how to deal with women especially if they are strong. I come here and it is worst because here they think that women are free”

We talked about the growing BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) as a powerful and hopeful opportunity for resistance. We find it empowering because it is mass-based, calls for the participation of the entire world and gives agency to the individual as a contributing force towards achieving Palestinian liberation.

“I believe it brings results; take note on how many cities took part in IAW this year. It shows you where we were and where we are. You know that Zionists are freaking out when they pay attention to us and say: boycott these boycott events!”

We also talked about the complexities of BDS as Israel tries to cut corners in its process of normalizing their presence as an apartheid and colonialist state. It is also a difficult strategy to nuance and, while it is broad enough to fit any context and place, it needs to reflect the specificities of each locality.

“I was asked once what I thought of Palestinians taking part in Eurovision with an Israeli artist. I was completely against it. We don’t have a country! Don’t play this game with us, to have us representing ourselves in a show as Palestinians but we are not really Palestinians – I can’t even tell you here is my country, you can’t give a Eurovision spot and expect me to say thank you very much for letting me sit next to the Israeli representative.”

But our discussion didn’t end sorely – we somehow were celebrating each of our presence and mostly learning from Sabreena about what it takes to lead revolutions:

“Sabreen in Arabic with a double E means patience. If you study revolution, you realize that without patience you are not a revolutionary because if you expect things to change with a finger point you are down to a losing battle. It takes a long time to change generations of sexism, apartheid and racism. But I am not only Sabreen or patient but also a witch that is powerful and can rock your world”

In hindsight, this was a lot more than just a coincident gathering of women with similar experiences of resistance…it was a feminist one, like the kind that you attract to yourself. It was revolutionary like most of our choices have been. This was in fact a feminist encounter, one that we paved our path to, one that is as deliberate as encounters come.

NOTE: Information included in this piece and all quotations are taken from an interview done by Kan Ya Ma Kan – a women-run Arab radio show that airs in Toronto, Canada every Tuesday on CKLN.

Sabreena’s Newest Album “Women under the influence” includes 15 songs written and composed by her. You can purchase her album online.

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Sawt al' Niswa

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Opinions

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Palestinian Fairies Project

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A Call for Submissions: Palestinian Fairies Project

Pascale Ghazaly — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Share and exchange stories of Palestine and womenhood

Sara Emiline AbuGhazal

Sawt Al Niswa is launching a new page that seeks to explore the intersections between Palestine and Womanhood. We’re looking for all sorts of submissions, written and otherwise ( film, poetry, photography, and music etc.), to express your reflections and experiences in this area.

There are a lot of different angles that you can approach this from; we’re looking to add more richness to the subject of Palestine Woman-ness by collecting a diversity of ideas, approaches and artistic interpretations. Some ideas for topics include: Palestinian Women Oral History, BDS and feminism, Women and Resistance… there are plenty of interesting and unique ideas in our heads about this subject, because all of us here in one way or another have experienced it in intense ways. We just need to develop these ideas so that others can see, hear or read them and we can make some fairies magic ;)

Writings can be submitted in Arabic, English or French.

Submissions should be sent to tamara@sawtalniswa.com or editor@sawtalniswa.com. Please drop us an email if you’d like to have a conversation about this. Perhaps you have some thoughts as to how we should go about the project, feel something tickling in your gut when you hear about these two issues being patched together and you want to talk about it, questions about submissions etc…

Find the official description of the Palestinian Fairies Project here

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Sawt al' Niswa

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Opinions

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hereandthere/من هنا وهناك

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