Sawt al Niswa | صوت النسوة - Nakba

Discrimination, death, injustice and boundaries: May 15, RIP

sara — Sat, 07 May 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Sawtalniswa

Mirna Haydar

The more i get involved the more i know i am limited by boundaries and an invisible power that ties my ambitions to the ground. When i was young, i used to fly in my dreams and i felt the will to make me become the change i wanted to see, act and make and create.

So i got engaged and i acted and the more i did the more i felt the frustration, the disgust, and the abuse of my ambitions. Look at what happened yesterday: Nakba, the return of the Palestinians, the return of Justice, and the return of order in the world. But nothing was returned, instead it returned to where we were: chaos and catastrophes, more injustice. Stones against bullets. Hands against snipers. Unfairness instead of fairness. Voices against the silence on injustice.

What about the ignorance of some religious “leaders” who caused the crowd to rage and therefore die? i am enraged as i write as you are when you read this, but i rage on my responsibility. i hate that the protestors died. i hate that all that was mentioned internationally is that “siyadet israel” was abused and not humans souls.

Not Zeinab Karnib, not the 15 year-old child who wore for the last time the clothes her mother ironed and washed for her. Nothing human in this humanity! Nothing just nothing logical like the words i am trying to use to express my rage and sorrow over these victims. i was programmed to say may their souls rest in peace, where and how i do not know, but i do know that no matter what the costs are, i will continue to rebel and revolt through all means possible, rebelling and revolting against these injustices.

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Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

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hereandthere/من هنا وهناك

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Brainstorming Nakba

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

Jehan Bseiso

At curious four I asked my mother why Superman did not speak the same language I did

She told me that

Our cartoon hero is a little boy forever ten

His hands clasped behind his back, invisible handcuffs

She told me I had to learn another alphabet, another geography,

In the Big Yellow Atlas, for kids, full of pictures

We stenciled in your awkward shape into maps that didn’t even want you

We had to learn your name in their language
They told me I spoke funny.

So I rinsed my accent at school; madraseh instead of madrasa

I read about diaspora and exile and power structures

Without knowing what they meant

So you’re American? On paper

And Jordan? Is what I know

And Gaza? An old wives tale

We are bastard children of hyphens and supplements and sentences that start with

Originally I’m from…

At home,
Baba counted in dead bodies, in ratios, and for breakfast we had

Nostalgia and symbols

We read Kanafani, Darwiche and Said

When we found tongues

We learned to speak from the margins of pages,

From the periphery

Maybe this is Freud’s “oceanic feeling”.

A veritable storehouse in the unconscious

To be from a place and not know the place

There are simpler ways of being in the world, I’m told.

Still I choose Za3tar and Shatta and this awkward Fat7a.

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Story

Category:

palestinian refugees in Lebanon

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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

Publisher:

Sawt al' Niswa

Section:

Opinions

Category:

hereandthere/من هنا وهناك

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