Gita Hashemi on Sun, 2 Dec 2001 18:04:02 +0100 (CET) |
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[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> FWD: Letter to the editor about Makhmalbaf's Article |
At 4:47 AM -0800 12/1/01, cisler wrote: >I remember reading that article when it was on www.iranian.com. I thought >it was an interesting one, and I tried to write to the author whose email I >found through Google. I got a message back from aol saying the address had >been blocked, perhaps because of harassing mail against anyone sympathetic >to Afghanistan? Who knows. I don't think that specific article was the reason for his address being blocked. Mr. Makhmalbaf is a very influential man and there are many people who would want to get in touch with him for different reasons. >I read the letter you forwarded, thinking you had written it. When I saw the >name at the end I thought, "Well, I know more now about Makhmalbaf but >nothing about his accuser." Google yields a neuropsychologist in Montreal, >but it might not be the same person. Can you say more? My apologies for not making it clearer. What I meant by not knowing the source was that I didn't know which publication Makhmalbaf's article had appeared in and Mr. Bawani had addressed in his letter. In fact I just found out (and apparently, so did the nettime moderators) that Mr. Makhmalbaf's article which was originally published on iranian.com was republished in the November issue of Monthly Review ( http://www.monthlyreview.org/1101mm.htm ). Mr. Bawani's letter is addressed to this journal too, but as far as I can see it hasn't been published yet. You are correct about Farzad Bawani being a neuropyschologist in Montreal. He has written a number of articles about the Iranian cinema and its reception in the West, but I am yet to get my hands on these. >Also, can you place RAWA in the spectrum of women's groups dealing with the >plight of Afghan women? I imagine they are fighting for representation of >some kind, now that the Taliban are crumbling. Do they have the ear of any >governments? Afghan women are meeting with UN, German Development agency, >and of course my President's wife, Laura Bush. Was RAWA there? I am not an expert in this area and my familiarity with RAWA's history is limited, so mine is not a very informed opinion. Having said that, my reading, based on the little I know, is that RAWA came out of the socialist movements that were pretty strong in the region (which includes Iran, Tajikestan, Torkmenestan , Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, etc.) from very early in the1900s to about mid- to late-1970s. While many (but not all) of the women's organizations started within the socialist left, a large number of them grew apart and walked away when it became clear that the partisan left was not much better than the fundamentalist right when it came to the "woman question." RAWA currently attracts a wide spectrum of women in and out of Afghanistan. In fact, RAWA was fighting to have representation in the recent conference in Bonn, but, in spite of its lobbying the UN, not surprisingly, it did not get in. I know that RAWA has been pretty active in lobbying various international players, so I would not be surprised if they had in fact met with Mrs. Bush. I think the question is this "is there a political will to support independent and indigenous women's rights movements in the region?" And the answer is a clear no. It would be very naive to assume that the West, particularly the U.S., has any benefit in supporting these movements that pose a serious threat to the stability of the oppressive, U.S.-backed regimes in the region. A case in point was Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. So what you call the "plight of Afghan women" is only used strategically to garner public opinion support for the so called "War on Terrorism." The Northern Alliance, that is currently the favourite and supported by the U.S. and its allies, is, essentially, not a whole lot different from the Taliban. In fact, as soon as they took over Kabul, the religious leaders siding with them issued a warning to women to continue observing Islamic codes. Be well. Gita Hashemi _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold