...Or Does It Explode?

M6 Opens Moroccan Parliament Session

Double Jeopardy for TelQuel - Moroccan Courts Strike Again

"...the new strategy of the Moroccan authorities to muzzle the independent press: asphyxiate it financially..."

The Moroccan courts have not relented in their efforts to shut down the country's premier progressive magazine, Tel Quel. [Read background on August's rigged 1,000,000 Dirham defamation judgment against the magazine.] In fact, they just slapped the magazine with an additional 960,000 Dirham fine ($110,000), again in a staged trial.  The magazine that a few months ago dared to publish a cover story on King Muhammad VI's salary now faces nearly $250,000 in defamation fines.

"The wheel spins." "Nothing goes anymore!" [Prison, Banning, Seizure, etc.]

So TelQuel has launched a new petition for you to sign. The last one garnered 10,000 signatures. The struggle continues. For more, click on the link below.

Who Will Censor the Censors?

Saudi columnist Lubna Hussain goes house on the outlandish exploits of the Saudi censors (e.g., disfiguring both Disney characters and female hurdling champions). Then she wonders:

...What qualifies someone to be a censor? Considering that most of the pictures that are deemed unfit for public viewing are of women, surely this department must be manned (no pun intended) by women too? Surprise, surprise! All those in employment are indeed men. So I wonder what devices are used to advertise this position? After all, they can’t just be ordinary men who do the job. There has to be certain criteria pertaining to their personal attributes that must be upheld lest they develop impure tendencies through their line of work.

If the premise is that such a visual onslaught is detrimental to the minds of the ordinary, then what sort of training is a censor given to withstand the blitz of body parts that he is consistently subjected to? I think that it’s high time we re-evaluated the relevance of such practices in the modern world lest we make a mockery of ourselves and what it is that we supposedly represent.

It is indeed fascinating to wonder what minds labor every day in Saudi Arabia to locate all manner of vice in need of censorship. The reality of ridiculous censorship in 2005 may make for macabre humor, but it's also deeply sad. A nation of millions treated like a bunch of toddlers.

A Decision Made 43 Years Ago

The New York Times reports that Bashar Assad is attempting to head off international pressure on his regime by granting citizenship to Syria's Kurds, hundreds of thousands of whom have been denied citizenship:

With the threat of economic sanctions looming over Syria, officials of the governing Baath Party announced Thursday that they would formally reconsider a decision made 43 years ago that stripped hundreds of thousands of Kurds of their citizenship...

The article does not elaborate on this "decision made 43 years ago", so here's a little background. As a wave of pan-Arabism swept the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, the Syrian government decided in 1962 to strip thousands of Kurds of their citizenship. The method: a census supposedly designed to root out "alien infiltrators" from Turkey. If a Kurd could not prove residency in Syria since 1945, he or she lost Syrian citizenship. This fate befell 120,000 Kurds.

Today over 225,000 Kurds in Syria are designated as "foreigners", out of a total Kurdish population of around 1.5 million. The Baath Party launched an official Arabization campaign in 1963 that began to stamp out Kurdish street names, Kurdish publications, and even Kurdish personal names. And young Kurdish journalists have been arrested for coverign peaceful demonstrations.

Most of the effects of this civil rights discrimination are mundane but maddening. See for instance testimony from Syrian Kurds denied citizenship (via the Tharwa Project):

Mr. Housein: we are not allowed to travel abroad. We can’t reserve a room at any hotel unless we ask a special permit from the security department which investigate us, before granting the above permit, about our destination and how long we are going to stay there. At this point, you have to pay some money (as a bribe) in order to take the permit.

So why is Assad making overtures now? Perhaps it is fear that Syria's 1.5 million Kurds might provide the initial grassroots manpower for street protests that could topple the regime. Massive riots last year in Kurdish areas offered a taste of such a scenario. Bashar's gesture may come 43 years too late.

Rub Al-Khali

"The Empty Quarter" - which straddles Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates - photographed from above.

Just Another Saudi Campus Poster

Some months ago, Saudi authorities proposed banning cell phones with cameras. The public outcry was too strong and the measure effectively stalled. But Farah's recent post illustrates why the Saudi regime might have been so afraid. Walking the hallways at her King Saud University (KSU), Farah remarks: "As an ostensible voyeuristic (if you will) Saudi bloggerette, my nifty little camera phone seems to be my absolute best friend, these days." Here's what she snapped:

Qouth Farah:

As far as my knowledge goes, bulletin boards in universities are usually put up for academic purposes. Timetables, grades, notices and scholastic contests are all examples of what one would expect to usually find hung up by the ever so concerned faculty. However, in KSU, this is what you would expect to find. Choose for yourself, it says, with two opposing images of what appears to be the artists' perception of hellfire and paradise (where the women oddly seem to be clad in head-to-toe black. . yikes!) and signs in between pointing to both sides. Below that there are pictures of women, both looking pretty decent to the naked observant eye. But, beware, for the woman on the left is, and allow me to quote "Dolled up" whereas under the one on the right, accompanied by a swoosh of approval by the way, it says "The Muslim woman's hijab."

Just another day on campus at KSU.

UPDATE: The Religious Policeman analyzes the poster's artistic merits.

Rosa Parks: Simple Acts and Simple Demands

Rosa Parks has left us, passing away today at age 92. But her inspiring legacy from a simple act of non-violent protest lives on. Parks after all is famous for the daring act of not getting up on a bus. That's it: not moving. Because she quietly refused to move, the world today mourns her death - nearly 50 years after her mundane move became an extraordinary event.

On December 1, 1955, Parks refused to get up and move to the back of the bus. Her small act of protest got her arrested - and prompted a small group of local African-American labor leaders and clergy to form the "Montgomery Improvement Association" (MIA). The MIA elected as its president a new 27-year-old minister in town (Martin Luther King, Jr.) and issued demands that in retrospect seeem surprisingly modest:
1) Courteous treatment by bus drivers.
2) First-come first-served seating for black back to front.
3) Hiring black drivers on routes through black neighborhoods.

That's it. A simple act of quiet defiance led to basic demands for change. Of course, the white leadership of Montgomery decided to be defiant, arresting the MIA leadership, denying them easy bail, and allowing King's home to be firebombed. A long 12-month showdown and bus boycott finally ended with a much larger accomplishment: the complete desegregation of Montgomery's buslines.

We should resist drawing simplistic parallels from Parks's simple act. But recalling the civil rights showdown she unwittingly ignited reminds us that small moments of protest can sometimes have the greatest impact. And the modest early demands - e.g., not to have to get up, hiring more black busdrivers - reveals how widescale change in 1955 seemed unimaginable.

As we look forward to the future of the Middle East, the possibility of a region transformed with guaranteed rights for people regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation may be hard to fathom. But just maybe some woman in some city will refuse to take it - even for just one moment - and ignite a much larger movement. Such a woman is likely already out there, waiting for the right moment.

P.S. She might start with the cafes in Morocco.

The Domain of the Men

A street-front cafe in Meknes, Morocco. No women sit at the tables. Despite recent changes in the legal status of Moroccan women - who can now, for instance, serve as police officers - the cafe in much of Morocco remains a domain for males.

Happier Times

Lahoud and Assad walk the red carpet in Damascus.

What Went on in this Office?

Defense Minister Turkmani salutes Bashir Assad at his office inside the "People's Palace" on Mount Kassioun overlooking Damascus.