She Who Tells A Story

Untitled #2 (2008) - Photograph © Gohar Dashti.

There is a thoughtful, provocative exhibition up at the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) through mid-January - "She Who Tells A Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World." It includes work by a dozen women from the region: Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Gohar Dashti, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Shadi Ghadirian, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar, Shirin Neshat, and Newsha Tavakolian. There is a brief review of the exhibition here at The Economist and another, accompanied by a slide show and including links to many of the photographers' web pages, here at The New York Times.

Dateline Cairo

Egyptian army soldiers assault and arrest a female protester during
clashes in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Saturday. Photograph © Reuters.

This photo is lifted from The New York Times today. Ditching Mubarak for this? Where will the Obama administration be this sort of violence and repression?

You've Heard of Naked Self-Interest? Well, Here are Instances of Naked Solidarity

Self Portrait © Aliaa Magda al-Mahdy

This is an image Aliaa Magda al-Mahdy, a young Egyptian woman living in Cairo, recently posted on her blog. You can find a report here at The New York Times and another here at The Guardian. Unsurprisingly, she has received scant support from any end of the political spectrum in Egypt. Conservatives are pressing charges, liberals are running away fast and far. But she has received solidarity from this group of Israeli women.

Israeli women posing for a photograph in Tel Aviv, to show
solidarity with Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy.
Photograph © REUTERS/Anat Cohen.

And this, apparently is simply one instance of a virtual epidemic of such bare solidarity. In China, authorities have accused Zhao Zhao, an assistant to artist Ai Weiwei, of possessing pornography because he had pictures on his camera of Ai naked with several women. And today, his friends and supporters stripped in support of the artist. You can find reports here and here in The Guardian. And here are, respectively, the offending photo and a sample of the the subsequent expressions of solidarity.

The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei poses with nude women in Beijing.
Photograph © Afp/AFP/Getty Images.

Listen, Chinese Government： Nudity is not Pornography

Thoughts on Political Space

There is a typically provocative piece by Rebecca Solnit here at TomDispatch.com. As she tends to do, Solnit ranges widely, drawing parallels and inferences that may not immediately seem apparent, but that actually coalesce into a persuasive pattern. All in the service of peddling of what she calls 'hope in the dark.' And there is a video here at Al Jazeera about the role of images and new social media in fomenting and sustaining the 'Arab Spring.' The various amateurs interviewed for the video bring to mind the phrase a democracy of images that became the title for the post-9/11 exhibition in lower Manhattan. The phrase travels well.

To their credit, the reporters who constructed the video strive to impress on viewers that the revolution was made by real bodies - courageous and vulnerable - in the streets and not just by images. Indeed, both Solnit and the Al Jazeera video reminds me of what Allan Sekula wrote in the preface to his series of photographs "Waiting for Teargas: White Globe to Black" where he wrote of the WTO protests in Seattle - "something very simple is missed by descriptions of this as a movement founded in cyberspace: the human body asserts itself in the streets against the abstraction of global capital." Solnit forms her essay as a letter to the young vendor Mohammed Bouazizi whose self-immolation ignited the Tunisian revolution and much else by extension. And the videographers have their subjects - the individuals who filmed crucial episodes in the protests in Tunisia and Egypt - acknowledge the heroes in the streets, risking life and limb against the security forces. Yes, images and social media are new tools, but what they depict and disseminate are real agents taking real actions in dangerous situations. So while Sekula's phrasing is oddly passive - "the human body asserts itself" - I think he is on to something about the power of actual embodied protesters asserting themselves and being caught in the act.

This is the basic message I find lacking in this otherwise interesting recent piece by Michael Kimmelman in The New York Times. He is right, of course, about the power of place and especially about the importance of public space to politics. I can hardly dispute that sort of claim given what I've written here in the past. But I think Kimmelman neglects the conflict and contestation involved in how political agents must occupy and act out their freedom in public. The Al Jazeera video depicts just that process.

Retrospective Justice, the "Arab Spring" & the Prospects for Democracy

Political theorist Shlomo Avineri has published this pointed essay at Ha'aretz, comparing the way "justice" is being applied to Mubarak in Cairo and the way things worked in East Europe following the collapse of communism. Needless to say, the trials in Cairo are much the worse for the comparison. And it is interesting to imagine what might happen to the various Israeli officials who have participated in the various oppressive policies against the Palestinians.

"The Revolution Will Not Cure 'the Nubs' . . . "

A piece of street art known as "Tantawi's underwear" mocks
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the ruling transitional
military council.

After the revolution, graphic artist Adham Bakry began stenciling
the face of Safwat El Sherif, a member of Egypt's former ruling party,
behind bars. El Sherif was arrested on corruption charges soon after.
Bakry sees the rise of Cairo's street art as a push back against those
who use the uprising as a marketing tool. Photograph © Adham Bakry.

This evening npr ran this interesting report on the uses of graffiti in post-Spring Cairo. I thought the resistance to the commercialization of the revolution is right on point. No more iconic Che Guevara tee shirts! This follows nicely on this earlier post on the post-Spring street art in Libya & Tunisia.

Assignment Egypt: Analyzing News Photos from the 18 Day Revolution

Cairo, 2011. Photograph © David Degner.

Michael Shaw, who coordinates the terrific photo-analytic blog BagNewsNotes has put together what looks like a terrific virtual event. In addition to Michael, I know two of the participants - David Campbell and Michelle Woodward and they are both terrifically smart and insightful - each worth the price of admission on their own! The "Salon" is next Sunday, March 20th - more details here and here.

Unions ... in Egypt and Wisconsin

What do Cairo and Madison, Wisconsin have in common? There is a simply terrific column by Harold Meyerson in The Washington Post today that draws the parallels. (In case you are not paying much attention to the GOP assault on unions - what's new, right? - here is an update on the Wisconsin situation.)

Can Seeing Democratic Politics in the Cairo Streets CHange Stereotypes in the West?

Antigovernment Protesters that had been sleeping at the edge
of Tahir Square since the beginning of the uprising wave the
victory sign after hearing about the resignation of Mr. Mubarak
(11 February 2011). Photograph © Moises Saman/New York Times.

Men of Middle-Eastern extraction wearing the kaffiyeh celebrating success of pro-democracy protests. How can that be?

Democratic Revolution in Egypt: Thinking With Pictures

Egyptians celebrate in Tahrir Square after President Hosni Mubarak
resigned and handed power to the military, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday,
Feb. 11, 2011. Photograph © Khalil Hamra/AP.

On Twitter, Nevine Zaki circulated an image she says she
photographed Wednesday of Christians protecting Muslims
during prayer. Photograph © Nevine Zaki (3 February 2011).

Before the fall ... anti-Mubarak protesters wave Egyptian
flags at Cairo's Tahrir Square on 10 February 2011.
Photograph © Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images.

A general view shows the crowded Tahrir Square in Cairo on
February 10, 2011. Tens of thousands of Egyptian workers walked
out in mass nationwide strikes to demand wage increases and
show support for the widening revolt against Mubarak's regime.
Photograph © MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images.

So what is it that we learn from events in Egypt? Well, first there is the dissonance that many Americans must feel when watching dark skinned throngs, chanting in Arabic, engaged in protests for - democracy! After all, isn't it the case that we are supposed invariably to be suspicious of Muslims? But here are Muslims partaking in prayer during pro-democracy protests. Second, there is the observation that striking workers were an integral part of political events in Cairo. Strikes? Yikes, there is a notion. Finally, there is the largely - not entirely, but largely - non-violent character of the protests. Peaceful Muslims? How can that be? Islam in intimately related to Terrorism, no? Just wondering.

Follow Up: Oh yeah, I did neglect the obvious. Democracy here is not in voting booths or legislative assembly, but in the streets and the public square.