#thawra

[metamatar]

highly highly rec the ongoing series 'thawra' about arab radicalism on the dig podcast. it features palestinian and arab history scholar Abdel Razzaq Takriti. the spotify playlist includes the 13 episodes released so far.

the first episode opens with the changing social forces in the ottoman and european imperialism in the arab mashriq from the late 18th century through the early 20th. scene setting includes understanding notions of modernisation, the relationship between a new intellectual class and the small working class, and the context of palestinian resistance to a late colonisation project and its relationship with algeria.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

According to Arabic language media, a leader in the Iranian-backed Houthi group in Yemen  called for the murder of members of the Jewish community in Yemen or their subjugation. Abd al-Rahman al-Ahnoumi, the editor-in-chief of the official Al-Thawra newspaper, which is controlled by the Houthis, said: "The appropriate and legitimate dealings with the Jews of Yemen is that they either die by the sword or become dhimmis to the state." He also referred to a Jew's criticism of him: "What you expect from them, are the most despicable creatures and the most cursed of people." I couldn't find the original tweet, so it might have been deleted. But the antisemitism of the Shiite Houthis is undeniable - after all, their slogan includes "Curse the Jews." 

[totallyhussein-blog]

#Iraq20: “Where Do You Live?” Artists bridge the gap between the US and Iraq

On March 5 at 12 p.m. Boston Playwrights Theater will be the home for a very special event, Where Do You Live? Creative Dialogue between Iraqi and American Women. 

The afternoon gathering will showcase ongoing work in poetry, theater, and the visual arts from members of Her Story Is, a collective of women based in Iraq and the US that is committed to peaceful dialogue and creative partnerships. 

In addition to presenting collaborations between women of both countries, the event will be dedicated to remembering the 20th anniversary of the March 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq as well as the 16th anniversary of the 2007 bombing of Al-Mutannabi Street, in the cultural district of Baghdad.

[soon-palestine]

’m pleased to tell you that our second Food Aid Kitchen in Omdurman is now up and running. Located in District 4 of Al Thawra opposite the only functioning Children’s hospital remaining in Omdurman. We chose this location primarily because families that need to buy medicines are regularly foregoing food to pay for their children’s treatment. A pregnant woman who came to the kitchen yesterday said this was the only meal she would be having that day. In addition to the needs of those visiting the Children’s hospital the residents of the area have been significantly impacted by the war and hunger and malnutrition are extremely common. In order to sustain the important work of our Kitchen’s we rely on donations. So please give what you can.

[leftistfeminista]

A poster of a female cadre photographed by Christian Freund. Source: Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG).

Women’s Liberation

A striking aspect of the popular revolutionary movement in Dhufar was the PFLOAG’s commitment to the liberation of women, a policy that was adopted at the 1968 Hamrin Conference. The PFLOAG believed that the liberation of women was central to the success of the revolution which would not come about automatically but through a sustained struggle against the “objective backwardness” of society.  1 The Dhufar Revolution was influenced by Maoist thought, including on the equality of female cadres, popularised through Mao’s famous declaration that “women can hold up half the sky”.  2 Women’s political participation in the armed struggle alongside men was deemed an important aspect of equality while specific policies were later implemented in the liberated areas to transform the social position of women, such as the banning of female circumcision, polygyny, and the reduction of the bride price after unsuccessful attempts to abolish it completely.

The PFLOAG’s policies remarkably challenged the “unhappy marriage” between feminism and Marxism, as conceptualised by the Western feminist scholar Heidi Hartmann in 1979 – in other words, the tension between women’s liberation and national liberation. 3 The PFLOAG recognised the double oppression faced by women, both in terms of their position as women in relation to men, and in terms of their position as women in relation to the economic system. Attracted to the PFLOAG’s radical position, the Lebanese filmmaker Heiny Srour travelled to Dhufar in 1971, capturing documentary footage of women fighters later used in her 1974 film The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (Saat El Tahrir Dakkat). 4

I was a defeated feminist in Lebanon. The Lebanese Left was not interested in feminist issues and kept closing the subject under various pretexts, one being that the women will be free when the main enemy, Imperialism, is defeated. […] I couldn’t believe my ears when the representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf opened the subject of women from his own initiative and proudly said that the Front was fighting against women’s oppression — because women were not just oppressed by imperialism and class society, but also by their father, husband, brothers. I dropped my other film projects and put all my energy into making this film.  5”

— Heiny Srour on The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived

The campaigns for, and implementation of, the above mentioned policies came through the initiatives of revolutionary women, the Bahraini cadre Laila Fakhro (Huda Salem) for example pushed the PFLOAG to ban female circumcision and limit the bride price. 6 Laila Fakhro also played an important role in the revolution through political education, teaching, care-work, women’s activities, and the PFLOAG’s media and foreign relations. 7 The PFLOAG’s other main periodical, 9 Yunyu (9 June), was a monthly magazine which preceded Sawt al-Thawra’s founding, set up in June 1970 by Laila Fakhro and Abdel Rahman al-Nuaimi (Said Seif). 8

Sawt al-Thawra promoted women’s political participation in armed struggle, drawing parallels to female fighters such as Vietnamese women and thereby placing the PFLOAG’s revolutionary women in the wider tradition of the revolutionary Third World. The periodical highlighted and documented women’s protest, arrests and mistreatment of women and girls by the British-backed regime, and women’s internationalist activities. Women’s representatives and delegations took part in many regional and international conferences, prior to and after the official establishment of the Omani Women’s Organisation in June 1975, a committee headed by Wafa Yasser.

The first official visit by an Omani women’s delegation, comprising Nadia Khaled and Huda Muhad, took place in July 1975 in a symposium on women’s economic development organised by the Soviet Women’s Committee in Alma-Ata, Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. Following this trip to the Soviet Union, the delegation visited the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the invitation of the Women’s Federation of Vietnam. 9 These encounters were important for producing strong ties of solidarity, the exchange of experiences and ideas, and direct engagement with a major source of their own inspiration, the Vietnamese people’s struggle. Most significantly, these material links demonstrate that Dhufar was not a detached revolution in a little-known and distant part of the Gulf, but one that was globally connected and which importantly placed emphasis on women’s political participation.

[eurevision]

Eurevision category: Taqwacore

Broadly, Taqwacore is punk music with an Islamic bent. After an extra day for submissions (and a broadened category-- now you don't have to just submit taqwacore, rather, any Arab punk), you all came through and posted some great stuff. Thank you. The result is this bloody, messy, fun mix. Vote for which song fights its way out of the mosh pit and onto the stage with the other winners. You have until Saturday night.

The songs:

Jihadi, Jihadi, by Haram

Layla, by The Kominas

Sma3, by Taqbir

There Their They're, by The Muslims

School Revolution, by Voice of Baceprot

Burn the Witch, by Pinkshift

Forced Down Your Throat, by Fearless Iranians from Hell

Anti-Israel, by Troublesome

Twist That Knife, by The Kominas

American Police, by Haram

Aisha Qandisha, by Taqbir

Truth's Eternal Sun, by Al-Thawra

The poll says 'one week,' only because 'three days' is not an option.

[beardeddetectivepaper]

£354,680/£400,000

The War in Sudan has created the World’s largest Humanitarian crisis. According to the World Food Programme 19 million people are facing extreme levels of hunger and very little international humanitarian aid is reaching the country. In Response to this tragic situation in our native country, we have setup the Khartoum Aid Kitchen initiative to feed the hungry in the greater Khartoum area.

Our first Kitchen in Al Hitana Omdurman has been a success. Alleviating hunger in the area by feeding 1,250 of the most needy people daily. The fortified stew we provide with bread is not only intended to provide sustenance but to also be nutritionally balanced.

Since our kitchen in Al Hitana opened we have proceeded to rapidly setup new kitchens across the Khartoum State area. With the hope of being able to feed as many hungry people as possible.

We currently directly run 12 fully fledged Kitchens as well as 5 partner kitchens which we support by covering their rice needs.

Directly run kitchens: Al Hitana Kitchen feeding 1300 people Al Eskan Kitchen feeding 600 people Al Thawra district 4 kitchen feeding 600 people Al Thawra district 10 kitchen feeding 600 Al Thawra district 17 kitchen feeding 600 Al Thawra district 60 Kitchen feeding 600 Al Doroshab Kitchen feeding 600 people Al Nou General Hospital kitchen feeding 600 patients in need and accompanying relatives Al-Saudi Women’s and maternity hospital Kitchen feeding 400 patients and accompanying relatives Al Waha Kitchen 1,000 people Al Thawra district 1 600 people North Bahri Kitchen 500 people Partner kitchens we support: Al Fitehab Kitchen 1,000 people Al Mawrada Kitchen 250 people Al Abassiya East 600 people Al Abbasiya West 600 people Al Haj Yousif 600 people We intend to continue establishing new kitchens in the Khartoum area to feed the hungriest, but in order to do this we kindly ask for your generous donations.

[kissingcullens]

The Dig: Thawra

Thawra (Revolution) 20th Century Arab history series with Abdel Razzaq Takriti- a professor and scholar of Arab and Palestinian Revolutionary movements.

Ep 1: Europe’s Imperial Juggernaut

Ep 2: Birth of Arab Nationalism

Ep 3: The Post-Colonial Arab State System

Ep 4: From the Nakba to Nasser

Ep 5: The Struggle for Syria

[eternallybeirut]

“إلى من لم ت/ييأس: الحبّ مقاومة”

“To he/she whom did not despair: love is resistance”

October 17 (thawra) graffiti from the streets of Beirut

[riseofthecommonwoodpile]

another round down. good round! lotta bangers! i especially recommend Yuta Orisaka's Heisei, hadn't heard much about it besides "people into music from japan speak highly of this" and they are right to, it's simply some of the best popular music instrumentation and arrangement i've heard in years.

Actress- Ghettoville (8.5/10)

Agoraphobic Nosebleed- Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope (6.5/10)

Aice room- Dreamy Planet (7.0/10)

Al-Thawra- Who Benefits from War? (7.0/10)

Ami Yoshida- Tiger Thrush (9.5/10)

Angel Hair- Pregnant With The Senior Class (8.5/10)

Ash-B- Up (8.0/10)

Bed In (ベッド・イン)- RICH (8.5/10)

Burial- Rodent (7.5/10)

Carly Rae Jepsen- Dedicated (8.5/10)

Caspar Brötzmann Massaker- Home (7.5/10)

Chris & Cosey- Exotika (7.0/10)

Cub- Betti-Cola (8.0/10)

Cybotron- Enter (8.0/10)

Emmylou Harris- Pieces of the Sky (7.5/10)

f(x)- Pink Tape (7.5/10)

The Field Mice- Where Did You Learn To Kiss That Way (9.5/10)

G-Schmitt- Garnet (8.0/10)

Galaxie 500- On Fire (9.0/10)

The Gerogerigegege- Tokyo Anal Dynamite (10/10)

Hammerhead- Into the Vortex (8.0/10)

Jan Garbarek Quartet- Afric Pepperbird (8.0/10)

Kilhi+Ice- Le 7e ART (8.5/10)

Killing Joke- Killing Joke (8.5/10)

Lamb of God- Ashes Of The Wake (8.5/10)

The Locust- Plague Soundscapes (7.5/10)

Nicole Dollanganger- Natural Born Losers (8.0/10)

Nina Simone- Wild is the Wind (8.0/10)

osno1- REMIXES 2017 (8.5/10)

PLASTIC GIRL IN CLOSET- A.Y.A. (8.0/10)

Roman Candle- Discount Fireworks (8.5/10)

Rustie- Glass Swords (6.0/10, deleted from library)

Sabbat- Envenom (7.5/10)

Seiko Matsuda- Touch Me Seiko (7.5/10)

Seiko Oomori (大森靖子)- 絶対少女 (Zettai Shōjo) (8.5/10)

Spacemen 3- Playing With Fire (8.0/10)

Trash Talk- Trash Talk (7.0/10)

Watain- Casus Luciferi (6.0/10, deleted from library)

X-Ray Spex- Germ Free Adolescents (9.0/10)

Yuta Orisaka- Heisei (9.5/10)

[alanshemper]

“The war on piracy the 19th century was equivalent to the war on terror, now. It really [was] not about piracy, but it was it was about geopolitics. They used this excuse to basically wage a huge expansion campaign across the Gulf.”

Thawra Ep. 1 – Europe’s Imperial Juggernaut

The Dig Radio, 21 Feb 2024

[totallyhussein-blog]

Who cares for the carers? Now that is the question!

According to Carers UK, there are 5 million unpaid carers across England and Wales. With ONS Census data for Scotland and Northern Ireland, the number of unpaid carers across the UK is said to be higher at 5.7 million.

Between the years 2010-2020, people aged 46-65 were the largest age group to become unpaid carers, with more women than men providing high intensity care at ages when they would expect to still be in paid employment.

So, who cares for the carers?

An interesting question as figures show the number of people applying for nursing courses in the UK has dropped since last year. In 2020, The Manchester Evening News reported how unpaid carers were facing "immense pressure" as a result of the pandemic.

"Forgotten" during the Covid lockdowns, 274,000 people across Greater Manchester are unpaid carers and around 11,440 of these spend more than 50 hours a week on full-time care, while also working full-time jobs.

[soon-palestine]

The occupation targets a group of people near Cairo School on Al-Thawra Street, west of Gaza

[dustedmagazine]

Head of Wantastiquet/Marble Dust — Marble Dust (Wooden Finger)

Head of Wantastiquet is Paul LaBrecque’s long-running synth/electronics project. If you’re familiar with LaBrecque it’s likely because he plays guitar in the hoary psychedelic collective Sunburned Hand of the Man. Here he plays some guitar, too, but the predominant flavor comes from Moog, as well as various types of synth (Blofeld, dreadbox and some software synths, according to LaBrecque). Thus while his main project drones and thunders in rock-adjacent way, this one stutters and percolates with electronic elements. You could dance to a couple of these tracks (“Dabke” “Les Nuits sur la Plage de Jabalia”), though even the hedonist intervals play to the head as well as the body.

This music is almost entirely instrumental, but LaBrecque makes it express a point of view anyway. Arab themes and sounds run through these cuts; the track titles can be linked to protest against genocide in Gaza. “La Guerre Contre Les Enfants” (“the war on children”) layers shimmering textures of synthesized sound over one another, a high, silvery keyboard motif and flute-like tones carrying a mournful melody. The percussion, when it enters, is likely electronic, but it rattles and pings and echoes like hand drums in some 21st century souk. “Thawra” (or revolution in Arabic) folds a panting breath into insistent, paranoiac rhythms; a sense of panic, of chase, of desperate courage, is built in. “Dabke” builds an exuberant, syncopated beat out of cowbells, distorted guitar and synth drums, both space-age synth-dance and traditional celebration locked in dialogue.

These Middle Eastern flavors reflect a long-standing preoccupation for LaBrecque, whose first album Trees, Chants and Hollers dedicated a song to Rachel Corrie. Dead Seas from 2010 included “Mavi Marmara,” a song about a ship carrying aid to Palestine that was attacked by the Israelis. While living in Germany, LaBrecque recorded with Ghazi Barakat, a Palestinian-German who he says, “deepened my knowledge about the history.” This album further explores the nexus of Arab sounds and Arab struggle in the context of existential crisis in Gaza.

The most direct allusion to these themes comes in “Tonight, I Will Be Ressurected with the Wind,” whose precise lattice of synth sounds gives way, about halfway through the track, to the haunting sound of female singing. That’s Omayma Jehouani, artist LaBrecque found on Instagram. There and on Youtube, she has an extensive library of vocal clips but little to no identifying information. Her voice, however, is extraordinary, with a lilt and a wobble in it that suggests both joy and sadness.  

Though anchored in LaBrecque’s values and beliefs, Marble Dust is by no means polemical. These very human concerns infuse its electronic drones and rhythms with an undeniable spiritual resonance. Not all electronic music has soul, but this record does.

Jennifer Kelly