We can buy some of the Armenian nuts you like.

We can sit next to each other on the Sofa.

We can get nervous.

We can allow silence to be so loud.

This is it.

We can turn Valentine into a sacred sin.

Would you break the law with me?

We can wait till we finish our first bottle.

We can forget about your tomorrow and mine.

You can let me start right here and now.

My lips touching yours.

My body longing for yours.

and I cannot believe it.

You’re so beautiful.

You can let me put my arms and legs around you.

Let me kiss you, this hard.

Don’t let go, not yet.

If you’re leaving tomorrow, you’re not leaving me now.

Let me look at you looking at me.

Just keep looking at me.

We can break gays’ weird terminologies.  We can be whoever we want.

Let’s speak our language, women’s language. Resistance.

You could be the woman of my secret dreams.

The Ayrab woman, who knows it all.

Experienced it all:

A different woman in the world.

a queer in the world.

an Ayrab home.

an Ayrab abroad.

My body is striving for your wounds.

Those familiar not so universal wounds.

Let’s make love in this global battlefield.

For Palestine, for Iraq and Afghanistan, for Lebanon and for Golan.

For the blacks, the Latinos and the natives, let’s make love.

Let’s put our guns and rifles aside at this very second

They’re not taking our colored womanhood from us.

Stay inside, and cry with me.

Touch me there, touch me right here.

Your voice, I never told you how much I love your voice.

The voice that speaks. That yells and weeps.

I know you’re not my Valentine.

But could you at least,

and while you’re slowly kissing my mind,

be my Palestine?

another fascinating video from Never Before Campaign

But Katyushas came up with primitive yet creative tactics to survive and protect themselves and their families from the occupiers. They sticked together, and fought back. They tried to survive in a system that does not acknowledge their right to be on their lands, that this land is no longer theirs.

Many Katyushas died as they were fighting the enemy and the system. We call them martyrs.

I found  one of those Katyushas the other night in the street, he is tiny but strong. I brought him home where our bougie cat, Klio, was trying for the past seven days to stick his penis in Katyusha’s ass. Katyushas as fighters, don’t let no bougie or other, to abuse them. Katyusha knew how to fight back and teach bougie cats the difference between a fighter and a conformist. Klio never stopped trying. Katyusha’s battle with the system isn’t over yet, and he knows it’s a long way for liberation, and it won’t be nice.

Katyushas instinctively learned how to resist because only them experienced the oppressive system. and only them know how to defy it.

Katyusha in my house, and I am totally OK with it. hoping another form of Katyusha finds its way to my home soon.

Meet Katyusha

Thanks to @ysalahi, a fellow blogger for suggesting the name Katyusha

Posted in Katyusha, razanisms, resistance ]]> http://razanghazzawi.com/2010/01/16/katyusha-in-my-house/feed/ 5 Anarchist Queer Katyuosha http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/31/kolenalaila-from-a-radical-feminist-to-a-liberal-you-suck/ http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/31/kolenalaila-from-a-radical-feminist-to-a-liberal-you-suck/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:34:35 +0000 Razan http://razanghazzawi.com/?p=1886 ]]>

Source Belief Net

Ever since my “teenage-hood” days, I followed the assumption that befriending writers, filmmakers, sculptures and those who’re interested in arts and revolutionary books are necessarily people with free minds, and hence, are people who won’t disrespect me as a female or the way I chose to live my life. I was not only wrong, I was also simplistic.

Today, large number of these people who used to be my friends have become/are becoming my enemies, for they, as the masses, they begin their sentences with the same line a lot of sexist people do: “A woman should/shouldn’t be/do bla bla bla….”.

First I want to give you examples of how liberal women and men prove to be sexists as they’re trying to be free from “conservative” values. Some of these people consider themselves feminists, progressives, thinkers, and activists, pro women and LGTBQ rights.

7 Reasons Why I hate “Liberals”, “Seculars”" and “Progressives”:

1-A Syrian filmmaker once told me: “you should have sex, no woman should be virgin, you shouldn’t follow your fathers’ rules, you should be free”. These words were addressed to me at the time I was telling him that I don’t want to have sex with you, I cannot be home late, and I cannot see you everyday.

Freedom to this guy is so simple, his revolution consists of doing exactly the opposite of what the society tells you not to. Women are shackled because they cannot have sex, so they’re free once they do. I am shackled and subjected to my father’s rule if I came home by 10:30, and I am free from my father once I come home at 12, 1, 2, 3 AM.

It’s fine with me if that’s his idea of revolution, but it’s not OK with me to dictate me how should I live my life. It is not OK with me to push me and pressure me onto doing what you think is best for me, for I and only I, know what’s best for me, and your job is to shut up and listen.

It is not OK with me to make me feel like I am a slave to men because I chose to not have sex with you. It is not OK to decide for me when is coming home late and when it isn’t when I am the one who’s OK living with such situation. and it’s certainly not OK with me to listen to you telling me how you like women to be: sexually active and partying with you all night.

It’s really easy not be sexist, homophobic, racist or sectarian: you just have to have good ethics. I really believe that. I think a lot of people push themselves into other people’s business, and once they do, it’s clear that their own voice is more important than those they speak of and about. Think of how the media would change if each journalist would stop talking and bullshitting and start listening to indigenous people’s needs and to their own understanding of their reality.

Another example of liberal bullshit is when 2-A Lebanese filmmaker once told me, that when a woman decides to wear the veil she is by doing so offending him and insulting him, that she is hiding her body from him because she assumes he is an animal. He said that women should dress less because that’s when they show their respect and trust to men. He also said that a woman who wears the veil is a stupid woman, or to put it in his exact words: “with no brains”.

Here to be liberal is to be against religion and religious people.
Notice how liberal minds work: to be liberal is not to be a conservative-assuming not having sex, coming home “early” and being religious, are signs of being a conservative. The conservative to liberals is the person who does the expected, the familiar, the known. “Conservatives” are boring, that is.

It’s very important to notice that it is not the “attitude” the liberals have towards people who don’t adopt liberal values that’s problematic and hypocritical, but the “logic” per se, for it’s the condescending liberal logic that’s producing such condescending attitude.

The 3rd example is when my Lebanese ex-boyfriend told me that I should leave my parents and live with him, if I don’t want to live with him that’s OK, but I should leave my parents. Parents are the worse thing ever happened to children. Children become free once they live alone. The same guy told me a year later that I should have sex with my girlfriend because I should experience sex with females. He kept saying for 20 minutes what I should do. I was clear that I wasn’t comfortable with having sex in hotel rooms and during noon. It is really a weird fucked up feeling when you’re put in a situation that you should explain yourself to people. I was practically defending my right not to have sex when I don’t want to. But to some liberals, sex is the taboo you should seek breaking it, just for the heck of it.

4-A Syrian expatriate once told me that I should not accept my father’s rule of being home at 10:30. He said that I am 29 years old now, I should set my own rules and that I should defy my father. He wouldn’t be on this list and on this post if he stopped talking when I said: “I am OK with it”.

5-A gay female foreigner said to me with a surprise : “you get home by 10:30? you don’t stay late at night on the weekends?” Any woman who does not stay out late at night is considered shackled and subjected to masculine rules to these progressive people. How cool are they, how liberated, and how boring and backward of me, for not staying with her till 3 AM in Damascus. You’re free and cool and part of the advanced progressive global community, if you, like them, follow rules set by the advanced progressive countries.

6-An Arab blogger at the Arab bloggers conference asked me how could a woman like me who’s not veiled supports Hamas and Hezballa. He asked me if I am OK with the Islamic state, I said yes I am [since no one really knows what that is, we just know what the modern Islamic state looks like, and I have a problem with modernity not Islam]. It was a surprise for him, that a woman who is not veiled and who drinks alcohol and supportive of freedom of gender difference and gender rights can also be supportive of Islamic resistance. This blogger doesn’t live in the region, so I guess I can understand why he was so surprised. But still, liberal minds just amaze me with their simplicity.

7-Finale example, a guy kissed me on the mouth out of nowhere, I said no, he left. I was pissed at him when he took off so I told him online that not only you had no right to kiss me with no romantic vibes in the air, but you also left and did not respect my wishes nor take the responsibility of your volunteered actions, with which you invaded my personal space. You came to fuck me and left when you couldn’t. He said: “I have the right to kiss you, and you have the right to refuse”.

What can you possibly say to this guy? Men have the right to kiss women, and women, all they can do is accept or decline this romantic action forced on them. Women are not part of that very decision, to be kissed, they’re just part of fulfilling it or not.

This reminds me of the power implemented in sexual intercourse itself, it’s the penis that enters, and the vagina that receives. This sexual mechanism is reflected in men and women’s attitude towards each other in many ways: dating, relationships, marriage..etc. The man enters a woman’s space, a woman accepts or refuses. Same with sexual harassment, which is my reading to this guy’s action above who kissed me uninvited. This idea of the power implemented in sexual intercourse is to be discussed in some other post.

To me, these are examples of sexist, dictator and fascist Liberalism. A person who believes in social traditions and habits does not respect a woman who drinks, who has an active sex life and who stays out late at night. These liberal people above follow the same logic, some don’t not respect women’s choice to wear the veil and belittle their reason when doing so, some do not respect and acknowledge women’s right not to have sex when they choose not to. Some don’t respect women’s right not to defy masculine rules when they choose not to. To them, to liberals, a woman should follow western, I mean “universal” values of being a free woman: wearing less clothes, drinking alcohol, eating pork, having sex and partying all night long on the weekends.

There are really a lot of examples to liberal bullshit, I will write about Arab liberal politics soon, which won’t be nice at all.

فكرة “كلنا ليلى”

انطلقتْ فكرة “كلنا ليلى” عام 2006 بمبادرة مدوِّنة مصرية باسم “لستُ أدري” بالإضافة الى العديد من المدوّنين في العالم العربي. و تتلخص فكرتها في دعوة المدونين العرب إلى التعبير عن آرائهم ومشاهداتهم فيما يتعلق بوضع المرأة العربية بكل حرية وصراحة، خاصة في ظل التأثير المتصاعد للإعلام الجديد على مجتمعاتنا متمثلاً في المدونات. وقد رأينا ذلك الأثر في الأعوام الماضية حيث اهتمت صحف ووسائل إعلامية عدة بالمبادرة منها الجزيرة والبي بي سي وصحيفة المصري اليوم والدستور وغيرهم . هدفنا من هذه الحملة المساهمة في إثراء الحوار حول حياتنا الإجتماعية العربية وما يتخللها من نجاحات أو إخفاقات. ونؤكد أن الفكرة ليست للترويج لثقافة أو قيم بعينها، ولكنها دعوة لنقد ومراجعة سلوكياتنا اليومية برغبة حقيقية في التغيير. ندعوك للمشاركة معنا سواء كنت ممن يعتقدون أن مجتمعاتنا محافظة إلى حدٍّ كبير، وتُعطي الأفضلية للرجل وتقلل من شأن المرأة وحريتها، أو كنت ممن يؤمنون أن مجتمعاتنا منفتحة وأنها أعطت المرأة نصيبها من الحقوق بما يكفي.

“كلنا ليلى” اليوم

فى عامنا هذا تهتم “كلنا ليلى” بالكشف عن قصص التحدي والتغيير والمحاولة عاشتها ليلى. نهتم أن نعرف رحلة نجاح المرأة في بلادنا، مازاد عليها وما غاب وما نطمح أن تكون عليه أحلامها ومساحتها من الواقع.. ومحاولتها لمستقبل أفضل.

كيفية المشاركة:

المشاركة متاحة ومفتوحة للجميع نساءً ورجالاً، وللجميع مطلق الحرية في إبداء الرأي بأي من وسائل التعبير المتاحة: مقال، فكرة، صورة، تصميم، قصة ، أو أي شكل آخر. ويمكنك كذلك أن تختار بين النشر في مدونتك الخاصة أو النشر في المدونة الرئيسية للحملة. ليست هناك أية قيود سواء على الموضوعات أو الأفكار المطروحة، أو اللغة المستخدمة (رغم تفضيلنا للغة العربية لتكون اللغة الرسمية للمبادرة)، كما يمكن للمشاركة أن تكون مكتوبة أو مسموعة أو مرئية. كل ذلك مرحبٌ به ما دام صاحبه مؤمناً به ومسئولاً بشكل شخصي عن الدفاع عن آرائه أمام وجهات النظر المضادة ومستعداً كذلك لتغييرها إن اقتنع بأوجه القصور فيه.

لمزيد من المعلومات زوروا صفحتنا على الفيسبوك: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210415019802&ref=mf

متى وكيف ؟

وفي عامها الرابع ستنطلق المبادرة يوم 24 ديسمبروتستمر أسبوعاً فتنتهي يوم 31 ديسمبر، كما أنها وعلى عكس الأعوام الماضية ستشمل 13 دولة عربية ( مصر وفلسطين المحتلة وسوريا والأردن والمغرب والسودان والجزائر وتونس والسعودية والإمارات ولبنان وليبيا والكويت).

اذا اردت الاستفسار عن المزيد، أرجو أن لا تتردد فى ارسال إقتراحاتك أو أسئلتك على البريد الإلكتروني Razan@kolenalaila.com

نرجو منك أيضا إذا أعجبتك الفكرة أن تدعو أصدقاءك من المدونين والمدونات إلى المشاركة، فقط أعد إرسال الدعوة إليهم وضع البانر المرافق للدعوة فى مدونتك والذي ستجدونه في الأسفل.

مشاركة سوريّة مميزّة:

منظمتين فقط وافقتا على دعم والمشاركة في أسبوع كلنا ليلى, منظمة من مصر (مؤسسة المرأة الجديدة) وأخرى من سوريا (نساء سوريا).

روابط وبانرات:

يمكنكم ايضا زيارة موقعنا: http://kolenalaila.com

متابعتنا على تويتر:http://twitter.com/kolenalaila

بانرات أسبوع كلنا ليلى بالعربية والانكليزية (عليك اختيار اللغة): http://kolenalaila.com/banners

Posted in Human Rights, KolenaLaila, sexism, women rights, women who inspire me, ذكوريّات, سوريون من أجل التغيير, سوريّات, عنصرية القوانين العربية تجاه المرأة, عنصرية الشعوب ضدّ المرأة ]]> http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/25/%d9%83%d9%84%d9%86%d8%a7-%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%89-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b3%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%a7-kolenalaila/feed/ 0 Anarchist Queer KolenaLaila http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-israels-democracy/ http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-israels-democracy/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:18:21 +0000 Razan http://razanghazzawi.com/?p=1878 ]]>

Posted in Israeli apartheid State, Neocolonialism/Colonialism, Occupation, Occupied Palestine, racisms, resistance, Zionisms ]]> http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-israels-democracy/feed/ 7 Anarchist Queer anna+baltzer+palestine+photo http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/11/helem-replies-to-massad-we-are-not-agents-of-the-west/ http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/11/helem-replies-to-massad-we-are-not-agents-of-the-west/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:30:40 +0000 Razan http://razanghazzawi.com/?p=1873 ]]> Ghassan Makarem founding member and current Executive Director of Helem replied to Joseph Massad’s interview conducted with him by Reset Doc website. Here’s an extract of the interview:

The real problem with Massad’s interview is the lies, fabrications, and insinuations of being agents of the West against the people in Helem. This is an opinion we have heard many times from Salafists and chauvinists. The contention that homosexuals are agents of the West, that they are “imposing Western values”, and that they belong to the upper classes was also used by Khomeini before rounding up homosexuals and executing them. It is the same justification given to call for the arrest of HIV positive persons in Egypt and elsewhere and to pass a viciously homophobic law in Uganda.

Read the whole article here.

I don’t. I sincerely don’t. About its men, women, gay or straight people. its submissive or its courageous people. Its prisoners of conscience or its enemies or its leaders. I don’t understand what is it exactly I feel about you. I mean I don’t really hate you, obviously I don’t like you, but why do I follow your news so much? why do I feel excited when my reader mentions your name? like hey, I know this place better than I know any other place on this planet. Like I have the feeling, that because I know a lot about you, I have this illusion that I care about you, or even that we are related. But see, we’re not related. See here at this very point that I just wrote, I wrote so many sentences then I deleted them. Not because I want my sentences to consist with each other and actually make sense to the readers, but rather, I don’t think I am writing what I truly feel. I really don’t know how I feel about this space called Syria.

I mean I am not talking about Syria as a state or as a geographical space, I am talking about people I know from this space, from Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, Layakiya, Rakka, Sueida, Hama, Salamiya and I don’t know what. Are these Syrian people? or they’re sharing somewhat collective images of the same type of communal and state corruption in schools universities, work and societies which they do belong to and hate so much?

I mean fuck, the other day there was a bloggers meeting, we were from different Syrian cities and we fucking share the same feelings, depression, observations, it’s all over Syria, this feeling of being a Syrian is so overwhelming that you can’t really escape not even if you left this shit hole for years.

Don’t get me wrong now, we’re different, we’re not the same, our opinions differ, our readings and interpretations to these realities differ, but do you understand, that we do understand each other perfectly?

I mean, we do. You tell me a story and I nod my head, I understand. I know.

We are so different in opinions, but we fucking have a lot in common, a lot, and I think that’s something, if not everything.

I met amazing inspiring people two days ago, I met my favorite Syrian writer today, Yassin Haj Saleh, I met a nice smart guy today, I related a lot to what they’re saying, but I think I have a serious problem.

I don’t care. I said that out loud today, that I don’t care, someone told me that Razan maybe because you’re Palestinian, I felt so foreign to this word. Palestinian. I mean, my life would be so much easier if I were, but what does that even mean? to be a Palestinian or Syrian? I mean, I think being an Arab makes so much sense than being a Syrian, and being a Palestinian is like a political statement to me than anything else, since really, it’s a phenomenal thing to be a Palestinian, like you’re a Palestinian-in-the-world but not in Palestine.

I don’t care. I gave up long time ago. I can’t care any more. But I don’t want to leave here and live somewhere else. It’s like I want to be stuck in here, I don’t want to move on. Perhaps there is no moving on. Perhaps it’s a dream that will never become true, you moving on.

Oh I would love to dump you, Syria. I don’t want to dump Palestine, but with you, it’s not about wanting or not wanting, I think I can’t.

Even if I did someday, hit the ball.

And it’s not a coincidence, to write this post in English, in Syria, by someone who thinks that her English is not good.

برعاية نائب رئيس الجمهورية العربية السورية، الدكتورة نجاح العطار، تقدم غاليري رفيا يوم الاثنين 26 تشرين الأول 2009 الساعة السادسة والنصف الدكتور عزمي بشارة في محاضرة بعنوان «من هي القدس؟ لماذا القدس؟» بمناسبة «القدس عاصمة للثقافة العربية 2009».

وستفتح هذه المحاضرة معرض «عبر الحدود» وهو معرض للتصوير الضوئي والوسائط المتعددة يشارك به عشرة من الفنانين الفلسطينيين، وهم: عريب طوقان، رنا بشارة، رؤوف حج يحيى، رُلا حلواني، سما الشايبي، سميرة بدران، شريف واكد، طارق الغصين، تيسير بتنيجي، يزن خليل.

المكان حسب ما فهمت, قبال جامعة الحقوق في البرامكة, مبنى جامعة دمشق, صالة رضا سعيد.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information , ANHRI, denounced the court order issued by the Syrian state security supreme court sentencing the young blogger Kareem Arbaji to 3 years of prison for spreading false news that weaken the nation’s spirit according to the article # 286 of the Syrian penal code.

Kareem already spent two years in prison, where he was arrested by military intelligence in June 2007 as he was an administrator of the net forum “Akhawya” (Brotherhood). Karim was detained for two years and three months till the court order was issued yesterday.

Kareem Arbaji was detained before being tried, he received a cruel and disproportionate sentence even if he was convicted. He was tortured during investigations and ill treated for more than two years in prison.

ANHRI requested the Syrian government to immediately release Kareem Arbaji and all prisoners of conscience in Syrian dungeons, to abolish arbitrary detention policy and stop the security interference in judiciary affairs.

ANHRI asserts that the charge against Arbaji is a false one , only used as a pretext to inhibit freedom of expression and repress activists.

ANHRI also urges the Syrian government to eliminate the state security court as it is a stain to the Syrian justice.

http://www.anhri.net/en/reports/2009/pr0914.shtml