This clip was originally broadcast on Iranian satellite TV (IRINN) in January 2007. I wonder why it is that all Iranian propaganda cartoons look fresh out of the Soviet era? Interesting, nonetheless…
September 26, 2009
Saudi’s ‘pure’ version of YouTube
Naqaa Tube: Should be another branch of social media rather than the only option. Image: LA Times
This summer Saudi Arabia, which has a long history of blocking websites, launched Naqaa Tube, their own ‘clean’ version of YouTube (Naqa meaning pure in Arabic). What’s on it? Anything from the original YouTube which doesn’t offend the authorities. In short, cartoons, religious programmes and songs as well as government speeches.
Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, I’m sure it will appeal to many who are interested in such content and know that they will be able to find it there easily. The problem, however, is that the authorities are flagging and blocking any videos on the original YouTube which they deem to be improper. Criticism of the government, satire, soap operas, films, etc.
While Naqaa Tube uses the basic video-uploading format of YouTube it should aim to be a separate branch of social media rather than a replacement of the original. Isn’t that the point of the internet? That we have choice and options? That we are projected into this global zone where distances between cultures and countries becomes somewhat diminished? That we can criticise, rant and debate about things that we don’t agree with?
September 11, 2009
Raped and beaten for daring to question Ahmadinejad’s election
From The Times:
Ardeshir, an engineering student dressed in jeans and T-shirt, tells his story in a corner of a Tehran park obscured by trees — he no longer trusts telephones or the internet.
He smokes, fidgets, has bags beneath his eyes. Sometimes he cries. At one point he has to break off and return another day. His distress is hardly surprising: he was locked up, beaten and raped multiple times for daring to protest against President Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.
A psychologist said Ardeshir, 19, is depressed and may be suicidal: “He has extreme feelings of self-hatred resulting from a sense that he will never be clean again, and from shame over the repeated rapes.”
A hospital report confirms he suffered anal damage. He has temporarily abandoned his studies temporarily and seeks solace by playing the santur, an Iranian instrument.
Ardeshir said: “When I first participated in the protests I was not demonstrating against the Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] or the Islamic Republic. I was protesting Ahmadinejad’s cheating. But today, I say ‘Death to Khamenei’, and having been raped by his henchmen I also say ‘Death to the Dogs of Khamenei’.”
Ardeshir — not his real name — is one of scores, perhaps hundreds, of detainees who have been raped and tortured by their jailers in the past three months in what appears to be a systematic attempt to break their will.
Mehdi Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidates, accused a regime, which claims to champion Islamic values, of raping opposition supporters.
The regime responded by accusing them of peddling lies to help enemies of Iran and, earlier this week, shut the offices where the opposition was collecting evidence and confiscated documents and CDs, and arrested key employees.
Ardeshir was no political activist but took to the streets on June 20 to protest at the election. He and his friends were attacked by Basij, the Islamic volunteer militia, and separated.
As the violence increased Ardeshir headed to a metro station but was seized by plain-clothed police and thrown into a windowless van containing 14 other bruised and bloodied demonstrators.
They were driven to an apartment building 90 minutes away that was clearly an unofficial detention centre. Ardeshir believes that 60 to 70 detainees were held there.
The new arrivals were ordered to strip to their underwear and stand in lines. Two Basiji “rubbed our genital areas with their batons, calling us ‘scum’ and saying ‘Ah, yes, the balls of the foot soldiers of the heretic Mousavi’,” Ardeshir recalled. “They then promised that we would confess to trying to overthrow the divine regime.”
The next day two Basiji took a 17-year-old schoolboy from the cell that Ardeshir was in. “Ten minutes later we heard him screaming and crying. It then went suddenly silent,” Ardeshir said.
“A couple of minutes later two Basiji grabbed me … I felt faint and wanted to cry when faced with a scene I had never before in my life imagined … The boy, completely naked, was seemingly unconscious on the mat, his face in a pile of vomit and with blood around his rectum.
“A Basiji called Mahmoud said, ‘Take a good look. That will happen to you if you resist, you faggot lover of Mousavi’.
“The Basiji then said: ‘Now you.’ “They threw me on my back on the ground. Mahmoud then urinated on my face, saying that this would teach me not to oppose the divine wishes of the Great Leader of the Revolution. ‘We have been sent to re-educate you, you spoilt Western piece of shit,’ he said.
“They took off my underwear and made me go around on all fours. Then Mahmoud said it was time for my punishment. I was still on all fours when he began to rape me. As he penetrated me I cried out and felt as if I would throw up. He told me that if I didn’t stop screaming he would stick his baton up me.
“When he was done, another Basiji came up and raped me. At this point I felt that I was not me. I seemed to have shut down and separated from my body. All I could think of when it was going to end, andwas why these people who claim to be the most religious in our society can do such things?”
Every other day Basiji would choose detainees from the cell to rape. “The third time they dragged me from the cell, I momentarily escaped their grip and ran to a corner. I screamed, ‘You say you are Muslim. How can you rape and humiliate us in this way?’. They laughed and said they had religious sanction from the Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] to do so because we had gone against his word.
“Three guys then dragged me from the corner. I was shoved against the wall, face first. Two guys spread my legs and once again I was raped by them. I just cried and prayed for God to take my life. After the third man finished Mahmoud said, ‘This is for insubordination. I warned you. I then felt a large object shoved up my rectum. I think I lost consciousness because the next thing I knew I was back in the cell.
“It’s hard to explain what it was like in that cell. All of us were in shock. Those of us who had been raped spoke the least and cried the most.
“They also liked to take several of us out at the same time and forced us to ride each other, doggy-style, whilst naked. They laughed and took pictures with their mobile phones. They would watch this for ten minutes and then proceed to rape.”
Ardeshir spent 23 days in the makeshift prison before his father secured his release on bail with the help of an influential friend. Before he was freed he was taken to meet the commander in the flat above his cell. When the commander ordered him to sign a confession he refused and told him what was happening.
“He asked me why I was once again slandering the Islamic Republic. ‘Nothing illegal is taking place here. Everything that has happened has been religiously sanctioned by the Leader in his battle against you, Mousavi and Karoubi scum. Now sign.’. I again refused. He punched me in the face and then hit me above my eye with his pistol,” Ardeshir said.
After being beaten and raped again by two Basiji Ardeshir finally signed the “confession” which said that opposition leaders and the foreign media had encouraged him to engage in anti-regime activities, and was released.
“He’s a broken boy,” his father told The Times. “I just pray that we can put him back together, although I know he will never be the same gregarious, optimistic, sensitive boy we brought up How could this so-called Islamic regime do this?”
Punishment for disputed vote
June 12 Election heldafter campaign with rallies for Ahmadinejad and Mousavi
June 13 Mousavi calls for vote-counting to stop but the Government says Ahmadinejad won
June 15 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei agrees to investigate as tens of thousands join largest protest since 1979 revolution. Eight killed; 368 detained
June 16 Mass rallies continue
June 19 State television says that more than 450 are detained during clashes in Tehran. At least ten are killed, including Neda Soltan
June 21 Ahmadinejad blames the US and Britain for the protests
August 11 The opposition candidate Mehdi Karoubi says detainees have been systematically raped
August 14 Group of reformist MPs denounce government brutality September 8 Karoubi’s office closed down by the authorities
August 20, 2009
Turkish PM’s spat with schoolboy goes to court
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been accused of assaulting a schoolboy who insulted him. Image: usak-tarim
As reported by Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily, a 13-year-old boy who shouted “May God curse you” at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been charged with the crime of “insulting an official based on his occupation.”
The altercation happened as the prime minister’s car was passing by in the Aegean province of Aydın. The schoolboy, who has not been named, admitted shouting the remark at Erdoğan, with his lawyer claiming that the boy acted out because he blamed the Prime Minister for his father’s bankruptcy.
The lawyer, who has filed a complaint of assault on behalf of the schoolboy, said : “My client was forced into a bus, where the suspect [the prime minister], who perceived what my client said as an insult, asked why he had done so.”
“My client told him he didn’t like him. Meanwhile, the suspect’s hand was on the neck of my client. The suspect then squeezed the soft part of his neck and pushed him away, telling the guards to throw him out.”
August 17, 2009
Israel in a craze over ‘mermaid’ sightings
An Israeli tourist board has offered $1million for proof of the mermaid's existance. Image: Alamy
Sightings of an alleged mermaid off the coast of Kiryat Yam near Haifa have whipped Israeli tourism into a frenzy with one town council offering a $1m (£609,000) reward to anyone who can provide proof of the mermaid’s existance.
Dozens of sightings of the mystery creature, which onlookers claimed looked like a young girl, began months ago.
“Many people are telling us they are sure they’ve seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other,” council spokesman Natti Zilberman told Sky News.
Media reports have claimed that the mermaid has so far only been seen after sunset, when crowds gather hoping to catch a glimpse of it in the waters.
One of the first people to report seeing the creature, Shlomo Cohen, said, “I was with friends when suddenly we saw a woman laying on the sand in a weird way. At first I thought she was just another sunbather, but when we approached she jumped into the water and disappeared. We were all in shock because we saw she had a tail.”
“People say it is half girl, half fish, jumping like a dolphin. It does all kinds of tricks then disappears,” Mr Zilberman said.
Some observers have criticised the tourism board’s offer of reward as a publicity stunt geared towards shifting media attention away from the onslaught of negative publicity which followed the blockade of Gaza last December.
Mr Zilberman, however, maintains that the offer is rather something which the board hopes will boost tourism.
So what is the mystery creature lingering off the shore of Kiryat Yam? Some speculate that it is likely to be a disfigured dolphin or whale, which is plausible considering the amount of pollution generated in Haifa.
July 18, 2009
Heroes or Uncle Sam’s toys?
Don’t you just love a bit of good old fashioned propaganda? Especially if it comes from Iran? Especially if it has a speck of truth to it? Watch this video from an Iranian state television broadcast in February 2007 and decide for yourself…
Are US soldiers in Iraq really serving their country (and might I ask, how?) or are they really just pawns sent off to carry out uncle Sam’s dirty work under the deceitful guise of heroism?
July 14, 2009
Islamic tourism booms in Turkey
Conservatism rises in secular Turkey. Image: The Telegraph
Turkey has long offered Western holiday-makers a unique blend of Eastern culture along with bikinis, beer and all the other Western comforts, however, that could be about to change as the demand for Islamic hotels grows.
Hotlier Serafettin Ulukent who used to cater for boozy lads holidays first realised how lucrative the Muslim market was when he stepped in to rescue 100 conservative Turkish Muslims who had been abandonned by a tour operator.
“The surfers were fun, but these people had real money,” he said.
Ulukent’s hotel perched on the Aegean coast became one of the first in Turkey to cater exclusively for devout Muslims. There is no alcohol, Men and women have seperate bathing areas, and a pastry chef sings the call to prayer five times a day for an extra £60 a month.
There are now hundreds of other hotels offering a similar experience.
Many observers point to the growing demand for Islamic hotels as proof that the country’s secular system – as enforced by the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk – is looking shaky as conservatism and religious observance rises.
Some secularists say that the trend towards religious observance is down to the influence of the ruling AKP party which has Islamist roots – a claim which many refute.
Yusuf Yücel, general manager of Şah-Inn Paradise Hotel, an Islamic hotel, told theTurkish daily, Hurriyet Daily News: “This kind of hotel existed even before the AKP government. Our hotel, for example has been operating for 10 years,”
However, Yücel also added that perhaps there is more confidence and security in today’s political environment, which may positively affect the rise of the alternative tourism.
One of the main differences between Islamic hotels and the more traditional kind is that men and women have segregated beach areas, swimming pools and discos while also providing joint areas for spouses such as beaches where Islamic dress code is observed.
Interestingly, the demand for such hotels also comes from women who are not conservative and do not cover their heads.
Bennu Yetkin, an accountant from Istanbul, holidaying at the Şah-Inn said: “My family and I preferred this hotel, not because we are a conservative family, but because we feel more comfortable here. None of the men watch you wandering around in a mini skirt, or swimming in swimming suit here as it happens in almost all other hotels and on public beaches in Turkey”.
Yetkin also praised the flexibility of Islamic hotels. “When I want to swim in the sea in my bikini, the only thing I have to do is inform the hotel management and they allocate part of the beach for me and people like me. This gives me great comfort, a feeling of security and freedom of movement.”
July 11, 2009
Reporting the Middle East, the story of Marwa El Sherbini
Pregnant Marwa El Sherbini was murdered in front of her 3-year-old son. Image: EPA
When it comes to political journalism anything relating to the Middle East is bound to be both hotly-debated and controversial. Reporting about religion, culture and trying to remain fair and objective when reporting about conflict is not an enviable task.
What is not so understandable, however, is the intent Western media has to limiting reporting on the Middle East so that anything other than suicide bombings, political mishaps and Iran’s threats to Israel doesn’t get a mention.
This was demonstrated perfectly this week with the murder of young Egyptian mother Marwa El Sherbini, a case which has received appallingly little press attention outside of Egypt and Germany despite encompassing so many of the issues commonly covered in the West: racism, Islam in Europe and Freedom of speech, to name but a few.
For those unaware of the event which has sparked outrage across Egypt and Germany, Egyptian El Sherbini, a pregnant mother of one living in Germany, was stabbed to death in a Dresden courtroom by the man she was suing for libel for calling her a terrorist.
After the judge upheld the libel claim, 28-year-old Alex W. stabbed El Sherbini 18 times in front of her three-year-old son. Her husband Elvi Ali Okaz, who ran to save his wife, was then shot by a security guard, who allegedly mistook him for the attacker. Okaz is currently in intensive care.
Apart from coverage in The Guardian there has been very little mention of El Sherbini’s death in the Western press. Many outraged observers point out that if the 32-year-old Egyptian pharmacist had been Jewish or perhaps a Westerner in the Middle East, then the press would have taken a very different approach.
In Egypt however, the murder of El Sherbini who is now known as the hijab martyr, has caused public outrage. Thousands of mourners including leading government figures attended her funeral in her home city of Alexandria and many have lashed out at the Islamophobia which, spectators claim to be dangerously brewing in the West.
Protesters have threatened to picket the German embassy while the Egyptian pharmacists’ syndicate is considering a week-long boycott of German medicines.
While some, such as blogger The Arabist, have claimed that the tragedy, like the Danish cartoon protests, has been a channel for Arabs to voice their resentment at the West, the question of why El Sherbini’s story has been ignored by the Western press remains unanswered.
