Cartoons in the Emirates

Hamdoon, a cartoon character, is more and more popular in the Emirates particularly among the locals who use that word as a diminutive for Hamdan, a very common name which also refers to the typically Emirati way of wearing the tarha, the head-scarf.

Supported by official institutions like the Khalifa Fund to Support and Develop Small & Medium Enterprises and the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, Hamdoon, created by Abdullah Mohammad Al Sharhan (عبدالله محمد الشرهان), is another attempt to foster the Emirati (political) identity with popular cartoon characters, popular with the young generation, like (Ajaaj in Dubai a few months ago.

Cartoons are flourishing in the Emirates, but not only for the young. The coming Ramadan should see new episodes of very successful series directed to a family audience, like Shaabiyat al-cartoon (شعبية الكرتون), by Haydar Muhammad (حيدر محمد), or Freej (فريج, for “the district”), a rather unconventional carton created by Mohammed Harib (محمد حارب) whose main characters are four aged ladies commenting the amazing transformations in the Emirates.

From Hamdoon to Freej, via Ajaaj and many others, cartoons are not at all stripped off of some political meaning.

As uasual, more links and details with the original post in French.

Arabîzî : the Romanisation of Arabic

Even if Arabizi means nothing to you, you may use it everyday when you work on your laptop or send messages from your cell-phone. Arabizi is one of the expressions for what is also called ‘arabiyyat al-dardasha, i.e. the more or less phonetic Arabic written with Roman characters in order to use various IT applications when an Arabic keyboard is not available and/or easy to employ.

‘Arabizi – or Aralish, or Franco (for franco-arabe in the Maghreb countries) – is not anymore an absolute necessity in order to communicate in Arabic as it was in the early ‘90s with the very beginning of a widespread Internet but it remains useful at times. Above all, it has become a funny way, now adopted by many young Arabs (and marketed by advertising agencies) to express oneself with the too serious and intimidating written Arabic.

It is worth mentioning that the mere existence of Arabizi gives some credit to those who think that something like a “common Arab culture” still exists! Indeed, Arabizi has appeared and developed itself as an accepted code among all IT Arab users, without any interference of any kind from any official body.

Arabisi may be understood as a new lingua franca (the "lingua franca" was a kind of pidgin, mainly a mixture of Arabic and various Roman languages, which was still in use around the Mediterranean shores at the end of the 19th century). Promoted by the more dynamic and globalised segments of the society, Arabizi is the language of the youth, a language which has absolutely no respect for the older elites and for their command of the (difficult) written Arabic used as a tool for their “symbolic domination”.

Indeed, many (grown-up) people will condemn such a “foolish” attitude toward the Arabic language which is considered to be the core symbol of the Arabic and/or Islamic community. And sometimes they could not be blamed when you watch ads like the one which promotes Maren, one of the tools developed to type Arabic from an English keyboard: it gives the impression that nobody had never typed in Arabic before Microsoft software!

Even more, the ones who are afraid of the spread of these news tools which make easier the shift from the Arabic to the Latin alphabet remember that if the use of the Arabic alphabet in order to transcript other languages like Berber, Persian, Urdu and many others has been historically the rule, in modern times, the first example which comes to mind is, on the contrary, the romanisation of the Turkish language in 1928, shortly after another very symbolic decision by Kamal Atatürk, the abolition of the Califate in 1924.


Links to the some softwares for a “romanised” writing of Arabic to be found in the original post in French.

The Price/Prize of an (Egyptian) Intellectual

Every year, the Egyptian state gives several prizes to its best intellectuals. In a very democratic way, the local intelligentsia is supposed to select itself its nominates according to rituals which do not contribute very much to the surge of new talents although they show the self-proclaimed celebration of some of the more obedient voices to the regime.

A reality that nobody really denies in fact. For instance, the celebrated Egyptian novelist Baha Tahir confessed he did not feel at ease receiving the “Mubarak prize for literature” being at the same time member of the jury.

But everybody does not share Baha Tahir’squalms about the public generous gifts. The literary critic Gaber Asfour for instance, now in charge of the “National initiative for translation” after he has been almost 15 years the General Secretary of the Supreme Council for culture, an official body who, incidentally, gave him that year one of its prizes, of some 200.000 EP (around 30.000 USD).

But Ahmad Higazi, a poet previously mentioned in this blog, has done better: he gave himself, a few months ago, the prize (100.000 EP) he organized as president of the Poetry commission at the same Supreme Council of Culture!

Fortunately enough, not all Egyptian intellectuals are able to accept anything against the regime gifts. We already mentioned how the scandal provoked by Sun’Allah Ibrahim’s public refusal of a distinction given by a state doing nothing for the Palestinian according to him.(And recently, the Egyptian press has spoken of – useless – pressures from Faruk Husny, the Egyptian minister for Culture, against Sonallah’s participation to a Literary festival in the south of France.

As usual, here is the link to the more developed post in French. Illustration : photo by Joshua Stacher/http://www.personal.kent.edu/~jstacher/Photo.html#home

The « Fourth Power » of a Rebel Diva

Some people could be surprised to learn that Mrs Malouma Mind Meidah (المعلومة بنت الميداح), the well-known singer, is also, since 2006, a member of the Mauritanian Parliament.

Elected for an opposition party, Malouma is not afraid to make her own way, in politics as in art. Thus, she does not follow the classical path of the musical traditions she inherited from her family but creates a “contemporary tradition” where the Arab and Berber local maqamat (musical modes) mix with the African rythms.

Her new blues comes from a long tradition where songs – for a celebration as for a protest – have always been a kind of “fourth power” in the Mauritanian society, at least before the coming of the modern media.

If the Arab women seem to gain some political presence in the Arab Peninsula, it must be said that they play a larger political role in Mauritania since the country achieved its independence in 1960. Today, women represent 18% of the members of the Parliament, and one third of the local elected representatives.

Recently, Malouma has had some trouble with the local authorities who seized, as she was back from Senegal were she had them printed, thousands of her CD’s, with some new songs rather critical of the regime. A sign, although she says the contrary, that her protest songs, and politically oriented art in general, has still some influence in a country like Mauritania.

Here the introduction (1'30) of a documentary film (52 min) produced by Al-Jazeera documentary and more links and information, as usual, with the more developed the post in French.

Traduttore, traditore : translation is a treachery…

A few days ago, Mr Farouk Hosny, the Egyptian minister of Culture, announced the forthcoming translation into Arabic of various contemporary Israeli novelists like Amos Oz or David Grossman. Something which has not been done before, according to Gaber Asfour, the well-known literary critic who heads the Supreme Council for Culture because of exclusively legal problems: on one hand, dealing directly with an Israeli publishing house was absolutely impossible, due to the boycott, a motto particularly effective on the cultural scene, and on the other Egypt was not willing to publish such works without an agreement of the publishing house, thus enforcing the international agreements on the copyright.

Finally, a "smart" solution has been founded and the Egyptian will make the deal with… the European publishers of the Israelis writers! But if the novels are to be translated from European languages too, the Arabic versions of the works originally written in Hebrew will be real treacheries!

But it is not the only treachery which is suspected with this initiative, and many people in Egypt and in the Arab world think that the sudden love of the Egyptian official cultural bodies for modern Hebrew literature has something to do with Hosny’s campaign in order to be elected General Director of the Unesco.

Indeed, after a rather offensive “open letter” published in the French daily Le Monde by three well-known (at least in their country) French intellectuals calling President Sarkozy to act against somebody who had said that he was ready to burn Israeli books if they were to be founded in the Egyptian libraries, Farouk Hosny thought he had to give public apologize.

Something which has been understood as one more “positive sign” – or rather concession – made by the Arab candidate in order to facilitate an election, difficult to win in case of an Israeli opposition.

Indeed, the translation of Hebrew novels into Arabic is not the first manifestation of Faruk Hosny’s “good will”. Coming after previous initiatives (see previous post), it has been written in the Arab press that the Egyptian ministry of Culture was hoping very much an Israeli participation at the “Red Sea Festival”.

And now, according to this article published in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar, there are talks about the possibility of an official Israeli participation during the next Cairo book fair, a demand always rejected by the Egyptian since the signature of the Camp David agreements in 1978…

But the next book fair will in February 2010, when the election of the General Director of the Unesco is next October…

As usual, here is the link to the more developed post in French.

Women in the Arab Gulf: a Few Things to be known.

At the political level, changes in the Arab word are not to be expected in the short range, but a look at the social issues gives some reasons to be more optimistic. Even thought violence against women could be even worst than before, according to Madawi El-Rasheed’s contribution in Al-Quds al-‘arabi, such a fact could be explained as a confirmation of the reality of the threat, for some men, of the feminist acts of self-affirmation.

A feminist affirmation which takes at times unexpected paths, as with the Million’s Poet contest, on Abu Dhabi TV, a very successful program run by an woman from the Emirates, Nasha Al Rwaini. In an interview to be founded on Middle-East Online, she explained her surprise when she discovered how the Poet’s Million could pave the way for women empowerment, especially after poetess Al Jahani (photo) successively resisted pressure from her family and tribe (but not her husband!) to resign from the competition.

Regarding the very symbolic question of allowing women to drive in the KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), it has been noticed that a “liberal” shaykh has recently issued a fatwa making the lifting of the ban more possible than ever, and encouraging, in the same declaration, women’s gym (in all-women clubs, of course !). Before, a group of young Saudi women had launched an online campaign called Let her get fat to protest a government decision to shut down gyms.

Foreigners may misunderstand this “Gulf women lib” where a total segregation between sexes (in coffee shops or hotels for instance) may be a way for women to affirm themselves but this “quite” (and soft) revolution should not be underestimated as day-to-day issues, linked to women’s situation, are obviously backed by some elites eager to push for political reforms (on the photo, al-Waleed Ibn Talal supporting, a few months, members of the first feminine Saudi soccer team, from Jeddah!


As usual, here is the link to the more developed post in French.

Arab Women in Politics: a Quite Revolution

Ten years exactly after they got the right to vote, four Kuwaiti ladies win parliamentary seats. Despite the well-spread clichés, the last elections in Kuwait confirm a trend already noticed for instance in Jordan when a lady won in November 2007, for the first time in the country’s history, a parliamentary seat.

In Arab modern history, women’s affirmation traces back to the end of the XIXth century, a political affirmation followed a few decades later by well-known political activists like the Egyptian Hoda Shaarawi or the Syrian Nadhira Zayn al-Din.

Independence has been, in many countries, the golden age for Arab women as their participation to the political life has constantly declined since, partly because this participation has been dictated by regimes which have lost any credibility to people looking for solutions from a Islamic dictated agenda.

But the trend toward the progressive vanishing of women’s participation in Arab politics could reverse as political “modernization” has became a “necessity” in the post 9-11 world, and with a ever-growing number of young educated women aiming at more individual identity and way of life.

In the Gulf states, often caricatured for its backwardness especially regarding women’s lib issues, some positive changes have already taken place as mentioned in a previous post about Saudi Arabia. After sheikha bint Nasser al-Missned, Qatar’s first lady, was named on 2008 Forbes magazine's list of the world's 100 most powerful women in the world, it was Nura Al-Faiz’s turn to appear in Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world, after she had been appointed Saudi Arabia`s first woman minister.


As usual, here is the link to the more developed post in French.