miroslaw balka at the tate.

this has nothing to do with anything.

the unilever series---in the tate modern's turbine hall "how it is" until 4-5-10.
it is fair to say, it is holocaust memorial, or genocide.
moved by him walking through auschwitz, near his home in poland. speaking of beckett, and their
unintended similarities.
and feeling very much the stark minimalism, implicit after genocide.
and think of genocides of women. and then also the austerity of the veil, and the feminine,
unattainable. the mystery of darkness, and being a child, and carmelites, therese.
read about the book Rage Against the Veil and wish too to rage against its opposite, of a suicide, and
alienations, and the extremities of existence.
of all the foolhardy ways of youth, revolting at freud, and then revolting at sartre, and reveling in
simone.
the smog is thick upon us in los angeles, clouding our thinking.
i think of the british petroleum gas flares, and the few bits of information that might string us along
until tomorrow.
as a child, i was to keep my arms covered, against sin. and when i wanted a summer sundress, it was a
terrible thing to negotiate the innocence of my shoulders, and at once the immense desecration of form
was enacted in my mind, as women were incapable of priestliness, with a rational beyond my thirteen
years, as though life or bodies bad.
and so quietly i disbelieved, unwilling to argue hopeless causes, equality.
and so with this, from this, in mourning, not enough cloth could shroud me from the world when a
year's isolation, or incarceration held me from the real.
can't have any more words or opinions anymore. existence sheer trauma.
saw cam powell.
he has my genocide art piece on his wall.
he said, when people walk in, it is the first thing they see. they have to stop and look at it, and see the
world differently.
i told him, cam, its like i gave you my pain, and you give us your pain, in music.
i spoke of hangings, and then he spoke of human snakes and recited the new lyrics. i could feel the
words were so close to the sea, where he goes. and then also close to my father, who smithed words
and spoke some.
that silence be the best i could give.
i read karen parker's UN work on compensation for victims of war rape, and wonder, rape is war, upon
women. jugun ianfu. a body of international law supports compensation for sexual crimes. and of the
sexual crimes at abu ghraib, of the torched girl, and within halliburton.
forty lashes for wearing pants.
what money pays.
how it is.
and dylan thomas rage, rage against the dying of the light.
and that i saw my brother, and one returns, and chaos in between. and more now silent as the setting
sun, and the rising sun, and the nowhere and one book, texts for nothing.
i would never hurt women, and i do not even wish to postulate there is such a thing. that's where we
went wrong. treating women as though they were more or less than people, and men the same, as if
there is such a thing.
this project hurts my mind.
napalm--white phosphorus--lambs.
a life sentence of torture in the clarity of too much knowledge.
that women live, by whatever means necessary. humdililah! jugun ianfu.
and what is this heart that is curious beyond the immediate.
deep back into the black pit of ash, or the kerosene.
for doctor darabi, and for her sister. for hirsi.
what is god, beyond death or pain? brutalization? submission? himsa?
that we live to speak, and speech becomes our death, and silence answering all the riddles of himsa.
as i study this and lately, the most recurring feeling i have is of a lamb led to slaughter. i feel the knife
from left to right, of humiliation, bloodletting, and weakness.
some days more than others.
and by pantomiming the feeling, i restore the mind to the actual, in which i am not dead.
before, it was the deadbolt gun to the temple i felt, to numb the pain before slaughter, at a particular
corner of yucca near wilcox, where must have been murder. there were many murders there.
and the lotus heart came and went, and the empty wind heart before it.
i think of the auschwitz drawings of the women sadists, who beat mercilessly their prey. and so
vividly, the telegram to roosavelt flashes before my mind three times a day. the boats wandering.
and that a return to nihilism might extinguish the suffering of compassion.

hijab wiki redux

jilbab--cloaks, in indonesia means hijab, or pre-islamic head coverings
khumur--over necklines
khimar or shayla loose @shoulders
afgan chadri
saudi arabia--more complete coverage
burka -orig in pakistan, salafi adherence

khumar worn under the jilbab

hadith--sayings accepted by sunnis

cover jilbab (cloak)
salafi
hijab--curtain cover veil---defined as covering everything but face and hands in public
veil that which separates man from god
khimar---old word for cloth covering head

mahram--reciprocal condition relating to familial or marriageable status

form allowable escorts when traveling
proxemics
edward t. hall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxemics
social space norms
auras

rada--wetnurse mother
produces kin-tie, changes marriageability
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breastfeeding_fatwa
consanguinity

koran cover except for family, male servants free of needs, children
do not strike feet to call attention to hidden ornaments (heels?)

hygenic---allah makes pure and spotless women who stay at home and pray, and who do not comport
themselves publicly for display as of old

hygenic values and their excesses esp. re:women, ethnos

quite excited to see this

veil predates islam and was a significant social status clue indicating wealth, that a woman need not
work but stay inside, secluded and veiled
re:barthes and women expressing the family wealth---visible sign.

see leila ahmed---harvard divinity school

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leila_Ahmed
so the interruption offerred by the west----then disrupts the civic display of affluence, of which the
female is the sign

cultural relativist flexibility

veils stipulated for mohammed's wives only to preserve their inviolability

627 CE other women take the veil to be like mohammed's wives
see as similar to the convent system

islamic revival increase in wear

turkey, tunisia ban in university and schools
color--tribe
in Iran---young women wear transparent hijabs instead of chadors to protest but keep within laws of
state

rich enough to be idle

islamic emirate--face covered as women's face a source of corruption

iran
afganistan
S.A.

informal non-governmental coersion

in france women wear veils---77% to protect from physical threats

women unable to state true feelings

40 lashes for wearing pants in sudan capital

azar nifisi rage against the veil

writes that even little boys have the feeling it is okay to tell women to wear it
http://books.google.com/books?
id=Wyq3AAAAIAAJ&q=rage+against+the+veil&dq=rage+against+the+veil&ei=do6fS473OI_clQSVj
uyhDw&cd=1

how is this similar to they (M&F) that tell me to wear heels, miniskirt, etc
or who speak of "real woman"

gender trouble
of gender performativity
the objectifying gaze and the heterosexist fashion assumptionhttp://books.google.com/books?
id=gyWuhD3Q3IcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=gender+trouble&ei=AAufS7WfA4PYlQTljOzICQ&cd
=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
hijabization in gaza

speak to another friend from france who must stay anonyme.

spoke of "we cut off some heads" for these freedoms, re the church state situation in france, and
sarkozy contra the veil.

i do not agree so much, as i write down what she says, and think about enculturation, as with my other
friend. and i think how people like to be engaged on intellectual level, and how so rarely are they
asked for this, and how the proposal for interview flatters and gives voice to the repressed cognitive
ability.

she said islamophobia is the new communism, mcarthyism

but that the racisms and colonialisms and human rights violations of the EU exceed USA's. that the EU
taught us what we know.
mentions torture in algeria, 1800'ds indochina,
that europe, or especially france is the reason slavery in the us existed.

then she spoke of greeks informing the roman empire's expression, as analogy.
that ACLU's interest is to protect the veil in protecting war motive---and that restriction is good.
i dont think she will follow my critique, but that is okay. we usually diverge linguistically,
philosophically, but she has a valuable cultural perspective.

i took extra pains to speak audibly on the bus, in hunger for transmission regarding human rights
concerns.

it is hard to me to talk to her, because she reaffirms heterosexist norms, curses about women, ridicules
my friends, and has values that i do not understand.

i flashback to the horrifying night another friend from france told me about marseilles and how is afraid
to live in south france because of the waves of immigration there. he then said, "they look at you
different." i tried to break down the racism and fear within his feelings. for one thing i was concerned
that anyone with such racist observations might articulate them to another being. but overall i felt the
scourge of historical whitewash had obliterated the history of islamic contributions to english common
law, to science and mathematics, and carefully contrived a nouveau french bigotry.
i felt such lack of self-critique painful, and appalling.
the height of arrogance leading to a humillity by process of the ignorance becoming ouvert.

the genetic traces of the waves of immigration, bear no relevance to this wash!!!! unbelievable!

my new friend with the arabic mcdonald's shirt totally gets it too, and encourages my research.
with the archivist at the center for political graphics, i discussed my discomfort with one of the pieces,
which shows an american flag burka.
this double exploitation, and the presumption of a metaphorical significance, and the re-appropriation
of female form again, i find awkward. as the art work speaks by itself, the choice to exhibit it at the
LACE in 2010 is a different matter.
the failure towards women, i feel inheres in the dishonor of making their bodies and dress an arena for
political discussion and war.

regarding: jeanette winterson's written on the body

http://books.google.com/books?
id=IFSx33G25C4C&dq=written+on+the+body&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=8fSeS9v
3GI78sQOt2fidCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage
&q=&f=false
(winterson disavows the googlebooks project)

or the words of the koran written on the body of the women in van gogh's film: submission. interview
with hirsi ali
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,356485,00.html
i must ask adel about this. he will help me.
i cannot tell if publishing it in my rape blog is fair.
see here also recent republishing of international rape law issues from karen parker
http://rapeisneverokay.blogspot.com/

in the images which cast the veil=oppression slant on women, the women/objects of exhibition
are denied privacy or soul and are doubly objectified, presuming the thesis that they are at first, which i
do not presume.
and the cash value of that political signification assumption, as well as the presumption that women's
bodies, and dress and form, are a playground for global idealogues discussions/wars, play into the
relegation of women to the physical realm.
they are not in the politics, they are the objectified circus arena.
to that, i go to karen parker humanitarian law project, and bruce fein, human rights attorneys, looking
for power.

there is little power in a degraded discourse.

i am reminded that the founder of amnesty international disaffiliated, upon internal corruption.
and while the values and data and reports are citable, significant, so too is their use of unfair labor, in
fundraising sweatshops operated by Telefund, Inc.
the irony!!!
cheers to all the unpaid or semi-paid interns in the world!

http://www.humanlaw.org/ humanitarian lawyers

got the scoop on the national lawyers guild LA branch

meets 1st tuesdays
and scoops on tasering at ucla, police brutalityfrom jim lafferty who has a radio show on KPFK for the
lawyers guild---was it thursdays?

on un
human rights commission page
looking for Humanitarian Law Project docs for graphic designer

spoke to center for political graphics archivist joy about digital data for amnesty international posters
found two insights there:
RAWA
http://www.rawa.org/index.php
revolutionary association of women of afganistan,
posters in process of digitization----historical

also
Liberation Graphics
http://www.liberationgraphics.com/home.html

and this now

http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/252.shtml

defunct? anti-klan group's san francisco 1980's activism contra anti-arabic racism
poster

what i read of islamophobia as a part of a larger centuries old anti-semitism----

and then the cashier at whole foods with a tshirt in arabic of mcdonalds golden arches and "i'm loving
it" in arabic.
as i ran my project idea by him quickly, he totally got it, agreed, at the arrogance of the western gaze's
subjective to objective ellision.
photo of the shirt.
he mentioned iran.

look up specific ACLU involvement

for example
http://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/aclu-asks-florida-court-reinstate-suspended-drivers-license-muslim-
woman-forced-remo
Posted by none at 0 comments Links to this post
twitter tehran explosion
the nyt article spring 09 about blog studies of arabic a new field of analysis
look at niqab on social media platforms

public democratized celebrity and public displays of privacy/spirituality

res publica digital
Posted by none at 0 comments Links to this post
also see http://books.google.com/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=7ELBV1vlMLsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=participatory+surveillance+ethnography&ot
s=HZZoH_KxRy&sig=LnW4BhfNN-htvBY0nNySyWM0LOA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
ethnography for the 21st century.
friend jean of france told me of humanitarian aid in africa. regarding islam his view gives nods to
cultural assimilation and state regulations.
the first night i met him i asked him about Justice's Video for the song "Stress" which shows youth
become violent through lack of options and french racism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sbxOlk-Z1E&feature=related
holy roman empire cross iconography. justice, waves of inquisition, cultural obliterations, washes.
the crush at customs.
think of the 2005 riots.
"beaucoup racism en france." i will never forget this. and the beautiful women in a park, and
everything desolate and landlocked, ideologically also.
i found this NEWMAN, Marshall T., and Ransom L. ENG. 1948. “The Ryukyu People. A cultural
appraisal.” Washington, Smithsonian Report for 1947: 379-405 [30 p.]
locked portals again. separating me from my cultural desires, my grandfather!
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110521369/abstract
the best link i can find quickly.
war, empire, anthropology.
cited online, but not digitized. i want to read it. i think my mother has a copy. i think of colonialism
and anthropology. looking at a khoi san study yesterday. and somehow feel very moved by the third
generation today, and feel the relevance of violent reactions as liberation, and how this relates to
women.
the veil hiding modernity from the violence of warcultures. the paradoxical liberation through action,
and in death, extermination of freedoms.
speaking yesterday with the young people at food not bombs helped me think further. thought then of
the jains, ahimsa, and the screened veils which protect the face from swallowing bugs. a spiritual value
expressed in practical application. who is to say it would be understood?
the signifier, lost on its audience.
and of the kids who cover their face against surveillance when they hit protests. the AETA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Enterprise_Terrorism_Act forbidding expressive conduct, and the
humanitarian law project's challenge.
and of the naming game, international naming of faces at uprisings, protests, explained by brilliant
johnathan zittrain in the lecture
and how google pictures hires picture identifiers for micro-cash
and thusly the facial exploitation here, the naming, or the actual naming on the participatory
surveillance platforms, or the surreptitious google earth, of gps, MI5 chipping, gives a certain relevance
to the hidden face.
whether animal rights or eco activist, or spiritual anonyme, the refusal to be seen as protest of
surveillance cultures, has a certain intellectual beauty.
a preservational effect.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/lawab/2010/02/zittrain
watch zittrain here

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Zittrain presents the commercial side of cloud computing in this talk hosted in partner with the Harvard
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Produced 22 Feb 2010