Strolling the Islamsphere

November 07

Right: Pakistan under emergency law (this is a charming expression that essentially means codified autocracy; Egypt has been under emergency law for twenty years), Mubarak jailing police officers for torture and then asking that foreign powers (read: the US) not interfere in the politics of the City Victorious, and bombings targeting politicians in Afghanistan. Here’s how the Islamsphere is covering things:

Aziz has a comprehensive roundup on the unfolding situation in Pakistan.

Taking a more literary view, Muse posts an appropriate poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and laments that she’s chosen to spend the past few months in Cairo and not in Lahore (personally I’m glad, because if she had she’d be in jail right now and we’d have to call in the media calvary).

Ali is setting a land-speed record for typing by writing for Jewcy, his own blog, and new site Pakistanpolitics.net. Simultaneously.

Yahya Birt analyzes the current dialogue about Wahhabism.

This is interesting as well.

Plays and Protests and Such

May 16

Yesterday I went to a play at AUC with a friend, who introduced me to someone who said “You’re the one who’s writing a comic book about Cairo.” That’s always fun. Granted, the English-language lit crowd in the city is not large, but it’s still a nice ego boost when people you don’t know have heard tales of your escapades.

On another note, the wave of strikes by Egyptian factory workers denied fair compensation continues in the Delta. One in particular deserves notice: women at the Kafr al Dawar textile factory have been holding a sit-in for 22 days, and refuse to leave before they are given their promised yearly bonuses and are compensated for the factory’s impending closure. In Egypt, where strikes are more or less illegal and unions are run by the government (let that contradiction sink in for a moment), what these ladies are doing takes tremendous courage. You can find out more about the strike and about how to support the strikers by contacting the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights or The Bussy Project at thebussyproject at yahoo dot com.

In other news, Neil Gaiman has posted some fabulous pictures from the wedding of subcultural luminary Alan Moore.