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Nasser David Khalili's exhibition of Islamik art
Unusual Islamic Art Exhibition Opens in Australia By Phil Mercer, VOA, Sydney The biggest exhibition of Islamic art seen in Australia has opened in Sydney. It features 350 rare works from the renowned Khalili Collection. "The Arts Of Islam" features Korans and prayer rugs as well as secular objects, spanning millennia and a range of countries. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.
The 350 pieces include colorful ceramics, lustre-painted glass and finely woven textiles from the 7th century to the early 20th century. The display is about showcasing the imagination and influence that Muslim artists have had through the ages.
They insist there has never been a greater need for Islam's true artistic power and heritage to be shown. Khalili says the art of Islam has helped shape Western culture. "You see the influence (of) Islamic art in every walk of life," Khalili said. "In actual fact, if you open any design book of any other culture in the West, you cannot escape not seeing something Islamic, and this is something that the world is not aware of, and this exhibition is a step toward that direction to tell the world that there is tremendous amount of influence of Islamic culture into the culture of the West." Professor Khalili is a devout Jew and wants his immense collection to promote greater understanding between various cultures and faiths.
He wants the arts to show that different religious groups, for example Muslims and Jews, have far more that unites them than sets them apart from each other. The exhibition takes place at a time when Australia's Muslim population feels increasingly alienated and marginalized from mainstream society. Anti-Muslim feeling has risen since the bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali in October 2002, when 88 Australians were killed in an attack blamed on a radical Islamic group.
Om Rumi
UN commemorates Rumi in collaboration with Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey TEHRAN, Jun.29 (ISNA)-The United Nations, in honor of the 800th birth anniversary of the classic Persian poet and mystic Rumi hosted a commemoration day in cooperation with Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and General Committee president Haya Rashed Al Khalifa were also present at the ceremony. Panel discussion on Rumi's life and works was also a part of the event. Ban KI-moon said the principles of Rumi such as tolerance, understanding, compassion and patience were guide to him and that Rumi led a life based on his philosophy. Also verses by Rumi were read in Persian and English by Iranian representatives at the UN and a Turkish artist perform a special Sama ceremony. Mawlana Jalal-ad-Din Muhammad Rumi known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi was a 13th century Persian Muslim poet, theologian and mystic. Rumi was born in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan, then a city of Greater Khorasan in Persia) and died in Konya (in present-day Turkey). Rumi's importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. Throughout the centuries he has had a significant influence on Persian as well as Urdu and Turkish literatures. His poems are widely read in the Persian speaking countries of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan and have been widely translated into many of the world's languages in various formats. After Rumi's death, his followers founded the Mevlev Order, better known as the "Whirling Dervishes," who believe in performing their
Movie 300: A tale of pure fantasy
Movie 300: A tale of pure fantasy 3/11/07
Being an Iranian and having heard of all the many negative remarks, petitions, and other complaints, I decided to see the movie "300" for myself while fully prepared to be totally offended. But after stomaching two hours of the most gruesome graphic scenes, I walked out feeling sorrier for the Greeks.
The viewer must be forewarned that the movie, although loosely connected to Battle of Thermopylae, an event that took place in 480BC, is entirely based on Frank Miller's fictional comic [1] of the same name and judging from what I saw, it is a faithful rework of that novel . Persian King Xerxes, for example, is not as the bearded figure perched on his throne as depicted on the walls of Persepolis[2], but a bald man with pierced nose and ears wearing jewels and displaying somewhat ambiguous sexuality. The Spartan King Leonidas also closely resembles the character from Miller’s book.
Xerxes on the wall of Persepolis Palace
Xerxes character in Movie “300” and in Miller’s novel
Leonidas character in Movie “300” and in Miller’s novel
Having read the Greek historian Herodotus account of the events at Thermopylae, one can't help but find Miller's version poorly written and very shallow. There is hardly any depth to his portrayal of Greek Spartans as they are reduced to bloodthirsty savages whose only aim in life is to do war and yell "SPARTA" each time they stab a Persian warrior.
This heavily fictionalized film shows the mad Greeks battling wild beasts, giants, and fang toothed men totally degrading one of the key battles in Greco-Persian history. They face not the army of Xerxes described by Herodotus, but that of monstrous beings from some distant Sci-Fi universe.
Historical purists looking for an accurate reenactment of the battle at Thermopylae will be sorely disappointed but fans of Frank Miller’s comic novels and those into graphic and gory video games are in for a treat.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/300-Frank-Miller/dp/1569714029
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerxes_I Kilde: http://www.payvand.com/news/07/mar/1157.html
300, an unethical movie picture
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To: Warner Bros. Pictures Company Sincerely,
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Shirin Neshat For mere information se:
Shirin Neshat was born 1957, Qazvin, Iran. Although she lives and works in New York, the United States, her artwork explores issues of her native society, Iran, especially the position of women. She uses the specifics of her background culture to create works that communicate universal ideas about loss, meaning, and memory.
Læs også: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirin_Neshat
Kurdisk filmKurdisk film -Fra filmen 'Dol'.
Årelange fejder, krejlere, klaverspillere og vodkasælgere. Med livskraft, folklore og sort humor tager Salaam en tur igennem den kurdiske filmhistorie og har danmarkspremiere på to helt nye film.The Herd
Instr.: Yilmaz Güney, Zeki Ökten. Tyrkiet, 1978, 129 min. Engelske undertekster. Det begynder som en højlandswestern og ender som en roadmovie-allegori over det kurdiske folks formålsløse rejsen. To familier beslutter at gøre en ende på en årelang indbyrdes fejde ved at arrangere et bryllup, der kan forene slægterne. Men hustruen Berivan nægter at tale, og gemalen Sirvan tyer til vold i frustration. En form for varme opstår dog mellem dem, da de får til opgave at genne en fåreflok hele vejen til hovedstaden Ankara og undervejs må stå imod fåretyve, patriarker og myndigheder. Cinemateket, 7. marts kl. 21.30 Yol Instr.: Yilmaz Güney, Serif Gören. Frankrig 1982, 113 min. Engelske undertekster. En mageløs film om fem fanger, der bliver givet en uges frihed. Kurdiske Omer ønsker sig blot en rolig tilværelse hjemme i landsbyen, men den er præget af militærets jagt på kurdiske oprørere. Det er så vidt vides første gang, at kurdisk tale og sang optræder i en tyrkisk film. Yilmaz Güney styrede filmoptagelserne fra sin fængselscelle og flygtede siden til Schweiz med filmnegativerne. Filmen vakte megen opmærksomhed i Cannes, hvor den vandt De Gyldne Palmer i 1982. Cinemateket, 9. marts kl. 19.15 Journey to the Sun Instr.: Yesim Ustaoglu. Tyrkiet, Holland, Tyskland, 1999, 104 min. Engelske undertekster. Efter en fodboldsejr redder tyrkiske Mehmet kurderen Berzan fra at få bank, og det bliver starten på et nært venskab. Da Berzan senere dør under en politisk demonstration, tager Mehmet en radikal beslutning. Han bestikker bestyreren af lighuset, stjæler en bil og sætter sig for at fragte vennen hele vejen tilbage til hans elskede hjemegn. ’Journey to the Sun’ er et mesterligt eksempel på, hvor godt social indignation og poetisk filmkunst kan gå hånd i hånd. Eksempelvis fungerer Mehmets job med at finde lækager på vandrør under Istanbuls asfalt også som symbol på samfundets usynlige, blødende sår. Cinemateket, 9. marts kl. 16.45 The Photograph Instr.: Kazim Öz. Tyrkiet, 2001, 66 min. Engelske undertekster. ’The Photograph’ er stilfærdigt fortalt, men visuelt bjergtagende. Vi følger to unge mænd, en kurder og en etnisk tyrker, som på en busrejse gennem landet bliver gode venner. Undervejs kan de på tv følge den officielt ikkeeksisterende borgerkrig mellem tyrkisk militær og kurdiske guerillamilitser. I stedet for at fokusere på forskellene mellem de to parter stiller den kurdiske instruktør Kazim Öz skarpt på de to rejsendes identiske reaktioner: målløshed og afmagt. Cinemateket, 7. marts kl. 16.45 Beyond Our Dreams Instr.: Hiner Saleem. Frankrig, Armenien, Italien, 2000, 100 min. Engelske undertekster. Hiner Saleems første roadmovie er en flugthistorie gennem mange lande – fortalt med lige dele eventyrlighed og harsk realisme. Kæresteparret Dolovan og Zara er kurdere på jagt efter sikker grund under fødderne. Paris er målet, men først går den absurde færd ind i Armenien og en forfalden version af Vinterpaladset, hvor en kurdisk ’tsar’ regerer. Zara havner ad vildveje i Ukraine, mens Dolovan tager sig af en lille kurdisk pige, hvis far er blevet arresteret af de italienske myndigheder. Cinemateket, 2. marts kl. 21.30 Vodka Lemon Instr.: Hiner Saleem. Armenien, Frankrig, Italien, Schweiz, 2003, 84 min. Danske undertekster »Hvorfor hedder det Vodka Lemon, når det smager af mandler?«. »Sådan er det i Armenien«. Hiner Saleems film har nok vakt lige så lidt glæde hos det armenske turistråd, som ’Borat’ gjorde i det kasakhstanske. Filmen skildrer et kurdisk lokalsamfund af krejlere, klaverspillere og vodkaforhandlere. Deres kollektive forhåbninger er knyttet til byens stolte søn Hamo, som er flyttet til Paris. Med sine skæve replikskifter og endnu skævere eksistenser er ’Vodka Lemon’ det tætteste, man kommer en Aki Kaurismäki-film på kurdisk – en film gennemstrømmet af ømhed, varme og surrealistiske billeder. Cinemateket, 4. marts kl. 21.30 Dol Instr.: Hiner Saleem. Frankrig, Irak, 2007, 90 min. Engelske undertekster. Det er ikke uden stolthed, at vi kan vise Hiner Saleems seneste opus mindre end to måneder efter dens internationale premiere. Filmen følger Azad, en tyrkisk kurder, der på selve sin bryllupsdag sårer en soldat og må tage flugten gennem både iransk og irakisk territorium. ’Dol’ tager sin begyndelse i landsbyen Balliova (’Honningdalen’), hvor et stort tyrkisk flag er indgraveret i bjergsiden. »Lykkelig er den, der kan kalde sig tyrkisk«, lyder underteksten. Nede i dalen kigger en ko på flaget og dør af skam. Og så kan den rigtige historie begynde. Cinemateket, 1. marts kl. 19.00 og 9. marts kl. 21.45 Blackboards Instr.: Samira Makhmalbaf. Iran, Italien, Japan, 2000, 85 min. Danske undertekster. Med sin anden film blev 20-årige Samira Makhmalbaf Cannes-festivalens yngste prisvinder nogensinde. En flok arbejdsløse skolelærere vandrer rundt i bjergene i iransk Kurdistan med hver deres store tavle spændt på ryggen. Alle leder de efter en landsby at undervise i, men både børn og gamle er mere interesserede i at holde øje med grænsesoldater. Til gengæld kan tavlerne tjene som både skjolde, bårer og bærbare skillevægge. ’Blackbords’ er en blanding af etnografisk studium og en poetisk fabel over livet i Kurdistan. Cinemateket, 2. marts kl. 16.30 De berusede hestes tid Instr.: Bahman Ghobadi. Iran, 2000, 80 min. Danske undertekster. Bahman Ghobadi tog debutantprisen ved Cannes-festivalen i 2000 med dette komplet overbevisende værk. Filmen følger 14-årige Ayoub, hvis ene bror, Madi, er krøbling og dværg og har hårdt brug for medicin. Derfor må Ayoub arbejde som smugler på grænsen mellem Iran og Irak – et job så barskt, at muldyrene må drikkes fulde i raki for at kunne klare kulden. Filmens helt store force er autenticiteten i skuespillet. Ghobadi får det mest fantastiske ud af sine medvirkende, der alle er non-actors fra den egn, hvor filmen udspiller sig. Cinemateket, 8. marts kl. 16.45 Skildpadder kan flyve Instr.: Bahman Ghobadi. Iran, Irak, Frankrig, 2004, 98 min. Danske undertekster. Vi er i en kurdisk flygtningelejr i dagene op til den amerikanske invasion af Irak. Midt i en flok af forældreløse børn finder vi drengen Satellite. Han kan en smule engelsk og er den eneste, der kan oversætte de få tv-signaler, der når lejren. Globaliseringen og Bush ventes med spænding, men som altid ligger Ghobadis hjerte i det lokale: hos de kurdiske børn, der opretholder en form for uskyld, mens de leger mellem udrangerede kampvogne og bjerge af granathylstre. Filmen har bl.a. vundet publikumsprisen på NatFilm Festivalen i 2005. Cinemateket, 2. marts kl. 19.15 og 6. marts kl. 16.45 Half Moon – forpremiere Instr.: Bahman Ghobadi. Iran, Irak, Frankrig, Østrig, 2006, 114 min. Danske undertekster. Iransk-bosatte Mamo, en af de mest elskede kurdiske musikere, får lov til at lave sin første koncert i irakisk Kurdistan i 35 år. Den vindtørre ældre mand går på med krum hals, genner sine 10 meget forskellige musikersønner ind i en orange bus for at finde en sangerinde. Det er dog lettere sagt end gjort i et Iran, hvor det er forbudt kvinder at synge. ’Half Moon’s blanding af gakkethed, smerte og smukke drømmesekvenser resulterede i hele tre statuetter ved sidste års filmfestival i San Sebastián – herunder prisen for bedste film. Cinemateket, 1. marts kl. 21.45 og 7. marts kl. 19.00 iBYEN.dk
Fakta om Kurdisk film
Kurderne har, som ethvert andet folk, der har haft det hårdt, vænnet sig til at se det morsomme og det absurde i det tragiske. Denne sans for humor har lært os at overleve«. Ordene kommer fra irakisk-kurdiske Hiner Saleem, der selv står bag nogle af de mest galgenhumoristiske værker i filmhistorien. Film spækket med fattigfolk og flygtninge i krydsfeltet mellem Iran, Irak, Tyrkiet og Syrien – men også historier med ømhed og ilter vitalitet. I samme skæve spor finder man det i øjeblikket varmeste navn inden for kurdisk film, iraneren Bahman Ghobadi. Blandt hans foretrukne figurer finder man krejlere, smuglere og utrættelige musikanter i motorcykler med sidevogn. Spoler man lidt tilbage i den kurdiske films historie, til 1970’erne, er den tyrkiske kurder Yilmaz Güney det helt store fyrtårn. På grund af sit politiske engagement havnede han i fængsel ikke mindre end tre gange, men den kurdiske trodsighed fornægtede sig ikke. Güney dirigerede faktisk sine bedste film bag tremmerne – deriblandt Cannes-vinderen ’Yol’. Filmserien arrangeres i samarbejde med Cinemateket. Salaam DK Flerkulturel Filmfestival København 2007 Salaam DK Flerkulturel Filmfestival København 2007
Salaam DK er tilbage med flerkulturelle film, oplæg, seminarer og events 27. feb - 9. marts 2007 med både et skoleprogram og et hovedprogram.
Skoleprogrammet er allerede klar med film og oplæg om: Festivalprogrammet er snart klar med film og events om: EVENTS KØBENHAVN 2007
Startskud på festivalen - prisoverrækkelse og visning af filmen Offside
Film og debat Er musik halal eller haram? - om musik, ytringsfrihed og islam Den arrangerede kærlighed - om arrangerede ægteskaber Virkelighed eller iscenesættelse? - debat og film om asylsøgere i Danmark
The Streets of Copenhagen - om salg af kvinder til prostitution Film og workshop
Salaam for familien - om børns leg rundt om i verden
Se filmene og mød instruktørerne I det inderste - stærke film fra lovende, nye navne Mit Danmark - kompilationsfilm om arabiske danskere Hverdagens paranoia - om terror og angsten for det uventede Seminar Humor i Mellemøsten - med bl.a. Flemming Jensen og Omar Marzouk Master Class Michel Ocelot - hans nyeste animationsfilm Azur og Asmar ÅBNING
Empire Bio, 27. februar kl. 17.30. Pris: 70 kr. inkl. en forfriskning.
Prisoverrækkelse og Danmarkspremiere på Offside Ved åbningen af årets festival vises den prisbelønnede iranske film Offside. En satirisk og skarp komedie, der til dels handler om fodbold, men nok så meget illustrerer den kamp, som kvinderne kæmper for deres rettigheder i ayatollahernes Iran. Resten læs her: FILM KØBENHAVN 2007
Årets festivalprogram byder på film, debat og seminarer. En liste over filmvisningerne står nedenfor. Se også under 'EVENTS' til venstre, samt listen over filmene på vores skoleprogram.
Azur og Asmar Underskønt animeret arabisk eventyr http://www.salaam.dk/index.asp?g=308 FILM PÅ SKOLEPROGRAMMET
Indskoling Mellemtrin 1 Mellemtrin 2 Ungdom OPLÆGSHOLDER SAALAM DK
Indskoling Deodato Siquir - musiker fra Mozambique Gunvor Bjerre - børnefilmskonsulent kendt fra DR Helle Janke Hansen - fortæller eventyr fra Afrika Moussa Diallo - dansk-malinesisk musiker Sussie og Malthe Weinolt - berejst instruktør og søn
Mellemtrin 1 Mellemtrin 2 Ungdom http://www.salaam.dk/index.asp?g=302
Seven Iranian Writers Receive Hellman/Hammett GrantsIran: Writers Struggle to Uphold Freedom of ExpressionSeven Iranian Writers Receive Hellman/Hammett Grants(New York, February 6, 2007) – Human Rights Watch announced today that seven Iranians are among the 45 writers from 22 countries who are receiving the prestigious Hellman/Hammett prize, an award that recognizes writers globally who have been victims of political persecution.
AFHR Human Rights Art GalleryAFHR Human Rights Art Gallery The opening of the two day human rights event in New York, NY began with a spectacular art exhibition in Soho at the Westwood Gallery where 26 artists exhibited their art on Human Rights.
Shown below are some of the gifted artists' work and portions of their essay on that work as it relates to a specific human right or rights. These and more were displayed at the opening night reception and Art Exhibition on Human Rights.
Pomm Hepner
"We Believe in Peace"
Article 30
We have a right to a fair and free world where we can enjoy and protect our rights at home and anywhere in the world. The sky is free to all, covering us all, and the flags represent the community of nations encompassing our international and national identities.
The sea touches us and is a bridge between the individual and the global community.
The children are the future and are envisioning all countries enjoying these rights while maintaining their own points of view.
Michael Doven
"FREEDOM"
Article 30
For me, there is no Human Right that is not represented in this photo. The hope, dream, and fulfillment for some of any and all of the Human Rights exist in the symbols of the Liberty Statue, the torch, a new land based on those precepts, a river and a boat that can lead you there.
The towers, once on the on the horizon and no longer there represent the part of this that is fragile and vulnerable to discrimination and the abuses of all Human Rights that can occur from lack of knowing or practicing them.
Jim Meskimen
"Wind In Iraq"
Article 3
This piece was first exhibited at the Johnson Art Collection Gallery in Los Angeles in 2004 in a show called Light, Rhythm and Beingness.
This image was drawn in charcoal from a photograph taken a day after the start of the invasion of Iraq by Coalition forces. In war, human rights are suspended, no matter how "careful" or "surgical" the combat is designed to be. Innocent people are continually at risk in modern war, and Human Right #3, The Right to Life, is one that gets trampled first.
I believe that when artists remind the public about the devastating effect of war on human rights, they are imparting a lasting and important message.
To strive for a world without war is one of the most noble causes I can imagine, and the most vital.
Debbie Arambula
"Kiss of Peace~ Goddess Series"
Articles 28 & 29
As an artist and mother of three I see the rapid decrease of human rights. Each of us holds the right to breathe life into a free and fair world. In our hands lies the right to our responsibilities for protecting our children, world unity and peace.
Inspired by the political, yet spiritual voice of the pre-raphaelite sister hood of artists in the late 1800's and in light of the current world events the original piece was inspired by September 11. How appropriate that this butterfly will be released in New York. My Kiss of Peace is a simple message of hope & peace in dedication to the United Nations for Human Rights.
*Original work is 8' x 4' Reverse-painted Glass Painting on Plexiglas*
Randy South
"Trick Cyclist"
Article 5
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The world is in darkness. Torture, degrading treatment and punishment are widespread; used by pseudo-scientists through authoritarian means at the behest of international drug companies and suppressive governments degrade, enslave and diminish the spiritual awareness of man.
Their goal CONTROL.
Their motivation WEALTH.
The only choice is to enlighten every man, woman and child of Earth that they have the human right to be free.
Gay Ribisi "Head Above Water "
Article 30
The fact that human beings actually have rights is a concept about which not too many people are aware. And even if they are remotely aware of them… they seem to have forgotten how important they are…these rights.
This piece, to me, represents the struggle that mankind endures by not knowing about and not insisting upon his rights as a human being. When one begins to learn about these rights and begins to pursue them, it gives him the strength to hold his head above water. And when he has insisted upon and has been granted these rights…he will have the strength and hope to reach for and conquer his own goals…which, of course, he has the innate right to do always.
I truly believe in making people more aware of their rights as a human being.
Dave Tourje
"SCORCH (the red hot minute)"
Article 28
The subject figure in this work can be seen running with a star, having somehow snatched it from the "sky" - the figure himself engulfed in flames. It abstractly speaks to the seizure of a moment, in otherwise intense circumstances - of taking opportunity in reaching for something impossible and valuable, regardless of risk.
In order to even allow for this possibility, one needs the basic underpinning and environment of FREEDOM - freedom of expression, of choice, of thought. Freedom to reach for ANYTHING.
Kasia Pawluskiewicz
"Little Birds on a Big Wire"
These points are in relation to the following articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 12
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such
interference or attacks.
Jule Rotenberg
"Giselle"
Article 3
The right to life means having the freedom to exist without suppression. My sculpture, "Giselle," embodies this tenet exuding the unbridled energy to move and express oneself without constraint; to dance. But this right can be tenuous. "Giselle's" dance exists for only a fleeting moment, sustained by physical strength and personal will. As for the right to life, only the strength of our integrity and our willingness to fight for freedom while granting freedom for others can guarantee that.
Laury Dizengremel
"Helping Hand"
Article 29
"Helping Hand", by award-winning sculptor Laury Dizengremel, exemplifies the duty mankind has to help those in need. People who are physically or mentally ill have the same rights as those who are able-bodied. All too often, these rights are swept aside...
With my art (small-scale or monumental) I try to impact viewers and communicate a message. Here, a strong hand calls an absent-minded person back to reality and offers real, effective help.
Ron Anderson
"Escape From Suppression"
Kathy Jakobsen
"Woody Guthrie Grand Canyon"
Article 19
Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) lived during the hard times of the Depression and The Dust Bowl. After studying his life I was very impressed with his unquenchable spirit and creativity and how he used it to help others. To quote his daughter Nora (from the children's book This Land is Your Land, "Woody started writing songs about the migrants - their hard luck and courage....He sang for factory workers trying to get better working conditions and higher pay....He always spoke out for people of all colors and races, especially the poor... "
To quote Woody, "Stick up for what you know is right...This land was made for you and me."
http://www.artistsforhumanrights.org/test/artistexhibitny06.htm Glimt af det gamle Persien.
Glimt af det gamle Persien. Af Agnete Læssøe. 32 sider, 14 x 21 cm. Pris kr 65,00. [Udgivet 2/12 2006] Denne udgivelse indeholder skildringer af sider af det persiske samfund i slutningen af det 19. århundrede. UDDRAG AF INDHOLD: Teheran. Det persiske bad. Besøg i et persisk harem. Vand. Silkestoffer og tæppevævning. Postsystemet. Begravelsesceremonier. Religiøse fester. Hjemrejse. http://www.fagboginfo.dk/Genseks/genseksh.htm UDGIVER: Promoting Literature of Developing Countries Promoting Literature of Developing Countries
Discovering Future Nobel Prize-Winners
For almost 25 years the Society for the Promotion of African, Asian and Latin American Literature has been campaigning as a mediator between the literary works of "Third World" countries and German-speaking publishers and readers. A portrait by Nadja Encke  Peter Ripken, the society's director | The tools it employs in the society's campaign include a programme of grants for translations, a magazine and various advisory and promotional activities. "It's our job to discover future Nobel prize-winners," says Peter Ripken, the society's director with a laugh. That's only meant as a joke of course, he adds. And yet, there is a grain of truth in what he says for the list of writers that were discovered by the society for the German-speaking public, and later went on to win important literary prizes, is now quite long. In 1985, for example, the society started its grants for translations programme with the Egyptian Nagib Machfus, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. The Moroccan Tahar Ben Jelloun, who was recommended for translation by the society in 1986, received the renowned Prix Goncourt in 1987. The Algerian Assia Djebar, another of the Society's "protégés", was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in the year 2000. Greater interest in southern culture The society was founded in 1980 by publishers, translators and members of the Evangelical Church in Germany. At the time, black Africa was the focus of the Frankfurt Book Fair and once again clearly demonstrated how underdeveloped the German book market was with regard to literature from the southern hemisphere. In the end, there were three good reasons for founding a society to promote this literature, remembers Peter Ripken. First, the Frankfurt Book Fair expressed the need for a competent partner to give it advice on selecting "Third World" literature. Second, translators had until then repeatedly come away from publishers with their noses bloodied if they suggested a book by a totally unknown author. There was no neutral body to give background information and assessments on southern authors and their works. The third reason came from the Evangelical Church, which called upon the north to show a greater interest in southern culture. Removing prejudices "Dialogue through Literature" is the society's motto because literature opens the door to unknown worlds; it gives readers an opportunity to learn about foreign cultures and societies as well as an insight into other ways of thinking. Literature can help overcome prejudices and stereotyped views, and break down the mistrust and rejection shown towards foreigners. The society is involved in a wide variety of activities. Since 1983, it has published LiteraturNachrichten, a quarterly magazine providing information on literature outside Europe with reviews, interviews, portraits of the authors and extracts. In 1984, it set up a programme of grants for translations, which is funded by the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia and provides subsidies for around 20 translations per year. In 1985, it founded the Book Club with a Difference, which in cooperation with publishers regularly provides its members with a selection of new publications. Wide range of advisory and promotional activities The society also provides publishing houses with a steady stream of information on literary developments and trends in the three continents it supports, and recommends interesting works for translation. In cooperation with bookshops, it organizes readings and reading tours. Once a year, in conjunction with the Evangelical Academy, it holds an international conference in Iserlohn on a specific country and its authors. And at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the society is the organizer of the International Centre, a forum for literary meetings and debates. Broaden your horizons When does the society start to get involved in a region? "When we notice adverse developments or deficits in the way it is being perceived," replies Peter Ripken. The Caribbean is one such region, for example. The society began its work with Africa – and has maintained its involvement with this continent until the present day. Peter Ripken knows that our heads are still full of subtle and obvious prejudices that have to be combated. At the end of the 1990s, the society took on this task with various campaigns not only for the adult reading public ("Afrikanissimo") but also for children ("Guck mal übern Tellerrand" (Broaden Your Horizons) and their teachers, who were provided with appropriate teaching materials. One of the society's members of staff is now focusing her attention on training teachers because of the many gaps that were discovered in their knowledge. The most recent main topic of interest is the Arabic world, which – at the society's suggestion - also was the guest of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. Nadja Encke Translation from German: Mary Boyd © Goethe Institute 2004 http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-127/i.html Naguib Mahfouz's "Children of the Alley" and Almost Half a Century of Self-Censorshi Naguib Mahfouz's "Children of the Alley"
Almost Half a Century of Self-Censorshi
The 1959 novel Children of the Alley by Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz has appeared for the first time in Egypt, but with a preface by the moderate Islamist Kamal Abulmagd. Ahmad Faruk reports on this controversial edition  After over forty years, the book Children of the Alley is finally published in Egypt. What happened to the freedom of expression, critics ask with concern | When Naguib Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1988, the Swedish academy expressly referred to the novel Children of the Alley. But this still did not permit Mahfouz to publish his novel in Egypt. He felt compelled to abide by the promise he made thirty years ago to the Egyptian president at the time, Gamal Abdal Nasser. Children of the Alley appeared in 1959 as a serial novel in the state newspaper Al Ahram. The novel offended religious scholars and political personalities at the time. In the book, Naguib Mahfouz addressed the same subjects as in his earlier works, from the life of the average little man in Cairo to the big questions of human existence. The story grapples with salvific history. The main characters can be interpreted as the prophets Adam, Moses or Muhammad. Agreement with the president Prominent religious scholars at the Al Azhar University wrote internal reports condemning the novel, and these reports are still referred to today by the highest religious authority in Egypt. But associates of then-President Abdal Nasser also denounced the book at the time. They interpreted the main figures not as prophets but as representing the president himself and the members of his Revolutionary Command Council. Gamal Abdal Nasser made an agreement with Mahfouz at the time, according to which the novel could only be published in Egypt if the Al Azhar University gave its permission and if a preface by a religious authority were appended. Thereafter, Children of the Alley could only be found at bookstores and newsstands as a pirated copy from the Lebanese publisher Dar Al Adab. Mahfouz continued to respect the agreement with Abdal Nasser even after a young radical Islamist attempted to assassinate the Nobel Prize winner in 1994. One motive cited for the assassination attempt was the controversial 1959 novel. Even when an oppositional Egyptian newspaper began to publish the novel in protest to the attempt on his life, Mahfouz was against it. A dangerous precedence The new edition of the novel with a foreword by the moderate Islamist Kamal Aboulmagd has been criticized by many Egyptian intellectuals. Author and journalist Mahmud Al Wardani sees a dangerous precedence being set. Mahfouz's wish to obtain the permission of Al Azhar and include the foreword by an Islamist should not have been conceded because no religious authority should have control over literature, says Al Wardani. Literary critic Muhammad Badawi sees the affair as part of the struggle between the independence of the artist and the religious institution's control over art. But he also sees something very positive. The foreword by Aboulmagd will lend the critical novel greater acceptance among worldly Islamists. And this is an important gain! The first Egyptian edition of Children of the Alley was published by Dar Ash Shuruq, one of the largest private publishers in Egypt. The organization is spearheaded by Ibrahim Al Muallim, who is also president of the Arabic Publishing Association. He bought the rights to Mahfouz's entire oeuvre. Al Muallim didn't have a problem with appending an introduction by an Islamist and gaining the permission of the Al Azhar University in order to publish this novel critical of the Islamic religion. He is, after all, the publisher of prominent Islamists such as Fahmi Huwaidi and Yusuf Al Qaradawi. Ahmed Farouk © Deutsche Welle/Qantara.de 2007 Translated from the German by Christina M. Naguib Machfus  Rendezvous at Café Ali Baba
http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-330/i.html
Drunk with Resignation
Portrait Orhan Pamuk Bestselling Author and Avantgarde Writer Læs også:
Portrait Orhan Pamuk
Bestselling Author and Avantgarde Writer
Orhan Pamuk is one of Turkey's most significant authors. While Turkey developed a kind of love-hate relationship to the author, Pamuk enjoys tremendous popularity in EU-Europe. A portrait by Lewis Gropp  It's all about ideology - Orhan Pamuk's novels are not explicitly political, but their hermeneutics are | At the age of 20, Orhan Pamuk switched from studying architecture to studying journalism to avoid having to do his military service. He then ensconced himself in his mother's home in Istanbul for the next eight years and wrote several novels without being able to publish a single line. 'All I did was read and write. I had no friends,' recalls Pamuk. 'For eight years, I didn't get involved in the life around me. In other words, I didn't live. I lived under my mother's roof and didn't earn a penny.' Pamuk is now 50 years old and his life has changed dramatically over the past few years. He broke out of his self-imposed isolation and alongside Yasar Kemal counts as one of his country's most significant authors. Orhan Pamuk is hugely popular and can take almost any liberty he chooses in national or public debates; he especially likes to use the medium of live television because the programmes are broadcast uncensored. Pamuk enjoys so widespread popularity that he was able to publicly support Salman Rushdie in the course of the fatwah, and even his harsh criticism of the Turkish government's Kurdish policy he survived completely unscathed. Nevertheless the Turkish government courted him by offering the highest cultural honour which Pamuk categorically refused to accept. Unlike Kemal, however, who belongs to an older generation and tells rather mythical tales whose origins lie in oral story-telling traditions, Pamuk belongs to the intellectual authors' camp that is influenced by urban life. The Swiss daily newspaper, NZZ, noted: 'Pamuk knows all the tricks of the European modern and post modern age.' 'He is both a best-selling author and an avant-garde writer,' was how John Updike put it in his review of My Name is Red in the New Yorker. Hard work, rich harvest: the novels This success, however, is the fruit not only of inspiration but of hard work: In an interview with Publisher's Weekly, Pamuk says that he works from 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 8 o'clock in the evening and from 11 o'clock at night to 4 o'clock in the morning. To date he has published six novels. His debut novel, Cevdet Bey and His Sons, has been compared with Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks. His second novel, The Silent House, is a family story told from several perspectives and reminds critics of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner. His other novels have also inspired comparisons with western writers such as Borghes, Calvino, Joyce or Kafka. These comparisons are not born of an inability to recognise the incomparable idiosyncrasies of an individual literary voice; Orhan Pamuk really does have an in-depth knowledge of modern novels. He uses and varies literary forms in a masterly way when tackling issues. So successful is he in this regard that even when wrapped in a historical cloak, these issues create a clever link to the present without appearing contrived. My Name is Red In his latest novel, My Name is Red, for which he recently won the 100,000-euro IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Pamuk uses a historical backdrop for a meditation on art, love, the transitory nature of things and political power. Istanbul in the year 1591. As part of the 1,000th year of the Hijra - the emigration of Muhammad from Mecca, which marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar (counted in lunar years) - a book is commissioned: it must be written in the style of the 'Franconian' masters and is to glorify the immense greatness and power of the Ottoman caliph. Islamic tradition prohibits authors from making humans the subject of a book because it provokes the human vanity of placing mankind at the centre of creation. This is why an illustrator who is involved in the book project gets cold feet and wants to get out, something that puts the whole project at risk. The book opens with his story: from the depths of the well into which he was pushed, the recently murdered corpse speaks to the reader. The murderer too lends his voice to several of the book's chapters and even plays a double role: once as the actual murderer and once as one of three suspects. This means that the identity of the murderer remains shrouded in mystery until the very end. Like the baton in a relay race, the story is passed from narrator to narrator. The list of narrators includes a dog, a lonely painted tree, a coin, Satan and the colour red that gives the novel its name. Pamuk not only succeeds in making pictures, money and colours talk, he also weaves the major themes of his story with humorous elegance. For example, a transvestite contemplates the reasons for the Ottoman dominance over the central European Franks: 'In the cities of the European Franks, women roam about not only exposing their faces, but also their brightly shining hair (after their necks, their most attractive feature), their arms, their beautiful throats, and even, if what I've heard is true, a portion of their gorgeous legs; as a result, the men of these cities walk around with great difficulty, embarrassed and in extreme pain, because, you see, their front sides are always erect and this fact naturally leads to the paralysis of their society. Undoubtedly, this is why each day the Frank infidel surrenders another fortress to us Ottomans.' While Pamuk's novels are anything but political, art and politics are artistically linked to each other in the world of his novels. Pamuk does not share Brecht's opinion that if you want to know an author's political convictions you should read his books. Pamuk explains that when he makes a political statement, he doesn't do so as an author or an artist but as a citizen of his country. And Pamuk has often made statements in public. He is often seen as a mediator between East and West; always stressing that East and West each have partially limited opinions of one another and always attempting to fan out these one-dimensional images and ultimately revealing their complexity. The West cannot imagine this feeling of humiliation Pamuk lived in New York for three years while his ex-wife was preparing her doctorate at the Columbia University in Harlem. When the World Trade Center collapsed, he was sitting in a coffee house in Istanbul. In his much-quoted article entitled 'Wretched Consolation', which appeared in Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung later that same month, Pamuk describes the reactions in his environment: the condemnation of the act of violence, which was always followed by a 'but' and a coy or angry criticism of America's role in world politics. In this essay, Pamuk emphasises that the aim is not to justify this indignation but that it is imperative to try and understand and explain it. 'Unfortunately, the West can barely understand this overwhelming feeling of humiliation, which is felt by and must be overcome by a large part of the world's population without losing their minds or getting involved with terrorists, radical nationalists or fundamentalists. (…) The problem is trying to understand the spiritual state of the poor, humiliated majority who are always in the 'wrong' and do not live in the western world.' 'Orhan Pamuk shows Europe what narrative is all about' For a long time, Pamuk was disappointed that the Western world took note of him primarily for his political statements. This is now a thing of the past. 'Orhan Pamuk shows Europe what narrative is all about,' concluded the German broadsheet FAZ recently. Thomas Steinfeld from the Süddeutsche Zeitung recently wrote that Orhan Pamuk has long since arrived in Europe. 'We think he is at the start of a brilliant success.' On the one hand, this artistic success gives Orhan Pamuk moral authority and in so doing increasingly attracts the attention of the Western public. On the other hand, the political significance of such a success should never be underestimated. A Turkish author who is also celebrated in the rest of Europe brings his entire country closer to the continent because an influential culture always tries to make such a success its own. Orhan Pamuk demonstrates that creative inspiration does not necessarily move from the West to the East only. It is possible that it will in future flow more freely in both directions than it has done to date. Lewis Gropp © Qantara.de 2003 Translated from the German by Aingeal Flanagan Shadi Angelina
"Et usædvanlight litterært talent"
Sådan skriver Maria Frahm om Shadi Angelina Bazeghi i Berlingske Tidende.
Shadis digtning er præget af hendes iranske baggrund og af danske digtere. Om dette siger hun selv: "Jeg er vokset op med persisk poesi, som er virkelig avanceret i både form og indhold. Jeg har altid været meget inspireret af det, og jeg har studeret det, siden jeg var lille. Samtidig har jeg fundet stor inspiration i dansk digtning, særligt fra en forfatter som Michael Strunge." (Berlingske Tidende 28.okt. 2006). Temaerne i hendes digte omhandler ofte minder fra Iran, ikke mindst krigen. Foruden sin egen digtning, har Shadi oversat en digtsamling af Forough Farokhzad, en af Irans væsentligste kvindelige digtere, fra persisk til dansk. Shadi medvirkede desuden i teaterstykket Restless Moon. Et stykke bygget op omkring Forough Farokhzads liv. I dette stykke læste Shadi digtet "Lad os tro på begyndelsen af en kold årstid…" fra den nyligt oversatte digtsamling. Shadi modtog Dansk Flygtningehjælps kunstnerpris i 2002. I 2006 vandt hun Gyldendals og Berlingske Tidendes konkurrence Nye Stemmer.
Shadi Angelina Bazeghi fik i går overrakt prisen som Ny Stemme på Bogmessen i Forum. Prisvinder vil ikke i bås som 2. g'er 20. nov. 2006 12.55 Kultur
Da Bog Forum sluttede i går blev Shadi Angelina Bazeghi belønnet med 25.000 kroner for at være en Ny Stemme. Prisen uddeles af Berlingske Tidende og Gyldendal på baggrund af en konkurrence. http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Kultur/2006/11/20/120705.htm?rss=true »Sproget og jeg er ved at smelte sammen«
»Der har været perioder, hvor jeg hele tiden har tænkt i negationer. »Du duer ikke til noget, dit liv bliver aldrig til noget...«,« siger Shadi Angelina Bazeghi. Foto: Kristian Brasen
http://www.berlingske.dk/grid/kultur/artikel:aiid=814732:fid=100100996
Sidste år blev der for første gang optaget personer med indvandrerbaggrund på Forfatterskolen. Én af dem var iransk-fødte Shadi Angelina Bazeghi, der både har oplevet det danske sprog som en stor mulighed og som en frustrerende forhindring. Krigen mellem Irak og Iran begyndte, da Shadi Angelina Bazeghi var syv år gammel. Da hun var 12 år, flygtede hun og hendes familie fra Iran til Danmark. I dag, 19 år senere, er hun ikke alene en dansk digter, som man venter sig meget af. Hun har også, i al stilfærdighed, været med til at skrive dansk litteraturhistorie, for da hun og en anden meget talentfuld kvinde, Nassrin el Halawani, sidste år begyndte på Forfatterskolen, var det som de første nogensinde, der havde en anden etnisk baggrund end dansk. Hvordan oplever Shadi Angelina Bazeghi selv det at være iransk født og skrive lyrik på et sprog, som hun ikke er vokset op med:
»Jeg kan selvfølgelig ikke vide, hvordan mit sprog ellers ville være blevet, men jeg ved, at jeg engang imellem slipper afsted med at gøre nogle sproglige ting, som man egentlig ikke kan på dansk - simpelthen fordi jeg ikke ved, at det kan man ikke! Eller også ved jeg det godt, men gør det alligevel. Fordi jeg vil gerne vil være med til at tilføre sproget noget nyt. Det betyder også, at sproget i dén grad bliver mit sprog. Det bliver min særlige måde at udtrykke mig på.« Shadi Angelina Bazeghi oplevede krigen mellem Iran og Irak på nært hold. Det er stort set det eneste, hun husker fra sin barndom, siger hun, og derfor har hun også skrevet digte om krigen. Men hendes kulturelle baggrund i Iran smitter også af på den særlige måde, hvorpå hun bruger billeder - metaforer - i sin digtning: »Det er ikke noget, jeg gør bevidst, men noget, jeg har med hjemmefra, i og med at den første lyrik, jeg læste, var klassisk og moderne persisk lyrik,« fortæller Shadi Angelina Bazeghi, og spørger man hende, hvorfor vi mon endnu ikke har set en roman, skrevet på dansk af f.eks. en iraner, siger hun, at det i hvert fald har noget at gøre med, at sprogene er så forskellige, som tænkes kan: »Mange iranere kom først hertil i 1980erne. Der har ikke været tid nok til, at de kunne tilegne sig sproget i en grad, så der kunne komme noget virkelig litterært ud af det.« Men nu er der ved at ske noget. Shadi Angelina Bazeghi er et meget konkret eksempel på, at en ny generation af forfattere med anden etnisk baggrund er en realitet. Noget andet er så, at det ikke altid har været lige let for hende at udtrykke sig på dansk, og vejen til en eliteskole for forfattere og digtere har været broget. På Forfatterskolen er der ingen særbehandling. Her bliver der, ifølge sagens natur, stillet meget store krav til elevernes sproglige færdigheder: »I perioder har jeg følt, at jeg havde et sprog som en teenager, samtidig med, at jeg havde nogle meget ekstreme erfaringer, der måske svarer til en person på mindst 50 år. Det var meget frustrerende. Af samme grund har jeg nogle gange givet mig af med noget helt andet, rent kunstnerisk. Jeg har danset, malet og lavet teater... simpelthen for at kunne udtrykke mig på en anden måde.« Og hvordan går det så nu, synes du? »Det er først nu, at jeg virkelig føler, at jeg er kommet derhen, hvor afstanden forsvinder, hvor sproget og jeg er ved at smelte sammen til et fælles punkt. Før i tiden føltes det ofte som en afgrund.«
http://www.berlingske.dk/kultur/artikel:aid=698144/
By Mette Moestrup, Copenhagen, Denmark
http://poeticinvention.blogspot.com/2006/11/forugh-farrokhzad-in-danish.html
"I Don't Believe in 'Jihad vs. McWorld'"Interview Rose Issa
"I Don't Believe in 'Jihad vs. McWorld'" Rose Issa, a curator who lives in London, has made a name for herself in the past twenty years as a specialist on the fine arts and film of the Middle East and North Africa. Fahimeh Farsaie spoke with her.  Rose Issa | Ms. Issa, you were one of the curators for the exhibition "Far Near Distance – Contemporary Positions of Iranian Artists," and you have been observing the Iranian film and art scene for more than thirty years. Is there such a thing as an "Iranian mentality" that gets expressed in art? Rose Issa: There is an Iranian saying: "In niz bogzarad" – "This too will pass, nothing is forever." This is based on the conviction that everything we have is limited in time, whether power, youth, wealth, beauty, love, mourning, poverty or doubt. This attitude has found expression in Iranian poetry since the Middle Ages, for example in the works of Ferdowsi, Hafez, Saadi, Rumi or Khayyam. If you accept that nothing is forever, then you can come to a positive understanding of life. This helps us to put our worries and hardships in perspective and to be humbly satisfied with the possible in life: humility as a survival strategy. How is this strategy expressed in art? Issa: Some artists leave their home, as many filmmakers and photographers do; some leave and then come back, to find inspiration, for example Bahman Farmanara, Farhad Moshiri or Dariush Mehrjui. Others such as Shirin Neshat or Farkhondeh Shahroudi live outside Iran, but they are still inspired by events happening in their home country. Still others live abroad and question Western concepts—Siah Armajani or Parviz Shahbazi—or they travel between Iran and their second home, for example Abbas Attar. The exhibition "Far Near Distance" was also about aesthetic decisions in a dialog with the past and present—whether inspired by one's own history or another's. Is a critical confrontation with the present possible when one lives in a country where political and social relations are anything but democratic? Issa: Despite the severe restrictions in place both before and since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iranian artists have always tried to explore the limits of what can be said or represented and to find the loopholes. Although they have struggled—and still struggle—with censorship and arrest, financial limitations and isolation, a weak infrastructure, a poor communication system and a lack of access to information, through courageous negotiation and experimentation they have found new strategies for expressing themselves artistically. Are there differences in the ways in which artists living in Iran express themselves versus those who have moved to the West? Issa: Artists who work outside of Iran are oriented toward conceptual art—for example Siah Armajani, Ali Mahdavi or Mitra Tabrizian; while artists who live in Iran express themselves more metaphorically. They have found a new language for expressing their thoughts in parables and poetry, without being intimidated by officials or by their audiences. In addition, artists in Iran are working with limited resources. There are few professional galleries or other institutions. The basic prerequisites for making yourself known as an artist are thus missing. But Iranian filmmakers, for example, have nonetheless been able to create an excellent body of work, despite financial and political limitations. This is because restrictions generate an atmosphere of solidarity. Everyone shares the resources and possibilities available to them, whether it be equipment, time, experience or contacts. New forums for communication are constantly being developed, for example via the internet. Cultural studies scholar Tirdad Zolghadr has criticized some of the Iranian artists living in exile, such as Shirin Neshat, calling them self-proclaimed "geopolitical mouthpieces for their presumably silenced home country." Is he right in this? Issa: As far as I know, Neshat never claimed to be a "mouthpiece" for Iran. If one imagines she serve this function, then they don't know her nor her home country. Since Neshat has taken the work of the poet Forough Farokhzad and the writer Shahrnoosh Parsipour as a foundation for her own work—both are Iranian and have written their books in Iran—she never implied that there are no freedoms in Iran. And Neshat's work can be shown in Iran, albeit for only a small audience—but this has less to do with the problem of censorship in Iran than with another problem known across the world: Art situated outside the mainstream doesn't usually reach a wide audience. What kinds of difficulties have you met with as a curator for art and film from the Middle East and North Africa? Issa: Arabic art still awaits discovery. The governments of these countries only invest half-heartedly in culture. And the thinking is still largely confined to national rubrics. Egypt will only finance a project if all the artists involved are Egyptian. The same is true in Lebanon. On the other hand, international museums or galleries want to determine the focus of exhibitions and choose the works to be shown. The willingness to open up to new possibilities is unfortunately not very pronounced in the Arabic world. This has been my experience in Iran. Those making the decisions in museums only want to show the work by their own artists. They have a hard time entrusting an independent curator with the selection of works to be shown. I now prefer to contact the artists directly. And to convince museums and galleries in the West that it is important to offer art from these countries, though it is not always easy. In these times of an increasing conflation between economics and culture, your work as a curator has contributed to making the fine arts and film from the Middle East and North Africa known. Has globalization had a positive or negative effect on your work? Issa: Globalization is such a complex and contradictory phenomenon that it cannot be simply categorized as either a "risk" or an "opportunity." Cultural globalization can break down the isolation of intellectuals among their own peers and their isolation from the outside world, thereby creating more openness. The use of the internet, for example, promotes communication on all levels, whether scholarly or cultural. It is not only the economy that profits from it, but also artists. For Iranian artists there are new ways to find international audiences for their work despite the banning of an exhibition or the showing of a film in Iran. Recent films by Abbas Kiarostami ("Ten", 2002), Abolfazl Jalili ("Abjad", 2003) and Jafar Panahi ("Crimson Gold", 2003) are international coproductions. So the films were screened worldwide, even though they were not approved for public viewings in Iran. But satellite television and distribution on video and DVD made these films accessible to Iranian audiences, too. On the other hand, there is the danger that the desire to innovate will diminish due to these simplified means of communication. Artists are thus more compelled to imitate successful Western art. Innovation gives way to imitation. The fact is that successful artists have first relied on themselves and their own culture, and only then became known internationally. In books such as "Jihad vs. McWorld," the American political scientist Benjamin Barber takes the position that fragmentation and homogenization are two mutually determining poles of one and the same development. "Jihad," which Barber uses not only to refer to the Islamic "holy war" but also to various local particularisms, is defined as a reaction to worldwide conformity to a market dominated by the West. Out of the cultural melting-pot, an "American monoculture" emerges, which reduces the diversity of developed national cultures to a homogenous theme park à la Disneyland. Issa: I am not that pessimistic. Cultural globalization also means allowing societies to break through their local limitations via networks, and it strengthens awareness of human rights and environmental issues. In art and film, originality can serve as a protest against the cultural "melting pot." Films by directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Jafar Panahi were embraced all over the world because they were original. Today there is a tendency to seek a political explanation for the wide international success of Iranian artists. But it is the originality and the understandability of their work that has gained them recognition. Iranian artists have been able to open many doors to other cultures and other people with their work. Some critics have questioned the principle of authenticity, largely because it relies on Western criteria. Originality is appreciated in art and culture as long as it doesn't challenge Western ideas about tradition. "African art," for example, must reconfirm a stereotyped image of Africa. Fertility, sexuality and magic, the "typical" African characteristics, are supposed to find expression in African works of art. Is this why ethnic and cultural elements such as Persian calligraphy, the chador, or folk music play a role in the work of Iranian artists? Issa: No. Either an artist has something to say, or not. If an artist has something to communicate, if he enters into a dialog with the recipients and preserves his originality, then he deserves recognition. Take Iranian cinema as an example: Iranian film gathers its energy from daily life. Its language is simple and understandable, and this simplicity speaks to a wide audience. On the other hand, around 70 films are made in Iran every year, and of course many of them are imitations of European films. They lack quality and aesthetic value. But artists create their own platforms. They are on their own in terms of orientation and motifs. Some critics in Iran, for example Teheran film critic Mehdi Abdollahzadeh, have said that Iranian directors such as Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Abolfazl Jalili and Madjid Madjidi are "festival directors" who convey an exoticized and false image of Iran. Is this a valid critique? Issa: I know this argument. At the beginning of their careers Makhmalbaf and Madjidi were very strong representatives of the Iranian government. Then they changed their style and found a few distributors in Europe and the United States who put their films in the cinemas. The festivals have no influence on this. Poor Jalili was not able to find a commercial distributor in Iran or abroad. It is true that his films are only shown in festivals – because they are experimental and because they fascinate filmmakers, critics, curators and festival audiences with their fantastical real-life stories. But, what is so bad about a festival film? Often, though not always, festivals show films that won't have a chance in the cinemas because Hollywood mainstream is shown there. Festivals offer the possibility of experiencing the rest of the world, other ways of thinking and other methods. There is not just one color or style, but a rainbow of subjects, styles and ideas. That's why I say "yes" to festivals and wish directors much success at them. Those who don't like festival films are welcome to go to mainstream cinemas instead. Interview by Fahimeh Farsaie © Fahimeh Farsaie/Qantara.de Translated from the German by Christina M. White This article was previously published in Zeitschrift für KulturAustausch 2/2004. Published: 03.08.2004 - Last modified: 22.06.2006
Persian Poetry as Reflected in German Romanticism Persian Poetry as Reflected in German Romanticism
Together with German and Persian musicians, the baritone opera singer Holger Falk further developed German music by Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann that was composed based on Hafez' poetry. By Ali Attar  The Divan of Hafez was translated into German at the beginning of the nineteenth century and put to music by the composers Robert Schumann und Johannes Brahms Falk: "I know Hafez first and foremost through Johannes Brahms, the nineteenth century German composer. In Brahm's Opus 57 there are a few fantastic pieces by Friedrich Daumer, who translated Hafez. Daumer wrote the music based on Hafez's poetry."
Holger Falk is the initiator of a music ensemble that has set itself the task of reviving and further developing the German music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that was composed based on the poetry of Hafez – an old tradition of classical and Romantic German music that has since been forgotten. Besides the baritone vocalist Holger Falk, other members of the Hafez ensemble include pianist Stefan Geier and three Iranian musicians: composer Farshad Mohammadi, who also plays the Iranian instrument santir (a kind of Persian dulcimer), percussionist Babak Massali, and the vocalist Maryam Akhondi.  Goethe dedicated his West-East Divan to Hafez |
The Hafez ensemble's music is a symbiosis of Iranian and German music. They simultaneously employ not only instruments such as piano and santir, but also vocals in German and Persian from the texts of the Persian poet and mystic Hafez, who lived in the fourteenth century.
Hafez's works arrived in Germany in a collected volume, the Divan, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The German translation was received among important German poets such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who dedicated his West-East Divan to Hafez. Reviving old traditions While studying German music, opera singer Falk again and again came across the poems of Hafez that had been put to music: "It shames me to admit that at first I didn't know who Hafez was. Then I researched a little to find out if there were other composers who had incorporated Hafez's texts or translations of his works into their own music. I discovered there are around 50 works that use texts from Hafez, written by very different composers, mostly from the nineteenth century." Holger Falk then began arranging the old German works in new ways, or composing in a way that combines the German and Iranian traditions. When he began looking for another musician who knew Iranian music modes (dastgah) as well as European music, he met Farshad Mohammadi, a musician and Iranian music ethnologist who lives in London. Building cultural bridges Farshad Mohammadi already had some experience working together with British musicians. In his earlier work he also sensed a large gap between occidental and oriental music, but when he began concentrating on Hafez, he felt this distance had been overcome.  Holger Falk is the initiator of the Hafez ensemble | The pianist in the group, Stefan Geier, also focused on Hafez. He, too, feels that the poetic spirit of this Persian poet can overcome many cultural divides: "I would say, Hafez represents ecstatic enthusiasm and the joy of life, seizing life, despite all the difficulties and conflicts, and this is mystically internalized. In general, the work of Hafez finds its most congenial counterpart in classical Persian music. Such a great artist, such a great poet as Hafez has a wide resonance." Persian music only serves as a "living room" for Hafez, says Geier. A great poet like Hafez, however, does not just sit around in his living room, he goes out on the street and into other cities. Successful improvisations Despite different melodic systems in Persian and German music, the mystical spirit of Persian music can also be found in the music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, say the mystics. The two systems can be distinguished, however, by the fact that Persian music tends more toward improvisation, while in German music the harmony is central. After the two musicians had traveled through Iran intensively studying Persian music, the Hafez ensemble gave its first concert. The program combining santir and vocals was well received by both its German and Iranian audience. Further concerts are already scheduled. Ali Attar © Qantara.de 2007 Translated from the German Christina M. White Qantara.de Cyminology A Finely Woven Fabric of Mysticism and Music The German-Persian singer Cymin Samawatie is the leader of the band Cyminology. With the quartet she has set texts of the Persian mystic Hāfiz and the scholar and poet Omar Khayyám, among others, to music. A portrait by Lewis Gropp German-Iranian Theater Exchange Program Talking in Difficult Times Despite ongoing tension between Iranian and European leaders, a new theater exchange project aims to bring Iranians and Germans closer together. Arian Fariborz reports Dossier Musical Worlds The Islamic world and Europe are home to a longstanding independent, modern music scene that transcends belly dance and folk music clichés. In this dossier we present some of its most important figures, styles and encounters. Published: 15.01.2007 - Last modified: 15.01.2007
Sa'di: The Poet of Life, Love and CompassionSa'di: The Poet of Life, Love and CompassionPublication - IntroductionNovember 2006 Read about one of Persia's most loved Poets, Sa'di, in a recent addition to the Makers of the Muslim World series. Providing a fresh look at his life and poetry. IntroductionSa'di was one of the greatest Persian writers of both classical prose and poetry, and was revered in his time as a man of great wisdom and passion. Sometimes said to have lived over one hundred years, the body of his work was written in the thirteenth century. An indefatigable traveler, a mentor to the pious, and an analyst of morals both public and private, his best writing focused on the themes of physical and spiritual love. Retail price30 GBP Hardcover, plus postage and packing. AuthorDr Homa Katouzian PublisherOneworld Publications, Makers of the Muslim World series, Series Editor: Patricia Crone (Publication date: October 2006) The Art of Spiritual FlightAttar and The Persian Sufi Tradition: The Art of Spiritual FlightPublication and book launch - Introduction16 January 2007, 8pm Ismaili Centre, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London SW7 A beautifully-illustrated companion to the love poetry of one of the greatest of all Sufi writers EditorsLeonard Lewisohn & Christopher Shackle PublisherI.B.Tauris Publishers in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies Publication dateDecember 2006 IntroductionFarid al-Din 'Attar (d. 1221) was the principal Muslim religious poet of the second half of the twelfth century. Best known for his masterpiece Mantiq al-tayr, or The Conference of Birds, his verse is still considered to be the finest example of Sufi love poetry in the Persian language after that of Rumi. Distinguished by their provocative and radical theology of love, many lines of 'Attar's epics and lyrics are cited independently of their poems as maxims in their own right. These pithy, paradoxical statements are still known by heart and sung by minstrels throughout Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and wherever Persian is spoken or understood, such as in the lands of the Indo-Pakistani Subcontinent. Designed to complement The Ocean of the Soul, the classic study of 'Attar by Hellmut Ritter, this volume offers the most comprehensive survey of 'Attar's literary works to date, and situates his poetry and prose within the wider context of the Persian Sufi tradition. The essays in the volume are grouped in three sections, and feature contributions by fifteen scholars from North America, Europe and Iran, which illustrate, from a variety of perspectives, the full range of 'Attar's monumental achievement. They show how and why 'Attar's poetical works, as well as his mystical doctrines, came to wield such tremendous and formative influence over the whole of the Persian Sufi Tradition. 'Attar is not only indisputably one of the greatest of Persian medieval writers, the clarity, warmth and charm of his narrative genius have also meant that his works can have a strong and immediate appeal for Western readers. Nevertheless very little scholarship on him has been published in English hitherto. This superlative collection of essays on a wide variety of Attarian topics is therefore extremely welcome: it is one of the most consistently informative and exciting collections of essays on a single Persian author that I have read. - Dick Davis, Professor of Persian, Ohio State University, translator (with Afkham Darbandi) of 'Attar's The Conference of the Birds. Leonard Lewisohn is currently Lecturer in Persian, Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow in Classical Persian and Sufi Literature at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, England. Formerly he was a Research Associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He is the author of Beyond Faith and Infidelity. Christopher Shackle is Professor of the Modern Languages of South Asia at SOAS in the University of London. Among his recent books are Ismaili Hymns from South Asia and A Treasury of Indian Love Poems and Proverbs (1999). Retail price35 GBP Hardcover, plus 2.95 GBP postage and packing. Orders and enquiriesFor placing an order or additional information please email tps.ibtauris@thomson.com or visit www.ibtauris.com.
Kunst fra iranske børneværelser Dette iranske børneværelse i toppen af en træ kunne sagtens have vokset i Vesten.
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Kast sløret
Chahdortt Djavann: Kast sløret! Oversat af Simon Staffeldt Schou. Akademisk Forlag 2006. 48 sider, 99 kr.
Af Helle Merete Brix
Denne pige er et sexobjekt Den 39-årige iransk-franske forfatter Chahdortt Djavann fik sit gennembrud i Frankrig med Bas les voiles!, et essay, der kun er på 48 sider, men væsentligt i sit indhold. Tre år efter den franske udgivelse foreligger Kast sløret! på dansk. Udgivelsen falder sammen med Djavanns aktuelle besøg i Danmark, og den 14. december var Trykkefrihedsselskabet og Kvinder for Frihed værter for et foredrag, som Djavann holdt i PH-cafeen i København. Arrangementet trak fulde huse.
Kast sløret er ikke så skarpt eller klart som det senere essay Que pense Allah de l'Europe? (Hvad tænker Allah om Europa?), hvor Djavann direkte betegner sløret som en ”krigsmaskine”. Men Kast sløret er stadig en skelsættende bog.
Det aktuelle essay blev skrevet året før, Frankrig vedtog loven, der forbyder tydelige religiøse symboler i skolerne, herunder hovedtørklædet. En lov, Djavann fuldt og helt støtter. Her i landet har vi ikke sådan en lov men diskuterer slør og tildækning på livet løs. Hvem husker for eksempel ikke debatten tidligere i år om den tildækkede – og håndsky – studievært Asmaa Abdol-Hamid i programserien Adam og Asmaa på DR2?
Djavann, der siden 1993 har boet i Frankrig, er en modig og selvstændig stemme i den franske integrationsdebat, og hun har i skrift og interviews advaret mod islamisternes stigende indflydelse i Europa. Det vakte også opsigt, da Djavann sammen med seks andre kulturpersonligheder, heriblandt filosoffen Alain Finkielkraut og filminstruktøren Elie Chouraqui, sidste år underskrev en appel, der fordømmer ”ratonnades anti-blancs”, der bedst kan oversættes med ”racistiske straffeekspeditioner mod hvide”.
Sløret eller døden
Djavann lægger ikke skjul på, at hendes afstandtagen fra sløret og hovedtørklædet har rod i hendes personlige oplevelser i det Iran, der med ayatollah Khomeinis revolution i 1979 forvandledes fuldstændigt. Den gennemgribende islamisering af samfundet betød blandt andet, at de iranske kvinder ikke længere havde ret til at vise sig utildækkede i det offentlige rum, i skoler, på universiteter og arbejdspladser. I de indledende linier af Kast sløret! skriver Djavann derfor ligeud: ”I ti år bar jeg slør – for mig var det sløret eller døden. Så jeg ved, hvad jeg taler om.”
Chahdortt Djavann (tv.) fotograferet under sit besøg i København. Ved siden af Djavann ses forkvinde for Kvinder for Frihed, Vibeke Manniche. Foto: Francis Dean. Hun mener sig derfor fuldt berettiget til at spørge, hvad det betyder, at man tildækker pigerne, og kun pigerne. Hun understreger, at det at bære slør på ingen måde kan opfattes som en ”blot og bar religiøs tilkendegivelse”, som for eksempel et kors rundt om halsen. Efter forskrifterne bør tildækningen gælde hele kroppen, og sløret definerer og begrænser kvindens råderum.
Dermed er kravet om, at kvinden skal bære hijab det mest ”barbariske, islamiske dogme”. Hensigten er at kontrollere kvinden og lægge bånd på hendes krop. Ifølge islam må hun ikke føle begær, men kun være genstand for mændenes. Sløret er et brændemærke, der fremmedgør kvinden fra resten af befolkningen.
Djavann tager afstand fra de muslimske kvinder i bl.a. Frankrig, der siger, at sløret er et udtryk for deres kultur og for deres frie valg. Mange af disse ”Allahs muser”, som hun kalder dem, udviser en slags dobbelt ”perversitet”. Ved at dække sig til giver de udtryk for en form for ekshibitionisme, et ønske om at blive set. Samtidig sender de et signal om afstand, og om at de ikke vil have med det vestlige samfund at gøre.
Men de er voksne, og det står dem frit for at pakke sig ind i et uldtæppe i 35 graders varme. Helt forkasteligt er det, mener Djavann, at man tillader tilsløring af mindreårige i Frankrig (og Europa). Disse småpiger fremmedgøres og udstilles som seksualobjekter: ”Det er et angreb på menneskerettighederne”.
De oplyste hyklere
Djavann retter også en skarp kritik mod de intellektuelle, både med vestlig og muslimsk baggrund, der forsvarer sløret. Hun kritiserer en række iranske sociologer bosiddende i Frankrig for at fremføre teorier om ”sløret som et middel til emancipation”. Men disse sociologer, påpeger Djavann, har aldrig ”set kvinder blive trukket i håret gennem Teherans gader og blive kastet til jorden og gennembanket, blot fordi de nægtede at bære slør”.
Sådanne sociologer og andre muslimske intellektuelle har, skriver Djavann, haft held til at påvirke den franske tænkning og debat. Hun påpeger, at de franske intellektuelle altid synes at følge den samme argumentationsrække, når de udtaler sig om sløret og de muslimske kvinder: De er på den ene side ikke fortalere for, at kvinder bør bære slør. Men de er imod, at det franske skolesystem ikke tillader det, og i øvrigt løser alle problemer sig af sig selv med tiden. Sådanne intellektuelle er efter Djavanns opfattelse intet andet end ”oplyste hyklere”.
Hvis islam havde fremmet kvindernes frigørelse, ville det være kendt, påpeger Djavann. Koranen bruger mange sider på ”mandens underliv, hans seksuelle nydelse og kvindens pligt til at tilfredsstille sin ægtemands lyst.” Den lover gode muslimer og martyrer en evig strøm af jomfruer: ”Den uendelige orgasme i stedet for den tidlige sædafgang. Jeg forestiller mig, at mændene bliver utrættelige overmænd med penisser af stål – intet andet end velbehag, nydelse og lykkefølelse. Jeg gad vide, om det ikke er på grund af disse hellige løfter, at de troende tror på Koranens hellighed.”
Ja, hvad siger de mon til det i moskéerne, hos Islamisk Trossamfund, blandt de handlekraftige imamer og nidkære konvertitter? Det bliver næppe blandt dem, Djavann vinder tilhængere med sin lille, vigtige bog.
Kilde:http://www.sappho.dk/Nr.%205%20december%202006/djavann.html
Iranian director Mona Zandi-Haqiqi won Silver Alexander Special Award
Iranian director Mona Zandi-Haqiqi won Silver Alexander Special Award
Nov 27, 2006
Iranian director Mona Zandi-Haqiqi won the Silver Alexander Special Jury Award as well its 22,000-euro cash prize at the 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival for her film "Friday Evening" during the closing ceremony of the festival on November 26.
Zandi-Haqiqi's debut film "Friday Evening" is about a woman called Sogand and her son Omid, who are shunned by her family and thus experience hard times.
"Friday Evening" received the Special Jury Prize of the International Women's Film Festival in Cologne last October.
Zandi-Haqiqi had previously won the Best First Film Director Award and the Special Jury Prize in the Iranian Films Section of the 24th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran last January.
South Korean filmmaker Kim Tae-yong's "Family Ties" won the festival's Golden Alexander for the best feature film.
In addition, Polish director Slawomir Fabicki won the festival's best director award for "Retrieval".
Se også :
http://www.altfg.com/blog/archives/2006/11/19/thessaloniki-international-film-festival-2006/
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