Category: projects

Linsanity Official Trailer

saw “linsanity” and loved it. not only is it a well-produced, moving documentary but the man at the center of the film, jeremy lin, is captivating. unquestionable talent, impeccable work ethic, natural leadership skills, fearlessness and passion should have ensured a successful career in professional basketball, but lin had to struggle and prove himself non-stop. it was exhausting to watch it on film so i don’t know how he survived it in real life. the racism was relentless, whether it was the subtle kind that wouldn’t let him play in practice let alone in games, or the blatant kind where audiences shout racial slurs at him or sports commentators make fun of the “chink” in his armor. he talks about learning to laugh at the racial jokes rather than getting upset because he plays an awful game when he’s angry. for a young man in his early 20s to be able to process racism and continue to perform brilliantly is absolutely mind-blowing. many times some of his mannerism and wacky humor reminded me of my 18 yr old son. so proud of him!

dinner guests from palestine

had the pleasure of hosting 5 palestinian academics for dinner at our house last night. they are guests of the dept of state’s intl visitor leadership program and they’re all from the west bank. we had v interesting discussions about american perceptions vs palestinian reality. they were happy to learn about the witness palestine film festival and had much to say about the films we selected. we had home cooked aloo keema, daal and bhindi. sufian, who is a linguist, told me about the roots of urdu and other languages from the indian subcontinent. “see u in palestine” they said, as we said goodbye. from left: ekrema, sufian, mahmoud, myself, lourdes and luna.

mara ahmed with dept of state's intl visitor leadership program guests from the west bank.
mara ahmed with dept of state’s intl visitor leadership program guests from the west bank.

jonathan kuttab in rochester

jonathan kuttab, who is a leading human rights attorney and peace activist in israel/palestine and the co-founder of the palestinian center for the study of non-violence and the mandela institute for political prisoners, was here in rochester on sept 9-10 as a panelist for the witness palestine film series. in this picture, he is the man on my right. he talked about “thinking outside the box” and focusing on palestinian human rights issues rather than being embroiled in the useless and palsied rhetoric of “two state vs one state.” it’s interesting that ever since we had this conversation, the same idea has been echoed in both alternative and mainstream media. noam sheizaf wrote about it in +972 (“two state vs one state debate is a waste of time, political energy”) and yousef munayyer just published “thinking outside the two-state box” in the new yorker. he writes:

While the two-state solution might provide an answer to Israel’s identity crisis, it does little in terms of solving both the humanitarian and human-rights crisis facing Palestinians. In the best-case scenario, a Palestinian state would be demilitarized and have not a semblance of the sovereignty afforded to every other state in the international system. It would, more or less, be under glorified occupation. Palestinian refugees would not be permitted to return to their homes. The status of Jerusalem, having become so marred by Israeli settlement-building, would likely be indivisible and largely off limits to the Palestinian statelet.

Endlessly pursuing a two-state solution that is condemned to failure, simply out of a reluctance to challenge the core problem Zionism has created, leaves Palestinians subjugated and waiting. They have already been waiting for far too long, and we owe them more than just robotically returning to the two-state framework every time it fails.

[…] Recognizing that we have a “one-state problem” is the key to peace. The first step is ending discrimination in the law based on ethnicity or religion throughout the entirety of the territory. Palestinians must be part of shaping any future state they will live in, and they can do so only on equal footing with their Jewish counterparts before the law, not under military occupation. For the next steps, numerous historic examples of multi-ethnic democracies exist, including those that made transitions from parallel situations. South Africa is one. It is important to note that while each case is different, and no analogy is perfect, lessons learned from those experiences and examples can inform the path forward for Israelis and Palestinians, even as they simultaneously take into consideration the uniqueness of this case.

mara ahmed, jonathan kuttab and witness palestine friends at the basin bean in pittsford, ny.
mara ahmed, jonathan kuttab and witness palestine friends at the basin bean in pittsford, ny.

The Honeymoon Suite

i am one of the judges at the rochester teen film festival and this year there was a film we just couldn’t agree on. it was interesting that the reaction to it was mostly split along gender lines – the men loved it and the women felt extremely disturbed by it. it’s called “the honeymoon suite.” the director is a high school senior.

the men totally loved the film. as soon as the screening was over they expressed their admiration for the writing, the editing, the acting, the twists and turns in the story. after 10-15 minutes of a discussion about the film’s maturity, i asked the question: wait a minute, was that a rape drug? i was told, yes, it was. it was incredible to me that a film about something as violent as rape was treated with such nonchalance. when the female judges expressed their disgust, they were told that the film had a positive resolution because the kid realizes how stupid he was being.

by creating nebulous boundaries between friendship, love and rape, we are confusing the very definition of rape – the forceful, violent penetration of another human being’s mind and body. the sweet, hand-holding romanticism of the resolution is problematic because the kid wasn’t just being “stupid”, he had deliberately drugged another human being in order to rape her, i.e. commit a terrible crime.

the complete passivity of the woman is disturbing. it’s the man’s decision to rape or not to rape. it all comes down to his conscience, or mood. i was told that we were experiencing the film from the man’s perspective. that’s exactly the problem with patriarchy: we’re supposed to accept that it’s a man’s world and anyone who disagrees with that reality is being a hysterical bore.

i was told: u’ll just have to get beyond ur feelings on this and recognize that it’s a good film. so interesting that such a remark was not made about any of the other films, even tho i had strong opinions about all of them. why is it that when it’s a feminist issue, a woman’s reaction is automatically classified as “emotional”?

if it were a man being drugged and potentially raped, perhaps the horror of rape would become real for other men. when it’s a woman, they simply see it as a date that could’ve gone wrong but had a “positive” outcome.

it seems to me that white men have a huge mental block when it comes to women’s issues, especially rape, this in spite of the propaganda about the misogynistic barbarism of the brown/black man. an eye opening experience.

Witness Palestine (Rochester)

the film schedule for the witness palestine film series has just been finalized. this is our second year. check out what’s going on in rochester by joining up on facebook!
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Film Schedule for 2013

5 Broken Cameras: Sun Sept 8 at 2pm, Little Theatre
The Law in these Parts: Mon Sept 9 at 6.45pm, Little Theatre
Jerusalem East Side Story and Follow the Money: Sun Sept 15 at 2pm, Little Theatre
The People and the Olive: Mon Sept 16 at 6.45pm, Little Theatre
Two-Sided Story: Sun Sept 22 at 2pm, Little Theatre
Going Against the Grain: Mon Sept 23 at 12.30pm, St John Fischer College

New Creation Theology Conference

Our paper proposal titled “Hospitality and Eschatology: An Interfaith Conversation” was accepted for the New Creation Conference at Northeastern Seminary in October. Will be working with the brilliant Rachel McGuire on this project. So exciting!

Here’s more about what we intend to explore:

“In this paper, the two presenters, from Christian and Muslim perspectives, propose to engage an ethic of hospitality as they dialogue about New Creation. Here we see hospitality, not as noblesse oblige, but as the art of negotiating power, with all of the risks that it entails. In a world where we struggle with greed, war, and environmental ruin, hospitality offers a way forward. Hospitality is the opposite of greed. It is an ancient community-oriented way of being where other people’s humanity must be acknowledged and valued. It seeks to move beyond zero sum ways of thinking, offering a scripturally and traditionally articulated path through fear to vulnerability and authentic relationship. We draw on rich resources in Islamic traditions where hospitality is sacrosanct, as well as Hebrew and Christian teachings. And we embark on this conversation with a foundational commitment to mutual respect and a deep desire for mutual well-being.”

media and popular culture

march 12, 2013: i was invited to speak about “media and popular culture” to high school students at the global citizenship conference at nazareth college today. i used photographs and videos to showcase the power of media in shaping our thinking. there were about 25 students in my class and they were sharp. we talked about latino stereotypes and the overwhelming reference to illegal immigration and they immediately threw NAFTA at me. they recognized iconic images representing the great depression, the civil rights movement, the vietnam war, and abu ghraib. i confronted them with two pictures of afghan women, one taken in 1985 (during the soviet occupation) and the other taken in 2010 (during the american occupation) and they were able to piece together the political messages they convey, ever so subtly. i showed them kiri davis’ “black doll, white doll” and some of jack shaheen’s “reel bad arabs.” they were totally with it. so what about the zoned out, self absorbed, barely literate american high school kid? just a media stereotype. trust me.

theatre journal complete!

finished my “theatre in england” journal yesterday! 25 reviews for 25 v different plays (shakespeare, harold pinter, bulgakov, martin crimp, alan bennett, chekov, alan ayckbourn, strindberg and many many more). it took me 2 months to write it but i’m pleased with the final result.

theatre journal - title page
theatre journal – title page

Honour crimes and Islamophobia

from the brilliant belen fernandez! went to this round table discussion at the university of rochester, armed with this article and sherene razack’s book!

my comments about the symposium on “honor crimes”: i didn’t have as much time as i would have liked but i talked about the islamophobic implications of using a loaded term like honor killings instead of locating such crimes w/i the realm of gender-based violence. also discussed the culturalist approach of understanding domestic violence in minority groups vs confronting racism and analyzing economic as well as political factors that keep certain communities oppressed. it’s good to remember that discrimination reinforces patriarchy.