To the dismay of those born before the 90s, last year a remake of the 1984 classic Footloose was released. Studio executives might be pleased to learn that they might be able to retell the story — with an international twist.
On Thursday Hamas banned Gaza residents from singing in the Palestinian version of American Idol, called New Star. Executives from the show, set to air next month, said that the ban force 12 contestants from the competition.
Hamas, which has been criticised for clamping down on free expression in the region, deemed the programme to be “indecent” according to contest organisers.
New Star is in its third year, and the popular programme doesn’t stray very far from the format we’ve grown to love in the United States and beyond. The programme’s answer to Simon Cowell, Dr. Ghawi Ghawi, is an all-too-familiar character for anyone out there with an Arab father. And just like Idol spin-offs all over the world, it offers the chance to make fun of delusional contestants.
No word as to whether or not the Palestinian answer to Footloose’s Ren McCormack will challenge Hamas, get the girl and save the day.
Dissident Wilmar Villar Mendoza, has died in a hospital in eastern Cuba following a 56-day hunger strike. Villar launched his strike shortly after his November arrest, after which he was put on trial and sentenced to four years in prison for crimes including disobedience, resistance and crimes against the state. Fellow opposition activists have claimed mistreatment by the Cuban government contributed to Villar’s death.
As the March 2012 Iranian parliamentary elections edge closer, authorities have begun to crack down on press freedom. In a new wave of arrests over recent weeks, at least three prominent journalists have been detained.
Blogger and women’s rights activist Parastou Dokouhaki was arrested in Tehran on Sunday, after security agents raided her home, confiscated her computer and personal effects, and detained her. It is believed that the journalist, who used to work for a reformist feminist magazine which was shut down in 2008, has been charged with “propaganda against the state.”
Dokouhaki, a media studies graduate from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, is well known in Iran for her blog Zan-Nehvesht, and has, in the past, been an active campaigner.
Dokouhaki has recently been working as a researcher, having taken a step back from politics to deal with the death of her father.
Her former teacher, Annabelle Sreberny, Professor of Global Media and Communications at SOAS explained that Dokouhaki had been focusing on her future studies, and considering undertaking a PhD. Sreberny said:
“She was not politically active. But of course one of the problems with the Islamic republic is that almost anything can be deemed political on a whim.”
Sreberny added that, though Dokouhaki is charged with “propaganda against the state,” it is unclear why she was targeted, suggesting that “political game playing” had led to a degree of randomness with regards to political arrests.
Sreberny was unsure if these recent arrests were related to a new crackdown in the run up to the elections: “You could say that the campaign of fear has been active since the 2009 election, and this is just part of that long and hard period. There’s been a campaign of fear and an atmosphere of fear since Ahmadinejad was elected, and since the 2009 elections, so this is a long and difficult period for Iranians. I think this is just the continuation of that, but whether it’s becoming more extreme or not is a judgement call.”
Speaking of imprisoned journalists, bloggers, film-makers and photographers Sreberny added: “Iran is a regime which will clamp down on all forms of legitimate free speech if it feels nervous and anxious about its status and of course at the moment it does. They are tools caught up in a much bigger political conflict between different parts of the regime and I think there’s a great deal of randomness here. Almost any blogger, journalist or woman who’s ever held a pamphlet could be accused of this terribly open, vague, and almost impossible to prove charge.”
Freelance journalist and blogger Marzieh Rasouli, who writes mainly on music and literature for art and cultural publications, was arrested on Tuesday, but reasons for her arrest remain unclear.
Mehrad Vaezinejad, a Middle East affairs analyst, and close friend of Rasouli, explained that she had little interest in politics, and had recently had her passport returned, after it was confiscated for no apparent reason, last year. Vaezinejad believes the arrest may be a preventative measure:
“This is part of a broader campaign, getting closer to the parliamentary elections in March. Both Mazier and Parastou have popular blogs, and they have many, many friends and networks that the authorities are afraid of. It could be these arrests are mostly a pre-emptive action, not that these people have done anything, but maybe to make them afraid, to make sure that they wouldn’t do anything at all in the coming months.”
Vaezinejad believes the authorities sense a political crisis is in the making: “That’s why I think they are acting pre-emptively, and creating a campaign of fear, if you can call it so, so that people who might, even if they are not active now, have the potential to become involved later on, they want to neutralise them.”
Vaezinejad suggested that both Rasouli and Dokouhaki may have been arrested because they had friends outside Iran who worked for media organisations such as Radio Free Europe and the BBC, “the kind of media that the republic considers to be enemies, or mouthpieces for enemies.”
On Wednesday, photo-journalist Sahamedin Bourghani was also arrested, and added to the list of a dozen journalists who have been sent to prison in Iran in recent weeks.
Last week Reporters Without Borders raised concerns over the situation of Iranian journalists in a letter to UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay. The letter called for her immediate intervention on behalf of Iran’s persecuted media activists.
In December, Iranian military, police and security forces announced their “readiness” to deal with unrest on election day.
Author Salman Rushdie has been forced out of the Jaipur Literary Festival, after receiving information suggesting hit-men had been ordered to assassinate him.
Muslim leaders had been calling for Indian-born Rushdie to be banned from the festival. Rushdie’s 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, which is inspired by the life of Muhammed, was perceived by Muslims to be blasphemous. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Rushdie, calling on all good Muslims to kill the author. The book was banned across the world, including in India, where it is still banned.
This morning Rushdie announced his withdrawal from the festival.
Salman issued the following statement:
“For the last several days I have made no public comment about my proposed trip to the Jaipur Literary Festival at the request of the local authorities in Rajasthan, hoping that they would put in place such precautions as might be necessary to allow me to come and address the Festival audience in circumstances that were comfortable and safe for all.
I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to “eliminate” me. While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the Festival in such circumstances; irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience, and to my fellow writers. I will therefore not travel to Jaipur as planned.”
Following the announcement, writer Salil Tripathi, who wrote about the controversy surrounding Rushdie’s visit earlier this week, suggested all writers at the festival should read from The Satanic Verses:
All writers in jaipur shd read 2-3 pages in public from satanic verses (500+pages). A gandhian way to fight the ban and state’s cowardice.
