12 Feb 2013 | News and features, Uncategorized
David Cecil, the British theatre producer who faced a legal battle with Ugandan authorities for staging a play about homosexuality has been deported from Uganda. Cecil’s legal team had been hoping to appeal the Ugandan court’s deportation ruling, but he was flown from the country unexpectedly on Monday, leaving behind his partner and two children. Cecil was arrested in September last year for his play The River and the Mountain, which explored the difficulties of being gay in Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal. He faced two years in prison before charges were dropped, due to a lack of evidence but was rearrested last week. Cecil’s legal team are planning to contest the decision.
Playwright David Cecil has been deported from Uganda for his homosexual themed play
Women and children in Saudi Arabia have been arrested for protesting the conviction of their relatives, who are political prisoners. At least 26 women and five children at demonstrations in the cities of Riyadh and Buraida were taken into custody on 9 February. They had been protesting against the imprisonment of relatives they say have been held for years without access to lawyers or a trial. According to reports three of the arrested women are the wife, daughter and granddaughter of political activist Suleiman al-Rashudi, who was imprisoned in December for saying that protests were permitted in Islam during a lecture. He had previously spent five years in detention before being charged with financing terrorism, attempting to seize power and incitement against the king.
Haiti’s government has denied claims that entertainers were banned from performing at its annual three-day carnival for being critical of the state. In a press release, the office of Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe strongly refuted the claims, after at least three Haitian bands said on 9 February they were banned from performing at the city of Cap-Haitien carnival for having songs critical of the government. President Michel Martelly openly mocked authorities during his music career as “Sweet Micky”, by dressing in drag and mooning audiences as he lambasted the government during carnival performances. Amongst the rejected bands was Brothers Posse, who were included in the original line up before being removed by the carnival committee. Their song Aloral criticises the government for failing to implement improved policies on education, environment, law, employment and energy. Martelly said in a radio interview that the music didn’t promote a positive image of Haiti, saying “We’re organising a party, not a protest.”
A judge has condemned Salford University’s attempts to sue a former lecturer for libel after he compared managers to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Senior officials were accused of abusing the high courts by a judge after they lost the defamation lawsuit filed in March 2010 against Dr Gary Duke, it was reported today (12 February). They attempted to sue their former colleague over posts he had written on a university blog for anonymous users, acting as a forum for criticism of the university’s services. Duke compared Salford University managers to a “bureaucratic dictatorship” in a blog post, saying that Hezbollah was “more accountable and transparent” than the university’s administration. Mr Justice Eady dismissed the case last week, saying it was up to individuals to seek libel action. The case is thought to have cost at least £100,000 and enlisted US court action to force internet company WordPress to hand over details of its users. Duke was fired in 2009 after spoof newsletters criticising university policy were handed around campus, and later lost a wrongful dismissal suit against the university. Salford University said they were considering an appeal against the verdict.
A Russian figure skating star is planning to sue a television commentator after he expressed doubts that the skater underwent spinal surgery as he claimed. Evgeny Plushenko said Eurosport commentator Andrei Zhurankov libelled him by voicing his doubts that he had undergone surgery during a weekend broadcast of the Four Continents figure skating world championships. Zhurankov referenced reports by some Israeli media which said there were no records of his surgery at local hospitals. The 2006 Olympic champion had been forced to withdraw from January’s European Championships, and his coach Alexei Mishin later said he had disk-replacement surgery in Israel. Plushenko’s attorney, Tatyana Akimtseva filed a lawsuit on 11 February.
18 Jan 2013 | Awards
Pussy Riot – Russian Punk Group
Feminist punk collective Pussy Riot made international headlines in 2012 when they were arrested for their anti-Putin performance in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow. Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich performed the so-called punk prayer in February 2012, imploring the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out”. International media followed the consequent court case closely, many denouncing it as no different from a Communist show trial.
In August 2012, the three were sentenced to two years in jail for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, although Samutsevich was later freed on appeal. Despite Putin’s attempt to make an example of the trio, they have come to represent the struggle for free speech and justice in Russia and garnered support worldwide including from fellow musicians, among them Madonna, Sting and Yoko Ono.
The verdict was a bitter blow for freedom of expression in Russia, which has been under increasing attack since Putin’s re-election to the presidency in March 2012. But Pussy Riot members remained defiant, and delivered clear, pointed and excoriating attacks on the Putin regime in their closing statements from the dock. Yekaterina Samutsevich explained the setting for their protest:
“That Christ the Saviour Cathedral had become a significant symbol in the political strategy of the authorities was clear to many thinking people when Vladimir Putin’s former [KGB] colleague Kirill Gundyayev took over as leader of the Russian Orthodox Church”.
Maria Alyokhina spoke more generally about her country: “Russia, as a state, has long resembled an organism sick to the core. And the sickness explodes out into the open when you rub up against its inflamed abscesses. At first and for a long time this sickness gets hushed up in public, but eventually it always finds resolution through dialogue.”
As punk musician John Robb said “the 40 seconds performance in Christ the Saviour Cathedral was like the sound check for their performance in the dock”.
Photo: Demotix / Maria Pleshkova
Zanele Muholi – South African Photographer
Zanele Muholi is an award-winning photographer and LGBT activist whose work focuses on gender and sexual identity in post-Apartheid South Africa. The Open Society Initiative for South Africa has described her as “one of the country’s foremost artists”. Through her work, Muholi has documented the lives of the South Africa’s black lesbians in a manner that questions traditional perceptions of the black female body.
“In the face of all the challenges our community encounters daily, I embarked on a journey of visual activism to ensure that there is black queer visibility,” she told the New Yorker. Her images are both a statement and an archive, “marking, mapping and preserving an often invisible community for posterity”.
Although South Africa bans discrimination on the basis of sexuality, hostility towards sexual difference is pervasive and extremely violent. Homosexuality is still taboo and lesbians have been the targets of horrendous hate crimes including murders and “corrective rape”. Zanele told Index “Between March and September 2011, four lesbians had been murdered and between June and Nov. 2012, eight black lesbians have been killed. The political climate does nothing for the rights of those in danger right now.”
In 2009, Lulama Xingwana, the then minister for arts and culture, walked out of one of Muholi’s exhibitions. Xingwana later told press that she found the images of nude, lesbian couples “immoral” and against “nation-building”. As Zanele: “Many who have come out in the black community have been ostracised, disowned and others harmed. The social climate is that of fear. The townships are gripped by unthinkable violence and fear. “
Zanele has continued to work in spite of this hostility. However she suffered the greatest attack possible on an artist last year when more than 20 external hard drives representing more than five years’ work were stolen from her flat. One contained images of the funerals of three lesbians killed in hate crimes. “It was devastating, I got depressed and I went into mourning, but it also sparked a fierce desire in me, to continue to create and document. It temporarily set me back, but I am back on my grind.”
Photo: Flickr / museedesconfluences
Haifaa al Mansour– Saudi-Arabian film maker
In October 2012, filmmaker Haifaa al Mansour broke new ground in Saudi Arabia. Not only did she create the first film to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, but she is also the country’s first female filmmaker. No small feat in a country where women cannot drive, vote or work with men. Under the Saudi guardianship system, women are treated like minors. Regardless of their age, they are forbidden from travelling, studying or working without consent from their male guardians.
Against this backdrop, Al Mansour pressed ahead with her film Wadjda, which was shot entirely in Saudi Arabia using local actors, including two women in leading roles. The film follows a 10-year-old girl in the capital Riyadh who longs for a bike even though it is forbidden for women to cycle. But instead of being frustrated by the country’s strict laws, Al Mansour looked for innovative solutions to the challenges she faced. The film has received critical acclaim in the West. E Nina Rothe, for instance, described her as a ‘talented, ground-breaking film maker’ in the Huffington Post.
In a society where starring in films is frowned upon, finding female cast members was just one of these challenges. Another was the fact that Saudi Arabian women are not allowed to walk the streets alone. As a result, Al Mansour was forced to rely on location scouts to find the perfect spots to film. Filming also proved tricky and when in conservative neighbourhoods, she hid in a van and directed the cast from a phone or walkie-talkies.
Even though Al Mansour’s first feature film has received widespread critical acclaim, the chances are it won’t be shown in her home country, where there are no cinemas. She hopes however that people will watch it on satellite television or on DVD. Like other countries in the region, Saudi Arabia was hit by a wave of popular discontent in early 2011. In the wake of the Arab Spring, the authorities have clamped down on public criticism of officials or government policies.
Photo: Shutterstock.com / andersphoto
Aseem Trivedi – Indian Cartoonist
25-year-old Indian cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has emerged as one of India’s most controversial satirical artists. In September 2012, he was taken into custody and charged with sedition for allegedly ‘insulting the constitution’. The complainant against him claimed ‘there is nothing bigger than the Indian constitution’.
Trivedi’s cartoons are often scatological critiques of the authorities, showing politicians as animals urinating on the constitution. Other cartoons depict schoolchildren being taught ‘How To Be Corrupt’, and government officials making a drink from the blood of countrymen.
Trivedi has shown great courage in standing up to various attempts to silence him. In January 2012, his website Cartoons Against Corruption was suspended by the Mumbai Crime Branch for its supposedly offensive content – but shortly afterwards he reacted by establishing a blog hosting content in a similar vein. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, he said his intention was to depict the ‘ailing truth’ of the nation and send a strong message to the population. His consistent claim that it is foolish to enshrine respect of national symbols in law has been crucial in forcing the Indian public to consider their own views on some of India’s more archaic laws around blasphemy and sedition. He also challenges Section 66a of the Indian government’s Information Technology Act, which curtails free expression online. During December 2012, Trivedi fasted for eight days in protest.
India’s record on free expression is far from exemplary. Kunal Majumber, principal correspondent for the Indian daily Tehelha, told Index, ‘“Here we are laughing at Pakistan for trying to prosecute an 11-year-old girl for blasphemy, but in our country we’re trying to prosecute someone for sedition. Sometimes it’s funny we call ourselves the largest democracy on earth.”
18 Jan 2013
Pussy Riot – Russian Punk Group
Feminist punk collective Pussy Riot made international headlines in 2012 when they were arrested for their anti-Putin performance in Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Moscow. Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich performed the so-called punk prayer in February 2012, imploring the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out”. International media followed the consequent court case closely, many denouncing it as no different from a Communist show trial.
In August 2012, the three were sentenced to two years in jail for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, although Samutsevich was later freed on appeal. Despite Putin’s attempt to make an example of the trio, they have come to represent the struggle for free speech and justice in Russia and garnered support worldwide including from fellow musicians, among them Madonna, Sting and Yoko Ono.
The verdict was a bitter blow for freedom of expression in Russia, which has been under increasing attack since Putin’s re-election to the presidency in March 2012. But Pussy Riot members remained defiant, and delivered clear, pointed and excoriating attacks on the Putin regime in their closing statements from the dock. Yekaterina Samutsevich explained the setting for their protest:
“That Christ the Saviour Cathedral had become a significant symbol in the political strategy of the authorities was clear to many thinking people when Vladimir Putin’s former [KGB] colleague Kirill Gundyayev took over as leader of the Russian Orthodox Church”.
Maria Alyokhina spoke more generally about her country: “Russia, as a state, has long resembled an organism sick to the core. And the sickness explodes out into the open when you rub up against its inflamed abscesses. At first and for a long time this sickness gets hushed up in public, but eventually it always finds resolution through dialogue.”
As punk musician John Robb said “the 40 seconds performance in Christ the Saviour Cathedral was like the sound check for their performance in the dock”.
Photo: Demotix / Maria Pleshkova
Zanele Muholi – South African Photographer
Zanele Muholi is an award-winning photographer and LGBT activist whose work focuses on gender and sexual identity in post-Apartheid South Africa. The Open Society Initiative for South Africa has described her as “one of the country’s foremost artists”. Through her work, Muholi has documented the lives of the South Africa’s black lesbians in a manner that questions traditional perceptions of the black female body.
“In the face of all the challenges our community encounters daily, I embarked on a journey of visual activism to ensure that there is black queer visibility,” she told the New Yorker. Her images are both a statement and an archive, “marking, mapping and preserving an often invisible community for posterity”.
Although South Africa bans discrimination on the basis of sexuality, hostility towards sexual difference is pervasive and extremely violent. Homosexuality is still taboo and lesbians have been the targets of horrendous hate crimes including murders and “corrective rape”. Zanele told Index “Between March and September 2011, four lesbians had been murdered and between June and Nov. 2012, eight black lesbians have been killed. The political climate does nothing for the rights of those in danger right now.”
In 2009, Lulama Xingwana, the then minister for arts and culture, walked out of one of Muholi’s exhibitions. Xingwana later told press that she found the images of nude, lesbian couples “immoral” and against “nation-building”. As Zanele: “Many who have come out in the black community have been ostracised, disowned and others harmed. The social climate is that of fear. The townships are gripped by unthinkable violence and fear. “
Zanele has continued to work in spite of this hostility. However she suffered the greatest attack possible on an artist last year when more than 20 external hard drives representing more than five years’ work were stolen from her flat. One contained images of the funerals of three lesbians killed in hate crimes. “It was devastating, I got depressed and I went into mourning, but it also sparked a fierce desire in me, to continue to create and document. It temporarily set me back, but I am back on my grind.”
Photo: Flickr / museedesconfluences
Haifaa al Mansour– Saudi-Arabian film maker
In October 2012, filmmaker Haifaa al Mansour broke new ground in Saudi Arabia. Not only did she create the first film to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, but she is also the country’s first female filmmaker. No small feat in a country where women cannot drive, vote or work with men. Under the Saudi guardianship system, women are treated like minors. Regardless of their age, they are forbidden from travelling, studying or working without consent from their male guardians.
Against this backdrop, Al Mansour pressed ahead with her film Wadjda, which was shot entirely in Saudi Arabia using local actors, including two women in leading roles. The film follows a 10-year-old girl in the capital Riyadh who longs for a bike even though it is forbidden for women to cycle. But instead of being frustrated by the country’s strict laws, Al Mansour looked for innovative solutions to the challenges she faced. The film has received critical acclaim in the West. E Nina Rothe, for instance, described her as a ‘talented, ground-breaking film maker’ in the Huffington Post.
In a society where starring in films is frowned upon, finding female cast members was just one of these challenges. Another was the fact that Saudi Arabian women are not allowed to walk the streets alone. As a result, Al Mansour was forced to rely on location scouts to find the perfect spots to film. Filming also proved tricky and when in conservative neighbourhoods, she hid in a van and directed the cast from a phone or walkie-talkies.
Even though Al Mansour’s first feature film has received widespread critical acclaim, the chances are it won’t be shown in her home country, where there are no cinemas. She hopes however that people will watch it on satellite television or on DVD. Like other countries in the region, Saudi Arabia was hit by a wave of popular discontent in early 2011. In the wake of the Arab Spring, the authorities have clamped down on public criticism of officials or government policies.
Photo: Shutterstock.com / andersphoto
Aseem Trivedi – Indian Cartoonist
25-year-old Indian cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has emerged as one of India’s most controversial satirical artists. In September 2012, he was taken into custody and charged with sedition for allegedly ‘insulting the constitution’. The complainant against him claimed ‘there is nothing bigger than the Indian constitution’.
Trivedi’s cartoons are often scatological critiques of the authorities, showing politicians as animals urinating on the constitution. Other cartoons depict schoolchildren being taught ‘How To Be Corrupt’, and government officials making a drink from the blood of countrymen.
Trivedi has shown great courage in standing up to various attempts to silence him. In January 2012, his website Cartoons Against Corruption was suspended by the Mumbai Crime Branch for its supposedly offensive content – but shortly afterwards he reacted by establishing a blog hosting content in a similar vein. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, he said his intention was to depict the ‘ailing truth’ of the nation and send a strong message to the population. His consistent claim that it is foolish to enshrine respect of national symbols in law has been crucial in forcing the Indian public to consider their own views on some of India’s more archaic laws around blasphemy and sedition. He also challenges Section 66a of the Indian government’s Information Technology Act, which curtails free expression online. During December 2012, Trivedi fasted for eight days in protest.
India’s record on free expression is far from exemplary. Kunal Majumber, principal correspondent for the Indian daily Tehelha, told Index, ‘“Here we are laughing at Pakistan for trying to prosecute an 11-year-old girl for blasphemy, but in our country we’re trying to prosecute someone for sedition. Sometimes it’s funny we call ourselves the largest democracy on earth.”
27 Dec 2012 | Middle East and North Africa
The Gulf monarchies have, in recent years, invested considerable resources and efforts in finding ways to censor interactions between their citizens, and between their citizens and other parties. As such, each new communications technology that has become available in the region has either been sponsored by the state, for example, the state-backed newspapers, radio stations, and television stations; or it has been blocked, such as unpalatable foreign newspapers, unwanted foreign radio and television signals, satellite broadcasts and foreign books.
A case can even be made that the internet itself — predicted by many to lead to sweeping changes in such tightly controlled societies — was also successfully co-opted by the Gulf monarchies, at least in the early days. The blocking of offensive websites, including blogs critical of the regimes, has occurred, while many other basic internet communications methods such as email or messenger software can either be blocked or — more usefully — monitored by the state so as to provide information and details on opponents and opposition movements.
Moreover, some Gulf monarchies have actively exploited internet communications, arguably having done so much better than most governments in developed states, with an array of e-government web services having been launched, most of which allow citizens to feel more closely connected to government departments and helping to echo the earlier era of direct, personal relations between the rulers and ruled.
Meanwhile, the rulers themselves have often established presences online, and their self-glorifying websites usually also feature discussion forums to facilitate interaction between themselves (or rather their employees) and the general public. Many other lesser ruling family members, ministers, police chiefs, and other establishment figures in the region have also set up interactive Twitter feeds and Facebook fan sites for the same purposes, and some of these are now ‘followed’ by thousands of citizens and other well-wishers.
Unsurprisingly, all six Gulf states have slipped further down Reporters Without Borders’ latest World Press Freedom Index. In 2012, the highest ranked Gulf monarchy was Kuwait — in 78th position — with the UAE, Qatar, and Oman ranked firmly below dozens of African dictatorships, and Saudi Arabia and Bahrain ranking among the very worst countries in the world. Although superficially successful in the short term in limiting opposition voices, the various censorship strategies employed have been leading to heightened fears and widespread criticism and condemnation of the regimes responsible, not only from the international community, but also from resident national and expatriate populations, and most especially in the wake of the region’s “Arab Spring” revolutions.
Nevertheless, the seemingly unstoppable wave of new, participatory and user-centred Web 2.0 internet technologies — from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to video-sharing site YouTube — seem to be finally having the expected impact on the region’s population and its political consciousness. While these and other Web 2.0 applications can still be blocked in their entirety by cautious regimes, this is now unlikely to happen in the Gulf monarchies, as the inevitable outcry from the large numbers of users would be difficult or perhaps impossible to appease.
Inevitably these applications are being increasingly used to host discussions, videos, pictures, cartoons, and newsfeeds that criticise ruling families, highlight corruption in governments, and emphasise the need for significant political reform and increasingly even revolution in the Gulf. Leading opposition figures are now attracting as many followers on these applications as members of ruling families. While there have been some attempts by regimes to counter-attack against this cyber opposition, often by deploying fake social media profiles so as to threaten genuine users, or by establishing so-called “honey pot” websites to lure in activists and help reveal their identity, for the most part the applications are effectively bypassing censorship controls and the mechanisms used to control earlier modernising forces.
As such they are facilitating an unprecedented set of horizontal connections forming between Gulf nationals and between Gulf nationals and outside parties — connections which are crucially now beyond the jurisdiction or interference of the ruling families and their security services.
Christopher Davidson is the author of Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success
