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The National Writers Union (NY) & the Brecht Forum
Present
Islam and the West: Competing Fundamentalisms
A conversation with
Dr. Nawal el Saadawi
World-renowned champion of women’s rights, former
political prisoner, and author.
With Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan & Bina Sharif
Moderator Barbara
Nimri Aziz (WBAI).
with a reading by
Sohair Soukkary
The Brecht Forum /
451 West Street, NYC (Train: A, C, E to 14th St., go
west to West St.)
Thursday, April 12, 2007
6:30-8:00 PM -
tickets: $15-25
Refreshments served. For more
information contact:
Louisreyesrivera@aol.com
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| Dr. Nawal El Saadawi is a leading
advocate for the rights of Arab women. Her
novels and books have had a deep effect on
women over the last 4 decades. A former
political prisoner in Egypt, she lived in
exile for years due to numerous death
threats made by fanatical terrorist
organizations. Dr. El Saadawi has been
awarded several national and international
literary prizes, has lectured in many
universities, and has organized many
international and national conferences. |
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Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan,
Professor of English at Montclair State
University, has written extensively on
Feminist Theory, Postcolonial Criticism, and
Theatre in South Asia. She is also a gifted
performance poet, expressing the joys and
sorrows of Arab women in her poems and
songs. |
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Bina Sharif , a
gifted NY actress and visual artist, has
written and directed plays performed at
Theater for The New City, Mabou Mines, ABC
No Rio, and elsewhere. Her one-woman play
"Afghan Woman" has been performed in the USA
and in Pakistan. Through her visual art she
expresses the turmoil and hope of living as
a woman in Islam, an artist in America, and
an American in the world of post September
11. |
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Barbara Nimri Aziz,
a NY anthropologist and journalist, has been
featuring Arab writers on her weekly
program, Tahrir, broadcast over Pacifica-WBAI,
99.5 fm, NY. Her upcoming book, Swimming
Up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with
Iraq, will be released later this year.
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| Sohair Soukkary Sohair
Soukkary is a representative to the
United Nations of the Arab Women Solidarity
Association (AWSA). A past president of the
Arab and American Women’s Friendship
Association (AAWFA), she has an M.S. in
Linguistics from Georgetown University. |
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| Soukkary is the author of the
Sing-And-Learn-A-Language Series: Arabic,
a unique method of language learning and
teaching based exclusively on songs,
which she initiated at Georgetown
University. She is a freelance columnist
for the Arabic daily newspapers Al-Ahram
of Cairo and Al-Quds al-Arabi of London. |
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Bill Moyers and James Cone (Interview) /
A Conversation with James Cone
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John
Coltrane, "Alabama" /
Kalamu ya Salaam, "Alabama"
/
A Love Supreme
A Blues for the Birmingham Four
/ Eulogy for the Young Victims
/ Six Dead After Church
Bombing
Audio:
My Story, My Song (Featuring blues guitarist Walter Wolfman Washington)
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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posted 21 March
2007
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