Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

A communist life

Gender, Power, Resistance Related A guide to students

 Interesting. Édouard Louis's latest book

"This image has also become a stereotype because it is simplistic in its pitting supposedly free sisters in the West against wretched victims in Arab countries. Muslim societies are assumed to have sweeping patriarchal structures, while it is claimed that Western societies are pictures of progressive modernity, says Swiss social anthropologist Annemarie Sancar. Neither of these absolute views are correct." The West's gleeful obsession with "oppressed Arab women" Further reading: Islam in Liberalism by Joseph A. Massad "In his analysis of the emergence of 'military humanitarianism,' David Chandler notes that the development of the NGO regime prevalent in the 1980s focused on 'capacity buidling,' 'empowering,' and 'civil society' (and this is of course in line with the democratisation ideas...that Muslims lack civil society and one has to be created for them to advance democracy), 'as they argued the need for a lo

"The logic of cultural reductionism goes as follows:  Muslim  women are  uniquely  oppressed women.   Their oppression is caused by their society’s uniquely anti-women culture, i.e.  Muslim  culture. This culture is the polar opposite of Western civilization, which, obviously,  allowed  Western women to progress and advance to the point of parity with men. Western women’s oppression (if it exists), is either negligible or is caused by a few, degenerated uncivilized  sub men individuals. In other words, it is not systemic, but interpersonal and racial; resulting from the animalistic predatory Black men and genetically degenerated poor whites. In order to prevent these interpersonal transgressions from these degenerated/uncivilized  sub men individuals, there should be a more robust patriarchal involvement in the national community to protect Western/white women." The Feminist Movement in Saudi Arabia

Bringing Gender to the Forefront of the Trade Union Movement

Dr. Al-Rahabi blames the stereotyping problem on an international patriarchal system that especially harms women in the developing nations—and that is much bigger than the Syrian media. She points to the United Nations as an example. It “pictures Syrian women as powerless victims without highlighting our active role inside Syria or neighboring countries where there are plenty of bright examples [of] … Syrian women’s work,” she says. Both sides in Syrian conflict use media to stereotype women

Feminism is about injustice. It’s about tackling injustice whenever you see it. Pop art and patriarchy or خرابيش نسوية

"The interesting thing about Rojava is that while the YPG and YPJ are lauded worldwide for their struggle against the Islamic State, the fact remains that the solidarity shown for the Syrian Kurds is based on a notion of a common enemy rather than shared truths. While ISIS was globally understood in the terms of science fictional apocalypse, the city of Kobane became a metaphor for secularism, heroism, anti-terrorism and patriotism, all values assumed to prevent the arrival of the doomsday and behind which, the world, specifically the western world, would securely stand. Ironically however, the ideas that inspire what’s happening in Rojava developed from a critique of western paradigms of capitalism, positivism, individualism and professionalism. Therefore, it is urgent to become informed about the ideals of the Kurdish Liberation Movement and what it does on the ground so that now a larger support can be mobilized for it as it is dealing with Turkish attacks and its abandonment

In the-called  "communist" countries, Women Had Better Sex ( The New York Times )

Pitfalls of Radical Feminism

The sweatshop feminists

Women's resistane in Syria

Verso Feminist Classics