NM's blog

Andrew Zimmern, a TV host and food system advocate : “ learned everything I needed to learn about Moroccan culture in that room. That the Muslim women took sanctuary in that kitchen… it changed the way I looked at womanhood.” How many Moroccan women has Zimmern seen or known in his life? There is no Western-like Moroccan women with 'Western culture' or a hybrid of cultures, with a very similar culture in the kitchen, at work, without a headscarf. I have been in Morocco and at least in 5 of its cities from the south to the north. Zimmern knows next to nothing about 'Moroccan Muslim women in their diverse 'culture' and outlook .  Because he met one kind of women, he generalised his experience on all Moroccan women and the 'Moroccan culture': on the one on the field, the one in the factory, the one in shorts, the one wearing a headscarf, the student in jeans, the one in sport, the artist, the girl that takes her bras in a concert, the underground prostitutes … ...

يُطلب من النساء الاندماج في فضاء طارد بطبيعته اللوجستية، ليتحول تواجدهن من شراكة حقيقية إلى "ديكور جندري" يؤثث المشهد دون أن يمتلك القدرة على تغيير قواعد اللعبة أو إعادة صياغة أولويات الفضاء نفسه.

In the age of dominance

Although Vincent Smith was not the most distinguished imperial historian of India, he was probably the most widely known in India because of the success of his textbooks on Indian history. In 1919, Smith published a rejoinder to the Montagu-Chelmsford constitutional proposals seeking to placate nationalist demands by conceding a certain measure of “responsible government” to Indians. The proposals, Smith said, were based on two propositions: “(1) that a policy, assumed to have been successful in Western communities,  can  be applied to India; and (2) that such a policy  ought  to be applied to India, even at the request of an admittedly small body of Indians, because Englishmen believe it to be intrinsically the best. 5 His argument was that both propositions were false. The policy of responsible and democratic government, “supposed to be of universal application,” could not be applied to India because it went against “a deep stream of Indian tradition which has bee...

“Faced with the indifference and dehumanisation this system offers us, we want to make clear this is, above all, an unjust tragedy that has taken human lives .”

A 'black' woman said that she didn't knew she was black until she was 16. Does that mean 'blackness' is like 'whiteness' a social construction? Yes, an individual not realising they are Black until later in life directly illustrates that  both "Blackness" and "Whiteness" are social constructions rather than biological absolutes.  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]  While the physical trait of skin pigmentation is biological (determined by melanin), the act of grouping people into rigid racial categories and assigning meaning, status, or identity to those categories is entirely a human invention.  [4, 6]  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ HUMAN VARIATION │ └───────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┘ │ Is organized by society into: ▼ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ...

“ Britain's oldest and most venerated political magazine has given innumerable column inches to unapologetic racist diatribe that has fanned the flames of Islamophobia.” Related The British establishment fuels anti-migrants pogroms

Is the argument of Western politicians that the MENA region is not ready of 'democracy' still prevalent? The explicit argument by Western politicians that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is inherently "not ready for democracy" has  largely receded from polite, official diplomatic rhetoric , but the core premise remains highly prevalent as an implicit driver of Western foreign policy. Rather than framing the issue as an cultural or societal deficit, contemporary Western leaders justify their backing of autocratic regimes through the lenses of  pragmatic stability, security, migration management, and economic self-interest .   The structural landscape of this political argument manifests through several distinct dynamics: 1. Shift from Cultural Incompatibility to "Crisis Management" The Post-Arab Spring Realism : Following the structural collapse of several democratic transitions after 2011 (e.g., Libya's prolonged instability and Tunisia...