I’m Loving Marwa Rakha

7 Responses to “I’m Loving Marwa Rakha”

1. Marwa Rakha on June 16th, 2008 12:47 pm

   Hello Drima:)

   A friend of mine forwarded me this link and I was like stunned:) … Thank you for taking the time to read my stuff and for this lovely post.

   We are working working towards the same cause …. We all want to fight ignorance and mental myopia.

2. Andrew Brehm on June 16th, 2008 3:14 pm

   I am not so impressed by her site.

   I find it sad when anyone writes about the Nakba without mentioning that a) Israel didn’t want to be attacked, b) Arab states called on Palestinian Arabs to flee, and c) the Jewish refugees from the Arab world have to live somewhere too.

   When I read, and that was in the comments, sentimental romantic stories about a dream to “return to Palestine”, I cannot help but see people scream for the death of Jews, just like in the 1948 attack and all the wars that followed.

   If this is about the Arab refugees, just say so, without blaming the Jews for a war the Arabs started.

   You cannot call for the death of Jews, like Arab Palestinian and other Arab leaders did before and in 1948 and then whine about refugees when the plan fails.

   If the Arabs hadn’t attacked Israel, there would be no Arab refugees.

3. Zaki on June 16th, 2008 3:26 pm

   Thanks for Marwa Rakha’s blogs. There should be more of these blogs everywhere. The only line of defense against obscurantism is local resistance. Female issues in the arab and muslim world are an urgent matters. It is not about the religion, it is all political, it is all about POWER.

   What I deplore the most in the West is the academic blindness of these issues in most Women’s and Gender studies departments in academia, which are deeply rooted in the western female/gender experience. Multi-culturalism (cultural relatisvism) does not have to be summarily apologist to the core. The facts speak to themselves when it comes to the blatant mysogynistic policies at all levels of society in the Middle-Earth (East).

4. Zaki on June 16th, 2008 3:43 pm

   Andrew,
   If you base your narrow assessment of Marwa’s blog solely on the Nakba stuff, you are missing the point. I have not run on her Nakba entry yet, so I cannot say. However, she is amply reinterating the major problems facing women in the arab countries and specifically Egypt.

   Andrew, you are too fixated with the Arab-palestinian conflict. Maybe you are an expert on this conflict, I do not know. However you should broaden your horizon a bit, don’t you think. Getting out of the bubble may do you and us some good. You are Jewish, maybe you should enlighten us in matters of females/gender issues in Israeli society in light of Marwa’s indictement of blatant patriachy found in Muslim societies. Your ideas could provide some insights about the semitic gender issues.

   I have requested from you a while back to write in a narrative format instead of headline sentences with no connection from one another, other than these bite size sentences are of the same thematic ramble. I take it you could not do it. That’s fine. All the best.

5. Andrew Brehm on June 16th, 2008 4:22 pm

   Zaki,

   You are right, I am too fixated with that particular conflict. But I do feel that it is representative of the problems of the Arab world.

   The reason women are mistreated in Arab society is, I think, that people there do not question what they are told. But without questioning obvious “truths”, there is no reason to respect other people. As long as the “truth” is there, everyone knows their place and other people become less important because they are not needed as a source of information about one’s own purpose in life.

   It is great that she writes about the problems women are facing and it is a most important issue. But if she is also propagating untruths about Jews and Israel, she is part of the very problem that causes the mistreatment of women.

   Show me an Arab (and there are many) who does not believe the “traditional” story about the “Nakba” and I show you an individual who respects women and supports equal rights, for men and women, and for men and women of different races and religions.

   But show me someone who blames Israel for the Arab attempt to eradicate it, and I show you someone who can be used as a tool and distracted from real injustices.

   I cannot write much about gender issues in Israel, because I’m not Israeli. What I did see was that women in Israel seemed very chauvinistic. But I’m not sure if I would notice these issues as a guy. The girls at our university didn’t seem like they noticed any obvious problems either.

   If you want narrative format, you might want my blog* rather that comments on Drima’s blog.

   http://citizenleauki.joeuser.com/

6. Drima on June 16th, 2008 6:08 pm

   Marwa, my pleasure dear. Keep up the great work. Who forwarded you the link btw?

   Hello Zaki, haven’t seen you around for a while now.

   Andrew, I haven’t seen the Nakba comments but even then, so what? There’s a famous Egyptian saying which basically states “sweetness is never complete” when roughly translated.

   Regardless of whether or not Marwa is propagating incorrect information about the Nakba, the mere fact that she blogs boldly about such topics in the way she does puts her way ahead of other women and makes her part of the solution more than anything else.

7. Zaki on June 16th, 2008 6:28 pm

   Andrew,
   Thanks for your blog. I did not know you had one.

   Going back to the womens’ issues in muslim countries, you are partly right in suggesting a link between womens’ conditions and their society, but this is true by default (self-evident). Saying it is the society or the culture does not explain the problem. It sort of circular argument (a tautology).

   The link between the so-called Nakba and view of women in muslim countries is a spurious one. I am not sure if it is that clear cut the way you had put it.. in that people who beleive in the Nakba story do not hold women in high regards. I do not know about this.

   The nakba is a way the palestinians are trying to view their defeat in 1968 when they lost everything in a gamble of war. This is a fact. What I disagree with the palestinians or middle eastern view concerns the reasons for this so-called Nakba. As I have said earlier in this blog or others, that the nakba is also the results of arab leaders unwillingness to live in peace with Israel specially when all arabs were trying to dump all Jews into the sea (their slogan of that time).

   I think my disagreement concern the causes of this Nakba, not the Nakba itself. By the way, the palestinians have a right to view this event, if they want to called it Nakba, that’s fine with me, it is a hard sell globally or PR wise. Given that the palestinien conflict is only viewed in arab coutries from a sentimental perspective I do not think it is even powerfull politically. But when it comes to looking at the causes that brought forth this co-called Nakba, I know that they will not accept my explanation. Of course we all know the one-sided arab version: Zionism, racism, murder, land grabing, population transfer and the rest of anti-jewish diatribes.

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