الشهر: جوان 2022

shorokahmed.com

“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent” Madeleine Albright

I have been thinking for days about how to subjectively write this post, about how can two years change a country’s long-time achievements and fundamental principles?  Bahrain was the freedoms heaven to now being an open space to some extreme voices.  I was born and raised in Bahrain, so in the past, I used to hear conservative groups making statements about modesty laws, speaking about taking away women’s free-well but back then the government limited that kind of a speech.   If you read one of my previous posts, you will notice that for more than two years I have been criticizing these groups, but this time it is different and obvious it is a daily attack, especially in the last two years those voices became loud, before 2020 they used to speak behind closed doors, then at mosques about liberal women and how to limit their freedom, preaching publicly about how women are dressing up in public and the way women are conducting themselves publicly.  But Lately, I noticed a shift in their speech its no longer behind closed doors or just personal opinion, the authorities lately have been ignoring their statements at mosques, when a religious man behind a microphone on Friday preached speaking so loud to be heard by everyone, telling hundreds of people that liberal women who are seeking to have their civil and equal rights are sinful, and women who are demanding gender equality are shameful, and last, women wearing jeans are disrupting society, one can only wonder, where are the authorities from all this?.

For a very long time, I lost hope and faith in politics because I think politics is all about deception and lies, thrives on division and splitting people into categories (them vs. us).  I am writing this post as a woman who wants to live in a society where I am free to be myself without social, economic, or constitutional limitations I am writing this post as an artist someone who believes in freedom and equality for all, I am writing this as a human being who wants to live a freely with no  prejudices and I stated earlier that once politics disappointed me in the past I never went back to believing political leaders and especially the ones who wear the kindness and humble egoless mask, I decided that if I would ever support or believe politician ever again I will only judge their actions, not their pretty neat speech, but I promised that the day politics starts to intervene in my personal life, my personal choices, and personal freedom, that is the only time I will fight back with everything I have regardless of who is making the decision, the king, queen, my brother, my mother, my sister or my friends, as long as we respect each other’s boundaries, I respect the other person or government boundaries other than that when your freedom starts to threaten my life, well-being and my safety I will not set back and watch my rights being taken from me, for years and years, personal freedoms have been protected in Bahrain, I was so proud to tell people everywhere that I am Bahraini, knowing that as a person and human I am protected and treated equally to some extent, the sad part is that men from my father’s generation have always respected equality and women aspiring to be CEOs and Artists and they always supported women civil rights laws, But for the last two years, medieval practices are allowed to threaten our fundamental principles that been established over the years, that is a dangerous approach to allow extreme voices to decide which path we should all walk, it’s a verbal agreement to extreme and conservative parties to attack women in the streets, malls, schools and workplaces, and at home behind closed doors who knows what happens to young people and who will protect them, allowing those voices to set new rules and principles that “liberal and secular women and men in society “are sinners and they deserve to be treated with  violence”.

lately there have been voices in the country seeking to pass the (Modesty Law) which means giving religious member in our society the upper hand to forbid individual freedoms and it is aimed to restrict women from dressing up freely in public, and it’s just the beginning before we go back to conservatorship and next denying women from traveling unless she have a (Muhram) a male guardian, who would have the ultimate power agree on everything a women can and can’t do.  There are voices within the political system wanting to pass this Law throw twitter accounts asking the general public if they agree on it or not. Leaking videos and creating hash tags to gain support for the law. Liberals Men and Women are being targeted more than ever in this country, what makes it alarming this time is that now officials are allowing these voices to speak on TV and in newspapers articles and asking some political parties in the country to publicly support the (Modesty Law) and other midlevel laws that targets personal freedoms and women civil rights.

Lately, these voices are seeking to pass the (Modesty Law) which means giving religious members in society the upper hand to forbid individual freedoms, aimed to forbiding women from dressing up freely in public, it is just the beginning before we go back to conservatorship and next denying women from traveling without a (Muhram) a male guardian, who would have the ultimate power to decide on what a woman can and can’t do, there are some officials within the system wanting to pass this law by recruiting some Twitter accounts asking the general public if they agree with it. Leaking videos and creating hashtags to gain support for the law, liberals are being targeted more than ever in this country, it is alarming this time because the majority of top officials are silent about it, allowing these voices to promote this kind of speech on TV and in the newspapers, also asking some political parties in the country to publicly support the (Modesty Law) and other midlevel laws that target personal freedoms and females civil rights.

 It has been an educational moment writing this post, never thought that I would ever hear a woman go so far as publicly asking the authorities to pass the (Modesty Law) asking to enforce more authority on public liberties and female freedoms it taught me that not all women are feminist and not all feminists are a WOMEN, that there are women in some places in the world will speak against themselves, brainwashed by the uprising modern extrem religious movement in the region and this is why I wrote this post…., In the evening I was watching TV with my father and mother, suddenly my dad looks at me with a shocking face experion showing me a video of a woman, a Bahraini woman on social media shouting asking the authorities to pass the THE MODESTY LAW, which i  previously mentioned in a different post,  this woman asking the authorities even the parliament to pass this law that restricts women from DRESSING Up in a certain way in public, in another meaning she wants men to become legal guardians, taking us back in time and giving society the right to punish women publicly, and the dangerous part is that it’s coming from a woman, that is the thing that made me write this post that she is brainwashed to the point where she is asking society which half of it is men to take control what the other half should and should not do. And what shocked the most that when my dad posted a tweet I, couple of men not all of them of course agreed with me and the majority replayed explaining why The Modesty Law should pass.

The most alarming indicator that we are moving backward in this country is that those voices are being supported by some top officials while silencing others, in the past and before 2020 these voices were just voices in the void, I never took their statements too seriously,  they weren’t allowed to threat personal freedoms, but day after day the country is becoming Afghanistan Taliban, you won’t notice the change from the outside, or if you are visiting for a couple of days, it is the day-to-day that shows you the slow shift toward becoming a Taliban state.

However, This time the game has changed because a statement like that comes from a woman who’s asking the authorities to move backward and retweeted by a man close to the system, NO means NO  first as a free human and second as a free woman, when it comes to my freedom and my safety I will not be silent and I will fight back,  the sad part is that the statement is coming from a woman,  in the past I assumed that women want their freedom and their civil rights, to be treated equally.  To see the anger on my dad’s face, that’s when I realized that the battle is not between women and men but between those seeking to live in an equal world and those wanting to go back and live in the darkest hours.

The most alarming indicator that we are moving backward in this country is that those voices are being supported by some top officials while silencing others, in the past and before 2020 these voices were just voices in the void, I never took their statements too seriously,  they weren’t allowed to threat personal freedoms, but day after day the country is becoming Afghanistan Taliban, you won’t notice the change from the outside, or if you are visiting for a couple of days, it is the day-to-day that shows you the slow shift toward becoming a Taliban state.

However, This time the game has changed because a statement like that comes from a woman who’s asking the authorities to move backward and retweeted by a man close to the system, NO means NO  first as a free human and second as a free woman, when it comes to my freedom and my safety I will not be silent and I will fight back,  the sad part is that the statement is coming from a woman,  in the past I assumed that women want their freedom and their civil rights, to be treated equally.  To see the anger on my dad’s face, that’s when I realized that the battle is not between women and men but between those seeking to live in an equal world and those wanting to go back and live in the darkest hours.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that I am scared of living here, I’m considering leaving the country, painful to think about leaving my family, friends, and home, and because I no longer feel at home, I feel like I am stranger in a country that I once called home, because every time I’m out walking in a mall or supermarket I feel people’s looks, the kind looks that I can’t explain but I know how it feels,  women who dress up like me they automatically become a target for harassments or followed even when just wearing jeans and  T-shirt, so many times women stopped me in the street and malls telling me to be ashamed of the way I dress, and on the other hand,  according to them if a man ever harassed me “She asked for it” in the past, I used to see those situations as an isolated incident because I know I was protected by the law, I wrote this post, not as an activist or spokesperson for anyone, I wrote this post as a free woman, as a free person who will never give up their freedom.

 It’s nobody’s business how I live my life, how I choose to live my life, who I love, how I dress up, and the girl who once decided to become the best version of herself with no restrictions and limitations.

 “A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.” Maya Angelou

ليل النقد الطويل…

مات الناقد، عاش الناقد، لم أكن أنوي، لم أخطّط مطلقًا بساعةِ نحس أو غيرها بنقد الناقد، قطعيًا، بلا استثناء، لولا، أقول وبمرارة لولا، قراءتي لرواية خلابة/ مجنونة، وحشية، بعنوان “ليل تشيلي” لروبرتو بولانيو، الذي رحل في… وفيه غصّة النقد، والنقاد…رواية تقول أشياء كثيرة، مؤلمة، ذكرتني، بعزلة الناقد الصديق البعيد، القريب من الذهن الأستاذ أحمد المناعي، عزلته، هجره، صمته، هو الرد على طغيان الذكريات، ذكريات النقد والنقاد، وموت النقد الآن…

أقسمتُ؟! لا لم أقسم وإلا ما تجرأت على الكتابة…لولا رواية ليل تشيلي لم يستدعيني الصمت للبوح ببعض الأحاجي: مثل رشوة النقاد، رشوتهم بمؤلفاتك، رشوتهم بعلاقة مجاملة، مشوبة بفنجان قهوة، بهواء طلق بمقهى على رصيف ممل، مضجر، كلّ شيء يأتي بعد ذلك، انطباعات، ملاحظات، مجاملات، إلا النقد…قرأتُ منذ مدة طويلة من ركن الفضول بيّ: بضعة سطور مما سمي بمديح نقدي عن أسوء رواية بتاريخ البشرية…تصور!

اعتقدتُ أنّني غير مذهول، غير مستغرب، غير…لكن صدمتني رغبة في فهم كيف يرتدي الناقد حذاء أطول من قدميه؟ طنّنتُ أنّني أمام نقاد!! كهذا تطالعنا أنباء الأدب عندنا حتى رأيت بأم عيني، جدارية عملاقة كُتب عليها: النقد بهدية، النقد، بعلاقة، النقد بفنجان قهوة…والأغرب في السؤال أين النقاد بعد أحمد المناعي؟

أما عن الصحافة؟!! السخافة الأدبية؟ تلك حكاية لا تستحق…الموضوع لا يستحق أكثر من 200 كلمة!