[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> FWD: Letter to the editor about Makhmalbaf's Article

[Gita Hashemi <gita@yorku.ca>]

At 4:47 AM -0800 12/1/01, cisler wrote:
>I remember reading that article when it was on www.iranian.com.  I thought
>it was an interesting one, and I tried to write to the author whose email I
>found through Google. I got a message back from aol saying the address had
>been blocked, perhaps because of harassing mail against anyone sympathetic
>to Afghanistan?  Who knows.

I don't think that specific article was the reason for his address 
being blocked.  Mr. Makhmalbaf is a very influential man and there 
are many people who would want to get in touch with him for different 
reasons.

>I read the letter you forwarded, thinking you had written it. When I saw the
>name at the end I thought, "Well, I know more now about Makhmalbaf but
>nothing about his accuser."  Google yields a neuropsychologist in Montreal,
>but it might not be the same person.  Can you say more?

My apologies for not making it clearer.  What I meant by not knowing 
the source was that I didn't know which publication Makhmalbaf's 
article had appeared in and Mr. Bawani had addressed in his letter. 
In fact I just found out (and apparently, so did the nettime 
moderators) that Mr. Makhmalbaf's article which was originally 
published on iranian.com was republished in the November issue of 
Monthly Review ( http://www.monthlyreview.org/1101mm.htm ). Mr. 
Bawani's letter is addressed to this journal too, but as far as I can 
see it hasn't been published yet.

You are correct about Farzad Bawani being a neuropyschologist in 
Montreal.  He has written a number of articles about the Iranian 
cinema and its reception in the West, but I am yet to get my hands on 
these.

>Also, can you place RAWA in the spectrum of women's groups dealing with the
>plight of Afghan women?  I imagine they are fighting for representation of
>some kind, now that the Taliban are crumbling. Do they have the ear of any
>governments? Afghan women are meeting with UN, German Development agency,
>and of course my President's wife, Laura Bush. Was RAWA there?

I am not an expert in this area and my familiarity with RAWA's 
history is limited, so mine is not a very informed opinion.  Having 
said that, my reading, based on the little I know, is that RAWA came 
out of the socialist movements that were pretty strong in the region 
(which includes Iran, Tajikestan, Torkmenestan , Azerbaijan, Armenia, 
Turkey, etc.) from very early in the1900s to about mid- to 
late-1970s.  While many (but not all) of the women's organizations 
started within the socialist left, a large number of them grew apart 
and walked away when it became clear that the partisan left was not 
much better than the fundamentalist right when it came to the "woman 
question."  RAWA currently attracts a wide spectrum of women in and 
out of Afghanistan.

In fact, RAWA was fighting to have representation in the recent 
conference in Bonn, but, in spite of its lobbying the UN, not 
surprisingly, it did not get in.  I know that RAWA has been pretty 
active in lobbying various international players, so I would not be 
surprised if they had in fact met with Mrs. Bush.

I think the question is this "is there a political will to support 
independent and indigenous women's rights movements in the region?" 
And the answer is a clear no.  It would be very naive to assume that 
the West, particularly the U.S., has any benefit in supporting these 
movements that pose a serious threat to the stability of the 
oppressive, U.S.-backed regimes in the region.  A case in point was 
Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War.  So what you call the "plight of 
Afghan women" is only used strategically to garner public opinion 
support for the so called "War on Terrorism."  The Northern Alliance, 
that is currently the favourite and supported by the U.S. and its 
allies, is, essentially, not a whole lot different from the Taliban. 
In fact, as soon as they took over Kabul, the religious leaders 
siding with them issued a warning to women to continue observing 
Islamic codes.

Be well.

Gita Hashemi

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