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Geopolitics

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing
Kristen Gillespie

A R A B I C A ارابيكا

YEMEN IMPLODING

*The respected opposition news website YemenPortal, run by a Yemeni dissident based in Sweden, is monitoring blow-by-blow the rapidly breaking news of mass defections from the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

*Meanwhile, the official Saba news agency features an announcement by the military, which states: "The armed and security forces announce its loyalty to the pledge it took in front of God and the homeland and the political leadership headed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh."

*Yemeni singer Aladry holds a nighttime, outdoor performance before a group of young male protesters that begins with the universal cry from protesters heard around the Arab world, "The people want the regime to fall." Across the region, spoken Arabic varies greatly – a Palestinian, for example, will find it almost impossible to understand an Algerian speaking their local dialect. But classical, written Arabic unites all Arabic speakers, and as Aladry engages the crowd in the rough Yemeni dialect, thousands of protesters respond in literary Arabic, repeating "the people want the regime to fall," uniting them with protesters around the region. Here, Aladry performs an upbeat song rallying Yemenis to fight for freedom.

*A tweet from @abanidrees: "Today is Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's birthday, March 21, 1942, making him 69 years old. A suitable day for him to end his rule."

*@mar3e adds: "Yemen is free, Yemen is great, Yemen is united in removing Ali Abdullah Saleh. Glory to the martyrs of Yemen."

LIBYA WARRING

*With news dribbling out of Libya in the aftermath of the first rounds of Allied air attacks, the London-based Al Quds newspaper featured the assault in Cairo on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who was blocked by demonstrators loyal to Muammar Gaddafi from entering Al-Tahrir Square. Ban was in the Egyptian capital to meet with leaders of the Arab League, who have condemned the US-led attacks on Gaddafi's forces.

SYRIA SMOLDERING

* The online headquarters for Syria's revolution is the Facebook group "Syrian revolution 2011 against Bashar al-Assad." The unnamed administrator posted an audio recording purporting to be by "the official spokesman for Syria's tribes." The speaker denounced Assad's regime as "corrupt and debauched," among other harsh terms. Simply hearing such accusation against Assad and his cronies is revolutionary in itself. The enemy of the regime, the speaker says, "is the nation and its citizens." He calls on Syrians not to back away, and to keep the protests going until the regime falls.


JORDAN DEBATING

*Basma Abdullah posted an article on 7iber.com called "Let's talk about sexual reform." She describes throwing away her gym membership to start jogging on the streets of Amman. "Last Friday provoked an outrage…that prompted me to write this article to discuss a subject closely tied to the process of reforming society: the abuse of women and sexually perverse behavior in the streets." Boys as young as 12 harassed Abdullah as she jogged through Amman's streets. The answer, she writes, lies in sex education, and legal consequences for men who sexually harass women. "If we want reform, we must start with ourselves," Abdullah writes.

March 21, 2011


photo credit: illustir

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Ideas

A Brazilian Plea For Science, Religious Freedom And The Right To Samba As You Wish

An evangelic group has threatened to take legal action against a samba school because of its mix of religious iconography at the 2023 Carnival festivities. A Brazilian secular institute has a response.

Photo of Rio's carnival 2015

Rio carnival in full swing

Daniel Gontijo E Pirula

-OpEd-

SÃO PAULO — To celebrate religious diversity at 2023 carnival, the samba school Gaviões da Fiel in São Paolo combined Christian symbols with imagery from African religions — for example, Christ with Oxalá (a deity from Candomblé, an African diasporic religion).

Gaviões received a disclaimer note from the country's conservative Evangelical Parliamentary Front (FPE). In these politicians’ view, "one cannot compare Christ and Oxalá … under no circumstances", and there would only be one god, one Son, and one Holy Spirit.

Having interpreted this artistic syncretism as an immoral, vile act, the FPE is now threatening to take legal action against the samba school.

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