In light of the enforced massive exodus of Iraq’s Christians from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people of Gaza, I thought I would shed light on an artist dubbed “the first lady of Arabic hip hop”: Shadia Mansour.
Clik here to view.
via www.culturesofresistance.org
A British-born Palestinian Christian who sings for the plight of her people and surprisingly for Beirut, Mansour embodies the strength and resilience of two minority groups in the Middle East who are now facing atrocities on a massive scale levied by two ruthless entities: Israel and the Islamic State.
Fierce and dressed in her country’s national costume, Shadia embodies the strength and resilience of a people who continue to be marginalized, subjugated and misrepresented by the media as the aggressors and not as the victims of oppression.
Watch full interview here.
In her song Kuffiyeh, Mansour laments the world’s indifference to the plight of the Palestinian people and the falsification of the identity of the Palestinian national headdress in popular culture.
“A company in New York created what it called an Israeli Kuffiyeh and was selling it as such. This is what prompted me to write el Kuffiyeh Arabiyeh (the Kuffiyeh is Arabic), in defiance to the misrepresentation of our identity”.
She also stresses the importance of wearing the Palestinian tob (dress) because “it is a symbol of our Arab pride”.
“The work that women put into making a tob, which takes a huge amount of time…its hard and tedious and I am proud to wear it as opposed to wearing designer lines”.
Clik here to view.
via RIDZDESIGN
In Kollon 3endon Dababat, Shadia transforms a children’s nursery rhyme known as “Kollon 3andon Siyyarat W Jedde 3ando 7mar” (roughly translated as “all the people have cars and my grandfather owns an ass”) into a powerful Palestinian anthem which says:
All the people have tanks (in reference to the Israelis) and all we have are stones (in reference to the Palestinians).
In the final clip I will share, Shadia calls on the world to change.
“We are facing two forms of occupation, one of the mind and one of the land…our salvation will only come through when we free ourselves from our own mental shackles,” she says, a viewpoint that I think must be adopted first and foremost by both the Israelis and members of the Islamic State for having lost their sense of identity and humanity to religious indoctrination.
“I have faith in humanity but words do not amount to anything,” Shadia continues, a viewpoint I strongly agree with since we have yet to see any action taken on behalf of the Palestinians or Iraq’s Christians; two of the oldest indigenous inhabitants of the region, told they no longer belong.
I will end this blog post with the words of the late Juliano Mer-Khamis who was a prominent actor, director and political activist of Jewish and native Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christian parentage and the establisher of the Freedom Theater.
“…Supporting the Palestinians in an active way – not sitting in this rituals, endless discussions…We want to uplift the ability of our expression and to deepen our own values to be able to reach you in English, Arabic, cinema, photography, theatre…”
So here it is; peaceful activism through poetry, song, theater and informative news reports. An artistic Intifada and an excellent one at that, so how long before the world recognizes Israel for what it really is and the product of US foreign policy in the Middle East evident in the rise of extremist groups that include the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda et al. Is your oil and your money that good?
Similar Posts:
Gaza: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
Gentle Reminder: Gaza Is A Massive Concentration Camp
The Israel-Palestine Age-Old Question: Whose Land Is It Anyway?
A World Cup Of Polarities That Ended In Tears
Nadine Mazloum is currently a freelance editor and news producer. She received her Honors in Communication Arts (Media Production) from The University of Western Sydney in 2008.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.