Beyond the Wall: Writing a Path Through Palestine

Updated 30th May 2012

"An unflinching portrait of life in the West Bank in the 21st Century."
Andrew Kelly, The Observer

I am delighted to celebrate the publication of my fourth book, Beyond the Wall: Writing A Path Through Palestine, which was launched with a panel event at The Mosaic Rooms, entitled Writing A Path Through International Affairs. Susannah Tarbush has written an excellent, detailed report on the event, here. I was joined by Anna Blundy, former Times Moscow correspondent and author of a series of novels about war correspondent Faith Zanetti, inspired by Marie Colvin; poet, economist and novelist Nitasha Kaul, whose debut novel ‘Residue’ was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and who has written extensively about global economics, Kashmir, India and Bhutan; and Rosie Garthwaite, who began her reporting career straight out of university and the army in Basra, Iraq, and has worked as a reporter and producer for the BBC, Reuters and Al-Jazeera. Her book How to Avoid Being Killed in a Warzone is a survivors’ guide to staying alive in combat territory. A photo from the event can be found at the bottom of this piece.

Publishers' blurb as follows:

Beyond the Wall: Writing A Path Through Palestine is a sharp, immediate reportage published by Seagull Books/Chicago University Press on 15th May 2012. It is the latest release in Seagull’s series of short Manifestos for the Twenty-First Century, which tackle current issues in international political affairs. The publisher’s page can be found here and the Amazon UK page, which has a little bit more blurb, is here.

Beyond the Wall: Writing A Path Through Palestine is an unflinching portrait of life in the West Bank in the 21st Century, seen through the eyes of its activists, its ordinary citizens, its children, its population of international aid workers, reporters and foreign visitors. From my first experience of the caprices and cruelties of checkpoint culture upon entering the West Bank to a final confrontation with the army in Silwan I report, reflect upon and analyse multiple aspects of life in an occupied territory. Covering Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus and Nazareth, speaking to children in the refugee camps at Balata and degree students in the lecture halls of Birzeit University, I share observations of Palestinians from all walks of life.

Beyond The Wall: Writing A Path Through Palestine  is based on my first visit to the West Bank as a reporter in 2011. A short film by Murat Gokmen, summarising the effects of the trip on some of the participants including Anne Chisholm, Ghada Karmi, Ursula Owen and me can be viewed here. I was not a Middle East activist or specialist and went with the intention of reporting exactly what I saw, as it happened. I was both shocked by the behaviour of the military and circumspect about many aspects of Palestinian culture. My final vision balances faith in the vigour of the country's young activists, shock at the perverse effects of military occupation on the mentality of the occupied and the occupiers alike and sorrow at seeing the frustration and anger of the country's youngest citizens.

Excerpt:

It is only now, about halfway into the trip, that I think about the strategy of occupation. How do you subjugate a people? By nihilism, chaos and anarchy in the name of control. You do it by sabotaging their certainty, by toying capriciously with their presumptions, by continually tilting the playing field, moving the goalposts, reversing decisions, twisting definitions, warping parameters. You control where people can and can’t go, then change the rules arbitrarily so that they cannot make plans or have any stable expectations. You give a permit to one person but deny one to another person who’s in exactly the same circumstances, so that people cannot deduce, conjecture or extrapolate based on an individual’s experience. You make them feel that their house is not their home and can be violated, occupied, demolished or taken at any time, so they cannot fully relax even in their own beds. You isolate them and put a wall where their view used to be. You instigate a faux ‘system’ of permits, which is deliberately obscure and can be changed at any time. You shout at them in a language that is not their own and which they do not understand. You monitor them. When they travel you put your hands all over their possessions. You arrest and question anyone for any reason at any time, or threaten to, so they are always in fear of it. You are armed. You intimidate their children. You change the appearance of their cities and ensure that the new, alien elements—the walls, roads, settlements, sides of walkways, gates, tanks, surveillance towers, concrete blocks—are much bigger than them or on higher ground so that they feel diminished and watched. You make everything ugly so that seeing is painful.

Their consolation is that if they die, the euphemism ‘martyr’ will conceal the ignominy.

For all press and other enquiries I can be contacted directly by emailing bidisha.contact@gmail.com. 

Press mentions have already begun, with brief hat-tips in The New Statesman, The List, Platform 51, Women's Views on News and The Observer. Further events related to Palestine, the Middle East, war reporting,  international reportage and international affairs will be announced shortly but include the following:

• [Friday 4th May, 4.30pm, The Globe Theatre, London. I will be participating in a panel discussion entitled Theatre under Occupation: What Does Shakespeare Have to Say to the Palestinians? following the Ramallah-based Ashtar theatre company's staging of Richard II in Arabic. Photo below.]
• [Saturday 19th May, 2pm, Watershed, Bristol. I will be in conversation with novelist Selma Dabbagh as part of Bristol's Festival of Ideas, in an event called Palestine Now. Click here for details.]
• Wednesday 30th May 2012, 7pm, Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre, Liverpool, as part of the city's Writing on the Wall festival. I will be in conversation with novelist Ahdaf Soueif about the Middle East revolutions. Further event details here.
• Saturday 9th June, 11.30am, Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye. I will be interviewing war reporter Janine di Giovanni. Further event details here.
• Sunday 10th June, 11.30am, Hay Festival. I will be interviewing Ahdaf Soueif about Cairo and the Arab Spring. Further event details here.
• Saturday 7th July 2012, 5.30pm, Southbank Centre, London. I will be chairing a discussion on The Art of War (Reportage), with The Guardian's Luke Harding, The Economist's Edward Lucas, BBC war reporter Frances Harrison and Caine prize winning writer Michela Wrong. For event details click here.
• Monday 9th July 2012, 5.30pm, Bluecoat, Liverpool. I will be giving a solo reading and talk on the effects of the military occupation in Palestine as part of the Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival. For event details click here.
• Friday 17th August 2012, 4pm, Edinburgh International Book Festival. I will be chairing a panel discussion on international reportage with Ed Vulliamy and Janine di Giovanni.
• Tuesday 9th October 2012, 5.3opm, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), London. I will be curating and chairing a panel event as part of the university's autumn series of lectures on the contemporary Middle East. Further details to be confirmed.

4th May 2012, Globe theatre, with Naomi Wimborne

Globe theatre, 4.5.12.



Mosaic Rooms, 16th May 2012.
Nitasha Kaul, Anna Blundy, me, Rosie Garthwaite.



Reading at The Mosaic Rooms, 16.5.12.

Where it began: Palestine, April 2011. Photo by Natalie Handal.













Divine Women: In praise of historian Bettany Hughes

I first became aware of historian Bettany Hughes, who’s not a personal friend but here’s hoping, when I read her book Helen of Troy. The book, the many reviews it attracted and indeed its charismatic subject were alive with detail, fascination, vividness, momentum and intelligence. Here was a brilliant woman putting another brilliant woman back into society and history as an agent, not a victim; a personality, not a symbol or cipher; a person, not an object. Not only that but she gave life and depth to the social, political, cultural and practical workings of the society in which Helen of Troy lived. Hughes did it all with respect, great clarity and insight, delight and an awesome breadth of scholarship... which fuelled her even more acclaimed second book, The Hemlock Cup, about Socrates and classical-era Athens.

The reviews this time were positively frothing.

Having noticed her name I suddenly saw it everywhere and realised that Hughes is an accomplished, erudite and riveting broadcaster, a genially globetrotting polymath brain. This month, she has excelled herself with Divine Women, a three part BBC series that began last Wednesday, 11th April.

The series resurrects the long-erased story of women and religion, demonstrating that we were not always unheard, unseen, powerless, marginal, unimportant or uninteresting. The story begins in 9000 BC and, as Hughes writes in the series press release,

The female of the species has always formed 50% of the population but has never occupied 50% of human history. Yet the connection between women and the divine has been so strong in all societies that when we follow the stories of 'divine women' we uncover new evidence for the character of humanity and a fuller, truer history of the world.

The first instalment, When God Was A Girl, looked at the evolution of the goddess in Turkey, Greece, Rome and India. The second programme, on April 18th, promises to be even edgier. Entitled The Handmaids of God, it investigates the story of the priestess: from the poet Sappho on the island of Lesbos and her censored writing to Vestal Virgins in Rome, the role of women in the early Christian church and persecuted Christian priestesses.

Hughes saves the best (and most devastating) material for last, eschewing triumphalism for a sober, exceedingly well-researched and culturally diverse examination of the lives of incredible women who have simply been ignored, erased and written out of history. There is 7th Century Empress Wu Zetien, who called herself Emperor and saved Buddhism by establishing it in China; Empress Theodora in Byzantium, the subject of Stella Duffy's brilliant recent novel; the early women of Islam; and Anglo-Saxon Hilda of Whitby, who used the power of ancient traditions and new ideas about religion and philosophy to introduce sophisticated concepts of reform, education and the word to the intensely macho society in which she lived. This last instalment airs on Wednesday 25th April and will leave viewers filled with despair, inspiration and zeal: whether we are talking about religion, politics, culture or any other area, we can’t let this erasure from public record, acknowledgement and respect be perpetrated against the great (and indeed the ordinary) women of the future and the present as they have been against countless women in the past.

Highlights from the upcoming Fringe film festival

Fringe, “London’s alternative gay film festival” is back in art and cinema venues across east London and will be running from Thursday 12^th April to Sunday 15^th April.  I’ve had a look at the programme and am impressed by its diversity in discipline and subject matter: the festival comprises art exhibitions, panel discussions, outreach and community initiatives, exercise and dance events, the screening of classic films as well as UK premieres and a theoretical approach which covers everything including pop, porn, popcorn and politics in one way or another. Visit the official festival site for a full rundown of things to do and see, dates and times.

I’ve picked out some of the films that particularly caught my eye:

• Joe and Belle

- Hackney Picturehouse, 270 Mare Street, London E8 1HE

- Tickets: www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Hackney_Picturehouse/

- Dir. Veronica Keder, Israel, 2011, 80 min

A dark indie comedy about two girls who fall in love with their country and with each other en route from Tel Aviv to Sderot. Israels lesbian answer to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid. Described by AfterEllen as "Totally off-kilter, sexy and stylish in a distinctly grungy, almost '90s sort of way, Joe + Belle is the story of two young women who meet and fall in love under bizarre, darkly hilarious circumstances. If you like your comedy offbeat, and your leading ladies slightly crazy, you really can’t go wrong here."

• Audre Lord: The Berlin Years 1984 - 1992

- Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA

- Tickets: http://www.richmix.org.uk/

- Dir. Dr Dagmar Schultz, Germany, 2012, 84min

‘I am a black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,’ begins Audre Lorde addressing a small group in Berlin, where she led the way to defining the Afro-German movement and left a legacy of strength, constructive difference and the genuine urgent warmth of her personality. This documentary incorporates archive material and interviews with Dagmar Schultz’s previously unreleased personal video archive, creating a portrait fortified by activism and stunning in its insight into her private world. Lorde’s own voice shines through this inspiring film, filling us with her poetry and conviction.

• (A)sexual

- Rio Cinema, 103-107 Kingsland Road, London E8 2PB

- Tickets: http://www.riocinema.org.uk/

- Dir. Angela Tucker, USA, 2011, 75 mins

(A)sexual follows the growth of a community that experiences no sexual attraction. Studies show that 1% of the population is asexual. But in a society obsessed with sex, how do you deal with life as an outsider? In 2000, David Jay came out to his parents. He was asexual and was fine with it. And he was not alone. Combining intimate interviews, verite footage, and animation with fearless humor and pop culture imagery, David and our four other characters grapple with this universal question and the outcomes might surprise you. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Michael J Dore and members of AVEN UK (Asexuality Visibility and Education Network).

And, last but hardly least....

• The magazine Girls Like Us presents a series of shorts called Generations Like Us

- XOYO, 32-37 Cowper Street, London EC2A 4AW

Short film screening and a discussion on the theme of lesbian generations hosted by international art magazine Girls Like Us. The afternoon will bring together films from around the world along with a discussion between GLU editor Jessica Gysel and Lisa Gornick - artist, filmmaker and star of inter-generational lesbian drama "The Owls." Girls Like Us paraphernalia will be on sale throughout the day along with a sneak peak of the new issue! This event is curated by Nicole Emmenegger and Sandra Le.

Lecture: multiple perpetrator rape

On the 2nd May 2012 at 6.30pm Professor Rachel Jewkes, Director of the South African Medical Research Council Gender and Health Unit, will be giving a free public lecture about multiple perpetrator rape hosted by Middlesex University Forensic Psychological Services.  The event is free to anyone who wishes to attend however there is limited space so if you plan on attending, please RSVP by the 27th April 2012 by emailing fps@mdx.ac.uk

Once you have reserved your place, the organisers will send you directions to the event.

Professor Rachel Jewkes is the Director of the South African Medical Research Council Gender & Health Unit and is based in Pretoria. She trained as a medical doctor and is a specialist in Public Health Medicine. Rachel has spent the last 12 years researching genderbased violence, particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence in South Africa. She has authored over one hundred and fifty publications in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reports. She has worked closely with the South African Government over many years on sexual violence policy in the health sector. She is the Secretary of the Sexual Violence
Research Initiative, an initiative of the Global Forum for Health Research, and was a member of the steering committee of the WHO multi-country study on Violence against Women.
The invite states:

Group rape in South Africa is commonly known as streamlining and is often seen as a game, performed as part of male peer group bonding or an act of punishment of a girlfriend. Thus it is presented by men as alternately deserved, or harmless fun. This lecture will explore the question of how South African men who disclose having engaged in multiple perpetrator rape (with or without having raped alone) differ from those have raped alone and from men who have not raped.

Tender: acting (and training) to end abuse

Tender are a charity working to counteract abusive, unhealthy and controlling releationships through training, consciousness raising, outreach work and widespread educational initiatives. I admire their work immensely, especially their focus upon working with young people in schools and their drive to create an overall youth culture which is healthy, mutually respectful, self-respecting and supportive. They have sent me details of three of their upcoming one-day training events. The days are usually attended by professionals already working in this field, but I thought I'd share the details because they highlight some of the major psychological, physical and social issues surrounding violent, abusive and controlling relationships and seek to address the dynamics of abusive relationships, the pressures on victims and survivors, perpetrators' own excuses and dynamics, the wider social tolerance - even expectancy - surrounding abuse, bystander apathy, perpetrators' non/acceptance of responsibility, risks and routes out of abusive relationships and much more.

1. Awareness and Good Practice when working with women experiencing violence and abuse in relationships
Thursday 14th June 2012
Central London
£90
This one day training event will equip participants with an understanding of the issues for women experiencing violence from men they know. The day will give attendees an appreciation of the barriers faced by women seeking help to leave an abusive relationship.

The training will enable participants to:

• Define the different types of abuse
• Understand the pressures on women to stay in violent relationships and what might prevent them from seeking and securing the help they need
• Explore the additional issues for women from marginalised groups
• Examine the responsibility for violence using the power and control model
• Address the impact on children witnessing and experiencing domestic abuse

The day is aimed at staff in any agency who may be called upon to support, advise, treat, or otherwise assist a woman experiencing violence from a man she knows.

2.  Working with young people to address violence in teenage relationships
Thursday 21st June 2012
Central London
£150
This very practical day will equip participants with a clear understanding of the key issues of abuse and violence in relationships and practically examine how drama techniques can be used to engage young people in these issues. These exercises have been tried and tested in a range of youth settings including schools, youth centres and pupil referral units and the training will be delivered by facilitators with a wealth of experience in delivering issue based projects.

This training will:

• Give participants a theoretical understanding of issues such as different types of abuse, the excuses perpetrators give and the pressures on victims to stay in abusive relationships through our gendered model
• Practically explore exercises that can be used to engage young people
• Explore how the activities can be applied in a variety of youth settings, and learn effective techniques for engaging and encouraging young people to participate
• Trouble shoot particular barriers participants have encountered when carrying out this kind of violence prevention work
• The day is aimed at professionals working directly with young people. Participants do not need to have previous experience of drama or theatre to take part in the day

3. Working effectively in and with schools: a practical approach to successful partnerships with schools
Thursday 28th June 2012
Central London
£150
This one day training event will help participants to create robust and mutually beneficial links with schools to deliver high impact work with students and teachers. Working in schools is often a big challenge for organisations. Tender has experience of identifying ways to work successfully with a school’s administration, schedules and ethos to build a strong relationship. Attendees will increase their understanding of the needs and challenges faced by teachers and will develop methods of adapting their approaches to appeal to schools in light of these.

This training will address:

• Making initial contact with schools – strategies and methods
• Working with key teachers
• Maintaining relationships once a project is underway
• Secondary, Primary, Special, Pupil Referral Units – identifying their differing needs
• School-speak: becoming familiar with the language that schools and teachers use
• Developing and delivering teacher training

The day is aimed at staff in any organisation that may be starting to work directly in primary, secondary, special schools and pupil referral units.


Further notes for interested parties:

• Tender say they can always respond to individual training needs of organisations and develop tailor made packages of training; they provide on-site consulting for agencies and organisations.
• To find out more please contact Susie McDonald on 020 7428 7313 or email susie@tender.org.uk
• To request a booking form or some more information please contact Jake Tily on 0207 431 7278 or email jake@tender.org.uk

Conference: Images of exploited and trafficked women

On 27th April The Central American Women’s Network (CAWN) and Frauensolidaritäet are hosting a London-based conference, “Images of exploited and trafficked women: The role of the media and campaigning in women's empowerment”, at Friends House, George Fox Room, 173-177 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ.

They write:

While there has been growing awareness over the last decade as to the urgency to address trafficking for sexual exploitation and exploitation within the sex-industry, advocates have not always agreed on the most appropriate approach to tackle it. Debates are played out and amplified by media stories, backing the prevalence of dominating discourses.

The conference intends to be a forum for the effectiveness of such approaches to be discussed and for their complementarities to be explored. It will bring together speakers from the policy, academic and NGO fields to examine current efforts to counteract the trafficking and exploitation of migrant sex workers. Plenary discussions will be followed by three workshops which you may sign-up for in advance.

The event has been put together by CAWN and Frauensolidaritäet as part of their current project, “Women’s rights, social inclusion and the media” funded by the European Commission. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to campaigns@cawn.org by 18th April.

The day's itinerary is as follows:

• 10.00 - 10.15 Registration
• 10.15 - 10.20 Introduction: Why a forum on exploitation and trafficking in the UK sex industry, by Marilyn Thomson (Central America Women's Network co-director)
• 10.20 - 11.30 Plenary 1:The exploitation spectrum: current approaches to tackle exploitation and
• trafficking of migrant sex workers, by Julia O’Connell Davidson (Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham) and  Baroness Mary Goudy (APPG Human Trafficking)
• 11.30- 11.45 Tea break
• 11.45 - 13.00 Plenary 2: Media and campaigns' representations of exploited and trafficked women by
• Rutvica Andrijasevic (Lecturer at University of Leicester), second speaker TBC
• 13.00 – 13.45 Lunch and refreshments
• 13.45 - 15.15 Workshops: The use of media in Nicaragua to advocate for women's rights, facilitated by Central American women right's activists Yamileth Chavarria and Helen Dixon; Trafficking and exploitation in Southern Africa: stories from the ground, facilitators TBC; Global events: examining some connections between women's exploitation and the Olympics facilitated by Anti-Slavery International and x:talk
• 15.15 – 15.30 Tea break
• 15.30 - 16.15 Workshops' facilitators panel
• 16.15 - 16.30 Conclusions: Latin American migrant women sex-workers in the UK, by Carolina Gottardo (Latin American Women's Rights Service Director)

Springtime of the women: a season of amazing talent in spoken word, literature, art, film, theatre and more.

For Books' Sake publish their first fiction anthology; Eve Ensler brings Thandie Newton, Neneh Cherry, Meera Syal and Rosario Dawson to the Lyric Theatre on 26th March; the Human Rights Watch film festival launches with a stunning programme of topical international films 21st-30th March; and a look ahead to Electra Productions hitting Tate Modern with Her Noise, their 3 day celebration of avant-garde women artists' genius at the beginning of May.

1.     For Books’ Sake celebrate smart fiction by smart women with their first anthology, Short Stack, Wednesday 28^th March 2012

In moments of deep despair at the cultural femicide all around, occasionally an amazing heroine shines a light. And sometimes a load of heroines shine a load of lights and throw a party for all their friends. For Books’ Sake is the legendary online magazine dedicated to promoting and celebrating writing by women, in the face of the widespread ignoring and dismissal of women’s work by literary editors, jury panels, TV and radio editors and commissioners and literary event producers of both sexes. The site is brilliantly written, insightful, influential and powerful. Book-lovers and lady likers will emerge from a plunge into For Books’ Sake with a handful of new reading and writing recommendations, a head full of new ideas and a refreshed sense of women’s genius. Get behind this amazing group of women: For Books’ Sake should be a paper magazine, a cultural festival, a TV and radio network, a prize scheme and a full-on touring roadshow with  a free big-bonus raffle and tombola.

If you don’t want to spend your solidarity-time glued to a screen, For Books’ Sake have gone one further and released Short Stack, their first fiction anthology, which is being published by Pulp Press at the end of the month, with a party at 7.30pm at the Tamesis Dock on Wednesday 28th March. You can already get the Kindle e-book edition here. If you want your timbers shivered, For Books’ Sake promise that Short Stack will offer “ten twisted tales of heroines hell-bent on vengeance, reanimated corpses, post-apocalyptic sex and much, much more.” I hope that in the future, the “much more” includes science fiction and fantasy anthologies, because I want in.

2. The Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Wednesday 21^st March – Friday 30^th March 2012.

Just when you were despairing at the gung-ho 3D big studio Cineplex drek on show as spring and summer approach, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival comes to London as part of its global tour, with a series of nineteen intelligent, topical, global, confrontational and eye-opening work, screening at the Curzon Soho, Curzon Mayfair, the ICA and the Ritzy. Visit the main festival site for a full list of screenings and a look at the brilliant line-up of talks and debates happening alongside the films. Most of the screenings are followed by extremely well-programmed panel debates discussing the issues with the director/s, critics, academics, activists and politically and socially engaged artists. If you’re interested in work looking specifically at women’s place in society then take a look at three standout works amidst a generally stunning programme:

Love Crimes of Kabul, Tanaz Eshaghian’s documentary, which follows three young Afghani female prisoners as they go on trial for “moral crimes” which include running away from home to escape abuse and  allegations of adultery. In refusing to fit into society’s norms by their defiant actions, these women come to be seen as threats to the very fabric of society, and their acts of self-determination as illegal.

A still from The Price of Sex

The Price of Sex, directed by Mimi Chakarova, is about young Eastern European women, sex trafficking and abuse. Chakarova’s film is told by the young women who managed to escape and refused to be silenced by shame, fear, and violence. Director Chakarova is an Emmy-nominated photojournalist Mimi Chakarova filmed undercover and gained extraordinary access for this documentary, which won the 2011 Nestor Almendros Award, announced at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York in June last year. The screening on Saturday 24 March will be followed by a panel discussion with Mimi Chakarova and Abigail Stepnitz, national coordinator of the Poppy Project, which provides support to women who have been trafficked. It will be moderated by Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.

Family Portrait in Black and White tells the story of Olga Nenya, who is single-handedly raising 23 foster children in rural Ukraine. Sixteen are the biracial offspring of visiting African students and Ukrainian women, who often see no choice but to abandon their babies. Olga reveals herself to be loving and protective but also narrow-minded and controlling. A product of communist ideology, she favours collective duty over individual freedom, and this paradox gives the children the sense of belonging they ache for, as well as cause for rebellion and distrust.

I support this festival wholeheartedly. All the films aim to “address economic inequality and consequences worldwide” and are organised around four themes: development, environment and the global economy; migrants’ rights and racism; personal testimony and witnessing; and women’s rights. The roster is impressively international, with 15 documentaries and 4 dramas from Afghanistan, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Canary Islands, Ethiopia, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, the Maldives, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the USA. Many of the films will be followed by Q&A sessions with filmmakers, and some by panel discussions with experts and film subjects.

The festival will launch tomorrow, Wednesday, 21 March, at the Curzon Mayfair with a fundraising benefit and reception for Human Rights Watch, featuring Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s  film 5 Broken Cameras. 5 Broken Cameras documents a Palestinian village's struggle against violence and oppression. The wall consumes much of the village’s arable land and allows nearby settlements to extend onto villagers’ fields. A cycle of resistance and retaliation develops between the village and the settlements.  

On Thursday 22 March, the Curzon Soho will host the opening night film, Jon Shenk’s The Island President, which follows former President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives (who was forced to resign the presidency this February) as he fights to convince the world’s policymakers to do something concrete about climate change. The Maldives is in danger of disappearing below rising sea levels, creating the world’s first cohort of environmental refugees.

The closing night film and reception will be on Friday 30 March at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton. It will feature Nadine Labaki’s drama Where Do We Go Now?,  the story  of a group of women determined to protect their isolated, mine-encircled community. With the women united by a common cause, their friendship transcends the religious fault lines that constrict their society. The film will be followed by a discussion with Nadine Labaki.

Other films to look out for include the following. Further details can be found on the London festival's main site:

• Bettina Borgfeld and David Bernet’s documentary Raising Resistance follows the life-and-death struggle of farmers in Paraguay confronted with the ever-expanding production of genetically modified soy, which requires herbicides and decimates nearby crops.
• Documentary Special Flight, in which director Fermand Melgar has gained  extensive access to rejected asylum seekers and illegal migrants in Switzerland’s Frambois detention centre.
• Maggie Peren’s drama Colour of the Ocean tells the story of a father and son, African refugees whose paths collide with those of an altruistic tourist and a Canary Island police officer.
• Carlo Augusto Bachschmidt’s Black Block documents the police violence and arbitrary detention experienced by seven activists who demonstrated at the 2001 Genoa G8 summit. Each person describes brutal treatment by the Italian police that night, and in the days that followed.
• Annie Goldson’s documentary Brother Number One tells New Zealander Rob Hamill’s story about the deaths in 1978 of his brother Kerry Hamill, and his two friends − John Dewhirst of England, and Stuart Glass of Canada - at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. As Rob retraces his brother’s final days, takes the stand as a witness at the Cambodia War Crimes Tribunal, faces the former prison warden Comrade Duch, who gave the final orders for Kerry and thousands of others to be tortured and killed and meets survivors who tell the story of the notorious S-21 prison. 
• Werner Herzog’s  exploration of life on death row, Into The Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life, follows the story of Michael Perry, who was executed eight days after filming began,  and Jason Burkett, who were found guilty of three capital murders in Texas, and unravels the crime and trial from separate viewpoints, including the victim’s families and prison staff.
• Lise Birk Pedersen’s documentary Putin’s Kiss focuses on 19-year-old Masha and her journey through the Kremlin-created Nashi youth movement. Masha supports Putin’s policies of seeking to rid Russia of what Nashi believes are Russia’s “enemies”: political opposition, investigative journalists, and human rights defenders. But as a journalist herself she starts socialising with colleagues in this circle, and  begins to question Nashi and its leaders.
• In Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Junge’s Oscar-winning documentary Saving Face plastic surgeon Dr Mohammad Jawad travels to Pakistan to treat women who have suffered acid attacks. Among them is Zakia, who goes to court to prosecute her husband for her attack. She becomes the first case tried under a new law in Pakistan that punishes the  attackers with life imprisonment.
• Susan Youssef’s drama Habibi tells the story of young lovers Qays (Kais Nashef) and Layla (Maisa Abd Elhadi) who are university students in the West Bank. Both are forced home to Khan Yunis before they have completed their studies and in this more religious and traditional environment their love story can continue only if they marry. Yet Qays is too poor to convince Layla’s father that he can provide for his beloved daughter. In an act of rebellion Qays paints verses from the classical poem Majnun Layla all over Khan Yunis, which angers Layla’s father and the local self-appointed moral police.

And now for......

3.  A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Eve Ensler comes to the  Lyric Theatre on Monday March 26^th 2012.

You will know Eve Ensler as the originator of The Vagina Monologues, V-day founder, tireless international campaigner for women’s human rights, an advocate, a writer, a personality, a heroine and a wit who has used her seemingly infinite energy and success to enable girls and women all over the world in speaking up, shouting out and even taking the stage. A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer is a new performance piece showcased as a collection of one-night performances featuring some of the coolest women performers working today: Rosario Dawson, Eve Ensler herself, Neheh Cherry, Meera Syal, Thandie Newton and more. Memory... is an adaptation of Ensler’s book of the same name. The producers have selected ten monologues to produce a varied and entertaining show expressing how violence against women affects everyone. All proceeds will go to charities dedicated to stopping violence against women and girls including Women for Women International and the Domestic Violence Intervention Project.

In addition to the sharp, shocking, deeply affecting script the Memory... series boasts some incredible art- and acting-world talents as directors: Tate Modern director Chris Dercon; Iwona Blazwick, OBE, director of the Whitechapel Gallery; RADA's Sue Dunderdale and Marcus Warren and Anna Ledwich.

Goldman Sachs Gives altruistic arm (don’t say anything) will be matching all ticket sales with donations, and The Millby Charitable Trust will be tripling this. There are also VIP seats which include the aftershow party with the cast and main players, on sale for £225.

4. Her Noise: Feminisms and the Sonic performance, talks, symposium and screening at the Tate Modern, 3^rd – 5^th  May 2012. Book tickets here.



Image by artist Jan Herman

 After the high profile mainstream success of Eve Ensler’s global empowerment project, I’ll end with something really intriguing, new (to me), avant-garde and promising to look forward to in May. I’ve been contacted by Electra Productions about Her Noise, a three day event which looks critically at political questions in sound, moving image, performance and cross-disciplinary art. It celebrates women in these fields – in particular, longstanding and veteran talents whose practice or influence is still going strong – given context, analysis and discussion by a thrilling range of additional speakers. I hope very much to see much more of this from Electra: putting women artists right back into the heart of cultural dialogue, acknowledging our creativity and importance, treating us to respectful appraisal and positioning us within a broader critical and art-historical framework. Check out the Facebook page here.

Her Noise includes performances and a talk by Pauline Oliveros, an evening considering the legacy of director Meredith Monk and a day of talks and discussions with contributions by Ute Meta Bauer, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Nina Power, Tara Rodgers and more. This programme marks the donation of the Her Noise Archive to the University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections housed at London College of Communication, and is realised as a collaboration between CRiSAP (Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice), Electra and Tate.

Full details below:

Artist Talk and Performance by Pauline Oliveros

Thursday 3 May 19.00-21.30, £12 / £9

Pioneering composer, performer and humanitarian Pauline Oliveros celebrates her 80th birthday this year. She gives a solo performance and a talk entitled 'Archiving the Future: The Embodiment Music of Women', followed by a performance of her 1970 score To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of their Desperation in the Turbine Hall.

Film and performance: The Voice is a Language

Friday 4 May 19.00, £5

This performance and screening celebrates the legacy of avant-garde pioneer Meredith Monk, featuring work by artists Sophie Macpherson, James Richards, Cara Tolmie and Sue Tompkins and rarely seen films by Monk. The evening is curated by Isla Leaver-Yap.

Symposium: Feminisms and the Sonic

5 May 11.00-17.50, £20 / £14

Exploring and developing emergent feminist discourses in sound and music, this symposium brings together contributions by musicians, artists, academics and writers, including Ute Meta Bauer, Sonia Boyce, Georgina Born, Viv Corringham, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Lina Dzuverovic, Catherine Grant, Emma Hedditch, Anne Karpf, Cathy Lane, Anne Hilde Neset, Maggie Nichols, Nina Power, Tara Rodgers, Salomé Voegelin.

I hope this round-up fills your diary, freshens your heart and restores your faith. Enjoy!

Workplace bullying: a realtime case study.

A few days ago the novelist and journalist Linda Grant wrote a brilliant article for the Guardian about everyday sexism, inspired by a Tweet she had sent commenting on women's position in society today. The response, on Twitter and in the article comments, was huge, as women everywhere simply recounted incidents of injustice and prejudice that they experience and witness every day. Grant wrote extremely movingly about feminism being the greatest, most wide-reaching and successful revolution the world has ever seen and I agree with her completely. It is exciting to be part of such a strong women’s movement, which advances despite such immense and ubiquitous opposition - a misogynist opposition so widespread that it has become the norm, the standard, the default, the context for everything.

On the issue of this opposition Grant is not triumphant but sober. She indicates the sadness, the chagrin, the depression and the sheer horror that come from ubiquitous sexism as it is expressed virtually constantly in “everyday experience, not rhetoric or theory, but the very air we breathe, the way we live, yesterday and today: the small indignities, the opportunities denied, the insults, the patronage, the dismissal, the ignoring, the diminishing, the low expectations, the whole indignity of sexism, including the relentless jokes about it, jokes that are rarely made in relation to racism.”

A few days after Grant's article was published I received the following email and sent the response below. I have kept in the compliments because I didn’t want to edit anything. The writer gave me permission to reprint her emails and all names have been changed.

Dear Bidisha,

I have only recently started reading your blog, and am hooked. I am really enjoying your writing - your honesty and frankness, but also the way you aren't afraid to talk about how sexism makes us feel. I have always been wary of admitting the emotional impact of such experiences, for fear that it somehow makes the facts less powerful.

I wanted to email because I am having trouble at work and my instinct tells me strongly that it is a sexist issue, although I feel sure that those involved would disagree. I am just interested to see what you think, so that I can understand the situation a little better.

I teach music part time at [an educational institution that does extremely valuable work].  I am a performing musician myself, I sing and play cello, in bands and solo. I have recorded in studios and worked with various producers in various genres of music. I am in an a performance collective and am working on a piece of solo theatre which will involve music, comedy and text-based performance. I have also years of experience as a workshop leader, both music and drama, for young people of all ages.

Since I started teaching at this particular [institution] I have had as my teaching assistant a man called Iain, who is 37 (I am 29). Until I arrived at school he was without doubt the only adult at school with experience with 'modern' music in performance, and considers himself to be the go-to guy at school in terms of cool bands and playing guitar. In my lessons he undermines me at times, and in conversation always, always disregards my performance/music experience.

There is another man in school, Sean, who has a degree in music technology.  When I first arrived at the school he was really helpful, offering his help in selecting new equipment but ultimately deferring to my decisions. I considered him an ally, if not quite a friend.

Then, at the staff Christmas party, we were chatting and getting on well.  I thought nothing of it - I am in a 5 year relationship (which he knows) and he is married. But just before he left he tried to kiss me.  I turned him down, said "I thought you were married?" and he left.

Since then, him and Iain have seemed to become a gang. They have arranged music clubs for lunchtimes I am not there, even though I have directly told them not to, and told me I can do the singing with the girls on a Thursday. Eventually, after numerous occasions where I have sat them down and reasonably explained my decisions, I sent an email and cc'd in the headteacher. Sean emailed back, a snide, nasty email that implies heavily that I have done no work towards the project and that he couldn't believe he had to explain this to me again.  To add to that, another teacher overheard Iain speaking to me in a manner not appropriate for him being my teaching assistant, and so I was pulled into the head's office to ask whether Iain undermines me. When I said a reluctant 'yes', the headteacher told me he would deal with it.  The head then pulled Iain out of my lesson, told him off then sent him back to my lesson for the remaining hour, during which time Iain neither spoke to me nor looked at me, and refused to help the kids, instead just saying, "You'd better ask Miss" whenever they asked a question.

I don't know why I felt the need to write to you about this. I am feeling unbearably anxious about the meetings with Sean, Iain and the headteacher on Thursday, and feel that I just am not going to be listened to properly. I suppose I just wanted to ask you whether you thought that I am on the receiving end of some sexist behaviour? I feel sick about the whole situation.

I guess the only other thing to mention is that there is another teacher, Rosie, who is on my side completely, and I know she fearlessly sticks up for me.

I imagine you are very busy, so obviously you might not have time to reply.  In fact, even just writing this email has helped me see things a little more clearly.

I replied,

Hello,

You are absolutely totally and utterly being victimised in a range of pretty typical sexist ways, all of which are deeply detrimental in combination. Your email makes this very clear indeed. You have done all the right things and (if I may) kept your head very well while all this is going on! You have been proactive, clear and dignified and you have not internalised what is happening.

I wondered if you would give me permission to use what you have written and put it on my blog, with all names changed, along with this reply. I feel it would be very powerful in letting other women know they are not alone - and that the methods of bullying are universal. Your situation may feel isolated and specific but frankly I think you will find that many women have experienced the same, in different fields, and will know what you are going through: the lurking suspicion, the disbelief, the sadness (which I think is always greater than political anger), the confusion about what to do and the horror that it is happening at all, perpetrated by people who seem to be normal, decent guys, colleagues, friends.

Dismissing and undermining a woman, talking down to her, ignoring her, freezing her out, erasing her expertise and contribution, ganging up on her, freezing her out from meaningful and interesting projects, bullying her, refusing to acknowledge her or help her - and outright sexually assaulting her - are all sexist behaviours. Luckily some of these behaviours have been witnessed by other colleagues.

It sounds like a very claustrophobic situation, too. You have been right in taking it to the head and extremely brave in confronting the perpetrators themselves. They now know that you are interpreting their behaviour (rightly) as sexist and bullying. The man who tried to kiss you has grossly overstepped the boundaries of normal, decent, civil (or legal) behaviour and has committed an attempted sexual assault.

I am at a loss for how to advise you. I feel incredibly sad in writing and thinking about possible courses of action and in contemplating how this is poisoning what sounds (reading between the lines) like an otherwise lovely, interesting and challenging job. You could take it to a tribunal - sexual discrimination, bullying - but even if you won, you would be isolated and scapegoated afterwards. Even when a woman wins a tribunal about workplace issues, it can be hard to go in there again as the legal process is tainting in itself.

But you can't continue in this way at all. You have a right to work and to have your no doubt great contribution, expertise, experience and talent acknowledged with gratitude, welcomed into the broader work that is done and thankfully referenced. You have a right to face your colleagues without fear of bullying, belittling and sexual harassment/assault and a right to flourish as a teacher and a musician of great pedigree.

It is not as though you want the perpetrators 'punished', as such; more that you want to be able to do what you do best, without being undermined or mistreated.

If I were you, I would talk to Rosie and ask if she might support me, then I would submit a formal complaint to the head (if you have not already done so) and if there are any 'higher' disciplinary bodies, giving as many specific examples, with times, dates and dialogue, as possible. I would explain what specific action I would like taken. If this makes no difference, or things become worse....

....Perhaps it's a sign that the universe wants you to step out onto a bigger stage, as a creative theatre, music and performance star in your own right. Sometimes a school is too small to contain a woman's charisma, talent, guts and gifts.

Lots of love,

Bidisha

She replied,

Hello,

Thank you so much for your response. I feel heartened by it, and a lot more confident in facing the meeting on Thursday. I do feel that I have been frozen out, belittled and bullied, but I think I hadn't really seen it like that.  It feels so shocking and personal, somehow insidious, that I have been seriously asking myself whether it's my fault.  However, now I am prepared to go in and fight my corner, as much as I would infinitely prefer not to have to. I feel so bored by the situation, really, a sort of fundamental boredom, bored by even having to go down this path.

But, yes, of course please do put this up on your blog. Also I have sent my email and your response round to some friends and family and many have already come back to me in support. Also a friend (who has more experience in workplace confrontation) is going to prep me for the meetings so I can express myself in the most calm, assertive way possible! I will certainly talk to Rosie and engage her support as well.

Again, thank you so much, I so appreciate your warm, compassionate response.

Love,

Harriet

Well...Thursday has come and gone. I wonder how it went.

UPDATE, as as 27.3.12. Well! Now you know:

Hi Bidisha,

Thanks for publishing the story, I hope it helps other people in similar positions not feel so alone.  I went into the meetings feeling confident and reasonable, and came out feeling like I had stood my ground and shown that I wasn't going to take any of that behaviour, and it worked. I compromised at the points I had decided I could compromise on, and since then have been feeling much better about the whole situation. I have also decided that I am not going to let it upset me, and will deal with problems if and when they arise without letting what's happened and what might potentially happen dent my confidence.

A few people have contacted me having read your blog post, and so I was wondering whether you could take out the reference to [certain identifying factors]? It hadn't occurred to me before that these things would would identify me as much as my actual name.

Thanks, and again, thanks for your help and support, it has helped immensely.

Love Harriet x 

My reply:

First of all - CONGRATULATIONS!

Yes, I will take out the references you mention immediately.

May I include this exchange at the bottom of the blog post? It will make many readers delighted. You have been noble, civilised, high-minded, shown absolute smarts under great pressure and acted with a confidence and a sense of self-worth which have shone the way. And you have triumphed without losing the job you love the work you excel at.

Congratulations - I am full of admiration.

An appeal from Child in Need India reveals "two Indias" - that of the privileged, and that of the poor

Child In Need India (CINI) has been working in India for nearly 40 years to combat the worst effects of poverty in a country where 6,000 children a day die from preventable causes such as malnutrition and women are 80 times more likely to die in childbirth than in the UK, according to  UNICEF research from 2009.

The charity's health workers identify pregnant women in poor districts who are at risk of developing complications during pregnancy or giving birth to severely malnourished children. Health workers dispense life-saving ante-natal advice to women and advise the family on creating nutritious meals on a tight budget. They also provide vaccinations and act as advocates to help women access the health and education services that they are entitled to in order to bring about long-term improvements in people’s lives.

This Mother’s Day, CINI hopes to raise enough funds through a charity appeal on Radio Four to support 1,000 women through their pregnancy upto their child’s second birthday through a sponsorship programme costing just £10 per month for 33 months - which add up to the first 1,000 days of a child's life.

Designer and entrepreneur Jade Jagger has recently been appointed as CINI’s celebrity ambassador. Speaking ahead of Mother’s Day, Jade said:

As a young mother [of two daughters], I’ve always been aware of the hardship other families endure and, of course, the potential dangers. CINI's work with pregnant women and children from the poorest families saves lives and there is no better time than Mother’s Day to highlight the fact that, for many women in India, childbirth can be a deadly experience without the right support.

You can read the pregnancy diaries and case studies of two Indian women on the CINI site, here.

The charity will broadcast an appeal read by Sir Mark Tully on BBC Radio Four this Mother's Day, Sunday 18th March, at 7.55am and 9.26pm and the following Thursday, 22nd March, at 3.27pm. Mark Tully is a patron of CINI and said his experience of travelling around India  had demonstrated the gaps in basic health care which resulted in many needless deaths. He added:

Conservative estimates show that one young woman in the prime of her life dies every seven minutes in India due to pregnancy-related complications.

CINI founder Dr Samir Chaudhuri, a paediatrician who set up the charity as a small clinic in Kolkatta in 1974, said it made him angry to see so many preventable deaths in his country. He said healthcare for the Indian poor was either unavailable or of poor quality and that illiteracy and poverty were also contributing factors in maternal and infant mortality. But why, in a country which is booming economically, are so many people dying from preventable causes? He says,

Today, there are two Indias. The India that is booming is literate and has the skills and capacity to generate wealth - their children won’t die. Then there is the other India, where there is malnutrition, illiteracy and poverty and there is no access to healthcare and nutrition.

In the UK, more than a century ago, the same situation existed with a ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ England separated by wealth. It was the industrial revolution, along with education and greater transparency which helped to close that gap and I believe the same thing will happen in India but it will take time - maybe another 20 years. I don’t think I will live to see it.

For my colleagues: call Ian Griggs on 07790 926 292 for more details or to arrange interviews.

Disgruntled of Devon shows how Tesco patronises women just in time for Mother's Day

This, from a reader, too painful to pass over:

I meet examples of sexism virtually daily here in Devon, and I try always to challenge it - though it gets very wearing sometimes!  I dropped into Tesco this morning to be met by a large placard/ad at the front entrance for Mother's Day, which began:

Mums do so much for us - not just the cooking, shopping and cleaning.

I shouldn't be surprised, but I was - it just encapsulates all the unspoken assumptions about 'women's work' and who does the chores in the household, and it just so saddens me that, after all these years, these assumptions are still so much on display, so much a part of our daily life.  The placard went on to extol the virtues of mums, how much they care and look after us, etc. - and I'm a mum too, and yes, I've done all this stuff - but I do other stuff too, and my (male) partner shares shopping and cooking and cleaning and other chores too, as well as the caring and parenting.

I'm intending to complain to Tesco, but it so feels like an uphill struggle in this neck of the woods...  I just wanted to share it with someone out there who I know will 'get' immediately what I mean and how I feel about this - and believe me, there are so many people I know here who just wouldn't even see this placard as any kind of a problem...

Thanks for listening!