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Sexuality and Modernity in Today’s Iran

By Lynne Rogers
 
Modernity, Sexuality, and Ideology in Iran
By Kamran Talattof
Syracuse University Press, 2011
 
When asked to publically support Feminism, French writer George Sands declined with the claim, “When women liberated their own beds, the rest would follow.” Iranian scholar Kamran Talattof would probably agree with Sands provided that the liberation was accompanied by an in
Section 
Books

Documentary Film Gives Voice to the Erotic Body

By 
By Kim Jensen
 
Joumana Haddad, Lebanese feminist, author, and poet, founded Jasad, the Arabic Journal of Erotic Arts, in order to advocate for the sexual liberation for the Arab World. In her film, “Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions” Amanda Homsi-Ottosson combines interviews with Haddad, Jasad journal contributors, and critics, as well as reactions from the street, and footage taken from the literary salons of Beirut, the Queen of Contradictions herself.
 
Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions
Directed by Amanda Homsi-Ottosson
Women Make Movies, 2011, 40 minutes 
 
“Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions” is a short documentary about “Jasad,” the Arabic journal of erotic arts founded and edited by Joumana Haddad, the Lebanese author, poet, and feminist.

Music Trumps Politics: Israeli-Palestinian Orchestra Weathers Gaza Storm

By Elie Chalala
 
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s participation at the Lucerne Festival coincided with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza, the reverberations of which cannot go unnoted by the ensemble.
 
The West-Eastern Orchestra represents the legacy of Daniele Barenboim, an Israeli musician and conductor, and the late Edward Said, a Palestinian-American

'Photographs of Agony', from Vietnam to Gaza, from Ghouta to Mount Sinjar

The memory seems as though it is wired to store images, images that often live unpredictable lives within the psyche. Aziza, a 15-year old Yazidi Kurdish girl, has been haunting me for more than a week. Her innocent facial expression, a look of fear mingled with cognitive disorientation, continues to disturb me despite the helicopter that ferried her out of Mount Sinjar to safety. CNN’s Ivan Watson, the reporter who aided Aziza onto the chopper, is said to have become choked up with tears on several occasions.

The Only Diner in the Restaurant: A Travel Writer’s Perspective on the Arab Spring

By 
Daniel Hugh-Jones
 
Several excellent articles and books have been written concerning the revolutions of the Arab Spring, most by participants, relatives of the fallen, political analysts or foreign correspondents. Tom Chesshyre makes no claim to any of these perspectives. Instead, he deals with the subject of life during and after revolution with the light touch and charm of a travel writer.
 
A Tourist in the Arab Spring
By Tom Chesshyre
Bradt Travel Guides, Ltd., The Globe Pequot Press Inc., 2013
 
When the first violent images of the Arab Spring flashed across our television screens, most of us watched with interest, wished the demonstrators more or less success in their efforts, depending on our points of view, and then got on with our lives.

New TV Series on Arab-Israeli Conflict Echoes Old Ideas of ‘Balance’

By Elie Chalala
 
Broadcasting “The Honorable Woman” is not an attempt to respond to current events, according to Hugo Blick, the British producer who wrote and directed eight episodes of the 4-hour mini-series.
 
The “Honorable Woman,” a TV drama shot in London and Morocco and produced by Sundance TV and the BBC, follows the life of Nessa, a British industrialist play

The American Mirage: Immigrant or “Un-American?”

By 
Frances Khirallah Noble
 
Carlos ben Carlos Rossman, a Puerto Rican Jew, is in for a surprise. When he lands in New York Harbor in 1950, he realizes that the American melting pot is more fable than fact. In many cases, diversity is likely to make one “Un-American” rather than American. Language, culture, religion, or even something as simple as a green baseball bat, when all of the other kids own plain pine bats, can result in ostracism.
 
In the House UN-American
By Benjamin Hollander
Clockroot Books, 2013
 
“In the House UN-American” is about tribes, how they differ and whether it’s possible to become a member of one you weren’t born into. Carlos ben Carlos Rossman, a Puerto Rican Jew (a double-pronged tribe!) lands in New York Harbor in 1950.

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