Syria follows Turkey and France with limited Niqab ban
Two women in Syria wearing the niqab while shopping in Damascus (Bassem Tellawi/AP)
On Sunday, Syria’s Minister of Higher Education, Ghiath Barakat, announced a ban on the niqab, which veils the full face, in universities. Syria is not the first Muslim-majority nation to take such action, Turkey has that distinction –but the ban, closely following the controversial and more publicized French ban on the burqa and niqab still came as a shock to many.
In the face of what some see as growing religiosity, Syria’s decision is in large part to maintain its secular identity.
CNN Blogger, Stephen Prothero writes:
“In France, secularism typically means sweeping the public square clean of the detritus of religion. In Syria, it means something very different — giving a public platform to a variety of moderate religious and warding off religious ‘extremism’ in the process.”
(Global Voices shined the spotlight on what Syrian bloggers were saying about secularism in the Middle-East a few months back. Very interesting conversation and one that we don’t often see in Western media)
Christian Science Monitor also has an interesting look at Syria’s motivations for the ban and why it might be upheld better there than in Egypt, for example. Read here.
And finally, if you don’t have link-overload yet, Faisal al Yafai of The Guardian sounds off on the ban as well, arguing:
“Syria’s struggle with Islamists and visible symbols of Islam is part of a wider clash, a clash within Islam itself. Political Islam is gaining ground across both the Arab world and Muslim-majority countries…The debate, crudely put, is over the space between the personal and the political. Secular-minded governments have tried to keep faith out of state institutions; Islamists want their faith to guide those institutions. Personal space has also increasingly been politicised, with a rise in the wearing of the headscarf and the veil in Syria and in most Muslim-majority countries.”
Ethan Zuckerman Hears Voices–And you can too!
Many of us were lucky enough to see Ethan Zuckerman speak recently at USIP’s panel: Blogs and Bullets: Evaluating the Impact of New Media on Conflict. The events drew speakers from different sectors and places and was a fascinating look at the role new media can and doe splay in conflict. Those interested can watch the video here.
Ethan spoke about the ways in which new media has not been successful in bridging differences of ideology, culture, language and geography. In essence, we go online to interact mainly with people who are like us or whom we already know in the real world. Barriers of language especially limit us in making certain cross-cultural connections. But with the help of sites like Global Voices, things may be changing.
In this engaging and frequently funny talk from TED, Ethan Zuckerman expands on the points he brought up on the USIP panel and shows how we can expand our spheres of inclusion to wider and wider voices.
Quetta, Pakistan--in the aftermath of a bomb that killed six people. SFCG has recently helped launch a Radio for Peacebuilding project in the country.
Foreign Policy Magazine and The Fund for Peace have released their 2010 Failed States Index. The index is produced annually and is 60 countries long. It bases its findings on 12 indicators of state decay including fictionalized elites, brain drain and group grievances.
In the five years that the study has been published the top 10 spots have rotated amongst only 15 countries. Somalia (to no one’s surprise) once again tops the list for the third year in a row. The top 5 are all in Africa. Speaking to this lack of improvement–what FP calls a “chronic condition”, James Traub writes, “The remarkable fixity of the Failed States Index stands as a reproach to America’s nonchalant faith in progress and its own capacity to solve the world’s woes.”
Search for Common Ground works in 16 of the top 60 countries, four of those (Zimbabwe, DRC, Guinea and Pakistan) being in the top 10.
The photojournalism series Postcards from Hell (from which the above picture is taken)offers a haunting glimpse into the 60 troubled states. See them and more from this issue that is a must-read for those interested in conflict transformation: FP Failed States Index.
Nice vid breaking down the economic benefits of peace as shown by the global peace index. If you haven’t already seen the index it’s definitely worth checking out.
We talked about it here, last month.
thoughts?
For SFCG Intern, Cait O’Donnell, Sunday’s bombings in Kampala have special resonance.
Kampala (byCait O'Donnell)
By Cait O’Donnell
I play rugby with George Washington University, so when I arrived in Kampala, Uganda—where I spent my junior semester abroad—I immediately connected with the rugby club there.
Even halfway around the world, Saturday is still rugby day!
I spent a few of my Saturdays at the rugby club, watching both the men’s and women’s matches and playing with the women’s club. I met wonderful girls, who were fighting stereotypes every time they stepped on the pitch, or even out of their homes. To me, rugby transcends so many differences: cultural, gender-based and ideological. When I played with the team, I was not seen as American, white or female, I was seen as a rugger, who plays the same game as everyone else. Rugby requires the immediate support of your teammates; without them you are physically tackled again and again. The importance of unity in sports like rugby helps establish a community that easily crosses cultures. By simply putting on my cleats and a mouthguard, I was accepted into this new team.
The culmination of my program was an independent research project and I moved north to Gulu to conduct mine. There, I again connected with a rugby club. This time, it was a men’s club, but I was accepted nonetheless. I also played pick-up games and trained with football clubs in the area. My positive experiences with sports and teambuilding fueled my research in Gulu. I spent my time studying the use of sports as a tool for rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers. I explored the idea of sports as a base for community building and reconciliation and this idea has stayed with me. Here at SFCG, I continually see the positive effects of sports in team and peace building.
But this past Sunday, at the Kyadondo Rugby Club, sports were the backdrop of violence. After an afternoon of celebrating Spain’s epic World Cup win, I was shocked to hear about the bombings in Kampala during the 90th minute of the match. read more…
