Blog Archive – July, 2010

Tahrir is about politics, anyway you look at it

July 04, 2010

by Barbara Nimri Aziz

“It’s just culture”, say those who elevate politics to an undeserved status within journalistic discourse. It’s a dismissal, like saying she's “just a housewife”. In both housewives and culture, the demotion derives from complete ignorance of what a wife really is and what culture really is.

It’s insulting, and meant to be so. Worse, the housewife and the presenter of culture often accept the dismissal. Not me.

EVERYTHING is political. Where you live, how you write, your social network, your tastes, what you listen to, where you holiday. Everything.

Because Tahrir does not devote our weekly hour to analyses of war strategies, definitions of shia and sunni, the latest declarations from Tel Aviv or Washington, or Charlie Rose’s chat with the head of a political party does not mean what we discuss is not political.  

Politics is voice; it is empowerment; it is defining the debate; it is ourselves deciding what we value; it is rejecting those boxes others try to confine us to.

[ Tahrir is about politics, anyway you look at it ]

Search

Tahrir Diwan

a poem.. a song..

Darwish: "On A Day Like Today" read by Fady Joudah
from The Butterfly's Burden (2006) translated by Joudah

See poems and songs list

Flash

"Angels"
Abdal Hayy Moore reads from 'Ramadan Sonnets'

See audio list

Book review

Monica Ali's
Brick Lane
reviewed by .

See review list

Tahrir Team

Tamara Issak

Read about Tamara Issak in the team page.

See Tahrir Team

Select Links