There Is No Comfort in Death

©2012 Maryam Ismail

Within the past month or so, African Americans have been killed either by police or self-defenders protected under the law.  Trayvon Martin was killed on February 26^th, According to a New York Times report, on March 24^th, in Pasadena,  California, Kendrec  McDade was shot at eight times and killed as he reached for his waistband, believing their lives were in danger. In Chicago, on March 22^nd, Rekia Boyd died after being shot in the head by an off duty police officer while hanging out in the park. These murders have pierced the heart of the African American community.

Add to this the murder of Shaima Alawadhi or racial profiling of Muslim students and mosque goers, and you have a common thread.  These are two groups of people that we (those who are participating within the structure of white supremacy) are not comfortable with you around us the way you presently, look, act, dress, talk or pray, etc.  In essence until you change so that we aren’t afraid of you, you shouldn’t be here.

 At the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, on Saturday, Wajahat Ali, head researcher of the report, Fear Inc., stated that “Before it was Arabs or Muslims, but now Islam is the enemy.”  Knowing that this sentiment is pervasive, the story of Shaima Al Awadhi remains at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of coverage.

Also, the murder of Shaima Al Awadhi has seeming been pushed aside by the coverage of Martin and other killings of African Americans because, unlike hers, it’s a single incident. Another reason is that although some are suspecting her death as a probable hate crime it’s not one that involves the state or laws that justify vigilante justice which are now being used in incidents where racism comes into play.

 Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that hate crimes against Muslims don’t happen. I’ve seen it happen shortly after 911. A man attacked a woman in the supermarket claiming that she (the representative of all Muslims world-wide) blew up the World Trade Center.  Little did he know that she had back up, my husband and his friends and I created such a fuss that the guy and his wife were escorted out of the store. The owners, the Corrado Brothers of Corrado’s in Clifton, New Jersey, were not going to let anyone disturb their customers. They were among the few that I’ve seen who would stand up for Muslims during that time.

The Martin case, has caused such outrage is mostly because of the circumstances around it clearly point to wrong doing. A kid visiting a relative in gated community, and was then approached by someone who didn’t live there. Listening to the recording of the phone call made by Martin’s killer to 9-1-1, we hear him being told, to not follow Martin; basically, leave him alone.

 I don’t know what went through George Zimmerman’s mind as he followed Martin. What I do know is that Martin’s death is a lynching. One that in the eyes of the law, is ok. It’s as Wild West as you could get; if you don’t like the way someone looks you can just kill him and get to go home.

“Stereotypes of a black man misunderstood, but it’s still all good,” rapper The Notorious B.I.G so aptly put it. But it wasn’t all good.

This is was especially the case in aftermath of the seemingly endless brutal violence in New York City duringthe 1990’s. Eleanor Bumpers, Michael Griffith, Gavin Cato, Aamadu Diallo are some of the names of the fallen. In retrospect, can’t help but see a pattern between what happened to him and New York during the tenure of Mayor David Dinkins and these final days of the Obama administration.

 Dinkins, the first African American mayor of New York City, whose skin color and history (race) proved to be more salt in old wounds then a healing balm of the African Americans living there.  Most of you may not know the many names of those who died during that decade in New York City alone, but they represent the terror of the 1990’s. Many were victims of perception. In 1994, Dinkins was followed by Rudolph  Guliani. He had a different approach he used paddy wagons that rounded up everyone who look like they didn’t belong on the streets of New York.

During the Guliani administration, 1999,  Ahmadu Diallo a Guinean college student,  was shot 41 times by off-duty New York police officers as he reached for his wallet (they assumed it was a gun).  Initially, his killers were indicted by a Bronx grand jury, but after a ‘change of venue’ which moved the trial to Albany, where they were acquitted.

 This Saturday on the Melissa Harris Perry Show, Diallo’s mother came out to speak about the similarities between the killing of her son and Trayvon Martin. One element has been the attempts to portray Trayvon in a negative light, something that Kadiatou Diallo called “Heartbreaking. First suffering the loss of a child, then having to go out and defend his honor.”

I have two sons in the US, both African American and Muslim and I pray every day for their safety. I listened to the terrifying howling of what is now being said to be the voice of Trayvon Martin, and then, I heard the sound of a gunshot. I felt it bounce off my heart. After that, I didn’t hear anymore howling. 

Some Old School: Remembering the Nakba Everywhere

Cliches in The Hurt Locker

Maryam Ismail (AT HOME) / 30 March 2010

The film The Hurt Locker is an infomercial for the war on terror, reiterating the one-sided portrayal of US soldiers as self-sacrificing and hardworking. Iraqis in the film however are corrupt, sneaky, and cowardly. Conversely, this film made by a woman, had only one woman in it whose lines don’t amount to a single paragraph.

The voices of the women, especially those affected by the war are hard to find. It’s time to create an oral history of victims of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon. In this project there can be no wailing, chest pounding, grovelling, moaning or bizarre conspiracy theories.  Just voices of women, girls, and mothers-whose voices have been locked up in the sort of media ventriloquism of aid workers, documentary makers, UN officials, and powerless 
peace activists.

The traditional media outlets of AP, UPI, Reuters, as well as other global players have split the discourse into two sides colouring one hero and the other terrorist and for the most part, both are male. To spice up this black and white canvas, there are stories of Iraqi women and girls being forced into prostitution or unwanted refugees who’ve been rejected as asylum seekers. But what about those who remain behind? How do they cope with the battalions of missionaries, social reformers, and cultural opportunists coming to ‘save them’? 

I found a warm fuzzy story about happy refugees who’ve made peace with their predicament and the suffering on the web site, Teacherstv. This video about Iraqi refugee children in Syria, was reminiscent of the 18^th century polemics of the happy slave, when no one is happy. But it’s human nature to take the worst situation and do the best you can with it. In my search for videos about Iraqi moms, I found a horrendous video from Parents TV promoting a children organisation called Campfire USA. Armed with a scheme called ‘Operation Iraqi children’, Campfire USA organised a school supplies drive for Iraqi children. readmore 

The End of M Magazine and My Life articles

Sniff, I can't believe it. It's over, just like that. Two weeks ago, I got an email from my beloved editor that M Magazine was being canceled effective immediately. The line was that "They did survey and the audiences wanted something different."

I don't know what the real story is, but it just was done in such a way that made me wonder.

Anyway, it will mean that I will be working on my anthology, currently entitled From Alaska to Mongolia, but I'm thinking about changing this. The idea was to write about the experiences of Muslims around the globe.

But let me ask you guys, What do you want to know about the Muslim world?

Please spare me the silly questions such as those about 4 wives, 70k virgins, and stoning and loss of limbs. Google it if you are dying to know.

Just think of this entry as the question box.

Ask away. 

Desert Island Books: Filiz Ahmet

Maryam Ismail

Apr 11, 2012

http://www.thenational.ae/featured-content/channel-page/lifestyle/middle-article-list/desert-island-books-filiz-ahmet

It's a lovely irony that Filiz Ahmet, the lead in the historical television series Muhtesem Yüzyil (The Magnificent Century), is a by-product of the Ottoman campaigns into Europe. An ethnic Turk from Macedonia, she is a star on both sides of the Bosphorus - in her native hometown, Skopje, and in Istanbul. Ahmet, 30, made her stage debut at the age of 6 alongside her grandfather, the theatrical legend Lütfü Seyfullah, at the Skopje National Turkish Theatre. She attended the Skopje Academy of Fine Arts Theatre Company and in 2003 won the Best Young Actress award for her role in the play Küçürekkiz. However, her transition from stage to the small screen wasn't easy, as she would get panic attacks in front of the camera. "At the time, I just felt that once they started shooting it was never going to end," she says. "It took me about two months to get used to the camera, now I'm very comfortable with it." Her television career began when she starred in the Macedonian series Galina, the story of a family set during the Balkan war. She then moved on to Turkish TV in the series Elveda Rumeli. The creators of Muhtesem Yüzyil asked her to read the script for the pilot, and she liked it and accepted the part of Nigar Kalfa. The hit series, based on intrigues in the harem of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, airs around the globe from Uzbekistan to the US. It is on Dubai TV as Hareem Sultan. Ahmet tells Maryam Ismail about her Desert Island Books.

THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint Exupery

This classic was one of the first books I read as a child. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. At the time, I found the pictures so fascinating that I kept going back to look at them again and again. It's really just a little tale, but it taught me that there's a whole new world beyond my imagination, and it might just be better than anything I could have imagined. After many years, I've re-read it as an adult, and realised how much influence it has had on the direction I've taken in my life. This is most definitely a book that gets my heart fluttering with excitement even if I read just a few chapters.

 A MEMENTO FOR ISTANBUL by Ahmet Ümit

This mystery starts in present-day Istanbul when a body is found with an ancient coin in its hand; solving the case means going all the way back to the Byzantine era. It's sort of a history of murders in Istanbul. In this book you learn not only how people lived in the city at different times throughout history, but also how laws have changed over time as well. While reading about murders, I learned a lot about Istanbul that I never knew - amazing!

 THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This classic was one of the first books I read as a child. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down until I finished it. At the time, I found the pictures so fascinating that I kept going back to look at them again and again. It's taught me that there's a whole new world beyond my imagination, and it might just be better than anything I could have imagined. I've re-read it as an adult, and realised how much influence it has had on the direction I've taken in my life.

 PUSLU KITALAR ATLASI by Ihsan Oktay Anar

This is one book that everyone must read at least once in their lifetime, especially because of its flawless narrative style and how it plays with history. It takes you back to Ottoman times and asks the reader, how would life have been different if people then had thought about things differently? What if they had been sceptics? As the story takes shape one can feel a sense of tranquility. This book tries to say a lot, but if I give too much away, it will take away from its magic. I advise all of those who haven't read it yet to do so the first chance they get.

 THINK OF A NUMBER by John Verdon

This is the first of the Dave Gurney series and it's the best detective story I've read in years. It's about a psychopath who sends menacing messages, filled with riddles and numbers. Once I got it in my hands I didn't want to put it down. But I had to settle for reading it when I had time between shooting scenes of Muhtesem Yüzy¿l. It was really hard when it came my turn to shoot. As soon as I was done filming, I'd run back to my place just continue reading it. It was so real it made me wonder, could something like that really happen?

 SERENAD by Zülfü Livaneli

Livaneli is my kind of writer. My family and I have been following his work over the years. As soon as this book was released, people rushed to get it and criticised it a lot. Nevertheless, to me the book is beautiful. It's a love story that begins at the start of the First World War and the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. It follows a woman from her past to her present and it uses breathtaking language to tie every scene together seamlessly. Serenad makes you relive history; each event in it is so well researched and told in such exquisite detail. Reading it was like an education in itself.

 EVRENDEN TORPILIM VAR by Aykut Ogut

I often read self-help books that my friends recommend to me. With Evrenden Torpilim Var, I found that it talked about so many things that happened to me in my own life. It teaches you that you can get over any obstacles that come your way. This is one book that you can't just read once and then put up on the shelf. For sure there will be times in your life when you have challenges and you will want to refer to it again and again

Best friends forever

The National staff

Apr 28, 2012 

http://www.thenational.ae/featured-content/channel-page/lifestyle/middle-article-list/best-friends-forever

Comforting, thoughtful, kind and generous, our best friends are always there for us and often know us even better than we know ourselves. We meet three sets of true BFFs and learn what feelings and shared interests bind them together. Photographs by Tina Chang

Maryam Ismail, 48, and Aayisha Nur Ismail, 8, and Khadijah Nur Ismail, 10

From Newark, New Jersey, US and Sharjah

How and when they met?

Maryam met both her girls on their birthdays but in two different countries. Aayisha was born in Dubai and Khadijah was born in Newark, New Jersey. "As an expat in the UAE I didn't know many people," she says, "and so, my children became my constant friends and companions. We became friends when we discovered our mutual love for foreign languages and history."

Why are you best friends?

"Love is the reason," says Maryam. "We just love to be together. When people ask me if I like having kids, I always answer: 'Of course.' Every time I look at Khadijah's lovely face, I remember how I felt the day she was born. After two boys she was my first girl, my dream baby. 'Did you see that pretty baby?' people would say whenever we went out shopping. She was my trophy. Now, she's my smart cookie."

Best thing about them?

Maryam: "With Aayisha, I've learnt that there is no excuse for holding onto pain. She's the bravest person that I know. She suffers from eczema terribly sometimes, and yet, she always has a ready smile and tons of sweetness to go with it. As for Khadijah, I call her my personal secretary, Ever since she was four she's had this ability to observe things and learn them really fast. This comes in handy when your day is as hectic as mine."

Khadijah: "The best thing about our mother is that she is cuddly and sweet and we look alike. She always encourages me to do the things I like. Right now, my favourite is cooking. She's always letting me pick stuff out of the cookbooks to make."

Aayisha: Leaning back on her mother's arm, she says: "She's kind like a heart," and smiles. "She picks the best toys! Also, I'm her teddy bear and she's mine."

Defining moment

Maryam: "For me the defining moment was when I began home-schooling them. Most parents feel that they need a break from kids; however, I don't. They're my little buddies. I then realised that I actually enjoyed their company. We chat, play together and have a lot of fun."

Maryam Ismail