Article-27 | Where Creativity Meets Human Rights

Design: Wind-Powered Land Mine Clearing Device

By: Article 27

09-05-2012

What costs only $40 dollars to make, is made of bamboo sticks and has the potential to save lives?

Winner of a 2012 Design Of The Year award, ‘Mine Kafon’ is a wind-powered land-mine clearing device designed by Massoud Hassani. Made of bamboo sticks exploding out of a plastic centre with an integrated GPS device, it rolls over the land, deactivating mines and keeping check of clean paths.

The UN estimates that some cost as little as $3 to make and lay in the ground. Yet, removing them can cost more than 50 times that amount. Costing only $40 dollars to make one ‘Mine Kafon’, this is a simplistic design that results in a cost effective way to clear some of the 110 millions of landmines scattered around the world.

Massoud Hassani

Interactive Web App: Human Rights Violations Your Facebook Friends Could Suffer

By: Article 27

06-05-2012

Web

Amnesty International recognised that “reality only hurts when it is close”. For example, armed violence is probably an issue that may not affect you directly in your country, so how are you able to relate to those who suffer from these kinds of human rights violations everyday?

That’s where the site ‘If Facebook Were (Your Country)’ steps in. The website starts with a picture of a globe and asks you to fill in your country. It then connect the app to your Facebook account, which then predicts the human rights violations that your Facebook friends could suffer, based on the statistics of each country. The website itself is slick and beautifully designed, too- try it yourself.

http://www.ifyourfacebookwere.com/

Can Drones Be Used To Monitor Human Rights Violations?

By: Susheila

21-04-2012

Other, Technology

Drones are usually associated with military operations, particularly in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in this piece in the New York Times, Mark Hanis and Andrew Stobo Sniderman have called for the use of military drones to observe human rights violations, particular in the current climate of mass protests around the world. Hanis and Sniderman suggest that drones could give clear accounts of events in countries like Syria. At the moment, video footage seems to trickle in through YouTube and reporters are not free to report all of the abuses. They argue that drones, unlike humans, do not need to flee the protests when their lives are endangered. They can also move where observers and journalists are restricted access. With such documented evidence, prosecutions could be possible in the ICC.

The argument for using drones seems to be growing and has practical benefits. As Hanis and Sniderman point out, some drones are already being used by environmental groups, such as The Sea Shephard Conservation Society, to monitor illegal whaling. Surveillance is more cost effective and poses less of a risk to the activists. Cameras on helicopters are starting to appear at protests. Tim Pool from Occupy Wall Street has been experimenting with the use of such a device, dubbed the ‘Occucopter.’ The little helicopter is novel idea, giving protesters the ability to ‘watch the watcher,’ with the idea that surveillance of the state will help prevent aggressive repression.

What if drones were used by the police?

The issue of privacy has already been looked at by academics in the field. As it is difficult to define what a breach of privacy would entail in a world already assimilated with surveillance, analysts have predicted that privacy law is unlikely to prevent the domestic use of drones, particularly in the US, and anticipates their arrival as inevitable. Additionally, it is unclear how their use itself would be managed. If a free distribution of drones was accepted, would it not just lead to lots of shots of celebrities through their curtains or increased use within the police as suggested by Big Brother Watch? Probably, but as Melissa Bell points out, as with all technology, some will see the opportunity for good while some will see the consequences.

However, it’s not only privacy fears that could stop drones from crossing over military lines. The image of drones as machines of war is thoroughly ingrained, and one supporters of the technology will have to overcome. The Guardian reports that this has already begun in the UK, with The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Association (UAVSA), a trade group who represent the drone industry in the UK, embarking on a PR effort to reinvent the image of drones. They hope to rename and repaint drones to make them more palatable for commercial use within the UK.

What do you think about the introduction of drones for commercial use? Do you think they will result in humanitarian good or be used maliciously?

HRW Film Festival 2012 – The Island President

By: Lucy

08-04-2012

Documentary, Event, Film, Other

Putting aside how smitten the audience was with Mohamed Nasheed in ‘The Island President’, it is difficult to deny a remarkable chain of events brought the Maldives to the circumstances they find themselves in today.

As the campaign group Friends of the Maldives describe it, “on February 7th 2012, the first democratically-elected government of the Maldives was toppled in what is now widely accepted as a pre-meditated coup d’etat involving forces loyal to the former dictatorship.”

The film tells the story of the currently ejected President Mohamed Nasheed’s mission to convince the world’s governments to act in order to contain the problem of climate change, never more urgent to the Maldives, whose islands are just 1.5 metres above a sea level which is steadily rising.

The film’s release at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and into UK cinemas this week, coincides with the aftermath of the coup d’ etat, the real-time period of political and democratic instability for the Maldives, and depressing uncertainty for the future of the subject of the film; the campaign to persuade nations to reduce their carbon emissions sufficiently so Maldivians won’t become the first people to be environmental refugees.

The Maldives is an archipelago of 1200 islands in the Indian Ocean. In the film, President Nasheed narrates over beautiful luxury holiday images of the Maldives, and a soundtrack by Radiohead, “people have lived for 1000s of years in equilibrium with the sea. This is about our fight for our survival and need to sustain human life, which is fragile at 1.5 metres above sea level.”

“Maldives is a cross between paradise and… paradise. But it is not just a holiday destination for the rich and famous. Most people don’t know the history of the Maldives, on the same beaches (that tourists go to for relaxation), for 30 years people were tortured.” Including President Nasheed himself.

Before President Nasheed was democratically elected, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ruled in the Maldives for 30 years, the longest ruling dictator in Asia. He was defeated in 2008, 30 years to the day he came to power, by President Nasheed and the Moldivian Democratic Party. Gayoom was given state protection and he and his party were allowed to participate in politics, where he remained opposition leader of the DRP until January 2010 when he retired from politics. He returned to politics in September 2011 as leader of a new political party ‘Progressive Party of Maldives.’ According to former Cabinet Minister Ahmed Moosa, this is around the time the trouble began.

Speaking at the Q&A following the screening of The Island President, Moosa responded to questions from a very concerned cinema audience. Is Nasheed and his family safe? “No-one is safe.”

What were the events that led to your government being overthrown? “Events began in November. ‘Nasheed ordered the arrest of a judge,’ is a phrase we have been hearing a lot. They blame this. It wasn’t Nasheed it was the police who decided to arrest the judge, because that is their job and the judge was corrupt. Under Gayoom, there was corruption because Gayoom ruled over the three pillars of government…the legislature, executive and the judiciary. The judge had been releasing drug dealers and murderers which was making life difficult for the police and security services. Nasheed is still in the Maldives and focused on new elections to resolve the coup situation. Dr Waheed, the former Vice President under Nasheed, now says he is President. Those in opposition colluded with him behind our back, someone had gone rogue in the security service. The Maldives were about to receive all this greatly needed investment in order to become carbon neutral, now that is not going to happen.”

Back to the film, and the remarkable events that do not seem to stop happening in the sleepy Maldives, that are rapidly making the case that Maldives is not just a tourist destination. “What is the point in having conflict (in the world) when we are all going to die anyway?” is the trademark brutally honest, no nonsense attitude of President Nasheed, portrayed in the film.

While Gayoom was in Power, Nasheed was busy being educated in England. Nasheed returned to the Maldives in 1989, where he became a pro-democracy activist, establishing a human rights magazine and as a result, was taken in the middle of the night by Gayoom’s government, tortured, and put into solitary confinement for 18 months, released once, to see the birth of his daughter before being swiftly returned to confinement.

Then, in 2004, the Tsunami following the earthquake in the Indian Ocean arrived, bringing with it the reality of climate issues as it wiped out 50% of Maldives’ gross domestic product in one hour. That was when Mohamed Nasheed first thought, “it won’t be any good to have a democracy if we don’t have a country.”

The aid that was offered to the Maldives by the international community, was offered on the condition that democratic changes would be made to the country, forcing Gayoom to agree to the first democratic elections in 30 years, with the eyes of the international community on him, the country took their chance and President Mohamed Nasheed was elected with overwhelming support.

As soon as President Nasheed started his job, he realised that every single issue on his agenda was related to the problem of climate change. We watch as he discovers for himself that 57 palm trees have fallen into the sea, as 300 feet of the beach has been eroded. In the film we see Nasheed taking on the incredible burden of climate change with gusto, determination and the ruthless sense of humour. He holds the world’s first under water cabinet meeting to draw attention to the Maldives’ crisis.

President Nasheed then takes his problem all over the world, first to the 64th UN General Assembly in New York where he tells the audience, “deep down we knew, you’re not really listening!” We watch Nasheed and his team as they prepare for Copenhagen. We see him attempt to win over other Presidents to the cause by any means possible, showing a humanity that endears him to the audience. He is constantly smoking with his Ministers, outside offices and during breakouts of meetings.

After visibly agonizing over the document to submit to the Copenhagen summit Nasheed announces, “They’ll think we are a bunch of small islands with no clout if we hand in that document! I know your civil servants have been working on this for two years (the sarcasm unable to hide his frustration with bureaucracy) but… we need to change that document to Copenhagen doing things rather than asking them not to do things.” President Nasheed then declares “only one other President is smoking – of the Comoros!” another archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean but off the coast of East Africa, and he hurries off to share a cigarette with him, where he suspects he will find a sympathetic ear.

We see Nasheed and his constant wit comprehending a David and Goliath style confrontation with China at Copenhagen, where he jokes he will tease the Chinese Climate Minister by repeatedly asking “what is your problem?”, and we actually see how he does faced with the Indian Minister for the Environment where he asks that unless the USA take their emissions seriously, as an emerging power why should they?

After China and India block the agreement to reduce emissions to 350, President Nasheed says, “Just because the west pumped loads of poisonous gases into the atmosphere doesn’t mean it has to happen again.” There are many laughs at the expense of China’s attitude at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, including when Nasheed is interviewed by Chinese TV and is told, “some people people think global warming is a conspiracy and the Maldives is the number one beneficiary.” To date, however, as a result of Nasheed’s campaigning and China’s desire not to be seen as obstructive as they were at the Copenhagen Summit, China have been increasingly progressive and responsive at Cancun and Durban.

The most dramatic and inspiring events, both natural and man-made combine to form The Island President; the Maldives’ overcoming 30 years of Gayoom and his human rights abuses and corruption because of the activism of a small group of people, of whom Mohamed Nasheed is one. The 2004 tsunami that came as a devastating but ironically helpful warning of the threat of climate change, as well as the necessary push to the international community to issue Gayoom with a financial ultimatum to hold the first democratic elections in thirty years.

President Nasheed’s luck has certainly yo-yoed throughout the course of his life which leaves you hopeful that with his bright and optimistic attitude, and the release of this film to the mainstream consciousness that somehow international pressure may mount once again and call for the democratic elections to allow the Maldivian people to decide who they want to rule them.

The events have posed two problems. The immediate problem is the need to resolve the coup d’ etat in order to resolve the second, which is the problem that climate change is having for the Maldives, because the required money and investment to save them, will not come from abroad for a government that is seen as politically and democratically unstable. The words of Nasheed “we have a culture, a language, a civilization” seem particularly stark when at the Q&A following the film we were told that on the 7th February Buddhist cultural museum artefacts dating back to 1153, were destroyed by the leaders of the coup. Ahmed Moosa proudly told us that from 400BC Maldivians were Buddhists, and before that they worshipped the sun, and before that “god knows what.” This last detail, the move not only to take control of the government, but to destroy important evidence of their cultural history seems like a sinister act of control.

An audience member asked, what Moosa thought of the international community’s response to the coup of the 7th February. “I would have liked more, obviously” (sarcasm) …”but someone called for political reconciliation and elections….which is what we want.”

HRW Film Festival 2012 – Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life.

By: Rob

03-04-2012

Documentary, Event, Film

Into the Abyss: a Tale of Death, a Tale of Life, is the latest work from filmmaker Werner Herzog known for his unique style and subjects. This film focuses on two people: Michael Perry and Jason Burkett, who were involved in a triple homicide in October 2001. Both individuals were convicted in Texas of capital murder, Burkett was sentenced to life in prison while Perry was sentenced to death. At the begining Herzog says to Perry: “I do not have to like you… but I respect you and you are a human being, and I do not believe that human beings should be executed.” This message remains throughout the documentary. Michael Perry was executed on July 9th 2010 in Texas death house penitentiary, eight days after Herzog’s interview.

The film is split into chapters allowing for a mix of people and themes to be considered and really focuses on the disquieting nature of the the crime committed. The film uses police footage and a host of interviews with family and friends of all the victims of the crime, Sandra Stotler, Adam Stotler and Jeremy Richardson and also includes dialogue with people surrounding Jason Burkett and Michael Perry. These interviews provide a mixture of outcomes, including some being deeply sad as with Sandra Stotlers daughter, to others that discover remarkable stories. These are intertwined with police footage and reports that take the audience through the senseless nature of the crime and how three people lost their lives essentially for a red convertible car. Herzog explores the horror that the men created and the lives that brought them there. Perry and Burkitt blame the other for the murders and appeal their innocence, but Herzog never sides with either man’s appeal to innocence.

The film is bookended with interviews from people involved in the use of capital punishment in Texas. An interview with a prison chaplain begins the film. Herzog interview technique creates some real emotion with this man, he does this by asking: “tell me about an encounter with a squirrel?”. This interview is set a distinctly haunting place, a graveyard consisting of deceased convicts, where the headstones have only numbers rather than names.

Towards the end of the film there is an interview with Fred Allen, a former captain of a tie down team who personifies the immorality of the death penalty. Fred Allen helped conduct over one hundred and twenty executions by lethal injection throughout his career. After a particular execution involving a woman, he had a nervous breakdown and could not continue his work. He did not perform another execution and had to give up his pension. The interview highlights how principled this man was to the law of his country but due to a purity of feeling on the subject of capital punishment he had to oppose it, despite it being legal. Werner Herzog has described this man has a “national treasure” and in the Q&A after the film told of his love for him and that he was one of the strongest arguments of the inhumanity of capital punishment.

Herzog’s film is not a traditional documentary, but rather attempts to give something more. He is well known for combining narrative into his interviews in order to create something “less factual, but more truthful”. This film does truly look into the abyss it is trying to view and injects the audience with the feeling that intrinsically capital punishment should not be used even for the most abhorrent actions. With the death penalty remaining such a difficult problem, such a creative expression of the issue could give rise to more opposition to this human rights abuse. The film avoids using any other argument other than to show the beauty and sacredness of life and the repellency of an attempt to destroy it. The film coincides with four other documentaries profiling other people on death row which are now being broadcast on television. The film was premiered in London online with the HRW, and you can watch the trailer below:

HRW Film Festival 2012 – The Price of Sex

By: Rainbow

31-03-2012

Film

“You have to clear up all preconceived notions. There were a lot of cases of girls jumping out of buildings, and I thought that they were trying to commit suicide. It was only when I started meeting some of the survivors who had jumped, but did not die, that I realised this is not about them killing themselves – this is about escaping. It was the only way out. Over time you allow the women to fill in the blanks of your questions instead of bringing in your preconceived notions of what their life is about – because you have no idea.”

- Mimi Chakarova

The Price of Sex exposes a journey which has been repeated an unknown number of times. It is estimated by the UN that 1.5 million young women have been coerced from rural and impoverished backgrounds in Eastern Europe into foreign and enslaved prostitution – but noone is sure of the exact figure.

When the feature-length documentary was shown as part of the Human Rights Film Festival in London last week, director Mimi Chakarova didn’t watch it with the audience. She has sat through each screening of her investigation into sex trafficking since the release of the film in 2011. But upon reaching London she reached her limit, “I have just see it too many times”.

Mimi grew up in a peaceful Bulgarian village. Life changed when communism suddenly collapsed at the end of the 1980s, and capitalism took over. Like many others who had the resources to do so, her family migrated West when she was 13 years old. In her new life in America she became a talented photojournalist. Ten years ago, after hearing media reports of sex trafficking in Eastern Europe, she decided to investigate the reality of the industry for herself. She craved answers to the questions that haunted her, and wanted to understand a fate she feels could have easily have been hers.

The Price of Sex weaves images and voices together, offering a brutal glimpse into the layered world of sex trafficking – from the supply to the demand. Individual stories are examined and placed into a greater narrative of the economic and social conditions that encourage and maintain global sex slavery. Mimi narrates in a calm voice, and the film unfolds without sensationalist tactics nor overly emotional language. The approach is similar to how Mimi believes girls vulnerable to trafficking should be educated of the industry, “in the most realistic and honest way”.

We hear the stories of young women trafficked from Moldova and Bulgaria to Greece, Turkey and Dubai. However, as Mimi told Article-27, this is an international problem. “Girls are being sold throughout the world”. This includes Chinese girls to other Asian countries, Nigerian girls to Europe and American girls domestically trafficked to other states.

The face and name of each woman is presented, “to target the stigma, to end the silence and to attempt to fight against the shame that they feel”. A consistent pattern emerges in their stories. Living in poor Eastern European communities they had limited opportunities besides working in the fields. Many were desperate to leave and earn a decent wage abroad. So when offered a generous job offer in a foreign country, they were easily lured.

“You have to realise that traffickers are very good at identifying girls who are very vulnerable and from families that don’t have the resources to look for them. Many already come from abusive situations. A lot of girls come from orphanages”.

The travel arrangements organised for them are the first debts that they are, unknowingly, expected to repay. Upon arriving, it is soon apparent that the promised job as a waitress or cleaner was fabricated. The young women are sold by the trafficker to a pimp; the price paid for them becomes their debt which they must repay by forced prostitution or repeated rape.

“It’s such a profitable industry. When you have a slave you can pimp her out and have multiple clients who come by the minute and pay by the minute. She is a slave. She has no say as to her mental or physical health. I couldn’t give you one profile of what a trafficker is – a lot of the traffickers are women”.

The profile of the clients can also not be generalised – they are of all ages, all nationalities and from all social strata. In the film, two keen clients in Turkey are interviewed. They are both policemen, and brag about their preference for ‘Natashas’- Russian prostitutes.

Mimi presented two extremes of clients in a panel discussion after the film. “There are some men who just really like to cause violence;” for them it is about power and control. And then there are the clients who have helped women pay off their debt, helped them to escape, who are just lonely men. A man she knew in Dubai explained, “In most cases I don’t even have sex with them. I just want to feel the breath of another human being when I wake up in the morning”.

The power of The Price of Sex is how it illuminates the complexity of the sex trafficking world, leaving the audience disorientated with more questions than answers. “If you leave the cinema and forget the film in 10 minutes, then I have failed. You have to make legitimate efforts to step outside of your comfort zone and see that this affects all of us”.

In the film, we see Mimi Chakarova interview her grandmother in rural Bulgaria about the deserted village and the circumstances which have pushed people out to find a better life abroad, many of whom succeed in doing so. In stark contrast, she goes undercover to obtain images of the prostitute-laden bars in opulent Dubai.

It’s a personal and risky investigation, for which Mimi received the Nestor Almendros Award for Courage in Filmmaking from the 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival. But she protests that she should not be given an award for courage, “I should be given an award for anger. I’m so pissed off and angry all the time because I’m thinking about these questions all of the time. I’m not brave. Every time I had to get on a plane I didn’t want to”.

Ana Revenko works at La Strada in Moldova, an NGO with offices throughout Europe that offer a telephone hotline for trafficked women. At the beginning of the documentary she tells Mimi, “I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I want to be realistic” about eliminating sex slavery. Hotlines save one life at a time, but bigger issues need to be targetted: the discrepancy between rich and poor countries, the uneven access to justice, the high level of corruption and the complicity of law enforcement authorities.

Adding to the challenge is the adaptability of the industry. A new trend is emerging of ‘happy trafficking’, in which young girls – aged 10, 11, 12 years old – are brainwashed into submission and silence. This removes the need to physically mark or scar their body.

International efforts are required to break the vicious cycle of sex trafficking. Currently, the lack of accountability ensures that the industry continues to thrive. “The countries where the girls are trafficked want to wash their hands of the problem. If you don’t focus on places that are exploiting them then it’s a cycle. The clients want fresh girls, new girls. Deporting them is the perfect way to keep the girls coming- deporting used up girls and getting fresh girls who don’t know what they’re getting into. They’re being trafficked, sold. They have no rights and no say”.

It has been almost a year since The Price of Sex was released and people are starting to pay attention. The US state department will be using the film as a training tool in embassies across the world. In Serbia, the anti-corruption police unit have watched Mimi’s material, and after hearing the girls stories, have said that they will never look at these women when raiding the brothels in the same way that they used to.

The core of the issue is about deeply changing perceptions and behaviour: how men treat women, how women treat other women, and women’s perception of themselves and their place in society. “The most essential question to ask is – to what degree do we value the lives of these girls as an international community? Especially poor women. To what degree are the lives of women important?”.

The Price of Sex was shown in London as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. You can find out more at priceofsex.org.

HRW Film Festival 2012 – Putin’s Kiss

By: Jessica

29-03-2012

Film

Putin’s Kiss is a documentary following the journey of Masha Drokova, an ambitious teenager who rose quickly through the ranks to become a leading spokesperson for the Nashi youth movement in Russia. For Masha, a teenager growing up in this post-Communist society, Putin is someone to be idolised, leading Russia back on the path to global superpower. In her role she is given a flat in Moscow, a car and a TV show. Through the course of being filmed, Masha becomes friends with some liberal journalists (the so-called enemy) and begins to question her loyalty to Nashi. She leaves the movement when one of these friends, Oleg Kashin is nearly killed, most likely for voicing his views against Nashi. Lise Birk Pederson’s film follows Masha’s struggle between her dependency on Vasily Yakemenko, the founder of Nashi, and her wish for independence. What began as a coming-of-age story became “a symptomatic story of the bad political climate in Russia these days” (Pederson).

Masha with Putin

Putin’s Kiss offers an interesting glimpse into the inside runnings of Nashi, although high-up meetings could not be attended. The Nashi movement offers an educational programme to teach the new generation of Russians how to behave; they call themselves a “democratic, anti-fascist youth movement”. However, steeped in political influence, there is a constant battle against the opposition – the so-called fascists and communists (although more like human rights and pro-democracy campaigners). Nashi consequently has a much darker side. It arranges large-scale political mass actions and groups occupy places where opposition groups intend to demonstrate to try and disrupt any protest. Members are bussed in from the suburbs for these demonstrations.

A particularly gripping piece of footage from National Unity Day shows placards of opponents (“shame posters”), such as human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeeva, being thrown to the ground and stomped on. Consequently, Nashi has been compared to the Hitler Youth owing to its mass rallies, staged marches, book burnings, patriotic education and mass vilification of its opponents. Before general elections, a lot of money is pumped into Nashi, with heavy recruitment to generate support for Putin and the election. Indeed, during the latest elections, Nashi members were out in force to disrupt protests against Putin’s return to power.

Nashi demonstration for the "friends" of Russia and against "enemies" of Russia

Despite its attempts to convey a balanced view, the documentary is narrated by Oleg Kashin and through this Pederson’s viewpoint is expressed. It is ironic that a journalist is telling the story which will eventually be subject to attempts of suppression, as well as his role in Masha’s change of opinion. Through his influence, Masha is increasingly disillusioned with Nashi’s values and by the end of the film she has left the youth group. However, her views have not entirely changed; she still supports the main values of Nashi in supporting Putin and moulding the moral values of the future generations. She does not, however, want to attach her name to, and be spokesperson for, the more aggressive acts as they have increasingly become in the public eye. Her ignorance and naivety about the darker side of Nashi is questionable; perhaps it is more about image for her. Her departure from politics to own a PR company would correspond with this. She thinks that the film portrays Nashi as more dangerous than is actually is but is worried that it will affect her career; thus is the power of Nashi.

Putin’s Kiss’s UK premiere was screened at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Human Rights Watch has been following the Kremlin’s efforts to stifle and marginalise civil society for many years. This film festival raises awareness of the issues that are faced in Russia today of political oppression and its “special democracy”. The Human Rights Watch Film Festival is running in London from 21st -30th March. You can watch the trailer of Putin’s Kiss below:

HRW Film Festival 2012 – Habibi

By: Chris

27-03-2012

Film

The Gaza Strip is now a narrow stretch of 25 miles by 9 miles, and is inhabited by over 1.5 million people. Successive attempts to restrict the movements of people and resources in and out of this area have left the Gazan population with very limited choices in life. As the myriad protests and struggles rage on in the Middle East and North African region, the people of Gaza live on with the effects of an occupation. Holding down a job is becoming an obscure aspiration for the now over-50% jobless in Gaza. And being a young couple in love in Gaza can mean facing not only hardships enforced by the political context, but also by the pressures of society and family.

As the first fictional film for over a decade for Gaza, Habibi is a romantic story based around 7th century romantic Arab poetry, the Majnun Layla, which inspired Romeo and Juliet. It is also a reflection of director Susan Youssef’s personal experience of falling in love in Gaza. Taking place amid Israeli aerial raids in 2001, star-crossed lovers Qays and Layla are caught between an increasingly restrictive Gazan society, and family pressures of honour and marriage. We follow hopeless romantic Qays as he graffitis love poetry around the streets of Gaza in his frustrations at being apart from his lover, Layla. Living in a refugee camp on a construction worker’s earnings, Qays seems unable to persuade Layla’s family that he is a good suitor; his only resolve is to express his love for Layla through the graffiti poetry.

Whilst Qays’ increasingly melancholic and unstable mental state highlights some important issues about the effects of sustained military occupation and Arab social norms on love and marriage, it is the struggles Layla goes through in which the film finds its voice. Layla’s position in Gazan social life is limited, despite her liberal middle-class surroundings. Her family presses her to get married to a wealthy doctor, whilst she wants to continue with her studies in the West Bank, and to secretly continue her relationship with her lover. Not only this, but the love poetry written across Gazan walls for Layla is seen as ruinous, and damaging for both Layla’s position as an unmarried woman, and for Qays’ hopes to win over Layla’s father.

Layla’s predicament is complicated by the embedded gender inequalities in the Middle East, and which reflects the director’s personal experiences. Susan Youssef, who wrote, directed and produced Habibi over the course of the last decade, joined Article 27 in an interview ahead of Habibi’s UK premiere. She sees Layla’s struggle as one based more on the tenets of class than of religious values. ‘In my experience, women’s ability to do things are related to the way it is in the West, in terms of class; the ways those of the (Middle Eastern) middle class can go to university is the same as in the West.’ This can be said of Layla, as although she had potential access to a university education, this, along with options to work and for social development, are ‘curtailed by the Occupation’. From this view, Qays’ and Layla’s unrequited love is less due to social or religious norms than it is to ideas of class, and of limiting options available to the inhabitants of Gaza. Essentially, Youssef tells me, Habibi is ‘about how the Occupation is infiltrating people’s choices amongst one another’.

Whilst Youssef sees gender equality and women’s rights in the Middle East and North African region as entwined with conceptions in the West rather than as a new notion spurred on by the Arab Spring, there have been some interesting changes in Gaza. ‘I think the Arab Spring did great things for Gaza, because…now Palestinians can move more easily in and out through the Egyptian border’. This change in the political structures surrounding the region could benefit or damage the future of many in Gaza, especially whilst the situation in Syria remains volatile. At a time when hostilities begins again after the 2008 war with Israel, it is essential that the realities of life in Gaza are highlighted to the international community. It is in this way that Youssef sees her project as ‘an activist statement…the actual act of making the film was an act of resistance’.

Habibi’s UK premiere screened for the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Since its release last year, Youssef has taken the film to many film festivals worldwide, picking up several awards and recognition along the way. Youssef has even been named as 25th most powerful Arab woman by Arabian Business, as a result of Habibi’s global success. She plans to take it to various Universities this year, with the hopes of screening it in the West Bank and inside Gaza itself. She credits the help of people she met whilst in Gaza, and notes her project could not have been possible without their generosity, kindness and willingness to be involved in the filmmaking process. Indeed, having spent successive years trying to get into Gaza just to be able to film, Youssef’s affinity for Gazans has led her resolve to bring her film to a worldwide audience.

Habibi was screened in London for the Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2012 on 25th March. The film is also known by its international title, Habibi Rasak Kharban (Darling, There’s Something Wrong with Your Head). You can watch the trailer below.

HRW Film Festival 2012 – Family Portrait in Black and White

By: Susheila

26-03-2012

Documentary, Film

Family Portrait in Black and White tells the story of Olga Nenya and her adopted family in Ukraine. Most of the children Olga has adopted are bi-racial, in a country still unfamiliar with ethnic diversity. The film explores the difficulties of raising so many abandoned children, who are still perceived as outsiders in the country where they were born, while also focusing on the conflict between Olga’s dominant style of raising a family and the desires of her children in a post-Soviet Era.

The film is truly entertaining, with a beautiful original score. Rather than dissecting Ukrainian society, Julia Ivanova (producer) offers a human story with an intimate insight into foster family life. In an interview with Article 27, Julia informs us that she wanted to tell the story about black minorities in the former Soviet Union, as she felt they were hidden within society. Having spotted Olga’s story in a news clipping, she knew she’d found the perfect subject.

Over the three years that Julia visits the family, we witness the problems of growing up black in Ukraine. As a tiny minority, black Ukrainians are barely acknowledged as a significant group, with few campaign groups supporting them. Sashka, one of Olga’s children laments that he is tired of explaining he is Ukrainian and not a foreigner. He is tired of the constant racism and decides to move to France. The children also mention that they are frequently taunted with racial slurs. It is not that you do not have equal rights in the Ukraine, Julia tells Article 27, but that a ‘silent racism’ prevails. But that does not mean it isn’t dangerous. During the Human Rights Watch Film Festival Q&A, she tells us that Kiril, another child Olga adopted was beaten up at a busstop two months ago by ‘skinheads’ in Kiev where he is studying. The film includes footage of demonstrations and interviews with members of Ukraine’s far-right, who describe beatings and attacks as common place.

The most disturbing revelation of the film is how one of Olga’s youngest sons, Audrey, is treated by the state system. With undiagnosed autism, Audrey is being subjected to a system which believes he has a bad attitude and is lazy, something he has ‘inherited from his biological parents,’ according to the special school he is placed in. The audience is left shocked at the methods of the staff. Autism has only recently been recognized within the former Soviet states.

The Human Rights Film Festival gives films like Family Portrait in Black and White a chance to reach untapped audiences. Julia notes that Ukraine is not currently politically ‘hot’, but the film has the power to draw attention to stories not picked up by the mainstream media. The Human Rights Watch Film Festival is running in London from 21st -30th March. You can watch the trailer of Family Portrait in Black and White below.

Photography Project ‘Unbreakable’

By: Susheila

22-03-2012

Other, Photography

Photograph by Grace Brown

Photography is not often thought of as therapeutic. However, a project started by one girl, her camera and a desire to help has caught the attention of Internet users as both poignant and inspirational.

Described as healing through art, Project Unbreakable was launched by photographer Grace Brown. Grace decided to photograph a friend after she told her about her story of sexual abuse. She took a simple photo, her friend pictured with a hand-written quote from her attacker on a poster. After posting the picture online, Project Unbreakable soon went viral as people from around the world began contacting Grace, wanting to get involved.

The images are powerful, and the more you scroll through them, the more you are forced to acknowledge the presence of rape in our lives. The posters held up by the subjects are words their attacker said to them during their ordeal. Some of the quotes include, “If you love me you would,” “Shut up and take it. I know you like it,” and “Just go back to sleep.”Grace hopes it can form part of their healing, in an area which is often not talked about, shunned, and suppressed.

She also hopes to expand the project. Grace currently is only able to photograph people in New York, where she is based. However, she would like to travel across America, and maybe even transform the project into an organisation for help. On her Indie GoGo donation page, she has already surpassed the $6,000 target donation goal she set to move the organisation forward. The Project is example of how powerful a simple photo truly is. You can visit Project Unbreakable’s homepage here. You can also follow the project on Facebook and Twitter.

What do you think about Project Unbreakable? Would you submit a photo?