Friday, April 5, 2013

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Muslim artists challenge stereotypes

Posted: 04 Apr 2013 08:00 AM PDT

thelookiv, muslim women, online exhibition, Visit an international online exhibition of art, stories and ideas by Muslim women. 

The aim is to highlight the rich diversity of female lives, and to combat negative stereotypes of an ‘oppressed group’.

The exhibition – which can be seen here – also has interviews with leading women's rights advocates from countries including Iran, Afghanistan and Bosnia.

Curator Samina Ali, who wrote Madras On Rainy Days, says she scoured the globe to interview Muslim women who are making an impact on their communities.

“Whether it's fighting for equal justice under the law or creating images that challenge traditional notions of femininity, these women are part of a global movement that is elevating the role of Muslim women in society," says Ali, an Indian-born Muslim who now lives in the Bay Area of California.

“From the Arab Spring to the US State Department, we are seeing unprecedented numbers of Muslim women involved in public life."

As Ali explained to altmuslim:”The reason we wanted to highlight the Muslim part of woman's personality is because that is what's problematized in the media.

“That aspect is picked on, and I heard this from so many of the women I was talking to.

“And, what we mustn't forget is that aspect isn't just picked on by the western media, it is picked on by fellow Muslims.”

To help counter this, Ali invites women to join the "Speak Up! Listen Up" campaign and sign the pledge to "speak out against negative stereotypes of Muslim women".

“One part of the exhibition is the Muslima stories – a collection of multimedia mini-memoirs, consisting of six words and images, and is open to submissions from all Muslim women.”

Ali told AltMuslim one of her favourite six-word stories was the submission which said "pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, wine".

As Aslanmedia suggests,the exhibition is best viewed through its eight topics of appearance, change, connection, faith, generations, leadership, myths, power, all which affect women’s life in multiple and overlapping ways.

Dr Sima Samar, chairperson for the Afghan Human Rights Commission, talks about the wearing of the hijab and burqa.

“I believe that in Islam the actual style of the hijab is not mentioned anywhere, therefore the burqa that is used in Afghanistan is not mentioned either.

“I see these misreadings as a misuse of religion, as well as the use of religion against women.”

Yemeni photographer Boushra Almutawakel explores the many ways to look at the hijab, and how it affects the identity of and assumptions about the women who wear it.

She says she was inspired to start her work after hearing a lecture by Egyptian feminist and WVoN patron Nawal El Saadawi.

“At that lecture she [El Saadawi] said that she felt that women who wore the hijab/veil or nigab were the same as women who wore makeup, in the sense that they all hid their true identities.

“I thought that was a fascinating perspective, and so decided to interpret this photographically," said Almutawakel.

Al-jazeera highlights some of the other online exhibits here.

The exhibition is running online until the end of December this year.

Paula Radcliffe’s unOlympic legacy

Posted: 04 Apr 2013 03:00 AM PDT

When Paula Radcliffe announced last week that she may never race again, I was heartbroken.

That may sound like an overstatement, but it really is sad news for the many running fans who have supported Radcliffe through her injury problems, hoping for just one more race.

Because Paula Radcliffe is, quite simply, the best female marathon runner of all time.

Her achievements speak for themselves: seven major marathon victories, including three at the London marathon.

World championship titles not only in the marathon, but also the half marathon and cross country. European 10,000m and cross country titles. 5000m gold at the Commonwealth Games. The list goes on.

Her marathon world record of 2:15:25, set in 2003 in London, has stood for ten years.

It was just ten minutes slower than the men's world record at the time, and was such an astounding athletic performance that no one has since come within three minutes of her time.

The only thing missing for Radcliffe is an Olympic gold medal, though it was not for want of trying.

She represented Great Britain at four successive Olympics between 1996 and 2008, but her best result was 4th place in the 10,000m in Sydney in 2000.

That Radcliffe was never able to win an Olympic marathon is often allowed to detract from her impressive career. When she pulled out of the Olympic marathon in Athens in 2004 at the 22 mile mark, many labelled her a quitter – although I think I can safely say that none of those criticising her were marathon runners themselves.

But the image of Radcliffe collapsed in despair at the side of the road was a symbol of national disappointment, not least because her medal chances were so great.

The golden days of British running, when Steve Jones held the marathon world record, and the rivalry between Steve Ovett and Seb Coe dominated middle distance, were over.

But in the years leading up to Athens, Paula was still flying the flag; in 2002, she won the London and Chicago marathons, the world cross country title, and European 10,000m gold, and in 2003, she set her marathon world record.

It was not to be, but Radcliffe's loss nevertheless felt like a great injustice, and Radcliffe was never able to even the score.

Despite more major marathon victories in the run up to the 2008 Olympics, a stress fracture in her leg just three months before Beijing put paid to her training.

Once again, she was left in tears as she struggled across the finish line in 23rd place.

Yet Radcliffe, and her supporters, would be forced to relive the pain of Athens one more time. Osteoarthritis forced her to withdraw from London 2012, finally ending her chances of winning that elusive Olympic medal.

Now, her injuries seem to have drawn a line under her career, too.

None of this is to say that Radcliffe's career should be defined by her Olympic heartbreak. All marathon runners have to suffer injuries now and then, and the timing of hers were agonisingly unlucky.

But when she was on form, she swept all before her.

Her marathon world record revolutionised women's running by proving that we can run much faster than previously assumed.

For years, she has been an inspirational figure for the millions of club and recreational runners in Britain, transcending the barrier between men's and women's sport.

And she was the reason I started running ten years ago.

I am now training for my fifth marathon, and when I cross the finish line, I'll be pretending (as always) that I'm Paula. Even though I literally can't run half as fast as she can.

She may never have won an Olympic medal, but how's that for a legacy?

Sport, Peter Sagan and podium girls

Posted: 04 Apr 2013 01:04 AM PDT

bike race, By Catherine ‘Chas’ Scott

Peter Sagan, podium girls and objectification.

When I saw a picture in this morning’s paper [31 March 2013] of cyclist Peter Sagan grabbing a handful of the bum cheek of a ‘podium girl’ while waiting to be awarded his second-place prize at the Tour of Flanders, the only thing that surprised me was how unsurprised I felt.

We’re all aware of the icky tradition of young, slim, large-breasted, long-haired (and usually white) women being used as window dressing to celebrate the achievements of male athletes, especially in motorsport. So it kind of felt like only a matter of time before someone took the treating of women as decorative objects in sport to its logical conclusion.

Because if you reduce a person to an object, with no feelings, thoughts or autonomy of their own, then why would you see anything wrong with publicly grabbing them?

I doubt Sagan is the first athlete to let his hand wander over the deliberately appealing flesh of a young woman in hotpants paid to fawn over him, but it looks like he’s the first who got caught doing it on camera.

Of course the inevitable attempts to make light of Sagan’s actions followed, with puns a-plenty about his ’cheeky gesture’.

Apparently the fame and fortune of the professional athlete does make a difference when it comes to applying the law – if Sagan was an office worker who had been PHOTOGRAPHED molesting a female colleague, he’d be suspended for sexual harassment so fast his head would spin. Possibly dismissed on the spot, possibly even arrested.

But because it took place in that crazy, hazy world of sport where women are nothing but window dressing and men’s actions, opinions and compulsions are respected regardless of whether they’re domestic abusers, rapists or murderers, so far we’ve only seen a social media firestorm and no threat of legal action.

Hearteningly, most of the responses – from both men and women – have criticised Sagan for his actions, although there have been a few depressing defences.

And even those who question the whole tradition of ‘podium girls’ have managed to do so without placing the blame at the feet of the girls themselves.

But it’s still concerning that an act of sexual assault that took place in front of the world’s eyes has not attracted a whiff of police attention.

Is this because harassment of women within male-dominated sports is seen as a) not a ‘real’ problem, just ‘laddish banter’, or b) admittedly obnoxious, but still something women should just expect?

I suspect a bit of both.

I’ve had a tiny bit of experience with real-life podium girls, although not in a setting anywhere near as glamorous as the circles Peter Sagan moves in. But I’ve been at competitions at major UK motor racing circuits and watched as the podium girls were trotted out at the end of the races, and more than simply finding it sexist and obnoxious (which it is), I also found the whole tradition really embarrassing. What’s ‘glamorous’ about standing shivering, covered in fake tan, squeezed into hotpants one size too small so your buttocks are hanging out, in six-inch heels that wouldn’t look out of place in Spearmint Rhino, in the middle of the tarmac? And that’s not slut-shaming – I celebrate, and regularly demonstrate, a woman’s right to dress however the fuck she wants, and by that I mean as sexually provocative (or not) as she wants.

But we can’t deny that clothing speaks to power structures, and when you’re the scantily clad one amongst a group of 30 fully-dressed men (plus a few of us token women), it’s fair to say you’re not coming from a level playing field. The podium girls were there to be looked at, to provide ‘eye candy’, to be visually pleasing and sexually appealing.

I was there in jeans, a t shirt and a much-needed hoodie (I’ve never been to a race track when it was anything near actual hotpants weather) – it didn’t matter what I looked like, because I was there to report on the race. If I was judged at all, it would be on my writing. Whereas we all knew what the girls were being judged on.

A man on my team made dismissive comments about ‘those tarts over there’, but not because he was objecting to the sexism of the tradition – rather he thought they were not sufficiently attractive, and remarked that you get a more sophisticated class of podium girl at Silverstone. So these girls couldn’t win – they were there for nothing but their appearances, but even those were found to be wanting. And so goes the message to women – remember to look perpetually sexually available, even a little bit ‘slutty’, but never, god forbid, must you look ‘cheap’.

Still, as I watched the two girls finish up, get back into more comfortable looking clothes and drive away, I reflected that it didn’t look like too tough a job.

It was certainly a briefer day’s work than my 8 hours spent inhaling petrol fumes – not that I was complaining, as I actually really enjoyed reporting on the races, but if you wanted a way of making easy money without having to know anything about motorsport, theirs was certainly the job you’d pick over mine. If I had the height, bustline, waistline, backside, skin tone, hair length and appropriate wardrobe to fit the podium girl template, would I be picking the podium over the pit wall myself? Who knows – it’s too big an ‘if’.

It’s depressing, though, that this is how women’s roles are still divided. Either you’re ‘useful’ - like I was that day – or you’re ‘decorative’, like podium girls. You’re not allowed to be both, because that might muddy the waters.

And whichever side of the coin you choose, you’ll be punished for it.

Ugly girls have to be clever and funny because why else would men pay them any attention, right? And pretty girls don’t have to bother being anything but, because their worth is only skin deep, isn’t it?

In this sense Peter Sagan’s actions have been helpful, if only because they spurred on commentators to point out “the absurdity in still having podium girls in 2013″.

Much like the 89,000 supporters of the No More Page 3 campaign, people are finally coming out of the woodwork to point out how dated, cringeworthy and insulting it is to still treat women like ‘dolly birds’ in an era where we pay endless lip service to the notion of sexual equality.

And it’s great that sports writers have used this opportunity to challenge the sexist tradition – Matt Seaton has a great piece in today’s Guardian, asking ”Does professional cycling really need to award winners kisses from “trophy” females? The whole spectacle is unbecoming – not just tacky and embarrassing, but retrograde and demeaning.”

It’s just a shame that a woman had to be assaulted for the conversation to happen.