#la_teg3odi_ya_hind

A while ago I tweeted the following:

“Wake up, Wake up / Grab a brush “Ya Hind” and put a little makeup! System of Yehia ِAl Saud! Stay strong Miss Fayez!”

It was my way of commenting on the incident in which MP Yehia Al Saud, ordered MP Hind Al Fayez to have a seat during her recent outburst.The phrasing itself, “Eg3odi Ya Hind!” with the tone he used and in our Arabian society is a phrase that automatically translates to “be quiet!” and not in a very polite context.

Fortunately for us and every woman in Jordan, and in the Middle East, MP Hind Al Fayez stood her ground. Her bold stance made international headlines.

I am positive that if my Editor Mr. Walid Kalaji (Abu Hassan) was alive he would have written an editorial of what happened under the supposed “Jordanian Dome of Democracy!” I am also positive Miss Maha Al Sharif, our most patient boss, would have also had a say in the matter.

Abu Hassan would have upplauded MP Al Fayez for standing her ground. Ghassan Joha would have most probably been there.

“I am glad you stood your guns!” he once told me after I finished defending a piece that I have written. It was a piece that was slated for publishing. I cannot remember if my piece was not altered but to be honest after giving a good reasonable fight you somewhat feel a little better about yourself when it does get altered.

I always fought for my pieces with every editor I worked with at The Star, and other local publications. Ali Al Khalil, one of the bright editors, and a man I admired for his love of arts, films and books, was no exception.

Journalists, writers, and editors are supposed to give each other headaches. If there are no headaches the result of arguments about a sentence/a paragraph; its phrasing; or the information it is supposed to entail within the mind of a reader that very sentence/paragraph would be lifeless, if not useless.

I am guessing I am missing journalism and my own State of Play or “Something Something Dark Side.” Major spoiler ahead! Yes, I watched State of Play (2009), directed by Kevin Macdonald, starring Russel Crowe, Rachel MacAdams and Dame Helen Mirren, the other day.

As the end credits rolled by to the visuals of a newspaper in print to the sound of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s As Long As I See the Light I found myself yearning to those sleepless nights. You see I was there amidst a family of journalists!

Time to stop reminiscing!

In addition to that Tweet about the Og3odi Ya Hind incident a t-shirt with the hopeful hash-tag that came to be #la_teg3odi_ya_hind was made with the help of a friend and a fellow cartoonist, and with one thing in mind:

A simple design … but a loud message.

For a better Jordan where no one asks you to have a seat by saying “Og3od/Og3odi!”

Good day all :-})

 

I Am With the Uprising of Arab Women Because …

 

Yes “I am with the uprising of Arab women because they don’t need men to justify their existence!”

Sardine, from Amman, Jordan.

The above is the closest translation to the original message. By the way, I am not calling for women to go stark naked in support of their rights. I just see things as a satirist, a writer and a comic artist.

This is the text that inspired the visual and that I original published on my FB page Thoughts from Within a Sardine Can:

لا، إنها لا تريد السترة! لا تريد سترتك. لا تريد جاكيتتك. لا تريد صديري بذلتك الرجولية. لا تريد قميصك الحريري. لا تريد كنزتك المصنوعة من صوف الماعز الجبلي. إنها لا تريد شيئا سوى التحرر من مخالبك. هل يمكنك أن تلبي طلبها يا أيها الرجل صاحب الشنب الرجولي والذي يكاد يتحول لاذرع شبيه باذرع الاخطبوط المتربص تحت ركام قارب غرق في بحر من الظلمات مع كل من فيه. مرة أخرى اكرر: إنها لا تريد السترة. لا تريد سترتك. إنها لا تحتاج سترتك! إستر نفسك يا من تقول عنها عورة! تمت. سيقوم كاتب هذه الفقرة التي قد يعتبرها البعض مفيدة، والبعض الأخر سيحتقرها، برسم رسمة تعبيرية مرافقة لها. نرجو من قراء السردين المعلب أن يتابعونا في الساعات القادم

I am just sticking to my guns and what I believe in as a human being! Yalla support The Uprising of Women in the Arab World now! To disagree with my way of thinking is your divine right and I don’t have the right to condemn you as you don’t have the right to condemn me.

تفكيري لا يجب أن يكون سبب تكفيري

Her Face Had a Hole in It

No!

She wasn’t beaten up by a coward of a brother,

Still her face had a hole in it.

She wasn’t an abused wife and mother,

Still her face had a hole in it.

Disheveled hair covered her empty stare,

Lifelike yet lifeless she stood there.

No!

She wasn’t a daughter slaughtered by a bastard of a father,

Her face had a large hole in it.

A modern day Pygmalion would have wept her disfigured visage,

But a warm embrace would have been quite the scandalous vestige,

A man loving a mannequin!

There she stands,

Behind a crystal sheet, naked, forlorn and made out of plastic;

With a hole in her face.

Unattended and abused like many a real women in this world …

P.S: I felt the photograph that I Photoshoped from the original looked silly so I decided to use the original.

Photograph by Mike V. Derderian – Taken with a Sonny Ericsson W880i