Biography of an Arab Swordsman -part 2-

O people:
I am the foremost and the fairest
The prettiest among all other rulers
I am a full moon in a dark night, I am the whiteness of jasmines
I invented the first gallows, and I am the best of prophets..
Every time I consider resigning power, my conscience opposes me
Who, after me, would govern these poor fellows?
Who, after me, would heal the lame, and the albino, and the blind..
Who would resurrect bones?
Who, I wonder, would take moonlight out of his coat?
Who, I wonder, would send rain to people?
Who, I wonder, would lash them ninety lashes?
Who, I wonder, would crucify them on trees?
Who, I wonder, would force them to live like cows?
And die like cows?
Every time I think of leaving them
My eyes flow like a cloud...
And I surrender to God’s will…
And decide to ride on the back of the people..
From this day..till doomsday..

(Painting by Ludwig Deutsch depicting a palace guard)

Biography of an Arab Swordsman..!

I'm particularly fond of translating poems written by the brilliant Syrian author Nizar Qabani, who manages to depict a gloomy reality and turn it into an artful, yet straightforward, piece of literature. This one speaks for itself.

The original Arabic version can be found here

-Part 1-

O people:
I have become your Sultan
Break your delusory idols and worship me…
I rarely come into sight…
So sit by the pavement of patience till you witness me
Leave your children without bread
Leave your women without husband.. and follow me
Thank God for his blessing
For he has sent me to write history
And history shall not be written without me
I am Joseph in my splendor
The Creator has not created golden hair like mine
Nor a prophetic forehead like mine
My eyes are forests of olives and almonds
So pray for God to protect my eyes
O people:
I am “Leila’s Mad Lover”
So send your wives to be conceived by me
Send your husbands to thank me
You are honored to eat the wheat of my body
You are honored to harvest my almond and my fig
You are honored to resemble me..
For there has been none like me
Over thousands of centuries..

(Painting by Ludwig Deutsch)



A Godless Game Theory

In “The God Delusion”, Richard Dawkins argues that morality does not originate from religion. According to him, people do not need an omnipotent omniscient entity to stop them from turning into wild nasty beasts. To justify his view, Dawkins uses a Darwinian perspective to argue that morality originates from the evolution of altruistic genes that eventually serve the purpose of preserving one’s kind. When put that way, it really doesn’t sound all that altruistic. But Dawkins does manage to build a solid argument backing his theory. You’d have to read the entire chapter, though, to be more or less convinced.
Anyways, I can think of another field that might come in handy in explaining why the lack of belief in a supernatural power overseeing every movement and every thought does not necessarily equate primitive immoral behavior: Economics. As unlikely as it might first seem, I think that the concept of “Game Theory” provides an excellent explanation. Game theory is a mathematical tool applied in business economics to study the interaction of a number of firms in different situations. The theory basically concludes that firms who know that they are likely to interact frequently with each other on the long run tend to be more cooperative rather than aggressive towards each other.
On a personal level, if you know you’re going to be seeing your neighbor, for example, for a number of years to come, you’re more likely to act politely towards them. You know it’d make your life miserable to do otherwise. The same idea applies to wider circles. When a person earns a reputation in a community for being particularly nasty, it really just makes everything more complicated for that person. Ergo, no matter what you believe -or don't believe- in, living a decent moral life is pretty much the way to go.

The Intuitive Belief Fallacy

I am often told, especially by followers of monotheistic religions, that religion X, for example, is so clearly the right and only belief system. This is so to the degree that any person with average intellectual capabilities should reach such conclusion with the aid of a little contemplation. Assuming that this is the case then everyone should automatically and intuitively become a follower of the said religion, unless he/she falls under one of the two categories:
1. He/she is created and made incredibly stupid so as to be incapable of perceiving such truth.
2. He/she is not stupid per se, but is not guided to the right path for whatever divine scheme.
Both cases are clearly a result of divine intervention for which man or woman cannot possibly be held responsible. So if humans exist on this planet today due to intelligent design, I’m sure that the designer is intelligent enough to know how bad they’ve messed up some of their “createes” and excuse them for their condition.

(Painting by Jibran Khalil Jibran)

Women Rights between Islam and the UN: a Conflict or an Opportunity?

Human rights under the UN are divided into two categories or generations: civil and political rights (CPR) comprise the first generation, while economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) comprise the second. Another, albeit much older, institution that ventured into human rights is Islam. It is often argued that Islam is one of the pioneering institutions to grant women equitable rights compared to their male counterparts. These rights cover a variety of aspects such as, inter alia, the right to property, right to a consensual marriage, and the right to education. While Islam indeed achieved a breakthrough by alleviating women’s status in society, most of the rights it granted fall within the category of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR), leaving women with very limited entitlement to civil and political rights (CPR). Muslim women today, both in theory and in practice, remain largely excluded from positions of leadership and full participation in the public political arena. To give but one example, many fundamentalists whole-heartedly believe and argue that any nation led by a woman is doomed to a fate of failure.
It could be argued that the type of rights granted to women when Islam first evolved is directly related to the type of roles women assumed in that period. With the exception of a few privileged women, pre-Islamic Arabia was intellectually, politically, and economically dominated by men, while women were restricted to the private sphere. As a result, the new doctrine of Islam focused on empowering women within the private sphere they already occupied by granting them the aforementioned ESCR. However, an examination of Muslim women’s ESCR today shows that even the ideals prescribed in the texts lack proper implementation on the ground, partly because they have fallen prey to centuries of patriarchal understanding of the texts. An additional reason why ESCR of Muslim women lack the proper implementation is the close relationship between them and the missing CPR. According to the Human Development Report 2000, ESCR and CPR are closely interrelated as the former cannot be exercised without guaranteeing the latter category. The result, therefore, is that one category of rights (CPR) is virtually nonexistent, while the other category (ESCR) remains confined to the pages of sacred books.
This legacy has placed women in the backseats of development, rendering them passive and unproductive. Consequentially, women have missed invaluable opportunities of applying their intellectual and physical abilities in bettering themselves and the societies they live in. How can this situation be remedied? Given the current state of affairs, the demands of a swiftly-changing modern age in addition to the need for full realization of ESCR both apply pressure on the need to revolutionize Muslim women’s CPR. But how could this possibly be done when the doctrine in question is about 1500 years old? This is where the importance of the concept of “gradualism” arises. The Islamic ideology is based on the idea of gradual change that allows Islam to remain relevant to its adherents regardless of time and place by implementing flexible modes of jurisprudence. Moreover, history is witness to the fact that intellectual tides are consequentially followed by the appropriate changes in traditions and practices of a society, including Muslim societies. Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge the concept that CPR, which will lead to the inevitable achievement of ESCR, can occur by empowering women as agents of change rather than rendering them no more than passive recipients of welfare.
In spite of the fact that different generations and categories of human rights are relatively modern concepts, Islam has the necessary tools to utilize them for the purpose of improving women’s status which will ultimately contribute to the overall betterment of societies worldwide.

(Image by Hamed Saber

Available at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bandari_Burqa.jpg )

A Right to Euthanasia?

Reading the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in its General Comment No. 14 (2000) regarding the right to health, I found the following statement that older persons have the right to health measures that include “sparing them avoidable pain and enabling them to die with dignity”. While the Comment does not delve into details regarding which kinds of measures are acceptable and which are not, the notion of “dying with dignity” does bring to mind the controversial question of euthanasia. Of course it is important to note here that Euthanasia is not constricted to older people but could also be applied to terminally-ill people of all ages.
While a number of liberal European countries have already legalised the practice with the assistance of a board of experts to decide on each case before granting permission to shortening a patient’s life, this is probably not going to be the case any time soon when it comes to more conservative and religion-based governments where the question, unfortunately, does not even get the chance of reaching an objective platform of debate.
While I do not particularly advocate the use of euthanasia, otherwise known as “mercy killing”, I think it is significant to open channels of discussion on this topic because of its direct effects on countless patients suffering out there. The WHO acknowledges that every person has a right to “a state of complete physical mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. So doesn’t this topic deserve an objective debate based on a human-rights approach?

(Painting by Jibran Khalil Jibran)

The Precarious Relationship between Economic Development and Human Rights in Emerging Markets: The Example of Qatar

A recent study by the Economist estimates that Qatar will lead economic growth in 2010 with a growth rate of about 25%. The country definitely continues to show positive signs of continued growth in spite of the recent financial meltdown that temporarily slowed down the global economy and the financial troubles of its neighbor Dubai. The rapid growth witnessed recently by this emerging market, though, oftentimes masks human rights violations of low-cost migrant labor mainly from South Asia but also from other Asian, African, and neighboring Arab countries. These laborers are usually found working at precarious construction sites, catering to the needs of the services sector, and toiling 24/7 as domestic workers with very little or no legal protection from abuse. One might ask “how could such an economically thriving country suffer from issues traditionally correlated with poor underdeveloped markets?”. One of the reasons contributing to this phenomenon is the haphazard sponsorship laws which stipulate that any expatriate working in the Gulf must be sponsored either by a Gulf citizen or company. Some of the restrictions that the sponsorship laws entail are approval of the sponsor upon entry to and exit from the country, reservation of travel documents such as identification cards and passports as seen fit by the sponsor, and approval of financial transactions requiring banks or other financial institutions. These laws leave the door wide open for numerous reported as well as unreported cases of abuse, harassment, exploitation, and other human rights violations. Moreover, governments whose citizens are dependent on remittances sent by these laborers often willingly conspire through laws that allow for such abuses to prevail rather than challenge them and demand labor law reforms. Additionally, given the convenience of and profits made by procuring low-cost laborers who do not entail much compensation or protection, the business community in Qatar and the GCC in general has a preference to maintain the general status quo. Unawareness of one’s rights at the workplace is also another element that contributes to continued abuse and exploitation.
The issue of laborers’ rights, after drawing much criticism from human rights bodies and some foreign governments, lead to changes in the structure of the legal system in Qatar as well as neighboring GCC countries. The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC), the main body responsible for overseeing human rights in Qatar, publishes annual reports on the status of human rights in the country. In its most recent study, the NHRC reported that there were major legal reforms taken by the Qatari government to address the issue of workers’ rights. However, it does admit that in spite of the legal reforms laborers still suffer from harsh working conditions. Moreover, complaints are often unnecessarily delayed once made to governmental departments such as legal courts and the Ministry of Labor. As a result, human rights violations at the workplace continue to be a part of everyday life in Qatar leaving these workers pretty much unaffected by the much-praised accelerated economic growth.
Leading economist Amartya Sen makes a point that financial indicators of economic growth such as high income per capita do not necessarily translate into improved living standards. Indeed, while Qatar enjoys the second highest income per capita in the world, many migrant workers who come to the country seeking better employment opportunities oftentimes find themselves trapped in a cultural and legal system that continually undermines their rights and capabilities; therefore, proving right the argument that economic development and the realization of human rights are not exponentially related.

( Photograph by Shahir Aboobacker. Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23487704@N04/4323768273/in/pool-qatarphotographicsociety )