Savvy Women

I apologize for my absence these past few weeks. During the Egyptian revolution it was simply impossible for me to blog for Savvy.

I am finally beginning to decompress from the whole experience. I saw and heard many frightening things during the uprising. Still, having said that, I am so happy I decided to remain in Egypt rather than being evacuated. I wanted to see, firsthand, history being made. I wanted to bear witness to the heroic efforts made by the citizens of Egypt as they waged a collective battle against a very repressive government.

Women were at the forefront of the struggle. I have decided to blog about two women who have been outspoken during this historic period. One of the women is young and Muslim and has gained great notoriety in the past couple of years as a tenacious activist and one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement. The other is older (notice that I didn’t say “old”) and a freethinker. She has earned a huge reputation, during her eighty years of life, as a medical doctor, author, and outspoken feminist/humanist. Both put their lives on the line when the chips were down.

In the clip that follows, Asmaa Mahfouz, a twenty-something Egyptian who has received a lot of press recently, including this piece about her in The New York Times, tells the story, to a couple of interviewers, of how she played a pivotal early role in the revolt.

Clip two is one of many available on Dr. Nawal El Saadawi. (For more information on this remarkable octogenarian, I recommend that you read this and/or watch this clip in which she talks about politics, feminism, democracy, and related topics.) In the short video included here, which was filmed as she was sitting on Tahrir Square during the uprising, she discusses the specific dirty tricks that were used by the Mubarak regime against the protestors.

Perhaps the greatest lesson I learned recently is that revolutions remind us that we are all connected through our universal struggle for dignity and self-determination. This sense of sharing a bond with others, in a common mission, comes through loud and clear in the words spoken by these heroic women.

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Post-script: After writing this, I went to the university library and checked out Dr. El Saadawi’s memoir, Walking through Fire. Though I am only a few pages into it, I can see it’s going to be a wonderful story brilliantly told.

The Amazon.com people know me so well that I receive emails from them on a regular basis. The subject line of their most recent missive was “Troy Headrick: 100 $5 Albums.” It was the $5 part that really grabbed my attention (as it usually does). I clicked on it and then browsed…

I wanted to embed the video for “Silver Lining,” the opening track on an eleven-song collection, but the band has disabled the embed function, so you can find it here instead.

The video opens with a quick shot of Jenny Lewis, the lead singer and owner of a million-dollar voice. The other members of the band are Blake Sennett, Pierre de Reeder, and Jason Boesel. Unfortunately, the group’s website is pretty minimal, but information on Rilo Kiley is available if you determinedly use your Google finger.

Happy listening!

When I was home this summer, the hot topic, the subject everyone seemed to have an opinion on, was the construction of the so-called “Ground Zero mosque,” a misnomer if ever there was one. Actually, its location, as was occasionally made clear in some news reports, was neither immediately adjacent to the site where the Twin Towers once stood, nor was the thing being proposed merely a mosque. In fact, calling it an Islamic community center would be more accurate as the structure would also include a whole host of facilities in addition to a place of worship.

With that said, I have included a fragment of a conversation that took place on CNN International. Have a look and pay special attention to some of the facts presented by Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director of The Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and coauthor of Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

I want to conclude by arguing that the real danger facing America is not some nefarious plot by Muslims to take over the country. Such thinking is, at best, delusional. A more legitimate concern is that the nation will shoot itself in the foot by becoming too insular and xenophobic.

His argument seems to be a no brainer (no pun intended). To read it in full, click here.