In preparing my unit plan for the final project, I've been doing a lot of research to find resources both that I could use to prepare information to teach to my class, as well as for resources that my students could use to learn about the Middle East on their own.

One website I came across while searching for lesson ideas particularly stood out to me because it includes resources for what seemed like EVERYTHING-- including history, culture, society, religion, economics, maps, politics, news and media, and specific regional resources. Within each category, there are also many sub-categories that I found especially fitting to the things we have discussed throughout our class, such as women in different countries/cultures, literature of different cultures, conflicts amongst the Middle Eastern countries, history and changes of the region, and more.

As someone who, even after almost four months of studying the Middle East and Post-Colonialism, still feels like there is SO much out there for me to learn before I'd be able to *confidently* teach these subjects in my own classroom, I found this website to be extremely helpful. It is easy to follow, and provides a plethora of reliable resources to help educate on the Middle East in its entirety!

So, all that being said, here's the link!: History in the News: The Middle East

Veil Fashion

In searching for additional resources to use for my final project teaching unit, I stumbled across this youtube clip that I thought was very interesting. It is basically a fashion show of veils-- they are "non-muslim" and I assume would not be considered acceptable in many or even most cultures, but nonetheless it was interesting to see this "spin" on the classic veil. With how much the topic of veils have come up in our class discussions, as well as throughout the texts we've read and films we've viewed, I thought it might be kind of a fun thing to post!




The description for this video says, "'Veils'... a selection of head coverings, hair coverings and face coverings by non-Muslim fashion designers for Fall 2009... Many are inspired by traditional cultures and forms, while others are a contemporary take on a timeless concept."

Aside from being a little creeped out by some of the VERY theatrical make-up some of the models had, I am a little perplexed by this whole concept after watching the video clip. Knowing that the purpose of the veil, theoretically, is for the woman to show modesty and not show off her womanly figure. Many of the veils in this fashion show seem to do just the opposite of that! Granted, yes, these veils are not designed to serve the purpose of meeting religious requirements, but it still interesting how the purpose of veil has been basically completely ignored in these designs.

Re-Defining Culture in Iraq

In doing some research for my final project, I came across this article about an art show that took place last November in Baghdad. http://www.cjtf7.army.mil/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23896&Itemid=225 The theme of this art show was "New Life, New Culture."

Post-colonialism has a great deal to do with the changing cultures and the overall cultural identity of societies such as Baghdad, Iraq. In this case, one of the leaders in Baghdad took it upon himself to organize this "art and culture" show that took place in the Rashid district of Baghdad. In the article, they quoted the leader who organized the event, and he really seemed to have a passion for this idea of cultural identity, and how he could impact both the way citizens of Baghdad view their own culture, as well as how outsiders view the city and culture. He said, "Southern Baghdad is not thought to be supportive of the arts. Southern Baghdad has a reputation for violence, but this show will change that perception. This show will introduce a new way for the people of Iraq to live." Another Iraqi leader, Lt. Col. Timothy Watson said, "This event constitutes an important contribution to redefining the way the world perceives Iraq. It is about creating a new cultural identity beyond that of violence and war. It is about instilling pride in the Iraqi people for their won rich cultural heritage."

Anyway, just thought this was an interesting article. It was cool to hear about an example about how one city has been working to redefine and build themselves culturally, both for their own sake and for the purpose of showing other societies throughout the world that their culture is about more than just what we see on TV and in the newspaper-- the violence, war, and discourse that is so often put on display.

"Iran: Yesterday and Today"

I really enjoyed watching Rick Steve's documentary, "Iran: Yesterday and Today." I think there is so much to discover about any given country or culture, and without having the opportunity to actually travel there and see and experience it yourself, it's usually pretty hard to fully grasp what it is like. This documentary on Iran, however, gave me a really good look into the culture, atmosphere, history, and landscape of the country, and I really learned a lot about a country I previously knew very little about.

A few things really stood out to me as I watched:

• In Tehran, there were intersections without any traffic signals. Imagine-- no stop signs or stop lights or yeild signs... just free for all! It looked like a crazy, jumbled mess of cars to me, but I guess it works for them!
• Subway moves over ONE MILLION people per day!
• They have motorcycle taxis-- how cool!... but scary too!
• At the University of Iran, both men and women are allowed to attend, but everything is segregated-- right down to having a separate men's cafe and women's cafe.
• In Abyaneh, they have "boy" and "girl" door knockers on each door, so the resident knows whether to expect a male or female when they answer the door.
• The architecture and landscape of these Iranian cities was INCREDIBLE, and I was particularly impressed with the mosks in Esfahan. I would LOVE to go check these out some day!

Aside from those interesting facts and observations, the biggest thing that I payed attention to throughout the documentary was how the Iranian people viewed America, America's government, and America's people.

First, I was not surprised to learn that most people in the country are bilingual, speak English, and are well informed about the West. As far as I know, it seems like most cultures are far more "worldly" than we are here in America, and Iran seems to be no exception to this.

Within the first ten or so minutes of the documentary, Rick Steve mentioned that the Iranian people "loved Americans." Frankly, I was a little surprised to hear this and found myself quite skeptical of the comment, wondering if perhaps that was a biased statement or if there was some selective film editing to show mostly positive opinions about the U.S. The documentary continued on, and proceeded to show murals throughout Tehran saying things like "Down with the USA" or showing images that depicted the United States as some evil, unwanted force. Yet despite the substantial number of negative images seen on the murals, most of the people Rick Steve interviewed seemed to have mostly positive things to say about America. One woman seemed to put it into perspective quite nicely, saying, "Government has a lot of war with each other, because they have benefits. But there is no war between people."

Shades of Ray

Last night as I was heading to bed, I decided to browse through Netflix for a nice relaxing movie to watch while I fell asleep. I was looking through the romantic comedy section, scrolling over the different movies and reading their descriptions looking for one that sounded appealing, and came across a film I had never heard of before-- Shades of Ray. The description sounded good... your typical one-man-choosing-between-two-women conflicted, humorous love story... so I decided to give it a try.

This movie is about a man in his twenties or so, Ray, who is half Pakistani and half Caucasion. The film starts out with Ray as a child, with his Pakistani father explaining the rules of dating and marriage to him. He says, "you may date whomever you want," but when it comes to more serious relationships and the thought of marriage, that "there are certain taboos" and that he is not to marry blacks, Chinese, or Jews. When his father says, "Find nice Pakistani girl when you want to settle down," Ray asks the question, "What about just plain white girls?" Ray is probably considering his own parent's relationship, as his father is Pakistani and his mother "just plain white." His father, even being in the mixed marriage he is, tells Ray to avoid them and stick to Pakistani girls.

Later on in his life, we find Ray conflicted, as he has just proposed to a white girl, Noelle. Noelle does not immediately say yes, and says she has to talk to her parents about it, and then leaves for a vacation with her family. Ray's father then soon shows up at his house, after having an argument with Ray's mother. Ray's father is insistant on finding him a nice Pakistani girl, and coerces Ray to meet the daughter of a family friend, who in fact also turns out to be half Pakistani, half white... just like Ray. As to not spoil the ending for anyone who wants to go watch this movie, Ray finds himself conflicted between the women he's loved and planned to marry and his father's cultural values and need for homophily in relationships.

I thought this movie was interesting not only because of the controversy surrounding inter-racial marriages, but also because of the hints at cultural discrimination and ignorance that are thrown in throughout the film. There is one scene in which Ray is auditioning for an acting job, and the topic of his ethnicity comes up. The man running the audition says to Ray, "What if you did the accent?" as if all people of Pakistani origin have "the accent." Then he tries to immitate for Ray what accent he is speaking of, and when Ray starts speaking in this fake accent, the man tries to correct him based on what he has heard on a tv show. There is another scene where Ray is working at a bar, and a girl comes up and flirts with him-- until she finds out he is half Pakistani. In response to the girl walking away, Ray says, "I'm half white, too, you know."

On the flip side, at the beginning of the film when Ray is a child, he is with his friend and says, "How do you see me? Am I white, or brown to you?" His friend responds by saying, "I dont know, you're just Ray."

Anyway, just thought this was kind of a fun, relaxed, and low-key look into ways Middle Eastern (Pakistani in particular) culture has manifested here in the United States, and some of the conflicts and challenges they may face.

Women in Afghanistan

In preparation for our upcoming unit of Women in the Middle East, I've been doing a great deal of research on this topic. I've found the types of information and sources out there to be quite interesting, as there are so many different perspectives to be offered, from the straight facts, to the emotional string-pulling (could be a blog topic of its own), to the extreme activism and more.

One source I found interesting was published by the National Organization of Women (NOW), and was focused on women of Afghanistan, called "The Day the Music Died: Women and Girls in Afghanistan." This article discussed the rash removing of women's rights in the country, and how the Taliban's edict issued on September 27th, 1996 affected both women and the country in general. I found it amazing that on September 26th of that year, women made up 70% of school teachers, 40% of doctors, 50% of government workers, and 50% of university students, and yet the very next day when the edict was issued, any women that tried to show up for work or school was beaten and sent home. How can women be leading such lives and contributing to a society in such important ways one day, and have quite literally everything cut off and taken away from them the next?!

This article also linked to a fact sheet about women's rights (or lack there-of!) in Afghanistan, that I highly recommend checking out for a simple overview of women's rights in Afghanistan and how the Taliban has affected and played a role in this situation. The fact sheet can be found here: "Stop the Abuse of Women and Girls in Afghanistan!"

The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God

I really enjoyed reading The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God by Etgar Keret. I found his writing style to be so unique and quite captivating, and loved how each chapter or story had such an incredibly different topic to the chapter prior-- it really prevented me from getting bored while I was reading!

There were a couple stories (or in some cases, parts of stories) that really stood out to me.

First, I was very drawn in by the second story, called "Goodman." This story was about a man named Mickey Goodman from Telaviv, who killed a seventy-year-old minister and his wife in Texas. What really caught my attention was the line, "Fifty years ago the fact that they were black would have helped, now it only hurt." This really made me consider how racism and stereotypes have changed over time, and how these issues still very much exist in our nation even as I think we often try to mask them.

I was also very intrigued by the story "Shoes." This story is about a boy who visits a Halocaust museum, and is told to never buy anything German. When his mother comes home with a pair of German Adidas shoes for him, he is conflicted. It was very interesting to see the perspectives of the different characters in the story, such as the caring boy, his apathetic-seeming brother, and his unknowledgable mother. In regards to his mother, the boy said she didn't have a clue, and that "shoes were just shoes and Germany was Poland." This story also brought up a good point about how we allow ourselves to forget or push aside the hurtful past, as he decides to wear the shoes and begins to like them. He says, "but after awhile I forgot, just like the old man at Volhynia House said people tend to do." I think this is a great point to consider, especially with all the controversy that has been arising in society about "whether or not the Halocaust really happened."

I also wonder about the teachability of this text for a high school classroom. Of course, some of the stories are quite intense, graphic, and/or obscene, and yet I think some of them have so much perspective to offer, and are a fairly easy read as well. All things considered, I think it might be most practical to separate individual stories to use in the classroom. I would love to know other people's thoughts on this!

Peters Projection Maps

Ever since the first day of class (as well as in past courses when this topic has come up), I have been very intrigued by the concept behind the Peters Projection Map. It seems like a mildly absurd concept to me to be able to say that one map is more “right” or more “wrong” than another, when the world is so vast and each one of us so small. How, if not able to see the whole earth or chart all territory for that matter, are we supposed to create a map that is precisely accurate? It’s not like we can unravel the planet and lay it out on a drawing board to trace. All that being said, I decided to do a little research about it on my own.

The information I found was very interesting. While Wikipedia is not known to be the most reliable source, it did offer a great discussion on the controversy of different map projections. It was said that Peters projection, just like many other new map projections that arise, was widely ignored at first as it seemed mathematically impossible for any map projection to really be much better or more accurate than the next. However, Peters announced his new projection at a time when themes of social justice were very prominent in academia, and the Peters Projection map got much publicity for its accuracy, realism, and factuality. However, there was still a great deal of controversy behind this projection, as all map projections may be more or less accurate in different ways, and that the Peters projection was still warped near the poles, as any rectangular map must be mathematically.

I found the following resolution, which was adopted by seven North American geographic organizations in 1989 and 1990, which I found to be interesting (which, we have to keep in mind, was adopted by North American geographic organizations, not geographic organizations worldwide):
WHEREAS, the earth is round with a coordinate system composed entirely of circles, and
WHEREAS, flat world maps are more useful than globe maps, but flattening the globe surface necessarily greatly changes the appearance of Earth's features and coordinate systems, and
WHEREAS, world maps have a powerful and lasting effect on peoples' impressions of the shapes and sizes of lands and seas, their arrangement, and the nature of the coordinate system, and
WHEREAS, frequently seeing a greatly distorted map tends to make it "look right,"
THEREFORE, we strongly urge book and map publishers, the media and government agencies to cease using rectangular world maps for general purposes or artistic displays. Such maps promote serious, erroneous conceptions by severely distorting large sections of the world, by showing the round Earth as having straight edges and sharp corners, by representing most distances and direct routes incorrectly, and by portraying the circular coordinate system as a squared grid. The most widely displayed rectangular world map is the Mercator (in fact a navigational diagram devised for nautical charts), but other rectangular world maps proposed as replacements for the Mercator also display a greatly distorted image of the spherical Earth.

So, alas, I am left still feeling like all maps have their perks and all maps have their downfalls, and have to wonder why, if the Peters Projection offers a much more realistic and factual representation of the planet, do a majority of schools, etc. still choose to use other map projections, such as the Mercator. Concluding, I think it might be best to just avoid the use of rectangular maps as much as possible, and stick to the classical spherical globe! Nonetheless, I the different map projections out there are definitely something people should be informed about, as it’s important to realize that the image of the world we see on paper may be highly skewed!

"Literature from the Modern Middle East: Making a Living Connection"

Reading Allen's English Journal article, "Literature from the Modern Middle East: Making a Living Connection," really got me thinking about my own experiences in my education regarding the Middle East and the Middle Eastern culture. I find that I am always so impressed by the incorporation of this topic into middle school and high school curriculum, as I've found that this is something that was very much lacking in my pre-college education.

I was just starting eighth grade when 9-11 occured. That being said, there were five whole years of middle and high school for which my teachers could have included the Middle East into their curriculums after that, not to mention the many years beforehand as well. Even so, I can only recall one unit where we really studied it, which was in my eighth grade geography class. Mainly, we covered the physical geography of what the Middle East entailed-- to be expected given that it was a geography class after all. However, even as long ago as this was, I still remember learning about what it was like there-- in particular what it was like to be a woman in the Middle East. I remember watching a movie about a woman and her daughter in the Middle East, and the ideas from it intrigued me substantially and stuck with me to this very day. I only wish I could remember the title of it!

With all the many examples of media and text that can be used to incorporate the Middle East into lessons and units that Allen provides in his article, I can only imagine how much of an impact could be made for students. Even if they're not immediately drawn to the subject, I can imagine that at least one of these sources would grasp their attention and inspire them to want to learn more about it all, just as that one film grasped my attention when I was fourteen years old!

First Post!

For the sake of getting something up here...

Hi! And welcome to my blog for ENGL 5390-- Post Colonial Literature!

Come back for more posts soon!