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Afghan Whispers: Apostasy

Farid Pouya · 14:58 · Central Asia & Caucasus

We all heard about Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who converted to Christianity, went to prison, and finally find refuge in Italy. Now let's look what Afghan bloggers say about it:

Afghan Lord talks about Abdul Rahman's background. He says:

“Abdul Rahman lived for a long time in Pakistan and was known in the past as a fundamentalist. He had worked for Mudjaheedin and had fought against the Soviet Union….This makes clear for people that he was an active member of Jamiat Islami party which was lead by Ahmadshah Masood, a warlord (The warlord who destroyed the Kabul city vastly). Assassinated by a suspected terrorist just a week before September 11, 2001. In recent years Abdul Rahman was living in Germany, but was deported last year after his asylum seeking was rejected. Abdul Rahman went out of the country but now caused a big tension in the country which can not be stopped soon very easily.”

Safrang , a US-based Afghan blogger, talks about his talk with Guantamo's former Moslem Chaplain, Mr. James Yee, and asked him about apostasy in Islam. According to Chaplain:

“In the early days of Islam, when apostasy was made a crime punishable by death, it was not simply to execute those who abandoned Islam for their change of belief.”

The blogger continues, saying about the historical reasons for apostasy being a crime,

This is the sort of thing that I have not often read in the news in relation to the apostasy case in Afghanistan. This is the sort of thing that people in the West have to pay attention to as much as the clerics and judges ruling on this case.

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Interactions between the blogosphere and mainstream media typically involve skepticism, lack of credibility finger-pointing, and holier-than-thou condescension. The print media hold no viable future, bloggers contend, while full-time journalists argue that bloggers aren't equipped or sufficiently trained to report the day's news. One new initiative in Ecuador, however, reveals a mutually beneficial collaboration between the country's bloggers and its oldest daily, El Telégrafo. The newspaper is courting the active blogging community to fill a page of its weekly supplement with what they consider their best content. The proposal gives bloggers a chance to reach new readers that, perhaps, don't yet have an internet connection and also gives young, web-savvy readers a reason to buy and promote the paper.

Rafael Méndez Meneses from Naranjal, Ecuador excitedly announces on his blog, “Ecuablogs and El Telégrafo get married! (figuratively speaking).”

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The African women’s blogsphere this week

Nish Matenjwa · 08:19 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Virtual cartwheels are perhaps our only last recourse as apparently African women are (still) invisible.

Black Looks writes about an recent article in the Guardian where the founder of the Carnival of Feminists cannot find our blogs. In a post entitled Aint I a Woman???, Black Looks says:

That's odd because I have been published on the carnival at least once; Black Looks is listed on Feministing and other blogs that go under the label of “feminist” - I am no longer sure what exactly that means and those who carry the label need to give it some reflection; there is a comprehensive list of African women bloggers on my blog roll - not exactly hard to find; a simple technorati or google blog search will come up with African women's blogs as will Global Voices Online - every week…

Over the past week, African women, visible or not, have been writing about a wide and varied list of issues that range from the impossible dream of a paperless office to the need for equal representation in government.

Uaridi calls upon her own personal experience to ask ’what price beauty’ for women who wear high heels and links the pain endured to the long outlawed Chinese foot binding ritual. She writes:

What prize beauty if after 30 or so years of wearing high heels, you have chronic back pain, calluses, heel pain, bunions, hammertoes, ingrown toenails and you can never wear low heels because your feet and legs conform to the shape of high heels. I personally know 2 women who can no longer wear flat shoes! Is this beauty or torture?

Some sections are in French and English, however, Fleur is pleased to learn that a wikipedia exists in Lingala - a language spoken in the Congo and provides various links for people interested in learning the language.

Although she says ’we would only see a partial eclipse here in Lagos’, Ore goes all poetic after the recent eclipse and writes:

I saw something of the eclipse. I was tripped by how dark it got and when I saw the moon partially cover the sun, I was awed beyond belief. How I would have loved to have been in the path of the total eclipse.

Black Looks has just returned from the 26th International Gay & Lesbian Association where discussions and workshops were held around lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Africa was represented by activists from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria and Tunisia. The two issues that most concerned the Africa group were the homosexuality trials in Cameroon and the case of the proposed legislation to ban advocay and support of LGBT rights in Nigeria.

Demonstrating the possibility that a a paperless office is probably an unattainable dream, Pilgrimage to self counts the 12 pieces of paper generated by a fairly simple transaction – one claim.

To ensure representation in parliament, women should ‘start believing and voting for their own’ Kamundulio writes. ’The fewer women are in government the fewer issues that concern us will be taken seriously’ she continues and also says ‘Women voters need to understand that women can make good leaders if given a chance.’

Afromusing who is soon becoming the Kenyan bloggers ‘environmental issues’ guru has posted information on how to set up your own solar water pump from a shallow spring. This system, which looks easy enough to set up, requires no batteries.

Feminist African Sister comments on a recent dance in Nairobi celebrating International Women's Day..She questioned the style of dancing which had young girls “ gyrating in an extremely and highly sexualised manner”. She wonders

To what extent should the feminist movement especially that populated by younger women, embrace and give space to these sort of expressions - be they art, dance or written word? For example, should the word bitch have any place in our spaces, considering its use in media and society to demean, belittle, abuse and disempower women and girls?

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Voices from Zimbabwe and the Great Lakes

Zimpundit · 06:18 · Sub-Saharan Africa

Zimbabwe: After long silence Manulite is back blogging again! In his very first post, Manu recounts having a bad day,

There are times when you think you are having a very, very bad day. Then there are times when bad days are in season. Of course bad days can be a result of a number of various causes. For example schools are closing in a few days time. That's an obvious bad day coming your way right there, because it means in a month's time you need school fees. So though Easter is somewhere in-between schools' closing and opening, it simply does not exist. The best use for the Easter holiday is to go kumusha and basically terrorise the rural folks so that they give you a bucket full of maize, some manhanga and nyimo and a bit of peanuts. (Umm…, peanuts as in peanuts, not the peanuts you get at the end of every month.)

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