Crazy is a word ‘normal’ people throw around when they either don’t understand something, they’re totally disconnected, or wish to absolve themselves of responsibility. “We don’t kill our people… No government in the world kills its people, unless it’s led by a crazy person,” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said this week in a recorded interview. Does Assad not understand, is he disconnected, or is he crazy? I don’t think it’s either one of those choices. And to even consider that his actions against the Syrian people can be explained by calling him crazy is an insult to the idea of what crazy really is.

Why did Assad himself use that word? I believe that it was a default response in order to buy time and to claim innocence. His audience was his supporters and the international community. How could an eloquent, educated, English-speaker dressed in a suit on international television be crazy, in the sense of being insane? Of course he’s not. Assad is deliberate, cruel, struggling to hold power, and he completely disregards the aspirations of his people. Calling him—or any other authoritarian leader trying to repress his own people with military force—crazy is a misuse of a complex and misused term.

The definition of crazy ranges from insanity to impractical to impatience to infatuated. It’s not surprising that the word ‘crazy’ is often used to describe protestors, civil movement leaders, and most recently, Occupy Wall Street activists.

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Samira Ibrahim

Women’s broad and persistent participation in the ongoing revolution in Egypt has brought a gruesome new tactic to light—virginity testing.  This form of repression that specifically targets female activists and journalists peaked around March 2011, and under Egypt’s post-Mubarak military leadership, the tactic is on the rise.

Recently, the courageous Samira Ibrahim, a 25-year-old Egyptian human rights activist, has not only publicly exposed the torture she and other women were subjected to, but she is filing a legal case against the Egyptian military for sexual assault. Human Rights Watch and other human rights advocacy and defense organizations have denounced the practice of virginity testing and are helping publicize Samira’s case, including a video testimony by Samira that details her experience.

Certainly, sexual torture is not new in Egypt, and men have been subject to it. Bloggers have helped expose this form of torture for years. In June 2011, the popular writer and lecturer, Mona Eltahawy, helped bring to light the new issue of virginity testing as part of a larger strategy targeting women to discourage them from participating in protest activities. She rightly declares, “If the ‘it wasn’t about gender’ mantra is stuck on repeat so that we don’t scare the boys away, then let them remember the state screwed them too…”

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Last Friday marked the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. It is easy to be motivated by the idea of a 16 day dedication to combating violence against women, but I float between enthusiasm, doubt, and the occasional eye-roll as I read through some of the websites of major organizations that are promoting the campaign, like Say NO – UniTE, which is led by UN Women. I have to work a little bit to get past the cringe factor of what could appear as an elite-led advocacy campaign (ribbons, rubber bracelets, glossy pamphlets, etc.) to understand the significance of the campaign and its connection to the goal of a nonviolent world. Can anything led by the UN seriously be called activism?

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The First Thanksgiving by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

This Thursday, the United States and its citizens around the world will celebrate our day of thanks, known as Thanksgiving. The tradition’s origins are often disputed. Some say it was a European harvest cycle tradition that immigrated to the “New World” with the explorers. Others dispute whether the tradition began in Plymouth, Massachusetts or in Florida or Virginia. Of course, the image of Native Americans sitting together with European colonists – actually, occupiers – is disputed as well.

Fast forward to today, and most dictionaries describe Thanksgiving as:

1) the act of giving thanks

2) a prayer expressing gratitude

3) a public acknowledgement of celebration of divine goodness

I am aware that the way we Thanksgiving is celebrated today runs contrary to the historic origins of the New World. There are so many Thanksgiving myths, and any actual story or history has been white washed. To make the holiday even more discouraging, the focus of Thanksgiving for so many Americans is on Black Friday, football, and holiday shopping. None of the dictionary definitions of Thanksgiving fit with contemporary consumerist and indulgent activities.

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Did I get your attention? While titles that draw attention to women’s physical features may summon most of the male population, a title like, Women, War and Peace was probably written off as a women-only television series. You know: “girl’s stuff” or women-as-victims drama.

Over the past month, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired a fascinating series that showed real women around the world in their roles as serious nonviolent organizers. The five-part film series, now completely available online, offers five cases of women’s activism in the following contexts (I have edited the website’s language with a nonviolent conflict perspective, bolding the significant political achievements of their efforts):

I Came to Testify is a story of how 16 Bosnian women who had been imprisoned and raped by Serb-led forces in the Bosnian town of Foca broke history’s great silence – and stepped forward to take the witness stand in an international court of law. Their courage resulted in a triumphant verdict that led to new international laws about sexual violence in war.

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Anyone who wants accurate news saturated with humor, irony and “truthiness” tunes in to the Colbert Report each night. This past week, I witnessed yet again the genius of Colbert tackling a relevant topic while mocking all sides of the political spectrum. Colbert’s latest self-serving campaign to co-opt the Occupy Wall Street movement was a brilliant co-optation statement of the Tea Party that also exposed the strengths and weaknesses of Occupy Wall Street.

But let’s step back a minute. What does it mean to co-opt a movement? Here’s a simple example relayed to me by a former U.S. civil rights movement activist:

During the civil rights movement, a demonstration concerning one aspect of the fight for racial equality was mounted in front of the Kennedy White House. In those days before massive security systems would make such a thing impossible, the demonstrators walked the pavement with picket signs. After some time had passed as the sidewalk picketers maintained their discipline, President John F. Kennedy asked the White House Mess to send out coffee and doughnuts to the protesters, which they did. As everyone enjoyed the coffee and doughnuts, the demonstration promptly dissipated, and everyone went home.

Now escalate that example to levels of providing foreign assistance, or interest group patronage, or individual endowments and large donations, and what you have is the opportunity for co-optation, or Stephen Colbert’s cleverly-termed “co-optportunities.”

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Written on the hand of this young protester, “Leave” - a message to Syria's President Bashar Assad

Bits and pieces of information about the growing uprising in Syria are coming our way through mainstream media sources like Al Jazeera. But dig down deep, and you’ll find a revolution with women forging the way, and with a news gap that’s being filled by Syrian expatriate females.

Let’s begin with a little known fact: The youngest known convicted prisoner of conscience in the world is a Syrian citizen. Her name is Tal al-Mallouhi, a young blogger who has been in prison since 2009, when she was 17 years old. Tal’s poetry and political interests and activism chaffed with the authorities. After being held in jail for more than two years, in February 2011, Mallouhi was sentenced to five years in jail after being convicted of spying for the U.S. The case of Tal became part of Syrian consciousness, particularly among women. The idea that young people were increasingly disappearing, often later found tortured or killed, sounded an alarm in villages across Syria.

During a recent conversation with Rafif, a female Syrian expatriate activist living in Northern Virginia, I learned some of the deep grievances that were at the core of decades of citizen activism in Syria. “There is a kind of gang mentality in Syria that goes beyond politics. You either support the government-supported mafias, or you are excluded from ‘inner circles’ that allow you some economic leverage. All major industries, like tourism, mobile communications, and petroleum industries are regime-controlled. In any business, you have to strike a deal with the regime in order to operate without too much government interference,” she explains. “It is a culture of bakhsheesh, meaning tip or bribe. Those who cannot afford to pay off every level of government or businesses are excluded, and therefore don’t benefit economically.”

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A fascinating yet rarely discussed feature of the DC-based Occupations in Washington, DC is the food tent. Over several evenings last week I talked with the incredibly motivated and dedicated managers/servers at Freedom Plaza.

“They say that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and that’s how it is here,” explained the food tent coordinators. “This is where everyone comes, and everyone is welcome.” They are right. On Wednesday night, there were activists, homeless people, bloggers, and passers-by who congregated at the tent at various times over a two hour period. It was fascinating.

The coordinators explained, “We get donations from everyone, in many different ways. Everyday we are surprised by who comes along with pizzas, fruit, money, or individuals who just rolls up their sleeves and gets behind the tables to serve.”

To the skeptic, this may appear a regular soup kitchen. But what I saw was a growing self-sufficiency coupled with an increasing base of supporters and contributors. During another visit to Freedom Plaza on Friday night, Popeye’s chicken and Au Bon Pain were available. Earlier that day, the farmers market across the street donated apples and other produce.

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I’ve been watching with fascination and delight the “Welcome to Palestine” action and the reaction by the Israeli government, security apparatus, and press. Why delight? Because I am one of those people who have arrived and departed Ben Gurion Airport—eight times so far—and understand the harassment one can face if “confessing” to be en route to or from occupied Palestine. Some of my most shameful moments as an educator, workshop facilitator, and writer/blogger have taken place at Ben Gurion Airport.

“What is your purpose in Israel?” the passport control agent asks. “To visit friends in Israel,” or, “For tourism in Tel Aviv,” or, “To attend a  conference in Israel.” Upon departing, I lied as well, as many of us who stand in solidarity with Palestinian nonviolent activists often do. The lies expedite our exit, protect our friends and colleagues, and safeguard the truth (through photos, videos, interviews, and stories) that we intend to release once we’re home.

The “Welcome to Palestine” campaign and conference confronts a deception. It exposes the control that Israel has had over our right to freedom of assembly and association, and to Palestinians’ right to those basic universal human rights. More importantly, it directly challenges the status quo, particularly the Israeli travel tradition and policy imposed on activists, educators, filmmakers, and citizen journalists for too long. The campaign is about truth, as the organizers and participants state in one of their objectives: “refuse to lie about the reason we have come or to sign illegal commitments not to enter the Palestinian territories. We will not hide the fact that we have come to visit our Palestinian friends.”

From a theoretic and strategic perspective, the action undertaken by those foreign activists is selective resistance, highlighting a specific, limited issue or grievance that symbolizes general oppression. This nonviolent tactic (arriving at the airport and being forthcoming with one’s intention to visit Palestine) is a form of noncooperation. Although international solidarity activists have participated in campaigns and nonviolent actions for years in occupied Palestine, what we witnessed this weekend is a unique action that openly defies a policy directly targeting those of us who have supported Palestinians for years, but who could not be truthful even though we broke no laws.

“Welcome to Palestine” has incrementally raised the cost of a repressive policy. But for Israel the cost is more than just financial. Not only was the government forced to mobilize hundreds of additional security forces at the airport, it also had to work overtime on a public relations campaign, negotiate, coax, and perhaps coerce particular international airlines, and then manage its domestic press as well as international media coverage. The noncooperation campaign cost the opponent time, money, resources, reputation, and legitimacy. Upon arresting the activists detained at the airport, the Israeli government will also bear diplomatic pressure. It will have to manage and repair its self-image, as independent journalists on the scene portray bullies or a mobocracy. This is a very different picture than the state’s traditional portrayal of its citizens as victims. That narrative is now being turned inside out.

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Women demonstrating in Sana, Yemen, on Saturday

Well, the last I’ve checked, they’re pretty much in the front lines of civil resistance struggles in Bahrain and Yemen. They were strong and present in Egypt, and they’re sprouting publicly and over the World Wide Web in larger numbers in Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Unlike many others, I am not at all surprised. As Yemeni opposition leader Ali Obaid told CNN: “Yemeni women lead the Yemeni revolution and men follow.”

For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of the recent North Africa and Middle East nonviolent revolutions is the bottom-up media coverage, commentaries, first-hand accounts, and debates led by women from around the world. In the past three months, we’ve witnessed women moving from the background to the frontlines—not only in major street protests, but also on the mainstream evening news as well as across our Facebook pages and the blogosphere.

Women’s active participation steadily made headline news (well, almost) during Egypt’s revolution, and women like Mona Eltahawy were an absolutely inspiring and enthusiastic advocate for Muslim women as Egypt’s revolution unfolded. In late January, Mona vociferously challenged the mainstream media’s coverage of Egypt’s nonviolent movements, particularly the word “chaos” being used to describe the historic events led by ordinary Egyptians, and urging the US and Western countries to “take the side of the people of Egypt.” And weeks later, Mona debated other women around France’s recent ban on the niqab and burqa in public spaces—a debate that women, not policy makers, must lead.

For years now, young Egyptian women like Dalia Zaida and Noha Atef had been blogging courageously behind the scenes, exposing government corruption and abuses as well as educating the Egyptian public on people power and the history of civil resistance. Dalia was responsible for translating and editing the Arabic version of “The Montgomery Story” back in 2009, eventually distributing 2,000 copies throughout the Middle East.

Noha is the founder of Torture in Egypt (“Al-Tatheeb fi Masr”), a web-based campaign that documents and informs about human rights abuses in Egypt. Noha talks about her entry to the blogosphere in a 2009 interview during the 2nd Social Arab Bloggers Meeting. Both these young women shone brightly at the height of Egypt’s revolution, and we can see Noha’s contributions in highlighting women’s participation, while Dalia offers a sobering reality check on the lack of women’s inclusion, cautioning that some of the gains of Tahrir Square are already being lost.

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