I am convinced by Aliaa Elmahdy’s revolution undressed

Ever since our class discussion on Aliaa Elmahdy’s bold and provocative beginnings, to say the least, I started following her activities on Twitter and short stories on her blog to try to understand the person she is behind the picture we had analyzed in class. The more I read the more I became interested in her type of activism. Today, after a couple of days of deep immersion in her words and the meaning between each line, I can say that I would befriend her and ask a lot of questions. This blogpost is dedicated to her words and my understanding of her activism online. Before I delve into the blog, I want to state that the picture we analyzed in class is but a glimpse of the wealth of her body of work, both physical and figurative.

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Aliaa Elmahdy is 25. She is far braver than most 25-year-old girls from developing countries, including the 22-year-old me. For many, she is ‘just a bit too much’ to handle or understand. I was one of them during our class. I desperately tried to block my cultural background and intellectual censoring machines. I failed. We discussed the rhetoric of her picture. I still failed. We went into the politics of Orientalism. And yet, I kept failing. What was lacking for me was an insight into her psyche. I wanted to know more to gain on respect toward such a bold act. It lacked substance until I started reading her words. And boy do her words range from defending girls who have been oppressed by their families to pictures of buring the Qur’an and writing ‘f***k Qur’an’ on a girl’s bare chest as she was buring the holy book.

One of her first blog entries I found was a condemnation of female genital mutilation. There is nothing humane about the act. In Aliaa’s words, “the majority of women are not born asexual, but you try your hardest to make them so by circumcising them and psychologically abusing and conditioning them to take away their agency” (blog). She understands the meaning behind the importance of agency for women or for any human being that ought to have their agency respected by others. What I appreciate is her analysis of the situation. She defends the girl whose video she posts and analyzes the situation from the perspective of her agency that can be applicable to many women in similar situations.

Another blog entry addresses domestic violence over girls her age – a topic that is very personal to her. In that blogpost, she states that “[the girl] was taken into custody by her Parents under non humanistic conditions and is being forced to take psychotic Medications Just because she was an apostate of Islam” (blog). The title of this blogpost is “Free Mariam and many others”. Her words are general. She is addressing multiple audiences and pointing fingers at multiple situations that have been simultaneously taking place in many households. She is not afraid to say that ‘isolated incidents’ are a pattern, rather than individual occurrences. In a way, she is an advocate for making others aware that the world we live in is filthier than we had originally thought.  I connected this story to her own, as she recently posted a fourth anniversary since she left her own abusive home. In other words, Aliaa is a human being who is requesting dignity and respect with her words. She is self-aware and that is key to understanding the situation where she, as a free and dignified human being, is being stripped off that respect.

Aliaa also shares blogs of other female activists, including some ex-hijabis. I found the term ‘ex-hijabi‘ quite peculiar. One such blog shares quite deep insights into a life of a girl who unvelied herself (blog). The blog is described with the following words:

This is a journal dedicated to celebrating body and fashion, specifically for those who have broken away from Islamic modesty requirements. It contains personal narratives, many of which are accompanied by photographs (alas too many are not, for safety/in-the-closet reasons).

How fascinating is such boldness? Furthermore, the blog contains an entire section on the girl’s personal reasons on why opposing hijab is a good choice and why she had unvelied in the first place (blog). Fascinating, no? I found her words striking, as the personal narrative gave me a metaphorical access to her head and thoughts, whereas the veil would create a hidden barrier that might prevent me from entering and peeking into such a thought-provocative frame of mind. In other words, Aliaa opened my eyes to other bloggers who share their personal stories. It was a snowballing effect that made me more and more fascinated with her type of activism. Aliaa, in my case, acted like a catalyzer of curiosity towards a field I knew nothing about and felt even uncomfortable entering at first.

However, not all is roses and daisies.

There are other blogs, however, that are borderline provocative for me. The best example is a portrait of Aliaa with a sandwich in a picture (the same picture I use for the title of this blog) whose description states that it was taken during Ramadan, a time of fasting and self-sacrifice. She is staring at the camera with a big sandwich in her hand and the words in Arabic state ‘Ramadan meal’. In other words, there are parts of her work I still struggle to understand. Some I find more insulting than awareness-raising and serving to a greater cause. But that is just my personal bias.

In sum, I attempted to understand the naked girl we discussed better. I attempted to understand the meaning of her words, the way she thinks and the core of her activism. On a general level, there are many things I support. There are some that I am still to understand, however I accept it and hope I get to meet this girl one day and ask all of the questions that are mushrooming within me as I read her blogposts.

Sources:

Eileraas, Karina; “Revolution Undressed – The Politics of Rage and Aesthetic in Aliaa Elmahdy’s Body Activism”

Elmahdy, Aliaa; Echoing Screams (blog)