My ramblings and giving my .02

Looking for a room mate, know anyone looking? want to keep in the fam...

ginagrandi — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:02:34 GMT

yes again, i need a new roomie! the ever revolving Hayes Hotel.... Need room mate please for a 4 bedroom flat. Now its me, my bro and Scribe. Emily is moving out. Looking for someone: SUPER CLEAN detailed and organized, grounded not allergic to cats, will like mine, Pishee (pishee means kitty in farsi) leads a quite life and has professional job and purusing goals and dreams in life knows about the BM & opel parties and lifestyle but not caught up in it by any means.... low maintenance, doesn't have a lot of stuff cause there's no room for storage Doesn't have a live in lover or entourages of party friends 420 friendly Preferably doesn't eat or cook pork in the house Rent is $550 on Hayes at Masonic in SF do you know anyone who knows someone kind of thing?

leaving for the playa bitches

ginagrandi — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:29:08 GMT

Wow, this is a blue moon, I can actually log onto tribe and not get the server overload message fir the first time in weeks...... Its been a long hard road, but we are there now, and the trucks are being loaded and the team is heading up tomorrow and Thursday to start unloading the 50 tons of metal and shit we have to build this project. Total details of the whole enchilada at www.opulenttemple.org i hear its a very dusty ass year as there was no rain, uhhhhhh god no.... but its ok, become one with the dust.... The good news is that Marta is going, my new buddy from Spain, and I got a sick Marin mountain bike that is going to kick the sand dunes butt. but honestly I am getting over burning man, and not feeling as excited as year's past, but doing it again this one last time.... I am decorating the chill areas again, and doing an alter and helping co lead the kitchen and then on Thursday night we are doing a belly dance show at 9:30 pm. The line up: Marta Piper Wendy from FCBD Leslie Danielle Ingram Super Kate Eliza Kismah & Tribal Laura Satya Marcine Perry of Ultra Gypsy Roseanna McGuire Nancy T Anja i hope to see your dusty selves on the dance floor. I am also hoping to finish building this alter for Jerm at the Temple, who killed himself at burning man last year. I was the last person in our group to see him, so that shit has been haunting me for a year, especially because of the hurt and terribleness that has haunted Emily.... so I hope that NO ONE does anything stupid and crazy like that this year, because its too much for my tender heart..... Come to the 2:00 corner to say hi and I will post pics later. In dust we trust.... xoxo

17 days to go

ginagrandi — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:03:36 GMT

can you believe that we are leaving for the playa in 17 days? Some of you might be leaving in 20 but we are early arrivers because of our production out there. are you guys excited???? I am excited but also kinda feeling blahhhhhh about it, I am really hoping that there aren't too many weekend warriers (yea right) and that there won't be 4 days of 4 hour white outs with winds of 60 mph (yea right) and that all the fucking ravers don't leave 10 bags of trash every day on our dance floor (yea right) that needs to be cleaned up and we have to haul that shit out of there cause leave no trace is practically a joke out there... (shame) and other minor annoyances of the playa i also need someone to house sit for me to take care of my Pishee, my kitty so let me know if you need a place, I need a very reliable person because my cat's happiness is like my happiness. Everyone in my entire household will be out of town inlcuding Christian,so you could have the whole place to yourself! If you would be interested at all, let me know! Pish is sooooooo sweet. i can leave a fridge packed with beer and other treats?~!!!! tell me!

REALLY need donations for Garage Sale this Saturday for Opulent Temple

ginagrandi — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:41:49 GMT

Greetings everyone, This Saturday, July 12 is the annual Opulent Temple Garage Sale! 9am to 4:20 pm 1827 Hayes San Francisco, Near corner of Masonic I need help! First and foremost, I need donations. CAN YOU DONATE?? If everyone could go through their homes and give me a bag of old stuff; books, clothes, shoes, etc that you don't need, please donate it to the OT Garage Sale. Please deliver it to me in the evening this week or for sure by Friday night. If even 15 of my friends on this email list gave me stuff, that would be amazing. f you don't have transport, let me know and I will coordinate a pick up. We all have that Good Will pile of crap piling up and want to make room for fresh new energy. This is the time to do that, and for a great cause! Last year the sale made over $1000, and I hope this year can do the same, with your help we can make that goal! And every dime goes to get the OT supplies. Please let me know if you can help a sister out! I also need help the day of the garage sale, let me know if you can lend a hand. THANK YOU VERY MUCH IN ADVANCE!!! In case you don't know, the Opulent Temple is a burning man theme camp that is completely self funded. you can see details at www.opulenttemple.org.

Crimes against women up in Yemen

ginagrandi — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:35:16 GMT

Sana'a: As many as 130 Yemeni women were killed in 2,694 incidences of violence and sexual assaults on females during 2007, according to an official report. A total of 970 women, including 345 under 18 years of age, were injured as a result of those attacks, said the report released by the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday. The report, prepared by the Centre for Studies and Researches of Gender at Sana'a University, studied on the incidences and causes of violence against women. The main cause of violence against women is due to the tradition of early marriage, the report said adding that Yemen was yet to criminalise the act of child marriages. The report also cited poverty, illiteracy and age-old barbaric customs as some other reasons behind the violence. Among all the marriages held in 2006 and 2007, about 52 per cent of Yemeni girls and about 7 per cent of boys were under the age of 15, it said. About 70 per cent of the child marriages took place in rural areas where about 75 per cent of the 22 million population of Yemen reside. The university report also revealed that the age gap between the wife and the husband was very big in those marriages. In many cases the age of the husband was about 50 years more than the wife. Struggle A number of civil society organisations concerned with women's issues has been struggling to raise women's participation in the political, economic, social, cultural and sporting arenas. But they still face a lot of obstacles, mainly due to the poor social standing of women, when compared with women in other Arab countries. Women form only 17 per cent of the staff in public and private sector companies. They have nominal presence in the political parties, according to recent statistics. http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/10223582.html

Sensuous shimmy faces jab and jostle

ginagrandi — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:29:52 GMT

By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Special to Weekend Review Published: June 13, 2008, 00:04 http://www.gulfnews.com/weekend/people/10220519.html To the West, it is the belly dance. To Middle Easterners, it is raqs sharqi or the oriental dance. Whatever the name, the dance continues to be popular worldwide despite changes over the centuries in its form and perception. There has been much debate as to when and where this form of art originated. Many researchers date it to Pharaonic Egypt, citing inscriptions on temples of dances performed during religious rituals. Dance was an intrinsic part of the culture of the ancient Egyptians, with people of different social classes enjoying music and dancing. Labourers worked in rhythmic motion to songs and percussion and street dancers entertained passers-by, historians say. Some researchers, however, argue that the belly dance originated in Greece and came to Egypt when Alexander the Great (356-323BC) built the coastal city of Alexandria. Others trace it to northwestern India and Uzbekistan. Apparently looking for a compromise, some other theorists say the belly dance has different origins, referring to its diversity of styles. Because of this ambiguity, the dance has come to be scorned by some people and admired by others. From the Middle East to the US and Australia, the belly dance has become a popular performing art as well as a mode of self-expression and entertainment. Classes teaching the dance continue to be conducted in many parts of the globe. In Egypt, where the belly dance has thrived over the years, it is popular among foreign visitors and locals alike. Egypt boasts the world’s best-known dancers. “Despite restrictions triggered by a revival of Islamism in this predominantly Muslim country, the belly dance is still a major item and attraction in most wedding parties,” says Khalil Sadek, a folk-arts researcher. “This art is a form of self-expression and a way of exercising.” In recent years, gymnasiums have sprung up in major Egyptian cities, offering classes for women interested in learning it. “We have a high demand particularly in the summer, when girls do not go to schools and mothers have enough time,” says Hossna Jamil, an instructor at a gym in northern Cairo. “Despite the scorn poured by Islamists and conservatives on the belly dance, it is still popular with the local women, who want to perform it for their husbands or on happy occasions such as weddings,” Jamil says. “It also helps them to be in good shape.” She says the belly dance is beneficial to both the mind and the body. “Dancing boosts mental health and helps increase flexibility and strength. It activates blood circulation and makes the body more supple and controllable. It also rids one of feelings of fatigue and depression.” Many belly dance styles emphasise muscular “isolations”, and enhance the ability to move various muscles or muscle groups independently, experts say. Belly dancing, they add, tones the arms and improves flexibility. As a form of exercise, it can burn as many calories as jogging, swimming or riding an exercise bike. “Belly dancing is less strenuous than lifting weights and more uplifting than working out on a bike at the gym,” said researcher Sadek. There are two forms of belly dance. The first is raqs baladi (a local dance), which is generally performed during festive occasions such as weddings and other social gatherings for fun and celebration. The second form — a more theatrical version — is called raqs sharqi (oriental dance). Like raqs baladi, raqs sharqi is performed by both male and female dancers. According to the Wikipedia encyclopaedia, the exact origin of this dance form is actively debated among enthusiasts, especially because of the limited academic research on the topic. Much of the research has been done by artistes attempting to understand their dance’s origins. However, the often-overlooked fact that most dancing in the Middle East occurs in the social context rather than the more visible and glamorous context of professional nightclub dancers has led to widespread misunderstanding of the dance’s true nature and has given rise to many conflicting theories about its origins. The best-known theory is that it descended from a religious dance. This idea is usually the one referred to in mainstream articles on the topic, and has enjoyed a large amount of publicity, according to Wikipedia. In the West, raqs sharqi was popularised during the Romantic Movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, inspired by the Orientalist view of harem life in the Ottoman Empire (1288-1922). Although there were performers of this type of dance at the 1876 Centennial in Philadelphia, it was not until the 1893 World Fair that it gained national attention. At the fair, there were authentic dancers from Middle Eastern and north African countries, including Syria, Turkey and Algeria, but the dancers in the Egyptian Theatre of the Street in Cairo exhibit gained the most attention. With belly dancing generating admiration bordering on a craze in the US, Thomas Alva Edison made several films focusing on the dancers in the 1890s. The list included Turkish Dance and Ella Lola. One of the earliest films made on belly dancing was Fatima’s Dance, a short that drew criticism for its “immodest” dancing, and was eventually censored under public pressure. Some Western women began to learn from and imitate the dances of the Middle East, which at the time was colonised by Western powers. The famed US dancer Ruth St Denis (1877-1968) also engaged in Middle East-inspired dancing, but her approach was to put “oriental” dancing on the stage in the context of ballet, her goal being to lift all dances to a respectable art form. Egyptian belly dancing was among the first styles to be witnessed by Westerners. During Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1798 invasion of Egypt, his troops encountered the ghawazee tribe. The ghawazee (itinerant dancers) made their living as professional entertainers. At first, the French were repelled by their heavy jewellery and hair, and found their dancing “barbaric”, but were soon lured by the hypnotic nature of their movements, according to Wikipedia. The classical belly dance is still popular in the West. Still, many dancers have created fusion forms such as the American tribal style, inspired by the folkloric dance styles of India, the Middle East and north Africa and even flamenco. Dancers in the United States, while respecting the origins of the belly dance, apparently innovate to address their requirements. In fact, many women in the US and Europe view belly dancing as a tool for empowerment and a boost for bodily, mental and spiritual faculties. Issues of body image, self-esteem, healing from sexual violation and self-fulfilment are regularly tackled in belly dancing classes there. The interest in belly dance has given rise to diverse names for the same simple movements and the need to have a “style” as instructors try to accentuate distinction and differences in their ways of teaching. A recent movement in the US called the American Tribal Style Belly Dance (ATS), represents everything from folklore-inspired dances to the fusion of ancient dance techniques from north India, the Middle East and Africa. Launched in the early 1990s by Carolena Nericcio, founder of FatChanceBellydance in San Francisco, ATS has a format consisting of a vocabulary of steps designed to be performed improvisationally in a lead-follow manner. Pure ATS is performed in a group, typically with a chorus of dancers using zills, or finger cymbals, as accompaniment. The music can be folkloric or modern and the costume is heavily layered, evoking traditions of one or all of its cultural influences. Multicultural trends that have shaped Western and US belly dancing are still at work. Constantly evolving, this dance keeps absorbing a blend of influences — modern fashion, film and television imagery, the world of rock and hip hop, underground subcultures, and many others. Like the United States, Canada also has a thriving belly-dance community with many different styles ranging from raqs sharqi to gypsy. Many schools teach the dance in Canada, which has produced some of the finest belly dancers in the world, including Yasmina Ramzy. She is the driving force behind the International Belly Dance Conference of Canada, regarded as the country’s largest belly dance gathering. Belly dancing is equally popular in other Western countries, including Britain and Australia. While social dancing on certain occasions such as family functions is accepted and even encouraged, many people in Middle Eastern and North African societies frown upon the performances of professional dancers in revealing costumes and dismiss them as morally objectionable. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that such performances should be banned altogether. Last month, Dina, Egypt’s celebrated belly dancer, drew scathing criticism from members of parliament and the media for performing at a school prom. The country’s official TV broadcaster stopped showing belly dance performances two decades ago. Since the early 1980s, big-name belly dancers in Egypt have been quitting the profession, deciding to “repent”. The list includes Sahar Hamadi, Hala Al Safi and Azza Sherif. Others, such as legendary Najwa Fouad, have either retired or shifted their sights to TV drama and cinema. The heyday of this art form in Egypt was in the 1940s and 1950s. The Emad Eddin Street, Egypt’s version of Broadway in those times, was famous for its nightclubs where top as well as not-so-well-known dancers performed. During those years, King Farouk, Egypt’s last monarch, reportedly hired the Russian ballet instructor Ivanova to teach his daughters. Ivanova later taught Egypt’s iconic belly dancer Samia Jamal how to use the veil to improve her arm carriage. Most Egyptian dancers would use the veil as an opening prop, which they discarded within the first few minutes of their routines. In Egypt, dancers also wear full, beaded dresses to do folkloric and baladi (local) performances. Such outfits are also used by the American and European artistes for folk dances. However, in Egypt these dresses are designed according to the dance and the tradition. Western dancers have more freedom and may choose freely according to taste and imagination, experts say. Tahya Karyouka, one of Egypt’s most talented dancers in the first half of the 20th century, is remembered for popularising baladi dance in her movies. Soheir Zaki and Najwa Fouad dominated the belly dance scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Other dancers such as Fifi Abdou and Lucy rose to fame in Egypt and far beyond in the 1980s and 1990s. Now they devote most of their time to acting on TV. In recent years, Dina has been the most famous name in Egyptian belly dancing, where the art form is now dominated by foreign performers from as far as Argentina, Mexico, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. In an apparent reaction to protests from local dancers, Egypt imposed a ban on foreign belly dancers in 2003. The ban was, however, lifted a year later. There are 150 licensed foreign belly dancers in Egypt, according to official figures. Insiders, nonetheless, confirm that the figure is far higher because of the low fees requested by the foreign performers compared with their Egyptian counterparts. A famous Egyptian dancer would demand $10,000 a night compared with $500 by a foreigner. Egyptian agents started to hire foreign belly dancers in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Originally ballet dancers, the newcomers from Eastern Europe were quick to acquire the skills of raqs sharqi. They soon proved to be serious rivals to the local performers in nightclubs and in programmes hosted at fashionable hotels in Cairo and thriving resort towns such as Hurghada. Foreign dancers, such as Asmhan of Argentina, the Ukrainian Sally and the Brazilian Camellia, are now big names among Egypt’s raqs sharqi performers. In an apparent bid to enhance their allure and renown, these foreign dancers have taken purely oriental names. Belly dancing consists of movements that are executed throughout the body. The focus of the dance is the pelvic and hip area. It is, fundamentally a solo improvisational dance with a unique dance vocabulary that is fluidly integrated with the music’s rhythm. The most admired performers of raqs sharqi are those who can best project their emotions through dance, even if their dance is made up of simple movements. To some experts, belly dancing is not an inaccurate term. They point out that all parts of the body are involved in the dance and the most important part is the hips. The dancer’s aim, they argue, is to convey to the audience the emotion and rhythm of the music. Egyptian-style raqs sharqi is based on baladi, a style honed by legends such as Samia Jamal and Tahya Karyouka in the 1940s until the 1960s, deemed to be golden era of the belly dance in Egypt. Its popularity was enhanced through local musicals. In Egypt, three main forms of the traditional dance are associated with the belly dance: baladi (local), sha’abi (folksy) and sharqi (oriental). The Egyptian forms of belly dance are rivalled by the Syrian, Lebanese and the Turkish patterns. Turkish belly dancing may have been influenced by the Roma people as much as by the Egyptian as well as the Syrian and Lebanese forms, having developed from the Ottoman dance to the oriental dance known today worldwide. Turkish law does not impose restrictions on dancers’ movements and costumes, unlike Egypt, where dancers are barred from performing floor work and certain pelvic movements. With the surge in Islamism and the foreigners’ invasion of the trade in Egypt and some other Arab countries, experts are worried about the future of the belly dance. “Now everyone who has nothing to do can claim she is a dancer,” Fouad told the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al Awsat. “Russians and Poles are now dominating the scene as female singers take up dance as well.” Earlier this year, Fouad was on the jury of Hezy Ya Nawam (Wiggle, Chick), a contest produced by the Lebanese TV channel LBC to spot new talent in belly dancing. The producers said their key aim was to protect this genre from extinction. Ironically, the contest drew competitors from France and Ukraine. Ramadan Al Sherbini is a journalist based in Cairo. More from ...... Weekend Review

looking for belly dancers going to the playa

ginagrandi — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:55:50 GMT

hi i am working now on the line up for the opulent temple bellydance show 2008. if you are going to burning man and want to perform at the opulent temple, please let me know. it doesn't have to be anything, but definately has to be bellydance let me know~! the show is about one hour on Thursday night and its a wonderful thing to bring the world music and dance vibe to OT, the party central extravaganza Past line up has been really amazing with incredible talent, hope to do it again.

Belgian Internet Warrior Rallies Women to Support Al Qaeda

ginagrandi — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:58:03 GMT

BRUSSELS — On the street, Malika El Aroud is anonymous in an Islamic black veil covering all but her eyes. In her living room, Ms. El Aroud, a 48-year-old Belgian, wears the ordinary look of middle age: a plain black T-shirt and pants and curly brown hair. The only adornment is a pair of powder-blue slippers monogrammed in gold with the letters SEXY. But it is on the Internet where Ms. El Aroud has distinguished herself. Writing in French under the name “Oum Obeyda,” she has transformed herself into one of the most prominent Internet jihadists in Europe. She calls herself a female holy warrior for Al Qaeda. She insists that she does not disseminate instructions on bomb-making and has no intention of taking up arms herself. Rather, she browbeats Muslim men to go and fight and rallies women to join the cause. “It’s not my role to set off bombs — that’s ridiculous,” she said in a rare interview. “I have a weapon. It’s to write. It’s to speak out. That’s my jihad. You can do many things with words. Writing is also a bomb.” Ms. El Aroud has not only made a name for herself among devotees of radical forums where she broadcasts her message of hatred toward the West. She also is well known to intelligence officials throughout Europe as simply “Malika” — an Islamist who is at the forefront of the movement by women to take a larger role in the male-dominated global jihad. The authorities have noted an increase in suicide bombings carried out by women — the American military reports that 18 women have conducted suicide missions in Iraq so far this year, compared with 8 all of last year — but they say there is also a less violent yet potentially more insidious army of women organizers, proselytizers, teachers, translators and fund-raisers, who either join their husbands in the fight or step into the breach as men are jailed or killed. “Women are coming of age in jihad and are entering a world once reserved for men,” said Claude Moniquet, president of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. “Malika is a role model, an icon who is bold enough to use her own name. She plays a very important strategic role as a source of inspiration. She’s very clever — and extremely dangerous.” Ms. El Aroud began her rise to prominence because of a man in her life. Two days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, her husband carried out a bombing in Afghanistan that killed the anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud at the behest of Osama bin Laden. Her husband was killed, and she took to the Internet as the widow of a martyr. She remarried, and she and her new husband were convicted in Switzerland for operating pro-Qaeda Web sites. Now, according to the Belgium authorities, she is a suspect in what the authorities say they believe is a plot to carry out attacks in Belgium. “Vietnam is nothing compared to what awaits you our lands,” she wrote to a supposed Western audience in March about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Ask your mothers, your wives to order your coffins.” To her followers she added: “Victory is appearing on the horizon my brothers and sisters. Let’s intensify our prayers.” Her prolific writing and presence in chat rooms, coupled with her background, makes her a magnet for praise and sympathy. “Sister Oum Obeyda is virtuous among the virtuous; her life is dedicated to the good on this earth,” a man named Juba wrote late last year. Changing Role of Women The rise of women comes against a backdrop of discrimination that has permeated radical Islam. Mohamed Atta, the Sept. 11 hijacker, wrote in his will that “women must not be present at my funeral or go to my grave at any later date.” Last month, Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s second in command, said in an online question-and-answer session that women could not join Al Qaeda. In response, a woman wrote on a password-protected radical Web site that “the answer that we heard was not what we had hoped,” according to the SITE monitoring group, adding, “I swear to God I will never leave the path and will not give up this course.” The changing role of women in the movement is particularly apparent in Western countries where Muslim women have been educated to demand their rights and Muslim men are more accustomed to treating them as equals. Ms. El Aroud reflects that trend. “Normally in Islam the men are stronger than the women, but I prove that it is important to fear God — and no one else,” she said. “It is important that I am a woman. There are men who don’t want to speak out because they are afraid of getting into trouble. Even when I get into trouble, I speak out.” After all, she said, she knows the rules. “I write in a legal way,” she said. “I know what I’m doing. I’m Belgian. I know the system.” That system often has been lenient on her. She was detained last December with 13 others in what the authorities suspected was a plot to free a convicted terrorist from prison and to launch an attack in Brussels. But Belgian law required that they be released within 24 hours because no charges were brought and searches failed to turn up weapons, explosives or incriminating documents. Now, even as Ms. El Aroud remains under constant surveillance, she is back home rallying militants on her main Internet forum, Minbar-SOS — and collecting more than $1,100 a month in government unemployment benefits. “Her jihad is not to lead an operation but to inspire other people to wage jihad,” said Glenn Audenaert, the director of Belgium’s federal police force, in an interview. “She enjoys the protection that Belgium offers. At the same time, she is a potential threat.” Embracing a Strict Islam Born in Morocco, reared from a young age in Belgium, Ms. El Aroud did not seem destined for the jihad. Growing up, she rebelled against her Muslim upbringing, she wrote in a memoir. Her first marriage, at 18, was unhappy and brief; she later bore a daughter out of wedlock. Unable to read Arabic, it was her discovery of the Koran in French that led her to embrace a strict version of Islam and eventually to marry Abdessater Dahmane, a Tunisian loyal to Mr. bin Laden. Eager to be a battlefield warrior, she said she hoped to fight alongside her husband in Chechnya. But the Chechens “wanted experienced men, super-well trained,” she said. “They wanted women even less.” In 2001, she followed her husband to Afghanistan. As he trained at a Qaeda camp, she was installed in a camp for foreign women in Jalalabad. For her, the Taliban was a model Islamic government; reports of its mistreatment of women were untrue. “Women didn’t have problems under the Taliban,” she insisted. “They had security.” Her only rebellion was against the burqa, the restrictive garment the Taliban forced on women, which she called “a plastic bag.” As a foreigner, she was allowed to wear a long black veil instead. After her husband’s mission, Ms. El Aroud was briefly detained by Mr. Massoud’s followers. Frightened, she was put in contact with Belgian authorities, who arranged for her safe passage home. “We got her out and thought she’d cooperate with us,” said one senior Belgian intelligence official. “We were deceived.” Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who was France’s senior counterterrorism magistrate at the time, said he interviewed Ms. El Aroud because investigators suspected that she had shipped electronic equipment to her husband that was used in the killing. “She is very radical, very sly and very dangerous,” he said. Ms. El Aroud was tried with 22 others in Belgium for complicity in the Massoud killing. As a grieving widow in a black veil, she persuaded the court that she had been doing humanitarian work and knew nothing of her husband’s plans. She was acquitted for lack of evidence. Her husband’s death, though, propelled her into a new life. “The widow of a martyr is very important for Muslims,” she said. She used her enhanced status to meet her new “brothers and sisters” on the Web. One of them was Moez Garsalloui, a Tunisian several years her junior who had political refugee status in Switzerland. They married and moved to a small Swiss village. There, they ran several pro-Qaeda Web sites and Internet forums that were monitored by Swiss authorities as part of the country’ first Internet-related criminal case. After the police raided their home and arrested them at dawn in April 2005, Ms. El Aroud extensively described what she called their abuse. “See what this country that calls us neutral made us suffer,” she wrote, claiming that the Swiss police beat and blindfolded her husband and manhandled her while she was sleeping unveiled. Convicted last June of promoting violence and supporting a criminal organization, she received a six-month suspended sentence; Mr. Garsalloui, who was convicted of more serious charges, was released after 23 days. Despite Ms. El Aroud’s prominence, it is once again her husband whom the authorities view as a bigger threat. They suspect he was recruiting to carry out attacks last December and that he has connections to terrorist groups operating in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The authorities say that they lost track of him after he was released from jail last year in Switzerland. “He is on a trip,” Ms. El Aroud said cryptically when asked about her husband’s whereabouts. “On a trip.” A ‘Holy Warrior’ Meanwhile, her stature has risen higher with her claims of victimization by the Swiss. The Voice of the Oppressed Web site described her as “our female holy warrior of the 21st century.” Her latest tangle with the law hints at a deeper involvement of women in terrorist activities. When she was detained last December in connection with the suspected plot to free Nizar Trabelsi, a convicted terrorist and a onetime professional soccer player, and to attack a target in Brussels, Ms. El Aroud was one of three women taken in for questioning. Although the identities of those detained were not released, the Belgian authorities and others familiar with the case said that among those detained were Mr. Trabelsi’s wife and Fatima Aberkan, 47, a friend of Ms. El Aroud and a mother of seven. “Malika is a source of inspiration for women because she is telling women to stop sleeping and open their eyes,” Ms. Aberkan said. Ms. El Aroud operates from her three-room apartment that sits above a clothing shop in a working-class Brussels neighborhood where she spends her time communicating with supporters on her Minbar-SOS forum. Although Ms. El Aroud insists that she is not breaking the law, she knows that the police are watching. And if the authorities find way to put her in prison, she said: “That would be great. They would make me a living martyr.” Basil Katz contributed research from Paris. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/28/world/europe/28terror.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Out With the Boys for a Night of Numbering

ginagrandi — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:36:45 GMT

While Katherine Zoepf was reporting on the lives of young women in Saudi Arabia recently, she managed to find a way to get a glimpse of the lives of young men in the Kingdom as well. (Elsewhere on this blog today, Ms. Zoepf is taking questions about love and romance in Saudi Arabia.) I hadn’t met the boys before, but it was easy to pick them out: a half-dozen Saudi 18- and 19-year-olds shifting uncomfortably on two brocade sofas in the lobby of one of Riyadh’s grandest hotels, Al Faisaliah. The boys looked ill at ease among the marble pillars and elaborate flower arrangements, yet they’d insisted on meeting here. The Saudi religious police were unlikely to raid a luxury hotel, the boys felt, and since the evening activity we’d planned was illegal, it seemed best to take precautions. Saudi society is strictly segregated along gender lines, and after several weeks spent interviewing Saudi teenage girls, I’d become very curious about life on the other side of the gender divide. I’d seen groups of young Saudi men out “numbering” - chasing cars containing young girls and trying to give the girls their phone numbers via Bluetooth, or by holding written phone numbers up to their car windows. When a Saudi girl I knew told me that her friend’s older brother would be willing to take me out numbering with his friends, I leaped at the chance. The boys had brought clothes for me to wear over my abaya, and in a secluded corner of the hotel parking lot, we experimented with my disguise. Thamer, a 19-year-old political science student, handed me a knitted cap, and I stuffed my ponytail up underneath it. I zipped a hooded sweatshirt belonging to Mohamed, another of the boys, up over my billowing black cloak, and peered at my reflection in the tinted glass of Thamer’s S.U.V. “Could I pass for a boy?” I asked. The black skirt of my abaya still trailed the floor, but from the waist up I felt pretty pleased with the effect. Fahad, the most talkative of the boys, snorted. “No,” he said. “But I think that’s as good as we’re going to do. We’re going to put you in the middle seat, and if you see someone in another car staring, turn slowly away.” We piled into the S.U.V., and Thamer clicked through a rap mix CD to find Akon’s “Smack That,” to set the right mood for an evening of numbering. The boys bobbed their heads in time to the music. “Wanna jump up in my Lamborghini Gallardo/Maybe go to my place and just kick it, like Taebo?” Akon sang. In reality, getting a girl to go anywhere with him, let alone to “kick it,” is a near impossibility, Fahad explained. For most young Saudi men, a night of numbering is simply a night driving around with friends, listening to music, chasing cars containing black-draped figures that could just as easily be old women as young girls. Since numbering is considered harassment, detention by the religious police is an ever-present possibility. We turned onto Thalia Street, a prime spot for numbering because of its many restaurants. “There! There in the GMC!” Mohamed shouted. “Girls!” Through the tinted windows in the back of the GMC, I could make out three indistinct black shapes. Thamer stepped on the gas, but a white Mercedes S-class containing four young Saudi men edged him out. The Mercedes pulled alongside the GMC, and the two young men in the back seat waved pieces of cardboard with phone numbers written on them. “They beat us,” Fahad complained, as Thamer tried to pull up behind the GMC. “And they have a hotter car.” I looked around. We were surrounded by several other cars, all containing young men and all trying to get the attention of the figures in the GMC, while simultaneously trying to edge each other off the road at high speed. “Isn’t this getting a bit dangerous?” I asked. “Yeah,” said Fahad. “Sometimes the girls get really scared, there are so many cars chasing them. Sometimes they’re in their car, crying and screaming for us to go away. It’s fun to make girls angry.” A phone number written out on a piece of cardboard is “the classic approach,” Fahad said, but most of the time he and his friends use Bluetooth to try to send their phone numbers directly to the cell phones of girls in the vicinity. Usually this means chasing cars containing women, but sometimes Fahad and his friends drive past the entrances of shopping malls where women wait for their drivers. It’s not easy to tell which of the black-shrouded shapes might be young women, Fahad admitted, but there are a few tricks. “You look at the style of the abaya, the way she holds her bag,” Fahad explained. “See that one there, how thin she is, and how carefully she’s covered up her face?” He pointed out a slight figure with a pastel handbag. Sure enough, a pair of girlish-looking sneakers were just visible beneath the hem of her abaya. “I’d say that maybe 3 out of 10 nights of numbering,we have some success,” Fahad explained. “You mean that 3 out of 10 nights you get a girl to talk to you?” I asked. “No, no,” Fahad laughed. “Maybe 3 out of 10 nights we get one phone number. Getting a girl to actually talk to you on the phone is much rarer. But it happens, so we’re always hoping.” http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/out-with-the-boys-for-a-night-of-numbering/

Seeking new room mate

ginagrandi — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:30:12 GMT

hi i am seeking a new room mate for the Hayes Hotel. are you looking or do you know someone looking for a place? its a 4 bedroom flat on hayes and ashbury in san fran, available end of May the room is kinda small but decent size for bed, desk, dresser, bookshelf, and doesn't get a lot of natural light but has a closet $600 a month ideal person is super, super clean, quite, female, likes kitties as I have one, contributes towards the overall vibe of the house and doesn't have too much stuff as the place is already furnished let me know~~

compltetely traumatized

ginagrandi — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:48:58 GMT

I have been reeling since the news of that MONSTER came out from the fuck head in Austria who locked up his daughter for 24 years and fathered 7 of her children. I have never been so disturbed and completely freaked out by any news story other than this! This is worse than the Virginia Tech shootings in my .02 in some way because at least those people died, but the captives, who were this man's family, were stuck never to see the sun, to feel the wind, and the long list goes on!!!! Their lives was a slow, miserable, terrible death of their spirit and its so terrible, I can't even breath. How in God's earth does this happen? Why does the human brain have such psycho tendencies? How can anyone explain this to me? How can a man do this? How can someone be so ill, yet exist "normally" in society? Where is "God"? I can't imagine and wouldn't want to try to understand why and how... but I am totally devastated. I can't imagine any justice that would compare. This is so beyond me, I can't even believe it. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/30/austria.meeting/index.html

para siempre salena!

ginagrandi — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:09:08 GMT

its the anniversary of her death today, cut tragically short at 23~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoJkv6Rv6Xo Her memory will live forever!

Extremely controversial short film on Islam

ginagrandi — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:15:40 GMT

This is going to start some shit!!! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103 I have been going blog crazy this week, but this is interesting....

oh hell no!

ginagrandi — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:06:33 GMT

paris hilton tries to bellydance! http://perezhilton.com/2008-03-27-paris-attempts-to-belly-dance

Vintage Ansuya

ginagrandi — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:29:27 GMT

some one posted this on youtube recently, and its magical! Its at the Santa Monica YWCA before she joined BDSS in about 2001. You can see her old troupe mates there, I was there! this is my first exposre to bellydance! no wonder I became obsessed, look what I had to aspire to! http://youtube.com/watch?v=GljVkN3alGE i miss doing those salons!

Ashley Alexandra Dupre $1 million

ginagrandi — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:42:27 GMT

Joe Francis is offering Gov. Spitzer's $4,000 a month prostitute Ashley Alexandra Dupre $1 million to tell her side of the story and do a non-nude photo spread (Eh?) in his new magazine. She'd also go on tour with Girls Gone Wild. Us Magazine reports: "Her face is on the cover of every newspaper in the country," Francis said in a statement. "It's clear that the public wants to see more of her. This is a serious offer and I hope she gets back to me right away." Us Magazine also says Ashley has made over $200,000 off her two tracks on Amie Street. Now she stands to rake in a cool mil. It's almost like Ashley hit the jackpot.

From NY TIMES Camels Go Easily Through the Eyes of Admirers

ginagrandi — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:00:16 GMT

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — This time of year, when the weather here is still cool and comfortable and the flowering plants and shrubs are everywhere, how better to spend a day than to be out in the desert with beautiful camels? To be sure, the untrained eye might find it hard to appreciate such beauty. But here, camel aesthetics can be evaluated according to a series of precise and exacting standards. “It’s just like judging a beautiful girl,” said Fowzan al-Madr, a camel breeder from the Kharj region southeast of Riyadh. “You look for big eyes, long lashes and a long neck — maybe 39 or 40 inches.” As he spoke, Mr. Madr was surveying the offerings at Saudi Arabia’s largest camel market, on the outskirts of Riyadh. The souq al-jamal, as the market is called in Arabic, sprawls over the open desert for so many acres that it is handy to have a car to drive from pen to pen. The days are long past when camels were crucial to life, a chapter lost in increasing urbanization and technology. But there is still pleasure in raising them, as a touchpoint to history, sometimes for milk and meat, for racing and, yes, for their beauty. Camel beauty pageants, in which camels are judged on their looks and dressage, are held all over Saudi Arabia. They have become so popular in recent years that a respected Saudi cleric recently issued a decree against them, saying that they encouraged pride. The death in January of Mashoufan — a male camel who earned celebrity status after winning first prize in a number of pageants and was said to be worth more than $4.5 million — was widely reported, and his owner received condolences from around the country. Camel breeding is a multimillion-dollar industry in Saudi Arabia, and late winter is an especially popular time for wealthy Saudi camel owners to arrange parties in the desert to spend time with their favorite camels. “There’s a lot of fun involved in owning camels,” said Robert Lacey, a British biographer. He is living in Saudi Arabia while updating his 1983 book, “The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Saud.” “You can go out for the day, two or three hours out of Riyadh, have lunch, play with the camels, have tea, say the sunset prayer in the desert,” he said. “Camels are a gentleman’s pastime, and this is how a gentleman entertains his friends. In a way, you’re also re-enacting the pageant of your ancestors.” Ali bin Talal al-Johany, a former minister of telecommunications, owns a herd of 124 camels and keeps a large framed photograph of his prized bull, Musfer, in his home. He explained that because Saudi Arabia had developed so quickly, camels had a great deal of symbolism for older Saudis, and owning them was a pleasurable way to feel connected with the past. “My family always had a very strong relationship with the Bedouin, and the camels remind me of my childhood,” Mr. Johany said of his passion, which began when the crown prince, Prince Sultan, sent him 15 camels as a gift. “Owning camels is a very sentimental thing for most of us.” Back at the souq al-jamal, Haza al-Shammari, a camel breeder from Ha’il in northern Saudi Arabia, agreed. “Camels are just like humans,” Mr. Shammari explained. “They love and hate just like humans. That’s why you have to bring them up very gently.” “See this one?” he asked, pointing to a white female camel with long eyelashes and a calm gaze. “She isn’t married yet, this one. She’s still a virgin. Look at the black eyes, the soft fur. The fur is trimmed so it’s short and clean, just like a girl going to a party.” Suddenly, Mr. Shammari grabbed the white camel’s chin and kissed it square on the mouth. “When you get to know the camels, you feel love for them. My camels are like my children, my family.” At the market, thousands of camels of every description are for sale. In addition to pure white camels, there are woolly black camels and oatmeal-colored camels, even camels of the color that, in a winter coat, is called “camel-colored.” In one pen, a group of lean young racing camels ate from a basin shaped like a giant plastic cereal bowl. Another pen, apparently a kind of maternity suite, held nursing mothers; a 3-day-old, virtually humpless and the size of a golden retriever on very long legs, followed at a confident trot when its mother was led away by a buyer. In another enclosure, camels marked for slaughter with splashes of hot pink spray paint on their sides, exactly 1 year old and ready for eating, bellow mournfully as they are hobbled and forced to kneel in the back of a pickup truck. Last August, the timeless routines of the souq al-jamal were shattered when camels began dying in droves, until as many as 5,000 died under unexplained circumstances. Mr. Madr, the camel breeder, lost seven, all apparently healthy young animals. “The camels were dying one after the other,” Mr. Madr said. For a man whose livelihood depends on a herd of 50 camels, the death of seven is a serious loss. “Usually when you have a sickness, it dies with the animal. But all these deaths? This was a new kind of tragedy for us.” An investigation showed that the camels had been poisoned by fodder contaminated with an antibiotic called salinomycin, often added to chicken feed but poisonous to camels. A mill had tried to double production of camel fodder by using a factory line normally devoted to chicken feed. Last month, King Abdullah ordered payments of 20,000 riyals, about $5,330, for every camel that died from eating the contaminated feed. Camel breeders said the explanation of the fodder poisoning and the payments had come as a relief, allowing them to close an anxious chapter in the history of Saudi camel husbandry. “The king learned about our disaster and wanted to help us,” Mr. Madr said. “As for the 20,000 riyals, well, some camels cost more, and others less. “It’s a fair price.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/world/middleeast/17camels.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

anger about thieves

ginagrandi — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:44:55 GMT

i want to complain about this city and all of the fuck faces who live here who steal your shit! Why is it that in every mother fucking moment that the Club has not been on my car, it gets stolen? Its been stolen 5 times. I have become completely obsessed and neurotic when I drive because I am always on edge that some fuck face is going to steal my car, and last week it got stolen, I am still waiting to get it back but now I don't even want it. it was actually my brother's fault because he drove it to Bayview and didn't use the club. Its really stressful to go through this time after time, I really can't take it. And I have had several bikes stolen too. It really gets old in life when you are moving through it in fear that someone is going to take something from you or get you some how. I really want to come from a place of strength but instead I feel like the most vulnerable woman. To people who steal shit: FUCK YOU!

Former S.F. Supervisor Matt Gonzalez to run with Nader

ginagrandi — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:30:53 GMT

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader named Matt Gonzalez, a former San Francisco Board of Supervisors president and 2003 mayoral contender, as his running mate today. The consumer activist introduced Gonzalez as his vice-presidential candidate at a press conference in Washington, D.C. "I have no illusions," Gonzalez said at the press conference at the National Press Club. "I've never entered a contest without some sense the contest can be won." He also said he also believed he had moved debates leftward in previous runs for office, including his 2003 mayoral campaign. Gonzalez, 42, was elected supervisor in December 2000 from San Francisco's District 5, serving the Haight Ashbury, Inner Sunset and Western Addition, and served for the final two years of his tenure as president of the board. He narrowly lost the 2003 mayoral election to Gavin Newsom. Since leaving office in January 2005, he has practiced civil law. Gonzalez, a native of McAllen, Texas, spent a decade in the San Francisco public defender's office before running for district attorney in 1999, finishing third with 11 percent of the vote. He flirted with the idea of a second mayoral run in 2007 but ultimately decided against it. He is a member of the Green Party, under whose banner Nader ran for president in 2000, when he received 2.7 percent of the vote nationwide. Nader, who turned 74 on Wednesday, ran as an independent in 2004 and garnered 0.3 percent. He also ran limited campaigns in 1992 and 1996. Many Democrats have not forgiven Nader for his 2000 campaign, which many party members believe was responsible for handing the election to George Bush. Nader has rejected such criticism and has said there is little difference between mainstream Democratic and Republican politicians. When he announced his latest candidacy Sunday, Nader criticized the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, and Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying they opposed universal health insurance funded by the government and had no plans to deal with a "bloated" military budget. In response to questions today that Obama and Clinton in particular were making populist appeals by calling for changes in the North American Free Trade Agreement, Nader said, "They go populist when they are desperate. What does that tell you?" E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com PHOTO: Gina Grandi from ALix Rosenthal's fundraiser at Mighty with Larry Harvery, founder of Burning Man

Newsom's woman problem

ginagrandi — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:18:08 GMT

We can't afford to lose more good women in power, or let the few that remain be silenced into inaction By Alix Rosenthal, Amy Moy and Micha Liberty OPINION Be nice, wait your turn, pay your dues, your time will come. This is the "guidance" given to women in politics, and many of us have bided our time and paid our share of dues. But what happens when our time comes, and we speak out for what we believe in? We are called pushy, mean, controlling, or cold. And worse — we are stripped of our positions. In the last month, four of the most respected women in city government have been removed from their posts: •<\!s>Susan Leal is considered one of city government's best managers and was leading the city toward a future of sustainable energy usage. According to the Chronicle, she was fired from her position as director of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission because the Mayor did not consider her to be a "team player," and because it appeared that Leal was readying herself for another run for Mayor in 2011. •<\!s>Leah Shahum is a fearless bike advocate and Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. She was removed from the city's Municipal Transportation Agency for being an outspoken critic of the city's inaction on promoting alternative forms of transportation. •<\!s>Roma Guy is a fierce advocate for women's health, a former lecturer in San Francisco State University's health education department and a longtime progressive activist. She was removed from the city's Health Commission without explanation. •<\!s>Debra Walker is the only woman on the city's powerful Building Inspection Commission, a longtime affordable housing activist, and a fighter for reform and transparency in the Department of Building Inspection (a male-dominated department in a male-dominated field). Walker lost her leadership position on the commission after she was targeted by the mayor's office for openly disagreeing with his positions. We can't allow these affronts to go unnoticed and we can't afford to lose more good women in power — or let the few that remain be silenced into inaction. It is time for women to stand behind our sisters who work hard every day to represent us in government, many on a volunteer basis, while also pursuing full time careers and caring for their families. The National Women's Political Caucus and the San Francisco Women's Political Committee are working to increase the number of women in positions of influence in city government. In September of last year, 47 elected officials and other community leaders from the San Francisco women's community came together for a Women's Policy Summit where the participants agreed that our top priority is to promote more women to positions of influence in government. Even though women comprise 51 percent of the voting population, we hold only 16 percent of the seats in Congress, 23 percent of state legislative seats nationwide, and 27 percent of the seats on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Only one elected executive office in San Francisco — district attorney — is held by a woman. San Francisco must do more to promote women to leadership positions. We must also call on the mayor to appoint women to positions of influence in city government and demand an explanation when he removes qualified women from their posts without good cause. The time for patience and waiting our turn has passed. * Alix Rosenthal, Amy Moy and Micha Liberty Alix Rosenthal is the founder of the San Francisco Women's Policy Summit. Amy Moy is president of the San Francisco Women's Political Committee. Micha Liberty is president of the National Women's Political Caucus (SF chapter). http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=5774&catid=4&volume_id=317&issue_id=341&volume_num=42&issue_num=22

Opulent Temple Benefit this Satruday, 02/23

ginagrandi — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:54:51 GMT

The OT is very excited to welcome none other than the West Coast house legend DJ Dan to come to play in support of our efforts. Dan had the set of the week at the OT this year at Burning Man. After Gabriel & Dresden weren't able to make their sunrise set, he stepped in spontaneously and, tagging for a portion of it with his friend Travis, just killed it. He is donating his fee and his time to help us come back in 2008. We're doing this at Ruby Skye, which we know may seem strange to Burners, but this is where he plays in SF and they're giving us a generous cut of the door, as well as full reign to make it our own kind of production. So don't fret, we're taking over the place in most every way, and the night is sure to be a special one!! Saturday, 02/23 $15 discount pre-sale now available HERE. www.opulenttemple.org/ We majorly NEED help! Thank you! P.S. Is tribe dying? i can never log on. Are you bitches reading this shit?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) Women killed for blush, no headscarf, RIDICULOUS!

ginagrandi — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:28:39 GMT

-- The images in the Basra police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture. The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce. "Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don't know who to be afraid of." Her fear is justified. Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. One glance through the police file is enough to understand the consequences. Basra's police chief, Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, flips through the file, pointing to one unsolved case after another. VideoWatch Khalaf show evidence of the brutality » "I think so far, we have been unable to tackle this problem properly," he says. "There are many motives for these crimes and parties involved in killing women, by strangling, beheading, chopping off their hands, legs, heads." "When I came to Basra a year ago," he says, "two women were killed in front of their kids. Their blood was flowing in front of their kids, they were crying. Another woman was killed in front of her 6-year-old son, another in front of her 11-year-old child, and yet another who was pregnant." The killers enforcing their own version of Islamic justice are rarely caught, while women live in fear. Boldly splattered in red paint just outside the main downtown market, a chilling sign reads: "We warn against not wearing a headscarf and wearing makeup. Those who do not abide by this will be punished. God is our witness, we have notified you." The attacks on the women of Basra have intensified since British forces withdrew to their base at the airport back in September, police say. Iraqi security forces took over after British troops pulled back, but are heavily infiltrated by militias. And tracking the perpetrators of these crimes is nearly impossible, Khalaf says, adding that he doesn't have control of the thousands of policemen and officers. "We're trying to trace crimes carried out by an anonymous enemy," he says. Amnesty International has raised concern about the increasing violence toward women in Iraq, saying abductions, rapes and "honor killings" are on the rise. "Politically active women, those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women [who are] human rights defenders were increasingly at risk of abuses, including by armed groups and religious extremists," Amnesty said in a 2007 report. Sometimes, it's just the color of a woman's headscarf that can draw unwanted attention. "One time, one of my female colleagues commented on the color of my headscarf," Safana says. "She said it would draw attention ... [and I should] avoid it and stick to colors like gray, brown and black." This extremist ideology enrages many secular Muslim women, who say it's a misrepresentation of Islam. Sawsan, another woman who works at a university, says the message from the radicals to women is simple: "They seem to be sending us a message to stay at home and keep your mouth shut." After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Sawsan says, the situation was "the best." But now, she says, it's "the worst." "We thought there would be freedom and democracy and women would have their rights. But all the things we were promised have not come true. There is only fear and horror."

On Sunday 02/03, my soul will be consumed with estatic bliss

ginagrandi — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:49:55 GMT

Mamak Khadem comes to Berkley, this Sunday! oh my goddess! I am almost crying just thinking of this.... My her voice scream in agony and ravish my soul and split me into pieces, catapulting me into divine ecstasy of the beloved where for a few brief moments where I am graced with her music, I am resonating in suffering of separation from my beloved, from god but the veil is lifted, and tingling in delight of vocal sonic bliss. http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=232019 Mamak will perform at Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center in Berkeley on February 3rd at 7:00 PM. Tickets available at : www.ticketweb.com or calling ticketweb 1-866-468-3399 Accompanying Mamak in these concerts will be Jamshied Sharifi (keyboard, accordion), Naser Mousa (oud), Chris Wabich (percussion), Hamid Saeidi (Santur), and Ole Mathisen (clarinet, saxophone). I have to go and take pictures! This will be my 7th time to see her live, but its been mucho tiempo!

Excellent coverage by NPR on Muslim Mujeres

ginagrandi — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:38:47 GMT

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18330334 Dude, this stuff is so my calling! I am going to one day forget burning man, bellydance, opel, and all the other shit and just focus on these issues, it totally lights my fire!

drugs

ginagrandi — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:16:41 GMT

its so sad when you see such talent get swooped up in drugs! I am around them a lot in the party scene, but somehow I am lucky because my genes don't make me want to get into them the way others do. i love the green flowezz but its not as controlling as other substances. i am so lucky i have not become a coke head, there are lots of them around! Coke seems like a regular part of the upper echelons of society, everyone seems to be doing it, like nothing.... but then pills: anti anxiety, sleeping ones, anti depressants the list goes on.... Sometimes I even feel weird that maybe I should be taking one because everyone else seems to be on something, but I wasn't raised that way. i have not even dabbled in them, just to "see". And good thing I don't, cause chances are, I would start popping them.... i see it in our social circles, but its also everywhere in hollywood and beyond Sobriety seems to me now to be a gift, and it sucks how some of the most talented and amazing people of our time get into drugs and then can't find their way out (amy winehouse for example!) I wish and encourage a life of sobriety and a life free from substance abuse and substance addiction to all of my friends. Such a slippery slope!!!!! And I am sure that Heath Ledger's death will be ruled an accident, he just had too much shit in his body and with the pneumonia,jet lag and other factors, its just tragedy. I see my other friends blogs, and many are moved by his death. Another tragic legend has been named. Stay sober guys!