RACHEL HOLMES tk_-----182

- - A lot of students f th 10 weeks summer tranung-directly preparing or e d h week. This experience

h - - was conducted one ay eac . -"li reaistered-T e trammg th h We felt the respons1b1 ty o- were e teac ers_

was different because now we . "th ther emerging writers. d h -ng our expenence WI o of transforming an s an 1" d because if we do not d h uld not be monopo Ise

I learned that knowle ge s o "t metaphor_ After each -11 di lik poet who refuses to wri e

share it, it WI e e a d We now have a great f -1 ew more an more. workshop, the PWW affil y gr d" ur activities to reach more

l d we are expan mg 0

number of vo unteers an - . d b . g heard' . In under two d lik I did of wrinng an em d

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Partially solved the problem o _access el~ L bna's article say it all. The

ll - ess1ve nouns m u English. The co ectlve poss b - and poets as Writers in ary Ara writers

problem of getting contempor h ns Israel won't let them in. d duct works ops remai . ll th Residence an to con d f PWW workshops- A e

. 1 00 gra uates o There are now JUSt over h e not Palestinian or of

h th rogramme w o ar writers who have taug t on e _P lF At Beit Nimeh this summer

_ lumru of Pa est. Palestinian hentage are a - her training and creative

anising and tutormg teac these students are org h hild used to go with her

h - A bic Safa w o as a c writing works ops m ra . ' - fr the family orchard in the to harvest ohves om

grandmother every year l t of the garden and shady . . ing the deve opmen

hills of Ramallah, IS superVIS think reflect and debate in a peaceful, arbours for the students to r~ad, th 'h to make good use of the big safe space. And, I hope, showmg e~ dflow bushes .

ulti ate the wm ower -ellow watering can to c v . y At Cafe La Vie, the conversation continues.

NAJAF

CAPITAL OF ISLAMIC CULTURE

RoseAslan

Most people do not consider taking their next vacation to Iraq. The resi-dents of the city of N ajaf hope to change that. One of the holiest cities in Islam, Najaf is home to the tomb of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad_ It also contains the biggest ceme-tery in the world, Wadi al-Salam (the Valley of Peace), famous in recent years as the site of deadly battles between Iraqi insurgents and coalition forces_ Muslims, in particular Shiis from Iran, Pakistan, India, Lebanon and Afghanistan, flock to N ajaf, as well as the other important shrine cities of Karbala, Samarra, and Kadhitniya in Baghdad, to visit the tombs of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, considered to be infallible in Shii theology-

The city developed around the Tomb of Imam Ali, which was first con-structed by theAbbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late eighth century. It later became the centre of Shii Islamic learning when Sheikh al-Tusi, escaping to the safety of Najaf during widespread persecution of Shiis in Baghdad, founded the first madrasa, or school of higher Islamic education, in the eleventh century_ The ancient city of Kufa, right next to Najaf, has pre-Islamic origins and is a must-visit for any history buff. It is home to the seventh-century Kufa Mosque and other important religious sites from

Islamic history_ Babylon is only an hour's drive away, another attrac-tion for those interested in Iraq's pre-Islamic civilisations.

Despite Najaf's violent recent past and its reputation for being the head-nno . ...-1-,r~ of Muqtada al-Sadr and his supporters, people .from all walks of life are trying to change their city's negative image on the global stage.

af may soon make its way onto the tourism radar beyond its status the devout as a pilgrimage destination.

183

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Early last May, I found myself disembarking from an AIT Arabia plane at the recently-built Najaf Airport along with a large group of Indian pilgrims who had transited through Sharjah. Greeted by my host Sami Rasouli director of the Muslim Peacemaker Teams, I entered Iraq with some appre~ hension, but excited nevertheless to begin my new adventure. Packed into an SUV, we made our way out of the airport to my host's home in Kufa.

It was my first time in Iraq. I held onto the door handle for dear life imagining that militants lay in wait to attack the car or that IEDs lined th~ road from the airport. Bombarded with propaganda about the dangers of Iraq since my childhood, I thought I was entering a country in a constant state of violence, with shootings and bombings occurring on a daily basis in every city and town. Little did I know that several weeks later I would be navigating the city on my own, depending on public transport to move around the city. I never travelled in a convoy or even thought of obtaining a flak vest or other protection. I was living with and among Iraqis and was determined to avoid sticking out. Dressed in a black abaya (similiar to the Iranian chador) from head to toe, I was able to blend in and walk around the city unhindered (women, beware: while wearing the abaya is not required in the shrine cities, outside of the old city, you won't see a single woman without one). In the past few years the city has become a safe refuge for Iraq's Shiis, and Shiis from Baghdad and other more volatile regions have been moving to both Najaf as well as Karbala, where they are able to live in relative safety.

I quickly learned how to navigate the religious, social and political geog-raphy of the city with the help of my hosts and others who generously took time to orient me to the Najafi way of life. I was there to learn about the situation in Iraq, to hear first-hand stories about Iraqis' lives, as well as to conduct research for my PhD dissertation on the history of pilgrimage to the shrine of Imam Ali. During the month I was there, I met with intel-lectuals, academics, religious leaders, peacemakers, doctors, engineers, students, housewives and other hard-working Iraqis. I also discovered that the city was involved in intense preparations as it had been chosen to be the 2012 Capital of Islamic Culture for the Arab region by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), a global Islamic organisation based in Morocco that works to promote education, culture and science in concordance with Islamic values among Muslim societies. Each year the organisation chooses three cities, in the African,

NA]AF: CAPITAL OF ISLAMIC CULTURE 185---

Arab, and Asian regions of the Muslim-majority world, to be capitals of Islamic culture. In 2011, the cities ofTlemcen in Morocco, Jakarta in Indo-nesia, and Conakry in Guinea celebrated their religious heritage. For 2 012, ISESCO's designated capitals are Niamey in Niger, Dhaka in Bangladesh, and Najaf.

The main idea of ISESCO's Capitals of Islamic Culture Program is to bring cities that have played an important role in Islamic history into the spotlight and to celebrate their religious, cultural, scientific and intellectual contribution to the world. The programme not only attracts positive media coverage to the chosen cities, but also plays a role in revitalising them, especially those that have suffered from the effects of war, such as Najaf or Ghazni in Afghanistan (chosen for 2013). UNESCO's Iraq office is also offering assistance to the organisers ofNajaf 2012, as Najaf is the first Iraqi city to be chosen as a capital of Islamic culture. Organisers hope to highlight Iraq's importance as the cradle of civilisation and an important cultural centre rather than its image as victim of America's 'war on terror'.

Officials have decided to use the opportunity to comprehensively re-haul the city by surfacing previously unsurfaced roads, building highway overpasses, and constructing a conference hall, a 'cultural palace', the city's first museum and its first five-star hotel. Added to infrastructural problems, the intellectual and religious heritage of the city was neglected or actively destroyed by Saddam Hussain's regime. In response, officials are working to conserve and catalogue important historical buildings as well as valuable books, manuscripts, and documents. Academics at the Univer-sity of Kufa and religious scholars from the traditional madrasas are plan-ning conferences and cultural events covering everything related to Najaf, from Orientalist writings on the city to research on historical Najafi per-sonalities and aspects ofNajaf's art and architecture.

The officials here must overcome a number of obstacles to ensure the success of the upcoming events. Construction of the cultural palace and other buildings only started in earnest at the end of 2 0 1 0 and might not be completed according to schedule. It is possible that Najaf will not have a single five-star hotel and not enough four-star hotels to house all of its VIP guests in time for the opening. The city continues to suffer from constant electricity shortages, limited Internet connectivity, an old and quickly deteriorating infrastructure and a corrupt bureaucracy. Yet the organisers have high aspirations, with plans to plant more than a million trees, open

ROSE ASIAN

up job opportunities for unemployed youth, and to revive Najaf's reputa-tion as a centre of Islamic learning and scholarship. While they may not be able to meet their goals before the end of the year, the project is certainly giving the city the push it needs to overcome the effects of the previous decades of oppression and violence.

Located down the street from the office ofNajaf's governor, the head-quarters of the 2012 Cultural Capital project is buzzing with activity. Although these are the official headquarters, the project's various commit-tees are spread throughout the city. The office is run by Mundhir al-Hatami, the liaison for the committees as well as a student of Islamic law, who greeted me at the centre and gave me a tour of the grounds.

One of the bigger and most productive committees connected to the project is responsible for publishing works produced by scholars with links to Najaf. I discovered the Office for Writing and Publishing near the end of my stay while speaking with Sheikh Muhammad al-Kerbasi, the head of the Historical Document Section of Kashif al-Gheita Library. Al-Kerbasi is a turban-and-robe-wearing graduate ofNajaf's madrasa system, an alterna-tive to the modern university system that continues to function in Iraq. He told me how a number of religious scholars, frustrated by the slow stream of funds, got together to ensure that the religious heritage of the city was given enough emphasis.

Paying from their own personal funds, they took over a madrasa near the tomb of Imam Ali to use as their headquarters. I visited the office dur-ing the two hours in the evening when they were open, after they had finished their work outside and when electricity was guaranteed (the elec-tricity would cut out at 8. 30 every evening without fail). Sitting by myself on a couch across the room from a group of religious scholars, I was allot-ted only a short time to speak to Sheikh Ali Mirza, general director of Najaf 2012 and, again, a turban-wearing religious scholar.

The lower floor of the madrasa was now a storehouse for every book and document ever written about Najaf; the upper floor was full of offices where young men typed away on their laptops (due to the electricity prob-lem in Iraq, you hardly see a desktop computer).

This project is just one step in raising awareness about a multi-dimen-sional Iraq that exists beyond the headlines, beyond the violence and cor-ruption, an Iraq with thousands of years of history and culture and a rich Islamic heritage.

SHORT STORY

BLACKBOARDS

Bilal Tanweer

When I abuse I do not know I am abusing. This first happened when I was at school. I have protruding teeth and because of this, everyone called me parrot, parrot. One day I beat up this one boy who called me parrot, par-rot even though I did not say anything to him. He had short brown hair. I caught him by his hair and then I beat him. But I did not know I abused him and his father and his sister. This happens when I am angry. One of the other boys later told me I used the sister-word to abuse that boy-with-brown-hair, his father and his sister. He said that I said Bhenchod to him . It is not a word I will say. Not to his father. But everyone says that I said this word. Everyone cannot lie.

My teacher called Baba to school. Baba did not believe that I knew the words my teacher said I used when abusing her and the boy. She said I abused her when she was trying to pull me away from the boy. I had pulled him down with his hair and climbed on his chest and slapped his face many times. In return, he scratched my face with his nails. I remember all this but not the swearing.

At first, Baba doubted the teacher, but then when other people also told him that they heard me abusing, he was angry and stopped talking to me. I said sorry, sorry to him so many times but he would not say anything or even look at me. Then I became angry and started to cry. And I shouted at him as well. My sister and mother were very scared when I was shouting at Baba. My mother was eating when I was shouting; she stopped chewing her food and her eyes grew big. I saw her looking at me. But I only knew I was angry and I was crying. I did not know what I was saying. Amma beat me with the big steel spoon for getting angry at Baba. She had bought this spoon from the bazaar two days back and it was dipped in the curry bowl.

T