16 Dec 2016 | Magazine, Magazine Contents, Volume 45.04 Winter 2016
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Contributors include Lily Cole, Daphne Selfe, Linda Grant, Bibi Russell, Katy Werlin, Jang Jin-sung, Maggie Alderson and Eliza Vitri Handayani”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
The latest issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at fashion and how people both express freedom through what they wear. But it also looks at how women in particular have their freedom of expression curtailed by rigid dress codes – whether they are women in Saudi Arabia who have to wear abayas by law or women in the UK and Canada whose employers insist they wear high heels shoes.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”82377″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]
Models Lily Cole and Daphne Selfe discuss why changes in society are reflected in the clothes we (are allowed) to wear. Maggie Alderson, former editor of Elle describes how she was arrested for being a punk rocker in the 1970s, while Eliza Vitri Handayani talks about how punks in Indonesia today are still persecuted for what they wear and how they look. Nigerian model and journalist Wana Udobang riffs on fashion in Nigeria and how she was snubbed by bouncers and waiters at a wedding for wearing the wrong clothes.
Ismail Einashe describes how traditional dress can be life-threatening for Oromos in Ethiopa, while Magela Baudoin delves into class and ethnic gradations in Bolivia and reveals that the way some women dress means they are discriminated against. Novelist Linda Grant describes how her Jewish immigrant parents used the way they dressed to try and fit into middle-class British society. Meanwhile Katy Werlin gives a historical perspective as she discusses how the 18th century French revolutionaries, known as sans-culottes, celebrated their peasant clothes as they overthrew the aristocratic regime.
Martin Rowson brings another perspective to fashion in his new cartoon which depicts a catwalk on which despots show off their latest costumes. Spot President-elect Donald Trump sporting a furry thong. Trump is also in US media expert Eric Alterman’s sights as he describes why journalists in the USA believe the new president will seek to challenge media freedoms guaranteed by the constitution. Turkish researchers Burak Bilgehan Özpek and Başak Yavcan investigate how the Turkish government is using state advertising to control the media.
We also publish an interview with Turkish intellectual, linguist and founder of a mathematics village Sevan Nişanyan. Our reporter communicated with him using notes smuggled out from the prison where he is serving a 16-year sentence on charges connected with freedom of speech. The culture section includes poems from a former North Korean propagandist Jang Jin-sung who defected to the South and now runs a website smuggling news out of North Korea. We also carry poems about the extraordinariness of everyday life from Brazilian author Paulo Scott and a never before seen English translation of a short story by legendary Argentine writer Haroldo Conti.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”SPECIAL REPORT: FASHION RULES” css=”.vc_custom_1481731933773{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]
Dressing to oppress: why dress codes and freedom clash
The censors’ new clothes, by Rachael Jolley: Freedom is not about the amount of clothing you put on or take off, but about having the choice to do so
Fashion police, by Natasha Joseph: Some feel the miniskirt is a threat to the state in Uganda and women are getting attacked for wearing it
Wearing a T-shirt got me arrested, by
Maggie Alderson: Wearing punk clothes in 1970s London was dangerous, but now British teenagers can wear anything
Colour bars, by Magela Baudoin: Traditional clothing is still a sign of social status in Bolivia and wearing such clothes often leads to discrimination
Models of freedom, by Bibi Russell: Bangladeshi women are now vital to the economy but they are still restricted in their dress
The big cover-up, by Laura Silvia Battaglia: Women in Saudi Arabia and Yemen test how far they can customise what they are allowed to wear. Translation by Lucinda Byatt
Rebel with a totally fashionable cause, by Wana Udobang: A Nigerian model refuses to conform to stifling social expectations and sees the consequences
Stripsearch cartoon, by Martin Rowson: A fetching new range of despotwear
Ethiopia in crisis, closes down news, by Ismail Einashe The Oromo people use traditional clothing as a symbol of resistance and it is costing them their lives
Baggy trousers are revolting
, by Katy Werlin: The sans-culottes of the French revolution transformed peasant dress into a badge of honour
Muslim punks in mohawks attacked, by Eliza Vitri Handayani: Punks in Indonesia are persecuted but still manage to maintain a culture which stands up for difference
Design is the limit, by Jemimah Steinfeld: China is loosening up on personal freedoms including fashion, but designers still face some constraints
A modest proposal, by Kaya Genç: “Modest” dress codes are all the rage in Turkey as some turn their backs on the legacy of Atatürk
Uniformity rules, by Jan Fox: Prisoners often try to customise their uniforms but does stripping individuality make rehabilitation more difficult?
Keeping up appearances, by Linda Grant: Linda Grant’s immigrant family were upwardly mobile and bought clothes that showed their aspirations
Sewing it up, by Rachael Jolley: At 88 Daphne Selfe is Britain’s oldest supermodel. She talks about how fashion has changed in her lifetime
Style counsels, by Kieran Etoria-King: Model, activist and actor Lily Cole talks about how school girls customise their uniforms to give them a sense of individuality
Tall stories, by Sally Gimson: Wearing high heels is a way for some women to express freedom, while for others it’s a form of oppression
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”IN FOCUS” css=”.vc_custom_1481731813613{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]
Challenging media, by Eric Alterman: If his campaign is anything to go by, President Trump is likely to restrict freedom of the press
Living in limbo, by Marco Salustro: A journalist reveals the challenges of reporting from inhumane migrant detention camps in Libya
Follow the money, by
Burak Bilgehan Özpek and Başak Yavcan: The Turkish government is rewarding newspapers which favour its position with more state-sponsored advertising
Fighting for our festival
freedoms, by Peter Florence: Mutilated bodies, petitions and a citizen’s arrest: the director of the Hay literary festivals describes the trials and tribulations of his job
Barring the bard, by Jennifer Leong: Actor Jennifer Leong on confronting attempts to censor performances of Shakespeare around the world
Assessing Correa’s free
speech heritage, by Irene Caselli: The Ecuadorian president’s record on free speech is reviewed as his term in office comes to an end. He gave sanctuary to Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, in the country’s London embassy but brought in restrictive media laws at home
Framed as spies, by Steven Borowiec: South Korean journalist Choi Seung-ho hit a national nerve when he exposed the security services for framing ordinary citizens as North Korean spies
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”CULTURE” css=”.vc_custom_1481731777861{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]
Back from the Amazon, by
Paulo Scott: Newly translated poems from Scott’s acclaimed collection, Even Without Money I Bought a New Skateboard. Interview by Kieran Etoria-King. Poems translated by Stefan Tobler
A story from the disappeared, by Haroldo Conti: Jon Lindsay Miles introduces a poignant short story, published in English for the first time, by the award- winning Argentine writer who disappeared in 1976. Translation also by Jon Lindsay Miles
Poems for Kim, by Jang Jin-sung: North Korean propagandist poet turned high profile defector talks about life within the world’s most secretive country. Interview by Sybil Jones
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”COLUMNS” css=”.vc_custom_1481732124093{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]
Global view, by Jodie Ginsberg: Face-to-face encounters are still important and governments worldwide know that restricting travel continues to be an effective way of stifling voices
Index around the world, by
Kieran Etoria-King: Coverage of Index’s work over the last few months including exposing the difficulties of war reporting and our Mapping Media Freedom project
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”END NOTE” css=”.vc_custom_1481880278935{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-top: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]
Where’s our president? by
Kiri Kankhwende: Malawi’s journalists tease their president as part of a campaign to make the government more transparent
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”SUBSCRIBE” css=”.vc_custom_1481736449684{margin-right: 0px !important;margin-left: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;border-bottom-color: #455560 !important;border-bottom-style: solid !important;}”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship magazine was started in 1972 and remains the only global magazine dedicated to free expression. Past contributors include Samuel Beckett, Gabriel García Marquéz, Nadine Gordimer, Arthur Miller, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and many more.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”76572″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In print or online. Order a print edition here or take out a digital subscription via Exact Editions.
Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester), Calton Books (Glasgow) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.
SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]
16 Dec 2016 | Events, Magazine, Volume 45.04 Winter 2016 Extras
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Join Index on Censorship for a drinks reception and conversation to celebrate the launch of our latest award-winning magazine, Fashion Rules, Dressing to oppress: why dress codes and freedom clash. The evening will explore how fashion rules can be used to oppress and how responses can challenge and confront, in the glamorous surroundings of one of Google’s London offices .
We’ll hear from an expert panel, including Maggie Alderson, former editor of Elle magazine, Regina Jane Jere-Malanda, editor of New African Woman magazine, award-winning documentary maker Laura Silvia Battaglia and fashion historian Amber Butchart.
In the upcoming issue, models Lily Cole and Daphne Selfe discuss why changes in society are reflected in the clothes we (are allowed to) wear, while writers from around the world look at indigenous dress in Nigeria, oppression of Indonesian punks today as well as fashion and freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. Plus, Donald Trump in a fur thong courtesy of cartoonist Martin Rowson, poetry from Paulo Scott and a never before seen English translation of a short story by legendary Argentine writer Haroldo Conti.
Order your high-quality print copy of our fashion special here, or take out a digital subscription from anywhere in the world via Exact Editions (just £18* for the year). Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship fight for free expression worldwide.
*Will be charged at local exchange rate outside the UK.
Copies are also available at the BFI, the Serpentine Gallery, MagCulture, (London), News from Nowhere (Liverpool), Home (Manchester) and on Amazon. Each magazine sale helps Index on Censorship continue its fight for free expression worldwide.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Fashion Rules” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left”][vc_column_text]The winter 2016 issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at fashion and how people both express freedom through what they wear.
Contributors include Lily Cole, Daphne Selfe, Linda Grant, Bibi Russell, Katy Werlin, Jang Jin-sung, Maggie Alderson and Eliza Vitri Handayani.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”82377″ img_size=”medium” style=”vc_box_shadow” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2016/12/fashion-rules/” css=”.vc_custom_1481889636739{background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/volume-45-04-winter-2016-700×933.jpg?id=82377) !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Fashion Rules” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left”][vc_column_text]In print, online. In your mailbox, on your iPad.
Subscription options from £18.
Every subscriber helps support Index on Censorship’s projects around the world.
SUBSCRIBE NOW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
15 Dec 2016 | Bahrain, Bahrain Statements, Campaigns, Campaigns -- Featured, Statements
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Bahrain’s criminal court today postponed Index Award winner Nabeel Rajab‘s trial to 28 December, when he is expected to be sentenced. The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy spoke to Rajab’s family, who state that today’s trial last 15 minutes, and the judge refused to allow Rajab to speak. Rajab’s pretrial detention, which began with his arrest in June 2016, continues.
The postponement comes a week after British Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson courted Gulf leaders in Bahrain, both failing to raise human rights in their public speeches, just days afters an appeals court upheld the 9-year sentence of political opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman. The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and Index on Censorship, alongside other partners, have called on the UK to call for Nabeel Rajab’s release.
Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Director of Advocacy, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy: “This is a farcical trial which represents the human rights crisis facing the Gulf. Bahrain’s allies, in particular the US and UK, must publicly call for his release. In particular, the UK has still not called for his release, nor used its leverage to help this clear human rights violation. Failing to do so will help perpetuate injustice, which undermines any potential long-term stability.”
Husain Abdulla, Executive Director, Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain: “Nabeel Rajab’s ongoing trial is a reprisal against both him and the entire human rights community in the region. The US should suspend arms sales to Bahrain. The State Department called for his release, but mere words without leverage has so far proved ineffective. Next steps need to be taken.”
Melody Patry, senior advocacy officer, Index on Censorship: “Bahrain’s repeated postponement of Nabeel Rajab’s trial is emblematic of its wider approach to the human rights of its citizens. Arbitrary trials, extra-judicial detentions and outright stripping of citizenship are the Bahraini government’s favourite weapons to silence dissenting voices. Nabeel’s continuing detention is unjust, cruel and a blatant violation to his right to freedom of expression. We call on Bahraini authorities to release him immediately and unconditionally.”
Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, is being prosecuted on multiple charges of “disseminating false rumours in time of war”, “insulting a neighbouring country” and “insulting a statutory body” under articles 133, 215 and 216 of the penal code. These are in relation to remarks he tweeted and retweeted on Twitter in 2015 about the humanitarian crisis caused by the Saudi-led war in Yemen – with Saudi Arabia the “insulted” country – and documenting torture in Bahrain’s Jau prison. He was first expected to be sentenced in October 2016, but the court instead reopened his case for investigation. In doing so, the court indicated that it had no proof to convict Rajab on, yet refuses to acquit him.
In September, Bahrain’s prosecution brought new charges against him for “undermining the prestige of the state” after the New York Times published his opinion piece, Letter from a Bahraini Jail. This charge could add another year to his sentence. In his letter, Rajab wrote: “No one has been properly held to account for systematic abuses that have affected thousands.” The BCHR estimate around 4000 political prisoners in the country. Rajab also asked: “Is this the kind of ally America wants? The kind that punishes its people for thinking, that prevents its citizens from exercising their basic rights?”
Rajab has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest in June 2016. This extended detention, much of it in solitary confinement, has caused a deterioration in his health, according to his family. The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures state that “pre-trial detention shall be used as a means of last resort in criminal proceedings, with due regard for the investigation of the alleged offence and for the protection of society and the victim.”
The US has called for Rajab’s release “full stop”, and the EU’s top human rights official yesterday expressed his “hope” for Rajab’s release. In September, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights used his opening statement at the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council to warn Bahrain: “The past decade has demonstrated repeatedly and with punishing clarity exactly how disastrous the outcomes can be when a Government attempts to smash the voices of its people, instead of serving them.”
The United Kingdom and Bahrain
Pressure mounted this week on the Prime Minister to call for Nabeel Rajab’s release. While Theresa May told parliament at Prime Minister’s Questions this week that “We do raise the issue of human rights when we meet the Gulf states”, the UK Government has never publicly called for the release of any prisoners of conscience in Bahrain.
On Tuesday 14 December, 23 MPs penned a joint letter to the Foreign Secretary calling on the UK Government to demand the “unconditional release” of Nabeel Rajab from prison, and for the charges against him to be dropped. The letter signed by a cross-party group of MPs from the Conservatives, Labour, Scottish National Party, DUP, Liberal Democrats, Green and SDLP, urges the UK Government to follow the lead of the US State Department, the European Parliament, and the United Nations, in calling for Bahrain to release Mr Rajab. The letter said: We urge you, in advance of the trial tomorrow, to make it clear to Bahraini officials that the United Kingdom wishes to see his unconditional release from prison, and for the charges brought against him, which are related to his right to freedom of expression and freedom of speech, to be dropped.
On the same day, rights groups including Index on Censorship and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy protested outside Downing Street and delivered a letter to the Prime Minister.
Theresa May was in Bahrain last week to set out her new “bold vision” for British-Gulf relations. Human rights was not mentioned in her speech to Gulf leaders, nor by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who was also in Bahrain for a separate security conference.
The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy and Index on Censorship, along with three NGOs also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister: “There is nothing bold in silence over clear human rights violations, and we urge you to now make a public call for Nabeel Rajab’s immediate and unconditional release.”
Further information
This is the latest in a long-running series of cases against Rajab. He had previously been arrested and sentenced in 2012 for his expression. Following his release from Jau Prison in 2014, he went on an advocacy tour of Europe, including to London and Brussels, and participated in the 27th Session of the UN Human Rights Council. On 1 October 2014, he returned to Bahrain, where police arrested him at the airport. He was charged and prosecuted for “insulting” the Ministries of Interior and Defence. This was in relation to a tweet he wrote calling these ministries had acted as an “ideological incubator” for terrorist ideologies, after it that Bahraini ISIS recruits had previously worked in these institutions. Rajab was released on bail a month later, but banned from travel – a ban which remains to date.
In January 2015, a Bahraini court sentenced Rajab to six months in prison, and released him on bail while he appealed the conviction. But he was rearrested in April 2015, when he was charged with two of the three charges he was convicted on today: insulting a statutory body and spreading rumours in war time. Rajab remained in police custody until July 2015, when he received a pardon for the six month sentence. However, despite Rajab’s July 2015 pardon, the charges and travel ban continued to be held against him. In his Letter from a Bahraini Jail, he revealed to the New York Times the threats brought against him: “The head of the cybercrimes unit at the Criminal Investigation Directorate in Bahrain summoned me and my family to a meeting, where — in front of my children — he warned me that if I didn’t stop my advocacy work, I would face up to 15 years in prison.”
Rajab was arbitrarily arrested on 13 June 2015, on the opening day of the UN Human Rights Council’s 32nd Session. His arrest coincided with travel bans on activists, the forced exile of Zainab Al-Khawaja under threat of rearrest, and the dissolution of the Al Wefaq political society.
Following this June arrest, Rajab was prosecuted for the two charges first brought in April 2015, with a new third charge of “insulting a neighbouring country” – Saudi Arabia. Tweets used as evidence against Rajab, seen by BIRD, include documentation of torture and retweets of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Index on Censorship messages.
Rajab was held in solitary confinement for the majority of his pre-trial detention, transferred between West and East Riffa Police Stations. After 15 days in solitary, on 28 June 2016 Rajab required urgent medical attention, after losing a lot of weight and developing an irregular heartbeat and immune system deficiencies. He was transferred back to police custody the following day.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1481792118745-8ab3d315-aca2-3″ taxonomies=”3368″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
