Ajnabieh - The Foreigner

American (assistant) professor of US and Middle Eastern politics living in Canada. I like food, books, long walks on pavement, being near major bodies of water, and arguing with dead people. I blog about what I wear at size16skinnyjeans. I blog about words I learn at jeparlecanadien.

[ajnabieh]

Kuwait offers stateless group citizenship — from Comoros | Al Jazeera America

A human rights group calls Kuwait’s strategy ‘a cynical ploy to relieve itself of its own obligations to the Bidoon’

Wow.  This is…I love studying Kuwaiti politics (and the politics of the small Gulf states in general because it very easily picks up ridiculous elements, but this is taking it to a new level.  Just to be clear: the bidoon (stateless people) are, by and large, from Kuwait, or part of nomadic groups that spent time in Kuwait, and are poorly served by the notion of nation-stateness that Kuwait relies upon to determine service eligibility.  This isn’t at all subtle as an attempt to get rid of the bidoon problem without having to recognize that it is, in essence, created by the nature of the Kuwaiti state.  It’s absurd (“let’s just buy everybody citizenship elsewhere!”) and runs serious risk of abuse.  And now I want to write a very angry research article on it.

[ajnabieh]

Fun fact - the "very angry research article" I mentioned here will be getting submitted to a political theory journal in the next month! Why did it take me and my co-author this damn long? Don't ask silly questions.

[ajnabieh]

'Sup? I haven't blogged here since 2016, but Twitter is a dumpster fire and my energy for a new platform is limited so let's roll.

[ajnabieh]

Migration, refuge, asylum seeking have been high on the political agendas in Europe and North America for decades now. In the last year or so, however, cross-border human mobility has taken on an intensified visibility and at times visceral politicization, among others in the EU and the US presidential elections.

This is really good, and open-access.

[ajnabieh]

The CBC has joined the Justin Trudeau fandom apparently.  (And they definitely seem to be verging on Trudeau/Obama slash.)

[mehreenkasana]

I began to realise what I already knew: that patriarchal reasoning goes all the way down; to the letter; to the bone. I had to find ways not to reproduce its grammar in what I said, in what I wrote; in what I did, in who I was. It is important that I learnt this feminist lesson from my Auntie in Lahore, Pakistan, a Muslim woman, a Muslim feminist, a brown feminist. It might be assumed that feminism travels from the West to East. It might be assumed that feminism is what the West gives to the East. That assumption is a travelling assumption, one that tells a feminist story in a certain way, a story that is much repeated; a history of how feminism acquired utility as an imperial gift. That is not my story. We need to tell other feminist stories. Feminism travelled to me, growing up in the West, from the East. My Pakistani Aunties taught me that my mind is my own (which is to say: that my mind is not owned); they taught me to speak up for myself; to speak out against violence and injustice.

Sara Ahmed, Feminist Aunties (via mehreenkasana)

[homojabi]

LGBTQ Muslims have and always will exist—we aren’t haram and we aren’t alone.

[gatoarbar-deactivated20200707]

Warm weather final arrived. #ottawa #ottawariver #loveottawa (at Ottawa River - Rideau Canal Locks)

[shencomix]

A Guide to Dress Codes

image / twitter / facebook / patreon

[ajnabieh]

tag urself I’m business demimagnate hyperformal

[teamrocketing]

american politics in 2016

[bot123456789987654321]

[the1movement]

I fuck with all but one of these forms of eating water

[niqabisinparis]

How is spinach 92% water??

[ajnabieh]

Dude, drop it in a pan and see how tiny it gets--that’s because all the water escapes.  It’s madness. 

(Seriously though, a lot of food is mostly water?  Like, think of the difference between cooked beans and dried beans in size--that’s water.  Or the difference between meat and jerky--that’s water.  A sun-dried tomato and a fresh tomato.  You see what I’m saying.  I mean, I support this graphic because 100% of these things are tasty and nutritious and water is boring to drink but like.  Food has water because food was alive things, like, fundamentally.)

[ajnabieh]

Today’s fun fact

Arabic appears to have (or have had) a verb meaning “to not have a unibrow.”  I’m serious: Lane’s Lexicon and Steingass both have it, though Hans Wehr doesn’t.  It’s a form of ب-ل-د.  Go see for yourself in Ejtaal.

(This is your periodic plug for Ejtaal, a free, online, searchable root-based Arabic dictionary.  If you’re interested in more than Google Translate can give you, it’s the best.)

[notyrneechimos-deactivated20160]

#decolonizecapcity

[ajnabieh]

Southwest Offers Arabic Select® Upgrade: Speak Arabic Without Getting Kicked Off Plane

DALLAS - Southwest Airlines announced a new premium upgrade available for all passengers starting May 2016. Arabic Select® allows Arabic-speaking and Muslim passengers to comfortably speak the Arabic language without having to worry about getting kicked off the plane. The Southwest

You know when a piece of parody is, like, a little too on the nose?  That’s this piece.

(Also tbh the whole website it’s from feels like that to me.)

[thesunshore]

reblog if u want a female black gay muslim link

[mollthedoll]

Breakfast at my fave diner with part of the #stromenbash bridal party! #wellingtondiner #ottawa #acolorstory

[biladal-sham]

Palestinian women pick wild mustard flowers which grow in fields across the Gaza Strip, March 20, 2016. Mohammed Abed

[ajnabieh]

Seen in Spinney’s gorcery store, Achrafieh, Beirut.