NASPERS: Prejudice as Policy?
THE Iranian-Australian artist, Farideh Zariv, bought her first Hand of Fatima in 1990. Her collection has grown to more than eighty pieces and has been collected from Iran, as well as from all over the Arabic-speaking world and India.
A selection of pieces from this collection are, curiously, on display at the Bo-Kaap IZIKO Museum in Cape Town. The exhibition is for some, literally a godsend, and surely evidence of "goddess worship" amongst the faithful? Zariv says: "...each hand has a message for humankind. The Hand of Fatima is a symbol of that message, carrying spiritual and mystical meanings. This hand could be a hand of light, showing humankind the way to brightness and peace. It could also be a hand, which directs human attention to inner spirituality. In my art I try to convey this message including the essence of the hand in the title of each work."
I attended one of the workshops on Islamic Art, accompanying the exhibition. Nasser Palangi, guided us through Islamic print-making and pattern-making -- both two extremely profound and ancient crafts, which have a resonance in Cape Town's beleagured textile industry. The small, group of "artists" sitting in the Bo-Kaap museum were enthralled by Palangi's talk of "harmony, movement and contrast", and I couldn't help think that we could all do with some spiritual harmony in the Cape.
Unfortunately, there always has to be something or somebody breaking the feminine spell, to thrust upon the world, a more masculine image of the feminine, and readers of Naspers' People's Post will probably not be reading about this kind of thing, since the editor, one Annelien Dean, chucked out the Hand of Fatima story brief, subbed by myself, along with a piece on a Memory of Slavery exhibition, also at Iziko, this is in addition to robbing readers of an interview with Cape Jazz Legend, Robbie Jansen, also conducted by myself.
There is no accounting for peoples tastes and prejudices, but when it comes to the goddess I feel strongly, and so I have lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission regarding this matter including the company's policy towards Orthodox Jews. How can I fight for some rights and not those of my own people?
The HRC is in the process of investigating a complaint about Naspers and its treatment of religious sensitivities and issues of colour at a community level.
In fact after considerable abuse meting out by Naspers managment, I was left with no other option but to refuse to tender my labour -- not only did the company expect me to work on the Jewish Sabbath without overtime -- a period considered holy by some, but it seemed to believe that I, as a "Boere-Jew", would agree to participate in the suppression of what many people consider, not only holy, but a valuable and often maligned movement in the wider world of arts and culture.
How can we forget the history of slavery at the Cape, our own apartheid memory and the struggle for human rights? Simple -- as Naspers Management will no doubt tell you -- "all of that stuff is negative &*^%$#@ and we don't want any of it here, in our company."
To view some of the images of the Fatima, click on this link: http://www.artzone.co.za/template_level2.asp?parentseq=673
A selection of pieces from this collection are, curiously, on display at the Bo-Kaap IZIKO Museum in Cape Town. The exhibition is for some, literally a godsend, and surely evidence of "goddess worship" amongst the faithful? Zariv says: "...each hand has a message for humankind. The Hand of Fatima is a symbol of that message, carrying spiritual and mystical meanings. This hand could be a hand of light, showing humankind the way to brightness and peace. It could also be a hand, which directs human attention to inner spirituality. In my art I try to convey this message including the essence of the hand in the title of each work."
I attended one of the workshops on Islamic Art, accompanying the exhibition. Nasser Palangi, guided us through Islamic print-making and pattern-making -- both two extremely profound and ancient crafts, which have a resonance in Cape Town's beleagured textile industry. The small, group of "artists" sitting in the Bo-Kaap museum were enthralled by Palangi's talk of "harmony, movement and contrast", and I couldn't help think that we could all do with some spiritual harmony in the Cape.
Unfortunately, there always has to be something or somebody breaking the feminine spell, to thrust upon the world, a more masculine image of the feminine, and readers of Naspers' People's Post will probably not be reading about this kind of thing, since the editor, one Annelien Dean, chucked out the Hand of Fatima story brief, subbed by myself, along with a piece on a Memory of Slavery exhibition, also at Iziko, this is in addition to robbing readers of an interview with Cape Jazz Legend, Robbie Jansen, also conducted by myself.
There is no accounting for peoples tastes and prejudices, but when it comes to the goddess I feel strongly, and so I have lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission regarding this matter including the company's policy towards Orthodox Jews. How can I fight for some rights and not those of my own people?
The HRC is in the process of investigating a complaint about Naspers and its treatment of religious sensitivities and issues of colour at a community level.
In fact after considerable abuse meting out by Naspers managment, I was left with no other option but to refuse to tender my labour -- not only did the company expect me to work on the Jewish Sabbath without overtime -- a period considered holy by some, but it seemed to believe that I, as a "Boere-Jew", would agree to participate in the suppression of what many people consider, not only holy, but a valuable and often maligned movement in the wider world of arts and culture.
How can we forget the history of slavery at the Cape, our own apartheid memory and the struggle for human rights? Simple -- as Naspers Management will no doubt tell you -- "all of that stuff is negative &*^%$#@ and we don't want any of it here, in our company."
To view some of the images of the Fatima, click on this link: http://www.artzone.co.za/template_level2.asp?parentseq=673
posted by ethnopunk @ 5:08 AM
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