Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Belonging

1. Beyond Words

3 Beyond Words Suheir Hammad Photos out of Abu Ghraib were being circulated on the Internet, as the Israeli Defense Forces entered and nearly destroyed the Gaza Strip town of Rafah. There must have been a saturation point, what with the constant stream of images from Iraq, Afghanistan , the Congo. The poem accepts Suheir Hammad’s inherent weakness, her dependency on language for expression. If there is redemption, it is indeed beyond words, which have been twisted into justifications for so long. Hammad read this poem in front of many government officials one night. That was a trip. 1. Where has my language gone? The poet searches for words to wrap around these times Make them sense Make them pretty Make them useful Words from the past haunt our conversations Empire and Crusade Plans and Centuries All these words cleared understanding before Fall heavy now And weightless into this abyss of bad news I have seen the photographs Again words Prison Torture Desperate for words I can write That are not profane That are objective Read as rational So people will not stop reading this self-conscious poem So my parents will not be embarrassed So Americans will demand the return of their own 4 | Living with/in Empire Desperate for words I can write So I can keep from becoming something hard and unforgiving Language has failed me I am told to believe nothing I read Then everything I read I am given my own face to be wary of I am told to fear colors as alerts I am told over and over Iraq is not Palestine Kabul is not New York The photos Women Raped Posed as girls gone wild This is entertainment This is staged This is recorded Men Chained Do words such as humiliation and torture Truly fit the immensity of these acts? What happens to those who survive? What happens to those responsible? Haiti is not Chechnya Chiapas is not East L.A. Iraq is not Palestine Over and over I am told I am given a vantage point and a lens and instructed Do not move Do not look up Do not look down I am falling 2. No connections here No illuminated parallels Two different histories and two different peoples Make no links Do not confuse the issues Beyond Words | 5 Only confuse the people For 56 years Israel has legitimized This type of behavior Sanctioned violence in the name of a god Who does not have enough love for us all A god who chooses sides A god who has favorites and chosen ones A god who cuts deals and shuffles souls The type of god who does not answer prayers Who understands only one language A god who does not worry his beautiful mind with Such ugliness I am told this is America’s god The photos from Rafah Palestine It is 1948 and 2004 in the same frame Their eyes say to the camera What will you do with this pain? Where will you take it? Can you take it from me? This space between the lens and the subjects Is concentrated with pleas for witness With promises of cycles unbroken With children’s bicycles under the rubble of once were homes Another level of exile is being constructed And I am falling Aaagghh, ya Phalesteen What is it about us they hate so much? This face? These eyes? This obstinate refusal to die? How much trauma can one nation endure with the world staring? Some mouths open in shock Others silent and sneering While women scream at a frequency the living cannot hear Again? Again ya Phalesteen? 6 | Living with/in Empire 3. How fucked up is it that I have to choose between ending One occupation or another? Partition my time and portion my information I have to make Nice Play Fair and Polite When I want to tear open my chest to void it of this emptiness This ache has eaten into my head and wears down my dreams My friends worry I am not eating enough Am taking too much on Too much in I find nowhere to rest this responsibility If I say nothing I am complicit If I say something I am isolated as extreme As a theorist in conspiracy As if war is ever a coincidence As if genocide simply happens This is about oil and land and water This...