I watched this documentary two days ago about gentrification in San Francisco.
Year: 2008
The School of (Not-Really-That) Fine Arts
Conservative reactionaries.
One hundred years after it was founded, Cairo’s School of Fine Arts seeks to train Egypt’s artists but has to make do without nude “life” drawing classes so as not to offend Islam.
It is in this academic hive, sheltered inside a neo-classical villa on the chic island of Zamalek, that 2,500 students come from around the country, with most of the female students these days veiled.
Ever since it was set up by the patron Prince Yussef Kamal in 1908, modeled on European art schools, the great names of Egyptian art have passed through.
The long list started in 1911 with the father of Egyptian sculpture, Mahmoud Mokhtar, and includes the best-known pioneers of modern Egyptian art like Muhammad Hassan, Ahmad Sabri and Ragheb Ayyad.
The school was recognized as a national institute of higher education in 1927.
But the time has gone when you would learn to draw, paint or sculpt the human body and its movement, as in some other parts of the world, facing a nude model.
“We no longer have anything but anatomy books and photos,” says second year student Ahmad Gamel, 20. “But a photo is already someone else’s way of looking, and that’s not right, we should be forging our own vision.”
A naked model would be haram, or forbidden, under Islam.
“It just happened, without a decree, in the 70s. There never used to be a problem,” says sculpture professor Mohammed Al-Allawi.
Like the dancers at Cairo’s Opera House, the models must be covered head-to-toe.
Belly dancing, also considered an art form by some, is in decline in Egypt, with dancers considered sinners by the majority in an increasingly conservative society where Islamists are the main opposition force.
“The Islamists began the fight in the name of virtue and against Western values. The government and the school’s management followed,” says education expert Kamal Mughith.
The devout say that Islam forbids any human representation in art. At the start of the 20th century, theological reformist Mohammed Abdu tried to argue that such a restriction was anachronistic.
Egypt’s national pride, its ancient Pharaonic and Hellenistic art, is also abundant with depictions of bare-breasted women.
But, mirroring society’s evolution, prudishness also affected the arts. Ten years ago, nudes by the great painter Mahmoud Said, who died in 1964, could not be shown at a retrospective.
“We are living a catastrophe, when you think that no one ever used to ask these questions,” says art critic Ahmad Fuad Selim.
At the school, students and teachers alike say that the lack of nude models “greatly and negatively affects teaching the laws of the body.”
Updates on the detainees
I received an email from Kareem. He’s fine alhamdolilah, and back with his family. He’d also like to send his regards to all the comrades around the world who stood in solidarity with him and the Ghazl el-Mahalla detainees.
Here’s also a report by Sarah Carr:
Three men detained in connection with the events of April 6 in Mahalla were released Saturday, lawyer Ahmad Ezzat told Daily News Egypt.
Kamel El-Fayyoumy, Karim El-Beheiry and Tareq Amin arrived home at 1 am early Sunday morning after their release, said Ezzat.
The men were being held in the Borg El-Arab prison where they had launched a hunger strike in protest at their detention.
El-Beheiry was arrested after he received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the BBC who requested a meeting.
When he, together with Amin, went to the meeting point both men were arrested by members of state security.
El-Fayyoumy was arrested separately.
El-Beheiry said in a joint letter subsequently sent out by the three men that he was tortured while being held at the Mahalla state security headquarters on April 7.
All three men were involved in the organization of a strike in the Ghazl El-Mahalla factory planned for the same day, which collapsed following worker disunity and intimidation by security bodies.
Violence subsequently erupted in the Delta town after security bodies clashed with residents protesting increasing food prices.
El-Fayyoumy, Amin and El-Beheiry were dismissed from their employment in the factory shortly after their arrest.
A court ordered their release on the April 21 during its examination of the cases of 204 individuals arrested in connection with the events in Mahalla.
Twenty-five of this group of 204 were issued detention orders after the court ordered their release — including El-Beheiry, El-Fayyoumy and Amin.
The Interior Ministry ordered the release of a total of 11 individuals on Saturday arrested in connection with the events in Mahalla.
Sami Francis and Fathy Hefnawy remain in El-Marg prison, Cairo.
The two men are members of opposition group Kefaya and were arrested on charges of inciting the April 6 general strike.
The strike was called for by opposition political parties and other activists via Facebook, in protest against corruption and rising food prices.
In addition, 42 individuals remain in preventative custody in connection with the events of Mahalla. The release of 10 of these 42 individuals was ordered yesterday at 2 pm.
They were in the El-Gharbeia security division in preparation for their release at time of press.
This group have been charged with rioting, illegal possession of firearms and theft, among other charges.
Following the events in Mahalla — during which a 15-year-old boy standing on a third floor balcony was shot dead, allegedly killed by police using live ammunition — state-run newspaper and television reports stated that the violence which erupted in the Delta town was caused by rioting criminals.
Rights groups and members of the independent media who witnessed the events allege that the police used unnecessary force against a peaceful, unplanned demonstration against rising food prices which had emerged spontaneously.
State-run media pointed to the damage committed against a school in Mahalla in support of government claims that the crowds which gathered on April 6 and 7 did so in order to commit criminal acts.
However, eyewitnesses interviewed by Daily News Egypt in April alleged that the damage to the school and the theft of its equipment occurred while police forces watched, and that the vandalism was in fact, orchestrated.
Ezzat alleges that the group are victims of trumped-up charges.
Also still in detention is Muhammad Maree.
Marei was arrested in Mahalla with US photojournalist James Buck on April 10.
He has been moved from the Borg El-Arab prison to Mansoura prison, where he is being allowed to sit exams.
Marei, a student of veterinary science, was translating for Buck when both men were detained while speaking to relatives of the hundreds detained on April 6 and 7.
While Buck was eventually released, Marei was not.
He subsequently disappeared before being taken to Borg El-Arab prison, where he is being held on charges of riotous assembly with more than five people of a nature to disturb public order.
More updates on the detainees on HMLC blog.