THE ASHI PROJECT

This year has been nothing but a rollercoaster.  In more ways than one, I’m even more confused about what I want to do or what I’d like to be. But with that being said, I’ve picked up on a few things–not only from class and the readings and the discussions, but through the extra research and content that I’ve come to find very relevant.

I wouldn’t normally do this, but given that this is our last blog post for ASTU, this one’s a bit more personal and jumbled (like my severely ADHD’d brain.)

So I’m going to make a list.

1. CAP has made me realize that this world is very, incredibly, sickeningly f*cked up.
2. CAP…thank you, I now read and watch the morning news while getting ready every day. I have the Economic Times and CNN news alerts on my phone every hour…mum and dad are proud
3. ASTU: although I’m not the best student, and sometimes I don’t understand what’s going on (thats on me), I’ve learned that there’s never only one reasoning behind anything. You can be as twisted as your brain allows you to be…as long as there is textual evidence to support your statement. Fair, completely fair.
4. I’ve learned that I can be entertaining in an informal setting, but never quite at par in a formal. For example, whoever is reading this—probably thinks I’m crazy. haha, jokes on you I am.
5. Okay, I’m not doing a list anymore.

The past year in ASTU has brought my attention to the function of memory and how everyone’s experiences with it are different. While some suppress them, others are able to write entire novels–detail by detail. The human brain allows us to store visual images, sounds, smells, and conversations of more tragedies than happy events. How depressing is that? With the stories, poems, and movies we’ve analyzed, I have found a new interest and appreciation for other author’s shared memories and experiences. During our last term, we read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, and I can honestly say, I haven’t enjoyed a novel quite like that in a long time. Not only is its theme relevant to where we stand in the world today, but it also sparks a passion for a discrimination that almost seems relatable.

Ironically, I was born on September 10th–a day before 9/11. Not even the same year, but somehow, every year some jack*ass points out the very original, “Ashi, you were born and the world collapsed. And you’re ‘brown’ too; is your family a bunch of terrorists?”

What.

Coming from generations of soldiers, generals, and army doctors, I’ve heard gruesome stories from family members of what war was like; how my grandfather had to run 6 miles through a forest somewhere in India with his best friend almost dead around his back. How my uncle kept a gun on the breakfast table while he was eating just in case there was an intruder. My cousin, paralyzed from the waist down after being shot at in the middle of an attack. These stories are all around me, and I have great appreciation for the people that served both my countries, India and the United States.

But. That doesn’t make me a terrorist? Not even close. We’re fighting on the same side.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist made me realize how easy it is to be so f*cking ignorant. People don’t think before they speak anymore, and it really has come down to the skin colour that you are..something you literally cannot help, and as a “brown” American citizen in the Trump era, you are bound to hear something. In my opinion, Mohsin Hamid did a really good job capturing the thought process and impacts such racial profiling has on an individual. How do you expect someone to not want to retaliate after they’re treated so poorly? Everything is a matter of perspective and ASTU has opened my eyes to looking at the other one. Living in Texas and Georgia most of my life, I almost felt brainwashed into thinking the same way patriotic citizens do.

“F*ck those immigrants; why are there so many shootings and attacks”

I am/ once was an immigrant.

Perspective.

As a visual and auditory learner, movies and media have always helped me understand things better. Hence my appreciation for short films and movies revolving around issues such as 9/11 and racial profiling. Movies and media have the power to make you feel like a part of the scene in a way a book sometimes can’t. Theres not much space for imagination, but the impact can sometimes be a lot more. American Sniper did that for me. Although I am not one for violence, I understood why there was so much hatred from both sides. They were both protecting their own people. There was discrimination on both sides, both sides were alienated, both sides had casualties.

Anyone with a gun is/was just as much to blame as the next. We’re all the same, everywhere around the world. We all have the same motives. We all hurt and we all fight for what we believe in. The cycle won’t stop; I just wish it was something people could accept.

On the outskirts of our invaluable campus, lays a little (rather large, actually) gem, dedicated to the indigenous First Nations community—the famous Museum of Anthropology. Lined up with asymmetrical wooden structures and mirages of totem poles and carvings, to me, it quickly became the most pleasant atmosphere UBC had to offer. With the glistening water and the greenery presented outside the large windows of the museum, the effortlessness lay a comforting foundation before entering the Amazonia exhibit enriched with artifacts and actualities of the people and earth inhabiting the Amazon. The dim lit room and subtle sounds and chants of the Amazonian people through the muted speakers in the exhibit, created an ambiance that truly made me feel a part of their environment. The tacit sense of awe on everyone’s face spoke through the silence and quiet chatters.

This was the first time in university where I had seen this abundance of silent reverence, and I was hooked.

As with everyone else, I walked around the curation created by Nuno Porto, and was able to appreciate the handcrafted tools and clothing of the tribes displayed. Through the various feather-ridden headdresses, hunting tools, and festival outfits, their culture came to life. The combination of information and artifacts brought a sense of understanding and construction to the Amazonian lifestyle. Naturally, being someone who yearns for art and expression through media, I was dumbfounded when my eye caught the little latex statuettes—The Balata Figures. I automatically made a connection to my childhood, Saturday morning art lessons with my Russian art teacher, making small clay horse sculptures and puppets, and the hard work and craftsmanship associated with it.

The Balata Figures are essentially extractions of latex from trees deep in the Amazonian forests; the collection and processing of materials takes months on end. This dedication to an age-old ‘toy’ and trading tool baffled me. Shaped into various animals, and hand painted through the extracts of other plants required commitment that is often overlooked. Just like art in our contemporary world, not everything is understood as are these figurines. But more than just a form of artistic appreciation, what hooked me to their significance was their economic importance in the Brazilian and Amazonian culture. The balata figures float down the river and were historically important to the rubber boom between 1879 and 1912, and continue to marginalize 40% of exporting profit.

Like various other artifacts present, the tradition and streamlined aim to feed other cultures the same:  the collecting, processing, and cooking of these figures involves a great cultural association, and I was able to make connections to the action figurines in our contemporary childhood, the ancient Indian art my family grew up around, as well as the Russian horses and puppets- my art teacher imposed upon me.

As I stay dumbstruck, I find it rather humbling to see the closeness to nature and tradition, and I have gained more respect and knowledge for a form of expression I had already loved.

The famous autobiographical text, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi continues popular, yet controversial arguments regarding feminism, fundamentalism during Revolution, and identity. This graphic narrative particularly takes places during the 1979 Iranian Revolution with Marji (the protagonist, also Satrapi’s childhood character) and her family holding central importance. The ongoing struggle between the public history and private memory is therein shown forth through minimalistic black and white images to portray her childhood experience of a ‘loss of innocence’ in a simple, yet effective manner.

To say that I wasn’t intrigued by her story and her portrayal of it, would be an absolute lie and to say that I was, would be an understatement. Naturally, one thing leading to another, I found myself researching and reading through more of Marjane Satrapi’s texts, when I found a Vogue interview between actress and active feminist, Emma Watson and Satrapi. After watching the interview, I gathered bits and pieces of knowledge which I found relevant to our class and CAP discussions on the grounds of feminism and the power of external influences on society.

By definition, rebellion or being rebellious, is simply an act of ‘opposition to one in authority or dominance’ (Merriam Webster). In the interview between Satrapi and Watson, numerous acts of ‘rebellion’ such as going to school as a woman, wearing a hijab, and forgiving other individuals for hate-crimes were argued. Are these really rebellious acts or are they simply individual rights and reactions [their] society disvalued?

To elaborate one by one, Satrapi’s central position on the importance of women’s education stood out the most. Education was disregarded as equally important when more conservative, fundamentalist stances were encouraged. As she delicately summarized, “Education is the first step towards democracy, while the enemy of democracy is patriarchal culture.” This is completely justified. Using her own logic along with mine, when a woman is financially stable, she automatically becomes freer. However, due to the culture and historical events (not only) in the Middle East, this is sometimes difficult to fathom. Therefore, the act of seeking education for a woman is an act of rebellion, or doing something outside of norm. Today, 70% of students in Iran are girls. This is beyond incredible. Using a very twisted version of reverse psychology, when a woman is stopped from getting a higher education, she only wants it more.

This is just the first example.

Through articles read in class and the Vogue interview, the importance of the hijab and its controversies were also dictated clearly. The hijab, or ‘veil’, is a symbol of the Islamic faith and represents modesty and commitment, however in the Western world, it is also frowned upon and judged as symbols of terrorism and often perceived as a radical statement. Through a particular article read in class, ‘My Hijab Doesn’t Oppress me, it Empowers me’ by Amber Rehman, they are seen in a different light. They are seen as yet another act of rebellion. As a strong suit for feminism, covering the body means objectification is reduced and men no longer have the power to “use their creative paintbrush to objectify and sexualize women.” That’s reasonable. Wearing the veil empowers some women from the Islamic faith, while it humiliates others. When things are forced upon an individual, they no longer hold the same value. Satrapi connoted the same when she spoke about the hijab in her interview. She states that it turned a symbol she saw as repressive into a symbol of uprising. Given her own life, she moved to France and became the “Arab in the West” but going home, she was now “French”. The dramatic culture shock and differences between the two made her an individual of two places, where identity is either lost or found, often through religion. Wearing the hijab gave Rehman power through her transition to Canada even if it wasn’t perceived and understood the way she did. Not wearing one, gave Satrapi the same power.

Satrapi also claimed that one could never really blame an ignorant person, but they could always ridicule one that knew something was wrong, but continued anyway. Through the common theme of Morality versus Humanity, she brought forward the point where morality will never rule a proper, sane state, but humanity improves social conditions, and thus improves the overall atmosphere of a country. She examples this through the provocative and contentious example of prostitution during her conversation with Emma Watson. Prostitution, whether good or bad, has always been there, and always will be regardless of ones’ morals agreeing or disagreeing with it. Rather than ridiculing the profession, house it. Contain it, take care of the women, and give them a safe place to do their job.

We examine this in our political environment today. In the United States, conservative President Trump, is almost entirely anti-abortion and ridicules it again and again. It is against HIS morals. What does that have to do with another individual? House it; contain it; take care of the women who need it. How is it that “locker-room banter” is any more acceptable? These questions come up when a strong feminist voice speaks up.

Marjane Satrapi did more than tell her story in Persepolis; in the process of recognizing her own childhood during the Iranian Revolution, she also brought out arguments that seem so obvious, yet have remained unanswered. Her feminist take on a dictatorship with strong fundamentalist values really spoke out to me, and grabbed my attention to research more on the topic in the future.

Sources:

Transcript of Interview between Emma Watson and Marjane Satrapi

https://www.vogue.com/article/emma-watson-interviews-marjane-satrapi

Rehman, Amber. “My Hijab Doesn’t Oppress Me, It Empowers Me.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost, 5 May 2013, www.huffingtonpost.ca/amber-rehman/feminism-hijab-canada_b_2808850.html.

“Get out of your comfort zone”

For decades, if not centuries, we might have had the answer to all our life’s problems in the palm of our hands.

Job crisis? “Get out of your comfort zone and try something new.” Unhealthy relationship? “Break up, get out of your comfort zone, and move on.” World peace?  “You have a voice like everyone else…just get out of your comfort zone. Speak up”

Okay, maybe world peace is a little harder to attain.

The point merely being, whenever things become harder or we begin to dislike something a little bit more, we’re told to change it, or to change ourselves. But how does one really do that?  How do we, as a society, get out of our larger comfort zone, and is it really that simple?

Over the course of the four weeks we’ve been in university (so you know I’m clearly saying this with so much experience), I’ve been able to conclude one thing from all the lectures and discussions: our world feeds off of the idea of fear, and thus we are confined within ourselves, with ideals and restrictions implemented against each other in the process.

In simpler words: we aren’t living to our truest potential, and in turn we fuel an animosity towards one another.

Scientifically, fear derives from multiple peripheral areas in the brain. Fear is created with a stimulus in the thalamus and ends with a ‘fight or flight’ response in the hypothalamus. Our brain’s amygdala automatically tries to decode emotions and determine possible threats from external influences, while recording our feelings, likes, and dislikes in our memory bank. (Layton, Julia “How Fear Works” 2005)

So can we blame ourselves for being the way we are?

Yes.

‘We are seen as ‘free’ and ‘righteous’ citizens by law, but are easily influenced and lack cumulative rationality, thus taking away the entire version of freedom we believe we have.’ (Dhawan, 2017)

As we’ve discussed in ASTU over the course of the last few weeks, there are no more ‘original ideas’, but simply ideas we create through pre-existent concepts. We find new ways to write the same things, and we build upon our own intelligence to expand and create new information. But what happens when we can no longer do so?  This is where fear kicks in. We strive for perfection and innovation, when truly, we have enough to mend first.  We turn to influential devices and people in times of crisis. Anyone or anything that stands against the general social conformity, becomes an idol to the general public. This is how history is made, and people in history are remembered.

Donald Trump, sets out to be the best example today. Although a lot of what he says seems derogatory and obnoxious, his willingness to step out of norm, gains him popularity (good and bad) internationally.

To tie into another discussion from ASTU, our ‘freedom’ that we have, allows us to have an opinion or bias. This is the only thing that really differentiates us, one from another. Fox News and CNN monopolize the news market in the United States, and in turn influence the public decisions during elections, and later in their morals. Age-old stigmas of racism, have been brought back around with Donald Trump’s election and his persistence for a built-wall and  a Muslim Ban. This exemplifies the “Melting Pot’s” underlying fear for diversity, induced with a bit of courage from Trump.

So what does that really say?

We’re scared of the truth. We were brought up the same way we will continue to be, until we “step out of our comfort zone” and quit obligating ourselves to following ruthlessly.

-Ashi Dhawan

Reference:

Julia Layton “How Fear Works” 13 September 2005.
HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/fear.htm> 27 September 2017

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