Comments on: Be warned this Guardian video is depressing http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2009/04/be-warned-this-video-is-depressing/ and this is our BLOG, where photography, art, audio and journalism collide (sparks may fly)... Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:25:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: David Campbell — Photography, Multimedia, Politics » Afghanistan: Limits of the Photographic Landscape http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2009/04/be-warned-this-video-is-depressing/comment-page-1/#comment-2249 David Campbell — Photography, Multimedia, Politics » Afghanistan: Limits of the Photographic Landscape Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:57:51 +0000 http://duckrabbit.info/blog/?p=2465#comment-2249 [...] Recent videos of public floggings by the Taliban in Pakistan (see the Channel 4 News report from 24 March below, which begins with a beating the Taliban were happy to have filmed) confirm why anyone interested in human rights wants to see fundamentalists opposed (though see the good questions raised about them here). [...] [...] Recent videos of public floggings by the Taliban in Pakistan (see the Channel 4 News report from 24 March below, which begins with a beating the Taliban were happy to have filmed) confirm why anyone interested in human rights wants to see fundamentalists opposed (though see the good questions raised about them here). [...]

]]> By: David Campbell http://duckrabbit.info/blog/2009/04/be-warned-this-video-is-depressing/comment-page-1/#comment-2057 David Campbell Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:48:31 +0000 http://duckrabbit.info/blog/?p=2465#comment-2057 It is interesting to see this video in the context of the stories from the Swat Valley in Pakistan. The NY Times Lede blog (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/setbacks-for-women-in-israel-pakistan-and-afghanistan/) put it together with other stories from Afghanistan and Israel, and got some flak for suggesting a possible equivalence between Photoshop-ing pictures and flogging women. (I found this post via Fred Ritchin's important blog, After Photography, see http://www.pixelpress.org/afterphotography/). The issue shouldn't detract from the important issue of gendered representation this blog raised. For one of the most moving multimedia stories I have seen in some time, see "Class Dismissed in the Swat Valley" on the NYT multimedia site at http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/02/22/world/asia/1194838044017/class-dismissed-in-swat-valley.html What is revealed in these stories -- the abuse of women -- is not just restricted to the developing world -- its also taking place behind closed doors in our own societies as domestic abuse. To that end, see the (problematic) campaign for Women's Aid that has celebrities made up as domestic abuse victims -- see http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/03/domestic-violence-advertisement-keira-knightley In watching these videos from Pakistan are we different from the men conducting the beating? Yes, very different, so long as these visual accounts become the basis for mobilising opposition to violence against women in these circumstances. It is interesting to see this video in the context of the stories from the Swat Valley in Pakistan.

The NY Times Lede blog (http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/setbacks-for-women-in-israel-pakistan-and-afghanistan/) put it together with other stories from Afghanistan and Israel, and got some flak for suggesting a possible equivalence between Photoshop-ing pictures and flogging women. (I found this post via Fred Ritchin’s important blog, After Photography, see http://www.pixelpress.org/afterphotography/). The issue shouldn’t detract from the important issue of gendered representation this blog raised.

For one of the most moving multimedia stories I have seen in some time, see “Class Dismissed in the Swat Valley” on the NYT multimedia site at http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/02/22/world/asia/1194838044017/class-dismissed-in-swat-valley.html

What is revealed in these stories — the abuse of women — is not just restricted to the developing world — its also taking place behind closed doors in our own societies as domestic abuse. To that end, see the (problematic) campaign for Women’s Aid that has celebrities made up as domestic abuse victims — see http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/03/domestic-violence-advertisement-keira-knightley

In watching these videos from Pakistan are we different from the men conducting the beating? Yes, very different, so long as these visual accounts become the basis for mobilising opposition to violence against women in these circumstances.

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