Is This What You Mean by Intersectionality?

Is This What You Mean by Intersectionality?

Is This What You Mean by Intersectionality?

By : Maen Hammad

[This article is part of the new Photography and Audiovisual Narratives Page launch. All accompanying launch posts can be found here.]

Once, I tried to have a conversation with my baba about intersectionality. It was a topic I was not too sure how to navigate with my 62-year-old father.

We were speaking on the veranda of the home he grew up in Qalandia camp. The sound of the ground being pummeled and shattered at the quarry nearby interrupted us, pausing our conversation.

After a short while, he continued by recalling a story of his own. 

“Maen, when I was in middle school, we used to round up as many coins as we could—us, my group of friends at school. Every other Friday there was a box at the masjid in the camp where donations were sent to Algeria to support their liberation movement. I did not even know what Algeria was. I knew it was a place. A place that needed help, like us. For years we would do this without hesitation.

"Is this what you mean by intersectionality?”

“That’s exactly what I meant, baba.”

[Maen’s father dancing dabka during “Land Day” while a student at Birzeit University between 1978-1982.]

[Maen’s father chatting with his fellow university friends while a student at Birzeit University between 1978-1982.]

Sisi Mania in Photos

Expressions of support for former army chief and the presumed presidential election winner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have reached new heights during the lead-up to the 26-28 May 2014 vote. His name and image can be found on billboards all over the buildings, posters plastered on the walls coffee shops, and photos on display at street vendors’ stands.

As I covered the elections over the course of the past week in Cairo, I encountered pro-military songs everywhere—coffee shops, driving cars, public transportation, television, outside of polling stations, and even inside of them. Most notably, one could hear the loud tunes of "tislam al-ayyadi" (blessed be the hands), a song that glorifies Sisi`s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013.

Meanwhile, there were no signs of posters or billboards of Sisi’s challenger Hamdeen Sabahi. Official election results are due on 5 June 2014, but unofficial vote counts indicate that Sisi is the clear winner.