One of Arzu’s earlier published creative pieces, published for the Other Asias project, in Redo Pakistan 2010. The piece dates from 2010.
Read the full issue here.
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every time is now.
And so it came to pass that every time is now, and now is every time, and we declare war through peace, and we die so that others may live. Yet it is not to die, except to pass into the realms of bliss. If you will join then you too declare war through peace and submission. If you will understand that now is the time, to be free – if you dare.
To dare, to die? But no millet is worth a single drop of blood if it is to be just another nation. The ummah is not one and does not worship One, if it does not know that this world is not for you if you believe in Freedom. You can only break the bonds that enslave others in temporality. But it remains a prison for those who see, that if they suffer they are rewarded in eternity, and if they do not struggle, they are never free. And so to those that dare and soar and pass. Do they see what they have left behind, the bloodied boat where they defied a soldier and his gun, with their bare hands and a broken chair? Do they see the smile of the child who now knows someone cared that much? Or are they gone. Never to see the sun or feel the love? We know not what they vision, but we can know the vision that they saw, for they even live on here after passing – in the child whose smile turns into pride, and then defiance, and finally victory, either here or hereafter. They live in the pain of the haunted soldier who will see that face in its final moments smile at him in perpetuity unless he too – for even he too can join – declares war through peace against all that is injustice, and through submission, raise this nation – all our nations, to never, ever, ending glory.
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Thanks to artist and curator Hamja Ahsan who was behind Other Asias, for the reminder during his recent Zine Mela exhibition is Croydon.
15:30
Zine Mela on Instagram: “I curated this Gujurati diaspora Shaheen Merali @meralishaheen corner inside Zine Mela Turf @turfprojects I have many of Shaheen Merali old exhibition catalogues. His cousin Arzu Merali @arzumerali is my last beloved sister-comrade who hasn’t died (Maz Saleem died recently and Panther Manchandra so she the last person from Free Talha campaign days and my favourite pious British Muslim activists). I am also the first person to curate her inside an art project and publish her Shia Revolutionary poetry! She just recently published a book on Karbala.
Shaheen Merali is an archivist like me of these periods of British diasporic history. I think part of his archive is inside Tate Britain.
Amrit Wilson who is part of this Crossing Black catalogue is my Radical Aunty and someone I love and treasure deeply.
Shaheen and Arzu both kindly bought my Fanon Fried Chicken prints and save me from poverty, insanity and destitution.
Arzus work on Liberation Theology and structural Islamophobia had a deep impact on me and it was the first time I went inside a Shia mosque to see her book launch. Arzu has always stood by me when I had no one and people were too cowardly to stand by me. You can buy her latest poetry book on Karbala @ ihrc
I also have lots of Aki Nawaz stuff inside the archive. I met many Gen Z kids inside the gallery space who don’t know any of this 1990s stuff. Aki Nawaz cover of the NME and first Word appearance means a lot to me and I seen him around TV studios and Bosnia genocide memorials.
Exhibition closes 30th July 11am-5pm Weds-Saturday @turfprojects in Croydon London”
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