Mona Kamal: Tracing Journeys

Mona Kamal, Reflections on Memory (2011)

A visual artist, whose origins are rooted in the Indian subcontinent, raised in Canada and currently residing in New York, Mona Kamal engages with photography, video, and installation to create contemporary multi-media narratives about migration, journeys, and identities. As she mentions, she creates fictitious exotic spaces that spark a feeling of nostalgia that tell a story of a lost culture due to immigration. These spaces function as both means to conduct dialogue as well as functioning as dialogues about leaving and recreating home.

What inspires you to create: a thought, image, concept or -ism?

The most basic way of answering this question is that my life inspires me to create. I get my ideas for my artworks from what surrounds me. A lot of it is from reading (literature, non-fiction and newspapers) and the Western perspective of my culture and religion. I feel that I often get ideas for my work based on responses/judgments that I receive in America about identifying myself as a Muslim Pakistani woman. My parents’ history additionally also has been a great inspiration as they, like most Muslims, were greatly affected by the partition of India in 1947 as not only was their country divided...but their family was also split between two countries.

My inspiration most recently comes from the rise of Islamism in South Asia and particularly Pakistan. I feel my art is a voice of resistance against religious fundamentalism and western stereotypes of Islam and South Asian culture and therefore, a manner in which I can preserve a specific history and culture.

You have worked in a variety of media such as installation art and video projects. What compels and attracts you towards each? Do the subject and content of your work influence your decision as to which particular medium you will use?

I remember when I was doing my BFA at NSCAD in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a graduate student told me that once you are confident in your practice and the concepts behind your work, you will feel comfortable about working in different media. I always felt that was a very strong statement: I do feel that an artist should work in different mediums depending on the meaning they are attempting to convey.

Both my video projects and installations are process based so that definitely has compelled me towards both mediums. I find video a unique medium because it captures movement whereas within my installations I am creating a space for the viewer to move about in.

Furthermore, my videos have a performative aspect and many times I am in the videos whereas my installations allow me to play with materials and construct structures. I am telling a story within both, creating spaces that are both physical as well as allowing for a dialogue about identity and migration.

Hot Mess Series, 2012 from mona kamal on Vimeo.
The 'Hot Mess' video series interrogates the expectations placed upon women of a certain color and not choosing to conform to societal expectations. Does gender play a crucial role in determining the trajectories of your artistic and personal lives?

Gender and race are both very significant components of my personal and artistic life (I don’t think my artistic and personal lives are separate).

I have mostly recently gained an interest in feminist writing written by women of colour; these readings have demonstrated the challenges that the 70s feminist movement faced due to their difficulties in perceiving the perspectives of women from the developing world and even visible women minorities in the West.

Dirty Ways the Single-Story Robs Our Dignity

"There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you." - Maya Angelou

Imagine, you're trapped in a country. Rumours are spreading that you're either an Ethiopian spy or a drug dealer. Foreigners and local alike are spreading their clout. As a last resort, you go to your embassy in hopes of assistance. Only to find that your instincts, which kept you from going earlier, are verified.

"Well we share information with the ISI (Internal Security Intelligence)," she says, while speaking in code to your lawyer. "After all, the passport is our property."

In essence, conveying a message that you are their property.

Fast-forward to a year later, you're in Cairo, your phone is hot and the embassy is keen on spreading rumours as a means of letting you know whose the master.

Never once do they bother to ask for your side of the story. In fact, nor do those who are being fed the rumours. As a result, a select few have used their power to make their story the definitive story of you. This was my story.

How the Single-Story Steals One's Dignity

Globally, world leaders, state-run, and mainstream media have left Mama Earth's children in agony. We burn with untold stories of injustice, poverty, and a desire to no longer be treated like slave labour in their factories and corporations otherwise known as countries and borders.

Have you ever felt like that?

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of discovering a TED talk by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that I wish to share it with you.

Here is an excerpt from the talk:

"The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story."

"Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have an entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African states, and not with the colonial creation of the African states, and you have an entirely different story."

Introducing Migrant Stories 

As an experiment, I've put together a short eMagazine. It's a collection of stories from women forced across borders.

I made this especially for the Her Blueprint audience.

It is my firm belief that when we stop and listen to one another's story without judgement then we're able to correct what world leaders have undone. They've torn us, the earth's citizens, apart.

Recently, the world celebrated Mother's Day but how many of you took time out to give remembrance to Mama Earth? When was the last time you sat in silence and listened to her story? Every day she speaks to us. Every day she burns in agony that she can't capture our attention long enough because she too wants to be heard.

And respected.
And adored.
As well as have her dignity restored.

Enjoy the eMagazine.  Click here to grab your copy!

Domestic Workers Find their Own Means of Empowerment

Chandrani speaking at a Taste Culture event

In the Middle East, where widespread abuse of female migrant domestic workers is commonplace, Jordan positioned itself as leader in protecting workers rights when it introduced laws in 2008 that called for regulated hours, a day off and criminalisation of human trafficking.

However, a recent report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch and Jordan's Tamkeen Centre for Legal Aid cites complaints of physical and sexual abuse, house confinement, non-payment of salaries and long working hours.

According to the 110-page report, failure on the part of Jordanian officials to enforce labour laws put in place to protect female migrants are in fact 'facilitating abuse'.

Currently, more than 70,000 female migrant domestic workers from Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines are employed in the kingdom.

Pushed by a need to support their families, female migrant domestic workers leave their countries, children and lives to care for another household.

The issue of migrant domestic work is a personal issue for me. More than fifteen years ago while living on the streets in the United States and without any legal identification, I turned to cleaning houses as a means of supporting myself. When I lived in the home, I usually slept on the sofa and worked all the day without receiving a single pay. For these individuals, providing me with a place to sleep was sufficient enough. At times, I was subjected to verbal abuse and even sometimes molestation. Eventually, I would run away and end up on the streets once more.

Five years ago, when I arrived in the Middle East from New York it was not my intention to highlight the plight of these women. However, my treatment in Lebanon--when I was viewed as a servant whenever I walked the streets, or sleeping on the sofa in the home of three fellow foreigners, cooking and cleaning in exchange for board--triggered something in me.

African Women Fall Victim to a New Form of Slavery

Slavery is very much a part of today’s global economy. It rivals and in some regions eclipses the international drug trade. There are nearly twenty-seven million slaves worldwide, generating $1.3 billionin annual profits. Some estimates show a world slave population as high as two hundred million.

During previous eras where slavery was common, the new owner was given a deed or title to its newly acquired property similar to the receipt a cashier hands over to the customer whose recently purchased goods.

The kafeel system could be likened to that deed or title in that the labour sending countries agree to the relinquishing of their workers passports upon arrival in the destination country. The kafeel or kafala system is a sponsorship system that only allows expatriate workers to enter, work in, and leave certain countries with the permission of their sponsor or employers, who are locals to that country. It's common in countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, where migrant domestic workers are common.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are an estimated six million women working as maids in the Middle East. African countries like Ethiopia, Madagascar, Sudan as well as other various East and West African countries provide the bulk of household and cleaning services.

Languishing in Injustice

The main women’s prison in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli maintains a stagnant pool of migrant women many, who have spent more than a year awaiting the possibility of having their cases being brought before a judge. Few have access to institutional support from their embassies or consulates.

Waiting outside were two female Lebanese prison guards who were not exactly thrilled to see visitors.

“They have a gang ranking system in here and the Blacks are on the lowest level and the Filipinos are on the higher level,” says one Ethiopian detainee in her native language of Amharic. “The guards tell us to call our families so that they will send us money, which would make our time in jails easier.”

With tears in their eyes, the women press their hands against the glass barrier: physical contact with visitors is forbidden for inmates but this simple gesture signals their gratitude at the simple gifts of food, clothes, shampoo and feminine products brought to them by Yurda - a self-proclaimed social worker, community leader and domestic worker who has been in Lebanon for over eleven years – who has dedicated her free time to organizing donations.

Mixed in with criminals and murderers, many of these women were caught on the streets without papers after running away from their employers because of abuse, rape, starvation, forced confinement or accused of stealing.

“Female migrant workers are losing years off their lives by sitting in detention and one way of preventing this is by allowing the worker to keep their aqama (working papers) and original passport and let the employer retain the photocopy,” says Kenyan activist Naimeh Pelot.

Modern Day Slavery

Lacking legal protections, domestic workers are among the most exploited and abused workers in the world.

Rights advocates have long argued that exclusion from labour laws and recruitment-related abuses has left domestic workers in the Middle East vulnerable to exploitation, sexual abuse, forced labour, debt bondage, trafficking and conditions akin to slavery.

However, a new ILO Convention on Domestic Workers adopted in June aims to ensure that these women are treated as human beings.

“When male migrant workers come to work in construction or other service and industry sectors in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, they are protected under the labour law. Even if they don’t have full rights their work is recognized as work under the law, which is not the case for domestic workers,” said Simel Esim, Gender Specialist in the ILO's Regional Office for the Arab States in an interview.

“Jordan and Lebanon are the only countries where Ministries of Labour are in charge of a significant number of the institutional responsibilities regarding migrant domestic workers,” adds Esim.

“In the case of the GCC countries the oversight of domestic workers is under the jurisdiction of the Ministries of Interior instead of the Ministries of Labour, which leaves domestic workers outside the purview of the labour law. The emphasis on domestic workers is, therefore about their recognition as workers, with equal rights to workers in other sectors.”

The new convention requires governments to regulate private employment agencies that impose heavy debt burdens or misinform migrant domestic workers about their jobs, prohibit the practice of deducting domestic workers’ salaries to pay recruitment fees, investigate complaints and labour inspection in private homes.

Today recruitment agencies eager to cash in on this lucrative labour market lure these vulnerable women into debt bondage. Rights groups report that agency fees ranging from $200 to $400, must be paid before departure. However, for most women their first few salaries go toward repaying the debt.

“Policies relating to trafficking need to fall more in line with the reality of forced migration globally because most migrant workers are not the stereotypical sex worker chained to a bed,” Pardis Mahdavi, author of "Gridlock: Labour, Migration and Human Trafficking" said. “In fact they are men and women that are tied to metaphorical chains like debt and poverty that forces these workers to migrate and remain in poor working conditions.”

Feminization of Poverty

Madagascan female migrants enjoy a rare day off. Beirut, Lebanon

Soaring food prices coupled with massive land grabs have widened the gender gap between those trapped in poverty, resulting in the feminization of poverty. Women who constitute the majority of the world's poor face greater risks during times of global crisis forcing many to migrate out.

"In terms of the number of people going hungry today, more than 60% are women and girls and the situation of global hunger always has a gender characteristic to it. That means that the most vulnerable people in society are always going to be in the front line," journalist, activist and former policy analyst with the advocacy group Food First, Raj Patel told Her Blueprint.

"When there are already burdens of caring for the elderly, kids, the sick, carrying water and locating fuel coupled with the costs of finding food at higher costs with less money to go around and increased demands to find sources of income, women are structurally in a much harder position to make ends meet."

Right now, the global population is struggling to feed itself, with more than 800 million people lacking adequate food; 1.3 billion living on less than $1 per day and world population figures expected to reach 9 billion by 2050.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) predicts the pace of food inflation has surpassed 2008 levels and will rise another four percent this year. Basically if you are poor, now is a particularly precarious time with a twenty-five percent jump in global food costs in 2010 and most countries shelling out nearly $1 trillion on imports in comparison to a twenty percent spike for poorer nations in 2009.

However, women -- who have less access to food, water, health care, land ownership, basic rights, and education to better their living conditions -- are more vulnerable before any global crisis due to their status before disaster hits.

Recent statistics indicate that women account for seventy percent of the world's poor. They work two-thirds of the world's working hours, but earn only ten percent of the income and own one percent of the world's property.

During the 1960's, women accounted for nearly forty-five percent of the total migration -- mainly for reunification purposes with their spouses who were already employed abroad. Today, the global financial crisis has forced millions in developing countries into poverty. Resulting in the share of women migrating for employment to increase from 35.3 million in 1960 to 94.5 million in 2005.

Massive land grabs in some African countries, forcing those that would be growing food to feed their families off their lands and into urban areas that are unable to sustain them economically, has resulted in large numbers of migrants getting onto rickety boats and risking their lives to try and migrate out.

“Many people in Madagascar are living in poverty,” said Aimee, who is a self-proclaimed social worker in Lebanon, in an interview with Her Blueprint. “Every day applications are being processed for female migrants seeking work abroad.”

The beauty of migration is that, at the household level, it allows for the individual transaction of remittances because earnings go back to the people who need it the most -- the family.

Stable economies like Libya were a hub for migrant from African countries, Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies based in Washington told Her Blueprint. Migrants headed out because they were unable to withstand the global recession, climate change huge increases in food prices and staple goods back home.

“Remittances are this sleeping giant in terms of development finance that has awakened. They create a financial tie between people and their communities by helping to build clinics, schools, roads and other infrastructure development projects,” says Woods.

“There are some efforts to harness more the strategic resources from remittances, which have created a space for governments to act independent of external actors like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) whose interest and loan conditions have failed to serve the needs of Africa.”

According to a World Economic Forum report titled, 'The Global Gender Gap Report 2009,' there is no country where women and men existed equally and concluded that systematic gender discrimination in developing countries must be halted in order for significant economic recovery and growth to occur.

Creating labour policies that protect female migrants and empowering women in their home countries by harnessing the power of remittances to provide decent work will not only fuel economies but lead the world on a path to eradicating poverty and hunger.

GENDER: Feminization of Migration

Women, who constitute nearly fifty percent of global migration, represent an economic resource in many poor countries, making them the main export commodity. However, key United Nations (UN) policies on human trafficking continue to overlook migrant domestic workers in the Middle East.

Domestic care has become a key feature in the socio-economic fabric of developing countries such as Sri Lanka, eager to alleviate an 18.9 percent youth unemployment rate and lessen possible social unrest, which is lately common in many Arab countries. Dependence on the remittances of nearly 130,000 Sri Lankan women migrating to the Middle East yearly as domestic workers has been welcomed by officials who see this lucrative labour market as a key contributor to economic stability. Indeed, last year, Sri Lankan migrant workers sent nearly 289.8 million in remittances with a record growth of 12.3 percent from 2009.

“The private remittances of Sri Lankan migrants have significantly augmented our foreign currency reserves and the national income. It’s estimated that private remittances this year, 2010 will amount to approximately US $4 billion,” says Sri Lanka’s UN ambassador Dr. Palitha Kohona speaking at a general assembly session last November discussing international migration and development. “Sri Lanka is on the verge of rapid economic take off following the decisive conclusion of a three decade long conflict with the terrorist LTTE. The government is making large investments in infrastructure and developing productive assets so that Sri Lanka’s strengths will be optimized in this post-conflict scenario. We have taken many measures on migration management to ensure that migration becomes a key contributor to national development.”

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), Sri Lankan female migrant domestic workers, who accounted for nearly sixty-two percent of private remittances, contributed to increasing foreign currency reserves, reducing devaluation of the Sri Lankan rupee and the repayment of foreign debts like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

“The Sri Lankan government gets a good profit from us; they must take care of us. They must do more to protect us,” Chandrani, a domestic worker and community leader in Lebanon said in an interview with Her Blueprint. “I became very involved in assisting Sri Lankan women and started speaking to many newspapers about the situation and criticized the Sri Lankan embassy for doing nothing to protect their nationals. As a result, the embassy had me detained and after I was released they made sure I could no longer visit the prisons.”

Despite calls by Sri Lankan officials to halt the large numbers of women migrating to the Middle East due to the growing number of complaints of abuse, the Sri Lankan government had been quite content to allow legal and illegal migration to continue.

Human trafficking

Governments are not the only one’s turning a blind eye. Current UN policies on human trafficking are also failing to assist the thousands of women migrating to the Middle East for domestic work.

According to the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, illegal and legal recruitment agencies in countries like Sri Lanka would technically be described as traffickers. Thousands of domestic workers who are deceived by labour agents and find themselves in forced labour, debt bondage and conditions akin to slavery, which most women encounter upon arrival, would in essence be victims of human trafficking.

However, the stereotypical image of the trafficked victim and the UN’s focus on sex workers leaves many female migrants to fend for themselves. Not only does UN negate male migrants who are tricked into foreign employment but it also ignores that trafficking is in itself a form of abuse and that women are being forced to migrate globally to fulfill developing countries financial needs legally.

“Trafficking victims come to Lebanon legally. For instance, sex workers from Eastern Europe or other Arab countries enter under artists’ visas. It’s like a work permit that’s valid for one month and renewable for up to six months. A recruiter solicits them in their home country and they’re not allowed to change employers, which is a lot like the sponsorship system with domestic workers,” Ghada Jabbour, Gender and Trafficking specialist at KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation told Her Blueprint.

“Domestic workers and sex workers are being used in a system that is set up to work against their rights as workers or human beings,” adds Jabbour.

1000 WORDS: Camouflage

Costa Rican artist Cecilia Paredes explores the emotional effects of moving from one country to another in her piece for Focusing on Latin America, "Migration and Identity."

Explore the rest of the series here>>

1000 WORDS: One Side of the Story

Dona Enerina sits outside her modern home, which is paid for by money her son earns working in the U.S. Part of Dulce Pinzon's series "Both Sides," about Mexican families that migrate for work and those who are left behind, in Focusing on Latin America.