Read report and watch video of the discussion “Of War and Collective Memory”,
11th December 2020
OPEN ASIA|Armanshahr Foundation , 40Braids, International Simorgh Peace Prize, Armanshahr publishing
196th Conference/dialogue held in framework of OPEN ASIA’s 8th Edition of Human rights week
Marking 25th anniversary celebration year
in collaboration with and supported by FIDH, UKRI, GCRF and ICAN.
Moderated by Guissou Jahangiri, Vice President FIDH & Executive director of OPEN ASIA Armanshahr Foundation. Discussant: Dr. Neelam Raina, Associate Professor, Challenge Leader for Security, Protracted Conflict, Refugees and Displacement Global Challenges Research Fund GCRF, UKRI
This discussion takes place against the backdrop of an ever increasingly difficult time, only this morning a renowned writer and journalist was murdered in Afghanistan.
Dr. Sayed Askar Mousavi, lecturer and writer describes the mass displacement of Afghan people and different ethnic groups, where the dominating majority of the country is Pashtu. They are and have been de-culturalising the Hazara population in Afghanistan and wiping out the cultural memories of this group and other groups. The Pashtu majority actively promotes this erasure in politics and politicians do this as well, both internally and externally. Songs and poems have been used to further juxtapose the different cultures of the Pashtu and Hazara and their different memories have been amplified. Afghanistan has to open this memory box of the struggle between these two ethnic groups, and the many other ethnic groups, otherwise the struggle will continue with every new round of negotiations and talks. The facts have to be acknowledged and apologies have to be made.
Dr Naji El Khatib tells that as a Palestinian from a refugee family, memory is the only link that remains between Palestine and him. There are many different actors in Palestine. He compares the conflict in Palestine to colonization. Colonization intended to wipe out the people, the memory, and the culture. This goes as far as even the memory of food: hummus being Israeli food. This is what could also be called the link with identity, that is historical, relational. If there is no place to go to, you are “out of place”: in that case there can be no identity and no memory. People of Palestine are shattered, living on the margins everywhere and therefore not clearly belonging anywhere, and statelessness adds another layer to this. There is now also a “guilty” memory, a narrative pushed because of the role Palestine played in the 1948 war. It is an attempt to erase the Palestinian narrative and replace it with these different (Zionist) memories. In that sense, there is a war against memory.
Debbie Stothard, Human rights activist & Founder of Altsean-Burma, finds that the above memories resonate strongly. In Asia there have been similar cases. Common memory has been filtered by a patriarchal, colonial, capitalist, elite lens and it is only through that lens that we have a collective memory. This makes that these groups are controlling the narrative. I work on narratives that do not make it through that filter. We have to reclaim these spaces, so that especially the voices of women and children are preserved as a counter-narrative to the dominant one. For example, women are taking up weapons to defend themselves now in Burma as well: this is a development that goes against the dominant view of an Asian woman. Memories in this way preserve the injustices that have been done. We need to understand the stories of women, their agency, because they have been marginalized in our public memory. Only then can we get through to a more collective memory that does justice to all.
Farhad Golyardi, sociologist & co-founder of the Eutopia Institute, shares some examples of Iran of the last 40 years. He stresses the importance of how totalitarian states try to create memories through their own state media. The role of these state media is huge: they tell of what is going well and who is bad and does wrong. But in people’s memories different things have happened: for example, they have seen people vanishing, never seeing their graves. There is friction between the state narrative and people’s memories after 40 years of denying. This is where we see the role of art: stories, poetry, and songs are the only way to make sure the memories are not vanishing. It is interesting how Iranian exiles are particularly employing art and culture to bring memories back to life. Totalitarian states keep emphasizing they are a noble state, that there is no memory of prisoners. Yet, memories stay and they can bring up new initiatives, like exiled art, writers, and documentaries. Also memory writing of female prisoners of the regime in Iran sheds important new light on these events.
Ilya Nuzov, lawyer & Head of FIDH Eastern Europe and ex-Soviet republics stresses that it is not necessarily the case that authoritarian regimes are pushing harder for a certain narrative, but civil society and other voices have more chances to correct things in democratic states. Memory is not only important for individual victims, but also for societies at large. States are well-aware of the use of manipulation of collective memories: to stabilize their society, it is important political tool. These historical memories have the power to facilitate policies, legitimizing a particular political ideology. But they could be historical myths and not reflecting the actual events. This is something that happened a lot after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Using the myth of victory of WWII, or of the crimes committed by the soviet regime, post-Soviet states have been forming their identity around those distinct narratives. States act according to the historical narratives they perpetuate and foreign policy is expressive of this historical identity. It also explains the two dominant narratives that exist now in the region: pro-Soviet (around WWII victory) and nationalist (like Ukraine, centred around victimhood from the Soviet Union). These two narratives and their rhetoric have played an incredibly important role in the memory war between Ukraine and Russia.
Daniele Rugo, Award-winning filmmaker and lecturer reflects on the power of stories relating to memories. There is a paradox of memory-boom (internet makes memorialization so much easier and accessible) and yet it remains so important on WHO is talking with the different means available. This impasse can be challenged and addressed through stories, and importantly, simple stories. There are immense possibilities now for the preservation of memories. Bodily memory is more difficult to translate and address. There is a lot of memory work going on: institutional memory (broader concepts like identity) vs personal memories (lived experiences of people). There is a sort of bottleneck on memory; the work on memory however is very important: memory work is never a neutral playing field, it is always a power narrative; not all memories have the same weight. The control of memory is a very important form of power where those that were already marginalised are marginalised even more through the memory work that defines the legacy of a conflict. As a filmmaker, I work in a field where something really can be done, it can provide a springboard for marginalised memories to be heard. The arts can fashion political memories out of “naïve”, simple views, memories that sometimes cannot be easily put in political boxes.
The discussion focused on how the cultural part of memory, contrary to for example memory of land, is the strongest part of memory. DR Mousavi prioritises cultural memory. Also trauma has to be addressed directly in memory. Otherwise there is no chance for resolve, what happened and why they did it. He uses the example of Nelson Mandela who did just that after being released from prison. All conflicts and peace come out of the cultural rethinking of the past. Without culture one could easily forget about the pas, which is where most conflicts begin or rest. Ilya stressed the importance of the emergence of concepts like TJ are very important to deal with trauma. Neelam stating how the concept of pain is something that runs across all memory narratives. Debbie continued to say it is important to prioritise going against the mainstream, this is where memory otherwise gets lost. Guissou talked of how memory is also important during conflict, since some situations cannot seem to get out of it while realising that reconciliation is important, but at what cost? Memories need to be preserved for the present, but also the past and the future