‘Stemmerett og stemmeprakt!’ celebrates 100 years anniversary of women’s right to vote in Norway. To draw a line to the present, an encounter has been organized between the well-known Norwegian singers Berit Opheim and Unni Boksasp, together with prominent vocalists from countries of the “Arab spring”, Dorsaf Hamdani from Tunisia and Waed Bouhassoun from Syria. Norwegian folk and Arabic art music alternate and mingle. The performance with support from Fritt Ord took place at the Førde Festival, July this year. A few days before the concert there was a debate about the situation for female artists in countries in the “Arab spring”, with Samara Sallam, Dorsaf Hamdani and Fawzia Baba-Aissa. In the previous post you can find the interview with Samara Sallam. After the concert we asked Dorsaf Hamdani about the project and her work. This (short) interview is held in English.
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“In France I found my Tunisian identity”- an interview with Emel Mathlouthi
Antwerp – It looks like Tunisia, where the Arab Spring started, had a successful transition to democracy. Ben Ali has fled the country and the moderate Islamist party Ennahda won the elections in October 2011. They allegedly take Turkey as an example; a secular democracy governed by a party with an Islamic identity. Lately, however, there have been tensions between Islamicists and secular liberals and the economy is still very fragile. In April the government puts a ban on demonstrations which generated new protests (New York Times). This weekend at the Sfinks Festival in Boechout, Belgium, I spoke to the Tunesian singer-songwriter Emel Mathlouthi, currently living in France, about Tunisia and her music.
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