Strange homelands: encountering the migrant on the contemporary Greek stage

This article examines three examples from recent Greek theatre which stage experiences of migrants and refugees against the backdrop of Greece’s growing internationalism and multiculturalism. In allowing migrants to author their own narratives of border-crossing and encountering their new “homeland”, those theatrical endeavours, I argue, attempt to break the monologism of Greek theatre and monolithic understandings of national identity thus opening up spaces for encountering diverse voices. In acknowledging the risks and tensions underpinning the migrant’s presence on stage, the article also applies pressure to questions of encounter, authenticity, representation and self-expression of migratory subjects and interrogates some ways in which they navigate their precarious space of belonging and author themselves in the context of contemporary Greek theatre

Performing Ashura in Piraeus: Towards a Shiite Poetics of “Cultural Intimacy” with Greek Embodied Practices of Religiosity

Η έρευνα εξετάζει την τελετουργία της Ασούρα, όπως επιτελείται από την πακιστανική σιιτική κοινότητα στον Πειραιά. Η Ασούρα είναι η μέρα του πένθους για το μαρτύριο του ιμάμη Χουσεΐν, ο οποίος ήταν εγγονός του Προφήτη και τρίτος ιμάμης και ηγήθηκε μιας εξέγερσης εναντίον του Ομεϋά χαλίφη Γιαζίντ Α΄, γεγονός που οδήγησε τελικά στον αποκεφαλισμό του κατά τη μάχη της Κερμπάλα το 680 μ.Χ. Στη μάχη αυτή βασίζεται το κεντρικό αφήγημα γύρω από το οποίο οι σιιίτες μουσουλμάνοι συγκροτούν την πολιτική τους ταυτότητα ως μετανάστες και τη θρησκευτική τους ταύτιση ως μειονότητα σε σχέση με τους σουνίτες μουσουλμάνους στην Ελλάδα. Η Ασούρα τιμάται κάθε χρόνο με τελετουργίες θρήνου και δημόσιες ακολουθίες που σε ορισμένες περιπτώσεις περιλαμβάνουν την πρακτική του αυτομαστιγώματος. Η εκτός συμφραζομένων εστίαση στην πράξη του αυτομαστιγώματος, η οποία υπερτονίζεται από τα μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης, επανισχυροποιεί τοπικά στερεότυπα για τις πρακτικές της σιιτικής κοινότητας ως «ασύμβατες» με «ελληνικές» πολιτισμικές αξίες. Κοινωνικές αναπαραστάσεις των σιιτών ως «βαρβαρικών Άλλων» ανακαλούνται συχνά στον δημόσιο λόγο ώστε να υποστηρίξουν ισλαμοφοβικά και φυλετικοποιημένα αφηγήματα αντικοσμοπολιτισμού. Αντιμέτωποι ωστόσο με την ξενοφοβία και την κοινωνική αποξένωση, οι σιίτες επιχειρούν συστηματικά να αρθρώσουν αντιαφηγήματα «πολιτισμικής οικειότητας», τα οποία δίνουν έμφαση στις ομοιότητες ανάμεσα στη δική τους θρηνητική τελετουργία και σε ποικίλες ενσώματες επιτελέσεις πίστης από τα πολιτισμικά συμφραζόμενα του ελλαδικού χώρου, όπως το προσκύνημα στην Τήνο ή τα Αναστενάρια. Η έρευνα έχει τριπλό στόχο. Πρώτον, καταγράφει τον πολιτικό αγώνα της κοινότητας να προάγει διαλεκτικά και πρακτικά ένα όραμα πολιτειότητας βασισμένο σε ενσώματες και συν-αισθη(μα)τικές συνισταμένες υποκειμενικότητας. Δεύτερον, αναλύει τον πλούσιο μετασυμβολικό χαρακτήρα που προσλαμβάνει η Ασούρα στο μεταναστευτικό πλαίσιο, καθώς μεταμορφώνεται σε ιδίωμα έκφρασης και διαχείρισης αισθημάτων απώλειας τα οποία συνδέονται με μεταναστευτικές διαδρομές. Τρίτον, εκκινώντας από την περίπτωση της Ασούρα, αλλά και διευρύνοντας την ερευνητική οπτική με αναφορά σε άλλα παραδείγματα θρηνητικών επιτελέσεων, εξετάζει πώς η ποιητική της «πολιτισμικής οικειότητας» αρθρώνεται εκ νέου σε σύγχρονες καλλιτεχνικές πρακτικές, με επίκεντρο τις παραστατικές τέχνες.The research examines the ritual of Ashura, as it is performed by the Pakistani Shia community in Piraeus. Ashura is the day of mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Husayn: the Prophet’s grandson and 3rd Imam who led a revolt against the Omayyad caliph Yazid I, and was finally beheaded in the battle of Karbala in 680 AD. This battle provides the central narrative around which Shia Muslims construct their political identity as migrants and their religious identification as a minority vis-à-vis Sunni Muslims in Greece. Ashura is commemorated every year through rituals of lamentation and public processions that include, in some cases, self-flagellation. A decontextualized focus on the act of self-flagellation, over-accentuated by the mass media, reinforces local stereotypes of the Shia community practices as “incompatible” with Greek cultural values. Social representations of the Shiite as “barbaric Others” are frequently evoked in public debate in order to support Islamophobic and racialised narratives of anti-cosmopolitanism. However, confronted with xenophobia and social estrangement, the Shiite systematically attempt to articulate counter-narratives of “cultural intimacy” that stress the similarities between their ritual lament and various embodied performances of faith from the Greek cultural context, such as the Tinos pilgrimage or the Anastenaria. The research has a threefold purpose. First, it documents the community’s political struggle to promote discursively and practically a multicultural vision of citizenship based on embodied and affective components of subjectivity. Second, it unravels the rich meta-symbolic character the Ashura assumes in a migratory context, becoming an idiom or expressing and negotiating feelings of loss associated with migration trajectories. Third, departing from the case of the Ashura, but also opening-up the research focus through other examples of performances of lament, it examines how the claim to cultural intimacy is re-articulated in contemporary artistic practices, focusing on the performing arts

Dossier - Explaining contemporary Shi’ism in European and Middle Eastern Contexts: a Glance at the Recent Evolutions of Shi‘ism in the Region

Since antiquity, the Mediterranean basin has constantly been witnessing episodes of cultural clashes and encounters between civilizations. Thus, the region was not unfamiliar with cultural diversity and during the early Middle Ages Shi’i dynasties ruled in Asian, African and European sides of the basin. Due to this presence long before the recent migratory influx, it seems that there is not any historical discontinuity in the Shi’i presence in Europe. However, from sociological viewpoint there is a significant difference between the former and the current presence of Shi’is in Europe. The contemporary socio-political conditions in the region are the main responsible of this difference that ignites curiosity about the emerging tendencies of Shi’ism and its recent evolutionary patterns. The study of contemporary Shi’ism in Europe that examines the life-experience of Shi’is through anthropological and sociological approaches is a relatively neglected area of research and Shi’is have so far been subsumed under broader general narratives of mainstream Islam. This negligence is higher where Islam is a relatively young phenomenon such as in southern Europe. Obviously, the socio- political tendencies of the Asian countries of the Mediterranean basin and their relation with Europe have an impact on both migratory influx and the European policies for managing the religious minorities. Hence, the situation of Shi’is in Europe cannot be fully understood without considering both departure and arrival points

Deaths at the borders database: evidence of deceased migrants' bodies found along the southern external borders of the European Union

rregular migrants and asylum seekers have died and continue to die attempting to cross the external borders of the EU without authorisation, seeking to enter the territories of its Member States. Yet, remarkably little is known about these \u2018border deaths\u2019. In 2015, the Human Costs of Border Control project published the Deaths at the Borders Database for the Southern EU, an open-source \u2018evidence base\u2019 of individualised information about people who have died border deaths between 1990 and 2013, sourced from the death management systems of Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and Greece. It is the first database on border deaths in the EU to be based on official sources as opposed to the news media. The project involved searching 563 state-run death registry archives and deductively selecting the death certificates of persons who died border deaths. This paper describes, in detail, the making of the Deaths at the Borders Database: from the systematic, multi-sited, quantitative data collection and qualitative case studies, to the construction and final results of the Database itself

Deaths at the borders database: evidence of deceased migrants’ bodies found along the southern external borders of the European Union

Irregular migrants and asylum seekers have died and continue to die attempting to cross the external borders of the EU without authorisation, seeking to enter the territories of its Member States. Yet, remarkably little is known about these ‘border deaths’. In 2015, the Human Costs of Border Control project published the Deaths at the Borders Database for the Southern EU, an open-source ‘evidence base’ of individualised information about people who have died border deaths between 1990 and 2013, sourced from the death management systems of Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and Greece. It is the first database on border deaths in the EU to be based on official sources as opposed to the news media. The project involved searching 563 state-run death registry archives and deductively selecting the death certificates of persons who died border deaths. This paper describes, in detail, the making of the Deaths at the Borders Database: from the systematic, multi-sited, quantitative data collection and qualitative case studies, to the construction and final results of the Database itself