Iraqi artist commemorates war dead

This video says aout itself:

Award-winning Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal discusses his new book “Shoot an Iraqi” and the impact of his highly provocative interactive art piece “Domestic Tension”.

From Democracy NOW! in the USA:

105,000 Tattoos: Iraqi Artist Wafaa Bilal Turns His Own Body into a Canvas to Commemorate Dead Iraqis & Americans

The official death toll from the war is 100,000, but it is widely estimated to be much higher, perhaps even as high as one million. In his latest piece of artwork, Iraqi American artist Wafaa Bilal tries to grapple with the enormity of these numbers. It’s a twenty-four-hour live tattooing performance called “..and Counting” that began at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts gallery in New York Monday night.

By tonight Bilal’s back will be tattooed with the names of Iraqi cities, 5,000 red dots representing dead American soldiers and 100,000 dots in invisible ink representing the official death toll for Iraqis. The dots representing the Iraqi death toll will only be visible under ultraviolet light. [includes rush transcript]

Official dogma: Iraq War a success; by Glenn Greenwald: here.

From IPS news agency:

BAGHDAD, Mar 12, 2010 (IPS) – Under Saddam Hussein, women in government got a year’s maternity leave; that is now cut to six months. Under the Personal Status Law in force since Jul. 14, 1958, when Iraqis overthrew the British-installed monarchy, Iraqi women had most of the rights that Western women do.

Now they have Article 2 of the Constitution: “Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation.” Sub-head A says “No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.” Under this Article the interpretation of women’s rights is left to religious leaders – and many of them are under Iranian influence.

“The U.S. occupation has decided to let go of women’s rights,” Yanar Mohammed who campaigns for women’s rights in Iraq says.

USA: Rove Falsely Claims Bush Administration Never Said Iraqi Oil Revenue Would Help Pay For War: here.

On Sunday and Monday, the New York Times carried no fewer than three columns in which the supposed merits of The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s award-winning film about the Iraq war, were extolled: here.

A senior British army officer has claimed that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners could have been prevented if proper oversight had been introduced: here.

Contempory Art Iraq is on at Cornerhouse, Manchester until 20 June. It is free: here.