Student, atheist and blogger, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, 20, posted nude photos of herself on her blog to show her ‘screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy’. Showing her body, particularly at a time when Islamists in Egypt are securing power, is the ultimate act of rebellion. Don’t forget Islamists despise nothing more than a woman’s body. to them, women are the source of corruption and chaos and must be covered up at all times and not seen and not heard.
And whilst Islamists have taken legal action against Aliaa and her blogger boyfriend for ‘violating morals, inciting indecency and insulting Islam,’ the move has immediately been endorsed by campaigners and people across the globe.
In homage to Aliaa and in order to raise our ‘screams’ against misogyny and Islamism and for free expression and women’s rights, a #NudePhotoRevolutionaries Calendar will be published.
Here is an updated list of terms and conditions:
* Women and men 18+ are invited to send in submissions for inclusion.
* The submission must include a short quote on why you are supporting Aliaa and joining the ‘scream’.
* You will need to show your face in the photo and provide a full name.
* The photos must feature real and not implied nudity as it is real nudity that is considered taboo.
* It needs to address an issue pertaining to free speech, secularism or rights and against misogyny and Islamism.
* The photo must be professionally taken and not published anywhere else. It can be a self-portrait.
* It has to be of high quality and no less than 300 dpi, at a size of 11×17.
* The photo should be in black and white.
* The photos should be free from massive Photoshop manipulation.
* The photographer will be credited.
Once we receive your photo, we will ask you and the photographer to sign a release form if we decide to use it.
The deadline for submissions is 1 March 2012 but it would be helpful if we could get submissions in by end January. The sooner we get all the photos, the sooner we can design the calendar and get it out, preferably for 8 March, International Women’s Day.
For more information on the calendar, please contact Maryam Namazie at nudephotorevolutionaries@gmail.com.
Thank you.
Maryam Namazie
US law as one lawyer friend depicts it is “batshit crazy”.
In theory, there is no age restriction on the styles of arts images included in this actual calendar as has been published now, other than releases from minors requiring parental signatures. Were the content “porn”, which the US Supreme Court ruled in 1964 could not be defined in any legally valid way despite repeated pressures to do so, US law requires 18 USC 2257 documentation of models, intended to trap and intimidate porn producers with costs and risks of criminal persecutions [sic].
Charles et al have described an extortionate censorship of legally protected speech scam in US legal process, whereby rabid fundie hate cultists and mentally ill prosecutors of that ilk or merely pandering to them, do arbitrarily engage in illegal malicious prosecutions of legal speech. Those prosecutions can be defended against, but at great cost and risk, as people like Jock Sturges, David Hamilton, and a number of nudist and naturist publishers or distributors and importers have learned.
So, in the USA in theory it’s legal to use models of any age for any works not requiring “2257” documentation as porn, which cannot legitimately be defined as is required for laws to be valid. Sticking to models over 18 lowers risks of malicious prosecutions by nutcases with immunity they don’t deserve, but it’s those prosecutors pulling such stunts who belong in prison or dead under our law (dead is the only remedy the US Constitution specifies when courts fail to remedy political corruption, but it doesn’t work well). But, model releases alone don’t cover US legal traps if sticking to models over 18 is actually required.
Fun scams, huh?
A lot of of what you claim happens to be astonishingly appropriate and that makes me ponder why I had not looked at this with this light before. Your piece really did switch the light on for me personally as far as this topic goes. Arizona Family Dental, 590 N Alma School Rd #5, Chandler AZ 85224
Are erect penises permitted in the images?
This is the problem with a nude calendar as protest. It draws out the horny exhibitionists.
Maryam Namazie,
Your best contribution would really be participate yourself. So let’s see a nice naked portrait of yourself. And how ignorant of you not knowing the proper age for submitting photos, wonder how many 16 year olds already sent you the nude pictures before you made the correction…
Don’t be silly. I corrected it the same day. And I am providing a nude photo of myself. Now maybe you can concentrate on the issue at hand or is that too much to ask!
ربنــا يستـر علي البلــد لو الافكــار دي اتحققت
Hi Maryam,
I also wrote in twice, and have posted here, and have sent links to possibly relevant images for your calender, and have received no reply either. Please feel free to contact me at: rich.inud[at]naktiv.net
Cheers
Rich.
http://www.naktiv.net/
Maryam, do the photos have to be recent? I’m not the man I used to be. I don’t think anyone would want my Buddha belly on their wall for a month.
I’m happy that you, as so often when it comes to these kind of pictures, also welcome contributions with male models.
I have a set of questions:
1) Could you please give an outline of the contents of the release form you will use so that I can see it prior to sending material.
2) How will you treat material that will not reach the final few contributions?
3) Are protos of drawings excluded?
4) Do you refer to the model or the photographer when you state “You will need to show your face in the photo and provide a full name.”
5) Could you elaborate a bit on “It needs to address an issue pertaining to free speech, secularism or rights and against misogyny and Islamism.”
Thanks for coping with all those questions and maybe you’ll like my modelling blog http://oblyg.konstmodell.se although it’s in Swedish.
Hi Maryam
Please upload some nude pictures of you, asap.
I already made some photos. If I decide to send where can I send then?
Email me and I will give you details on where to upload your photos. thanks
Hello
Sorry but How can email you? because I already wrote 2 times for 2 diferent mails and I never got a answer.
Thank you
My name is Bruno Ribeiro and I’m from Portugal. I’m interested in your calendar to suport Alia Elmhady but I have some doubts. I’m agnostic but I respect other religions and so I ask if is not a bad idea to critizice the islam. Because I think (and I must say that I don’t know very much about muslin religion) is that in islamic religion there are good people and bad people as in all other religions. So it wouldn’t be better to make a calendar against fundamentalistic islam? I also would like to propose a calendar not only against islam but against all extremisms from all religions. Because is not only in islam that womens are disrespected. As example in Israel a young girl of eight years was attacked by orthodox jews. For finish I would like to invite you to visit my blog http://moescor.blogspot.com/ and congratulate you for your blog and your activism on womens rights.
Support this initiative. Freedom of expression, freedom from moral repression via conventional societal mores, freedom to be oneself are all important issues for us all. It is too easy in the modern world to take our comforts for granted and to see our civil rights eroded. Fight back in a peaceful way using images as political statements.
Hi Maryam,
I sent in an email to propose several naked photos, naked hiking in nature, meeting tolerant people, etc. which you might find useful. I’d be interested to hear from you how I can submit these for your consideration. If you get a chance to reply please use the email address:
rich.inud[at]naktiv.net
Looking forward to contributing, cheers.
Rich.
http://www.naktiv.net
Support this initiative. Freedom of expression, freedom from moral repression via conventional societal mores, freedom to be oneself are all important issues for us all. It is too easy in the modern world to take our comforts for granted and to see our civil rights eroded. Fight back in peaceful ways with images and political statements.
You completed a number of good points there. I did a search on the concern and identified almost all folks will have the same opinion with your weblog.
Nudity is natural and it should be up to anyone to freely express whatever they wish, if so by displaying him- or herself naked.
How come that it’s such a powerful statement?
I work as art model for life drawing, croquis, body painting, fine-art nude photography and being a naturist I have a quite relaxed relation to the naked body, my own and others.
Hi
sex is also natural like nudity. don’t know why some people become uncomfortable when mentioning about sex. I am serious about the expectation mentioned earlier. without enjoyment life is dull. For becoimng an active activist a person needs more and more enjoyment and sterngth. Maryam is the best speaker, leader, motivator, as well as the most attractive lady. What’s wrong if I tell this again and again. I become motivates by looking at her all the qualities. Go ahead, Maryam. The world is with you.
Appropriate time and place, this was, kind of not the right one, that is the problem. Its not that no one else would have thought similarly, or do not, just that certain statements a) play into the anti-nudity claims of the people being apposed in this case, who argue precisely that, natural or otherwise, if must be avoided, to prevent such thoughts being expressed, and b) such thoughts are not “generally” welcome by people who are not specifically trying to get that reaction. At least not most of them anyway.
Its even something that came up recently with conventions, where someone was followed into an elevator, and solicited, by some moron that couldn’t get that, “I am tired, not interested, and no, I don’t mean ‘to bed with someone else’.”
Its nice that you think she looks good. Its… questionable, that you think a forum post about making a calender against sexism, and other nasty things, is a good place to express your views about her looks, which “might” be seen as creepy and sexist by other people. Mind, one some level I do think this is a bit goofy, and too much like the whole super-feminist argument that, “Women should be sexually liberated, but why would have woman ‘choose’ to work in exploitative industries where she can express that liberation on film? Gasp!”
So, its hard to say if you crossed a real, or imaginary line, since some people really are over sensitive, to the detriment of other parts of what they suppose they are defending. I personally don’t think a passing comment shouold be a problem, as long as a person doesn’t go way to far with it. But, the sort of people being addressed *by* the calender have no damn clue where “too far” is in context to such statements. That makes a two posts, both of which seem to say, “I don’t see the problem here.”, kind of… poorly considered, at best, given the context.
Hi Maryam
It’s very good decision that you have taken this fantastic decision to publish calendar. Honestly speaking, I have been waiting for ages to see your nice and attarctive nude pictures which will encourage young people to be more active sexually. You are a rare beautiful lady, I can tell you.
??? This comment is 1) Pretty much the non-oppressive version of the same thing that is being addressed *by* the calender, i.e. sexist, and inappropriate. 2) Ridiculous, since, unless someone is a complete brainwashed twit (and in the areas this is addressing, only the women are supposed to be that way, the male inability to keep it in their pants is excused as everyone else’s fault, unlike in most hard line Christian groups, where.. well, the guys are still not *as responsible*, but the presumption is that both are supposed to, at least pretend and lie about, having controlled themselves), it doesn’t take a lot of “encouragement” to get people thinking about sex, especially if you where indirectly referencing people in their teens by talking about such “encouragement” in this case.
Any other inappropriate allusions to her looks, or false accusations that, it takes nude photos to promote more sex (as apposed to say, having their face uncovered in public in some insane places, or even back in Victorian times, in the west, when the sight of a womans ankles would have had people screaming, and covering their childrens eyes)?
Because, otherwise, you might want to go back to your room, and pray harder that those bad thoughts go away. It won’t work, of course, but at least it will keep you out of the way of the rest of us.
lol
Excellent points and well done. There is a time to be silly and a time to be serious and this is serious time. Nudity and nakedness is the natural state and is not shameful and is sexual only when the viewer chooses it to be so.
I think a nude calendar is an excellent idea and a good way to show support for Aliaa.
However, due to the fleeting nature of media coverage, Aliaa and the current events in Egypt will be ‘old news’ by the time the calendar is published. Something more timely is needed to capitalize on the interest of the media and people worldwide to show support for Aliaa and her brave compatriots.
As an example of what I have in mind is the blog site started by supporters of the artist Ai Weiwei to protest his persecution by the Chinese government. The Ai Wei Fans’ Nudity blog ( http://awfannude.blogspot.com/ ) has nearly 200 nude and semi-nude photos sent in by his supporters.
Setting up a nude blog site for Aliaa’s many supporters would have several advantages.
First, a blog would be timely; we would be able to show our support for Aliaa while the events in Egypt are a current topic in the worldwide news media. And to demonstrate worldwide support now would make a strong statement to the Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt and elsewhere.
Additionally, a blog such as the one for Ai Weiwei’s supporters would enable many more people to participate. Due to its nature, a calendar would be limited to showing a small number of participants; with a blog, an unlimited number of Aliaa’s supporters would be able to make a statement of support.
Another advantage is the ease of setting up a blog. Using existing blogging templates, setting up a blog for nude photos of Aliaa’s supporters would be relatively simple, fast and inexpensive. With an initial group of photos, the site could be up and running in a few days.
Of course, a small group of volunteers would be needed to screen submitted photos for underage content and to resize the photos for publishing on the blog. Participants could also help by promoting the blog through mentions on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
I’d be willing to fully participate and assist in any way I can with such a blog.
Ken that is an excellent idea
Kudos for giving this the coverage it deserves, and kudos to Aliaa. I’m a graphic designer with very little time on my hands, but what little time I have is yours.
Do the photos have to be nude? I have a shot of a friend of mine that I’m quite proud of, and I think would suit the project perfectly, but it’s a face shot.
I think she is beautiful, and I like the shoes. And that is as a female and not in a sexually titliated way… I think some of the comments on the site who think the nude female form is for nothing but for male titillation (in other words, as porn) are making the same sort of error as the men in those muslim societies who think a woman is being too sexual if she shows her hair. This is not being done for male sexual attention, it is being done to make a statement.
This is something I find annoying as hell. If you don’t want nude to mean attraction, pick blind people to look at the calender. Seriously. Yes, you can get “less of it” from say, nudists, for example, but the difference between a nudist and someone that isn’t is that the former will react *when* the intent seems to be to be titillating, the later (i.e., the average non-nudist male) never encounters a woman nude *unless* the purpose is to attract him. The result is that the former can more easily “turn it off”, as it where, where a huge percentage of the latter are like drivers in Arizona, when you ask them if they know what a turn signal is supposed to be used for (hint – about 80% of them also can’t figure out what/where the dimmer for their car lights is/does).
all my support to you sister go naked or cover completely up, or anything in between. as always a ladies choice. the planetary patriot is here! nice shoes:D
Spoken by a true male. Looking at the shoes, and appearance of the female, rather than the cause. It IS a lady’s choice to go naked, but it is the world’s choice to exploit that decision and reduce women to a mere object of lust and earn millions from that choice.
By the way, Maryam, I am supportive of your ‘One Law for All’ Campaign against Sharia Law for Britain. I do admire you – I just do not think marketing a protest where women are showing off their naked body in a calendar is any different from males in the million dollar ‘adult’ porn industry creating magazines or calendars for lust-addicted males. It perpetuates a worrying stereotype and does not increase the respect for women in our lust-driven society.
The call is out for all genders. I for one will be putting something together. It probably won’t be as aesthetically pleasing as Aliaa’s picture, not least because I’m not half as good at photography and photoediting as she and her boyfriend evidently are, but I’ll still put it out there because this is, definitely, a good cause.
Is the ultimate act of rebellion posing nude to encourage males who think women are mere objects for their lust addictions? Surely atheists can be more productive than that. Human trafficking is the biggest crime today, where young teenage girls are sold by their poor
Parents to violent criminals who rape and physically abuse their captives to be groomed for paedophilia, brothels and Internet porn rings.
REAL protests involve setting up underground schools to teach women literacy skills, to set up community business networks for poorer women and seeding funds for businesses, and educate women on legitimate forms of protest rather than using their naked bodies as a turn-on, and excuse to undermine women further by corrupt Politicians and porn rings. Be more creative, atheists, or leave it to Christians to challenge injustice in the world. Your own values reinforce other stereotypes producing injustice in this world.
Unfortunately, part of sexism is the assumption that the only reason someone *would* do this is to “be” a sex object, or because they have been abused into it. Its useless to address the view that women should be treated as sex objects, shouldn’t have rights, are there purely for the man, that rape doesn’t exist (which some people do argue), and so on, by only addressing the existence of non-consensual porn/sex trade, as though that is the only kind there is, and no “right minded” person would want to pose nude, or anything else, for their own reasons.
That is half the damn problem. The reason most of the trafficking exists in the first place is because teens are easier to get, hook into the industry, and bully/brainwash/abuse into staying there. Since its illegal to do the ones they are stolen/sold for, there is no incentive for a) the cops to protect the ones involved, b) society to recognize that there is a legitimate need to protect those involved, and c) its impossible to pass laws to regulate, control, or inspect something that “legally” can’t exist in the first place. So.. Who are they going to kidnap and traffic, teenagers, who the cops will just assume “ran away”, or full adults, with jobs, and no clear reason to simply vanish for no reason?
This should be a big, “Duh!”, but it isn’t. And, unfortunately, the only reason it is used as an argument against such a calender is precisely because its easier to steal someone to do something that, maybe, shouldn’t be illegal, than do the same thing to an adult, who is only doing it illegally for the stupid reason that money got exchanged.
Though, I have to wonder, just as an aside, if you could say, run an “charity orgy”, where the people involved are not directly payed, the same exact way that special interest groups run “charity dinners”, as bribery for politicians… Given how often this BS happens, I would love to see it come up in a court case, “But, BP did the same thing, just without the sex, for Representative Blah last week!” lol
Maryam this is a great gesture of solidarity but check the provisions of the Sexual Offences act 2003 if the calendar is to be published here in the UK and it features nude photos of 16 and 17 year olds. It may constitute child pornography, ridiculous as this sounds.
Yes i just revised the age to 18 after being told about this. thanks
I would suggest a group photo in a studio with a white background. I liked the photo of Aliaa Magda Elmahdy (http://www.firoozeh.dk/portfolio/aliaa-magda-elmahdy/) The men would have photo masks of female victims and the women would have photo masks of male victims.
Just a thought.
A nude photo of me would set the movement back decades.
Just remember, if you are under 18, and a US citizen, you will end up arrested, jailed, and added to a sex offender list, if you publish nudes of ***yourself***, as happened at least once I know of. Its not certain that a “non-sexual” nude wouldn’t land you in the same situation. Just as there is no distinction in the US between consensual sex workers and sex slaves, there is no distinction between a 40 year old pedophile, making child porn, and a “child” distributing pictures of themselves.
Unless, of course, that was supposed to say 18, not 16…
Sadly, Islam isn’t the only source of abject stupidity about this sort of thing, which is funnier than hell, given that the US has bloody random laws about age for sex, if not for nude photos, and its purely the Fed that has a strict, “you need to be at least this arbitrarily tall (i.e. old) to ride.”, law. Its something I personally find just flat nuts, even without 13 year olds landing on sex offender lists, because of that sort of idiot BS. And, even more so, since some dipshits, Herman Cain maybe?, among others, seem to lack the social maturity to be honest, never mind rational, about relationships, while “legally” adults (though, actually I have a cousin that would be an even better example, who is gay, but with a woman, because she happens to have more money than the guy he was sleeping with on the side…). Not that it would surprise me to see a Republican caught doing the same thing, its just not something Cain has been accused of, ‘yet’. lol
I don’t know why you raise the age issue. Elmahdy is 20 years old…
I suspect it was raised because the post says 16+ but in parts of the US 16/17yr olds baring all can get themselves prosecuted under ill conceived child pornography laws.
Thanks for telling me; will revise the age.
Strictly speaking, its not just “parts”. State laws allow for consensual ‘sex’ as young as 12, in at least “one” state, in theory, or did. Most still have looser rules on the books, but but the “federal” law is far stricter, setting everything at 18. Photographs are a bit sketchier. In most cases those would automatically fall under porn. So even if you could get by with it on the state level, someone looking to good press, for his/her right wing political career, or some overzealous federal officer, could nail you anyway.
Now, if it can be presented as from nudist colonies, or as art, it *can* be allowed, but you end up skating on thin ice, especially if the photos are intended for “outside” the community, or some pinhead gets “offended” by them, and calls them porn. This doesn’t mean that some idiot won’t, at some point, turn around and sue someone for having otherwise “legal” pictures of their kids, at such a community, though, if the right idiot found out about them.
Personally, I think our country needs to get its head out of its collecting backside over this sort of stuff, but the same people that pass these sorts of draconian laws refuse to even accept that other countries have better policies. Generally, they, all too often, seem to think that the only thing wrong with some of the laws in the middle east is that they don’t have stars and stripes, and haven’t been personally signed by Jesus. If they where, some of them would make Aliaa feel right at home (in the sexist, racist, hypocrisy, and maybe even violent, sense).
I am not an attorney, you are not my client, this is not legal advice. This area of law is quite volatile.
I work as an expert witness in child pornography cases in the USA.
The laws regarding nude images of people under the age of 18 is clear–and fuzzy.
First the basic requirements:
You must knowingly possess the image.
The portrayed person(s) must be underage.
The image must be ‘sexual’ in nature
For prosecution genitalia are generally looked for as are ‘sexy’ poses and portray of sex acts.
The media of the image is not a consideration–if you find a potato chip with a hole that fits the definition, a cloud in the sky, an ink blot, whatever. It is irrelevant.
In general, prosecutors don’t base cases upon images which don’t clearly fit the criteria–believe it or not, they hate to waste time and money on iffy cases of any sort…they generally like to have very clear images and multiple images. Many cases are based upon a selected few images from hundreds.
If the Feds have already had a court determine that an image is child pornography, it will be in their database–these are great for prosecution, as it immediately settles any question about the image type–leaving possession issues for the court. (Of course, a jury isn’t bound to do anything but decide the case–guilty/not guilty–HOW the jury makes this decision is entirely up to them, they are required neither to explain nor justify their decision to anyone.
A jury can, if it wishes, decide that a person is innocent despite proof of pornographic nature, and dispute obvious knowledge of possession (say pictures of your girlfriend on your phone or wherever.)
This may happen some day–juries don’t like to convict kids of these crimes under this kind of circumstance.
At the moment, nobody involved wants to be seen to be ‘soft’ on kiddie porn–even restrictions on evidence handling are much stricter than a few years ago.
“Sympathetic’ jurors is almost an oxymoron.
Being charged is sufficient to mess up your ,life, conviction carries a minimum prison term,
Juries are told that they should ‘believe the police and believe the suspect ONLY when the testimony is against their own interest’ (’cause we all know that all cops are honest!)
They cannot be told, in most courts, that they can decide the case any way they choose–even totally ignoring all evidence and testimony. They are often told that their only duty is to determine whether the law was broken. Untrue.
Search “jury nullification history”
Unless the apparent age of the person portrayed is under 16, usually you’re safe…but if you show genitalia, it’s possible you’ll be prosecuted.
Medical experts & the courts determine what that age is…if the image is in the database as fitting the criteria, the court accepts that as a given fact, not subject to argument (though such actions technically violate your trial rights–oh, wait, the 2012 Defense Authorization Act says that no one HAS any rights at all!)
Like all ‘morality laws’ based upon the general public’s preferences, this law is unconstitutional, although the creator of a photograph can be prosecuted because the child hasn’t the illegal right to agree.
All of this is subject to change based on public and government whim–no one making laws, ans few adjudicators, bother themselves with examining laws against the constitution.
Since neither those who write the law nor those who sign things into law nor those who enforce the law are required to actually know anything about the constitution (which they are all sworn to “preserve and protect.” There’s a lot of ‘law’ that really isn’t law because enforcing it would be illegal under the constitution.
Of course, none of this stops injustices from happening.
Oddly enough ‘pedophilia’ is more common than most people would like to think, although the number who actually have sex with under-age people is a fraction of that. Remember too that while the age of consent in most US at sates (at the moment) is 17, several are 16, and under normal circumstances, a few go to 14.
Federal law prohibits citizens from having sex ANYWHERE with persons under 14…though I;m still not certain how you enforce that legally, since when traveling overseas our government (on the passport) simply asked the other nation to “treat this person as they would one of their own citizens”–something you should think about before traveling!
A picture, full frontal, of your 3 yo playing in the tube, probably won’t get prosecuted, but might get you hassled in some jurisdictions.
A picture of a 12 yo standing in any “provocative” pose or touching their genitalia or simulating (or having) sexual content, will undoubtedly get you investigated, and may land you a jail sentence.
This area of law is quite contentious at this time. There was a case against a “slimy” kid’s photographer holding that though clothed, his pictures of young models in ‘provocative’ poses in portfolios (for modeling jobs” were pornographic. The vast majority of artists and photographers agree that his photos, while ‘slimy and disgusting’ were not pornographic.
This is part of the whole controversy of child ‘beauty’ contests.
The best advice is to stay out of iffy situations–since the actions of the legal system and local community are unpredictable.
I am not an attorney, you are not my client, this is not legal advice. This area of law is quite volatile.