“Tunisian Revolt Topples Midtown Cultural Center - New York Times” plus 1 more |
| Tunisian Revolt Topples Midtown Cultural Center - New York Times Posted:  Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Naima Remadi Nour, the director of the Tunisian Cultural and Information Center, says it is being closed for political reasons. Like many Tunisians living abroad, Naima Remadi Nour said she was overjoyed by the popular revolt in January that led to the ouster of the country's authoritarian president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. It was just the sort of democratic flowering that she had been hoping for, she said, particularly in her role as director of the Tunisian Cultural and Information Center, which she founded in Manhattan in 2007 and operated with the financial support of the Tunisian government. But the shock waves of the revolution have reached the Midtown doorstep of Mrs. Nour, who says she has become a victim of the very upheaval that she applauded. Last Monday, Mohamed Salah Tekaya, Tunisia's ambassador to Washington, called to tell her that the government was shutting down her organization in one week. He did not provide an explanation, Mrs. Nour recalled, but she said she knew the reason all the same. "Politics!" she exclaimed. "They want to sacrifice sheep, like in Eid," said Mrs. Nour, 58, referring to the Muslim religious holiday marked by the ritual slaughter of livestock. "They want to kill the smallest sheep, like me." A spokeswoman at the Tunisian Embassy said the decision to close the center had come from the interim government in Tunis, but she said embassy officials were in the dark about the reason. "I spoke with Mr. Ambassador and he said, 'We don't have any further information concerning this decision,' " the spokeswoman, Chahrazed Rezgui, said. To Mrs. Nour's mind, the rationale is simple: The new administration in Tunis is trying to wipe out all vestiges of the old one. But in an interview, Mrs. Nour, vacillating between cheerful recollections and sobs over her current plight, sought to put distance between herself and Mr. Ben Ali's toppled regime. "I can't say I'm a member of any political party," she said, sitting in the organization's Madison Avenue office, which is decorated with Tunisian art and furniture. "I say I'm just Tunisian." She bounded over to a wall decorated with photographs from an international cultural parade in New York last June, an event she organized, and asked rhetorically whether Mr. Ben Ali appeared in any of the photos. (He did not.) "We are promoting the country," she said. "We are not promoting the president." A former sports medicine specialist and fashion consultant, Mrs. Nour said she proposed the idea for the cultural center in a letter to Mr. Ben Ali in 2004. At the time, she said, there were no prominent organizations in the United States that promoted Tunisian tourism and culture. She opened the center in a former medical office above a bagel shop on the corner of East 33rd Street. The center, she said, has helped to promote Tunisian culture and American-Tunisian relations through art shows, school presentations, conventions and language classes, among other activities. It has survived on an annual budget of $168,000, financed entirely by the Tunisian government, that includes the office's rent and salaries for her and an assistant. While it is difficult to measure the organization's impact or reach, Ali Khemili, the founder of another Tunisian-American cultural organization, scoffed at Mrs. Nour's insistence that her office was independent, calling it "a propaganda center" for Mr. Ben Ali's regime. "I'm sorry if you sense the emotions as we talk, but it was really a symbol of the corruption of the regime," said Mr. Khemili, a pharmacist in Clifton Park, N.Y., and executive director of the Tunisian Community Center, a 12-year-old online federation of Tunisian groups around the United States. Since the ouster of Mr. Ben Ali, anonymous callers have left threatening telephone messages for Mrs. Nour, calling her a stooge of the old regime. She is not wilting under these pressures; last week, she began circulating an e-mail petition in support of the center, and she has been trying to negotiate a reprieve with the ambassador, who she said has since extended the deadline but has not set a date for the center's closing. "This was my dream," she said. "I love very much my country, I love very much America. That's why I wanted to be here." Asked what she planned to do should her efforts fail, Mrs. Nour opened her eyes wide and stiffened. "They can't do it. Sorry," she said. "They'll have to walk on my dead body." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Posted: Culture is a form of identity. "When immigrants or foreigners move to America, they try to maintain the solidarity of their original culture," said Nicholas Honerkamp, an anthropology and sociology professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "This culture is then passed down to their children." Some first-generation American teens experience a culture clash between their home and school lives. "When I'm out at school I can be laid-back and relaxed, but when I come home I have to switch modes," said Ann Maria Pham, a Vietnamese 10th-grader at Notre Dame High School. "When I get home, I have to become mature and serious." Christina Guy, 17, compared this living style to juggling two worlds. "Each culture is completely different," said Christina, a Korean 11th-grader at Heritage High School. "They are nothing alike." Both worlds have different expectations. Each culture opened up a new perspective. Ann and Christina said school was the key to learning about American culture. Success, including good grades, are expected of them from their parents. Ann said she is expected to make A's and B's. Christina said she began learning multiplication before going to school. Christina is expected to complete her schoolwork and housework, without being told, before she goes anywhere. She said she sees other girls go out and sleep over at other friends' houses, but she is not permitted to do so. "My parents do not want me going out with my friends," she said. "When I go anywhere, my parents must know who I'm going with, if any boys are going and if any adults are going to be there. They must know who they are before they let me go." At home, Christina is expected to bow when addressing an elder or authority figure. "I was always taught to respect and appreciate others," she said, "especially my elders." Ann and Christina had to learn how to live a strict lifestyle, but both said it made them mature. "My life is very different from other teenagers," Ann said. "My parents are strict, and I have many responsibilities and chores." "I can't be like other girls." Christina said. "I have more to think about, my future, my education, balancing both cultures and keeping my traditions."
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