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Dear friends and colleagues,

after a long time of online screening, the time has come: Next week our Screening Religion series will be back in the cinema on the big screen of Cinémathèque Leipzig at nato. Apart from that, things are a bit quieter with our colleagues at the moment as well. For all of you who are in Leipzig, we have two event recommendations.

Enjoy and have a good week!

Lucy

Screening Religion back on the Big Screen: “Holy Right” on 11 August

We kick off our return to the big screen with "Holy Rights" (IND 2020 by Farha Khatun). The documentary deals with the politically highly sensitive and in India extremely controversial issue of Muslim family law, especially the practice of triple talaq.

Safia, a deeply religious Muslim woman from Bhopal in central India, is convinced that the conservative interpretation of Sharia law by male jurists and judges restrains Muslim women from social equality and justice. So she joins a programme that trains women to become Qazis – Muslim clerics who interpret Muslim law and are traditionally male. Other women join Safia and fight with her against the arbitrary nature of triple talaq, the immediate divorce declared unilaterally by the man.

Over a period of four years, the film accompanies the growing emancipatory movement against triple talaq. In the tense atmonsphere of Hindu nationalism, the protection of religious minorities and increasing anti-Muslim protests in India, various political forces try to hijack the movement for their own agenda.

The film will be shown in Urdu with English subs.

After the film there will be a discussion with our Senior Research Fellow Professor Anindita Chakrabarti (IIT Kanpur, India).

Date: 11 August | 7 p.m. 
Venue: Cinémathèque Leipzig at nato (Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 46)

Recommendation: Special Exhibition “Cultural Affairs. Art Without Borders” at the GRASSI Museum

Exchange between cultures has always had an impact on their arts, their crafts, and their design. Just as people travel and migrate, objects adapt to new environments and contexts. This is reflected in their design: along with works of art, their forms, types of ornamentation, and techniques were and are subject to a transformation that arises from the experience of travel and migration.

Exhibited here are global networks and interpretations of techniques and objects, as well as their developments, aesthetics, and messages that have changed through travel. In this time of cultural pluralism and heterogeneity, the focus on the present as well as the future underlines that collaborative, international, and intercultural projects are becoming ever more significant.

Cultural Affairs presents as "traveling objects" mainly jeweller , fashion and textile as well as graphic and industrial design by contemporary young designers and artists. These are characterized by an often global or transcultural origin and biography.

The exhibition will be on display until 3 October.

Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts

Tonight: Open Air “Leipziger Hörspielsommer” at GRASSI

The “Leipziger Hörspielsommer” is the biggest festival for audio drama in Germany. The festival already took place in July and the GRASSI Museum plays the competition winning pieces every Wednesday throughout August. Tonight it starts with the play "Der Absprung" (in German) by Paul Plamper:

An East German small town called 'Leerstadt'. Refugees arrived in the shrinking town in 2015. Conflicts over immigration escalate when a far-right demagogue taps into the anger and fears of the townspeople and calls for a boycott of the town' s theater. There, the multinational theater ensemble is rehearsing a controversial performance with a lead actor from Cameroon. The city is caught up in a media frenzy about accusations of racism and prejudice against the East when members of the theater announce they are leaving Leerstadt.

Date: 04 August | 6 p.m.
Venue: Inner courtyard of GRASSI

If you have any content that you think suits the purpose of the weekly, please feel free to send it to us at multiple-secularities@uni-leipzig.de.

Magnus had explicitly requested a dad joke from Lucy for this weekly, but actually it's not appropriate to make "dad jokes" if you're not a father.
It's a faux pa.