PALATINATE | Thursday 25th November 2021
7
News
Durham University Islamic Society University museums hold over 700 objects charity week events raises £300 made of human remains and movie nights for female students. The week culminated with a day long bake sale and a ui night held in the tudents nion building. urham niversity slamic This term s charity week ociety held its first charity comes following a successful week of the year this month, campaign in pril and ay last hosting a range of activities for year which saw the society its members including a ui provide 1700 free Iftar meals night and football match. during amadan. The events, held between eflecting on the 8th and 12th November recent events, the raised an estimated “everyone society s harities £300, although was having fficer ulsom organisers are yet ddin hailed the to finish counting fun and they week as an overall donations. wanted more success. he told As in previous events like Palatinate that years, the money “the people that raised by the these” attended the charity ociety s charity week events actually week will be donated to en oyed it, as could ust tell slamic elief, a charity that because everyone was having provides disaster relief and runs fun and they wanted more development schemes in local events like these”. communities. ddin stated that it was vents included a crucial to host a charity week tournament, a football match, this term as “all the other and a table tennis night for male niversities had already started students, and henna, games
Waseem Mohamed e s re orter
to do it, so we needed to do it as our first priority”. She noted that it was especially important given that “most slamic charity organisations get their money during amadan...so getting money at the beginning of winter will benefit them”. In addition to raising money, the week also provided an opportunity to educate people on the practices and beliefs of slam. ddin recalled that during the ui night, “some people didn t know the basics like how many amaat prayers there are, so people got to know more [about Islam] as well as have fun”. ddin also stressed that she planned the charity week so it was carried out in an slamic compliant or alal manner this year, explaining that “the money is going to charity so it has to be alal money, so that s why decided to keep everything in an slamic way, so the time people are giving does not go to waste”.
From Paris with love
Florence Bignell
t s fair to say that over the last ten weeks aris has really lived up to its reputation as being one of the world s most beautiful capital cities. eing in a city absolutely brimming with culture, from the art museums down to the book stalls perching on the banks on the eine, is inspiring to say the least and a welcome break from the bubble like nature that urham and my hometown of arpenden can often exude. am lucky enough to live in the centre of aris and therefore on my daily walk between university in the atin uarter and my apartment in the th arrondissement, find myself immersed amongst the caf s which inspired intellectual conversations amongst artists and authors alongside the daily comings and goings of rench arliamentary workers at the nat. fter, what feels like having been teleported into the hotspot of arisian politics and culture, it s fair to say that, so far, Paris has lived up to every single stereotype. The smell of freshly baked croissants lingers in the air, a copy of amus s tranger can be found in a bookshop almost every street corner and the rench desire to protest every single political decision are just a few stereotypes that I have e perienced daily. This concept of physical
protests seems almost alien to us polite rits but is an idea which is central to the rench psyche. nstead of ust accepting these protests as a possible metro disruption or something fun to listen to on my walk home, decided to attend a protest to fully wrap my head around this concept of free speech which don t believe e ists in the . On Sunday 20th November, I attended the #NousToutes arisian protest which formed part of the network of protests across rance fighting against se ual violence and for e uality. To say that I was overwhelmed upon arrival would be an understatement. Stepping out of the metro station, lace de la publi ue was filled with a sea of purple signs being held up by men and women aging from two to 0 years old with these boots are made for walkin blasting on speakers all around me. espite
feeling completely alien as a rit in the middle of a rench protest, felt a camaraderie with the strangers around me which had never felt before in this often cold and e clusive city. By stepping outside of my comfort one and immersing myself in this cultural and historical event, was shown a new side to this city which has often felt unwelcoming over the last ten weeks; can t count how many times ve been on the receiving end of the derogatory h vous tes rasmus comment after struggling with my rench when talking with a professor. owever, it feels as if peace has been slightly restored in my odd ramus arisian ritish bubble and the smell of freshly baked croissants has returned whenever step outside my flat as I have witnessed this more inclusive, empowering, and defiant side to aris.
a hryn E inson Investigations Editor round 0 ob ects in the urham niversity useums service are comprised wholly or partly of human remains, a freedom of information request has found. Out of the three museums owned and operated by the university, both the Oriental useum and rchaeology useum have ob ects consisting of human remains within their collections. The archaeology museum has appro imately 2 pieces of human remains including skulls, ribs and teeth. The Oriental Museum is home to the niversity s only whole human bodies, with two adult mummies and the mummy of a child permanently on display in the museum s ancient gyptian gallery. There is some debate about whether the figure should include artifacts made with human hair, which it currently does not, and also about whether the figure should incorporate canopic ars containing possible staining from human organs, which it currently does. There are also some ob ects where it is uncertain whether or not human remains form part of an artifact. The bulk of the niversity s collections are held by the rcheology useum. This includes unworked bone fragments from the Iron age. These were discovered in Bishop Middleton, County urham in 1 2. The archeology museum also holds 1 partial human remains
which were found in the cellar of bbey ottage on Dun Cow Lane in the 1 0s. This includes a “box of human bone, including skulls” from an unknown time period as well as a “quantity of human bone found in a fertiliser sack in the cellar of bbey ottage”. Abbey Cottage is now home to the niversity s Theology and eligious tudies department. On display in the Oriental Museum is a 1 th century Buddhist human skull cup from the ing period. It is decorated with coral and fake turquoise. A l s o o w n e d by the Oriental Museum is a Tibetan chess set made from 2 pieces of human b o n e s , which have been repurposed from a Tibetan sacred apron set. There are five ob ects made partially from human hair in the riental useum s collection which are not included in the 0 figure. This includes 1 th and 20th century weapons from the ban and ayak tribes in orneo. t is not uncommon for university museums to hold collections of human remains. ecently the itt ivers Museum in Oxford removed its collection of human shrunken heads from display, with Dan icks, the curator of the itt ivers commenting that the display of human remains is an example of something “really unacceptable”. n the “ ecolonising urham” manifesto, the Oriental Museum, however is not criti ued for its displays or collections of human remains. nstead it is criticised for its links to the ulbenkian oundation, which the manifesto argues allows the museum to benefit from the e ploitation of the Middle East by founder alouste ulbenkian in the 1 th and 20th centuries.
(Durham University)
