LONDON: Eight Afghan journalists who worked for the BBC broadcaster won a legal challenge on Monday against Britain’s refusal to relocate them from Afghanistan, which they said put them at high risk of being killed by the Taliban rulers.
The journalists’ lawyers told London’s High Court in December that the government had “betrayed the debt of gratitude” owed to them by refusing to relocate them after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.
Representatives for the government had argued that none of the eight were eligible for relocation under its Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP) program.
David Blundell, a lawyer for the Ministry of Defense, said the Taliban’s perception that the BBC is a part of the British government was irrelevant.
But Judge Peter Lane said in a written ruling that the perception was “clearly relevant” to the risks the journalists faced.
The decision on whether to relocate the eight will now have to be taken again, which their lawyers said would have be done within three weeks.
The journalists were embedded with military personnel and worked on British government-funded projects, the lawyers said.
As part of their work, they spoke out against the Taliban and exposed corruption and abuse, resulting in numerous threats and attacks by Taliban fighters, the lawyers added.
Erin Alcock, who represented the journalists, said her clients have been “living in fear for over 18 months.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense said the department does not comment in detail on specific legal cases, but was considering potential next steps.
Afghan journalists win case against UK government over relocation
https://arab.news/r4v4f
Afghan journalists win case against UK government over relocation
- Government representatives had argued that none of the eight were eligible for relocation under Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy program
To infinity and beyond: Grendizer’s 50 years of inspiring Arabs
- 50 years after its creation, the Grendizer anime series continues to capture Arab imagination
- Arab News Japan speaks to creator Go Nagai, Middle Eastern fans and retells the story behind the UFO Robot tasked with protecting our planet
LONDON: Few cultural imports have crossed borders as unexpectedly, or as powerfully, as Grendizer, the Japanese giant robot that half a century ago became a childhood hero across the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia.
Created in Japan in the mid-1970s by manga artist Go Nagai, Grendizer was part of the “mecha” tradition of giant robots. The genre was shaped by Japan’s experience during the Second World War, and explored themes of invasion, resistance and loss through the medium of science fiction.
But while the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East.
The anime “UFO Robot Grendizer” arrived on television in the region in 1979, dubbed into Arabic and initially broadcast in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The story it told of the heroic Duke Fleed, a displaced prince whose planet had been destroyed by alien invaders, struck a chord with children growing up amid regional conflict and occupation by Israel.
Its themes of defending one’s homeland, standing up to aggression and protecting the innocent were painfully relevant in the region, transforming the series from mere entertainment into a kind of emotional refuge.
Much of the show’s impact came from its successful Arabization. The powerful Arabic dubbing and emotionally charged voice-acting, especially by Lebanese actor Jihad El-Atrash as Duke Fleed, lent the show a moral gravity unmatched by other cartoons of the era.
The theme song for the series, performed by Sami Clark, became an anthem that the Lebanese singer continued to perform at concerts and festivals right up until his death in 2022.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. For many, it was not only their first exposure to anime, it also delivered lessons on values such as justice and honor.
Grendizer was so influential in the region that it became the subject of scholarly research, which in addition to recognizing the ways in which the plight of the show’s characters resonated with the audience in the Middle East, also linked the show’s popularity to generational memories of displacement, particularly the Palestinian Nakba.
Half a century later, “Grendizer” remains culturally alive and relevant in the region. In Saudi Arabia, which embraced the original version of the show wholeheartedly, Manga Productions is now introducing a new generation of fans to a modernized version of the character, through a video game, The Feast of The Wolves, which is available in Arabic and eight other languages on platforms including PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and a new Arabic-language anime series, “Grendizer U,” which was broadcast last year.
Fifty years after the debut of the show, “Grendizer” is back — although to a generation of fans of the original series, their shelves still full of merchandise and memorabilia, it never really went away.
