I write this post in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.The news has come as a huge shock to almost anyone who had even the slightest knowledge of Pakistan's politics.The repercussions of her death shall be felt far and wide.And by saying that I only mean that Bhutto in death has done what she could only dream about doing in her lifetime.
In the midst of absolute confusion,bloodshed,blasts etc,democracy suddenly has lost the centrestage again! In all likelihood,Musharraf will become the head of the state with Army playing a major role and America backing him.It is such a hopeless condition for the people of Pakistan that they have no role to play in choosing a leader who should govern them.
And I believe that almost everyone is responsible for this in parts.America,for playing a major role in Pakistan's politics without actually thinking about their(Pakistan's) real interests.The successive Governments in Pakistan whose sole motive was to disturb Kashmir.The press and Media that could never overcome the pressures of the Government.And,the people of Pakistan themselves,who,in all these 60 years of Independence,could never stand up for their rights.
All these years while Pakistan was busy spreading violence and funding terror in its neighbourhood,conditions kept on worsening for its own people.With such a troubled history of politics,things look bleaker than ever before.With Bhutto gone and Nawaz Sharif barred from contesting the elections,it's Musharraf and his men all the way!
Well,it's about time,people of Pakistan woke up and fought for their rights.
And,I,as their neighbour could only feel saddened by the current state of affairs and feel grateful at the same time that at least in India,we have a democracy,a highly watchful media and a "more aware than not" population!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tharoor Speaks!
This article by Shashi Tharoor appeared in The Hindu on December 9.I must admit that I am a bit partial towards him,but that should not stop you from appreciating this article.For long I had been thinking about posting something women-oriented but could not decide on what to write [So,many things,you know!!] and then read it in the Magazine section of Hindu.Needless to say,i loved it!Right words and well written,Mr. Tharoor!! :)
Post-modern malls and medieval mind-sets
In spite of prosperity and education, violence against women continues to thrive in our midst.
I write these words two Sundays before they are to be published, on what is known (but infrequently noticed) as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which falls on November 25 every year, but tends to receive less pres s attention than World Anti-Obesity Day the next day. When this column appears, only two days will remain of a worldwide campaign for “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence”, an international campaign organised by women’s NGOs since 1991. But it doesn’t really matter how many days of activism remain — two days will not be enough, nor will 365. It is one of the most shameful aspects of human civilisation that we have entered the 21st century having failed to end a practice that has already blighted the other 20 — the practice of using violence against women.
And the practice remains widespread. Men are, of course, physically stronger than women, so the one thing they can usually do is to impose themselves violently on the weaker sex. Wife-beating may not be as common as it used to be, but it persists nonetheless: many a bruise that a woman, out of pride, tries to pass off as the result of a household accident has in fact been caused by a man. But that is not the only form of violence perpetrated against women: the widespread use of female genital mutilation, especially in conservative Islamic communities in Africa, with young girls forced by a combination of culture and coercion into having their clitoris amputated, often with lasting pain as a result, is another example.
Widely prevalent
Worse still is the persistence, in parts of Latin America and much of the Islamic world, of what is euphemistically called “honour killing”. This is the ultimate retribution imposed by men on women whose actions are deemed to have besmirched the family’s honour — the exaction of capital punishment, often for “crimes” like choosing to marry a man from another community. Not a single year has gone by in our century without several reports of such killings, and God knows how many unreported ones. Strikingly, honour killings have even occurred this year in England and Italy, committed by Muslim immigrants from Pakistan and Turkey, respectively, who killed their own daughters and sisters for having too readily adopted the sexual mores of the countries into which their parents had chosen to immigrate.
But this does not mean that Indians, including non-Muslims, have anything to be complacent about. We may not conduct forced amputations of clitorises in our country, but in parts of India we still worship women who have, often under intolerable pressure, cast themselves on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands. We have the uniquely Indian practice of burning brides whose parents have not paid as much dowry as expected. And our more prosperous northern States have so extensively developed the practice of aborting female foetuses, once identified in the womb, that we have an odd statistical disparity in both Punjab and Haryana, of more than 11 men for every 10 women. The missing women are those who have faced the ultimate act of gender violence — pre-emptive murder for the mere fact of having been conceived female.
No exceptions
If Punjab and Haryana demonstrate that prosperity is no guarantor of enlightenment — that it is possible for a medieval mindset to flourish amidst post-modern shopping malls — Kerala, sadly, has begun to prove that even education does not necessarily breed decency toward women. I write this with deep regret, having often, in these columns, celebrated the empowerment of Kerala’s women (and been put right on the subject by Keralite women who know better.) But it is now widely reported that violence against women is rising in Kerala — some figures show a 300 per cent increase. Kerala’s women are educated, and so are their men, but women still do not escape the iron law of social conformism, and many have driven up the State’s suicide rates to record levels. The large number of Keralite men working in West Asia, separated from their families and imbibing from their new surroundings a traditionalist attitude towards women, does not help; they often return home unprepared to deal with the expectations of the educated women they have left behind, and when clashes occur, the resort to violence is all too common. If violence against women is on the rise in educated Kerala, then we have a national problem that policy-makers cannot afford to ignore. Every time a woman is the victim of violence anywhere in our country, each Indian is diminished.
Raising awareness
What can we do about it? Talking about it in The Hindu is a start, but hardly enough. Awareness of the problem must be increased, especially amongst those who don’t read liberal and enlightened newspapers and may not even be conscious that they have the right to reject and resist violence. Education could be part of the answer, but (as Kerala has shown) education isn’t enough — and in places like Bihar, where only 27 per cent of women are literate, education won’t reach enough people. What is needed is social change, and that comes painfully slowly in our country. A national campaign to shame every man who assaults a woman might be one way — of using the mass media to change the masses. There’s a challenge to the more public-spirited of our PR and advertising gurus. Are they man enough to take it on?
Post-modern malls and medieval mind-sets
In spite of prosperity and education, violence against women continues to thrive in our midst.
I write these words two Sundays before they are to be published, on what is known (but infrequently noticed) as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which falls on November 25 every year, but tends to receive less pres s attention than World Anti-Obesity Day the next day. When this column appears, only two days will remain of a worldwide campaign for “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence”, an international campaign organised by women’s NGOs since 1991. But it doesn’t really matter how many days of activism remain — two days will not be enough, nor will 365. It is one of the most shameful aspects of human civilisation that we have entered the 21st century having failed to end a practice that has already blighted the other 20 — the practice of using violence against women.
And the practice remains widespread. Men are, of course, physically stronger than women, so the one thing they can usually do is to impose themselves violently on the weaker sex. Wife-beating may not be as common as it used to be, but it persists nonetheless: many a bruise that a woman, out of pride, tries to pass off as the result of a household accident has in fact been caused by a man. But that is not the only form of violence perpetrated against women: the widespread use of female genital mutilation, especially in conservative Islamic communities in Africa, with young girls forced by a combination of culture and coercion into having their clitoris amputated, often with lasting pain as a result, is another example.
Widely prevalent
Worse still is the persistence, in parts of Latin America and much of the Islamic world, of what is euphemistically called “honour killing”. This is the ultimate retribution imposed by men on women whose actions are deemed to have besmirched the family’s honour — the exaction of capital punishment, often for “crimes” like choosing to marry a man from another community. Not a single year has gone by in our century without several reports of such killings, and God knows how many unreported ones. Strikingly, honour killings have even occurred this year in England and Italy, committed by Muslim immigrants from Pakistan and Turkey, respectively, who killed their own daughters and sisters for having too readily adopted the sexual mores of the countries into which their parents had chosen to immigrate.
But this does not mean that Indians, including non-Muslims, have anything to be complacent about. We may not conduct forced amputations of clitorises in our country, but in parts of India we still worship women who have, often under intolerable pressure, cast themselves on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands. We have the uniquely Indian practice of burning brides whose parents have not paid as much dowry as expected. And our more prosperous northern States have so extensively developed the practice of aborting female foetuses, once identified in the womb, that we have an odd statistical disparity in both Punjab and Haryana, of more than 11 men for every 10 women. The missing women are those who have faced the ultimate act of gender violence — pre-emptive murder for the mere fact of having been conceived female.
No exceptions
If Punjab and Haryana demonstrate that prosperity is no guarantor of enlightenment — that it is possible for a medieval mindset to flourish amidst post-modern shopping malls — Kerala, sadly, has begun to prove that even education does not necessarily breed decency toward women. I write this with deep regret, having often, in these columns, celebrated the empowerment of Kerala’s women (and been put right on the subject by Keralite women who know better.) But it is now widely reported that violence against women is rising in Kerala — some figures show a 300 per cent increase. Kerala’s women are educated, and so are their men, but women still do not escape the iron law of social conformism, and many have driven up the State’s suicide rates to record levels. The large number of Keralite men working in West Asia, separated from their families and imbibing from their new surroundings a traditionalist attitude towards women, does not help; they often return home unprepared to deal with the expectations of the educated women they have left behind, and when clashes occur, the resort to violence is all too common. If violence against women is on the rise in educated Kerala, then we have a national problem that policy-makers cannot afford to ignore. Every time a woman is the victim of violence anywhere in our country, each Indian is diminished.
Raising awareness
What can we do about it? Talking about it in The Hindu is a start, but hardly enough. Awareness of the problem must be increased, especially amongst those who don’t read liberal and enlightened newspapers and may not even be conscious that they have the right to reject and resist violence. Education could be part of the answer, but (as Kerala has shown) education isn’t enough — and in places like Bihar, where only 27 per cent of women are literate, education won’t reach enough people. What is needed is social change, and that comes painfully slowly in our country. A national campaign to shame every man who assaults a woman might be one way — of using the mass media to change the masses. There’s a challenge to the more public-spirited of our PR and advertising gurus. Are they man enough to take it on?
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The Wall that Stands Tall
I remember an article I had read in India Today some years earlier when the Indian Cricket team had won a test match in and against Australia.The architect of that phenomenal win was Rahul Dravid,who had almost single handedly snatched a victory from the mighty Australian jaws.And like all of us at that time,the author was also clearly mesmerised by Dravid when he had called him an Australian.I cant exactly quote unquote but the gist was that the determination,the grit and the character Dravid shows on the field could,in no way,be Indian.He had to be an Aussie!
Well,I would like to rephrase the above content and say that Dravid does not deserve to be an Indian.I rather wish he were an Aussie!At least,he would have got what was his due!For a man who has done almost everything in his might,well,this was certainly no way to treat him.But,I don't want to get into that never ending debate of whether Dravid is now "fit" enough to remain in the team.He has answered it for himself today by getting that knock of 214 against Mumbai in Ranji Trophy.
All I would like to say is,for me,he is one man who commands a lot of respect,not only because of his dedication for the game but also for the way he leads his personal life.Perhaps,some day,we'll get over the partial amnesia we're suffering from and remember everything this man has done for our team and maybe even think about paying him back.
I just pray that the redemption from the illness does not come too late!
Well,I would like to rephrase the above content and say that Dravid does not deserve to be an Indian.I rather wish he were an Aussie!At least,he would have got what was his due!For a man who has done almost everything in his might,well,this was certainly no way to treat him.But,I don't want to get into that never ending debate of whether Dravid is now "fit" enough to remain in the team.He has answered it for himself today by getting that knock of 214 against Mumbai in Ranji Trophy.
All I would like to say is,for me,he is one man who commands a lot of respect,not only because of his dedication for the game but also for the way he leads his personal life.Perhaps,some day,we'll get over the partial amnesia we're suffering from and remember everything this man has done for our team and maybe even think about paying him back.
I just pray that the redemption from the illness does not come too late!
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