The Story of Kainat Soomro

In 2007, Kainat Soomroo says she was walking home from school in her hometown of Mehar, Sindh. She went into a store to buy a toy for her niece. While looking around in the store, someone covered her mouth with a handkerchief. She fainted.

Kainat claims she was kidnapped and raped by four men over the next three days. After the third day, she escaped back to her family. Her father tried in vain to report the matter to the police. She was declared an outcaste by the local jirga (council). Her family was told to redeem its honour by killing her.

Instead, her parents defied the jirga and fled with Kainat and the rest of the family to Karachi . There they enlisted the help of a lawyer and of the NGO-group War Against Rape (W.A.R) who helped them bring the four men to trial.

The men were acquitted however as there was no evidence corroborating Kainat’s oral testimony. A month later, Kainat’s brother was murdered by unknown assailants. One of the accused rapists, Ahsan Thebo, claims also that Kainat married him during her captivity, though some suspect this was a tactic to avoid criminal responsibility since marital rape is not a crime in Pakistan.

Kainat and her family now live in poverty in Karachi and have suffered repeated threats on their lives including Thebo’s threat to take Kainat back or kill her. Yet Kainat remains undeterred:  ”I want justice, I will not stop until I get justice.”

Her case is currently under appeal.

Written by Randeep Purewall.

http://www.war.org.pk/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/pressroom/press-release-outlawed-in-pakistan/

“Cinema for Change” – Addressing Violence Against Women

The South Asian Film Education Society (S.A.F.E.S.) hosted its first “Cinema for Change” film festival from April 19 to April 21, 2013. The theme: “Addressing Violence Against Women.”

Friday, April 19, 2013

The Guest Filmmaker, Samar Minallah, appeared at the opening night by Skype from Pakistan. Her documentary, “Swara: A Bridge Over Troubled Water,” looked at “swara,” the practice of using unmarried girls as compensation to settle disputes between families.  The practice of “swara” in the film of the same name, typically takes place as follows. One man kills another man and the family of the man who has been killed wants compensation from the murderer. The compensation takes the form of a girl, transferred from the family of the murderer to the family who would otherwise seek revenge. The girl is then expected to live in the “other” family as a daughter-in-law.

The practice of “swara” is well-known in North-West Pakistan and in other tribal communities and stopping it, Minallah admits, can be dangerous. The murderer (whose family pays the girl as compensation) is “let off the hook;” stopping that compensation would mean that the murderer must otherwise pay for his crime which, Minallah notes he will typically go to any lengths to avoid. Although Minallah acknowledges the challenges in fighting “swara,” she has helped bring awareness of the issue to the public and to policymakers through short public service-announcements. She also works to sensitive the police to the problem after the practice was made illegal through legislation passed in 2004. A growing number cases of “swara” moreover are being reported and addressed through public interest-litigation (200 cases were reported in 2011).

Saturday, April 20, 2013

The second day saw the screening of “Common Gender” (2012), a Bangladeshi activist-documentary on the life of the hijra (intersexual) community of Dhaka and the violence underlying the social process of gendering. The two other films were “Afghanistan Unveiled” (2007) and “Provoked” (2006).

The film “Provoked,” is based on the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi woman in the United Kingdom who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her husband in 1989. Her conviction was set aside in 1992, partly through the help of the women’s advocacy and outreach group, Southhall Black Sisters. The judge noted that because of years of  abuse, Kiranjit suffered severe depression and battered women syndrome; her mental responsibility for the act was thus “diminished.” She had also been “provoked,” but was unable to retaliate right away because of her mental state. Her case (R v. Ahluwalia) changed English law, leading to the setting aside of convictions for battered women in 1992 and thereafter.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

In “Saving Face,” we hear the stories of two survivors of acid attacks in Pakistan, Zakia and Rukshana. While highlighting the brutality of the attacks and their affect on the women, we see how the problem is being fought through cooperation between reconstructive surgeons, policymakers, lawyers, the media and NGO’s is key in bringing perpetrators to justice and helping women rebuild their lives.

In “Bol” (2012) Meghna Halder presents a short-film in three parts through masks, puppetry and shadows. Whereas the “The Cyclist” looks at the facelessness of the Indian Muslim woman who died in a bomb blast in Bangalore, “The Rape” looks at how two women went missing in Kashmir and were presumed to have been raped and disposed of by the Indian Army. In “The Mask,” Meghna presents the story of a man who wakes one day to find his face has been stolen. All three films were layered with meanings, teasing one’s interpretations.

While the issue of violence against women is ongoing and oftentimes distressing, I admire the filmmakers’ use of film as a medium for raising social awareness of the problem. In Minallah, we saw an example of the activist film-maker who has continued to make films despite risk to herself. In three films, we saw how individual and community activism can bring about social change such as the passage of law against “swara” and acid-attacks in Pakistan or the precedent-setting case of Kiranjit Ahluwalia in the United Kingdom. While the struggle continues, the SAFES has hopefully played its own part in presenting “cinema for change.”

For a list of all films shown and descriptions, go to: http://southasianfilm.blogspot.ca/

Indian poet Gulzar pulls out of Karachi Literature Festival

KARACHI: Leading Indian poet Gulzar, who won an Oscar for writing song lyrics for the smash hit movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, has pulled out of the Karachi Literary festival at the last minute, organisers said Wednesday.

Syed Ahmed Shah, one of the organisers of the Karachi Literature Festival, confirmed Gulzar had pulled out – just two days before the start of the event.

“We can’t say about the reasons and circumstances that led to his return home without attending the festival,” Shah told AFP.

Indian officials denied Pakistani media reports that they had advised the poet to return to India.

Vishal Bhardwaj, an Indian director traveling with Gulzar, said there was “nothing political” about the withdrawal.

The 76-year-old was simply “emotionally overwhelmed and stressed” after visiting his birthplace, in Pakistan, for the first time in 70 years, Bhardwaj insisted.

But a Pakistani film director, who met Gulzar during his visit, told AFP on condition of anonymity that he left the country “because of some security concerns”.

Gulzar was scheduled to read from his poetry as well as take part in discussion groups and Shah said his absence would disappoint millions of admirers in Pakistan.

“Pakistan had welcomed him with great warmth and zeal two days ago as he is hugely popular as well in our country,” Shah said.

“His arrival was a great confidence building measure between the two neighbours and had boosted morale of the people living across the border for a better future relationship.”

From The Daily Dawn, Karachi
http://dawn.com/2013/02/13/gulzar-pulls-out-of-karachi-literature-festival/

uddari@live.ca
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Uddari-Weblog/333586816691660
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‘Why Pakistan’s writers must attend the Jaipur literature festival’ by Kamila Shamsie and Salil Tripathi

The Guardian
Thursday 24 January 2013

Once again, religious fundamentalists in India are threatening to disrupt the Jaipur literature festival. The festival has grown over the years to be among the world’s largest such gatherings, bringing together writers from all continents, and, more important, showcasing South Asian writing talent, including the rich and diverse universe of regional languages. The festival has not been without controversies. Last year, Salman Rushdie withdrew after he received credible death threats from a Muslim group.

Five writers protested Rushdie’s absence by reading out excerpts fromThe Satanic Verses. Politicians filed lawsuits against the organisers and four of the authors – Jeet Thayil (whose novel, Narcopolis, was shortlisted last year for the Man Booker prize), Ruchir Joshi, Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar – and investigations are ongoing. On the last day of the festival, Muslim fundamentalists refused to let the organisers even telecast a conversation with Rushdie. On 21 January, a few self-described Muslim scholars asked the festival to disinvite the four this year. Of the four, Thayil is the only featured speaker. The organisers have held firm – he should attend.

In parallel, and in a pattern that’s now increasingly, and dismayingly, predictable, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which is India’s main opposition party, has warned Pakistani writers not to participate in this year’s festival. Among those expected are Mohammed Hanif, Nadeem Aslam (see the interview on page 12), Jamil Ahmad, Fehmida Riaz and Musharraf Farooqi. To their credit, the organisers have also refused to buckle under this threat. The BJP’s demand is technically unrelated to the Muslim call, but it is in line with the fundamentalist Hindu aim, to stop all cultural and sporting contacts with Pakistan, because tensions along the “line of control” – the de facto border that separates Kashmir into parts controlled by India and Pakistan – have escalated. In a series of confusing events, both sides have accused the other of violating long-standing agreements by undertaking construction, firing, and beheading soldiers along the border.

Hindu activists succeeded in stopping two talented Pakistani theatre groups from staging plays of the late Saadat Hasan Manto, a Pakistani writer who grew up in pre-partition India and is regarded as one of the most poignant chroniclers of the partition of 1947. Activists also succeeded in getting Indian Hockey League teams to drop Pakistani players they had acquired in the region’s first professionally run hockey league. Now it is the turn of the Pakistani writers to bear the brunt of Hindu wrath.

This is deeply troublesome, given the vitiated state of relations between the neighbours who have fought four wars since independence. The party-wreckers seek to weaken the festival because it has become one of the few intellectual spaces in India where it is possible for Indian and Pakistani writers to interact meaningfully with one another and their readers. Much to the chagrin of the fundamentalists, Pakistani writers are popular in India, and attract a fond following.

Hindu apologists claim they are only reacting to Muslim intransigence, but that is preposterous. Intolerance cuts across all religions (as we have argued in our respective books, Offence: The Muslim Case and Offence: The Hindu Case (Seagull), outlining fundamentalist attacks on freedom of expression). What’s peculiar in the Indian instance is the notion of competitive intolerance, due to which each side tries to outdo the other in demanding restrictions, narrowing the discourse. That’s terrible for India, for Pakistan and for literature.

Over the years, the Jaipur festival has earned the reputation of being an important destination on the global literary map. Any steps politicians and politically inclined groups take to stamp their authority on it diminishes the world. India and Pakistan may have legitimate grievances with each another, but a literary festival, like a stage or a hockey field, is no place to settle them – on the contrary, those spaces exist so that both countries can expand their views of each other beyond the rhetoric of politicians and generals.

Moreover, both Hindu and Muslim groups who want to keep authors away from Jaipur are hurting India’s long tradition of intellectual freedom. It is for the organisers to remain firm in their resolve and stay on the path and stare back at their philistine critics. And it is for the Indian government to ensure that the festival takes place without any restrictions.

• Pakistan-born Kamila Shamsie and India-born Salil Tripathi are co-chairs of English PEN’s Writers at Risk committee.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/24/pakistani-writers-jaipur-literary-festival?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+%28Books%29

uddari@live.ca

UN Recognizes Palestine!!

Hours ago, the UN voted overwhelmingly to recognise Palestine as the world’s 194th state!!! It’s a huge victory for the Palestinian people, for peace, for our community, and people across the world are joining with massive crowds in Palestine to celebrate.

The Palestinian people’s journey to freedom is far from over. But this is a powerful step, and our community played a key role in it. Responding to the vote, Palestine’s Ambassador to Europe said:

“Avaaz and its members across the world have played a crucial role in persuading governments to support the Palestinian people’s bid for a state and for freedom and peace. They have stood with us throughout and their solidarity and support will be remembered and cherished across Palestine.” – Leila Shahid, General Palestinian Delegate to Europe

The US and Israeli governments; beholden to extreme lobby groups (yes, sadly even Obama has given in), threw everything they had at crushing this vote, using financial threats and even threatening to overthrow the Palestinian President if he went ahead. Europe was the key swing vote, and under intense US pressure, leaders were, just two weeks ago, leaning towards not supporting the Palestinian state. Knowing the stakes, our community responded with the speed and democratic force that we needed to win:
Nearly 1.8 million of us signed the petition calling for statehood.

Thousands of us donated to fund public opinion polls across Europe — showing that a whopping 79% of Europeans supported a Palestinian state. Our polls were plastered all over the media, and repeatedly cited in Parliamentary debates in the UK, Spain and France!

We sent tens of thousands of emails, Facebook messages and Tweets to leaders across Europe and made thousands of calls to foreign ministries and heads of state.

We unfurled a giant 4-storey banner outside the EU Commission in Brussels (right) while leaders were meeting inside. Then, we staged another stunt in Madrid. Previously, we had sailed a flotilla of ships past the UN calling for a vote. Our actions made headlines all over Europe.

Avaaz staff and members met with dozens and dozens of government ministers, top advisors, senior journalists, parliamentarians and thought leaders in each of the key countries, in many cases teaming up to win over leaders one by one through advocacy, pressure, parliamentary resolutions and public statements, always drawing on the surge in people power behind this cause.

We reached out to key thought leaders like Stéphane Hessel, a 94-year old survivor of Nazi concentration camps, and Ron Pundak, an Israeli who played a key role in Oslo peace process, to speak out in favour of statehood.

One by one, key European states broke with the US to answer the call of justice and their peoples. In the final vote tally we got just now, only 9 countries out of 193 have voted against! France, Spain, Italy, Sweden and most of Europe has voted for Palestine.

The US and Israel argued first that statehood was dangerous for peace, and then, when they’d lost, that it didn’t matter and the vote was just symbolic. But if it were just symbolic they wouldn’t have done everything to try and stop it. And after years of bad-faith negotiations and Israeli comfort with the status quo as they steadily colonize more Palestinian land, this move shows the US and Israel that if they do not engage in good faith, the Palestinians and the world are prepared to move forward without them. It’s a more balanced basis for real peace talks. And that’s the best alternative to the kind of violence we saw Israel’s government and Hamas offer in Gaza this month.

For decades the Palestinian people have suffered under a stifling Israeli military dictatorship, repressive controls on their travel and work, continual denial of their rights and the constant threat of insecurity and violence. 65 years ago yesterday, the UN recognized the state of Israel, beginning a path to the establishment of a safe home for the Jewish people. Now the Palestinians take a step down the same path, and gain a dignity in the eyes of the international community that they have been denied for a generation. And from that dignity, we can build the foundations of peace.

With hope and joy,

Ricken, Alice, Ari, Wissam, Allison, Sam, Julien, Pascal, Wen, Pedro, Saravanan, Emma, Ben, Dalia, Alexey, Paul, Marie, Aldine, Luca, Jamie, Morgan and the whole Avaaz team.

PS Here are some sources -The Associated Press covers today’s victory, the Guardiancovers our polling two weeks ago, Avaaz’s Daily Briefing provides a map of the vote result, and Haaretz describes Israel’s response.

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Urgent Petition: Stop the Israel/Gaza violence!

Israeli gov., Hamas & Palestinian leaders, USA gov., European leaders: Stop the Israel/Gaza violence!

We, Israeli civilians living along the border with Gaza, civilians in Gaza and citizens from all around the world call to end the violence!
Every few weeks violence across the Gaza/Israel border surges. Israel air raids in Gaza, kill and injure innocent civilians, and rockets fired from Gaza into civilian populations in Israel, cause trauma, chaos and physical harm.

We have lived through this long enough, and will no longer sit by quietly.

We are people on both sides of the border who deserve the right to live normal lives. That’s it!

We call upon the Israeli and Hamas governments to end this violence once and for all. Find the ways to sit down and talk, end the attacks and the siege on Gaza, and stop playing with our lives.

http://www.change.org/petitions/israeli-gov-hamas-palestinian-leaders-usa-gov-european-leaders-stop-the-israel-gaza-violence

By Other Voice

uddari@live.ca

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‘The Jolly Trinity’ by Fauzia Rafique

UN declares November 10 the Malala Day
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First, they brought us
our enemies
from Tora Bora
Afghanistan, the allah-crazed
soldiers to bomb our schools
Now, they bring us
our heroes
hijacking
one
courageous face
of our resistance
Hail angelina!
Resurrect madonna!
Wash dirty dollar
into
charitable currency
Drone fire aggression
into
noble democracy
War-lording action
into
exodus of decency
Our young heroes
into
brokering commodity
US-NATO-UN
the jolly trinity

From 
http://gandholi.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/the-jolly-trinity-by-fauzia-rafique/

facebook.com/fauzia.zohra.rafique
@RafiqueFauzia
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Holier Than Life ‘زندگی سے مقدس تر’ by Fauzia Rafique – Urdu rendition Shamoon Saleem

رمشا مسیح کیس اور بابوسر میں 19 شیعہ مسلمانوں کے قتلِ عام پہ احتجاج کی نظم

زندگی سے مقدس تر

ہاں، آج میں اک مُہر ثبت کرتی ہوں
قرآن کے اک صفحے پر
اس معصوم کے نام کی
جسے کل اسلام کے جانثاروں نے
اس کی توہین کے الزام میں
قتل کیا ہے

میں مہر ثبت کرتی ہوں
ہندوؤں اور ان گنت احمدیوں کی اپنے وطن سے ہجرت کی
اور کل کی خبرمیں سے
ان انیس شیعہ مقتولوں کے ناموں کی
گیارہ برس کی اس بچی کی گرفتاری کی
اور موت تک زدوکوب ہونے والے اس عیسائ جوان کی
جو دونوں ذہن میں کچھ ہلکے تھے، سادہ تھے
مگر دل میں موتیوں سے شفاف تھے

چلو دل کی بات رہنے دو
مگر ذہن کی ہلکی اور سادہ تو میں بھی ہوں

میں اس ورق کو جلاتی نہیں ہوں
میں کتابوں کے ورق جلانے میں یقین نہیں رکھتی
میں اسے پھاڑتی بھی نہیں ہوں
میں بے سود تخریب میں یقین نہیں رکھتی

میں اس پر سیاہ حرفوں میں
مہر ثبت کرتی ہوں، ”قاتل“ کی
ہر اک مقتول کے نام کی سرخی سے

یہ دیکھنے کو کہ
کتاب کے نام پہ کتنے قتلوں کی گنجائش
قاتلوں کی اس کتاب پہ ہے

یا کبھی یہ دیکھ سکنے کو کہ
کس کتاب کے قاتلوں کا جتھہ
بالآخر تمغہ جیتتا ہے
تورات کے نام پر فلسطین میں
قران کے نام پہ پاکستان یاایران میں
انجیل کے نام پر ویتنام میں
یا تریپیتکا کے نام پہ برما میں

ہاں، آج میں اک مہر ثبت کرتی ہوں
قرآن کے اک صفحے پر
اس معصوم کے نام کی
جسے کل اسلام کے جانثاروں نے
اس کی توہین کے الزام میں
قتل کیا ہے

اور اے جاں نثارو
مجھے بےوقوف مت بناؤ
اپنے متشدد مظاہروں سے
کہ تمہیں قتل کا مقدس حق تفویض ہے
کسی بھی کتاب کی تقدیس کی خاطر
کسی بھی نام کی تقدیس کی خاطر
یا کسی بھی شے یاجگہ کی تقدیس کی خاطر

زندگی سے مقدس تر کچھ نہیں ہو سکتا
دل سے مقدس تر کچھ نہیں ہو سکتا
جو دھڑکتا ہے، ایک خوشی بھرے مستقبل کی امید میں
محبت کرتا ہے اور جیتا ہے
ایک پھول، ایک پرندہ،
اک گھاس کا سبز تنکا
وحشیو، تم مجھے اپنے
طیش آور مظاہروں سے بیوقوف مت بناؤ
خود زندگی سے مقدس تر
کچھ نہیں ہوتا

فوزیہ رفیق
ترجمہ: شمعون سلیم

View English original
http://uddari.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/holier-than-life-by-fauzia-rafique/
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Boycott Israel’s The Cameri Theatre at Delhi International Arts Festival 2012

We support the Call to boycott Cameri Theatre in India Nov 4. Uddari

Don’t Let Israeli Apartheid Onstage!
Call to Boycott The Cameri Theatre at the Delhi International Arts Festival 2012

November 2, 2012
http://incacbi.in/call-boycott-cameri-theatre-delhi-international-arts-festival-2012

The organizers of the Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF) — the Prasiddha Foundation, the Hindustan Times and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) — have invited The Cameri Theatre from Israel to perform at Siri Fort on November 4th as part of the Festival’s celebration of “the spirit of Delhi”.

The Cameri Theatre serves as an official propaganda tool for the State of Israel — a state that occupies Palestinian lands and practises apartheid policies on the Palestinian people. The Cameri theatre is complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine because it chooses to perform in the illegal settlement of Ariel. Ariel is one of the largest settlements in the occupied West Bank, located on expropriated agricultural Palestinian land. The construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land violates international law, and amounts to a war crime. Illegal Ariel contaminates Palestinian water and agricultural lands. Illegal Ariel is surrounded by walls and fences, and closely guarded by soldiers and armed security personnel. A theatrical performance in this illegal settlement is, by definition, a performance to an exclusively Israeli audience. Palestinians living even in the nearest village are physically excluded from attending. By performing in such circumstances, the Cameri profits from and legitimizes Israel’s illegal colonization policies, and becomes an accomplice to these crimes.

The Cameri often chooses to stage plays that convey “humane” messages to deflect criticism. But it is ready to perform these “humane” plays on stolen land – excluding the people of that stolen land suffering the occupier’s military rule. “Culture” and the “arts” do not operate in a non-political wonderland. The best of artists know this well. Renowned British theatre director Peter Brook, much admired in India as well, cancelled his theatre troupe’s participation at the International Festival for Plays of The Cameri Theatre in December 2012. Brook wrote that The Cameri Theatre’s support of “the brutal action of colonisation by playing in Ariel in the West Bank” led to his decision to decline performing in the Cameri Theatre’s festival.[1]

Many Israeli theatre artists, intellectuals and activists have been working hard to communicate to the world the kind of politics at work behind the “theatre arts” of The Cameri Theatre. Many Israeli actors and artists have, in protest, refused to perform in Ariel. Their boycott has grown to include academic institutions and cultural events. Support has come from highly acclaimed Israeli academics and authors, including Amos Oz and David Grossman. This protest was met by threats and denunciation from the Israeli prime minister and government, the Knesset, and the managers of Israeli theatres themselves, including The Cameri.

By hosting The Cameri Theatre’s performance in Delhi, the DIAF organisers are endorsing The Cameri Theatre’s complicity with Israeli occupation of Palestine and the state’s apartheid policies against Palestinians. Surely DIAF cannot equate The Cameri Theatre’s spirit with either the “spirit of Delhi” or the “spirit” of Indian citizens of conscience?

We condemn this plan to woo Israel and promote links between Indian and Israel by compromising cultural practitioners as well as citizens of conscience in both India and Israel. We have to make it clear to the State of Israel and institutions supported by it that Israel cannot be admitted into the global cultural arena as long as it does not recognize the Palestinian people’s right to freedom, equality and justice. At a time when the international movement to isolate Israel is gaining ground in response to the escalation of Israel’s colonial and racist policies, we should not showcase India in Israel or welcome groups such as The Cameri Theatre to India.

Israel’s apartheid policies cannot be whitewashed with “culture”, “art” or “festivals”.

We call upon all members of the theatre, film and arts world in India and the academic community to join us in protesting against these attempts. We appeal to all Indian citizens of conscience to boycott the Cameri Theatre’s performance in Delhi on November 4th.

Signatories:
Shyam Benegal (Film maker, Former Rajya Sabha Member)

Saeed Mirza (Film-maker)

Arundhati Roy (Writer)

Sadanand Menon (Arts editor, curator and writer)

Sanjna Kapoor (Theatre person)

Samik Bandyopadhayay (Theatre, art and film critic)

Maya Rao (Theatre person)

M.K. Raina (Theatre person)

N. K. Sharma (Theatre person)

Moloyashree Hashmi (Theatre person)

Rustom Bharucha (Theater person)

Sudhanva Deshpande (Theatre person)

Pralayan S (Theater person, Writer)

Sameera Iyengar (Theatre person)

Aneesh Pradhan (Musician, composer, author)

Bedabrata pain (film-maker and scientist)

Jana Natya Manch (JANAM)

SAHMAT (Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, Delhi)

Prayog (Theatre group, Delhi)

Act One (Theatre group, Delhi)

Kashmir Performance Collective (Theatre group, Kashmir)

Kashmir Bhagat Theater (Theatre group, Kashmir)

For InCACBI (The Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):

N Pushpamala, Convenor (Artist)

Gargi Sen, Convenor (Film-maker)

Githa Hariharan, Convenor (Writer)

Ayesha Kidwai, Convenor (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Mohan Rao, Convenor (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Amar Kanwar (Film-maker)

Anand Patwardhan (Film-maker)

Saba Dewan (Film-maker)

K Satchidanandan (Writer)

Aijaz Ahmad (Literary Critic and Cultural Commentator)

Alok Rai (Literary Critic)

Geeta Kapoor (Art Critic)

Ram Rahman (Artist)

Sheba Chhachhi (Artist)

Vivan Sundaram (Artist)

KN Panikkar (Academic)

Mushirul Hasan (Director, National Archives of India)

Ritu Menon (Publisher)

Achin Vanaik (Delhi University)

Jayati Ghosh (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Kalpana Kannabiran (Hyderabad University)

Nandini Sundar (Delhi University)

Nivedita Menon (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Prabhat Patnaik (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Rajni Palriwala (Delhi University)

Sumit Sarkar (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Lawrence Liang (Alternative Law Forum)

T Jayraman (Tata Institute of Social Studies)

Tanika Sarkar (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Uma Chakravarthy (Delhi University)

Upendra Baxi (Former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University)

Vina Mazumdar (Former Director Centre for Women’s Development Studies, Delhi)

Zoya Hasan (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Dhruv Sangari (Singer)

Kamal Mitra Chenoy (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

Prabir Purkayastha (Delhi Science Forum)

Gautam Navlakha (Journalist)

Harsh Mander (Activist)

Praful Bidwai (Journalist)

Seema Mustafa (Journalist)

Vrinda Grover (Lawyer)

and 150 others from InCACBI

( www.Incacbi.in ; facebook.com/IndianCACBI ; twitter.com/InCACBI ; InCACBI@gmail.com )
[1] http://refrainplayingisrael.blogspot.com/2012/09/peter-brooks-courageous-support-for.html

uddari@live.ca
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Ashiq Hussain Mir of BNYF assassinated in Karachi ‏

The killings of Muslim activists and of non-Muslims by Muslim religious extremists continue in Pakistan, inflicting irreparable damage to the movement for reason, equalty and civil rights. The loss to families is heart wrenching. Rest in peace, Shaheed Comrade Ashiq Hussain Mir, your contributions and your sacrifice will take us forward. Uddari

Ashiq Hussain Mir, Central Chairman Baloristan National Youth Front (BNYF) was assassinated in an armed attack by two masked attackers near Zai Hospital in Kemari (Karachi). The attack happened at around 4pm, killing him on the spot.

Ashiq Hussain Mir was a wellknown activist who was also the Chairperson of Free Baba Jan Committee.

His body will be taken to Islamabad through flight from Karachi at 7am (Thursday) and from Islamabad (11am to Skardu) subject to availability of flights.

For more information contact
Qasim (brother of Comrade Ashiq Hussain Shaheed)
0344 2181542

We strongly condemn this cowardly act of dark forces.

Nasir Mansoor
ntufpak@gmail.com
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Candle Light Vigil for Malala Yousufzai – Lahore Wed Oct 10/12

Civil society Vigil for Malala Yousufzai
October 10, 2012
6 pm
Chairing Cross, The Mall, Lahore

Attack on Malala Yousufzai symbolizes the spread of hate, extremism and terrorists forces in our society. These forces are not tolerating any symbol of peace, tolerance and liberal ideals. They are using weapons of hate and destructions on ordinary civilians who are challenging their designs through message of love, peace and liberalism…If these forces are allowed to operate without any check and control they will take away all such ideals and symbols from society. This is the time to convey them that the society is not going to tolerate agendas of hate, destruction and terrorism anymore and also to convey to Malala that she is not alone and society stands and supports her ideals of peace, women empowerment and tolerance, and that we are praying for her life and early recovery…

South Asia Partnership and several other civil society groups are organizing a candle-light vigil tomorrow Wednesday October 10, 2012 at Chairing Cross, The Mall Lahore. Please join us all in this important and collective cause and add your voice in this message of peace and non-violence.

For further information please contact
SAP-Pakistan office
042-35311 701-06
Or
Mohammad Tahseen
0300-8480821
And
Irfan Mufti
0300-8480821

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Help stop the Taliban and other religious extremists
Support the Movement for the Repeal of Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws.
You can do the following:

Support & ‘LIKE’ Repeal Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws:
http://www.facebook.com/RepealBlasphemyLaws

Support & ‘LIKE’ Secular Pakistan:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Secular-Pakistan/362810103802175

SIGN the petition to render religion seperate from the state:
http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/the-secretary-general-united-nations-recognize-the-international-day-against-state-religion-5

SIGN the petition to stop extremists from criminalizing blasphemy through United Nations:
http://www.avaaz.org/fr/petition/European_and_international_decision_against_the_criminalization_of_blasphemy/?fHEljbb&pv=1

Contact Uddari
uddari@live.ca
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Movie ‘Midnight’s Children’ – Beautiful Rendition of the Novel

On October 3rd, Vancouver offered to the movie ‘Midnight’s Children’ the largest attendance recorded for a screening at Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). Produced by David Hamilton, directed by Deepa Mehta and written by Salman Rushdie, the film is a(n explosive) treat to watch.

The world of Midnight’s Children, a cellulide incarnation of Salman Rushdie’s classic novel on the partition of India, comes alive from the start and continues to become more vivid, more exciting, more bizarre – as it does. From hillarious to outrageous, it’s a riot to witness a woman in bits and parts through the holed sheet, and then see her emerge as a complete, and somehow baffling young woman; the three sisters, two of whom progress to become wives while the third (‘who marries a book?’) stays sitting on the sofa; the celebrated birth of Salim Sinai, and nurse Mary’s inspirational pro-activism in switching the newborns; the un-sighted black mango with all it’s ramifications on the young mind of Salim; the recurrence of the spittoon; the white-locked lady of all political powers, generals and plans, the killing fields, the homeless, Parvati’s magic, Picture Singh’s supportive appearances; and most of all, an optimistic end.

Tying it together is Salman Rushdie’s first person narration as Salim Sinai that runs through the film like the nadi connecting all the seven chakras across the body. In a world where anything is possible, and at a time when people must experience the violence of doctored political change, the continuity of the narrator’s voice enables the viewer to go with it till the end.

Deepa Mehta has created this film with amazing skill, depth and vision. The chaotic culture of pre-Partition India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the characters, the atmosphere, the beauty- it is a forceful, moving and fascinating experience in cinema. A profound art film and not a single dull moment.

Actors performed their characters well even when there was not enough time for most. Amazing talent, beauty and hard work shines through the whole team led by Satya Bhabha (Saleem Sinai), Shahana Goswami (Amina), Seema Biswas (Mary), Shriya Saran (Parvati), Rahul Bose (General Zulfikar) and Ronit Roy (Ahmed Sinai). An unexpected disappointment: Shabana Azmi (Naseem).

The movie ‘Midnight’s Children’ remains in the mind as an unforgettable visual experience, and as a worthy preamble to a larger film. Because of the time constraint that may have caused the collage of key events toward the end, the later half, unlike the first, could not establish all of it’s changing worlds for it’s characters to live in. It does work but feels like a tease to a viewer who has read the novel, and confusion to the one who hasn’t.

About the river and the bowl, the river of novel Midnight’s Children is indeed captured and contained in the bowl of a 90-minute film even though brimming, spilling, splashing. It’s spoiling for a slightly bigger bowl of perhaps a 3-hour film or a mini tv series.

Don’t miss it! In Theatres November 2, 2012
http://www.midnightschildren.com/
http://www.facebook.com/midnightsmovie
http://www.hamiltonmehta.com/about/
http://www.salman-rushdie.com/

To be released in India December 2012
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/

Related content at uddari
- ‘Midnight’s Children’ World Premiere: Toronto Sept 9 & 10 – Vancouver Sept 27
- 2012 Attraction: A Deepa Mehta Film

Uddari Weblog
uddari@live.ca
Facebook page

Fauzia Rafique
@RafiqueFauzia
gandholi.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/fauzia.zohra.rafique
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Angelina Jolie on Thanksgiving

‘Angelina Jolie Refuses to Celebrate Thanksgiving, Feels It’s a ‘Story of Murder” by Susan Bates

While everyone is preparing to give thanks this November, one of America’s most famous families, the Jolie-Pitts, have decided to sit this Thanksgiving out.

“Angelina Jolie hates this holiday and wants no part in rewriting history like so many other Americans,” a friend of the actress has said.

“To celebrate what the white settlers did to the native Indians, the domination of one culture over another, just isn’t her style. She definitely doesn’t want to teach her multi-cultural family how to celebrate a story of murder.”

Angelina has been filming her directorial debut, about a Serbian man and Bosnian woman who fall in love during the Bosnian War. Angie, always extremely sensitive to the suffering throughout the world, is filming in English and the native languages.

“Angelina gets so grossed out by Thanksgiving that she has made sure her family will not be in America this year during the Holiday,” the friend had said.

And although Brad Pitt recently told ‘EXTRA,’ “We’ll whip up a turkey somewhere,” he certainly hasn’t shared that plan with Angelina. A family friend tells me, “If Brad wants turkey, he will have to cook it himself. For Angie, it will be another day when America tries to rewrite history.” (Source)

The REAL Story of Thanksgiving

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen – once.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared “A Day Of Thanksgiving” because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

Cheered by their “victory”, the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.

Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts — where it remained on display for 24 years.

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War — on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

This story doesn’t have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won’t ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say “thank you” to Creator for all their blessings.

By Susan Bates

View complete text, a video and photos at the origin:
http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2012/10/angelina-jolie-refuses-to-celebrate.html

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‘Blasphemy, Religious Hatred, and the United Nations’ by Austin Dacey

In the wake of the furor over Innocence of Muslims, we are hearing renewed calls to criminalize blasphemy under international law from the halls of the United Nations. This comes a little over a year after the so-called Islamic states retired a discredited, decade-long campaign to combat “defamation of religions” (and legal coherence).

Meanwhile, the 1966 human rights treaty banning “advocacy of religious hatred” remains in force. Indeed, it is precisely such a charge that has the Indonesian atheist Alexander Aan and the Russian punks Pussy Riot locked away at this moment. What more could one want?

Those who study the history of blasphemy laws are condemned to repeat themselves: These laws don’t work. Unless what you are after is more blasphemy. Consider the case of India.

In September 1917, Muslim villages in the Shahabad and Gaya districts of the Indian state of Bihar were besieged by tens of thousands of rioting Hindus, who for days ranged in mobs looting and destroying homes, desecrating mosques, and stealing cattle. By their end, the Shahabadriots had resulted in assaults on 150 villages, 176 serious injuries, and 41 deaths.

What caused this carnage? The ceremonial slaughter of cows by members of the local Muslim community in celebration of the religious festival of Id Al-Adha.

British colonial records document eruptions of such inter-community violence throughout the nineteenth century. Today these tensions are ratcheted up by the opposing political agendas of Hindu nationalist and Islamist movements.

This tragic legacy has unfolded not despite but alongside robust laws prohibiting “outraging the religious feelings” of others. These laws were installed under British colonial rule ostensibly to manage and mitigate precisely this kind of interfaith strife.

The Indian Penal Code was drafted in 1837 by the Indian Law Commission under the chairmanship of Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay and eventually adopted in 1860. It is “a truth which needs no proof,” wrote the Commission, that there are “many persons of such sensitive feelings among the higher ranks of the Natives of India” for whom “insults have as great a tendency as bodily injuries to excite violent passion.”

But the Indian Penal Code’s criminalization of religious offense in its Article 295 — the ancestor of the infamous blasphemy laws of Pakistan, as well as Bangladesh — has not solved the problem. It has institutionalized the problem.

The law legitimizes and incentivizes outrage. Where the incensed reactions might be seen as religious demagoguery inciting extrajudicial murder, in the context of Article 295 they can be seen as agitation for the reign of justice and the enforcement of a duly enacted law. Where they might otherwise be nothing but impotent rage, with the help of the law they can be tactics that succeed in removing the offending practice — if only for the moment.

Furthermore, the law expanded the meaning of blasphemy, generating new opportunities for outrage. Traditional Islamic law, for example, recognizes the offense of sabb al-rasul, insult to the Prophet. But an insult to the Prophet obviously is not equivalent to feelings of outrage about just any sacred values. A legal system crafted to encompass Hindus, Muslims, and Christians created a standard that went far beyond any of their religious doctrines: the standard of respect for all believers.

The law quite literally wrote new blasphemies into being.

Consider Urdu literature’s first “angry young woman,” Rashid Jahan. Jahan, a young medical doctor, made her literary debut in a 1932 anthology called Angarey (Embers), a critique of contemporary Indian Muslim society — in particular the conditions endured by women — denounced by local clerics and conservative papers as an “Absolutely Filthy and Foul” pamphlet of blasphemies.

Rashid Jahan and her three fellow contributors were threatened with death by stoning and hanging. In March 1933 the authorities of Uttar Pradesh state government intervened, confiscating and destroying all but a handful of copies of the book under Article 295′s protection of religious feelings. The law helped to turn a critique of Islamically-based gender inequality into a blasphemous affront to Muslims.

Whose interests are served by generating new opportunities for outrage that are legitimized and incentivized by law? Those who benefit most are the most extreme voices — like Angarey’s most implacable enemies — who anoint themselves as representatives of the outraged and thereby claim authority and consolidate power within the community.

The lessons of this history are clear. If you want to bring about greater reverence for your sacred values, laws against blasphemy won’t help. If, on the other hand, you want to boost your bids for power and authority within your religious community, they are a god-send.

From Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/austin-dacey/un-blasphemy-laws_b_1915920.html

Related content at Uddari
Holier Than Life by Fauzia Rafique
The Clowns of Blasphemy by Fauzia Rafique
Blasphemy vendetta: Pakistan 1990-2009
Search Uddari with keyword ‘blasphemy’ for more.
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Blasphemy: Another ‘Honour Killing’ Platform – Don’t Support It This Friday

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Blasphemy is another ‘Honour Killing’ Platform.
Please Don’t Support It This Friday

‘Honour Killings’
Description

Where women, and some men, are harassed and killed by the male members of their families on the pretext of ‘saving the honour of the family’, but actually to keep control of the property and sexuality rights of women.

Male members are supported by the local authorities such as the police, jirgas, civil and army administrators, and other influentials, in propagating and committing these violent and abusive crimes.

This vile concept of control of women through extreme punishment is presented by the mainstream culture as a crucial part of the ‘moral fibre’ of Pakistani society.

‘Honour Killings’ support male control and power over all women, but most women who actually get killed are the poorest in a city, town or village.

Do you support ‘Honour Killings’?

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Blasphemy
Description

Where non-Muslim and Muslim men, and some women, are killed or required to be killed by the extreme religious Muslim groups on the pretext of ‘saving the honour of Islam and its prophet’, but actually (1> to keep control of the property and civic rights of non-Muslims and Muslim minority sects, and (2> to use it as a Muslim-mob-generating hysterical street weapon for their petty political ends.

The extreme religious Muslim groups are supported by the local Muslim authorities such as the police, jirgas, civil and army administrators, politicians, lawyers, educators and other dignitaries in propagating and committing these violent and abusive crimes.

This vile concept of control over minority communities through extreme punishment is presented as a crucial part of the ‘moral fibre’ of Pakistani Muslim society.

‘Blasphemy Killings’ support the control and power of Muslims of a majority ruling sect over all non-Muslim and minority Muslim communities, but most people who actually get killed are the poorest in a city, town or village.

Do you Support ‘Blasphemy Killings’?

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Blasphemy is another ‘Honour Killing’ Platform.
Please Don’t Support It This Friday
Or Ever After!

From
Repeal Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/RepealBlasphemyLaws

Web Page
http://lifethelove.wordpress.com/
Email
uddari@live.ca
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