Muzzled flowers
Bullet ridden walls
Blood soaked books
Ask us –
What is this barbaric devastation?
We won’t live for it
Dec 18, 2014
..
Sign this petition
Separate Religion from State
Declare Pakistan to be a Secular Democracy
Support this action
Public Meeting in Rawalpindi
Organizing society against the fascist onslaught
.
.
‘I think she is a very convenient person for us to really like. She’s the kind of Muslim girl that we want to show we like because we want to see them go to school. But in Pakistan, most girls do go to school.’ Says Birmingham poet Benjamin Zephaniah who was voted third in a BBC poll of the nation’s favourite poets, behind TS Eliot and John Donne (birminghampost.co.uk).
As well, Malala helps US-NATO soldiers to believe that they are fighting for a ‘noble cause’ as opposed to Afghanistan’s riches and world colonization; and, it helps Pakistan’s ‘civil society’, whose salaries come from US/NATO-supported funding agencies, to justify their inaction both against US drone attacks and Taliban. Uddari.
.
As Malala Yousafzai has told the media, that second when she was shot by the Taliban in Pakistan changed her life, (it is also changing the lives of others too), Malala has become a very marketable western commodity. My issue is not with Malala, I support and respect her wish of education for all, however (and it shames me to say this being British) I doubt she fully realizes the extent to which she is being exploited by her new “mentors” in the UK.
There is an element of risk to all now living in Pakistan since the US led War on Terror brought internal conflict to the region but there is only special treatment for some of those affected. Why not fly out every child harmed by US drones to the west for the most up to date medical care, there are plenty for wellwishers to assist.
Despite some victims trying to speak out on drones, for the most part we don’t even know their names, let alone details of injuries inflicted upon them. There are double standards on how terrorism is reported. Taliban terrorism is used to propel the “good west versus bad east” narrative in the media whilst US state terrorism is served up as “collateral damage” and is more likely to get buried along with its victims. All violence must be condemned.
Since the shooting of Malala, western politicians and media alike have seized upon a very profitable “alliance” with the young Pakistani schoolgirl. She fits comfortably into the well- worn narrative of “rescuing” women from the east. Let’s face it an entire war was waged according to some to “save” Afghanistan’s females from the Taliban. (Let’s hope Malala’s story will not be used to keep occupation going a little longer). What press usually fail to mention however is how Britain and its allies are failing miserably on “gender justice” back home.
Exploitation of women whether emotionally, physically, financially is so ingrained in our society and institutions that I am not even sure whether some men realize their actions. The old saying comes to mind… “in the valley of the blind, the one eyed ‘man’ is king”! Former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, Malala’s avid supporter, fits that description. He is known as a misogynist by his former work colleagues and to human rights campaigners for his refusal to address the plight of widows whose husbands were unlawfully killed by the state see my earlier story http://activist1.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/malala-becomes-poster-girl-of-western-government-double-standards-on-gender-justice/
How many men do you see studying gender to work with women for greater equality though it would benefit society for more males to do so. Division of labour need not be problematic if given the same value for both sexes. The one man on my gender course at university was a young Pashtun man who was determined in his aim to improve the situation of women in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan whilst at the same time respecting the culture.
The special treatment of Malala is highlighting divisions in many ways. Week in week out, when I peruse the British press, we are subjected to articles about asylum seekers “ripping off” the UK. These stories show scant regard for torture victims coming to Britain that often end up being held in detention centres or virtually penniless in the community living on vouchers with limited access to health care. Yet one young lady is flown in to the UK and provided with the best possible care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham appearing to bypass the hurdles faced by many. It would seem that there is something of a two tier system of care going on here and it is understandable that this will raise questions as to how we define a “deserving” case. I have met many juvenile survivors of torture, outspoken activists on human rights so what makes one person more deserving than another?
The commodification of Malala appears to have started at the time her father volunteered his daughter to the BBC to document life at school under the Taliban (this was before she was shot on a bus). She is seen on film at a younger age going to school and participating in lessons with her peers.
Media stories report that her father Ziauddin owns “for profit” schools which just happen to be high on the agenda of Gordon Brown, global envoy for education at the UN (again documented in my earlier article. One wonders why then, given that both Ziauddin and the BBC are so quick to warn of the dangers of the Taliban, they would put a child in the line of fire (albeit her identity thinly disguised) to write her diary for public consumption.
With regard to the question of another agenda, artist Jonathan Rao who painted the portrait of Malala that hangs in the National Gallery admits to his concerns in the Independent newspaper and states:-
“I guess I was worried that she was probably a pawn in a bigger game and was being unduly influenced by the people around her.”
The Independent points out that:-
Those people include Edelman, the global PR firm that manages Malala alongside its work for clients that include Microsoft and Starbucks. Jamie Lundie, an impeccably connected senior executive for the firm and former speechwriter for Paddy Ashdown when he was the Lib Dem leader, leads a team of five who work with Malala on a pro bono basis.
During a BBC documentary this week, Malala’s former friends are shown in Swat valley, Pakistan continuing their education. However there is fear among children in the region. Fox news reports the following words from school principle Selma Naz:-
“We have had threats, there are so many problems. It is much more dangerous for us after Malala’s shooting and all the attention that she is getting,” said Naz. “The Taliban are very dangerous. They have gone from Swat, but still they have a presence here. It is hidden, but it is here. We all have fear in our hearts.”
What is disturbing also is that we are told in the film which area of Birmingham Malala now goes to school, careless words given threats to target her once again repeated from Taliban. Can we assume she will not be targeted in UK?
Safety is pushed aside for “brand Malala”. There is Malala the book, Malala the film, Malala the award nominee, Malala the portrait, with the schoolgirl being skilfully marketed by Edelman, the world’s biggest PR company. Wavering a fee will no doubt be compensated by the value of the publicity she will bring to the company. I wonder, how many people can name the other girls injured when Malala was shot? What quality of care and support did they receive? Are they represented by PR companies?
All this stage management behind the scenes strikes me as far removed from the image portrayed on our screens of a simple, very bright girl, with a love for school standing up for her rights. We are now into the dangerous cult of celebrity. To ease the entry into western homes via multimedia, we are told Malala likes pop star Justin Bieber, is championed by actor and UN ambassador Angelina Jolie and what transition would be complete without the obligatory photo with a smiling David Beckham. With the “A” listers behind her, Malala’s future looks rosy. How different to the many women that have been harmed in Britain and received no such support.
It is fascinating to see the establishment prizes Malala is collecting including “Pride of Britain”. Will we see her projected from Quilliam next, sat beside former English Defence League (EDL) leader Tommy Robinson. Even to Tommy, she must surely be the acceptable face of Islam. Then of course we are gearing up for the Nobel Peace Prize with Malala a firm favourite to take the award. Putin’s heart must be sinking with Malala predicted to follow in the footsteps of champion of drones, supporter of targeted killings, President Barack Obama.
I can’t help but think of another Nobel nominee two decades ago, one Rigoberta Menchu. Like Malala she was thrust into the limelight, pressurised by others. She also wrote a book and appears to have been so eager to fit the expected narrative that she is alleged to have altered facts to project her cause, that of Quiche people in Guatemala. Ten years after the Nobel she was mired in controversy, though allowed to keep her prize. I quote a newspaper story in the New York Times December 15th 1998:-
In the autobiography ”I, Rigoberta Menchu,” first published in Spanish in 1983 at the height of Guatemala’s brutal civil war, Ms. Menchu, now 39, tells a wrenching tale of violence, destruction, misery and exploitation as moving and disturbing as a Victor Hugo novel. So powerful was the book’s impact that it immediately transformed her into a celebrated and much-sought-after human rights campaigner and paved the way for her being awarded the Nobel Prize.
Key details of that story, though, are untrue, according to a new book written by an American anthropologist, ”Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans.” Based on nearly a decade of interviews with more than 120 people and archival research, the anthropologist, David Stoll, concludes that Ms. Menchu’s book ”cannot be the eyewitness account it purports to be” because the Nobel laureate repeatedly describes ”experiences she never had herself.”
Malala is a bright, articulate young woman. She comes across as caring and committed and has great potential to make a difference in this world finding her own route. She is not in the UK to boost careers or further the bank balance of those in the media. Those who claim to support gender justice should ask themselves why it is that some cases are projected into the media whilst thousands of other cases are suppressed by government including by one of the same politicians so supportive to Malala.
I recall one campaigner harmed by the state writing to Gordon Brown on his deathbed requesting a meeting in a last ditch attempt to obtain gender justice for widows left behind. The BBC spoke highly of this activist, noted how he “died a disappointed man” ignored by Gordon Brown. Such requests were repeated by others many times.
The support people receive after trauma makes a significant difference to how they recover and move forward in life. Malala has been surrounded by care, offered opportunities and her story given immense media coverage. That does not happen for most women. Many go unheard no matter how vocal they may be or what risks they take, they simply don’t fit in to a popular narrative, especially if victims of the state.
Malala should not be used as a diversion to distract away from other women that have been fighting in British courts for years to highlight injustice and the wrongdoing of government. This does not help the cause of any woman while one is exploited and others are being suppressed!
As an intelligent young role model, I don’t imagine Malala would want this. I would think all she wants to do is knuckle down and get on with her education and hopefully will be allowed to do so in peace.
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She is a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”.
Original with images: http://activist1.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/brand-malala-western-exploitation-of-a-schoolgirl/
Related content on Uddari
‘The Jolly Trinity’ by Fauzia Rafique
.
.
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/
Uddari joyfully supports
Idle No More
‘We are all Treaty’.
“As long as the grass shall grow and the rivers flow…”
The poetry of this phrase of Treaty always struck me as uncommonly beautiful.
As does the truth of this statement:
We Are All Treaty.
For those who don’t know, Treaties were made between Canadian First Nations groups and The Crown, which is to say, the authority from which each successive Canadian Government derives their authority to rule.
They were intended as a peaceful resolution to a problematic conundrum: how to form a country in a land peopled by Aboriginal groups who could not be defeated on the field of battle?
For the Indigenous population, it was an opportunity to return to a more stable way of life, unmolested by the European invaders who they once protected as friends but now fought with for the right to live.
As we saw with the Residential School horror, that peace was not to last.
For the past century and more, Indigenous groups have witnessed the encroaching of their lands, the theft of their resources, and the reneging by the government of monies agreed on in return for peaceful use of the land.
There used to be a fund set aside. Corporations could extract resources from Treaty lands. They would keep 60% of the value and the landlords, the First Nations, would get 40%.
(almost done the history, bear with me!)
Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald, wanted to build a railroad…but how to pay for it?
You guessed it. That fund was dissolved. And lo! the railway was born!
And the taxpayer was given the responsibility of taking care of the corporation’s debt to the Treaties. And even then, it was a pittance compared to what was actually due.
If we add up the money that is owed, there is a Trillion Dollar Debt to the children of Canada’s treaties, many of whom have no clean drinking water, no warm shelter for the cold winter months, and no access to decent education and healthcare (all part of the original Treaty Agreements, by the way).
And in the meantime, the government has been trying to rid itself of the “Native Problem” through attempted Genocide, assimilation, and reduction of funds to “starve them out”.
No one in the general public really complains because at the same time, there has been a public continuation of some popular memes, propaganda if you will:
The natives are lazy.
The leaders are corrupt.
The problem with the natives is the natives themselves.
Everyone suffers, why should they be special?
It’s in the past, forget about it.
As long as people believe these obvious untruths, the government has free reign to continue their work of dehumanizing their enemy and chipping away at the treaty lands for corporate use.
Why is this important?
Because those lands have been instrumental in keeping Canada a natural paradise. This is why we are all Treaty. We all share that responsibility.
This isn’t just a Native thing, this is an Everyone thing. We are all in this together.
The beauty of our unspoiled places, that they have been kept pristine and clean for this long is a miracle.
And we want to keep it that way.
All our children deserve it.
The Treaties make this possible, and its what the government wants to be rid of so that those lands can be developed.
And the waters are now unprotected.
It’s easy to do the math.
All you have to do is see who profits.
I’m not anti-corporation at all. But I am all for a responsible stewardship of the land we all share. The water we all drink, and the air we all breathe.
As long as the grass shall grow and the rivers flow…
First Nations in Canada have been good allies for the rest of Canada.
In every instance they have come to the table in peace. In every instance they have operated in good faith.
There is a misconception that they are always asking for more. They are only asking for the Government of Canada to live up it’s share of these Peace Treaties.
There is a misconception that all the Chiefs are corrupt and the meagre sums provided have been mishandled. The office of the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs has to approve every cent of expenditures. Myth destroyed.
Canada’s Indigenous people have been very patient. They have been purposely kept in a state of poverty and emotional wreckage in order to control them.
But the new generation is rising. They have been freed from the cycle of abuse and they are educated. They are supported by the wisdom of their Elders. And they are tired of this long, long, fruitless fight. They want peace and fairness.
And so should you.
You should be proud that you live in this time when the broken pieces of the past are being gathered, put back together.
You live in a time when an abused people are reclaiming their dignity and strength. And they don’t carry blame, they don’t carry guilt, they carry an olive branch.
And the settler’s legal books, which they have read and mastered.
Canada is sadly a deeply racist society and that is now being uncovered.
Be happy and overjoyed! The light will cast out the darkness.
You are witnessing a Civil Rights Movement that is lighting the world up with inspiration.
And you are invited to join it. You are invited to be part of what will be the remaking of Canada’s present and providing a better future not only for one of the largest landmasses in the world, but for the world itself. This is only the beginning and it’s time is due.
The time is now.
And you are here.
It can’t happen without you.
You’re here for a purpose. To be a part of something wonderful.
You can feel it.
And you can feel the fear of the establishment. They don’t want change. But change is coming. Peacefully.
It’s time to put this broken world back together again.
hiy hiy
If you missed my piece on Residential School, here it is:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151324672623754&set=a.407683733753.184728.34759153753&type=1&relevant_count=1
And for more on Treaties:
http://www.toboldrollo.com/2013/01/01/i-am-canadian-because-of-treaties-with-indigenous-nations/
People say, “Put the past behind you.”
I say, put it in front of you. A vast wide vista of your life, the lives of your parents, and that whole amazing assortment of those who came before. Learn from them. Learn perseverance, learn love, learn compassion. Learn perspective.
And learn their stories.
Behind you is the future. And you walk blindly into it because no one can see it, we can only catch glimpses.
Allow those who came before you to be your guide. And they will guide you. Their time is done and they can see where you are going, they’ve been down similar paths.
Gain wisdom from your ancestors and prepare yourself to pass wisdom on to those who come after.
The past is gone, and it’s a feast for the curious, a balm for the lonely, and a hope for those who despair. All who came before you are cheering you on.
“You can do it!”
They should know. They left you with the best parts of them.
So don’t live in the past, but never forget it. Bring the lessons with you into the exciting and unknown road ahead.
hiy hiy
From Aaron Paquette
https://www.facebook.com/AaronPaquetteArt
.
Idle No More Rally at Vancouver City Hall, 12PM, Friday January 11, 2013
https://www.facebook.com/events/400873509990958/
uddari@live.ca
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Uddari-Weblog/333586816691660
.
.
Untitled 17 – Art by Shahid Mirza
A Google survey carried out in June 2010
empirically substantiated that Pakistanis were No.1
in the world in searching pornographic material.
Any material in written form or pictorial, factual or fictional, aimed at arousing human sexuality through explicit sexual content can be referred to as pornography. Apart from treatise on sex which existed in ancient texts like kamasutra and Koka Shastra and were available in written form since centuries, very little pornography, be it verse, prose or illustration survived in the subcontinent. This was primarily due to the clandestine character of the subject which remains tabooed till today. Second, no effort has ever been made to collate and preserve such material from a psychosocial point of view. However man’s fascination with sex remains a hard fact and some of the most revered names in poetry and prose did create pornographic literature. Some of the poetry of Nazeer Akbarabadi is explicitly pornographic. There were also poets in the early twentieth century who wrote hazal or obscene verse. Syed Iman Ali Khan of Bilgram (a.k.a Sahib-e-Kiran) Kallan Khan who wrote under the poetic name of Bechain and Saadat Yar Khan Rangin were all hazalgo poets who described their boastful exploits of sexual intercourse with prostitutes.
Although extremely rare, yet books in Urdu language with sexually arousing content and hand made illustrations were available in the subcontinent since the seventeenth century. A book by Kaviraj Harnam Das published from Sialkot in the 1920s had two parts. The first part dealt with the physical and behavioral characteristics of women from various countries of the world, where the headings would go like this: Kashmir ki aurat(Woman of Kashmir), Inglistan ki aurat (Woman of England), Iran ki aurat(Woman of Iran) etc. The second part contained stories where brides and other girls would narrate accounts of their first sexual encounter. The details were fairly explicit and the book was embellished with pictures of women. Translations of texts of Kamasutra, Koka Shastra, Premshastra etc were also available in the market which were primarily created for sex education. Nevertheless these were also considered the right material to have sexual pleasure. The introduction of photography in the 1800’s and the invention of motion picture in 1895 broadened the scope of pornography to reach masses in much more graphic detail. Pictures of actors and actresses in intimate positions were now available to many. Although such material enjoyed mass appeal particularly among the youngsters, due to lack of social acceptance it’s use remains secretive.
It is believed that Shaukat Thanvi used to write pornography with the pseudonym of Wahi Wahanvi. Tigdam, Rukhsar and Bura Aadmi were some of his popular titles. Maybe it was him initially but soon this was a brand name for pornographic novels. It is believed that many others began writing with Wahi Wahanvi’s name as the author. Later Pyarelal Awara, Raheel Iqbal and several others entered the field and pornographic novels were easily available at the aana (dime) libraries. The librarian would charge eight to ten aanas for pornographic novels whereas other novels were available for two aanas. These novels were issued to trustworthy customers who would then hide the book and would read the text in seclusion usually at night when others were asleep. Wahi Wahanvi would use explicit language whereas Raheel Iqbal would give descriptions using similes and metaphors.
These novels generally had a weak plot while the emphasis remained on sexual exploits and its graphic narrative. Pirated editions of English pornographic novels were also available in the market which attracted those who could read and understand the language. Since the ’50s and the ’60s those returning from the West would also bring pictorial material with them which would then travel long distances by being passed along to all the near and dear ones to have a look before it was returned. Similarly blue prints were also available on 8mm film for which a projector was required. This material was equally popular among both the sexes. Cultural troupes from European countries and even Turkey and Iran would frequently visit Pakistan where seminude women would perform on the stage. Inter-Continental and other such hotels would also occasionally invite female dancers from other countries who would amuse the audience with erotic dances. Some cinema halls like Irum in Lahore, Khursheed in Rawalpindi and Palwasha in Peshawar also had the reputation of running imported blue films mostly in their late night shows. Semi nude, probably superimposed clips of actresses Rozina and Aarzoo were popular in the ’70s. Also in the ’70s, many pictorial magazines like Chitrali were also available in the market. Though not very explicit on heterosexuality yet semi-nude pictures of actresses would abundantly glaze the pages of these publications. While not very expensive this was the poor man’s choice to have some ‘recreation’. In 1976 came the VCR revolution. Now people could watch Indian movies of their favorite stars and blue films too in a cozy atmosphere. VCR was an expensive machine and not many could purchase it, however, it was available on rent which initially ranged from Rs.300 to 400 for 12 hours. Groups of like-minded would contribute the amount and watch blue films for almost the whole night. As video cameras were also available in early eighties, it was now possible to make blue films at home.
The blue prints of two NCA girls Hala Farooqui and Ayesha Shahbaz along with their boyfriend were perhaps made for private consumption; however, the film made its way into the rental circuit and was hugely ‘popular’. Similarly in 1991, the video of striptease performed by two girls hailing from Multan namely Zarina Ramzan and Qamar Ashraf in a South London nightclub also gained immense ‘popularity’ in Pakistan. The Lahore theatre with a very strong sexual content began to flourish in the ’80s. In the ’90s came the internet revolution and now everything one could dream of, was available in one’s bedroom. Simultaneously the internet cafes also mushroomed. In the privacy of one’s cabin one could watch pornographic material of sorts. Later webcams and mobile phones brought another revolution. Now real life sex could be recorded displayed and shared on the net. This practice was widely misused when net café owners installed secret cameras to film couples having fun in the privacy of their cabins. In some instances the footage was then released on CD’s of those caught on camera. However these ‘reality based’ clips had great demand in the market. Similarly sexually explicit mobile conversations, privately filmed footage and some photo-shopped content is presently the main attraction for many. Print material is almost outdated now and every conceivable aspect of pornography is available on the net; from full length movies to stories of sexual pursuits written in the nastaleeq script, to chat forums and ‘groups’; things for which one had to toil some decades ago are now just a click away from any corner of the world.
As precious as gold and as secretly guarded as a moonstone, the sole possession of the privileged few, that clandestine material is now available to all and sundry 24/7. However, the sex drive continues to create the desire to observe and delve deeper into the alluring world of varied sexual behavior of others.
From centuries old oral recitation of verses to prose laden with sexual content to online sex and physical intercourse with a digital celebrity in the 3-D virtual world, pornography continues to thrive in Pakistan.
A Google survey carried out in June 2010 empirically substantiated that Pakistanis were No.1 in the world in searching pornographic material. The survey further revealed that in 2004 Pakistanis were mostly searching ‘horse sex’, Since 2007 it was ‘donkey sex’, ‘Rape pictures’ between 2007-2009, ‘child sex’ between 2004-2007.Pakistanis were also found to be number one in searching ‘camel sex’. (http://wn.com/Pakistan_to_Pornistan__Pak_tops_the_world_in_internet_google_searches_for_porn_2_of_2)
From Waseem Altaf’s Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/mwaseemaltaf?ref=ts&fref=ts
Related content on Uddari
‘Child Porn Ring Uncovered Using Stuffed Toy Bunny’ by Denise Lavoie
Dancing girls of Lahore strike over ‘Taliban’ law
‘Sexual abuse of children by aid workers and UN peacekeepers’?
‘Porn Creation’ by Fauzia Rafique
uddari@live.ca
.
.
Only certain little girls matter to the English and their BBC. Diverting from the rape of hundreds of English children in BBC studios for decades by ‘Monster DJ’ Sir Jimmy Saville – another OBE, whom Margaret Thatcher deemed “marvelous,” they shower hospital care on one Pakistani girl allegedly shot by turbaned Taliban for demanding the right to education.
England and their NATO allies also finance those retrograde ‘interests’ who shot her – including operatives famed for throwing acid at women for attending university. Their media certainly won’t describe the little girls recently killed by ‘extrajudicial’ US/NATO drones. The over-175 children already ‘droned,’ have no English names.
Then again, it’s October. August signals when most capitalist industrial manufacturers retool for the coming year. September marks when most banks crash. Their October begins by commemorating Genoan mass-murderer Christopher Columbus, and ends in the faux-scary corporate festival of Hallowe’en! Backstage, the world’s biggest war-makers dig their claws into massive chunks of national budgets, including those beyond their borders, even as they’re already shaping 2014 budget requests to the US Congress in February. The actual 2012 US ‘national security’ budget of over $1.3 trillion outstrips the next top-ten altogether: China, England, France, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, India and Brazil.
Accompanying such budgetary maneuvers, menacing headlines usually climax in the North Atlantic, as the last leaves fall, revealing skeleton-stark trees, while people’s anxieties deepen with the coming winter. Their own media rarely ask: why they must, “keep pushing fear on the US taxpayer?”
Domestically, white frenzies about ‘terrorists’ easily echo the old shrieking to rouse Injun-scalping posses, Black-lynching vigilantes, anti-union scabs. The outside world instead sees Hollywood’s hourly TV shows depicting blacks and whites living harmoniously.
Fear of a Black Planet
African-American rapper Tupac Shakur, whose songs still make millions for the US music industry, was born to Black Panther Party cadre. The BPP were once the only US representatives recognized by the Chinese government, at a time when capitalists denied China entry into the UN (until US President Nixon crawled on bended Kissingerial knee to the Middle Kingdom).
Many BPP members, like those of the American Indian Movement, were massacred in the 1960s-70s. Several BPP and AIM members languish in prison – the most famous being Leonard Peltier, Lakota-Sioux defender of the sacred Black Hills (from where the great rivers flow into Canada and the US). Peltier like his revered forebear Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull) was ‘deported’ into a US prison by the Canadian state.
Tupac never saw the new century dawn. He was killed for exceeding the archetypes beloved by music capitalists: of drugs, guns, pimping and nihilism – of drugs that don’t heal, of guns only long enough to shoot your own people, of prostitution that turns men into slave-owners, of a nihilism that cannot grow beyond capitalism.
Tupac’s aunt, famed US political prisoner Assata Shakur, now safe in Cuba, describes herself as “a 20th century escaped slave.” When in prison, a jailer handed her a broom and told her to sweep. Assata refused, saying, “I ain’t no slave.” The jailer then showed her the jailhouse-copy of the US constitution: its 13th Amendment declares US slavery abolished, except in prison! (Yes, when perusing the fine prose of constitutions, always read the last few words!)
Assata’s autobiography also notes: the 1857 US Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision that a black man was two-thirds of a white man, is still blatant in present-day wage differentials: Workers ‘of color’ in Anglo-North America are paid two-thirds what their white counterparts get!
Jailhouse Gold
Black folks usually gain job-skills or advanced education either by joining the military, or going to prison. More than 60% of US prisoners are ‘of color’! The US government’s Federal Prison Industries Corporation exploits labor from prisons, as labor laws don’t apply. Imprisoned workers, often paid just 23 cents an hour, are exposed to toxic materials, without legal recourse, usually making products for the war department. Inmates make “complex parts” for missile systems, battleship anti-aircraft guns, and landmine sweepers, as well as night-vision goggles, body armor, camouflage uniforms.
Wells Fargo, another bank recently wrist-slapped for bankrupting US municipalities, invests mutual-funds in the three largest profiteering US prison companies. They also spend millions shaping media and lobbying for laws to detain migrants and their families in such prisons!
Most people vote for ‘nobody’ in US elections – a phenomenon cuing poet Gil Scott Heron to note: “Nobody is President!” Yet millions of US citizens with prison records, including one in ten African-Americans, aren’t allowed to vote in US elections.
Regardless who becomes the Drone Ranger next month, the Euro-Amerikan juggernaut keeps blundering onwards. Yet Yaka reminds again of those Jamaican lyrics: “None of them can stop the time!”
http://www.nation.lk/edition/columns/yak-handa/item/11929-yaka-ack-acks-the-drone-rangers.html
.
.
The following article brings important information but alludes to, and tries to justify the politician’s statement: “The girl gets into an affair with a boy and she goes with him without knowing that he is of criminal mindset. It’s not the state government which is responsible for rapes, in fact in most of the cases its consensual sex… In 90 percent cases, the girls and women initially accompany boys on their own and are later trapped in gang-rape by criminals,”.
So, then, where do we place rape that takes place in marriage? Or dating? It seems that if women ‘know’ the men as boyfriends, neighbours or husbands, and they were forced to have sex with them that it’s not considered rape?
And so, then, where do we place incest, sexual abuse that is carried out by family members and professionals in positions of trust such as fathers, uncles, teachers, doctors, priests of all religions? uddari
–
One woman gets raped every 22 minutes in India. One child gets raped in every 76 minutes. Only one in every four accused in the crime gets convicted. Between 1971 and 2011 cases of rape registered a 873 percent jump. That is the biggest among all categories of crime. This is the information provided by the National Crime Records Bureau data. Add to the dismal numbers the fact that most such cases go unreported due to social and other reasons.
We have a problem, a serious one. Only we won’t acknowledge it. That’s the reason we will reduce the recent rape cases in Haryana to media entertainment. Entertainment, yes, because what we don’t have, after a month these cases started surfacing, is a serious debate on the issue. The focus has consistently been on the peripherals – khaps finding a bizarre solution to the problem, loose remarks from politicians and political visits to the victims.
There’s enough sarcasm going around for the solutions or perceived solutions offered by different sections. The khaps believe reducing the marriageable age of children will bring down cases of rape. This solution has backing of many in the political class. Others would call it solely a law and order problem and suggest heavy crackdown on the culprits as a remedy. Some would ask the girls to dress appropriately, conduct themselves in an acceptable manner and even stop using mobile phones.
All this nowhere come close to a solution but let’s face it, these are only expected responses from people with a limited worldview shaped by the reality of their existence. You cannot expect a khap panchayat to manufacture an enlightened opinion that is acceptable to the modern, liberal class. It’s possible they simply know of no other solution. The local politicians emerge out of the same stock, so their views are not likely to be too different either.
Let’s be clear that all rapes don’t happen in the social environment dominated by the khap panchayats. The menace is far too widespread. The Delhi-NCR region is called the rape capital of India. There is high incidence of rape in states like Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh too. People involved are not always uneducated people with little knowledge of the law. It’s possible that there is more awareness now and that’s why more and more victims are coming out to lodge complaints but the escalating numbers offer no confidence.
It’s a recorded fact that in a significantly high number of cases the rapists are usually friends or relatives. According to statistics nine out of 10 alleged culprits were known to the victim. No complaint was lodged as the victims’ families were worried about social shame. The cases that makes the flood of derision at a Hisar Congressman’s recent comment on rape of women is a bit misplaced.
“The girl gets into an affair with a boy and she goes with him without knowing that he is of criminal mindset. It’s not the state government which is responsible for rapes, in fact in most of the cases its consensual sex… In 90 percent cases, the girls and women initially accompany boys on their own and are later trapped in gang-rape by criminals,” he said. He is wrong in saying that rape is consensual – simply because if it is rape it cannot be consensual. But the other part of his observation is not too out of place. If so many rapes are taking place because of the proximity of the culprits and the victims, it’s only logical that a great degree of our attention towards addressing the problem should be directed here.
Unfortunately, we have no discussion on that. Worse, we have no solution at all coming from the chattering classes. Rape cases have several dimensions, social, criminal, psychological and gender discrimination. Can it be treated as a law and order problem alone? Certainly not. Even if it is, do we have enough sensitivity and expertise in our police mechanism to deal with such cases in a proper manner?
Much of our discourse on the subject is focussed on the policing aspect only. We need to have a more comprehensive approach. And it calls for an intelligent debate. The situation is surely going beyond control. It’s time we got serious.
http://www.firstpost.com/india/a-rape-every-22-mins-what-makes-us-so-complacent-489080.html
.
.
“It’s A Girl!” — the much awaited new documentary film on female gendercide in India and China, directed by Evan Grae Davis, is NOW BEING SCREENED IN COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD! It has already premiered on NDTV in India, and the one word we’ve repeatedly heard from people who’ve already seen it is ‘It’s POWERFUL!”
The film also interviews Rita Banerji, the founder of this Cause — The 50 Million Missing Campaign (http://www.50millionmissing.info)
So don’t miss your chance to see the film! Almost all the showings are FREE, but you may need to BOOK in advance.
The TRAILER for the film, a MAP with locations and details of which town/COUNTRY the film is showing in on which DATE are all given on the following link.
We’ve listed some of the places and dates from the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia below. FOR A LIST OF ALL THE SCREENINGS and more details please click on this link http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/screenings/find-a-screening
Fresno, California, U.S.A. @Golden Place; 30 September 2012 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Malibu, California, U.S.A. @Pepperdine University, 03 October 2012 7:00 pm
Evansville, Indiana, U.S.A. @Tugg Theater, 04 October 2012 7:30 pm
Copenhagen, Denmark; @Christian Hansen Lecture Hall, 05 October 2012 6:00 pm
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.A.; hosted by Women in the World @TBA; 06 October 2012 7:00 pm
Toronto, Canada, @Metro Toronto Convention Center, 06 October 2012 8:30 pm
New York, New York, U.S.A.; hosted by K and M Barneche; 09 October 2012 7:30 pm
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, @University of Alberta 11 October 2012 7:00 pm
Toronto, Canada, by the UN Assoc of Canada @ George Ignatieff Theater 12 October 2012 7:00 pm
Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S.A., 14 October 2012 5:00 pm
RSVP – to Sam at 203 354 3001
Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.A., @ Clark Student Center, Shawnee Theatre 15 October 2012 6:30 pm
Shelbyville, Tennessee, U.S.A.;@ 411A-D Light Hall, Vanderbilt School of Medicine; 16 October 2012 5:00 pm
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.A.; by World Affairs Council of Charlotte and Central Piedmont Community College 17 October 2012 6:00 pm
Vernon Hills, Illinois, U.S.A.; @Tugg Theater 17 October 2012 6:30 pm;
Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. @ Angelika Theater 17 October 2012 7:00 pm
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada; College of Medicine; 18 October 2012 6:00 pm
Austin, Texas, U.S.A. @ Quadrangle Room of the Union Building; University of Texas 18 October 2012 6:00 pm
Perth, Australia, @ University of Western Australia Tavern 18 October 2012 6:30 pm
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia @ National Film and Sound Archive 22 October 2012 6:00 pm
To protest the sectarian slaughter of 19 Shia Muslims by Sunni Muslims in Babusar, and the blasphemy arrest of Rimsha Masih, an 11-year old Christian, in Islamabad.
Yes, I will stamp, today
A page of the Quran
To write the name
Of the innocent
Who was murdered
For desacrating
It, by the zealots of Islam,
Yesterday.
The inspiration for it
arrived today with the
(killing of 19 Shias)
arrest of a child,
a girl, 11.
Yesterday
(Hindus, countless departed Ahmadies)
it was the lynching
murder
of an adult Christian male.
Both known to be
simple-minded
a bit soft
in their heads,
crystal clear
in their hearts.
Lo and Behold,
we are not sure
about the heart
but i am
known to be
simple-minded
a bit soft
in my head
as well.
I will not burn it, i don’t
believe in burning
pages of books.
I will not tear it, i don’t
believe in useless tearing
of things.
I will stamp it, ‘MURDERER’
in black with
the name of the victim
in red.
To see, how many more
book-based murders
we register
on this Book
of Murders.
After, there will be
counting
to know which
One
Won The Book of Murders
Award, is it
Torah
in Palestine
Quran
in Pakistan and Iran or is it
Bible
in Vietnam,
and Afghanistan or
the new entrant
Tripitaka
in Myanmar.
Yes, I will stamp, today
A page of the Quran
To write the name
Of the innocent
Who was murdered
For desacrating
It, by the zealots of Islam,
Yesterday.
You, the Zealot!
Don’t fool me
with your violent
expositions
to make believe that
you have the righteous
right to kill
and to harass us
for the socalled sanctum
of a book,
a name,
place or thing.
Nothing is holier
Than life
Itself
A heart that beats, hopes
for a joyful
future, loves,
and lives.
A flower, a bird,
a shoot of grass.
Don’t fool me
with your violent
expositions, Fanatic!
Nothing is holier
Than life
Itself.
fauziarafique2012
Urdu rendition by Shamoon Saleem
.
Now published in
.
Buy it here
Gumroad
Amazon
Smashwords
.
More
Holier Than Life
Fauzia’s Web Page
facebook.com/fauzia.zohra.rafique
@RafiqueFauzia
Update: June 2013
.
.
Related Content at Uddari
The Clowns of Blasphemy by Fauzia Rafique
Aahr 2011 by Fauzia Rafique
Blasphemy vendetta: Pakistan 1990-2009
Stop Violence in the name of religion: Signature Campaign – Karachi April 14, 2012
For more, search Uddari with keyword ‘blasphemy’.
Fauzia Rafique
frafique@gmail.com
http://gandholi.wordpress.com/
FB Timeline: http://www.facebook.com/fauzia.zohra.rafique
FB Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fauzia-Rafique/444203518944054 (It’s new, LIKE?)
Uddari Weblog
uddari@live.ca
FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Uddari-Weblog/333586816691660
.
.
Even though this story is about a porn ring operating in Europe and the USA but we know that similar establishments exist in other parts of the world too. We must be more careful about who takes care of our children regardless of them being relatives, friends or professionals. Sick minds who have the power over others even for short periods of time can make playthings out of defenceless human beings of any description. This group of people hunted babies and toddlers from 19 days to 4 years of age. The 43 men so far busted include a children’s puppeteer, a hotel manager, an emergency medical technician, and a day care worker.
.
This is the face of one predator – Uddari.
BOSTON — The men came from different walks of life on two continents: a children’s puppeteer in Florida, a hotel manager in Massachusetts, an emergency medical technician in Kansas, a day care worker in the Netherlands. In all, 43 men have been arrested over the past two years in a horrific, far-flung child porn network that unraveled like a sweater with a single loose thread.
In this case, the thread was a stuffed toy bunny.
The bunny, seen in a photo of a half-naked, distraught 18-month-old boy, was used to painstakingly trace a molester to Amsterdam. From there, investigators made one arrest after another of men accused of sexually abusing children, exchanging explicit photos of the attacks and even chatting online about abducting, cooking and eating youngsters.
Authorities have identified more than 140 young victims so far and say there is no end in sight as they pore through hundreds of thousands of images found on the suspects’ computers. They are also trying to determine whether the men who talked about murder and cannibalism actually committed such acts or were just sharing twisted fantasies.
The still-widening investigation has been code-named Holitna, after a river in Alaska with many tributaries.
“They are the worst of the worst,” said Bruce Foucart, agent in charge of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agency’s Homeland Security Investigations unit in Boston. “This isn’t just a child that’s nude and someone’s taking pictures of him; this is a child that’s being raped by an adult, which is horrific.”
The case began to unfold when Robert Diduca, a Sheraton hotel manager from Milford, Mass., sent the photo of the Dutch boy to an undercover federal agent in Boston. Diduca, a married father of three who used the screen name “Babytodd,” thought he was sending the picture to another man with a sexual interest in babies and toddlers.
Agents forwarded the photo to Interpol, the international police organization, and to several other countries.
An investigator for the Dutch police recognized the stuffed bunny as Miffy, a familiar character in a series of Dutch children’s books. She also traced the boy’s orange sweater to a small Amsterdam store that had sold only 20 others like it.
The boy’s photo was broadcast on a national TV program similar to “America’s Most Wanted.” Within minutes, friends and relatives called the child’s mother.
Robert Mikelsons, a 27-year-old day care worker who baby-sat the boy, was arrested. On his computer were thousands and thousands of images of children being molested and raped, including the boy holding the stuffed bunny.
Photos and online chats found on computers owned by Diduca and Mikelsons led to more than three dozen other suspects in seven countries, including Canada, Britain, Germany, Sweden and Mexico. The oldest victim in the Netherlands was 4, the youngest just 19 days old.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, whose office prosecuted Diduca, said the demand for photos of sexual assaults of young children, including babies and toddlers, has increased sharply in recent years.
“This demand leads to the abuse of children, yet there is this misconception that somehow, viewing child pornography is a victimless crime,” said. “It clearly is not.”
Diduca pleaded guilty to child porn and sexual exploitation charges and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. His lawyer, Richard Sweeney, said Diduca was sexually abused as a child by a Boy Scout leader. “He gets it, he knows he needs to be punished, he knows what he did is wrong,” Sweeney said.
Mikelsons also received an 18-year sentence, followed by indefinite psychiatric commitment, after confessing to sexually abusing more than 80 children.
The horror did not let up after the Mikelsons case.
In May, authorities arrested Michael Arnett of Roeland Park, Kan., after finding pornographic photos he allegedly produced. Agents discovered the pictures when they searched the computer of a Wisconsin man who had been chatting online with Mikelsons.
What they found on Arnett’s computer was unlike anything some of the investigators had ever come across: long, graphic, online chats about his desire to abduct, kill and eat children. They said he had also made photos of a naked 2-year-old boy in a roasting pan inside his oven. The child and two other boys Arnett allegedly abused and photographed were later identified and found alive.
In July, authorities arrested four men they say had online discussions with Arnett about kidnapping and eating children. Those arrested included Ronald Brown, a children’s puppeteer from Largo, Fla. (A YouTube video shows Brown during an appearance on a Christian TV kids show in the 1980s. In the video, he tells a child puppet that he did the right thing by refusing to look at “dirty pictures” some other youngsters tried to show him.)
In excerpts of an online chat between Arnett and Brown from 2011, the two men appear to be discussing their desire to cook a child for Easter.
“he would make a fine Easter feast,” Arnett says.
“yes, his thighs and butt cheeks would be fantastic for Easter,” Brown responds.
A lawyer for Arnett would not comment on the allegations. Brown’s lawyer did not return calls.
Prosecutors said Brown acknowledged his online conversations but said that it was all a fantasy and that he would never hurt anyone.
“Obviously the discussions regarding their claims of cannibalism are disturbing and a concern to our agency,” said ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein. He said agents are following all leads “to make sure these individuals didn’t follow through on any of their claims.”
To find the young victims, investigators carefully studied thousands of photos, read hours of Internet chats and worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They also employed some forensic wizardry.
After finding a video on Diduca’s computer of a bound, 2-year-old boy being raped, investigators enhanced the images of furniture and carpet and determined the attack took place in a motel room in Bakersfield, Calif.
Then they pinpointed the date by way of a TV that was playing in the background in the video, figuring out exactly when a particular episode of “Family Matters” aired along with a certain Pepperidge Farms commercial.
A man from Black Forest, Colo., was arrested and is awaiting trial.
Similarly, in the Arnett case, investigators discovered that a water bottle in one of the photographs carried the name of a swim and scuba center in Overland Park, Kan. With the help of teachers at an elementary school, they identified three children shown in the photographs, including the toddler posed in the roasting pan.
The mother of one of the boys said she initially did not believe the allegations against Arnett, a family friend for about 15 years. She said her son, now 7, and several nephews often spent weekends at Arnett’s home four or five years ago.
“Well, when we first got the phone call, we thought there’s no way. You guys got the wrong guy,” she said. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual abuse or their families.
But then investigators showed her photos Arnett had allegedly taken of her son with a shirt and no pants.
“Regret? For sending my son with a sick-minded guy, that’s the only regret I have. I had no idea,” she said. “It’s depressing.”
For the agents working on the case, the leads never seem to end.
Last week, they arrested another Massachusetts man after finding child pornography and photos of what appeared to be dead children on his computer. He allegedly had online chats with Arnett and Brown.
More arrests are expected.
“The agents that work for me are extremely driven on this type of investigation,” said Bart Cahill, assistant agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston. “They really believe that they are taking out horrific violators and saving kids.”
DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press
Associated Press writers Maria Sudekum in Kansas City, Mo., and Matt Sedensky in West Palm Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.
From
Huffington Post
.
.
A regional court in Cologne, Germany has effectively banned the circumcision of young boys, subject only to medical exception. Such a position has been proposed by various individuals and groups throughout the Western world, and can be refuted along several lines.
For instance, neither the right to security of the person nor to gender equality should operate in such a way as to proscribe male circumcision on the grounds that it is comparable to the justifiably prohibited custom of female genital mutilation (FGM).
FGM is sometimes termed female circumcision, but this is a misnomer as it implies a minor operation equivalent to male circumcision. According to Doriane Coleman, a Duke University law professor whose expertise is children and the law, “This analogy can and has been rejected as specious and disingenuous, as the traditional forms of FGM are as different from male circumcision in terms of procedure, physical ramifications, and motivation as ear piercing is to a penilectomy.”
The World Health Organization is also clear that:
“FGM has no health benefits, and it harms girls and women in many ways. It involves removing and damaging healthy and normal female genital tissue, and interferes with the natural functions of girls’ and women’s bodies.”
The immediate and long-term consequences of FGM are too numerous to catalog here, but include severe pain; shock; hemorrhage (which can be so severe as to cause death); tetanus or sepsis; infertility; and an increased risk of childbirth complications and newborn deaths. In a 1997 joint statement, the WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA declared “FGM to be universally unacceptable, as it is an infringement on the physical and psychosexual integrity of women and girls and is a form of violence against them.”
What, then, does the WHO have to say about male circumcision?
That it “is one of the oldest and most common surgical procedures worldwide, and is undertaken for many reasons: religious, cultural, social and medical. There is conclusive evidence from observational data and three randomized controlled trials that circumcised men have a significantly lower risk of becoming infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).”
Dr. Kirsten Patrick acknowledges in her 2007 British Medical Journal article that while male circumcision carries a complication rate somewhere between 0.2 per cent and 3 per cent, the procedure carries little risk if capably performed. She also notes its health benefits and draws a comparison to standard childhood immunizations, “a procedure for which the infant cannot give consent and which carries the risk of adverse events ranging from fever to anaphylaxis and aseptic meningitis.”
In the absence of strong and non-conflicting medical evidence that male circumcision regularly causes substantial harm to young boys, the arguments against the procedure are severely weakened. Since male circumcision and FGM are simply incomparable, gender equality should not demand the banning of the former just because the latter is illegal. And while the right to security of the person is certainly implicated by circumcision, the low risk of harm (and the fact that most complications are extremely minor) means that this right should be balanced against other compelling rights, such as religious freedom.
It is well known that the circumcision of baby boys is mandated by the Jewish religion. In fact, this ritual is so essential to Jewish peoplehood and covenantal identity that a former professor of mine specializing in minority rights once suggested that preventing Jews from circumcising their sons could amount to genocide. Such an argument elicits particular discomfort given that a German court has outlawed the procedure. Male circumcision within the first few years of boy’s life is also strongly encouraged by the Islamic faith. Perhaps the only positive outcome of the German ruling is that Jews, Muslims, and even Christians have united to protest the profound infringement on their religious freedom. They were not alone: the UN’s Special Rapporteur on religious freedom, Heiner Bielefeldt, and German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle also added their voices to the criticism.
According to the German court, the right to religious freedom “would not be unduly impaired” because the child could later decide for himself whether to have the circumcision. Aside from the court’s interference with a religious precept that the ritual must take place long before adulthood, the judgment could ironically cause greater harm to one’s bodily integrity because circumcision for adolescents and adults, as compared to infants, is more complicated and has a higher rate of adverse effects.
Here in Canada, a court could evaluate the right to security of the person as provided by section 7 of the Charter not only in the context of section 2(a) of the Charter, which guarantees freedom of religion, but also section 27, which provides that the “Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.”
Indeed, the German ruling makes for a compelling argument in favour of Canada’s multiculturalism policies, which are essentially grounded in the notion that individual rights are not always enough to protect a minority group’s traditions and values, and that the recognition of special group rights is therefore necessary.
In other words, failing to recognize the fundamental importance of male circumcision to both Jewish and Muslim religious traditions may be qualitatively different than undermining an individual parent’s right to make choices on behalf of his/her child.
Of course, the protection of minority rights must have limits. Inherently harmful minority customs like FGM and honour killings can never be justified. But male circumcision does not belong in that category so long as both parents consent to the procedure and, most importantly, it is performed competently.
Multiculturalism policies, when instituted properly, can enhance a society’s security by making minority groups feel welcome and accepted, rather than disenfranchised and disconnected from the state. Yes, lines must be drawn somewhere. But there are insufficient medical, legal, and moral grounds to draw that line at male circumcision.
Sheryl Saperia is the Director of Policy for Canada, Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow her on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/sherylsap
From From Huffington Post, Canada
.
.
Please vote “no” against the proposal to conduct Muslim prayers in Toronto’s public schools. The Poll is on the left upper side of the following web page:
http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/
Request sent by Homa Arjomand.
Case Details
Groups protest Muslim prayers at Toronto public school
2011/07/25 | Michael Talbot, CityNews.ca
Several faith-based groups protested outside the Toronto District School Board’s headquarters Monday over Muslim prayers taking place in a Toronto school.
For three years, hundreds of students have been praying in the cafeteria at Valley Park Middle School during their lunch hour. The school doesn’t run or pay for the service.
TDSB director of education Chris Spence said the decision to hold the prayer sessions was made in consultation with the school community.
The service is operated by members of the Valley Park community, and was un-opposed by parents of other students at the school before Ron Banerjee, claiming to represent a group called the Canadian Hindu Advocacy, began complaining earlier this year.
“When you have 400 students coming in and out of class…it’s extremely disruptive,” said Banerjee, who organized Monday’s protest. “It’s discriminatory. It raises lots of questions in terms of ‘Why are Muslims alone being allowed to do this?’ This is part of the Islam-ification of society.”
Members of the Jewish Defence League of Canada and the Christian Heritage Group also took part in the protest.
80 per cent of Valley Park students are Muslim, and the school began the Friday services to prevent students from missing classes to pray at a nearby mosque.
The TDSB defended the sessions, saying it’s simply trying to accommodate the religious beliefs of its many Muslim students, as mandated by the Ontario Human Rights Code.
It said the issue is not one about religion in schools but about religious accommodation.
“We have a predominantly Muslim population in the student body, so the parents were asking for a space where we can provide for Friday prayers,” board trustee, Shaun Chen previously told CityNews.
Banerjee doesn’t buy it.
“If they want to accommodate the Muslim students, they get a one hour lunch break, the mosque is five minutes away, they can just tell them to pack a lunch and during your one-hour break go off to the mosque.”
In the meantime, Canada’s largest Hindu group, Canadian Hindu Network, says the views of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy are not representative of mainstream Hindus.
.
.
This item is presented for the information it contains regarding child abuse in Afghanistan. It’s pro-Taliban stance is unacceptable to this web page.
Contributor: Musa Khan Jalalzai
In recent two e-mails I received from the parents of two teenage girls who were forcefully married to wealthy and powerful Tajik war criminals in Northern Afghanistan, they have painted heart-broken stories of their innocent daughters’ torture, humiliation and imprisonment by their ignorant husbands. Sajida and Rashida were barely 12 years old at the time of their marriage. The story, though interesting but ignominious. I am not going to comment it in detail as I have limited space here.
The recent sale of two more Afghan girls in separate incidents in the hands of Uzbek war criminals has sparked concern about the protection of young girls in Northern Afghanistan. Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has received hundreds complaints about the sale of teenager girls in Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kunduz, Jaozjan, Shiberghan, Baghlan, Samangan and Takhar provinces. In Takhar province, a nine year old girl was sold for just 240 dollars while in Baghlan, 11 years old girl was sold to a Tajik warlord for only 300 dollars.
Sex trade and male prostitution has brought disgrace and shame to Afghanistan. (Sex trade and male prostitution has taken deep roots in the country after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001). The Persian word, Bacha Bazi means “boy play” or “boy for play.” As per its conservative nature, in Afghan society, women either prostitute or professional are not allowed to perform dance among the male parties, therefore, in all parties arranged by warlords and their cronies, play boys are lured to dance all the night.
Warlords in Northern Afghanistan, according to press reports, recruit young boys for sex and dance, while local authorities remain powerless in stopping the practice. Bacha Bereesh of ages 15 to 20 are normally dressed in women cloths, dancing all the night then abused by several men.
The issue is very complicated. According to press reports, more than one hundred thousands Afghan men and women are suffering from HIV and Aids. Local warlords in Northern Afghanistan don’t even know about the fatal consequences of prostitution and sex trafficking business. There is huge increase in the number of sex workers in the country. US Department of State report (2007) has placed Afghanistan as a source, transit, for women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation In Afghanistan, Chinese and Afghan women serve both Afghans and foreigners in guest houses and brothels. Under the Afghan law, sex trade and prostitution is often considered adultery, which is punishable by five to 15 years in prison.
Recent investigative reports have revealed some facts and figures about the play boy hobbies in Pashtun majority provinces. Pashtun transport mafia is deeply involved with the business and every two in ten Pashtun truck drivers are involved in male prostitution. In Paktia, Paktika, Ghazni, Bannu, Waziristan, Zabul, Quetta, Kandahar and Khost, male prostitution is not considered an illegal custom. Every young and old man, if they want can have you boy.
Recently I was told by one of my Afghan friend in London that some Afghan male prostitutes have claimed asylum in the UK due to the fear of their persecution in returning to Afghanistan. They are sexually abused, and they are even bought and sold. Fights take place over these bacha bereesh. It’s increasing day by day, and it’s catastrophic. To dress up their actions, the men involved in sex trade often insist these boys are to be dressed up in women’s clothing and dancing in front of groups of paying men. Man-boy homosexuality has flourished anew in the aftermath of Taliban zero-tolerance laws, albeit a selectively punished offence in that era. Afghan boys are mostly turn to sex work and a life on the streets because they were fleeing something worse at home.
In the past, Brothels were openly allowed in the street of Kabul and they openly enjoyed this business. Islam doesn’t allow such a practice and count it as one of the most sinful acts. Afghan Ulema are of the opinion that making boys dance and sexually abuse is not allowed in Islam. Afghan police officers are deeply involved in male prostitution while Interior Ministry in Kabul has recently received thousands complaints from locals regarding the police sexual attacks on young boys.
An intelligence website, Wikileaks recently released a cable from Afghanistan revealing U.S. government contractor DynCorp involvement in boy play business. DynCorp is a company of private militia training Afghan police force. According to recent reports, more than ninety five percent budget of the militia comes from the US and part of that is being spent on child abuse parties and sex trafficking in Northern Afghanistan.
To meet the sexual needs of the Afghan police officers, in December 2010, as Wiki Leak Cable reported DynCorp purchased young boys for Afghan policemen. The boys were to be used in Bacha bazi. DynCorp members and officers have already been engaged in sex with 12 to 15 year old children, and sold them to each other as slaves in Bosnia. After the WikiLeak revelations about the DynCorp involvement in sex trade in Northern Afghanistan, Afghan Interior Ministry carried out a thorough investigation against the private militia company.
The investigation resulted in the arrest of two Afghan police and nine other Afghans for the crime of “purchasing a service from a child.” The US State Department began its own investigation whether DynCorp had ignored signs of drug abuse among employees in Afghanistan or not, but Inspector General of the State Department in its report concluded that dancing boy incident is no criminal activity in Afghanistan.
This shameless practice has also prompted Defence Department of the United States to hire a social scientist, Anna Maria to investigate the problem, as several US soldiers on patrol often passed older men walking hand-in-hand with pretty young boys.There are thousands young boys undergone ordeals. But actual numbers of these vulnerable boys are not known.
The views shared in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the AHRC, and the AHRC takes no responsibility for them.
About the Author: The Writer is author of Afghanistan Beyond 2014 and Punjabi Taliban; he can be reached at: zai.musakhan222@gmail.com.
http://www.humanrights.asia/opinions/columns/AHRC-ETC-035-2011
.
.
Join us for a book reading, Q&A and signing with
Farzana Doctor
Author of ‘Stealing Nasreen’ and ‘Six Metres of Pavement’
Tuesday, July 26
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium
1238 Davie Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
Free
Everyone welcome
Books for sale
Farzana Doctor is a Toronto-based author and the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s prestigious Dayne Ogilvie Grant for an emerging gay Canadian author (2011). Her first novel, Stealing Nasreen, received critical acclaim and earned a devoted readership upon its release in 2007. She is currently touring her second book, Six Metres of Pavement (Dundurn 2011), which Publishers Weekly has praised as “..a paean to second chances.” In her spare time, she provides private practice consulting and psychotherapy services and is a co-curator of the Brockton Writers Series. www.farzanadoctor.com
Watch the book trailer
http://www.youtube.com/
View Farzana’s interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYx3TZAtNIU&feature=related
Synopsis
Ismail Boxwala made the worst mistake of his life one summer morning twenty years ago: he forgot his baby daughter in the back seat of his car. After his daughter’s tragic death, he struggles to continue living. A divorce, years of heavy drinking, and sex with strangers only leave him more alone and isolated.
But Ismail’s story begins to change after he reluctantly befriends two women: Fatima, a young queer activist kicked out of her parents’ home; and Celia, his grieving Portuguese-Canadian neighbour who lives just six metres away. A slow-simmering romance develops between Ismail and Celia. Meanwhile, dangers lead Fatima to his doorstep. Each makes complicated demands of him, ones he is uncertain he can meet.
http://www.dundurn.com/books/six_metres_pavement
From Trikone Vancouver
Information provided by Randeep Purewall.
.
Published On Thursday Jun 16 2011
Number of missing children shocks reconciliation chair, June 11
Hundreds of First Nations children who disappeared after being taken from their homes to attend residential schools from 1870 to the mid-1900s is a “big surprise for me,” said Murray Sinclair, the Manitoba judge who is chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“That such large numbers of children died at the schools. That the information of their deaths was not communicated back to their families.”
Manitoba has a very large population of indigenous people. Isn’t it odd that Manitoba’s first aboriginal judge, appointed to Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench in January 2001, would have no idea of the death toll, and didn’t or couldn’t make the leap to a correlation between violent, hate-based crimes on such a huge scale and death? For 30 years, Judge Sinclair’s main legal interests were civil, criminal and aboriginal law.
Your article says that the number of deaths is in the hundreds, when estimates have been as high as 60 per cent of the 150,000 children who were kidnapped and savaged. In 1909, Dr. Peter Bryce, general medical superintendent for Indian Affairs reported to the ministry that between 1894-1908, the mortality rate in western Canadian residential schools was between 35 per cent and 60 per cent.
The statistic, which became public in 1922, means that between 52,500 and 90,000 children are unaccounted for. Do we all really naively believe they died of natural causes? Mass graves have already been discovered. It is our holocaust. We want to bring the bones of our ancestors home.
The good judge had a breakfast meeting with power brokers from universities, the media, business and banking at the National Club. He said it’s important for the story of the schools to spread from our educational system to the corridors of corporate power.
You think we haven’t tried and tried? Who really wants to hear that our country and churches are responsible for so many innocent deaths? Good luck with that, Judge Sinclair.
Perhaps what might have been more compelling was to have some residential school survivors tell their story of humiliation, physical trauma and starvation over eggs benedict at the National Club. However, it probably would have required a set of squirm-proof chairs.
Shannon Thunderbird
First Nations Elder, Educator
Toronto
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters/article/1010290–a-holocaust-for-first-nations#.TfwdG3Q0Myc
Facebook Page
.
.
Uddari Weblog 