Negotiating Human Rights

Mary Zehri #46

I am proud and sad for you.

Proud that you acted. Sad at the price you had to pay for acting.

Don`t put too much faith in UDHR. It looks like things will get a lot worse, before they get any better.

rgds,

t

re mary

your response is so moving. i wish there was something we could do, i could do. i wish you all the best in your court case and everything else.

regards.

re temporal

yes, sadly, you are right, t. the UDHR isnt worth more than the paper its written on.

its an elitist, western, discourse that has no teeth. mostly, its a foreign policy tool of the US...and, things are getting worse in many places for many people.

the point, though, is that we all know certain basic things like dignity, freedom from fear, freedom from want are what we are entitled to as human beings. we didnt need franklin roosevelt to ``declare`` it and the UN to tell us that now we have these rights. we have them, even if the UN doesnt affirm them. but, we have to fight for them, as mary did. and unfortunately, in many parts of the world, the price you pay for fighting is so high. maybe, too high?

I would not like to repeat all that I wrote
in my last reply but ``Nameless``, Cheryam and
even little ``t`` seem to feel that some kind
of wrong had been done when I wrote:

``Is this a report on domestic violence which
should be condemned to its fullest or an attempt
to malign a country?``

I welcomed the exposure of wrongdoing here and
felt very sad that Mary had to leave a land that she had obviously developed an affection for.
But too much has been written in both this article
and the replies to implicate a whole nation. That
is something that I strongly object to.

I am a very firm believer in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I had it framed once
and even took it to Pakistan with me to share
with my father as the IDEAL of mankind. But
that was during the Zia Regime. And neither
the general or the bastion of human rights
AKA the United States were reading this declaration to the Pakistanis at then.

What we are seeing today in Pakistan is the product of being used to defend the free world.

Women are and have been LOSING ground since
the fall of ZAB in Pakistan. Their voice needs to
be heard and their rights restored.

Incidents like this one happen everywhere. It is good to know and act upon such information. The
best reply I have read so far was by someone who
asked how Basma could be helped.

Journalism is about reporting the news. Sometimes
due to the scarcity of all the facts news is
stretched. But you still cannot condemn a whole
country because of a shameful incident like this
one.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights still remains my ideal. The children of Kashmir and
the Basma`s of Iraq today are also waiting for
this ideal. Any suggestions?

Ras

Ras, I do not think any rational person will implicate any nation over a single incident. But one has to admit that these kind of incidents are all too common in our part of the world. One way of helping Basma is obvioulsy to circulate her story and draw attention of more people. At least you be aware of all the evils existing around you.

Hope you did not take any offence, see we have expectations from different contributors of Chowk. Ras, TAhmed should behave upto their images, while 19 year olds can behave the way they want!

Regards

cheraym

To mary,

May be you have a lot of friends, good ones in pakistan, and finally you are heart broken by the pak collective, the legal system. Befor you leave, learn something about the pak collective, actions of pakistanis to those who have done something good, to their memories. I have reproduced a news item from Frontier times in the Rahil Khan thread. Read it , visit the place of remebrance before you leave pakistan, and that should relieve you of a great burden, it will put your contribution and love of pakistan in the correct context.

Wish you the best and please leve india out of the posts.

Jay.

cheraym you write ``Ras, TAhmed should behave upto their images, while 19 year olds can behave the way they want!``

Actually, I dont think that is true. The great thing about discussion on the internet is that it is purely that, unmixed with things like personality, position in life, and so forth. In internet discussions, our words have to stand on their own merit. And we normally dont expect to ever meet the other people in real life, so there is no ``image`` to be concerned with.

cheraym #52
I tend to agree with you. An incidence of domestic violence cannot implicate or be used to implicate a whole nation. But misuse of high official positions or of the state machinery to falsely implicate others and escape wrongdoing does certainly malign a country and its system.

Simply publishing an article on events which have already taken place doesnot constitute an `insult to the nation`. Thats another reason why the authenticity of reportage is important(apart from preventing against defamation of individuals)

If the report is true, here are the people who one ought to be `strongly objected to`, not those who replied to this article.

``Members of the Kazi family who were actively involved in using all available means to harass the Zehris were: Professor Ahmed Kazi (father), former advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; Mustafa Kemal Kazi (brother), recently appointed as Ambassador of Pakistan to the Netherlands; Iqbal Kazi (brother), former Secretary Industries in Sindh; Farooq Kazi (brother), an engineer with the Sindh government; Dr. Mohammad Ahmed Kazi, Deputy National Health Coordinator with Ministry of Health; Mustafa Jamal Kazi (brother), District Magistrate in Sindh; and the infamous Farooq Amin Qureshi (brother-in-law), the former Deputy Inspector General of Karachi Police who is now the key witness in the hijacking case against Pakistan`s former Prime Minister, Mian Nawaz Sharif. ``

And it would be only fair to hear the other side of the issue.

Sadhana

Mary Z #46

I have the deepest regard and respect for your emotions,thoughts and your decision to migrate.

I feel sad for you and ashamed that I am the part of a society that has been unjustful to you and has spread distrust in the hearts of your family.

I assure you that, Inshallah,when your daughters grow up and are faced with a decision to settle either in the States or Pakistan,they would proudly and confidently choose the later.

I am sure of that as I feel that there is still hope to come.

As someone rightly said ``this is the beginning of the end``...the end of opression, suppression, corruption and lawlessness in Pakistan.

and when the new sun rises you shall be proud of your adopted(chosen) homeland, the Land of Pure.

MORE POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

MORE POWER TO YOU!

cheers,

Taimur Altaf Malik.

jay, I knew it was a question of time before you came shuffling in with your usual gibberish.

To Mary Z,

There is a person called Lala Lajpat Roy in the indian independance movement. Please read about him, his sacrifices and his contribution to the indian/pak independance. Then visit his home, some where in lahore in dilapilated condition. Spend a few seconds infront of the home, think of your contribution compared to Roy`s, and have a last glace at the derelict building, you will walk away a wise person, and a lot will be revealed about pakistan, present and the future. Turn your sadness into wisdom.

Regards and best wishes.

Jay

Thank you Sadhana. I thought that the thrust of this article was not about domestic violence (which is quite common in many cultures), but about how people of power can get away with anything they want in our countries!

Tahmed, I tend to disagree with you on the last post. No matter where one is interacting, whether it is a conventional medium or internet, I think most people tend to follow natural instinct and thus reacting to an issue is very much characteristic of a person (subjective one). Although, ideally it should be more objective than subjective. You tend to form an opinion depending on how you feel about an issue. Otherwise, there will not be too much emphasis on chosing a national leader based on his/her opinions about various issues. See how Advani, although quite capable and forthright is generally not accepted by Indian mainstream as a prime minister because of his rather strong views. It is possible that he probably may act more leniently towards muslim views on certain issues, but people have personified him as a radical politician based on his words and words alone! I hope I am making some sense, that is why I prefer to be a technical writer than anything else.

My simple point to Ras was that since he is a journalist, he should have seen the development of this incident as it was presented, once the authenticity of the article was proven.

Jay, India`s name will come inevitably since you and I like many other Indians chose to interact in this forum. And what is so wrong about that? Don`t we have these problems in our country as well?

Regards

cheraym

To Mary Z,

There is a place called Taxila in pakistan. It was the seat of a great University where studies of austronomy, ayurveda etc flourished during the Gupta, hope I am correct, period. Now read the pakistan history from pak.org, the official version that form the basis of education in pakistan. The easeness with which the history has been eliminated.

Then read the john joss thread, responses 1 to 4, and note the audacious confidence with which a famour quote has been appropriated, clearly indicating a prediliction.

May be, when you leave pakistan, just ponder, what have you left behind...

Regards and best wishes for stay in another country which you can contrast with.

Jay.

jay Thackeray #60:

Read posts #1, 7 & 8: on the JJ thread.

Please remember to take your prescription orally, not ...

concerned,

temporal

The horrifying tale of Ismail Zehri & his wife Mary has left me stunned and shocked.Not to say seething with fury. Not only at the so-called ``socially well known`` Kazis But at the corrupt,

inept,repulsive,Pakistani system.Violation of Human Rights in Pakistan is a way of life and I am indignant at the way both local & international communities passively watch the mass muder of human dignity.

Ismail Zehri and I are school friends and if I know a `wonderful` human being, that is Ismail. Always smiling, warm, courteous, and dignified Ismail is a happily married man. I have met his wife and she is more conservatively dressed than most Pak women. She not only wears a shalwar kameez but her dupatta always covers her head. Dignified and kind, Mary is the perfect mate for Ismail. It makes me mad when I think of the torture, a kind soul like Ismail must have suffered at the hands of the brutal police.

This is a classic case of `abuse of power` when the Kazis used their influence to harrass the Zehris instead of sending their mentally unstable brother to a psychiatrist.

I want the world to know, Ismail Zehri and his wife Mary are not the sort of people to interfere

in anyone`s life but Basma being a cousin sister, it is but natural to feel that protectiveness. I am outraged at the charges slapped on the Zehris.

Taliban, bin Laden and drugs are stuff Ismail and Mary read only papers. But I Trust the Process...

and I know(history has proved in the past) dictatorship and authoritarianism of any kind eventually crash and Truth surfaces.

There is Hope for Ismail & Mary, not because I believe in the Government or the Courts of Pakistan BUT God is watching us.... and HE knows the truth.

The truth is: Ismail and Mary are INNOCENT.

cheraym #59 If I have understood you correctly, you are saying that we form our views on what someone says are formed based on (a) our existing image of that person as well as on (b) the specific statements that person makes. That is generally accepted to be true, and I do not disagree. The point is that our image of a person is formed by his/her appearance and position in life as well as the substance of what he/she says. On the internet, we cannot see the person, do not know what he/she does in real life, and so forth. So, the statements a person makes stand or fall largely on their own merits. If you are interested in this subject, I recall reading an article on this subject in the magazine Scientific American (dated around 1998) that described studies showing how the use of email for communication has tended to democratize offices.

Mrs. Mary Zehri,

I join others on the Chowk in expressing my sorrow at what happened and in commending you on confronting the man who was abusing his wife. The behavior of the police was disgraceful. I pray that our country is able to overcome the dark forces of hatreds, greed and oppression of the strong that threaten us from within, and that one day the great beauty of the land and the people of which you wrote so generously, can shine through. I wish you and your family all the best.