A Cultural Revolution?
Zia Ahmed March 9, 2002
#44 Posted by saminashah on March 12, 2002 12:12:16 am
Urstruly, Hobbyty,
Well, I see we are back to posts about monkeys and broken mirrors...and still no response to the article about two people who have more integrity in their nail clippings than some cyber jihadis will ever have in a few dozen lifetimes. So lets go over it again, and this time, before you go back to the easy and cheap judgements, respond to this article and how the wicked spiritualism of the West has forced the poor journalists, Muftis and readership of Egypt to be complete idiots.
regards
Nawal El Saadawi Basics
Egypt was once the tolerant face of the Arab world, but even before the terrorist attacks of 11 September an Islamic backlash had bred a new intolerance. The most recent victim of this intolerance is feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi.
Fiona Lloyd-Davies reports
Nawal El Saadawi is the first woman in Egyptian history to be threatened with a forced divorce for expressing her views. She was accused of apostasy - renouncing one`s religion - for allegedly insulting Islam.
Apostasy is a crime in Islam and the consequences are serious. If found guilty Nawal would be forcibly divorced from Sherif, her husband of 37 years and face a three-year prison term.
The views expressed by 70- year old Nawal enrage people and her shock of flowing, white hair causes outrage. Whether you agree with what she says or not it is hard to ignore her.
Meeting Nawal
When I arrive at her 26th floor apartment I am struck by two of the most dramatic views of Cairo you could ask for. From the sitting room, a large window opens onto a balcony from where you can see the Nile snaking its way into the distance, the artery of the country.
Opposite, from the kitchen you see the reverse view, the higgledy piggledy rooftops of the city of Cairo, home to nine million people.
It`s easy to write about justice, and beauty, and things like that: but it`s more difficult to do something about it. She`s tried to put what she believes into action
Sherif
Here in this tower, as the Nile breeze relieves the heat of the desert and the dust of the city traffic, you feel you are in the heart of Cairo but distanced from it at the same time. Not unlike Nawal - an Arab and a Muslim but also a feminist fighting against convention for parity of the sexes.
Her eyes burn bright with an intensity and passion when we talk about rights - the right to express yourself, the right to think, the right to fight for an equal society.
Nawal and Sherif
Now, Nawal and Sherif are fighting a battle that threatens them both.
They first met after Sherif was released from 15 years` imprisonment for illegal leftist political activism. He was 40 and had spent his youth in solitary confinement and breaking rocks in a scalding desert prison known as ``the Incinerator``.
Nawal`s husband, Dr Sherif Hetata
``We don`t believe in just writing,`` says Sherif. ``We think that writers should try to put what they say into some form of action.
``It`s easy to write about justice, and beauty, and things like that but it`s more difficult to do something about it. She`s tried to put what she believes into action, and do something about it, and speak out and that`s why she has all these problems.``
Nawal`s outspokenness has caused her many problems. As the first Arab woman to speak out against female circumcision 30 years ago Nawal was sacked from her ministerial job of Director of Public Health.
In 1981 after criticising Sadat`s regime she was imprisoned. Nawal`s name appeared on a fundamentalist death list and both she and Sherif were forced into exile.
But neither Nawal nor Sherif saw this latest battle looming.
The interview
It all started this March when Nawal agreed to be interviewed by Wahid Ra`fat, a journalist working for an Egyptian weekly, Al Maydan.
There was a lot to talk about - four of Nawal`s books had just been banned at the Cairo Book Fair, not an unusual event in Egypt but certainly enough to cause comment.
``I spoke how social and economic changes are happening and how we have to modify these laws and to educate people more about the essence of Islam and to change some of the laws``
-Nawal el Saadawi
It appeared that he knew her work, and Nawal talked about her well known and controversial feminist views on sex and religion. She constantly challenges attitudes to sexuality, the practices of veiling, female circumcision. She condemed the exploitation of religion for political ends.
``I spoke how social and economic changes are happening and how we have to modify these laws and to educate people more about the essence of Islam and to change some of the laws,`` she said. ``I have written that many times and nothing happened.``
What Nawal failed to take into account was how the current climate has changed so radically that even the freedom to speak openly is now in question.
Journalist, Wahid Ra`fat, with a copy of the interview
Cairo may have the air of a Western city but a new, conservative Islam is catching the hearts and minds of ordinary people, stifling any social, cultural or religious questioning that might once have been allowed. Also, at the time of the interview, Muslims were returning from Hajj - the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
It was in this atmosphere that Nawal spoke her ``well-known`` mind.
During the course of the interview, Nawal had referred to the historically accepted fact that elements of the Hajj, such as kissing the black stone had pre-Islamic, pagan roots.
The journalist couldn`t believe his ears. All he heard was Nawal calling the Hajj pagan. ``You`re opening fire,`` he said to Nawal. ``Yes`` she replied, ``but people should know``.
The newspaper articles
Ra`fat returned to his editor, Mohamed Hassan Alafy, who saw immediately that the story would run and run. He led the front page that week with ``Dr Nawal El Saadawi says Hajj is a remnant of paganism.``
``We want her to be beheaded.``
Reader`s letter to Al Maydan
Readers of the newspaper were led to excerpts of Nawal`s interview with the line: ``She has exploded bombs by her inflammatory opinions.``
Mr Alafy, an urbane man who speaks fluent English, looked at us with incredulity when we asked him why he published this. ``We publish the newspaper to have a reaction - if you don`t have a reaction you are a dead newspaper right?`` And he got a reaction.
The next issue featured responses to Nawal`s interview from Islamic scholars. Alongside them were printed four readers` letters, one of which called for Nawal to be beheaded. The reader had written: ``Nawal Al Saadawi says things in her interview that don`t just humiliate Islam but also don`t respect Allah the greatest. We want her to be beheaded.``
Grand Mufti, Sheik Nas Farid Wassel
Next, the paper upped the stakes by taking the interview to the Grand Mufti, eager to get a fatwa. Four weeks after the first hysterical headlines the paper led with Nawal`s story once more, but this time it read ``Nawal angers Mufti...``
This was a green light. Now anyone who wanted to be seen as defender of the faith had legitimacy from the highest Islamic authority in the land. The Mufti had been clear - if Nawal had said what the paper claimed she had said, there was no doubt, she had rejected Islam.
The lawyer
One man, a lawyer named Nabih el Wahsh, decided to seize the moment, knowing that the situation was ripe for a public battle between the conservative interpretation of Islam and the more liberal attitudes towards freedom of speech.
``She also denied a verse in the Koran which says that men are entitled to twice the inheritance of women. Who is she to demand equality? Is she greater than God?``
Nabih el Wahsh
Nabih was used to high profile cases. He had incurred a few wry column inches in the world press after the infamous case he brought against the British Royal family for orchestrating the death of Princess Diana. In Egypt`s present climate his maverick court actions can do real harm.
What was it that had infuriated him so much? ``Firstly, her denial of the Hajj, which is one pillar of Islam. She categorically said that Hajj and the kissing of the black stone are remnants of paganism. She also denied a verse in the Koran which says that men are entitled to twice the inheritance of women. Who is she to demand equality? Is she greater than God?``
In his self-appointed role as guardian of the faith, Nabih el Wahsh invoked the ancient Islamic law of Hisba. Under Hisba any individual can sue another if they believe they are harming a person or religion. Nawal found herself accused of insulting religion. ``I am the only woman in Islamic history that they`ve applied Hisba to, it`s ridiculous,`` she said.
Egypt was watching closely. While she was accused of religious dissent many journalists were sceptical of Wahsh`s motives - was he really protecting Islam?
The verdict
Finally, after some prevarication, the court declared on 30th July that there was no case to answer. She will not go to prison and she and Sherif will not be forcibly divorced.
Nawal El Saadawi faces a dilemma
But she has a dilemma. Either she can leave the country and speak freely about the situation in Egypt or she can stay and face danger every time anybody chooses to exploit religion for personal or political gain.
Since the events of 11 September it has become even more difficult to criticise Islam from within, but Nawal El Sadaawi is determined to carry on her struggle.
Well, I see we are back to posts about monkeys and broken mirrors...and still no response to the article about two people who have more integrity in their nail clippings than some cyber jihadis will ever have in a few dozen lifetimes. So lets go over it again, and this time, before you go back to the easy and cheap judgements, respond to this article and how the wicked spiritualism of the West has forced the poor journalists, Muftis and readership of Egypt to be complete idiots.
regards
Nawal El Saadawi Basics
Egypt was once the tolerant face of the Arab world, but even before the terrorist attacks of 11 September an Islamic backlash had bred a new intolerance. The most recent victim of this intolerance is feminist writer Nawal El Saadawi.
Fiona Lloyd-Davies reports
Nawal El Saadawi is the first woman in Egyptian history to be threatened with a forced divorce for expressing her views. She was accused of apostasy - renouncing one`s religion - for allegedly insulting Islam.
Apostasy is a crime in Islam and the consequences are serious. If found guilty Nawal would be forcibly divorced from Sherif, her husband of 37 years and face a three-year prison term.
The views expressed by 70- year old Nawal enrage people and her shock of flowing, white hair causes outrage. Whether you agree with what she says or not it is hard to ignore her.
Meeting Nawal
When I arrive at her 26th floor apartment I am struck by two of the most dramatic views of Cairo you could ask for. From the sitting room, a large window opens onto a balcony from where you can see the Nile snaking its way into the distance, the artery of the country.
Opposite, from the kitchen you see the reverse view, the higgledy piggledy rooftops of the city of Cairo, home to nine million people.
It`s easy to write about justice, and beauty, and things like that: but it`s more difficult to do something about it. She`s tried to put what she believes into action
Sherif
Here in this tower, as the Nile breeze relieves the heat of the desert and the dust of the city traffic, you feel you are in the heart of Cairo but distanced from it at the same time. Not unlike Nawal - an Arab and a Muslim but also a feminist fighting against convention for parity of the sexes.
Her eyes burn bright with an intensity and passion when we talk about rights - the right to express yourself, the right to think, the right to fight for an equal society.
Nawal and Sherif
Now, Nawal and Sherif are fighting a battle that threatens them both.
They first met after Sherif was released from 15 years` imprisonment for illegal leftist political activism. He was 40 and had spent his youth in solitary confinement and breaking rocks in a scalding desert prison known as ``the Incinerator``.
Nawal`s husband, Dr Sherif Hetata
``We don`t believe in just writing,`` says Sherif. ``We think that writers should try to put what they say into some form of action.
``It`s easy to write about justice, and beauty, and things like that but it`s more difficult to do something about it. She`s tried to put what she believes into action, and do something about it, and speak out and that`s why she has all these problems.``
Nawal`s outspokenness has caused her many problems. As the first Arab woman to speak out against female circumcision 30 years ago Nawal was sacked from her ministerial job of Director of Public Health.
In 1981 after criticising Sadat`s regime she was imprisoned. Nawal`s name appeared on a fundamentalist death list and both she and Sherif were forced into exile.
But neither Nawal nor Sherif saw this latest battle looming.
The interview
It all started this March when Nawal agreed to be interviewed by Wahid Ra`fat, a journalist working for an Egyptian weekly, Al Maydan.
There was a lot to talk about - four of Nawal`s books had just been banned at the Cairo Book Fair, not an unusual event in Egypt but certainly enough to cause comment.
``I spoke how social and economic changes are happening and how we have to modify these laws and to educate people more about the essence of Islam and to change some of the laws``
-Nawal el Saadawi
It appeared that he knew her work, and Nawal talked about her well known and controversial feminist views on sex and religion. She constantly challenges attitudes to sexuality, the practices of veiling, female circumcision. She condemed the exploitation of religion for political ends.
``I spoke how social and economic changes are happening and how we have to modify these laws and to educate people more about the essence of Islam and to change some of the laws,`` she said. ``I have written that many times and nothing happened.``
What Nawal failed to take into account was how the current climate has changed so radically that even the freedom to speak openly is now in question.
Journalist, Wahid Ra`fat, with a copy of the interview
Cairo may have the air of a Western city but a new, conservative Islam is catching the hearts and minds of ordinary people, stifling any social, cultural or religious questioning that might once have been allowed. Also, at the time of the interview, Muslims were returning from Hajj - the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
It was in this atmosphere that Nawal spoke her ``well-known`` mind.
During the course of the interview, Nawal had referred to the historically accepted fact that elements of the Hajj, such as kissing the black stone had pre-Islamic, pagan roots.
The journalist couldn`t believe his ears. All he heard was Nawal calling the Hajj pagan. ``You`re opening fire,`` he said to Nawal. ``Yes`` she replied, ``but people should know``.
The newspaper articles
Ra`fat returned to his editor, Mohamed Hassan Alafy, who saw immediately that the story would run and run. He led the front page that week with ``Dr Nawal El Saadawi says Hajj is a remnant of paganism.``
``We want her to be beheaded.``
Reader`s letter to Al Maydan
Readers of the newspaper were led to excerpts of Nawal`s interview with the line: ``She has exploded bombs by her inflammatory opinions.``
Mr Alafy, an urbane man who speaks fluent English, looked at us with incredulity when we asked him why he published this. ``We publish the newspaper to have a reaction - if you don`t have a reaction you are a dead newspaper right?`` And he got a reaction.
The next issue featured responses to Nawal`s interview from Islamic scholars. Alongside them were printed four readers` letters, one of which called for Nawal to be beheaded. The reader had written: ``Nawal Al Saadawi says things in her interview that don`t just humiliate Islam but also don`t respect Allah the greatest. We want her to be beheaded.``
Grand Mufti, Sheik Nas Farid Wassel
Next, the paper upped the stakes by taking the interview to the Grand Mufti, eager to get a fatwa. Four weeks after the first hysterical headlines the paper led with Nawal`s story once more, but this time it read ``Nawal angers Mufti...``
This was a green light. Now anyone who wanted to be seen as defender of the faith had legitimacy from the highest Islamic authority in the land. The Mufti had been clear - if Nawal had said what the paper claimed she had said, there was no doubt, she had rejected Islam.
The lawyer
One man, a lawyer named Nabih el Wahsh, decided to seize the moment, knowing that the situation was ripe for a public battle between the conservative interpretation of Islam and the more liberal attitudes towards freedom of speech.
``She also denied a verse in the Koran which says that men are entitled to twice the inheritance of women. Who is she to demand equality? Is she greater than God?``
Nabih el Wahsh
Nabih was used to high profile cases. He had incurred a few wry column inches in the world press after the infamous case he brought against the British Royal family for orchestrating the death of Princess Diana. In Egypt`s present climate his maverick court actions can do real harm.
What was it that had infuriated him so much? ``Firstly, her denial of the Hajj, which is one pillar of Islam. She categorically said that Hajj and the kissing of the black stone are remnants of paganism. She also denied a verse in the Koran which says that men are entitled to twice the inheritance of women. Who is she to demand equality? Is she greater than God?``
In his self-appointed role as guardian of the faith, Nabih el Wahsh invoked the ancient Islamic law of Hisba. Under Hisba any individual can sue another if they believe they are harming a person or religion. Nawal found herself accused of insulting religion. ``I am the only woman in Islamic history that they`ve applied Hisba to, it`s ridiculous,`` she said.
Egypt was watching closely. While she was accused of religious dissent many journalists were sceptical of Wahsh`s motives - was he really protecting Islam?
The verdict
Finally, after some prevarication, the court declared on 30th July that there was no case to answer. She will not go to prison and she and Sherif will not be forcibly divorced.
Nawal El Saadawi faces a dilemma
But she has a dilemma. Either she can leave the country and speak freely about the situation in Egypt or she can stay and face danger every time anybody chooses to exploit religion for personal or political gain.
Since the events of 11 September it has become even more difficult to criticise Islam from within, but Nawal El Sadaawi is determined to carry on her struggle.
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#43 Posted by Chunkey Pandey on March 12, 2002 12:12:16 am
Its not that Pakistani female are less educated or not proficient in English...e,g, Semi ,Samina,Scout ..all are english as 1 st language speaking dudettes.There have been book writers too Tehmina Durrani ,Tahira Naqvi ,but they either write about cribbing how badly they were treated by there ex.Husbands or how Islam imposed & impeded there otherise Pulitzer ,Booker & even Nobel literary career cut short.Needless to say the only reason any body would read there book ,are the Hindians who want to spice up there drab sex life with fantasy of life behind the veil or legenderay 4 wives keeoping ``khar `` sb. or if it is Haramiou need ammunition to put down Aamir YLH & others about bashing islam for enslaving women & imaghinary again fantasy of Hindian about Aisha (razi alla ho anha)age & such perverted thaughts...
Coming back to my focus of post is why the hell Paskistani women prove there talent in areas that matter ....social issues,activism,peace,literacy,justice ,instead of being ``toy `` of mens playfull fancy desopite being few of the women who can write in English for wide audience?
Arundhati Roy is a Thrilling Political Icon Who
Represents the Coming of Age of Feminism
by Madeleine Bunting
When Arundhati Roy woke up at 5.30am this morning in Tihar prison, New Delhi, it must have struck her that reality was proving stranger than any fiction. Over the past week terrible communal violence in India has claimed hundreds of lives while the forces of law and order stood by. This has now been juxtaposed with the spectacle of a diminutive, softly spoken novelist being sent to one of the country`s most notorious prisons to uphold what the supreme court called the ``glory of the law`` because she dared to criticize it. Images of what constitutes the law in modern India absurdly collide.
Also See:
That is Arundhati Roy`s point, that is why she is in prison and why she is considering refusing to pay the 2,000 rupees (£30) fine which could see her one-day prison sentence stretching to three months. With a novelist`s eye for the power of symbolism and the activist`s understanding of the purpose of principle, Roy has succeeded in deeply embarrassing the Indian state`s much-vaunted pride as the world`s biggest democracy.
By refusing to apologize (as others in her position have done), she has tested the fabric of Indian democracy and it has disintegrated in her hands. Her visit to Tihar prison is as articulate as her essays, The End of the Imagination (her attack on India`s nuclear bomb) and Rumpelstiltskin (her attack on the collaboration between western corporations and the Indian ruling establishment), in describing the impact of globalization on India.
What has made Roy endlessly fascinating to the western media since she won the Booker Prize in 1997 is her shrewd understanding of how big subjects like nuclear bombs, dams, corporate power and democracy can be communicated to a huge new international audience. In part, it is a straightforward matter of applying her skills as a novelist, bringing wit and an eye for the telling detail to abstruse issues such as irrigation or electricity distribution and producing compelling political essays which are both witty and horrifying. In part, it has been about the skillful use of her international fame - fulfilling some expectations of a beautiful, successful novelist and confuting others.
She is acutely aware of how in the western media there is nothing more politically powerful than the personal, so she has used her own self to advance her cause. She is canny enough to know that part of the interest is in what it perceives as her exotic beauty; artlessly, she looks both traditional Indian - the Gandhi-esque homespun scarves - and modern gamine with her short cropped hair. Instinctively, she understands how all politics is a form of theater and her very stature speaks eloquently of a David and Goliath battle. Rather as Aung San Suu Kyi wears flowers in her hair, Roy wore pink in court, the newspapers reported, the color of life-affirming courage and an assertion of the quintessentially feminine in the face of clumsy state power.
What makes Roy so thrilling a political icon is that she represents the coming of age of feminism. It was the radical feminists of the 1960s who coined the phrase the personal is political, and now Roy, a celebrity in the global media, is bringing that insight to bear on the politics of globalization
Crucially - and this is where western feminists need to sit up and take notice - her feminism is not about imitating masculine models of achievement and competition, nor about sexual power; it is not about glass ceilings and stilettos. Her feminism is about articulating a voice and a sensibility which is authentically feminine and offers no deference to a largely male-determined status quo.
Her feminism is about integrating the whole of her life: understanding the power relations which underpin her friendships as much as those which underpin the Indian state. She is not afraid of talking about traditional female virtues such as gentleness and love, nor reticent about enjoying traditional female pastimes such as gossiping with friends as she picks over glass beads and cheap, brightly colored cotton fabrics in the market.
It is those pleasures, plus her wicked sense of humor, which have ensured that she escapes the puritanism and judgmentalism which has dogged western feminism from bra burning to political correctness. Key to her philosophy is that the real defeat for your enemies is that you simply have too much fun.
So the next time someone asks you what happened to feminism, you know the answer: it moved south in search of the sun. Roy is not a one-off; she is standing on the shoulders of thousands of grassroots women activists in the Narmada valley. It was another woman, Medha Patkar, who launched the Sardar Sarovar dam protest movement.
The pattern is repeated all over the developing world from Wangari Maathai in Kenya to Vandana Shiva; women are at the forefront of radical environmental and social justice movements. They swamped the Rio summit in 1992 and are likely to do the same at its follow-up in Johannesburg this August. It is this groundswell of defiance which inspires Roy`s remarkable courage.
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
#41 Posted by AAmir on March 12, 2002 12:12:16 am
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#40 Posted by Ras Siddiqui on March 11, 2002 10:04:52 pm
The revolution that is here is that of a communication. There is no escape.
Contemplate the dupatta or the exposed navel as you wish. But I firmly believe that something positive will eventually come out of all this exposure to the world.
Ras
#39 Posted by freesoul on March 11, 2002 5:54:17 pm
As social scietist and historian Dr. Mubarak Ali has said, societies can not progress without being involved in the evolution/creation of the consumer goods or the tools of production.
As much as i could understand him, he means to say that if one businessman shows off his latest PDA, cell phone, etc., this does not indicate that the society or he has the same intellect as the society which has produced them.
I think these changes in Karachi r very superficial. The status of education is going down. People r teaching English to their new borns so that they can speak English in front of their high-status prep schools.
The worst effect of these superficial changes is the reaction from the religous and pro-establishment sections.
As much as i could understand him, he means to say that if one businessman shows off his latest PDA, cell phone, etc., this does not indicate that the society or he has the same intellect as the society which has produced them.
I think these changes in Karachi r very superficial. The status of education is going down. People r teaching English to their new borns so that they can speak English in front of their high-status prep schools.
The worst effect of these superficial changes is the reaction from the religous and pro-establishment sections.
#38 Posted by Karakoram on March 11, 2002 5:12:50 pm
This is funny and sad...
From BBC
Pakistanis` `new life` in imaginary country
A Swedish artist who six years ago declared a remote piece of land independent from the rest of the country says more than 3,000 Pakistanis have recently applied to become its citizens.
The artist, Lars Vilks, declared one-square-kilometre of the Swedish shoreline of the Kullen Peninsula to be independent - calling his notional nation Ladonia.
The move is a protest against the government`s attempts to pull down his monumental artworks.
Conservationists argue that Professor Vilks works were buildings in a protected area and should be taken down.
The Ladonia website includes an application form for citizenship.
The professor says the first applications from Pakistan arrived about a month ago, with people asking the whereabouts of Ladonia`s embassy and details of how to get there
From BBC
Pakistanis` `new life` in imaginary country
A Swedish artist who six years ago declared a remote piece of land independent from the rest of the country says more than 3,000 Pakistanis have recently applied to become its citizens.
The artist, Lars Vilks, declared one-square-kilometre of the Swedish shoreline of the Kullen Peninsula to be independent - calling his notional nation Ladonia.
The move is a protest against the government`s attempts to pull down his monumental artworks.
Conservationists argue that Professor Vilks works were buildings in a protected area and should be taken down.
The Ladonia website includes an application form for citizenship.
The professor says the first applications from Pakistan arrived about a month ago, with people asking the whereabouts of Ladonia`s embassy and details of how to get there
#37 Posted by ana on March 11, 2002 5:12:50 pm
Umer,
You wrote:
Reply #: 6
Just finished reading Malcolm X`s biography and couldn`t help but think that there is, somehow, a link between the mentality of the Afro-Americans of that time and my Pakistani brethren today. Please forgive me if I seem to be placing everyone in the same box?I am not?
?But there`s truth at the core of every stereotype?right?
Best wishes
UM
Is it `The Autobiography of Malcolm X` that you read? I`m curious as to what you meant regarding the `mentality of African-Americans of that time compared to my Pakistani brethren today.` That does seem to be a rather sweeping statement. Just incredibly curious (and yes I know curiosity did kill the cat) Thanks!
You wrote:
Reply #: 6
Just finished reading Malcolm X`s biography and couldn`t help but think that there is, somehow, a link between the mentality of the Afro-Americans of that time and my Pakistani brethren today. Please forgive me if I seem to be placing everyone in the same box?I am not?
?But there`s truth at the core of every stereotype?right?
Best wishes
UM
Is it `The Autobiography of Malcolm X` that you read? I`m curious as to what you meant regarding the `mentality of African-Americans of that time compared to my Pakistani brethren today.` That does seem to be a rather sweeping statement. Just incredibly curious (and yes I know curiosity did kill the cat) Thanks!
#35 Posted by bong_dongs on March 11, 2002 5:12:50 pm
``Perhaps it is time to have a real true Cultural revolution. To cut our cultural ties with the Middle East and South Asia, and look beyond our geographical handicap... let us Europeanize. ``
Looks like youve been reading Nirad Chowdhuri again :-)
Looks like youve been reading Nirad Chowdhuri again :-)
#34 Posted by rsaxena on March 11, 2002 5:12:50 pm
re: dost-mittar
{{Pakistan is facing a cultural assault from both the East and the West and would have to work hard to preserve its own unique identity/identities.}}
pakistan has a unique culture...stuff stolen from india combined with silly attempts to become arabs...you are right, they must fight to save this basta$dized culture from the American onslaught...
{{Pakistan is facing a cultural assault from both the East and the West and would have to work hard to preserve its own unique identity/identities.}}
pakistan has a unique culture...stuff stolen from india combined with silly attempts to become arabs...you are right, they must fight to save this basta$dized culture from the American onslaught...
#33 Posted by Urstruly on March 11, 2002 4:32:51 pm
SHORT SKIRTS, LAQOOTS, AND V-CHIPS
Zia Ahmad
I liked your writing style. Even after what you have written, the question mark still remains in front of the phrase ``The Cultural Revolution?``-because for some what this revolution is, is a regression. I find it very interesting how the ``enlightened`` specie among us always push the rest of us, the simple peasant folk, the paindoos, towards what West is desperate to get rid of. Examples are numerous:
A. They liberal laqoots tell us that the degree of indecent exposure of a woman is the measure of her being modern, liberated, and educated. What west is desperately trying to do is to rate the content of the films, videogames, and internet. The V-chips are being invented, and new internet softwares are being invented to control and maintain the innocence of the innocent but alas their economics is so intertwined with the degree of indecent exposure of the women that its has become a war. And as we all know, ny war is a very fluid situation. So I wouldn`t be surprised if one day I see news-readers on CNN wearing head scarves and news readers in Pakistan wearing bathing suits, God forbids, if this so-called revolution keeps on going on. So am I correct to think that these mirasees, these liberal laqoots (laqoot-a hindko word meaning a pie dog with incurable itch) are the one who are actually backward and against modernism? They want to push us towards regression by misguiding us? Are they the one who just don`t know how to read the queues of modern trends and ask us to re-invent the wheel?
B. Today in USA alone all state and federal govts. spend considerable budget in media to spread the message that sexual abstinence is the best course of living life there is, condoms are distributed, pills are invented yet STDs are out of control; in Michigan alone, every month 9000 teenagers contract STDs (as per state funded radio and TV ads)……….. And these liberal laqoots call us backward.
C. Today all states and federal govt. spend huge budget on telling youth that narcotics are bad for your health. And these charsees and bhangees have gall to tell us that we will all be in heaven if we become charsees and bhangees.
B. Today all state and federal government spend heavily to show mothers and fathers and sisters of dead drunken drivers on tv, who tell us that booze is bad, it takes your life, it breaks down families, it takes away the decency from the heart of man………and yet we are backward.?
My question to these laqoots, these mazdaks, these swingers, these monkeys is why you insist on re-inventing the wheel. Why we have to become monkeys to do what monkeys do. Why can`t we learn from their mistake- isn`t it the real message of modernism.
Zia Ahmad
I liked your writing style. Even after what you have written, the question mark still remains in front of the phrase ``The Cultural Revolution?``-because for some what this revolution is, is a regression. I find it very interesting how the ``enlightened`` specie among us always push the rest of us, the simple peasant folk, the paindoos, towards what West is desperate to get rid of. Examples are numerous:
A. They liberal laqoots tell us that the degree of indecent exposure of a woman is the measure of her being modern, liberated, and educated. What west is desperately trying to do is to rate the content of the films, videogames, and internet. The V-chips are being invented, and new internet softwares are being invented to control and maintain the innocence of the innocent but alas their economics is so intertwined with the degree of indecent exposure of the women that its has become a war. And as we all know, ny war is a very fluid situation. So I wouldn`t be surprised if one day I see news-readers on CNN wearing head scarves and news readers in Pakistan wearing bathing suits, God forbids, if this so-called revolution keeps on going on. So am I correct to think that these mirasees, these liberal laqoots (laqoot-a hindko word meaning a pie dog with incurable itch) are the one who are actually backward and against modernism? They want to push us towards regression by misguiding us? Are they the one who just don`t know how to read the queues of modern trends and ask us to re-invent the wheel?
B. Today in USA alone all state and federal govts. spend considerable budget in media to spread the message that sexual abstinence is the best course of living life there is, condoms are distributed, pills are invented yet STDs are out of control; in Michigan alone, every month 9000 teenagers contract STDs (as per state funded radio and TV ads)……….. And these liberal laqoots call us backward.
C. Today all states and federal govt. spend huge budget on telling youth that narcotics are bad for your health. And these charsees and bhangees have gall to tell us that we will all be in heaven if we become charsees and bhangees.
B. Today all state and federal government spend heavily to show mothers and fathers and sisters of dead drunken drivers on tv, who tell us that booze is bad, it takes your life, it breaks down families, it takes away the decency from the heart of man………and yet we are backward.?
My question to these laqoots, these mazdaks, these swingers, these monkeys is why you insist on re-inventing the wheel. Why we have to become monkeys to do what monkeys do. Why can`t we learn from their mistake- isn`t it the real message of modernism.
#31 Posted by cutandpaste on March 11, 2002 10:28:47 am
As Punjab greets spring with kites, bullets fly, too
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/069/nation/As_Punjab_greets_spring_with_kites_bullets_fly_too+.shtml
By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 3/10/2002
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Even with war raging across the border, the ritual greeting of spring goes on in northeastern Pakistan. With dancing kites, the blare of bugles, and yellow costumes, the inhabitants of Punjab province join in a celebration called Basant.
These days, however, blazing bullets have become part of the festivities. The intent isn`t murderous, but bullets fired in jubilation are claiming more and more victims. And Punjabis are wondering what happened to their peaceful paean to new blossoms and fertile fields.
For centuries, spring has been the season to send tens of thousands of gaily-colored kites aloft from rooftops across the province. But over the past decade, the once-gentle salute to winter`s end has turned crassly commercial, increasingly rowdy, religiously controversial, and occasionally violent.
``Even in our festivals there is mayhem,`` said Dr. Mohammar Saeed, weary from a night of treating gunshot wounds, blown-off fingers, concussions, and other injuries at General Hospital.
The cause of the carnage?
``Spring fever,`` Saeed said. ``Plus our usual Pakistan custom of making pandemonium where there should be peace.``
Still, Basant remains a glorious gathering, as handmade ``gudha`` kites frisk in the breeze, women promenade through parks in festive yellow dress, and revelers honk brass bugles.
``Flying a kite is like writing poems in the sky,`` said Nania Mazir, teacher at an Islamabad girls` college as she deftly manipulated her own soaring paper pennant.
In Punjab, spring comes in the blink of an eye.
One day, dank winter mists coil through the bazaars like unwholesome ghosts; the next, the sun beats warm, every field is a rippling carpet of golden mustard flowers, and the first buds are greening the Margalla Hills.
Time for Punjabis to go fly a kite, but also, of late, time to snap the safety off Kalashnikov assault rifles and semiautomatic sidearms to spray the heavens with hot lead.
Time, too, to crank up the cassette player to serenade neighbors for blocks around with caterwauling Punjabi torch songs. And time for untraditional merrymakers to ignite homemade rockets, clobber one another on the head with bamboo staves, or simply run through the streets sounding compressed-air sirens of the sort employed, in calmer countries, as fog horns or for firetrucks.
The Basant festival dates to Hindu times, before Islamic invaders starting from around 1000 AD offered Punjabis a stark choice: Adopt a new faith and new ways, or die. But people of the region kept their love for flying kites.
Simple fun is still the dominant theme of Basant. Picnickers lounge on every patch of urban grass while kites beyond counting bob and weave above the narrow streets of Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, and other centers of Punjab. Even stuffy Islamabad succumbs to the spirit.
Most of the fluttering sails are painted yellow in honor of the mustard flower - symbol of spring - or white for the purity of the season. Parties on rooftops and in parks last all day and into the night, with spotlights illuminating the kites until the dawn.
Basant is a one-day festival, but since it is celebrated in different cities on different days it stretches out for several weeks beginning in late February.
What no one seems entirely able to explain is why over the past 10 years, the fun has often taken an ugly twist.
In Rawalpindi last weekend, spring festivities left three dead and 70 injured enough to warrant hospitalization, with four in critical condition. In Lahore, capital of Punjab, the toll was worse: ``Six killed, 250 injured on Basant,`` read the headline. Among the Lahore victims was a 10-year-old boy killed by ``aeriel firing.`` That`s the police euphemism for bursts of gunfire into the air.
``Some people like to shoot so many bullets to show what fun they are having,`` said police spokesman Ali Iqbal. ``They forget what goes up must certainly be coming down. Much unfortunateness is the result.``
Not every victim was the casualty of wayward rounds.
Some people fell from rooftops, others were maimed by homemade explosives, and others bloodied in battles over who could claim which downed kite.
``Pakistanis seem to get carried away in their happiness,`` said Sher Ibrahim Mohammed, owner of an agricultural supply company and host of a traditional Basant party on the roof of his family compound near Saddaq Bazaar. ``As in the West, our holidays have fallen to hype. People are overstimulated.``
And often armed. As the newspaper Dawn noted in its coverage of Basant festivities: ``The government`s ban on arms and explosives was violated with impunity as police watched as silent spectators. ... They did not want to spoil celebrations.``
The government, always on the lookout for ties to bind this fractious nation, strongly encourages celebration of Basant, promoting the holiday on state-run television and putting up decorations in public places; Basant supposedly being the one festive occasion that doesn`t inflame religious passions.
Except lately it does.
``Basant is celebrated in northern India, by Hindus!`` fumed Ikram Azam, head of a Muslim charity, in an opinion piece written for the Daily Pakistan Observer. ``How is it we are calling the celebration of such blasphemy a part of our culture?``
Most Punjabis don`t give a hoot about the origins of Basant. They see it as a good excuse to kick back, quaff a few non-alcoholic brews, and enjoy the high-flying spectacle.
``A kite is a symbol not just of spring,`` said Mazir, the teacher. ``See how it dips? See how it soars? Every person should love the kite`s grace.``
This story ran on page A6 of the Boston Globe on 3/10/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/069/nation/As_Punjab_greets_spring_with_kites_bullets_fly_too+.shtml
By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 3/10/2002
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Even with war raging across the border, the ritual greeting of spring goes on in northeastern Pakistan. With dancing kites, the blare of bugles, and yellow costumes, the inhabitants of Punjab province join in a celebration called Basant.
These days, however, blazing bullets have become part of the festivities. The intent isn`t murderous, but bullets fired in jubilation are claiming more and more victims. And Punjabis are wondering what happened to their peaceful paean to new blossoms and fertile fields.
For centuries, spring has been the season to send tens of thousands of gaily-colored kites aloft from rooftops across the province. But over the past decade, the once-gentle salute to winter`s end has turned crassly commercial, increasingly rowdy, religiously controversial, and occasionally violent.
``Even in our festivals there is mayhem,`` said Dr. Mohammar Saeed, weary from a night of treating gunshot wounds, blown-off fingers, concussions, and other injuries at General Hospital.
The cause of the carnage?
``Spring fever,`` Saeed said. ``Plus our usual Pakistan custom of making pandemonium where there should be peace.``
Still, Basant remains a glorious gathering, as handmade ``gudha`` kites frisk in the breeze, women promenade through parks in festive yellow dress, and revelers honk brass bugles.
``Flying a kite is like writing poems in the sky,`` said Nania Mazir, teacher at an Islamabad girls` college as she deftly manipulated her own soaring paper pennant.
In Punjab, spring comes in the blink of an eye.
One day, dank winter mists coil through the bazaars like unwholesome ghosts; the next, the sun beats warm, every field is a rippling carpet of golden mustard flowers, and the first buds are greening the Margalla Hills.
Time for Punjabis to go fly a kite, but also, of late, time to snap the safety off Kalashnikov assault rifles and semiautomatic sidearms to spray the heavens with hot lead.
Time, too, to crank up the cassette player to serenade neighbors for blocks around with caterwauling Punjabi torch songs. And time for untraditional merrymakers to ignite homemade rockets, clobber one another on the head with bamboo staves, or simply run through the streets sounding compressed-air sirens of the sort employed, in calmer countries, as fog horns or for firetrucks.
The Basant festival dates to Hindu times, before Islamic invaders starting from around 1000 AD offered Punjabis a stark choice: Adopt a new faith and new ways, or die. But people of the region kept their love for flying kites.
Simple fun is still the dominant theme of Basant. Picnickers lounge on every patch of urban grass while kites beyond counting bob and weave above the narrow streets of Rawalpindi, Lahore, Faisalabad, and other centers of Punjab. Even stuffy Islamabad succumbs to the spirit.
Most of the fluttering sails are painted yellow in honor of the mustard flower - symbol of spring - or white for the purity of the season. Parties on rooftops and in parks last all day and into the night, with spotlights illuminating the kites until the dawn.
Basant is a one-day festival, but since it is celebrated in different cities on different days it stretches out for several weeks beginning in late February.
What no one seems entirely able to explain is why over the past 10 years, the fun has often taken an ugly twist.
In Rawalpindi last weekend, spring festivities left three dead and 70 injured enough to warrant hospitalization, with four in critical condition. In Lahore, capital of Punjab, the toll was worse: ``Six killed, 250 injured on Basant,`` read the headline. Among the Lahore victims was a 10-year-old boy killed by ``aeriel firing.`` That`s the police euphemism for bursts of gunfire into the air.
``Some people like to shoot so many bullets to show what fun they are having,`` said police spokesman Ali Iqbal. ``They forget what goes up must certainly be coming down. Much unfortunateness is the result.``
Not every victim was the casualty of wayward rounds.
Some people fell from rooftops, others were maimed by homemade explosives, and others bloodied in battles over who could claim which downed kite.
``Pakistanis seem to get carried away in their happiness,`` said Sher Ibrahim Mohammed, owner of an agricultural supply company and host of a traditional Basant party on the roof of his family compound near Saddaq Bazaar. ``As in the West, our holidays have fallen to hype. People are overstimulated.``
And often armed. As the newspaper Dawn noted in its coverage of Basant festivities: ``The government`s ban on arms and explosives was violated with impunity as police watched as silent spectators. ... They did not want to spoil celebrations.``
The government, always on the lookout for ties to bind this fractious nation, strongly encourages celebration of Basant, promoting the holiday on state-run television and putting up decorations in public places; Basant supposedly being the one festive occasion that doesn`t inflame religious passions.
Except lately it does.
``Basant is celebrated in northern India, by Hindus!`` fumed Ikram Azam, head of a Muslim charity, in an opinion piece written for the Daily Pakistan Observer. ``How is it we are calling the celebration of such blasphemy a part of our culture?``
Most Punjabis don`t give a hoot about the origins of Basant. They see it as a good excuse to kick back, quaff a few non-alcoholic brews, and enjoy the high-flying spectacle.
``A kite is a symbol not just of spring,`` said Mazir, the teacher. ``See how it dips? See how it soars? Every person should love the kite`s grace.``
This story ran on page A6 of the Boston Globe on 3/10/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
#30 Posted by hamidm on March 11, 2002 10:28:47 am
temporal
you ask, ``what does the positioning of the dupatta got to do with anything?...``
... mian, the position of the dopatta has everything to do with everything ..... when they are not monitoring the dopatta`s position they are, hopefully, working on the real stuff - education, health and cleaning up the sewers and madrassas ........actually the dopatta is a good barometer of good governance and the day it disappears from the scene altogether we will be cured of all the ills that plague us ......
.....i say, it is time to free our woman and let them stand up tall and proud, regardless of the cup size ..
you ask, ``what does the positioning of the dupatta got to do with anything?...``
... mian, the position of the dopatta has everything to do with everything ..... when they are not monitoring the dopatta`s position they are, hopefully, working on the real stuff - education, health and cleaning up the sewers and madrassas ........actually the dopatta is a good barometer of good governance and the day it disappears from the scene altogether we will be cured of all the ills that plague us ......
.....i say, it is time to free our woman and let them stand up tall and proud, regardless of the cup size ..
#29 Posted by semipreciousme on March 11, 2002 10:28:47 am
“And the level of dupatta head-cover on Khabarnama - that eternal barometer of the government`s ``liberalism`` - is at an all-time low. Often, you need a side profile to discern that the dupatta is in fact making contact with the head”
….i have yet to understand this phenomenon…it’s so low, they might as well chuck it….but alas, wouldn’t want to give those fogies, the only segment of the population that actually watch wazirnama, heart attacks…
…btw, cable tv’s been around for a couple of years now…
#28 Posted by Chunkey Pandey on March 11, 2002 3:13:29 am
WHAT DID THE `BAJRANGI RE`THINK THAT BY BURNING 700+ MUSLIMS IN GUJRAT ,IT WOULD ACT AS AN INTIMIDATION TO SIGn.OVER THE DOTTED LINE.????
http://www.telegraphindia.com/front_pa.htm
DISTRUST DEMOLISHES AYODHYA DEAL
FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, March 10:
Board rejects seer plan, Nyas vows to defy court
The despair of 1992 hung over Ayodhya tonight with the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board rejecting the package offered by the Kanchi Sankaracharya and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad asserting that it would go ahead with the bhoomi pujan on March 15.
With all players hardening their stands and the possibility of a confrontation looming, the Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday has emerged as the decisive factor.
The court is scheduled to take up a petition for army deployment in Ayodhya but a ruling is expected to cover the contentious issue of whether a puja could be carried out on the undisputed site.
The VHP today fielded its best-known hardliner, Praveen Togadia, to address reporters shortly after the board announced its decision.
Asked if the VHP would proceed with its puja even if the Supreme Court directed to the contrary, Togadia said: “Nobody in this country has the right to encroach upon the rights of Hindus to perform puja, yagna, archan and upasana.”
His statement came a day after the Prime Minister said the last word on the puja would come from the Supreme Court. Togadia said: “There is no emergency. We also have fundamental rights. How can we expect the courts to curb this? We are certain we will get the permission.”
Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas convener Ramchandra Das Paramhans — before whom junior home minister I.D. Swami paid obeisance last Thursday —went a step further and declared there was no point in stopping at a symbolic puja. He said efforts should be made to start temple construction.
“Did 58 people sacrifice their lives for a symbolic puja?” he asked, referring to the Godhra carnage. “They did it all for constructing a temple. Why should we go there to perform only a religious rite?”
Late in the night, Paramhans raised the pitch and told PTI in Ayodhya: “We will maintain status quo on the disputed land till the court judgment. However, if the court judgment goes against our religious feelings, we will not accept it. We will oppose it even if it means shedding blood.”
The VHP spokesman warned that the minority law board’s decision to oppose the bhoomi pujan would have serious repercussions. “We will hold the pujan on the undisputed land and as far as this is concerned, it is purely a matter between the Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas and the Centre. There is no third party and the law board has no locus standi to oppose the March 15 shila pujan,” he said.
The incendiary postures forced Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to go into a huddle with Cabinet colleagues L.K. Advani, George Fernandes and Arun Jaitley. Official sources said the “review meeting” discussed how not to allow things to get out of hand on March 15. It also finalised the stand to be taken before the apex court on Wednesday.
The Ayodhya administration has so far held its ground and refused to ease restrictions on the entry of kar sevaks despite a clear signal from I.D. Swami to do so.
The administration has also made public a terrorist threat in what is being seen as an attempt to keep senior VHP leaders away. Paramhans said sadhus would tomorrow lead a demonstration to the disputed site.
But the Centre kept afloat the possibility of another attempt to forge a consensus. Sources referred to a phrase in the minority board’s statement — saying the Sankaracharya’s proposals were “incomplete and inchoate” and suggesting that there was still a window open for dialogue — and said Vajpayee could ask the Kanchi seer to mediate again.
If he was referred to as the “prime mediator” in official circles for the past week, today he was described as the “architect” of the negotiations.
But a spokesman of the Kanchi monastery said: “Periyaval’s (senior acharya’s) role is virtually over. The acharya tried his best…”.
#27 Posted by subroto on March 11, 2002 2:30:19 am
Dang! all my posts under diff. chowkies did not go thru, so are we all being inspired by our beloved politicians - ``Chowk Staff, I did not say that...``.
Kilroy was never here, ah the pleasures of denial..
Kilroy was never here, ah the pleasures of denial..
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