A Return Which Killed Her - Story Of A Muslim Girl

• A Restless Mind With A Sensitive Heart's blog
• 153 reads
• Comments

Her eyes shone with the dangling of her earrings and the tinkle of her anklet, as she was swinging on the simple rope swing tied to the tree on that cool evening.... read more

Can Your Employer Be Your Moral Inspector?!

• A Restless Mind With A Sensitive Heart's blog
• 325 reads
• Comments

A conversation with my maid servant made me think about this. Can one person be a moral inspector of another? Be it an employer or anyone else. Do we have the right to be moral policing of others?... read more

Series on Sexuality and Femininity

• 36 reads

This series discusses the topic of Sexuality in context of Femininity. In these set of articles, many facets of sexuality will be explored through open, insightful and informed discussion.

Femininity - The Complexity Of Human Sexuality

• A Restless Mind With A Sensitive Heart's blog
• 393 reads
• Comments

I wanted to start writing a series of posts on femininity, being feminine and the various aspects of being a woman in Indian society.... read more

When Indian Muslim Women Questioned Fatwa

• A Restless Mind With A Sensitive Heart's blog
• 352 reads
• Comments

Imagine the alleys of an old city in a place like Lucknow, and in a locality which is very conservative and a few women, (as I saw in the picture, there was no Burqa), march together with placards say... read more

Increasing smoking amongst women in India: #3 in the world

• Desh's blog
• 1130 reads
• Comments

Smoking is a habit that hits directly at a person's basic living system - the lungs. Its been a rather manly thing to smoke.... read more

When Boobs quaked the world!

• Desh's blog
• 688 reads
• Comments

A low-cut protest rocked the world this week. The epicenter was the facebook page called "Boobquake".... read more

Taslima Nasreen: Persona of a Besieged Woman

• Desh's blog
• 1335 reads
• Comments

There is a riot raging in Karnataka because of a Bangladeshi woman - Taslima Nasreen.... read more

Related Material:: 

Lajja

Single Women in India: Fight for Rights

• Desh's blog
• 1179 reads
• Comments

In US and in other Western countries, it is easier for single women - with or without kids - to live a life. Its not so easy in India. ... read more

Girls undergo Virginity test before mass state wedding in MP

• Desh's blog
• 1513 reads
• Comments

If good has to be done, it must be done according to the whims of a man! That at least seems to be the motto of the MP State. ... read more

First woman Army officer court martialed

• Desh's blog
• 692 reads
• Comments

Now that the women officers are in the Indian Defense services, it seems they are not doing as good as one might have thought they would. Which is a shame.... read more

Woman, Burkha and Sarkozy

• Desh's blog
• 1544 reads
• Comments

A woman walks into a store and sees trousers and short skirts. Decides to buy both. One for office and another for her party. She has a choice. Some guys see her in the trousers and admire her figure while some guys see her in short skirt on the dance floor and admire at her dance moves.

Is the attitude of the beholder based on the dress of the object or the situation and the beholder's response to it?

However, in another culture, a Prophet uses the pretext of divinity to enforce a dress code. [Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin: "The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Allah does not accept the prayer of a woman who has reached puberty unless she wears a veil." Book 2, Number 0641]. Now, this lady can no longer wander into a shop and buy the dress from the shelf she pleases. She has been told by one "Messenger of God" whom somehow the God, formless and un-named that he insists, somehow keeps speaking to in his ears. That this formless and un-named is somehow so bothered about the dress code of a special category of a special species in one of the tiniest specks of this entire Universe, is intriguing and probably a discussion for another time.... read more

What if Women Controlled the World?

• Desh's blog
• 845 reads
• Comments

What if women ruled the world? Well, world would definitely be very different. If the women called the shots then a lot of religions would have been conceived differently for one thing! At the very least the "Heavens" would have good looking men as opposed to Virgin women or good-looking "Apsaras"... isn't it? Why would women keep women in the Heavens? Thats the perversity of the men. We can't get them here, so we have an aspiration to get 'em there!

Argentinian writer Ricardo Coler decided to find this out and spent two months with the Mosuo in southern China. Musuo is a matriarchical society where the women call the shots. When we say women call the shots - it means they rule, they own everything, they decide the policies, they set the standards for the society to live by.

So what happens when women are at the helm of the society?

• Less or no violence: Women do not solve their problems by violence. Now, we are not talking of a woman minister or ruler in a man's world (like say Indira Gandhi), but in a society that is built ground-up AS as women's oriented society! In fact violence is supposed to be something to be ashamed of. Women simply have a different way of 'dominating'. Violence is not part of that.
• Men work less: Now, this is counterintuitive! But think of it like this - women own the money.. they earn it.. so who does more work? Even if a man was to do some work, he will be paid less anyways. So, man's work is very restricted. There is not much he can do. In fact, to women in a matriarchical society, men can be little more than sex toys.
• Birth of a boy is a catastrophe: When a boy is born in a family, then its tragedy for that family.. as men control no money... only women do. So, boy means more poverty. Girls are the only way to a long term prosperity for a "family". A man's role is very limited - do labor or be a way to satisfy the women.
• Sex power means Women choose!: Now, in a man's world, the prostitutes are almost always women. Women are used and abused. Men decide to change a woman a night and go on. Well in a matriarchical society, the mores remain the same, but the roles change! It is best explained by Coler in these words:

The sexual life of the Mosuo is very distinctive and very active -- partners are changed frequently. But the women decide with whom they want to spend the night. Their living quarters have a main entrance but every adult woman lives in her own small hut. The men live together in a large house. The door of every hut is fitted with a hook and all the men wear hats. When a man visits a woman, he hangs his hat on the hook. That way, everybody knows that this woman has a male visitor. And nobody else knocks on the door. If a woman falls in love, then she receives only the specific man and the man comes only to that woman.... read more

A 12 year old leads fight against Child Marriage in Bengal

• Desh's blog
• 817 reads
• Comments

Child Marriage is a curse in India specially for the little girls. They are often packed off with older men for a rough life and many times a sad ending. It is important that everyone speaks up against such stupid customs.

In Bararola - village east of Kolkatta, West Bengal; a young girl Rekha Kalinda decided that she would not be subjected to this. So, at the age of 12, when her parents approached her with the decision to marry her off, she resisted. And she told her parents that this was her age to study and not to marry. They obviously weren't happy.

She brought her friends, teachers, and administrators into the loop and the parents did listen. Not only was she successful is warding them off but also save two other girls from such crime in her village. In that area, child marriages have not happened since.

Rekha had a promise to keep after all. She had seen her elder sister get married off at age 11 and lose four children within one year of their birth. She had decided not to follow suit. ... read more

Female Body mutilation practices and her Sexuality

• Desh's blog
• 3105 reads
• Comments

A woman's body has been a playground throughout the human history.  And still man cannot get enough and justifies everything in the name of some ideology - whether it is religious, cultural or modernity.  The effect is always the same - mutilation of body parts.  Here are some of the well known mutilations below but wait till you read of the latest one later in this post.

Lip Plate: It is very prevalent in Africa. A lower lip plate is usually combined with the excision of the two lower front teeth, sometimes all four. In some cases (Sara, Lobi) a plate is also inserted into the upper lip. Other tribes, such as the Makonde, wear a plate in the upper lip only. In many older sources it is reported that the plate's size is a sign of social or economical importance in some tribes. Many recent sources claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as bride price. However, anthropologist Turton, who has studied the Mursi for 30 years, denies this.

Female Genitalia Mutilation: Also known as female circumcision - this is again most prevalent in Africa, but it is practiced throughout the world.  It is said to have started in Egypt and the Nile valley during the Pharaohs. Evidence from mummies have shown both Type I and Type III FGC present.  Now it is mostly practiced amongst the Muslims and Animists, although the theologians deny its relation to Islam specially since it predates Islam.  The justifications have included aesthetic (enhances beauty) or medical ones (maintaining cleanliness as it removes secreting parts of the genitalia) - and of course, both have no bearing in reality.... read more

"Beauty-disadvantaged" women beckoned by Mayor of Aussie mining town

• Desh's blog
• 772 reads
• Comments

In north-west Queensland state of Australia, the mayor of Mt Isa, John Molony found his town has a dispropotionately higher male population vs females (5:1). So, logically he thought that here is an opportunity for the not-so-coveted lonely women in other towns to move here and still find mates. Makes sense? :-)

The mistake - he even declared it - "with five blokes to every girl, may I suggest that beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa"

Hmmmm, the women already in that town - took that to be a judgment on them! And by no means would they consider themselves "beauty-disadvantaged".. and so the protests have been happening.

"It paints the women here as second rate and suggests the men will settle for anything. I think it's quite disgusting," Mt Isa domestic violence worker Shirley Slann told the Courier Mail newspaper on Monday.... read more

A Prostitution Pricing Chart

• Desh's blog
• 1191 reads
• Comments

Of course, humans can also read and write which Monkeys cannot. Humans are more sophisticated about prostitution. Here is a price chart from Hong Kong. Look at the difference in prices. A Malay girl is the cheapest and a Russian girl goes for 2 times a Chinese girl.. and Philippine is a little better than Malay girl. Do you know why? Well, my guess is its something to do with skin color.

... read more

Prostitution in an Islamic Republic

• Desh's blog
• 1580 reads
• Comments

Iran has an Islamic regime. The Islamic dress code is enforced and so many other things. But right under the nose of the law (and sometimes in connivance of the law) - everything goes on. I know of a person from Iran who has been to all night parties full of hashish, liquor and women all under the protection of local police.

Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. So, how is it practiced in Iran? Well, people have found ways to do that too. There are subtle ways to prospect a lady by her clients and it is not easy.

The center for prostitution in Iran's capital Teheran is roughly 150 km southwest called Qom (also known as Q'um or ghom). It's a Shi'ite holy city and is known as a place of "both pilgrimage and pleasure."

So, how does the prostitution process occur? There are over 85,000 prostitutes in just Teheran alone. Here is the how it works:

prostitutes wearing veils and even chadors mill about temples or sit together in public courtyards where men can inspect them. Sometimes a male go-between offers "introductions," at which point the prostitutes pull aside their headgear so the potential client can get a glimpse, but the whole process is fairly subtle.

It is strange that in a land where laws are so strict, prostitution should go on so rampantly! Well, the religious who want pleasure obviously use religion to their advantage. There is a strange type of marriage allowed in Islam called Nika-hu’l-Mut‘ah,(also Nikah Mut‘ah literally, marriage for pleasure), or sigheh, is a time-delimited marriage contract according to the Usuli Shia schools of Shari‘a (Islamic law). The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term.... read more

Indian Government to pay parents to raise a girl child!

• Desh's blog
• 933 reads
• Comments

In India girl child is treated as a curse! Thousands are killed every year. The worst states in this gory act are those in the North India - specifically Punjab! Now, for the first time, there is a serious scheme being planned, that is aimed at saving the girl child specifically amongst the poor communities! This is what it will be like:

...it will provide upto Rs 1.4 lakh each to families of girl child in 10 poorest districts and worst gender ratio in 5 states, including Punjab and Haryana, where female infanticide is rampant.

The money will be spread across the 18 years of the girl child and latter disbursements will be dependent on certain conditions, one being that she is not married before 18 and when she is married, it is to someone of her choice. All these are subjective issues.. but at least a start has been made. We will never know what is wrong with this scheme if we do not try anything!

But while Rs one lakh will accrue automatically if the girl child is not married before turning major, her parents can avail of the rest of amount only if they fulfill certain conditions. They will be required not merely to take good care of their daughters but also see to it that they are not forced into marriage before they turn 19 and ensure 80% attendance in school.

Economically weak parents are to get assistance also for registration of her birth, completion of the entire range of immunization and education.... read more

New Mexico Judge puts 14-yr Rape Victim in Jail!

• Desh's blog
• 676 reads
• Comments

Its not only those nutty Islamic countries that put rape victims (instead of rapists) in jail after the crime. It also happens in the US of A. Here, is decidedly the most bizarre scene where the judge puts a 14 year old - YES.. a MINOR - in the Jail AFTER she was raped - because.. ok, listen to this innovative BS "(because) her office was just trying to protect her." And then, our Good Samaritan judge goes on vacation - while this 14 year old languishes in jail! Heck, 2007 will go down as the Year of the Rapists! For these guys made merry while their victims paid for .. well.. BEING the victims!

The district attorney's office is getting renewed criticism after throwing a girl in jail believed to have been raped. But Kari Brandenburg says her office was just trying to protect her.

A victim advocates group filed an objection to the material witness warrant issued for the girl Saturday. Prosecutors used that warrant to put the 14-year-old behind bars for five days.

The DA's office asked for the warrant after the girl failed to show up to testify against her stepfather, whom she said sexually abused her.... read more

Women and Islam

• Desh's blog
• 898 reads
• Comments

This is a very interesting cartoon from IndiaInk.org. The cartoonist is Rahim Baggal Asgari from Iran. Very interesting and direct take on the concept of 4 women witnesses in Shariat court not being still equal to a man's witness. Here is a quote from an Islamic scholar.

Volume 3, Book 48, Number 826:

Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:

The Prophet said, "Isn't the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?" The women said, "Yes." He said, "This is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind."
source

Female Infanticide in India

• Desh's blog
• 2792 reads
• Comments

This is one poster (from Amnesty International) that simply got my attention. Very well thought of and it hits hard for one who is Indian and completely against the bias towards the girl child!

Text on the poster: In Indien sterben jährlich tausende mädchen nur weil sie mädchen sind.

English Version: In India every year thousands of girls get killed just because they are girls.

source... read more

Gulabi Gang - the power of pink!

• Desh's blog
• 1190 reads
• Comments

Suchitra Krishnamurthi talks about the power of the Pink color.. and provides links to this story of women of Banda area in UP who are dressed in pink (or is it purple?) and call themselves "Gulabi Gang". They strike fear in the hearts corrupt politicians and officials by going on protests. Hundreds of women are part of this gang. Cool concept huh? If they were in the US, they would have already started a comic strip or written a racy TV series on it..

The several hundred vigilante women of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state's Banda area proudly call themselves the "gulabi gang" (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials.... read more

Rural B-School Empowers Women in India!

• Desh's blog
• 1140 reads
• Comments

In 1990, I went to Insitute of Rural Management, Anand. It was and remains one of the premier Business School that caters to Rural Management specifically. It was started with a dream that since Indian MBA students need to understand villages as much as the corporate intricacies! Well, we did learn a lot about rural life. Yet it was an elitist institution of sorts.

THAT was revolutionary in terms of business school education.

Now, a lady called Chetna Gala Sinha has taken that concept to its logical conclusion - an MBA school for the rural poor - Mann Deshi Udyogini Business school ! The students are semi-literate who need education in business subjects to start using funds loaned via the micro-finance lenders. This school - for rural women - also helps in spreading empowerment to women.

Sagar of "Development through enterprise" introduces Mann Deshi Udyogini Business school thus:

MDU was started in December 2006 by the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (MDMSB), which is a co-operative society providing micro-credit to rural women entrepreneurs in Satara district of Maharashtra state in India. Chetna Gala Sinha, the founder-chairperson of MDU, is an Ashoka fellow and she started the MDMSB in 1998 in order to cater to the credit needs of rural women. According to Chetna, the idea of starting a business school came from an enthusiastic semi-literate woman, who kept pestering her for know-how about the wholesale vegetable business and other startegies to improve her own vegetable business. MDU was started in December 2006 with a Rs. 7 lakh (about $17500) grant from HSBC.... read more

Men are being Harrased,says women's panel

• Jeshi's blog
• 875 reads
• Comments

Anti Dowry Act in India was enacted to protect women from becoming victims of dowry greed and to punish those who tortured and even killed brides for dowry. But it seems that some empowerment has gone awry and increasingly en are getting the wrong end of the anti dowry law.

There are dozens of cases of husbands and in-laws being thrown into the slammer on the mere accusations of torture for dowry.According to Orissa's (India) State Commission for Women it is only the tip of the iceberg. The Number of such atrocities against men by women is rising.

This is also becoming a common practice in the Metros of India. A know a classic case of this kind. The wife in the garb of the anti dowry act deprived the husband from meeting his new born daughter for full five months. The intervention of relatives and the decision of the husband to seperate drove sense into the minds of the girl and family.Very recently the couple has been blessed with a son.... read more

Girl Education is unIslamic

• Desh's blog
• 714 reads
• Comments

This guy Anwar Syed writes in Dawn – a Pakistani daily – that a Maulana (Islamic cleric) has pronounced that Girl education is un-Islamic and asked the parents to withdraw girls from public school. Syed says that this is untrue from the religious scriptures standpoint and from history. He cites a few examples of learned women. Unfortunately, none of the ladies had any secular credentials – all were religious in orientation. None, for example, boasts any knowledge of Math or Science. It is not the madrasa education that the Maulana is targeting but the “Public School” education! And this is very common in rural Muslim areas. Modern education is Math and Science subjects is deemed unIslamic for anyone by many Maulanas!... read more

Correlation between Women and a Country's Prosperity

• Guest's blog
• 902 reads
• Comments

One of my close friends - Vish - has written this based on an earlier post on drishtikone. I think it is very informative and analyzes our poverty in context of our age old wisdom in the Vedas.... read more

Epidemic of Rape of Unveiled Women by Muslim Immigrants

• Desh's blog
• 1583 reads
• Comments

There is an "epidemic" of sorts in Europe (and Australia). More and more Muslim men are being convicted of rape (often Gang-rape) of European women who dare to stray into Muslim dominated areas unveiled or less than veiled.

This barbarism is not just a European issue. Remember Australia's highest cleric and Egyptian-born Mufti, Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali equating unveiled women to Uncovered Meat?

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it...whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem."

Here he was justifying the infamous Sydney gang rapes!

Another woman was approached by attackers at the Bankstown train station, who proposed she join them in smoking some marijuana at another location. She was taken to three separate locations by the men, raped 25 times by a total of fourteen men, in an ordeal that lasted six hours. After the attacks the woman was hosed down with a fire hose. The woman, who was known during the trial as 'C' to protect her identity, later told her story to 60 Minutes. She told of how the attackers called her an "Aussie Pig", asked her if "Leb cock tasted better than Aussie cock" and explained to her that she would now be raped "Leb-style"

Women were compared to a "private part" by the Prophet himself and lower than men and a danger to them!

According to the prophet, a woman in her entirety is just like a private part of sexual temptation and identified her as the greatest danger to the MEN-folks:

Muhammad said, "A woman is like a private part. When she comes out the devil holds her high. A woman has ten private parts. When she gets married her husband covers one private part; when she dies the grave covers other nine private parts"… [Al-Ghazali, ibid, volume 2, p.43]

Muhammad said, "There will remain no greater danger for the people after my death than women. Fear the world of women." [ibid, volume 3, p.86]

Here is a group discussion on this phenomenon:... read more

How a Muslim-turned-Hindu was tortured in Malaysia!

• Desh's blog
• 1136 reads
• Comments

This is a rather bizarre case. A girl in Malaysia born to ethnic Indian Muslim parents was named Siti Fatimah. She was registered as a Muslim. However, she was raised by her grandmother as a Hindu! In 2001, her name was changed to Revathi Masoosai. In 2004, she married Suresh Veerapan (ostensibly no relation of the famous guy who loved Sandalwood trees in India) with Hindu religious rites.

They had a daughter.

This all happened in Malaysia - supposedly a progressive Islamic state. So, what do the authorities do? They first of all put her into a school, which is no more than a jail. And then forcibly take away her daughter and give her to Revathi's Muslim mother to be raised a Muslim!... read more

Hinglaj Temple in Pakistan and Bonded Labourers

• Desh's blog
• 3970 reads
• Comments

Hinglaj Mata temple is in Pakistan near Karachi. Here are some devotees. These kids are bonded labourers who work on the farms of the feudal lords in Pakistan. It is sad that kids are even today in bonded labor. How the feudal lords (fundamentalist in their own right) treat Hindu poor kids is beyond imagination.

I,nevertheless, loved the extremely expressive faces of these kids with innocence showing so clearly!

For children, it is great fun - especially for Thari children who remain confined to agricultural farms where many of them work as bonded labourers the whole year round.

Given their precarious social position in a feudal-dominated system, many of them will never be able to return to Hinglaj for a long time. But they can cherish the memory. (Pic courtesy: BBC)

Significance of Hinglaj Temple....

Hinglaj is a Hindu holy place, about 120Km NE of Karachi, on the Hingol
river in the Makran. The reputation of Hinglaj as a holy place precedes
the Arab invasion and the advent of Sufism to the Sindh region.... read more