[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch #2 (27 March 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #2
27 March 2000
__________________________
#1. Kashmir: Daily life in the World's Scariest Spot
#2. Indian women's team calls on General Musharraf
#3. Radio Programme: Women & The 1947 Partition Of India
#4. Shabana Azmi sees fascist conspiracy in India
#5. Third International South Asian Women's Conference
__________________________

#1.

Newsweek International,
March 27, 2000

The World's Scariest Spot
In the violence, nobody wins
By Tasgola Karla Bruner

The 14 villagers are buriedside by side, just as they were the night
they were killed. Rain has washed their names from the cardboard grave
markers. Here in the Himalayan region of Pakistani Kashmir, where
farmers cultivate crops around shelling from the Indian Army, the
village of Lanjod is still recovering from a ruthless attack one
=46ebruary night. Residents say Indian soldiers slaughtered the civilians.
At the grave of her 5-year-old son, Aziza cries out: "He was innocent.
He had yet to be married. He had yet to see this world!"
Nothing is clear in Kashmir except for the hatred and violence. The
villagers live a stone's throw away from the Line of Control, the
disputed ceasefire line that marks the partition of Kashmir into
Pakistani and Indian territory. U.S. President Bill Clinton has called
the region "the most dangerous place in the world," because
disagreements over Kashmir could one day bring India and Pakistan-the
two newest nuclear powers-to war. Muslim secessionists are fighting for
independence in Indian Kashmir. New Delhi accuses Pakistan of stoking
the militants' jihad, or holy war-and blames the Pakistani Army for last
year's bloody offensive in Indian-controlled Kargil. Islamabad says
Kashmiris should be allowed a referendum to decide their destiny. India
wants the world to stay out of the conflict, but Pakistan hopes this
week's visit by Clinton to India and Pakistan will focus international
attention on a solution to the Kashmir nightmare.

On the ground, violence is distorted by the thrum of government
disinformation. No one can say for sure what happened on the night of
=46eb. 25. The Pakistani Army says Indian soldiers crossed into Pakistani
Kashmir and fired automatic weapons on the 14 civilians. India denies
its troops ever cross the line. New Delhi, meanwhile, has accused
Pakistan-backed "terrorists" of entering Indian Kashmir, killing an
Indian officer and six soldiers. A militant Kashmiri group broadcast in
mosques that they avenged the civilians' deaths by slaying 35 Indian
soldiers and taking the heads of three. India confirms only that one
soldier's body was headless.

As the propaganda rages, fear spreads on both sides. Lanjod resident
Mohammad Hussain, 55, whose son was killed, thinks Indians simply "want
to kill Muslims." Women collect water at night: Pakistani Army officers
say Indian soldiers have fired on them in the daytime. The Indian Army
insists it doesn't aim for civilians; they get hurt, the Indians say,
because the Pakistani Army has positions among the population. Just a
couple of miles from Lanjod, the Pakistani Army houses a military post.

In Kashmir, villagers go about their business, instinctively knowing
when to crouch in a ditch when shelling between India and Pakistan
intensifies. Near Lanjod, Zahida, 16, says her family has put away their
knives "so they can't be used against us." Each older child in the
neighborhood looks out for a younger one. "Why talk about hell after
death?" says Saleema, 35, who shows the scar on her arm where, she says,
an Indian bullet took out a chunk of flesh. "We are living in hell right
now." And there seems to be no way out.

With Sudip Mazumdar in New Delhi

=A9 2000 Newsweek, Inc.
_____

#2.

The Hindu
28 March 2000

Indian women's team calls on Musharraf

By Amit Baruah

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 27 In the first-ever contact of its kind, members of a
39-strong Indian women's delegation on a peace mission called on the
Pakistan Chief Executive, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, at his Rawalpindi
residence yesterday. The team included Ms. Nirmala Deshpande, Gandhian,
and Ms. Mohini Giri, former chief of the National Commission for Women.

The women, who will be in Pakistan for almost a week, had an hour-long
meeting with Gen. Musharraf who is said to have reiterated his view that
dialogue between India and Pakistan would have to be a ``reciprocal
affair''. When some women raised the objectives of the peace mission,
the General reportedly stated: ``I am with you.'' He also said that New
Delhi had scuttled the SAARC summit at Kathmandu so as to avoid contact
with him.

_____

#3.

Asia Pacific Forum
on WBAI 99.5FM, New York City
and webcast live at www.wbaifree.org
9:00-10:00 PM, Wednesday, March 15, 2000

WOMEN AND THE 1947 PARTITION OF INDIA

During Women's History Month, we will revisit the cataclysmic birthing of th=
e
two nation states of India and Pakistan in 1947, created by a departing
British colonial government. The flight of Muslims into newly created
Pakistan and of Hindus into the territories that were to form independent
India was accompanied by large-scale violence. What were the reasons for
Partition violence and what was its impact on women? How are the mass rapes
and abductions of women remembered by ordinary women and men, and by the
national memories of the two countries?

Our guests:

Veena Das, professor of sociology and anthropology, divides her time between
Delhi School of Economics and the New School for Social Research in New York=
=2E

Bapsi Sidhwa, novelist, is professor of English & Writer-in-Residence at
Brandeis University. Her novel 'Cracking India' deals with the Partition an=
d
was adapted for the recently released film, Deepa Mehta's 'Earth'.

The program is co-hosted by Satinder Jawanda and Chandana Mathur of APF (Asi=
a
Pacific Forum) and the SAMAR collective.

Asia Pacific Forum is New York's pan-Asian radio program,
broadcast each Wednesday night at 9-10 pm on WBAI-FM, 99.5, New
York City, and live on the Web at wbaifree.org.

=46or more information on APF and to get more information about
this evening's program, or other programs, please contact us via
email: apforum@egroups.com;
phone: (212) 209-2991; fax (WBAI): (212) 747-1698;
or mail: Asian Pacific Forum, WBAI 99.5 FM, 120 Wall St., 10th
=46loor, NY, NY 10005.

=46or more information about SAMAR, a South Asian Left media
resource, please contact: SAMAR, P.O. Box 1349, Ansonia Station,
NY, NY 10023;
=20
_____

#4.

The Hindu
March 12

SHABANA AZMI SEES FASCIST CONSPIRACY

CHENNAI, MARCH 11. With the Hindutva forces' campaign against the
film Water yet to subside, the lead artiste of the movie, Ms. Shabana
Azmi, M.P., today said the `fundamentalists' attack on the film sets in
Varanasi was part of a ``larger design to capture the cultural space and
thrust a monolithic view of culture which is opposed to Hinduism.''

Still seething at the Uttar Pradesh Government's ban on shooting the
film in Varanasi, the actress-activist, who was here today to participate
in a `Women's Day' seminar, flung a spirited poser at the
`fundamentalists'. ``If Water is anti-woman and anti-Hindu, you should
ask, is the Centre, which cleared the film script twice, anti-woman and
anti-Hindu?'' she asked.Flaying fundamentalists of all hues, she said the
violent protests against Water should not be viewed in isolation.
Pointing to the ICHR's withdrawal of the volumes titled `Towards
=46reedom' and the recent attack on two women in Mumbai, she asserted
that there was a larger fascist conspiracy.

She called upon the `silent majority', which viewed the festering
communalism with horror, to rise against the `wave of intolerance'. As
fundamentalism ran counter to women's rights, they should shoulder the
responsibility of preserving secularism, she said.

Even while calling for a public crusade against fundamentalism, Ms.
Azmi demanded a uniform civil code ``based on gender justice''. The
personal laws of all religions discriminated against women, she said and
called for a blue-print of a common civil code ``culling out the equitable
laws in all religions''.

However, she hastened to add: ``let us be warned. It cannot be a Hindu
code imposed on all people''. Though the Directive Principles of the
Constitution spoke of common civil code, she asked why it had not
become a reality yet. Providing the reply herself, she said that the
resistance to uniform personal laws would wither away only ``if the
rights of the minorities are protected''.

Emotively emphasising that the victims of communal riots in the
country, irrespective of their religious faiths, never got justice and the
guilty always went scot-free despite indictments by Commissions of
Inquiry, she said, ``this is why there is resistance to uniform civil code''=
=2E
As for the protest against shooting of Water on the ground that it
portrayed the plight of women in the 1930s and not the present times,
Ms. Azmi said a look at the recent study by the Uttar Pradesh
Government would not only reveal the ``degree of exploitation and
depravity of women destitutes, but the precious little done by the State
to alleviate them''.

She also said that a recent study had revealed that widows in India
suffered 86 per cent more mortality compared to other women of their
age. Underscoring the ``ethnic, cultural and religious plurality'' of Indian
society, she lamented that a concerted effort was on to ``squeeze our
identity into the narrow confines of religion''.

Voicing her support for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament
and legislatures, she said women had to demonstrate that they ``will not
imitate the male notion of power.'' Inaugurating the seminar, TMC
president, Mr. G. K. Moopanar, urged the State Government and the
Centre to set up high-level committees to amend the existing laws to
provide statutory protection for women's rights.

The TMC MP, Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan, who had organised the seminar,
called on women voters not to cast their votes if political parties did not
provide adequate representation to women. She invited the Water film
crew to shoot on the Cauvery banks, stating ``we will provide protection
from the fundamentalist goons''.

An overwhelmed Ms. Azmi told the media later that she was ``grateful
for the invitation, but the decision rests with the film's director, Ms.
Deepa Mehta.''

_____

#5.

UCLA, California State University-Northridge and UC Irvine
Present

The Third International South Asian Women's Conference May 6-7, 2000
Embassy Suites, LAX South

Saturday May 6, 2000

Registration 7:45 a.m.-8:30 a.m. Opening Comments 8:30 a.m.-9:15 a.m.
Keynote; Bapsi Sidhwa

Session One: 9:30 a.m.-11:00 a.m. Historical Perspectives and Women's
Spirituality Katherine Anne Harper Tanisha Ramachandran Vrinda Dalmiya
Discussant: Phyllis Herman

Speaking in Public: Narratives of Shame and Honor among Women in South Asia
Yasmin Saika Rashmi Varma Yumna Siddiqui Discussant: Shuchi Kapila

Women,War and Peace in South Asia: From Icon to Protagonist Rita Manchnada
Darini Rajasingham Meghna Guhathakurta Paula Banerjee Anis Haroon Shobha
Gautam Amrita Banskota

Session Two: 11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Living and (Re)living the Orientalist
=46antasy Shefai Desai Kamakshi Murti Banu Subramaniam Discussant: Kalpana
Shankar

Workshop: Nontraditional Career Choices in a Traditional Society Monika
Nikore Sonia Nikore Vimal Nikore

Workshop: Our Bodies, Ourselves: South Asian Women's Health in Medical and
Legal Perspectives Chaya Bhuvaneswar Neelam Gupta Umme Shefa Warda Zul
Surani Sharmila Lodhia

12:45 p.m.-2:00 p.m. ALL CONFERENCE LUNCH Speaker: Farah Soi, Morgan
Stanley Dean Whitter

Session Three: 2:15 p.m.-3:45 p.m.

Autobiographies and Literary Representations of South Asian Women Shazia
Rahman Chungmin Maria Tu Nandi Bhatia Anupama Jain Chair: Ketu Ketrak

The Politics of the Workplace Manjari Mehta Bindu Nair Krishna Shekhar Lal
Das Chhaya Datar

Workshop: 26 and Unmarried.Hai Ram!: Learning to Enjoy Life as a Single
Woman Seema Anand Neelam Gupta Rita Suri Moderator: Shilpa Agarwal

Session Four: 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

Honor Killings and Sex Trafficking AikoAnn Joshi Katherine McMahon Riffat
Hussan Cris Toffolo Chair: Rahimah Shah

=46amily, Marriage and Divorce Among South Asian Women Nicole T. Ranganath A=
=2E
Usha Devi Rukmini Potdar Chair: Karen Leonard

Diaspora: Religion and Ethics Pika Ghosh Sujatha Ramesh Sarmistha Banerjee
Monali Sheth Chair: Phyllis Herman

5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m. RECEPTION

Sunday May 7, 2000

Session Five: 9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

Workshop: Issues Confronting Women and Girls in Afghanistan Ossia Miazad
Zeiba Shorish-Shamley Maliha Zulfacar Hawa Ghaus Chair: Nadeem Kazmi

The Indian-American Women of the Second Generation Lavinia Shankar Meera
Rastogi Himanee Gupta Zenia Wadhwani Chair: Eshe De

Difficult Passages Lisa Arvind Patel Shaila Dasgupta Phoebe Liebig and D.
Jamuna Ellen Donoghue Chair: Nancy Martin

Session Six: 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Class and Gender: Ethnographic Encounters Jenneke Arens Madhurina Shah B.
Shyamala Devi Rathore Girija Shreshta Chair: Ellora Shahabudin

Individual Papers: Women's Expressive Cultures Shuchi Kothari Madhavi
Sunder R. Farrah Qidwai Monika Mehta Chair: Beheroze F. Shroff

Individual Papers: Partitions, Nationalisms and Feminisms Sabina Sawhney
Debali Mookerjee Aneela Z. Babar Varuni Ganepola

12:15 p.m.-2:00 p.m. ALL CONFERENCE LUNCH AND CLOSING CEREMONIES Speaker:
Madhu Kishwar, Manushi CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

Saturday, May 6, 2000

=B7 7:45 am-8:45 am Registration =B7 8:45 am-9:15 am Welcome =B7 9:30=
am-11:00 am
Session One =B7 11:15 am-12:45 pm Session Two =B7 12:45 pm-2:00 pm Lunch =B7=
2:15
pm-3:45 pm Session Three =B7 3:45 pm-5:30 pm Session Four =B7 5:30 pm-7:00 p=
m
Reception =B7 6:30 pm-7:00 pm Book Signings

11:00 am-5:30 pm Film Festival

Sunday, May 7, 2000

=B7 9:00 am-10:30 am Session Five =B7 10:45 am-12:15 pm Session Six =B7 12:1=
5
pm-2:00 pm Lunch

=46ilm Festival: =B7 Two Homes, One Heart: Sacramento Sikh Women and their
Songs and Dances =B7 Roots in the Sand =B7 Our Stories, Our Songs: Musical
Autobiographies of North Indian Women =B7 Life Before Death =B7 Turbans =B7=
We
are Everywhere

Hotel Information: =B7 Embassy Suites, LAX SOUTH (also conference venue)
Please note that there are two Embassy LAX locations =B7 1440 East Imperial
Avenue, El Segundo, CA 90245 =B7 For reservations, call 1-800-EMBASSY =B7
Conference rate: $109.00 includes breakfast =B7 For directions, call
1-310-640-3600 =B7 Two double or king-size bed available =B7 Smoking or
non-smoking available =B7 State that you are attending the SAWC

=46or further information, contact Sangeeta Gupta at Sangeetaucla@y...

Conference information, agenda and registration material are also available
on our website: www.Indianmall.com/sawc (type in entire address)
_________________________________________
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