SACW | 10 Nov 2004

[sacw]

South Asia Citizens Wire   |  10 November,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1] Pakistan:  No more jirgas, please! (Edit, The Daily Times)
[2] Pakistan:  Jirga injustice (Ardeshir Cowasjee)
[3] Act of Faith: A Film on Gays and Islam (Matthew Hays)
[4] India: Manju Institute of Values - Course on 
How to Be a Dutiful Housewife  (John Lancaster)
[5] India: Improbability ratio This population 
projection defies common sense (Mukul Dube)
[6] India: Calls for Witness Protection Grow as 
Pogrom Survivor Turns Hostile (Ranjit Devraj)
[7] Publication Announcement:
Cultural Dynamics - Volume 16, Issue 2 & 3 
"Gendered Violence In South Asia: Nation And 
Community In The Postcolonial Present"
[8] Events  etc:
(i)  Lecture by Harsh Mander - "Forgotten Lives: 
The Other Side Of India" (Los Angeles, 10 Nov 
2004)
(ii) Human Rights Day (New Delhi, 11 Dec, 2004)
(iii) A report on a recent day long conference on 
Pakistan at Johns Hopkins University


--------------

[1]

Daily Times
November 8, 2004 | editorial

NO MORE JIRGAS, PLEASE!
The adviser to the prime minister on women's 
affairs, Ms Nilofer Bakhtiar, has stated in 
Islamabad that the government will not allow 
Sindh to legalise the jirga system there. She 
connected the Sindhi move to legislate in favour 
of local tribal councils to the federal 
legislation on honour killing, implying that 
jirgas routinely allowed punishments based on 
honour. In the Sindh countryside a number of 
tribes are fighting wars based on the edicts of 
their conflicting jirgas. The myth is that the 
jirga adjudicates on the basis of some kind of 
custom. But the truth is that the jirga favours 
whoever is in power and metes out kangaroo-court 
punishments to innocent individuals.
Who is trying to revive the jirga system and 
ignoring the fact that the police has been ousted 
from its jurisdiction in parts of Sindh because 
of the illegal jirga? Interestingly the 
Jamaat-e-Islami and the Sindh chief minister have 
together condoned honour-killings handed down by 
the jirga from their different points of view. 
But some points about the jirga will have to be 
pondered. The jirga in non-tribal societies such 
as Sindh and Punjab (where it is called 
panchayat) is simply a perverse tribalisation of 
the state. Instead of weaning the FATA areas from 
the most unjust system of their jirgas we are 
actually trying to drag the rest of the country 
into this quasi-judicial quagmire. A jirga is 
also a violation of the constitutional edict of 
separation of the judiciary from the executive. 
Instead of "deforming" Sindh into a jirga-based 
society we should try to "reform" the tribal 
areas in FATA by bringing them into the ambit of 
proper municipal law. *


______


[2]


Dawn
November 7, 2004

JIRGA INJUSTICE
By Ardeshir Cowasjee

Nicholas Kristoff, one of the leading columnists 
for the New York Times, travelled in Pakistan 
earlier this year - as he put it, in an attempt 
to come to the aid of General Pervez Musharraf 
and locate Osama bin Laden. He failed in his 
mission, but along the way came across someone 
who to his mind was even more extraordinary.
In a column published in the NYT on September 29 
('Sentenced to be raped'), Kristoff has revived 
the horrendous tale of Mukhtaran Bibi of 
Meerwalla, a village in southern Punjab, a 
12-hour drive from Islamabad.
Mukhtaran's story has been written about at 
length, both here and abroad, in 2002 after she 
was gang-raped in June of that year.
It all started with the sexual abuse of 
Mukhtaran's brother by several members of the 
local feudal landowning clique (with whom this 
country is riddled). They then attempted a 
cover-up and accused the unfortunate lower-strata 
boy of having an affair with one of their women. 
A jirga was summoned and in its collective 
antediluvian wicked wisdom it was decided that a 
just punishment would be the organized rape of 
one of the boy's sisters. Mukhtaran Bibi was the 
chosen 'object'.
To quote Kristoff : "As members of the 
high-status tribe danced in joy, four men 
stripped her naked and took turns raping her. 
They then forced her to walk home naked in front 
of 300 villagers."
Rather than taking the traditional way out and 
committing suicide (as did a girl in a 
neighbouring village who was gang-raped a week 
later), Mukhtaran reported her rape to the 
police. The human rightists activated themselves, 
as did the press, and the rapists were charged, 
tried and sentenced. General Musharraf, reacting 
to the outcry against this monstrous crime, 
ordered that she be paid some Rs.500,000 as 
compensation (a primitive compensation for the 
violation of one's body) and given police 
protection so that she would not be killed.
Mukhtaran, illiterate, downtrodden, but brave and 
obviously intelligent, realizing that education 
was the only way in which she could help her 
people emerge from their helpless plight, used 
the money to build two schools in her village, 
one for girls and one for boys. She herself is 
now studying in the fourth grade of the girls' 
school which is named after her. The government 
had also agreed to fund the running of the 
schools but, not surprisingly, it has reneged.
The response to Kristoff's column, as he writes 
later, 'has blown me away'! Over 90,000 dollars 
was sent to him in cheques made out to Mukhtaran, 
all drawn on US banks. Mukhtaran herself was also 
sent a substantial amount in cheques, some of 
which she has deposited, but most of which is 
being held so as to avoid our bank clearing 
charges of up to some Rs.3,000 per US dollar 
cheque. Kristoff is also having a problem with 
his collection trying to figure out how to get 
the money to Mukhtaran without incurring the 
substantial clearing fees.
With regard to the levying of bank clearing 
charges, I spoke to the head of a bank with which 
my family has banked for over a century. Without 
any hesitation he agreed to waive all his bank's 
charges and is getting in touch with Kristoff.
Kristoff has posted Mukhtaran Bibi's address for 
those who may wish to make further donations: 
Meerwalla, Tehsil Jatoi, PO Wadowallah, District 
Muzaffargarh. His feeling is that as Mukhtaran 
has already used her own funds to help her fellow 
villagers, the donations will be used in a wise 
and befitting manner.
Illustrative of the mentality and mindset of the 
great representatives of our people, voted in by 
the people to do good by the people, is an e-mail 
Kristoff received : "My name is Humaira A Shahid 
and I am a member of parliament. Your column on 
Mukhtaran Bibi was right on the money. Just want 
to add to your information. As a member of 
parliament, I presented a piece of legislation 
suggesting a ban [on] such tribal council 
decisions. I had suggested that any person or 
group of individuals taking such decisions should 
be punished with a jail sentence if found guilty. 
Sadly, though, my effort is lying - unanswered - 
with the federal government of Pakistan for at 
least a year and a half. And I am a member of 
parliament in the ruling coalition and not the 
opposition. That goes to show the level of 
interest in resolving human right issues by the 
powers that be in this country."
So much for the federal and punjab governments. 
Here in Sindh, despite recent high court orders 
banning the holding of jirgas, the people's 
government has drawn up an ordinance, giving the 
two fingered sign to the judiciary and to the 
laws of the land, which will validate jirgas and 
nullify the effect of the court. It is proposed 
that it has retroactive effect, as of April 25, 
2004, the obvious reason being that by its 
judgment dated April 24, 2004, the court, in the 
case of Mst Shazia vs SHO & Others (SBLR 2004 
Sindh, 918) held the jirga system to be illegal 
and unlawful relying on several judgments of the 
Supreme Court:
"1) This ordinance may be called the Sindh 
Amicable Settlement of Disputes Odinance, 2004. . 
. . 4) Where any matter is brought to the notice 
of naikmard or the naikmard is otherwise 
satisfied that a dispute exists which is likely 
to cause bloodshed, murder or breach of peace and 
the settlement thereof will tend to prevent or 
terminate the commission thereof, the naikmard 
shall use his good offices (a) to achieve the 
amicable settlement of disputes amongst the 
people of the area through mediation, 
conciliation, arbitration or faisla; (b) to 
prevent the breach of peace and public 
tranquillity in the local area; (c) to promote 
harmony; (d) to eradicate enmity; and thereby 
create brotherhood among the persons of different 
segments of .., society. 5) Notwithstanding 
anything contained in any law, no legal 
practitioner shall be permitted to appear on 
behalf of any party to a dispute before the 
naikmard. 6) No suit prosecution, other legal 
proceedings shall lie against the government, the 
naikmard or any person for anything which is in 
good faith done or intended to be done in 
pursuance of the provisions of this ordinance . . 
. . .".
And who shall be the naikmard? ". . . . a person 
or persons who command the respect and confidence 
of the people of the local area and is appointed 
as such by the parties with their consent to 
decide their dispute."
The chief minister of Sindh, worthy feudal Arbab 
Ghulam Rahim, asked his law minister, Chaudhry 
Iftikhar, to draft the ordinance. A nominee and 
supporter of Pir Pagaro, the minister did not 
hesitate. Should he not be sacked forthwith for 
contravening the law?
This iniquitous piece of potential legislation 
will permit our local feudal lords to continue 
their practice of holding sway over the lives and 
deaths of their subjects - the serfs who in their 
ignorance and illiteracy have voted them into the 
provincial assembly. How is it possible for the 
governor - a qualified doctor of medicine, 
educated, who has lived abroad for over a decade 
and should be vaguely in tune with the 21st 
century - to put his signature to such a document?
As has been the situation for the past five 
years, decisions, if they are to hold, have to be 
made by General Musharraf, the president. We are 
all helpless and it is now time for him to step 
in and ensure that the jirga system is firmly put 
behind us and that the dishonourable killings 
which are handed down are dealt with as 
premeditated murder, pure and simple.
An e-mail message just received from MNA Fauzia 
Wahab of the PPPP relates the story of a 50-year 
old woman, the mother of eight, who, fearing for 
her life, approached her local police station 
asking for protection. Naturally, the police 
turned their backs on her. She was later found 
dead, her body hacked into pieces. A case could 
be filed against the killers, but on the basis of 
Section 299 of the PPC, Dyat, the woman's killer, 
her brother-in-law will be pardoned by his 
brother, the widower, and that will be that. Her 
eight children will be the only ones to mourn her 
death.
Such foul happenings and deeds make a mockery of 
General Musharraf and his pleas for 'enlightened 
moderation'. And they are hardly an advertisement 
for Pakistan on the international front - what 
message do such news items send out to investors, 
or even those mad enough to contemplate visiting 
Pakistan as tourists? It is high time for the 
general to step in and settle this issue once and 
for all.

______



[3]

New York Times
November 2, 2004

ACT OF FAITH: A FILM ON GAYS AND ISLAM
By Matthew Hays

Documentary filmmakers have long wrestled with 
the need to obscure the identities of gays and 
lesbians in their work, to avoid unpleasant 
consequences like job loss or a falling out with 
family. Parvez Sharma, a New York-based director, 
has been worried that much worse could await the 
Muslim homosexuals profiled in his upcoming "In 
the Name of Allah," if ever they were identified.

For some, imprisonment or torture is a 
possibility, Mr. Sharma said. Indeed, one of Mr. 
Sharma's associate producers, a gay Egyptian man, 
will not be listed in the credits at his own 
request because of the perceived risk.

And threats to the director have become routine. 
"About every two weeks I get an e-mail that 
berates me, condemns me to hell and, if they are 
nice, asks me to still seek forgiveness while 
there is still time," Mr. Sharma said, speaking 
here about his as yet unfinished film, which he 
is preparing to take on the festival circuit in 
faraway 2006.

That such pressure is building around a project 
still more than a year from completion is the 
best measure of a perhaps widening gulf that 
separates an increasingly open attitude toward 
gay and lesbian life in many Western countries 
from that of predominantly Muslim ones.

With backing primarily from European television 
broadcasters, including Channel 4 in Britain, 
Arte in France and ZDF in Germany, Mr. Sharma set 
out nearly two years ago to examine how 
homosexual Muslims around the world reconciled 
their faith with their sexual orientation.

In doing so, the director received advice and 
moral support from his producer, Sandi Simcha 
DuBowski, the filmmaker behind "Trembling Before 
G-d," a feature-length documentary that two years 
ago investigated the lives of Orthodox and 
Hasidic Jews who are also gay or lesbian.

"Parvez's film is extremely important," Mr. 
DuBowski said. "It challenges the idea that there 
are no Muslim gays or lesbians. It poses much the 
same question that 'Trembling Before G-d' did: 
why would gays want to be part of a tradition 
that rejects them?"

Mr. Sharma, who was born and brought up in India, 
said the inspiration for his film came from his 
own experiences as a gay Muslim. His curiosity 
about how Islam and homosexuality intersect grew 
when he attended American University in 
Washington, where he received a master's degree 
in film and video.

Listening to stories told by gay Muslims at the 
school, Mr. Sharma conceived the idea of a 
picture that would "give voice to a community 
that really needed to be heard and that until now 
hadn't been; it was about going where the silence 
was strongest."

Mr. Sharma has conducted interviews throughout 
North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, 
in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, India 
and Egypt. Many of the people he interviewed were 
found through the Internet.

"I received thousands of e-mails shortly after 
word got out about the film,'' Mr. Sharma said. 
"One 17-year-old Egyptian is remarkably brave, 
quite open about his sexual orientation despite 
that country's crackdown on homosexuals."

As with Christianity and Judaism, there is a 
broad range of expert opinion on the exact nature 
of Islam's official stance toward homosexuality. 
Some scholars interpret the Koran as suggesting 
that there is no condemnation of homosexuality, 
while others read Muslim scripture as indicating 
homosexual acts should be punished with death.

Given the hostility toward homosexuality in some 
Islamic factions, Mr. Sharma has gone to great 
lengths to reassure many of his interview 
subjects that they will remain anonymous. But 
this obscuring of identities has led to what the 
director regards as one of his key challenges: 
filming people in silhouette or with their faces 
covered tends to reinforce a sense of shame 
around homosexuality, precisely countering one of 
Mr. Sharma's main objectives.

"One young Afghan woman I've interviewed, if her 
family found out about her being lesbian they 
would undoubtedly kill her,'' Mr. Sharma said. 
"So it's unavoidable. In certain circumstances, 
I'm going to have to conceal faces. But I'd 
rather not."

Still, nothing in that difficult process - 
including the threats to himself - has destroyed 
Mr. Sharma's faith in the ability of Islam to 
tolerate diversity.

"You have to understand," Mr. Sharma said, "that 
Islam is a religion of more than a billion 
people, one more than 13 centuries old, that has 
been hijacked by an extremely small and sometimes 
loud minority."

______


[4]


  Washington Post
Monday, November 8, 2004; Page A16

Women on the Rise in India Feel the Riptide of Tradition
COURSE ON HOW TO BE A DUTIFUL HOUSEWIFE HAS STRONG RESONANCE

By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service

BHOPAL, India -- By some measures, Meena Mangtani 
was a model of emancipated Indian womanhood, with 
a college degree in business, a working knowledge 
of computers and English and a desire to land a 
job in a bank. She even harbored the notion, as 
she put it recently, "that men and women are 
equal, that we can do anything."

But Mangtani, 23, said she had come to see the error of her ways.


Aildas Hemnani, who leads a course that 
emphasizes women should be subservient, instructs 
students in Bhopal. (John Lancaster -- The 
Washington Post)

In preparation for her imminent marriage, the 
slender, dark-eyed grocer's daughter is nearing 
completion of a popular three-month course on how 
to be the ideal Indian wife. Among other things, 
the course emphasizes the importance of household 
chores, suggests keeping sex to a minimum and 
advises that the key to blissful relations with a 
new husband is to "think of him as your god." It 
also recommends extreme deference to 
mothers-in-law, who typically live under the same 
roof as the new brides.

At a time when Indian women are struggling to 
shuck off centuries of oppression and are 
entering the workplace in record numbers, the 
teachings of the Manju Institute of Values serve 
as a reminder of the enduring power of tradition 
in Indian marriage -- and, some say, its 
continuing role in holding women back.

"Even if they say something mean to us, our first 
instinct should not be to retort back, but to 
stay silent," said Mangtani, who now maintains 
that her new husband and his parents will decide 
whether she pursues a career. "The 'I' in me was 
very strong. Now I have learned that we are 
newcomers in that family and we have to adjust. 
We have to reduce the ego."

Such lessons might seem redundant in this nation 
of more than 1 billion people, where traditional 
views of marriage are deeply entrenched. In most 
cases, for example, parents still arrange their 
children's marriages and -- if they are parents 
of the groom -- expect substantial dowries, even 
though the practice supposedly has been outlawed 
since the 1980s.

Even Indian marriage, however, is not immune to 
the pressures of globalization and rapid urban 
growth. The newsmagazine India Today recently 
published a story on marriage that cited the role 
of Internet matchmaking services in empowering 
young Indians to play a more active role in 
choosing their mates. Although India still has 
one of the world's lowest rates of divorce -- 
largely because of the stigma it confers on women 
-- the percentage of marriages that end that way 
has risen steadily over the last decade, 
especially in urban areas, according to Ranjana 
Kumari, director of the Center for Social 
Research in New Delhi.

To social conservatives, such trends represent a 
dire threat to India's family-oriented culture 
and values -- a threat that the Manju Institute, 
among others, aims to combat by reminding women 
of their customary domestic role.

"Women make house," Aildas Hemnani, a retired 
civil servant who founded the institute in 1987, 
told his students the other morning as they sat 
cross-legged on the floor of the Hindu prayer 
hall that serves as his classroom. "Men make 
society. But where does the society come from? 
Because a woman, when she is making the home, she 
brings up model citizens."

Such attitudes infuriate development experts in 
India, for whom there is no bigger or more urgent 
challenge than lifting the status of women, who 
continue to lag behind men on key social 
indicators such as literacy and access to 
education. Every year, more than 6,000 Indian 
women are murdered by their husbands and in-laws 
-- sometimes doused with kerosene and burned to 
death in purported kitchen accidents -- for 
failing to yield to demands for bigger dowries, 
according to national crime statistics.

By encouraging women to remain subservient to 
their husbands and in-laws, the Manju Institute 
and others like it are "reinforcing patriarchal 
norms and values," said Kumari of the New Delhi 
research group. "When there is some empowerment 
happening, I think this is absolutely pulling 
them back."

A dulcet-voiced guru with swept-back white hair, 
Hemnani, 62, denied any desire to thwart women's 
progress. "We don't want her to always bow down 
-- that would be wrong," he said, noting that the 
course textbook, which he wrote, advises women to 
seek police protection from abusive husbands and 
in-laws and reminds husbands to treat their wives 
with tenderness and respect.

But he cautioned that women should not regard 
themselves as equal partners with their husbands. 
"The moment you say partner, that's where the 
clashes come," he said, adding in reference to 
the husband, "He's not God, but he's like God."

Hemnani's training center occupies a three-story 
concrete building next to a private school in a 
quiet neighborhood of Bhopal, a pleasant central 
Indian city known for its man-made lakes and also 
as the site of the world's worst industrial 
accident, the 1984 gas leak from a Union Carbide 
plant that killed at least 2,000 people within 
hours and injured tens of thousands more.

Funded by a wealthy Bombay family and a distant 
guru who serves as Hemnani's mentor, the 
institute charges no tuition for its marriage 
classes, which meet six mornings a week, although 
Hemnani is happy to accept donations from 
students and other followers. About 3,000 young 
women have taken the course; he said he offers a 
compressed version in other cities several times 
a year.

At one recent session, Hemnani began with lessons 
in Sikhism -- an offshoot of the Hindu faith from 
which his teachings borrow heavily -- and natural 
healing, including advice on good sleeping 
habits. Then he directed Mangtani, the business 
graduate, to read from his textbook on surviving 
the rigors of the Indian joint family. (Though 
patterns are changing, a new bride is normally 
expected to join her husband -- especially if he 
is the eldest son -- in the home of his parents, 
who are supposed to adopt her as their own.)

"After marriage, the bride should not think she's 
going to the in-laws' family to throw her weight 
around," Mangtani read. "Instead, she's going 
there to serve the family and perform her duties, 
in order to turn that home into a heaven."

Hemnani's textbook is filled with such advice. 
"The bride should do everything according to the 
wishes and orders of the mother-in-law and 
father-in-law," it says. "The mother-in-law and 
father-in-law are never wrong."

It also offers plenty of tips for getting along 
with a new husband. "For a woman, her husband is 
everything," the textbook says. "The wife should 
sleep after her husband and wake up before him. . 
. . When he returns home, welcome him with a 
smile, help him in taking off his shoes and 
socks, and ask him to sit down. Bring him water 
and biscuits, and with a smile, ask him about his 
day. A husband's happiness alone is your life's 
goal. . . . Do not go without your husband's 
permission anywhere."

In addition, the textbook includes a section on 
how a husband should treat his wife. Among other 
advice, it suggests: "If there is anything 
missing or inadequate in her cooking, do not get 
angry, but explain to her with love"; "never 
raise your hand to hit your wife"; and "sometimes 
praise her good qualities."

As for sex, the less the better: "You can be 
celibate even when you're married," Hemnani 
advises, citing a Hindu saint's recommendation 
that couples have sex only once in their 
marriage. "If they are not happy with that, then 
once a year," he writes, warning that more 
frequent sex "reduces your lifespan."

Mangtani said she saw nothing wrong with 
Hemnani's recipe for harmonious marriage. "These 
are our duties -- not to go on insisting on our 
rights, but do our duties," she said. "If we 
perform our duties well first, our rights will 
come."

Notwithstanding her college education and career 
aspirations, Mangtani became engaged to her 
fiance -- whose family owns a license-plate 
factory in a town about five hours from Bhopal by 
train -- as part of a deal brokered by the two 
families.

After the families agreed on a dowry of 300,000 
rupees -- about $6,400 -- the young man and his 
grandfather traveled to Bhopal, where Mangtani 
met her fiance for the first time. "He was happy 
to hear that I prefer a joint family," she 
recalled.

Her parents hosted an engagement party the next day.

Mangtani has seen her husband-to-be only twice 
since that day seven months ago, once to go to a 
movie and another time to take a boat ride on a 
lake. But she does not seem worried about getting 
married to a virtual stranger, in part, she said, 
because of the lessons she has learned at the 
Manju Institute.

"The whole idea is to surrender yourself to your 
husband and new family," she said. "If they let 
me have a career I will have a career, and if 
they don't that's okay. My prime goal is to 
serve."



______


[5]

Indian Express
November 09, 2004

IMPROBABILITY RATIO
THIS POPULATION PROJECTION DEFIES COMMON SENSE
by Mukul Dube		 		 

Ashok Singhal of the VHP is reported to have said 
that owing to the "rapid growth" of the Muslim 
population, Hindus will be reduced to a minority 
by 2060. I have made some simple calculations 
based on the figures contained in the 2001 
census. Being mathematically challenged, I 
request Ashok Singhal to kindly check them.

If India's Hindu population is to grow constantly 
until 2060 at its decadal growth rate of 
1991-2001, it will become 182 crore. If Muslims 
have by then reduced Hindus to a minority, they 
will outnumber Hindus by at least one individual. 
The Hindu population will have become over twice 
as large as it is, while the Muslim population 
will have become over 13 times as large. I assume 
here that the numerically insignificant religious 
communities will have grown, like the Hindus, at 
their 1991-2001 rates.

The 2001 census recorded 138,188,240 individual 
Muslims in India. In order to grow to 182 crore 
in 60 years so as to meet Ashok Singhal's target, 
they will need to maintain a growth rate of 203 
per cent. Every Muslim in India, including 
infants, must produce roughly one fifth of a 
child every year, for 60 years without a break.

What are the numerical implications for this of 
the fact that human reproduction typically 
involves two co-operating persons? Should I have 
said two fifths of a child per person per year? 
Or one tenth, perhaps? Nor can I see how the 
absence of physiological capacities so far 
considered essential might be overcome. But I am 
content to accept Ashok Singhal's prediction, for 
it must have been based on a profound knowledge 
of Vedic arithmetic and Vedic biology. However, 
breeding on the prodigious scale that is 
predicted for India's Muslims has not been seen 
anywhere in the world at any time.

Going by the calculations above, India's 
population in 2060 will have become 3.7 times 
what it is today; but they assume a mere 20 per 
cent decadal growth rate for Hindus. If Hindus, 
who were 81.4 per cent of the population in 2001, 
are to heed the VHP's call to adopt the 8 sons 
norm, and if they can refrain from bumping off 
the probably equal number of daughters who will 
be born to them, their population - and that of 
India - will grow by 2060 to a size with which my 
computer cannot cope. All I can say is that we 
must look forward to turning into aquatic 
creatures. In anticipation I have begun to sprout 
gills.

Finally, the all-important matter of divinity. 
Those who are capable of procreation of this 
order cannot but be super-human. They must be 
inducted with honour into the Hindu pantheon.

______

[6]

Inter Press Service
INDIA:

Calls for Witness Protection Grow as Pogrom Survivor Turns Hostile
Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Nov. 9 (IPS) - Human rights activists 
are calling for a better witness protection 
programme after a key survivor of the 2002 
anti-Muslim pogrom in western Gujarat turned 
hostile and accused a leading voluntary agency of 
trying to coerce her into making statements.
Zahira Sheikh -- who saved herself from mobs that 
set ablaze the bakery her family owned in 
Ahmedabad city and murdered her sister, uncle, 
three cousins and seven other Muslims -- is the 
best-known face of what is undoubtedly India's 
worst communal riot since the country was 
partitioned in 1947 into Muslim Pakistan and 
Hindu-majority India.
At least 2,000 people were killed and tens of 
thousands driven from their homes and businesses 
in the ensuing violence. Human rights 
organisations and the statutory National Human 
Rights Commission (NHRC) have accused the 
pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 
government, which rules the state, of turning a 
blind eye to the killings.
On Nov. 3, Sheikh, a key witness for the 
prosecution against 21 people accused of 
attacking the bakery, suddenly turned against the 
well-respected, Mumbai-based Citizens for Justice 
and Peace (CJP) and accused it of compelling her 
to testify at ''knife-point.''
But human rights activists find it hard to fathom 
her sudden changes of stance - which often 
vacillated between the prosecution and defence.
In May 2003, based on her statements, a 
fast-track court in Gujarat dealing with the 
pogrom had acquitted all the accused but a month 
later Sheikh turned up in Mumbai city and told 
press reporters that she had testified under 
constant threats from pro-Hindu organisations 
affiliated to the BJP.
Based on appeals made on her behalf by the CJP, 
the Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the 
'Best Bakery Case' out of Gujarat to courts in 
neighbouring Maharashtra state -- a stronghold of 
the Congress party that swears by secularism and, 
since May, leads India's government.
Speaking to IPS, Shabnam Hashmi, leading rights 
campaigner and leader of the pro- secular, 
voluntary group 'Anhad' said Sheikh's latest 
volte-face was the result of ''poor witness 
protection in the legal system of the country.''
''It is time to seriously consider federal 
protection to investigate mass crimes where 
investigation by local police may be wanting,'' 
said Prashan Bhushan, a Supreme Court advocate 
and well-known rights activist.
Already India's Law Commission, charged with 
formulating reform measures, has called for the 
enactment of comprehensive legislation for 
witness protection and the introduction of 
special procedures to ensure anonymity for 
witnesses as well as rights for the accused.
The Law Commission, which is yet to come up with 
a draft bill for the consideration of Parliament, 
has also called for physical protection of 
witnesses as well.
Meanwhile, Sheikh cannot complain of lack of 
protection. The same Gujarat police who failed to 
act during the pogrom escorted her to the press 
briefing where she denounced the CJP and its 
leader, the feisty Teesta Setalvad, before 
secreting her away to an undisclosed place.
On Sunday, according to news reports, Sheikh's 
Muslim neighbours in Baroda's Ekta Nagar burned 
her effigy and described her as a traitor and a 
blot on the entire community especially since her 
stand could damage more than 15 other cases 
relating to the Gujarat riots filed by the CJP.
Those cases include that of Bilkis Banoo and 
Rehanabibi, key witnesses in another case where 
27 people were burnt alive near the town of Anand 
by mobs seeking revenge for the torching of a 
train carrying Hindu pilgrims at Godhra station 
on Feb 27, 2002 resulting in 59 deaths.
On Saturday Setalvad petitioned the Supreme Court 
to demand a probe by the Central Bureau of 
Investigation (CBI) into the circumstances that 
led to Sheikh's Nov. 3 statements to reporters - 
while under escort by the Gujarat police.
What irked Setalvad most was Sheikh's statement 
that she preferred the Best Bakery trial to be 
conducted in Gujarat rather than in Mumbai as 
ordered by the Supreme Court. In August, the 
Supreme Court ticked off the Gujarat government 
prosecutor for opposing warrants against the 
accused to appear in court for cross-examination.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has reacted 
to the dramatic volte-face by Sheikh by taking a 
swipe against human rights organisations. A day 
after Sheikh made her statements Modi said 
publicly that it was to ''re-examine the role of 
voluntary agencies in society.''
But rights activists believe that Modi's 
government may have encouraged Sheikh to denounce 
the CJP with blandishments and threats. ''The 
police must have been harassing and torturing her 
relatives,'' said Bhushan.
On Monday the National Commission for Minorities 
(NCM), another statutory body, said it has 
received a complaint from Sheikh saying that she 
was being harassed by Setalvad and the CJP an was 
seeking its help in protecting her as a member of 
a minority community.
''We have received a complaint from Zahira Sheikh 
in which she has written about her helplessness 
and we have taken cognizance of it,'' said 
Tarlochan Singh, Chairman of the NCM.
The bizarre turn of events has elicited comments 
from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who told 
Indian reporters accompanying him to The Hague 
for the 5th India-European Union Summit, on 
Monday, that it was a matter ''people should 
ponder and reflect.''
''We need to examine the system of criminal 
investigation in the country as well as the 
prosecution system,'' Singh was quoted as saying.
When Singh, a former World Bank economist, took 
over as prime minister in May he made a solemn 
pledge that under his rule communal violence like 
the kind that occurred in Gujarat would not 
occur, again, in the country.
Political analysts believe that the BJP lost the 
elections because of its failure to take timely 
measures to control the riots in Gujarat and 
bring the culprits to justice, including Modi. 
(END/2004)


______


[7]


Announcement:

GENDERED VIOLENCE IN SOUTH ASIA: NATION AND 
COMMUNITY IN THE POSTCOLONIAL PRESENT
Cultural Dynamics, Sage Journal. Volume 16, Issue 2 & 3

Guest Editors: Angana P. Chatterji and Lubna Nazir Chaudhry

(http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalIssue.aspx?pid=105512&jiid=506463)

"This volume addresses how borders violently mark 
women's bodies in wars of direct and indirect 
conquest, and how women's agency is constituted 
in these times. How is gendered violence 
inscribed through the spectacular and in everyday 
life? What is the role of war or armed conflict 
in transforming women's spheres of agency? As we 
write about this issue, we are struck by the 
historical paradox that we women in/from South 
Asia inhabit. Anti-colonial struggles that 
achieved independence and formed postcolonial 
nation-states have consolidated themselves 
through prodigious violence that defined and 
divided communities, memories and futures. 
Promises betrayed reverberate across the very 
borders such violation enshrines. This violence 
was inscribed upon women's bodies in very 
specific ways, as they became, to borrow from 
Gayle Rubin, the "vile and precious merchandise" 
that was literally and figuratively exchanged as 
boundaries were imposed and enforced. Following 
911, the war in Afghanistan, and subsequently the 
invasion of Iraq by Empire, signified the 
rapidity with which violent events are 
encompassing women globally. As feminist 
scholar-activists, we have elaborated on the role 
of gendered and sexualized violence within South 
Asia in this collection, entering into disputed 
representations of gendered violence with small 
hope that knowledge itself, always partial and 
shifting, might act as an intervention to 
suffering."


ARTICLES:

ENGENDERING VIOLENCE: Boundaries, Histories and the Everyday by
Sukanya Banerjee,  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Angana P. Chatterji, California Institute of Integral Studies
Lubna Nazir Chaudhry, State University of New York at Binghamton
Manali Desai, University of California at Riverside and University of Reading
Saadia Toor, Cornell University
Kamala Visweswaran, University of Texas at Austin


BETWEEN REALITY AND REPRESENTATION: Women's 
Agency in War and Post-Conflict Sri Lanka
by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake , Social Scientists' Association, Sri Lanka

INTELLIGIBLE VIOLENCE: Media Scripts, 
Hindu/Muslim Women, and the Battle for 
Citizenship in Kerala
by Usha Zacharias, Westfield State College, United States

WOMEN NEGOTIATING CHANGE: The Structure and 
Transformation of Gendered Violence in Bangladesh
by Meghna Guhathakurta, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

ADVERSARIAL DISCOURSES, ANALOGOUS OBJECTIVES: Afghan Women's Control
Saba Gul Khattak, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan

MAOIST INSURGENCY IN NEPAL: Radicalizing Gendered Narratives
by Rita Manchanda, South Asia Forum for Human Rights, Nepal

RECONSTITUTING SELVES IN THE KARACHI CONFLICT: 
Mohajir Women Survivors and Structural Violence
by Lubna Nazir Chaudhry, State University of New 
York at Binghamton, United States

DEMOCRATIZING BANGLADESH: State, NGOs and Militant Islam
by Lamia Karim, University of Oregon at Eugene, United States

THE BIOPOLITICS OF HINDU NATIONALISM: Mournings
Angana P. Chatterji, California Institute of Integral Studies, United States


______


[8]  [Events etc.]


(i)

Lecture - FORGOTTEN LIVES: THE OTHER SIDE OF INDIA

The Colloquium on South Asian History and 
Cultural Studies invites you to a talk and 
discussion with HARSH MANDER (formerly of the 
Indian Administrative Service)

Harsh Mander received the National Human Rights 
Award in 2002, becoming known as the 'conscience 
of India' for forcefully drawing attention to the 
atrocities committed in Gujarat.  He is one of 
India's most well- known social and political 
activists and the author of "Unheard Voices:
Stories of Forgotten Lives" (Penguin, 2002).  He 
will be speaking on struggles for equality and 
justice in India among the working class, slum 
dwellers, tribals, and others who live on the 
margins.

Colloquium Convenor:  Vinay Lal, Department of History

Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

UCLA
History Conference Room
Bunche 6275
Los Angeles, CA 90095

o o o

(ii)

Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 10:17:03 +0000 (GMT)
From: Anhad Delhi <anhad_delhi at yahoo.co.in>
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
To: anhadinfo at yahoo.co.in

  Dear  Friends,

The struggle for equality and non-discrimination 
is a continuous struggle waged by thousands of 
human right activists across the world.

To celebrate the efforts of thousands of these 
activists from across the world, we propose to 
organise an evening of music, dance, theatre and 
poetry on the occasion of the International Human 
Rights Day on Saturday, December 11, 2004  in New 
Delhi.

  The event would be organised at the Hamsdhwani 
Open Air Theatre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The 
evening concert would be of approximately four- 
hour duration.

  Jagori, Sangat, Prashant, Anhad and Insaf are 
collaborating to organise the event on December 
11, 2004. A large number of organisations are 
supporting the event. The event would be attended 
by thousands of people.

  ANHAD Publication: Anhad is planning to bring 
out a special publication on this occasion. It 
would be released on December 11, 2004 during the 
event.

  This publication would have articles and papers 
by prominent human right activists. It would also 
contain   sketches, paintings, cartoons, poetry 
related to the human rights issue.

  Supporting the event and publication: We are 
proposing to NGOs, human rights organisations, 
individuals to sponsor one or more pages in the 
proposed publication and thus support the event.

  The support contribution is Rs.10000. You can 
either sponsor a page which will have a painting, 
sketch, a poem or a cartoon or you can sponsor a 
page which will have information about your 
organisation. The information will have to be in 
written form, it cannot be an advertisement.

  The organisations/ individuals sponsoring one or 
more pages in the publication would be entitled 
to:

  Their logo, name and address at the bottom of the page/ pages.

1.	5 copies of the publication
2.	Display space at the venue for their material if they desire
3.	Their names would appear at the backdrop 
of the event as event supporters

  Anhad would have the right to accept/ reject a 
sponsorship. Any organisation known for any 
violation of human rights in the past and an 
organisation having links with any communal 
outfit will not be entertained.

  With regards

  Shabnam Hashmi

  PS: We accept only Indian money.

SPONSORSHIP FORM

Name of the organisation: __________________

No.of pages: ____________________________

  Would you sponsor: a poem/ a painting/ a sketch/ 
a cartoon          If yes, please tick or 
highlight

  Do you want the information
about your NGO to go on the page/pages? :

  If yes, have you enclosed the information: Yes/ No

  If no, then name of the person with whom to follow up:
Draft/ cheque No. ______/ Bank’s name__________..
Branch_________./ Amount______________.

  All cheques/ drafts to be sent in favour of ANHAD,
address: 4, Windsor Place, New Delhi-110001.
Tel- 23327366/ 67
e-mail: anhadinfo at yahoo.co.in

  Technical Details about the Publication
Size: 
8x11 inches
  Pages:                                                              120-150
  Pages available for sponsorship:                            50
Sponsorship of a single page:                  10,000 (Indian rupees)

Last date for accepting sponsorship:                   November 25, 2004
BOOK PAGES IN ADVANCE. PLEASE WRITE 'Human 
Rights' Day Publication’ on the envelop.
For any queries contact: Mansi Sharma, 23327366/ 67
anhad_delhi at yahoo.co.in


(iii)

Conference on Pakistan highlights both faults and gains
By Khalid Hasan (Daily Times, Nov 10, 2004)
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-11-2004_pg7_34

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on 
matters of peace and democratisation in South 
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit 
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South 
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at:  bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/

Sister initiatives :
South Asia Counter Information Project :  snipurl.com/sacip
South Asians Against Nukes: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/

DISCLAIMER: Opinions expressed in materials carried in the posts do not
necessarily reflect the views of SACW compilers.