It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, January 14, 2024
Banning conversion therapy is a ‘vital step for equality’, Scottish Greens say
A full ban on conversion practices is a vital step for LGBTQIA+ equality and dignity, the Scottish Greens have said.
The comments were made as a Scottish Government consultation on banning the conversion therapy has been published. Conversion practices are acts which intend to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
A ban on conversion practices was a central pledge of the cooperation agreement between the Scottish Greens and SNP.
The Party’s equality spokesperson, Maggie Chapman said: “This is an important day for the rights of LGBTQIA+ people in Scotland. Conversion practices are not therapy. They are abusive and coercive. They are a form of violence that has no place in a modern or progressive Scotland, or anywhere, for that matter.
“The UK government appears to have reneged on its commitment to deliver a ban of any kind, let alone the watertight one that is so necessary.
“Far too many people have suffered for far too long. Nobody should be told there is something wrong with them or be forced to be ashamed of who they are, just because of their identity.
“The Scotland I want to see is one where everybody can live safely and freely as the people they really are. That cannot happen as long as conversion practices are still taking place.”
The consultation has also been welcomed by people with lived experience of conversion practices, including Scottish Green councillor Blair Anderson, who was a member of the Scottish Government’s Expert Advisory Group on Ending Conversion Practices.
Anderson said: “What was done to me was wrong, and I am far from the only person who has been abused in this way. So-called conversion therapy is being done in households and communities across Scotland. Today’s consultation is a key step towards ending these awful practices for good.
“It is a scary time for the LGBTQ+ community, with a resurgence in hate crimes and abuse against our trans siblings in particular. We have seen a brutal and reactionary culture war that politicians and parts of the media have knowingly stoked and encouraged.
“By banning conversion therapy we can take a key step for equality and towards tackling the pain and the prejudice that so many have had inflicted on them.”
Retail trade union Usdaw is again calling for discussions with online fashion retailer Boohoo about representation of their employees to ensure they are fairly treated. Usdaw represents workers at Boohoo’s warehouse and call centre in Burnley along with the head office in Manchester, but the company continues to refuse to recognise the union, leaving staff without a real voice at work.
The BBC has reported that Boohoo put “Made in the UK” labels on potentially thousands of clothes that were actually made in South Asia. It is reported that Boohoo said the incorrect labels were down to a misinterpretation of the labelling rules. This revelation comes after the BBC reported that the firm is considering closing its Leicester site, opened two years ago and was promoted by the retailer as a UK manufacturing centre of excellence.
Usdaw continues to urge Boohoo to not only clean up their supply chain, but also engage with the union to help repair their reputation and ensure their own staff are treated with fairness and respect.
Mike Aylward – Usdaw Regional Secretary said: “For some years we have been seeking a dialogue with Boohoo to enable us to represent our members’ concerns. We have been met with a wall of silence and staff have been told in no uncertain terms not to engage with the union.
“Concerns about working conditions are not isolated to the supply chain and Boohoo’s directly employed staff feel like they have no way of raising issues with managers or finding resolutions to problems. That is why they need an independent trade union, to give them a voice at work.
“We have yet again asked Boohoo to take the simple step of sitting down with Usdaw to explore how we can work together. Staff, the local community, councillors, MPs and campaign organisations all want this to happen, to help make Boohoo an ethical trader.
“The company could go a long way towards repairing their damaged reputation by meeting with Usdaw and engaging in a positive relationship. Regrettably we have still received no response; for the sake of their employees we hope that will change.”
LITHIUM BATTERIES
Electric bus fleet temporarily withdrawn in south London following fire
Three fire engines and around 15 firefighters attended the scene of the rush hour bus fire in Wimbledon on Thursday (@StevenW65432097/PA)
By Luke O'Reilly, PA
An electric bus fleet has been withdrawn in south London after a double-decker caught fire.
Three fire engines and around 15 firefighters attended the scene of the rush hour bus fire at Wimbledon Hill Road on Thursday.
The bus was quickly evacuated, and the fire was put out.
Following the incident, Transport for London (TfL) said electric buses on route 200, which runs between Raynes Park and Mitcham, are being “temporarily withdrawn” by operator GoAhead.
Other buses in the fleet remain in service and TfL and bus operators will not hesitate to take further action if required to ensure the network remains safe
Tom Cunnington, TfL head of bus business development
TfL said the measure was a “precaution” taken by GoAhead while the investigation into the blaze continues.
Tom Cunnington, TfL’s head of bus business development, said London’s bus network is “safe to use”.
“As a precaution, the fleet of buses that normally operate on route 200 is being temporarily withdrawn from service by GoAhead while the investigation continues, with other vehicles being brought in to cover,” he said.
“All buses made by the relevant manufacturer will be checked thoroughly as a matter of priority.
“Other buses in the fleet remain in service and TfL and bus operators will not hesitate to take further action if required to ensure the network remains safe.”
UK
Will war in the Middle East cast a shadow over a Starmer (RED TORY) government?
Airstrikes in Yemen and conflict in Gaza inflame the same issues as the Iraq war, Labour’s most painful wound
Starmer says he supports Sunak's decision to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen strikes
The shadow cabinet is more deeply divided than it appears. Labour is still subject to less media scrutiny than the Conservatives, despite the widespread assumption that Keir Starmer will become prime minister this year.
Most Labour MPs are also more disciplined than most Tory MPs because they can feel election victory within their grasp, whereas the Tories are either fed up or have given up, and so are happier to be rude about each other in private and in public.
As ever in politics, Labour’s divisions are a mixture of the personal and the ideological, and foreign policy is one of the hidden fractures threatening the foundations of an incoming government.
That is why the airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen are potentially more of a problem for Starmer than for Rishi Sunak. They are a risk for the prime minister, because he could find himself drawn deeper into an unpopular conflict in an election year. But they could be a bigger risk for the Labour leader, who has offered his unequivocal support for the strikes, not wanting to appear soft on national security.
For Labour, however, more than for the Conservatives, military action in Yemen, which is being linked on today’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations with the conflict in Gaza, reopens all the old wounds of the Iraq war.
All the same issues have been reignited: military intervention in the Middle East; the confrontation with anti-Western Islamist ideology; and the Israel-Palestine question. The same bundle of nerves that convulsed the Labour Party and caused it to cast aside its most successful leader in history. It was not the Iraq war itself that forced Tony Blair out in the end. Indeed, he won a third election handsomely in 2005, two years after the invasion. But the party’s neutralist reflexes were making it harder to manage. What eventually got Blair out was his refusal to call for a ceasefire when Israel retaliated with disproportionate force to a Hezbollah attack from Lebanon in 2006.
The party had tolerated the Iraq war – even Clare Short, the international development secretary, defended it. One of the arguments that Blair deployed for joining the US invasion was that it would give Britain leverage with the Americans to put pressure on the Israelis to negotiate with the Palestinians. It did, and George Bush published a “road map” towards a two-state agreement – but nothing came of it, and Blair’s refusal to condemn Israel in 2006 was the stretch that broke the elastic. “All right, all right, I’m going,” Blair said (I paraphrase), and nine months later he was gone.
There was an aftershock of that trauma in October, when Starmer refused to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Ten shadow ministers resigned from their posts – “Jobs they ain’t,” I remember Neil Kinnock snarling when one of his frontbenchers had the audacity to think their status mattered. Only one of them, Jess Phillips, attended shadow cabinet, but the revolt was significant because it was the visible part of the iceberg of discontent below the surface.
There are several members of the shadow cabinet who are unhappy with Starmer’s position on Gaza, despite its modulation under cover of the US and British governments’ shift to calling for a “sustainable ceasefire”. That is still “not a ceasefire” as far as they are concerned.
The same set of shadow ministers is sceptical about airstrikes against the Houthis. They share the view expressed by some of the banners on today’s pro-Palestine march: “End the bombing of Gaza and Yemen.” The two theatres of conflict are not the same, but they are connected. The UK is not bombing Hamas, so stopping the bombing of Gaza requires persuading the Israeli government, whereas bombing Houthi launchers was a UK government decision, in concert with the US.
But they are connected because the Houthis are attacking Red Sea shipping as a way of attacking Israel indirectly, and of identifying themselves with the Palestinian cause, which is popular throughout the Muslim world.
That cause is popular in the Labour Party too, and although reservations about airstrikes in Yemen are expressed in terms of “not wanting to be dragged into another war in the Middle East”, there is a simple equation between support for the Palestinians and opposition to airstrikes a thousand miles away.
That is not to say that Starmer has a problem with his divided party yet. But it is a fissure that could open up in government – assuming, as seems likely, that both Gaza and the Red Sea will still be conflict zones by then.
Nor is Starmer like Blair, whose jaw-jutting refusal to compromise finally provoked his party to revolt. Starmer’s conversion to liberal interventionism is so recent that it is easier to imagine him taking a Wilsonian middle path in office. As a new MP in 2015, he voted against airstrikes on Isis in Iraq. This is possibly a better guide to his true instincts than his leadership election platform of promising a Prevention of Military Intervention Act.
But if Starmer takes power at the end of this year, he will start with a party already divided and the Middle East already in turmoil, whereas it took years, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, for Blair to hit trouble.
If this is a year of a Labour government, it is worth asking more probing questions about what kind of government it might be.
Cuba condemns American-British aggression against Yemen and considers it encouraging for genocide in Gaza
[13/January/2024]
HAVANA January 13. 2024 (Saba) - Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez condemned the attacks launched by the United States and NATO against Yemen and the violation of international law.
In a statement today, Saturday, Rodriguez considered that such actions encourage genocide in Gaza, reiterating the call for an immediate ceasefire in the Palestinian territories.
Rodriguez had confirmed that Cuba supports the lawsuit submitted by South Africa, calling “urgently” for an end to the genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.
While Cuban President, Miguel DÃaz-Canel, expressed his country's firm support for the lawsuit filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice against "Israel", due to the crimes and acts of genocide committed against the Palestinian people... stressing that his country "will never be among the brittle".
Z.E
Russia calls on international community to condemn attack by United States & Britain on Yemen
[13/January/2024]
UNITED NATIONS January 13. 2024 (Saba) - Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations,Nebenzia Vassily, called on the international community to condemn the attack by the United States and its allies on Yemen without a mandate from the United Nations.
The Russian RT channel quoted Nebenzia as saying in a session of the UN Security Council: “We call on the international community to strongly condemn the attack on Yemen, which was carried out by a group of countries led by the United States without authorization from the United Nations.”
He stressed: "We share the concerns expressed by our regional partners in this regard and call for intensifying international efforts to prevent further escalation of violence in the Middle East."
E.M
Labour's housing 'revolution': Rachel Reeves proposes 25-year mortgages in boost for first-time buyers
13 January 2024,
Such long-term fixed-rate mortgages are common in other parts of the world, such as Canada, the UK and Japan. Picture: Alamy
By Jasmine Moody
LBC
Rachel Reeves had pledged millions of people would experience a "revolution on home ownership", with Labour proposing 25-year fixed-rate mortgages to reduce instability in the housing market
Speaking to The Times, Ms Reeves said that longer fixed-rate deals would allow people to purchase homes with smaller deposits and lower monthly repayments.
Now, she has asked a Labour review of financial services to work with the mortgage industry to take away regulatory barriers and to start a broader cultural shift.
Such long-term fixed-rate mortgages are common in other parts of the world, such as Canada, the UK and Japan.
The shadow chancellor explained to The Times that the British housing market is more exposed to changes in interest rates, impacting first-time buyers
With Labour’s "revolution”, a "10, 25-year mortgage" would allow first-time buyers to be less financially impacted than they are in the current system, and reduce instability in the housing market.
She said: "If you are locked in for a 10, 25-year mortgage, those stress tests become redundant. Potentially you would be able to borrow a bit more, to put down a bit less of a deposit.
"If you can take out some of that stress and instability, that will make a difference."
Ms Reeves added that she would be reluctant for taxpayers to support lenders in proving said products, as seen in other countries.
Instead, she advocated for the industry to promote a transition away from the current two and five-year fixed mortgages.
She said that "these longer-term deals might make more sense" for many people, but "especially for families".
CAPITALI$M IN SPACE Waste of space: The danger posed by orbital junk
Sending satellites and other objects into space is getting ever easier and cheaper but, as Tali Fraser reports, the mess left behind is dangerous and without action is posing an ever greater risk. Illustration by Tracy Worrall
It started with a single glove in 1965. Approaching 60 years later there are around 130 million pieces of humanity’s detritus circling our planet.
Of the objects in Earth’s orbit, 75 per cent are said to be “space junk”, from old satellites to spacecraft – and almost every space mission has the ability to produce more, leaving low-Earth orbit (LEO) looking like a landfill.
The astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS) have enough to consider without the worry of coming under attack from thousands of pieces of tiny space shrapnel. But that possibility is rapidly increasing as the amount of “space junk” continues to grow following the launch of several multi-satellites constellations.
Only 33,000 items of “space junk” are trackable, the rest being too small to monitor – and it is this smaller, untrackable, “junk” that poses the greatest threat to the ISS, which is unable to manoeuvre around them.
“That region is quite benign but it’s also becoming much more congested and busy because of the way in which we’re building up the large constellations.”
These satellite constellations, such as the near 5,000 satellites of Elon Musk’s SpaceX company Starlink, increase the number of orbital objects, the occurrence of collisions and the amount of debris left in space.
Astronauts have created their own space junk, too. After NASA’s Ed White dropped his right glove in 1965 and became the first space litterer, there has been a tool bag left behind on a space walk last year, a camera that drifted away during a 2007 space walk, a spatula and even an Andy Warhol drawing (left behind by the Apollo 12 mission).
It’s becoming much more congested and busy because of the way in which we’re building up the large constellations
Chair of the Space APPG Mark Garnier MP succinctly explains the human nature of “space junk”: “We’re one of nine planets, orbiting one of a billion stars in the galaxy, and there are a trillion galaxies out there, but sure enough, humans can mess up the space around our planet! And if you get too much junk out there, you won’t be able to get through it.”
The fear of growing space debris is spelled out in the Kessler Syndrome, named after the former NASA scientist Donald Kessler, who in a 1978 paper described a scenario where LEO becomes so crowded, with collisions occurring so often, that it makes orbital space unusable.
Space debris expert Chantal Cappelletti says: “The main problem is that in space there is no real law. There is some agreement amongst some countries, but with others there is nothing.”
The major accepted rule, assistant professor Cappelletti highlights, emerged from the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and says that decommissioned satellites should deorbit within 25 years to reduce atmospheric density.
UK science minister Andrew Griffith tells The House: “Space debris is quite dangerous. We’ve seen quite a lot of near misses in space, it can obscure the view of satellites, it can jeopardise certain orbital positions.”
Anything orbiting earth moves quickly, with space debris being no different – travelling at roughly 10 kilometres per second. If a satellite is hit by something the size of a tennis ball, that could destroy it completely.
The International Space Station (Geopix / Alamy Stock Photo)
Even a one-centimetre object – the size of a Cheerio – could disable critical instruments on the International Space Station, and anything larger could penetrate its protective shields. There are around 670,000 objects larger than a Cheerio in space.
What exactly would “space sustainability”, as it is billed in the UK’s space strategy, involve to clear up “space junk”? “One of the clear things is you need to be able to track it,” Griffith adds, something the UK has the potential to be a “world leader” on. For example, British-based company ODIN Space was recently able to demonstrate the tracking of tiny pieces of space junk, too small to register using existing methods, while in orbit.
“We have really positioned ourselves to be world leaders in this field. Definitely more so than the US, Russia and China, who are the leading sources of space debris,” says Professor Lewis.
“But we have to bring everybody along with us. That’s one of the most difficult things.”
There are two main approaches to dealing with space debris. One is to stop it at the source and try to prevent or mitigate the creation of any new debris. For example, designing spacecraft not to release any parts when they’re operating, avoid blowing up as far as possible and, when the mission is finished, removing any debris. The second option is to remove current space debris, which is often referred to as remediation or active debris removal.
Garnier advocates for “deorbiting”, to take derelict satellites and other space debris out of orbit, alongside extending the life of a spacecraft and the development of new electric plasma technology in the UK.
While Cappelletti adds: “Something we have done in the past was to have an autonomous system because it is possible, when launching a satellite, that it fails for some reason. If there is a way the deployment system can open in any case and deorbit, you can prevent having a very overcrowded low-Earth orbit.”
Companies are informing regulation, too. The Earth Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI), an organisation that Professor Lewis is a member of, produced a memorandum of principles setting out a vision for space sustainability.
They set a goal of having 30 companies sign the memorandum – which calls for limiting further generation of debris, waste and pollution in space, alongside enabling measures to remedy the impacts that have already taken place – but got the backing of 130.
Professor Lewis says: “Regulation needs to be approached in a way that is driven by industry consensus. Gone are the days where governments use space exclusively.”
But governments are taking certain measures into their own hands as well, with the US in recent months issuing its first ever fine ($150,000) to a company for its space junk, after Dish Network failed to move an old satellite far enough away from others in use.
It is a move that Cappelletti supports for dealing with private companies but warns against a blanking fine system that would “jeopardise” research in space from other sectors like universities.
The main problem is that in space there is no real law. There is some agreement amongst some countries, but with others there is nothing
Updating the technology used in space is often flagged as another way to tackle a further increase in space debris. “We’re designing spacecrafts more or less the same way we’ve been designing for many years and they may sometimes blow up,” Professor Lewis says.
“There is an argument for saying that we need to rethink how we design and operate spacecraft so that we essentially have a circular economy in space where we reuse and repurpose things.”
Garnier agrees there is a need for “longevity” and flags that there are people working on technology where “if the spacecraft is valuable enough, a probe goes up the engine belt, and can attach another spacecraft to it, which can then continue to fly around”.
The best solution may turn out to be pleasingly low-tech, wooden satellites – developed by NASA and Japanese scientists – that would burn up and become a gas upon re-entering the atmosphere where the metal ones would become fine particles, leaving no litter.
Legal move challenges inaction on ‘frightening’ River Wye poultry farm pollution
13 Jan 2024
The River Wye (Geograph. Image: Greg Fitchett)
Gavin McEwan,local democracy reporter
An anglers’ group has launched a legal move against National Resources Wales, which it says hasn’t done enough to stop pollution from poultry farms in the river Wye.
Fish Legal has made the complaint to the Environmental Protection Assessor for Wales over what it claims is Natural Resources Wales’ (NRW) failure to meet its statutory responsibility to protect the Wye and its tributaries over the Welsh border.
Environmental damage
The group, formerly the Anglers’ Conservation Association, alerted NRW in June 2020 and again in 2021 about the environmental damage to the river systems caused, it claimed, by the area’s many intensive poultry units.
NRW initially responded that there was no evidence of a deterioration or environmental damage linked to the industry – based on data from 2009 to 2015.
But late last year, the agency conceded that based on more recent data, seven watercourses in the Wye catchment had indeed deteriorated on phosphate pollution and other key measures of river health linked to farming.
“Natural Resources Wales should have been properly monitoring, investigating and then acting to tackle the root causes of pollution affecting the River Wye,” Fish Legal solicitor Justin Neal said.
“Yet, they have no proper plans in place and there is no sign that they will be taking regulatory action to restore river health any time soon.”
Fish Legal previously succeeded in a case brought with anglers in Yorkshire in which the High Court ruled that the Government’s and the Environment Agency’s river improvement plans in England were unlawful.
“Frightening”
The group’s head of practice Penelope Gane said this “showed environmental regulators have failed to grasp the full extent of their duties when it comes to restoring river health”.
“We are now exposing the same failures in Wales and hope this will be a turning point for the fortunes of the river Wye,” she said.
Meanwhile across the Herefordshire border, Friends of the Upper Wye tweeted earlier this week it had recorded its highest-ever phosphate levels at Bredwardine Bridge east of Hay-on-Wye.
“The sheer volume of nutrients this represents is frightening,” the group said.
WASHINGTON: Fauzia Janjua, a Pakistani-American, has made history by becoming the first Muslim and South Asian woman to serve as the mayor of Mount Laurel in New Jersey.
At her swearing-in ceremony at the Township Hall last week, Ms Janjua, accompanied by her family, proudly held a copy of the Holy Quran, emphasising the cultural diversity of her heritage.
Assemblywoman Carol Murphy, a New Jersey state representative, administered the oath of office to Ms Janjua, who expressed deep pride in her Pakistani roots.
“I am honoured to be the first Pakistani and Muslim woman mayor in the history of Mount Laurel. It’s a matter of pride for myself and the entire Pakistani community,” she told reporters after the ceremony.
Born in the US after her father’s migration in the 1970s, Ms Janjua highlighted her commitment to community service. Her dedication to improving lives led her to establish an NGO.
“My commitment to community service has been a lifelong passion, focusing on teaching prisoners and underprivileged children,” she said.
Janjua is first South Asian woman to have been selected mayor of a US township; has served community, focusing on teaching prisoners, underprivileged children
Ms Janjua said she established her NGO with an aim to improve people’s lives.
“Reflecting on my political journey, it all began at a state governor’s party where a woman recognised my potential for leadership,” she added. “With that encouragement, I embarked on this path, ultimately achieving the historic position of mayor.”
Beyond her political responsibilities, Ms Janjua has actively worked to showcase positive aspects of Muslim culture to the world. Leveraging her role as Deputy Mayor, she has promoted understanding and appreciation, contributing to the diverse tapestry of Mount Laurel’s community.
Her remarks at the swearing-in ceremony emphasized the need to celebrate all cultural events together, showcasing the rich heritage of Mount Laurel’s community.
“We have celebrated cultural events like Juneteenth and the holiday tradition of the Menorah and Eid, showcasing the rich tapestry of our community’s heritage,” she said.
Mayor Janjua expressed anticipation of future achievements and praised the municipality’s diversity since she first assumed a council seat in 2021.
Nikitas Moustakas, selected as the municipality’s Deputy Mayor, also highlighted the positive efforts of the community, including streamlined communications, investments for the whole community, park and recreation improvements, and support for small businesses.
Both Ms Janjua and Mr Moustakas received standing ovations and vocal support from the standing-room-only crowd at the meeting.
Assemblywoman Carol Murphy, who administered their oaths, said that the selection of Ms Janjua and Mr Moustakas fulfilled a commitment to make Mount Laurel Township more diverse, stronger, and community-friendly.
Councilman Stephen Steglik, Mount Laurel’s immediate past mayor, encouraged Ms Janjua and Mr Moustakas, expressing confidence in the community’s support during both ups and downs.
As Ms Janjua takes on the role of mayor, her journey reflects not only personal achievement but also a commitment to fostering inclusivity and diversity in Mount Laurel.
The New Jersey media, while commenting on her success, pointed out that her story serves as an inspiration, highlighting the power of an individual to make a positive impact on the communities.
Ms Janjua’s historic role opens doors for further representation and highlights the importance of embracing and celebrating the diverse backgrounds that con-tribute to the vibrant fabric of Mount Laurel.
Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2024
PAKISTAN
A Feminist Pioneer
Our society’s misogyny is sickening. Pakistan is a place where men fight and attack each others’ women to take revenge.
THE women’s movement in Pakistan has come a long way since its inception. It has assumed different forms and strategies during the course of its development while focusing on the fundamental human rights of women and their empowerment. What was noticeably missing was the female sexuality dimension in the discourse. It was too sensitive an issue to talk about in public in Pakistan’s conservative environment that was fraught with controversies.
Ours is a society that is so prudish that an article I wrote on breast cancer in 1978 had prompted a horde of bearded gentlemen claiming to be the guardians of our morality to crash into the editor’s office to denounce the fahaashi (vulgarity) the paper was publishing. Being progressive and a feminist himself, the editor had shooed them away saying that breast cancer was a life or death issue for women.
In such a society, it needs guts to write about the female reproductive organs in explicit terms. There are far too many readers whose thinking is misogynistic and patriarchal. Even an innocuous piece of writing becomes pornography for them. Their anger stems from the belief that women are sex objects created to give satisfaction to man’s desires.
That would explain why Dr Tahira Kazmi’s blogs on the social media have invited the wrath of her critics who are in abundance. Mercifully, the doctor, a gynaecologist by profession, also has admirers. She has brought enlightenment to many female readers who feel after reading her blogs that they understand their bodies better. Being highly qualified — MBBS from Fatima Jinnah Medical University Lahore (1990) followed by a train of higher foreign degrees — Dr Tahira knows what she is writing. She holds prestigious positions in Oman’s Ministry of Health and the Sultan Qaboos University. Our society’s misogyny is sickening.
Four collections of her blogs have already appeared while the fifth is under publication. A fair-minded reader would take them as a scientific piece of prose written in the social context with a strong underpinning of feminism. She describes herself as a ‘Gynae-Feminist’.
All the subjects covered are familiar to women reading English-language newspapers but no one has written on them in Urdu so frankly. Childbirth, labour pain, menstruation, menopause, incontinence and prejudice against the girl child have been covered in different social contexts. If the frankness is shocking it is because these issues have been kept under wraps. It is time they were brought into the public space to make them socially acceptable.
But what will continue to shock are the horrendous crimes against women Dr Tahira exposes. How else would one describe the practice of putting a lock on a woman’s vagina with the key kept in the husband’s pocket for safekeeping to ensure that the wife is not unfaithful to him.
It is the feminist in Tahira that is most striking. She is quick to note an injustice done to a woman. She recalls how observant and curious she was as a child and still is. “You have to convince me with solid arguments if you think I am wrong. If you force me I will hit back. I am not afraid of what people say,” she says boldly. She also has the discretion to know when silence is a befitting way to snub an obnoxious critic.
Her greatest assets have been her medical knowledge and her writing skills that helped her produce blogs with literary elegance. It was motherhood that led her on the road to self-discovery of her latent talent. She wrote her first blog on the night of her mother’s death. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Grief drove Tahira to write, “I saw my mother melt drop by drop” and the blog went viral. That was 2019. She turned to gynae blogging in 2021 when she saw her daughter in severe menstrual agony. It prompted her to write to explain how the female anatomy makes pain a handicap for a woman needing male understanding. Pain also makes a person creative, with reference to Faiz’s verse on his heart attack and the pain he suffered, Tahira wrote, “Kash Faiz ko mahwari aati”. What angers Tahira is the traditional view that women carry the honour of the family — meaning the man’s. Hence shame is attached to the woman’s reproductive organs that are given derogatory names. Why can’t the spade be called a spade one may ask.
Our society’s misogyny is sickening. Pakistan is a place where men fight and attack each others’ women to take revenge. Where were these critics when women were paraded naked in the streets of Nawabpur (1984) and when Mukhtaran Mai was gang-raped on the orders of a male jirga (2002)? Presently, 30,000 girls are trafficked every year to be sold into prostitution to satisfy men’s lust and not a voice is raised. It is this distortion the good doctor blogger is trying to correct.
WHERE did the term ‘honour killing’ come from? What is so honourable about conspiring to kill a female family member if she chooses to marry of her own free will? How long will women have to suffer this fate at the hands of the menfolk in their family or community?
A recent article in Dawn discussed another statistic in the mounting data of honour killings at home and abroad – an immigrant Pakistani family settled in Italy killed their daughter because she refused to marry a Pakistani boy of their choice back home. Instead, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with her Italian boyfriend.
Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won an Oscar for her documentary on honour killings, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. She was lauded by the international community for being courageous enough to highlight a problem that has plagued this part of the world for aeons. If argued religiously, Islam is very vocal on the subject and grants equal rights to men and women to marry of their own choice. Then why are women treated as children of a lesser God? Is family honour solely their responsibility?
A recent television serial, Razia, also dealt with the treatment of females as second-class citizens, and touched upon the curse of honour killing as Razia’s brother and father, suspicious about her involvement with someone, conspire to kill her.
Public figures should criticise honour killings vehemently.
However, destiny intervenes and she escapes unscathed. The play, starring Mahira Khan, was extremely well-made and highlighted irrational and twisted attitudes of society without any overblown drama. The six-episode production was a laudable endeavour in the way in which it addressed so many social issues crisply, without a long-drawn-out narrative.
Feudal mindsets and misogynistic attitudes are largely to blame for the proliferation of this crime.
Historically, and even in contemporary times, women in feudal setups are expected to relinquish their share of the property voluntarily and those who resist are ostracised and vilified by the community. This mindset is particularly entrenched in southern Punjab where females are sometimes wedded to the Quran in order to keep property within the family.
Ironically, while we are being encouraged to embrace the ways of the 21st century, our regressive and patriarchal society is bent on pushing us into medieval times. The article about the honour killing in Italy validates this dichotomy. Despite living in the Western world, the primitive and bigoted outlook of some South Asians there is too deeply embedded to be uprooted easily.
Education, although it will alleviate the issue to a certain extent, is not the solution. Awareness and a conscious effort to bring about a shift in this way of thinking will serve as the magic bullet for the menace. As long as women are treated as second-class citizens and the ingrained hatred towards them remains deep-seated in our societal fabric, not a lot, I am afraid, can be achieved.
Endeavours like Ms Chinoy’s documentary on the issue are steps in the right direction. She was accused of giving her country a bad name on a global platform but at least she had the courage to depict realities which very few have the courage to even speak about. Honour killings, in any part of the world, should be denounced and condemned repeatedly and the documentary is only a drop in the ocean.
Attempting to bring about change is akin to attempting the impossible. However, small steps go a long way so even a dent is an achievement. More celebrities and public figures should espouse this cause and criticise the primitive and barbaric practice more vehemently. I am quite sure that plays and films on the subject will draw significant attention to the medieval ‘ritual’ that is gaining traction, rather than being curbed and controlled. Pakistan is already viewed as a failed state where it has been proved time and again that women, comprising 51 per cent of the population, inevitably get the short end of the stick. Women must be respected, loved and treated as equals. The founder of this nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, made it abundantly clear that for this country to prosper and march ahead, the women have to play a significant role.
And increasingly, as they emerge as a force to be reckoned with, women are becoming hard to ignore and their voices and identities tough to quash. At a time when Pakistan is sinking into a political and economic quagmire and struggles to stay afloat, we need enlightened, educated and strong women to become a pivotal part of rehabilitative endeavours.
