women » Matharu's Rants and Raves

QUOTE: The Acid Survivors Network was formed in 2006 in Sirajganj, Bangladesh. It offers legal aid and medical assistance to women who have been victims of acid attacks and helps them cope with stigma in the community. ActionAid assists the ASN through its partner organisation, Sharp (Socio Health and Rehabilitation Programmes)

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2011

Saudi Women Revolution Statement

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Mar 242011

With all the recent promising embryonic revolutions occurring in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is one place where I hope that change occurs. It has an oppressive and non-democratic regime with all kinds of barbaric and backward religious dogmas and customs. The “Saudi Women Revolution Statement” is a positive sign though. There’s always hope and this group deserves support:

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2011

Taliban justice

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Aug 162010

It took me a while to decide whether to post this here. Time’s circulation is huge but I wanted to add my own small contribution.

And I remember this barbaric law being passed when I was in Afghanistan last year:

Afghanistan passes ‘barbaric’ law diminishing women’s rights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/14/afghanistan-womens-rights-rape

So even with a government installed by the US-lead coalition, there was still pressure enough for this law to be passed. That must tell you something about the overall state of society in Afghanistan.

It doesn’t look good, does it?

I really don’t know what the solutions are. You could keep pounding the Taliban but their adherence, interpretation and practice of a strict form of Islam is attractive to some despite its barbarity. It helps to instil fear. It helps to indoctrinate. It keeps those people in power, tightening their stranglehold on the people. That’s going to be a long war.

In addition to all these atrocities, the Taliban have destroyed a large part of Afghanistan’s cultural past. In particular, the Taliban’s destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamiyan in early 2001. An except from my travel journal from last year:

The complex of caves and grottoes in the cliff-face was amazing. I hadn’t realised how big this was. There are interconnected walkways, stairs and caverns hidden behind the cliff-face walls. We made our way up inside the cave complex and ended up in the niche where the Large Buddha once stood. Wow. That statue was a giant. It was sad to see this empty space where the Buddha statues had stood for 1,500 years and I had missed out seeing them by 8.5 years. It was the criminal destruction of the Buddha statues by the Taliban in March 2001 that had first brought this region, and the word “Taliban”, to my notice. I felt an anger and a sadness back in 2001, and I never did imagine that one day I would be here at Bamiyan. Today, I just felt a sadness. The statues were gone. And I could never forgive the Taliban for these actions and for their other crimes against humanity. A backwards people in all regards.

Seeing the Afghan government eager to include the Taliban in the future of running the country fills me with dread. But perhaps I’m wrong? Perhaps the Taliban are not a homogenous group? Perhaps there are moderate, non-violent elements of the Taliban? Perhaps. But there is something in the philosophy of the Taliban, something in its very fabric, that has allowed itself to reach the levels of atrocities that make the news. So I am suspicious.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010

Revulsion at burka

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Aug 102010

Richard Dawkins is quoted by The Daily Mail

“I do feel visceral revulsion at the burka because for me it is a symbol of the oppression of women.”

The Daily Mail also reported

His comments prompted fury among Muslim groups who accused him of being ‘ignorant’ and ‘Islamophobic’.

I’m not sure who these “Muslim groups” are and who they represent, but if their comments are true then it is clear that they are the ones being ignorant. Dawkins is an atheist and he has explained many times the flaws of religion and the flaws in reasoning that allow one to become religious or “believe” in a god. For these groups to say that Dawkins is “Islamophobic” is hilarious; Dawkins is irreligious!

But Dawkins is right. The tradition that allows, encourages and indoctrinates the wearing of such clothes is an oppressive regime particularly against women; you don’t see men wearing burhas for example. Oppressive. Violent. Repulsive. It goes against against freethinking and all that is morally good.

I will note that there are vast sections of Islamic society that don’t practice such barbarity; I call on you to stand up and be counted in helping to stamp out this evil.

Those out there that practice these and other oppressions deserve my revulsion too; I don’t care if you call yourself a Jew, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, atheist, whatever. Evil is what evil does.

“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”

Steven Weinberg, quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010