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Rohingyas Are Human Too!

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‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ meaning ‘the whole world is one family’, is an ancient Sanskrit phrase found in the Maha Upanishad, one of the Sacred Texts of Hinduism. This important phrase underlines a basic tenet of Hindu philosophy, which includes welcoming, hospitality, tolerance, harmony, unity and adaptability. For several centuries, India as a country and a large percentage of Indians have been doing their best to live up to this ideal. India has been home to races, nationalities, tribes, religions and cultures from across the world.

Rohingyas
Image: AFP

India has always been a   welcoming home to refugees. During the bloody and painful days of partition, there was a steady influx of refugees into India.

Thanks to the statesmanship of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, several hundreds of thousands of Tibetan refugees (including the Dalai Lama) have made India their home for more than fifty years now.
 
The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 saw another major influx into the country; it was estimated that more than ten million East Bengali refugees entered India to escape mass killings and the brutality of that war. Though most returned to Bangladesh after independence, an estimated 1.5 million have continued to stay on in India.

The Soviet-Afghan war of 1979, the more than twenty-five years of civil war in Sri Lanka since 1983, the atrocities on minorities in Myanmar, have in their wake brought in huge numbers of Afghanis, Sri Lankan Tamils, Chins and Rohingyas into India.

The persecuted Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar today and inhuman stand of the current Indian Government is very much in the news today. The Rohingyas (1.2 million approx.) are an ethnic minority group, mainly Muslim, who are concentrated in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Despite having roots and living in the Buddhist- majority country for centuries, the Rohingyas since 1982 are denied citizenship, disenfranchised, regarded as illegal immigrants and rendered stateless. Since the late 1970’s, many of them have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, particularly Bangladesh
In February 2017, a United Nations report had documented numerous instances of gang rape and killings, including of babies and young children, by Myanmar’s security forces. In the past month, because of some insurgency on the part of a small group of Rohingyas, the army’s viciousness, already very ghastly, has escalated even further. The military action triggered Asia’s biggest humanitarian crisis since Cambodia’s Pol Pot. Recently, the United Nations’ top human rights official called Myanmar’s ongoing military campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority group in that country’s Rakhine state “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

In just a little over a month since August 25,  more than 480, 000 Rohingyas have sought refuge in Bangladesh. Many were killed by the Myanmar military and other marauding mobs. Those who have survived the onslaught in Myanmar face land mines planted along the border presumably aimed at killing escapees. Others make the treacherous crossing, through inclement weather (torrential rains and floods) of the wide estuary of the Naf River, which separates Myanmar from Bangladesh. It is estimated that several hundreds have died in capsized boats, and boatmen have been charging exploitative rates for a ride that usually costs a pittance.

Victim survivors have been sharing horror stories of what they have been going through. The Rohingyas are referred to, as the minority, which is the most persecuted in the world today. The unbelievable and inhuman suffering, which they are being subjected to, has captured the attention: the anguish and anger of a sizeable section of the world community.

The Bangladesh Government, the UN and some local and International NGOs are doing their best; but the conditions are dire, food and drinking water is scarce. The UN Refugee Agency in a communique states, “there is also an increased risk of communicable diseases, infection, cholera and respiratory infections. It is incredibly difficult to keep warm and dry under these conditions and already weak and exhausted; many refugees will struggle to stay healthy.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees visited the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh recently. On September 27, on his return to Geneva he said, “They had to flee very sudden and cruel violence, and they have fled with nothing. Their needs are enormous – food, health, shelter. They have absolutely nothing. I have hardly seen in my career people that have come with so little. They need everything,” Further adding, “I have spoken to several women who have been raped, or have been wounded because of their resistance to rape. I spoke to many children, shockingly absent of emotion, because they were so traumatized. They told me how they had seen their parents or relatives or friends killed in front of their eyes.”

Despite the suffering of the Rohingyas ,the Government of India is doing all they can to deport about 40,000 Rohingyas who are currently living in India and to prevent other Rohingyas from entering the country.

This is a very sad commentary on the moral fibre of the current ruling dispensation, besides the actions by India against the refugees would clearly go against the country’s obligations under international and domestic law.

The case of the rights of the Rohigya refugees is currently in the Supreme Court of India and the next hearing is scheduled for October 3 .

Some of the country’s best-known legal luminaires are defending the Rohingya petitioners and others against the Government of India. Their petition rests on two basic premises, that any deportation would violate their fundamental rights to equality and to life, under Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution, and, secondly that any action by India in returning them to Myanmar would infringe international law, particularly the principle of non-refoulement(Article 33 of the 1951 Refugee Convention).

The Government’s key arguments are that terrorists ‘might’ have infiltrated the Rohingyas, therefore the security of the country is at stake;  and that the country is not bound to follow the principle of non-refoulement, since it is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. No one with a bit of common sense and compassion will buy these arguments.

On September 11, in his Opening Statement to the 36th Session of the Human Rights Council Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said, “I deplore current measures in India to deport Rohingyas at a time of such violence against them in their country. Some 40,000 Rohingyas have settled in India, and 16,000 of them have received refugee documentation. The Minister of State for Home Affairs has reportedly said that because India is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention the country can dispense with international law on the matter, together with basic human compassion. However, by virtue of customary law, its ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the obligations of due process and the universal principle of non-refoulement, India cannot carry out collective expulsions, or return people to a place where they risk torture or other serious violations”. Strong words indeed but the plain truth. Several other prominent human rights organizations have criticized India’s stand.

There has been global condemnation of the atrocities committed by the Myanmar military and of the complicit silence by Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who is the State Counsellor of Myanmar – but also rather powerless. On the other hand, Myanmar has the support of some nations like China and very unfortunately, India too!

In two months from now, Pope Francis will be visiting Myanmar (Nov.27-30) and Bangladesh (Nov.30th to Dec 2nd). His visit will certainly focus global attention on the plight of the Rohingyas.

Pope Francis has consistently taken a stand for all refugees and displaced persons and he has been vocal in his defense of the Rohingyas. On August 27th, just a couple of days after this current onslaught he said, “Sad news has reached us of the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters, a religious minority. I would like to express my full closeness to them – and let all of us ask the Lord to save them, and to raise up men and women of good will to help them, who shall give them their full rights. Let us pray for our Rohingya brethren.”

The Government and people of Myanmar, the Government of India, and the global community must pay heed to the fact that, “the whole world is one family”; that every citizen in a civilized world is endowed with rights; that even refugees have to be treated with compassion, care and the dignity they deserve. Above all, we have to realise that like the rest of us, the Rohingyas are human too!
 
 (The author is a human rights activist)

The core theologies of mainstream Islam are no different from Jihadism

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 “Muslims need to bring about revolutionary changes in our theology to make it compatible with the holy Quran as well as the needs of modern times”.

Oral Statement by Sultan Shahin, Founding Editor, New Age Islam, on behalf of Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum; UNHRC, Item 9, General Debate, September 26, 2017

Mr. President,
Sixteen years after 9/11, the issue of Jihadi terrorism has become even more complex and widespread.

First, though Jihadism is a violent offshoot of Wahhabism and Salafism, the international community has allowed the fountainhead of Wahhabi/Salafi ideology to continue to spend tens of billions of dollars to Wahhabise the world Muslim community.

Second, we recently saw with horror, but without any protest from the international community, the sight of a UN-designated terrorist, with a ten-million-dollar bounty on his head, launch a political party and nominate another US-designated terrorist to contest democratic elections in Pakistan. Apparently, some countries can ignore UN directives with impunity.

 Third, the Muslim community has failed to grasp that Jihadism spread so rapidly around the world because at its core it is not very different from the theology of consensus that informs the religious beliefs and practices of all Muslim sects. That is why Jihadis are not impressed when we Muslims either proclaim that Islam is a religion of peace and pluralism or when we try to wash our hands off Jihadism by claiming that it has nothing to do with Islam. If we Muslims want to live as honourable citizens in the 21st century’s globalised world, we must rethink our consensus theology in all its dimensions and make revolutionary changes to bring it in line with the needs of present times.

Let me elaborate a little on the similarities in the core theologies of Jihadism and mainstream Islam as well as suggest the contours of an alternative theology of peace and pluralism, inclusion and acceptance of diversity, respect for human rights and gender justice. What are the fundamental elements of theologies of all sects including Jihadism that are the same and what can be done about them. Let us discuss a few here briefly.

1.   Infallibility, universality and uncreatedness of all verses of Quran, regardless of the context in which some of these instructions came from God to guide the Prophet and his followers on matters that needed to be urgently taken care of then, but are no longer relevant in the vastly different circumstances today.

This belief is common to all sects and sub-sects of Islam today. There is a consensus around it. So Jihadis are not inventing a new theology if they say that those Muslims who do not follow the war-time verses of Quran literally by fighting the kuffar constantly or staying away from all non-Muslims in day-to-day matters are hypocritical, and that a good, honest Muslim is one who is perpetually engaged in offensive Jihad against non-Muslims. After all, this is what is taught in all religious schools or madrasas, regardless of the sect. We are told in our theological books that the only relationship between a Muslim and a non-Muslim is that of war, and that it is the religious duty of all Muslims to bring Islam to power in all corners of the world, either by persuasion or force.

A new theology would seek to break this consensus and try to convince Muslims that war-time verses of the Prophet’s time maybe important as a historical account of the near insurmountable difficulties the Prophet had to face to establish Islam but do not apply to us today in the 21st century. We cannot possibly be fighting similar wars. Muslims were fighting existential battles in the early seventh century. Islam was in its infancy and infants do need to be taken special care of. Now the seed that Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) planted in the inhospitable terrain of the Arabian desert has grown into a giant tree with branches across the world. There is no need for us to be fighting offensive Jihad “at least once a year” as Imam Ghazali advised in late 11th and early 12th century CE.

2.   There is a consensus among ulema (religious scholars) of all sects that Hadith narrations (the alleged sayings of the Prophet) are akin to revelation, even though these were collected up to 300 years after the demise of the Prophet and contradict many of the core teachings of the Quran, the exhortations of God whose messenger the Prophet was. This theology of consensus implies that the Prophet spent the better part of his prophetic career preaching against the messages revealed to him in the holy Quran.

What has actually happened is that in the 48th year of the demise of the Prophet, his entire family was massacred and reins of power taken over by scions of the inveterate enemies of Islam who had fought battles against the Prophet and joined Islam only after his victory at Mecca, in a clear bid to subvert Islam from within when they failed to destroy it from outside. But they had to rule Muslims for whom Quran was the only holy scripture, which they understood, as well as had mostly memorized and written down. To undermine Quran, and create a distance between Muslims and the Quran, they evolved over the coming decades and centuries two institutions that remain very powerful until today. One was Hadith, that was called akin to revelation, and the other was that of Ulema or clerics who were proclaimed to be of the status of heirs to the Prophet, much better able to explain religion to Muslims than they themselves could.

The new theology will have to bring the focus back to Quran, and seek to dislodge both Hadith and Ulema from their present position of pre-eminence. These institutions evolved in the era of dynastic, despotic rulers, called Khalifas. It was natural for them to look for scriptural justifications for their exploitative, tyrannical, imperialist, expansionist, and supremacist policies. Not able to find justification for their policies in the Quran, which essentially guided Muslims on a spiritual path to salvation, they naturally created another scripture and put that on the same pedestal as Quran. The ulema were also deployed to subvert the meaning of Quran’s verses of war and make contextual verses into universally applicable instructions for permanent war.

3.   Sharia Laws were first codified 120 years after the demise of the Prophet and have been changing since from time to time and place to place. It is only marginally based on Quran, most of it has been borrowed from pre-Islamic Arab practices. But the theology of consensus insists on calling it divine.
The new theology will go strictly by the spirit of Quran and allow Muslims to formulate their laws according to the needs of their time and place. Laws are and should remain dynamic and just.

4.   The theology of consensus propounds a Doctrine of Abrogation, whereby earlier Meccan verses preaching peace and pluralism, patience and perseverance, religious freedom for all, etc., have been abrogated by later Medinan verses of war, asking Muslims to fight, and talking about virtues and rewards of contributing to war efforts in the way of God.  It is said that the so-called sword verse (9: 5) alone has abrogated 114 verses of peace and pluralism revealed in early Islam at Mecca.

The new theology of peace should emphasise that the Meccan verses are the foundational and constitutive verses of Islam. They cannot be abrogated by any later verses of war. The Doctrine of Abrogation will need to be rejected in toto. It is the latter Medinan verses of war that have lost their relevance not the original Islam preaching peace and pluralism as revealed at Mecca.

5.   The concept of Caliphate has no basis in Quran, but our theology considers it almost mandatory. This consensus view needs to be corrected in the new theology.

6.   The theology of consensus is of the view that Muslims should migrate from Land of Conflict (Darul Harb) which is dominated by non-Muslims to Darul Islam (land of Islam). This has no basis in Quran. This is not even practical in contemporary world, though ulema keep using these terms. Even individuals have great difficulty getting visas to visit any country, these days, what to speak of millions of Muslims settling down in, say, Saudi Arabia, the pre-eminent Darul Islam. Saudis did not take even one Syrian refugee despite their horrible situation, though Germany (so-called Darul Harb) took a million Muslim refugees out of compassion for the suffering humanity. The new theology will have to reject such medieval ideas as completely irrelevant and un-Quranic.

Clearly Muslims have much hard work to do. We will need to bring about revolutionary changes in our theology to make it compatible with the holy Quran as well as the needs of modern times.

Republished with permission from NewAge Islam.
 

BHU Alumni Urge Accountability from VC, Admin: Petition to President Kovind

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Prominent alumni of the Banaras Hindu University including professor Anant Kumar, academic-activist Sandeep Pandey and writer,  Subhash Gatade  have written to President of India,  also Visitor to the University to urge steps to reign in the administration,  ensure Accountability mechanisms (especially  in cases related to sexual harassment),  lift criminal cases against students.  In short  intervene to restore the prestige if an institution  gone awry. 

BHU
Image: NDTV

 

The text of the petition may be read below:

 

Petition to President of India, Visitor of Banaras Hindu University from Alumni of the University
 
To
The President of India
Visitor
Banaras Hindu University
Sub : On recent agonising developments in Banaras Hindu University
 
Dear Sir
We alumni of Banaras Hindu University would like to convey to you our sense of concern about the recent developments at our alma mater namely Banaras Hindu University. Developments which have brought forward the issue of safety and security of girl students on the campus and administrations callous attitude towards it.

We are pained to learn that the administration refused to take any action against sexual harassment of a first year student at the hands of three bike borne men near Bharat Bhavan when she was returning to the hostel at around 6 p.m. (21 st September). It is tremendously distubing to learn that higher officials rather tried to shame her only allegedly by saying that ‘why she was out till that time’ or ‘they (molesters) have only touched you and not done anything else’.

Media reports tell us that there was nothing unusual about the response of these officials, in fact, gender discrimination has been rather normalised in this august institution. Restrictions have been put on the 24 hours cyber library started on campus by earlier VC (Vice Chancellor) predecessor, as the present VC believes that students use the facility to watch pornography. Girls’ hostel gates are shut at 6 pm, they are not to use mobile phones after 8 pm, are not served non-vegetarian food in the mess and are required to sign a statement declaring that they’ll not participate in any protest against the university. According the VC such steps are necessary to make them ‘cultured’.  All this has allowed breeding of a culture on campus which has become oppressive for the girls and on the other hand indulging in misdemeanour by truant men is ignored or incidents are covered up.

We feel that it is a travesty of justice that when the pent up anger of the girl students against regular incidents of sexual harassment  on the campus and institutionalised gender discrimination exploded in the form of a peaceful dharana at the University gates – which drew widespread support – the administration not only tried to browbeat them by using time tested methods of repression, brutalisation, criminalisation but has also tried to stigmatise it by saying that ánti-national’ elements are behind it. As of now cases against more than 1,200 unknown students have been lodged by the police under various criminal provisions.

We learn that despite video proof of police highhandedness – where male police were seen brutalising girl students and other women staff -the administration led by the Vice Chancellor G C Tripathy is still maintaining that violence unleashed on students is mere propaganda and the whole issue was blown up out of proportion by oppositional elements. In fact, a section of the ruling establishment is trying to belittle the historic significance of this spontaneous movement of girl students mostly coming from poor and middle class families from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar- which is reverberating across campuses across the country – against gender oppression and discrimination, which has completely exposed the hollowness of the ‘Beti Bachao – Beti Padhao’ slogan, as handiwork of ‘leftist elements’.

It has been widely reported that the district administration itself holds a very different view of the situation and has blamed the University administration itself for the violence. In his report, the commissioner has emphasised that the University administration did not deal with victim complaint in a sensitive manner, and didn’t handle the situation on time, leading to the protests.’
Anyone conversant with the campus life would admit today that with the ascendance of the present Vice Chancellor to the top post situation on the campus has gone from bad to worse. His anti-academic, regressive, arrogant attitude has vitiated the atmosphere of BHU, and the University needs to be saved from its own VC.

Dear Sir, if this prestigious university, which has been a product of our independence movement, is still allowed to be governed by the present Vice Chancellor – whose only qualification seems to be closeness to a particular ideology – the situation may become further worse. It is high time that urgent steps are taken to save the University from regressive elements:

– We demand that either the present VC either leaves the university immediately taking moral responsibility for mishandling this episode or is sacked with immediate effect. And since the proctorial board has proved itself inept in handling the situation, it be sacked immediately
– We also demand that all cases lodged against students be immediately withdrawn.
– We demand immediate lightening all roads,  installation of CC TV cameras and formalising a proper security infrastructure which can provide security at various points in the campus.
– We demand that the University forms a committee in light of directives of the Supreme Court and High Court in Vishakha case for solving problems of girl students and hostel inmates and which should have proper representation of girl students as well as other women associated with the university at various levels
 
Endorsed by Alumni of Banaras Hindu University
1. Prof Anand Kumar, Prof (retd) Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
2. Sandeep Pandey, Social Activist. Lucknow
 3. Neeraj Jain, Convener, Lokayat, Pune
4. Subhash Gatade, Writer and Activist, Delhi
5. Abhishek Srivastava, Journalist, Delhi
6. Panini Anand, Journalist, Delhi
7. Ranganath Singh, Journalist, Delhi
8. Siddhanth Mohan, Journalist, Varanasi
9. Dr Lenin Raghuvanshi, social activist, Varanasi
 

In this Age of Nationalism, It’s Not Just Citizens but Industry that Should be Nationalist

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I am being attacked like a criminal by the Arya-Vysya Organizations on the streets of two Telugu States for characterising their historical business lives as ‘Social Smuggling’.  

Kancha
Noted writer Kancha Ilaiah’s car being mobbed during the attack at Parakal town on Saturday.

This was done in my book entitled  ‘Post-Hindu India’ published by Sage in 2009 after the lower castes and Adivasis failed to get any reservation agreement within the private sector.  The Telugu translation was published in 2011.  The booklet that has been made controversial with a title Samajika Smagglerlu is only the Teluguised version.  The central theme of the whole book is whose merit is merit and on what is merit quantified? And how every sort and kind of work has its own merit? Therefore, the private sector has to open up for the entry of the lower castes and Adivasis, as they too are meritorious.    

The UPA-I government had conceived of  such a proposal that created a mechanism but top scions of industry rejected it on the ground that lower castes and Adivasis have no MERIT to handle the jobs in the private sector.

I wrote this book to show that the real producers of the wealth of the nation are castes that range from Adivasis to all Shudras (including kapus, Kammas, Reddys, Jats, Patels, Gujjars and so on).

The two dwija castes—Banias and Brahmins— by my generation (with a personal experience all around) are outside the basic production controlling the business from rural grain markets to Ambani, Adani, Vedanta kind of monopoly capital. The richest among them come from the Vysya community. Caste, thus, is  a reality.  The Brahmins have a control over the Hindu spiritual system and also educational institutions and the bureaucracy.   
     
The Brahmins are there in all Government jobs, the software industry and higher education. They are also there in all kinds of private sector jobs. The ratio of Directors of the Companies as per a study by Prof. D. Ajith, Han Doker and Ravi Saxena ((EPW-2012), Corporate Boards in India -Blocked by Caste? August 11, 2012, Vol. XLVII, No. 31, p.41)) shows this representation, caste-wise in the industrial and financial sector: Banias 46%, Brahmins 44.6%, Kshatriyas 0.5%, OBCs (that includes all Shudra castes) 3.8%, SC/ST 3.5% and others 1.5%.  This shows an absolute control of these two castes on the industrial and financial power.  

Everything is being linked to nationalism these days. That is, in a way, good.  When foot soldiers are fighting on the Himalayan borders facing cold and bitter winds, in overall difficult situations on the Pakistan border, why should not Indian Industry give one job to a person from one soldier’s family member within industry based on qualifications?  Why does Indian industry not create a Farmer Protection Fund from its annual profit at least to the tune of 1 percentage?  In a caste based system, they too should have a Social Responsibility towards then lower castes and Adivasi masses. This system can run through the economic system: from top industry to the grain market Shahukars in the rural sector.  Why do not the Shahukars establish humanitarian relations with farmers, at least by helping them at the time of suicide deaths by going and helping them? Today the social relations between the Bania Shahukars and the farmers are very negative.  This has to change at all levels.

The private sector can provide one job for those constables died in bouts of internal conflict.  Anybody can see their family conditions being pathetic after such sudden deaths.  Year after year, the state’s public resources are being shifted into the private sector, by rendering that sector JOBLESS.  In the last three and half years of this ultra-nationalist regime,  so-called development has become JOBLESS.  Therefore, everybody should have a share in the private sector jobs.  

Why is the Modi regime silent on this fundamental issue?  Our demand is at least start an opening with 5 per cent reservation for the above mentioned nation defending forces and the lowest caste categories like Adivasis, Dalits, Dhobis and Barbers depending on their qualifications. In a country like this industry must also show its nationalist commitment combined with positive moral sentiment as Adam Smith theorised, several centuries ago.

It is a researcher’s duty to do research on all communities. If the richest community does not have any positive moral sentiment towards the poorest and weakest people, hurting that sentiment in the process of writing is unavoidable. When Dr.B.R.Ambedkar wrote the Annihilation of Caste Mahatma Gandhi in his dissent letter said that you have used less harsh words for the hardships that the untouchables suffered for centuries. Why is that spirit missing today?

If the Vysyas that include many top industrialists like Ambanis and Adanis take the initiative to give some token preferential treatment for the people I mentioned above the health of the national economy will  certainly improve. In our view that is their nationalist responsibility. 

Also Read

Why are we silent on the grave threat to Kancha Ilaiah?
What is Social Smuggling by Sahukars (Traders)? asks Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd

 

What will it take to end child sexual abuse in India?

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In 2012 new legislation was passed to protect children against sexual abuse. But the gap between the law and ground realities remains large.
 

Chattisgarh child rights training, warm-up exercise.
Chattisgarh child rights training, warm-up exercise. Photo: Prita Jha.

It is only in the last decade or so that the Indian state has acknowledged that child sexual abuse is an issue which requires government intervention. In 2007, a landmark survey (the first and last of its kind) revealed rampant physical and sexual abuse across 13 states. It interviewed 12,447 children; 53% had suffered some kind of sexual violence and around one in five said they had suffered serious sexual assault.

The most worrying statistic was that 70% of children had not disclosed the abuse to anyone, confused about what to say, afraid of their abuser, or afraid that they would not be supported but blamed. Most children said they knew their abuser who was often a neighbour, relative or friend. When they did disclose abuse, many were told to keep quiet, or were blamed for the abuse. Too many caregivers took no action, even denying the disclosure of abuse.

Active engagement with children, parents, teachers and schools is needed to counter such deafening silence, and create an environment that enables children to speak out. I lead an organisation called Peace and Equality Cell (PEC) which has worked with more than 150 survivors of child sexual abuse in the last four years. We have observed that poverty adds an additional layer of vulnerability when parents are too poor to afford suitable childcare and the child is assaulted whilst both parents are out working.

‘poverty adds an additional layer of vulnerability when parents are too poor to afford suitable childcare’

The story of one mother and five-year old daughter, who live in an urban slum in Ahmedabad, reflects some of the challenges of these cases. Savitri routinely left Joshila with other children in an area where a loose arrangement of neighbours and parents were supposed to note if something went amiss. One day, Joshila’s 16-year-old cousin Mohan took her to his home, which was familiar to her. He experimented on her, carrying out anal and vaginal rape.

The assault led to a raging battle between Savitri (who wanted Mohan prosecuted for “spoiling her daughter’s life”) and Joshila’s paternal grandmother, who was also Mohan’s maternal grandmother, Ammaji (who wanted the whole thing hushed up to save the family’s honour and, of course, to save her grandson from criminal proceedings).

Where family and community ties are very strong, sexual assault may or may not be reported to the police depending on a number of factors, the most important of these being the relative power of the perpetrator’s family and community versus that of the survivor.

The 2012 Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) sought to take into account some of these ground realities to ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice. Among other things it requires ‘child-friendly’ procedures and infrastructure to ensure that children are not re-victimised and re-traumatised whilst navigating the criminal justice system.

But there is a huge gap between the law and its implementation.

‘there is a huge gap between the law and its implementation’

POCSO provides for a trained child welfare officer to act in the child’s ‘best interest’. It says children should not have to travel to police stations but that their statements should be taken by police officers at their home or at another location where the child feels comfortable, in the presence of trusted adults.

Police must ensure there is no face-to-face confrontation between the child and the alleged perpetrator and that the child’s identity is kept confidential at all times unless directed otherwise by the court. Police are supposed to provide the survivor with information about counselling, legal aid and compensation. They must ensure that medical examinations happen as soon as possible, and within 24 hours of being informed of abuse.

Although police have gradually become aware of POCSO and the number of individuals charged with offences has increased, particularly in Gujarat, the transformation of police stations to into child-friendly places has a long way to go. I have yet to see a station furnished, for example, with toys or magazines.

There is also a scarcity of private space in police stations. One 16-year-old survivor told me she was traumatised when she had to give her statement to a male police officer in a room where three other male police officers were present even though they were busy with other duties. Her parents were not allowed to sit with her to give her the moral support she needed.

The author Prita Jha.
The author Prita Jha meeting with parents about trial process in a child sexual abuse case. Photo: Nazir Khan Pathan.

Recently, I was present at a police station where PEC was assisting two survivors in a POSCO case. The two 12 and 15 year old girls were at the station for more than six hours, exhausted, hungry and thirsty. The were not offered a meal until around midnight. The recording of the older girl’s statement was interrupted several times and she was even moved from one room to another as her statement was being taken.  

Shockingly, police officers allowed a face-to-face confrontation between the survivors and the alleged perpetrator, saying this was necessary to assess whether the girls were telling the truth. The whole concept of preventing secondary trauma and re-victimisation of children has not really sunk into police psyche.

‘the whole concept of preventing secondary trauma and re-victimisation of children has not really sunk into police psyche’

In Gujarat, most courts have common waiting areas and toilets which enhance the risk of confrontation between the accused, the survivor, and their families. This contravenes the 2012 law which says the child should not be exposed to the accused whilst testifying.

It also enables the accused’s supporters to attempt an illegal settlement of the case, a common practice known as samadhan or ‘compromise’. In these cases, witnesses may turn hostile, denying original testimonies of abuse. As their evidence is usually essential to prosecutions, the perpetrator goes scot-free.

Two years ago, in one village, the sexual assault of a girl with a learning disability was hushed up as the boy came from a powerful family. It was only after a PEC volunteer spoke to the village sarpanch (head) – and reminded him that the new law makes reporting of sexual offences mandatory, and non-reporting an imprisonable offence – that he reported it.

At this point, the girl’s mother Leelaben was offered money by the accused’ family to settle the case. PEC worked hard to convince her not to accept it (she was concerned about her daughter’s marriage prospects, and felt that the money would help her arrange a marriage). In this case, timely disbursement of compensation via the courts played a key role in preventing an illegal settlement.

PEC volunteers.
PEC volunteers talking about children’s rights and good touching and bad touching. Photo: Ketan Baria.

POCSO has had the unintended consequence of criminalising consensual, adolescent sexual activity. Any sexual activity of children under 18 years is caught within the remit of this law, and approximately one third of POCSO cases are in this consensual category involving adolescent sexuality rather than child sexual abuse.

One proposal to address this is to lower the age of consent from 18 to 16. But as girls between 15-18 are most at risk of abuse, this could make things worse; already, proving consent in a trial is a vexed issue.  

There have also been cases of parents of adolescent girls who disapprove of their romantic relationships using POSCO against their boyfriends. They can register a kidnapping case and make a claim of penetrative sexual assault which carries a mandatory minimum seven-year sentence. The girl may then be forced into marriage with a man considered suitable by the family.

Despite laws against child marriage, about 50% of Indian women between 20-24 years old were married before they turned 18. Marital rape is not criminal in India if the bride is 15 or older. This is presently being challenged by a NGO called Independent Thought, in the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional and against the state’s child policy.

What explains the gap between POSCO on paper and in practice? An entrenched culture of silence and victim blaming leads to low levels of disclosure. When disclosure happens, families struggle with shame and dishonour. Too often, public institutions fail to provide safe, supportive and enabling environments that survivors need to take on an arduous battle for justice.

Radical social transformation combined with a deep understanding of the child-friendly ethos of POCSO (as opposed to the adversarial norms of the Indian criminal justice system) has to be embedded within the psyche of the police, lawyers and judges. Courts should also be given discretion, and guidelines, at the sentencing stage to take into account factors such as age differences, inequalities between the victim and the perpetrator, the seriousness of the offence and its impact on the survivor.

Prita Jha is a legal activist, researcher and trainer working with issues of justice for survivors of communal, gender and sexual violence.  She is the co-editor of a book, On Their Watch: Mass Violence and State Apathy in India, Examining the Record, with Surabhi Chopra.  She has also taught courses on Gender and Criminal justice Administration at Nirma University, Gujarat.

Courtesy:  Open Democracy
 

Will outlawing ‘instant divorce’ advance justice for Muslim women in India?

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The Supreme Court of India recently struck down a specific divorce practice among its minority Muslims. The age-old practice known as “triple talaq” allowed a Muslim man to dissolve his marriage by uttering the term divorce three times, all at once.

Triple Talaq
Activists protesting against the recently banned triple divorce. AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

As a scholar who has conducted research among Muslim communities in India, I have seen firsthand how the abuse of this practice resulted in devastating consequences for Muslim women in India. In recent years, some men, for example, were divorcing their wives over Skype or a phone app. Many women found themselves abandoned, without any access to financial resources and in some cases custody of their children.

India came to this decision late after predominantly Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia and several Arab nations had outlawed the practice in the 20th century. And controversially so. Even now, perhaps most fundamentally, the question remains – what difference will it actually make?
 

Divorce in Islam

Divorce in Islam is regulated by a number of considerations and responsibilities. According to the principles of sharia, or Islamic law, the recommended practices are to have two witnesses to the decision to end the marriage, hear both sides, allow time to reflect and reconcile, and carefully handle matters of property.

The process is not cut and dried, but is instead based on mediation, facilitated by an Islamic judge. These judges try to abide by principles of Islamic law and take into account the unique circumstances and life situations of all parties. For example, in some divorces women retain the “mehr,” which is the money the husband agrees to gift the bride at the time of marriage. In others, she is expected to return the gift upon divorce.

Still, the procedures differ significantly between men and women. Men have the right to declare “talaq” and thus end the marriage, although they are required to take three months before finalizing their decision.

When a Muslim woman wants to initiate a divorce based on Islamic law, she generally must turn to an Islamic judge or imam (leader) to assist her if the husband refuses his consent.

There are many possible justifications under Islamic law: A woman might claim her husband prevents her from being pious or that he has abandoned or neglected her. It could also be that the husband is impotent, has other health issues or is in prison. I have also seen divorce granted on the grounds of cruelty. Islamic judges can even annul the marriage on certain grounds.

In sum, women have ways to seek divorce under Islamic law. But unlike men, they cannot unilaterally make a binding decision to end the marriage.

In the debates that led up to the Indian Supreme Court ruling many Muslim activists and intellectuals argued that the practice of instant divorce by the husband did not exist in the Quran and is therefore not a practice that should fall under religious freedom. The majority opinion on the court accepted this argument that triple talaq, in which the word “talaq” is said all at once, is not a truly Islamic practice.


A lawyer speaks with the media following the divorce verdict in New Delhi. Reuters/Adnan Abidi
 

Status of religious minorities

So why did it take so long to rule against this practice in India?

While India is a secular country, the rights of minority communities such as Muslims and Christians to practice their religious laws in matters of marriage, divorce, inheritance, custody and adoption are constitutionally protected.

In view of this protection, any attempt by the government to interfere in religious law and community matters is viewed as a violation of minority rights and a threat to freedom. For example, in 1985, when a Muslim woman, Shah Bano, filed a petition in court demanding the right to alimony from her divorced husband, the case became highly political and controversial. Muslim leaders demanded that the government not interfere in “personal” and religious matters.

Today, Muslims have even more cause to worry about interference in their communities. Since the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, the Hindu nationalist movement has become emboldened. Hindu nationalism promotes the political domination of “ancient” Hindu culture over all other cultures in India. For example, in the name of protecting the sacredness of cows and Hindu tradition, there have been many cow vigilante groups, who have attacked minority Muslims for eating beef.

For this reason, even progressive legal changes like banning instant divorce were viewed by some Muslim leaders as one small step in a larger attack on religious minorities.
 

Where are Muslim women’s voices?

The other issue is who speaks on behalf of the Muslim community. Muslims constitute 14 percent of India’s population and are enormously diverse. However, it is the self-appointed Muslim leaders who have been the most vocal on the issue, saying that the government should not intervene in Muslim family laws.

India does not demand official representatives of the Muslim community, as do some other countries, such as France and Italy.

Consequently, Muslim women’s groups have been struggling to be heard in these debates.
 

Condition of Muslim women in India

For many reasons, it is not clear how much the court ruling will improve women’s overall lives.

Divorce appears to be lower among Muslim women than among women of other religious communities. The divorce rate (based on the number of divorces per 1000 married women) is just over 5 percent for Muslim women, lower than the rate for Christian and Buddhist women.

Moreover, as women’s rights lawyer Flavia Agnes argued, there have already been a number of legal cases that effectively declared instant divorce invalid.


Muslim women in India are dealing with a large number of challenges. AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal

It is also important to note that Muslim women are dealing with a large number of challenges. These include widespread poverty, lack of access to education and an illiteracy rate of almost 40 percent in urban areas and over 50 percent in rural areas. (These percentages can vary widely across India.) Muslim women have the lowest rate of primary school completion compared to other groups, at 71 percent in urban areas and 48 percent in rural areas.

Arbitrary divorce is therefore only one of the injustices Indian Muslim women face.

Furthermore, while many Muslim women may want and need internal reforms in their communities, they are uncomfortable in courts and also have reasons to distrust the state. There are cases of police abuses against Muslims, with rates of incarceration being higher compared to other communities.

In my own research among low-income Muslim communities in the Indian city of Hyderabad, people did not think government intervention would really improve their lives. They also feared it would undermine their religious autonomy.

Often, women look for local solutions before approaching civil courts. In one low-income neighborhood I studied, a group of activists worked with Islamic judges to help women in situations of marital crisis or domestic violence secure a divorce or claim their financial rights in the aftermath of divorce. Activists told me that developing supportive relationships with these judges resulted in faster, easier and less costly resolution of family conflicts than going through civil courts.

While legal advancement is important and ensuring fairness in divorce is something to celebrate, it is but one small step toward a greater vision of gender justice.
 

Z. Fareen Parvez, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women driving from June 2018

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Saudi Arabia will never be the same again, says a Saudi woman campaigner for the right to drive


Photo credit: BBC

Saudi women will at last be able to drive from June 24 next year. A decree to this effect has been issued by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.
Today this Gulf Kingdom is the only country in the world where women are prohibited from driving a vehicle. Women who defied the ban were arrested and fined.

The royal decree has been greeted with applause from across the globe. American President Donald Trump has welcomed the move as “a positive step” towards the promotion of women’s rights.

Sahar Nassif, a Saudi woman who has for long campaigned for the right to drive told BBC she was “very, very excited, jumping up and down and laughing”. “I’m going to buy my dream car, a convertible Mustang, and it’s going to be black and yellow!” she added.

The country’s US ambassador, Prince Khaled bin Salman, confirmed that women would not have to get male permission to take driving lessons, and would be able to drive anywhere they liked.

He said it was “an historic and big day” and “the right decision at the right time”.

Rights groups in Saudi Arabia have been campaigning for years demanding an end to the ban on women driving.
Manal al-Sharif, an organiser of the Women2Drive campaign who has also been imprisoned for driving, said on Twitter that Saudi Arabia would “never be the same again”.

The hashtags “I am my own guardian” and “Saudi Women Can Drive” quickly gained traction on social media.
 

Egypt: Somewhere over the rainbow there are police ready to pounce

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Seven people who waved rainbow flags during a music festival in Egypt have been arrested for “promoting sexual deviancy”.

Fans waved rainbow flags at the Cairo concert
Fans waved rainbow flags at the Cairo concert

The flags appeared during a performance by the popular Lebanese band, Mashrou’ Leila, at the Music Park Festival in Cairo last Friday. Mashrou’ Leila is controversial because its songs question “traditional” ideas about Arab politics and society. It attracts a gay following partly because one of its songs, “Shim El Yasmine”, is about same-sex love but mainly because its lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay.

Sinno caused a stir at Lebanon’s Byblos International Festival in 2010 when he grabbed a rainbow flag from a member of the audience and attached it to his microphone. “Right in front of me, there was a crowd of about 100 LGBT kids and there was this kid, 18 at most, and he was waving the rainbow flag and his friends were doing the same thing with signs on gay rights,” he said later.  

Since then, Sinno has emerged as the Arab world’s most famous openly-gay celebrity (and is still virtually the only one).

Following last week’s incident in Cairo, the government-linked Syndicate of Musical Professions – a body tasked with suppressing “abnormal” kinds of music – said future performances in Egypt by Mashrou’ Leila will be banned.

Draped in a rainbow flag: one of the Egyptian fans
Draped in a rainbow flag: one of the Egyptian fans

Mashrou’ Leila has performed several times before in Cairo, as well as in Dubai and Tunis but has twice been prevented from performing in Jordan, where it has a large fan base – last year and earlier this year.

Rainbow flags were first adopted by gay rights activists in California in the 1970s and have since spread to many other countries. In some parts of the world, though, many people are still unaware of the LGBT connection – and are often shocked to find out.

Rainbow-coloured copies of the Qur’an are marketed as “an ideal gift for Muslims” and in Saudi Arabia rainbow umbrellas are sometimes used as sunshades.

The rainbow Qur'an – "an ideal gift for Muslims"
The rainbow Qur’an – “an ideal gift for Muslims”

It wasn’t until 2015 that the Saudi religious police discovered this multi-coloured peril lurking in their midst – and cracked down on it. Their first victim was a privately-run school in Riyadh which had rainbow stripes painted on a parapet. The school was fined 100,000 riyals ($26,650) for displaying “the emblem of the homosexuals” and forced to repaint its parapet in plain blue.

This Saudi school was fined for displaying "the emblem of the homosexuals"
This Saudi school was fined for displaying “the emblem of the homosexuals”

The first public appearance of a rainbow flag in an Arab country is thought to have occurred in March 2003, when 10 supporters of the nascent LGBT rights group, Helem, paraded it during an anti-war demonstration in Beirut. The flag, stitched together by a member of the group, hung in the window of Helem’s office for several years afterwards.
 

Update: doubts about arrests

In a post on Facebook, Scott Long, who has written extensively about LGBT issues in Egypt, casts doubt on the reported arrests. He writes:
 

a) The Egyptian tabloid press started reporting on Monday morning that police had arrested 7 people for hoisting a rainbow flag at the Mashrou’ Leila concert last week. So far, lawyers have apparently not been able to locate these arrestees. The news outlet that first reported the arrests has good connections to the police. But it is still possible that the police or the newspaper were lying, to give the impression that the highly moral Sisi regime is doing something about the “outrage.”
b) I think I can say with personal confidence that if people have been arrested so far, they were not the ones who were holding up the rainbow flag at the concert.
c) People are rightly terrified, including people who were actually at the concert. They need to make rational, informed decisions about their safety. But rumors — or premature, frightening statements from NGOs — won’t help them to do that. 
d) This is a new intensification of the same old moral panic about sex and gender that the Sisi regime uses to shore up its support. It’s going to claim victims, if it hasn’t already. I hope external LGBT NGOs who have been (in my view) disgracefully silent about the crackdown in Egypt will be ready to act when it’s clear what is happening. I hope they won’t leap prematurely to create the false appearance of effective action, when in fact they’re planning just the tired, useless same-old same-old. LGBT activists who haven’t yet called for a complete end to European and American military aid to the Egyptian dictatorship: you should have done so four years ago. So: do it now. This horrible story doesn’t give you any new reasons to do so. All the horrors are on record. The facts in this case will come. Today, now, without equivocating, say what you should have said — and didn’t have the courage to — starting in 2013.
 

Courtesy: http://al-bab.com

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