Oppression or submission?

The French are mulling over whether they can pass a law making it illegal for a woman to wear a burqa.

The Muslims will say that this is something that the women are doing without being forced to do so, as an act of submission to their god.

My question is, when the Hindu women were throwing themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands, they were also doing it without being forced to, weren't they?

Which will result in the obvious question whether voluntarily burning one's self to death is the same as wearing a burqa.

The answer is yes, when it comes to following religious or cultural edicts, without any logical reason, they both fall into the same category. So if society can legislate to outlaw women burning themselves to death, can they also be allowed to stop this seemingly harmless code of dress?

The Tree

Is still there :-)

More questions

The apologists for Islam say that although certain things are allowed by shariah, they are not enforced any more, things like cutting off hands, stoning, polygamy, etc. So although it is legal, it is not morally or socially acceptable. Which brings me to the question, if religion is not giving the guidelines to morality, what is it good for anyway?

Please note this is different from the Taliban and other friends, who want to implement the shariah in the spirit and letter.

What side are you on?

Ramblings

A few random thoughts

1. There must be something wrong with a belief that sanctifies the willingness to take one's own child's life. I am okay with "risking" one's life or possessions for something that one believes in, not okay with sacrificing life in any form or shape just to please a higher calling or cause. Kamikazes, suicide bombers, etc. all fall in the latter category.

2. My fight is against irrationality, caused by anything. A lot of it is due to faith, which is one obvious cause of becoming irrational. But I have found that there are quite a few other things out there which cause humankind to behave in the strangest of ways. It is hard enough to understand things that have a logical reason, I am stumped when I see people accepting things without any reason whatsoever.

3. It could be a fight to retain one's identity, the reason we try to justify the labels that we wear. For example, we call ourselves Pakistanis or Muslims, but at the same time, we keep saying that all those doing the crazy things are not one of us (at least the partially sane ones do). So if they aren't part of our group, and they say they are, who are they? And more importantly, who are we?

When will the craziness end? I am not hopeful that I will see an age of reason in my lifetime.

To flog or not to flog?

I don't know if anyone can or will answer my question that I have come up with after reading, watching and hearing about the flogging of the girl in Swat or wherever, and the comments of different people on various media.

Our misogynist taliban are saying that this was done six months ago. I guess in their minds, that is the statute of limitation. A lot of others are saying that its a degrading punishment and should not be done. To a lot of other idiots, this is a Jewish conspiracy to malign the good name of our holy warriors. Saying that this is a plot to undermine the good deeds of the drug growing, beard and danda/gun wielding friends. I love the latter the most.

My question is not about these things.

The death penalty has been abolished in most of the civilized world today. Only the mullahs of Saudi Arabia and the born again Christians of the United States seem to endorse and enforce it. As Pakistanis, we as usual don't have a clue. It is part of the penal code, but lately there have been some moves to do away with it. Have no clue why or whether anything will come of it. So I would think that capital punishment has been declared as inhuman. But to societies that practice it, I would think it is the norm.

Now moving on to our shariah implementers, is this acceptable to the population who lives in those parts? Are flogging a girl, stoning people, cutting of hands, etc. acceptable to them? If yes, what is the problem? We are already the lowest of the low, what difference will that make to our standing? This is our way.

Now there are idiots like me, who feel that this is wrong. The reason why this is wrong is because this is based on the interpretation of the Islamic code of justice that was formulated 1400 some years ago by a medieval society and that should change as society changes.

And now come the apologists, who will say that technically there is nothing wrong with it, but we don't like to do this any more. As long as there is a provision in the law, I don't buy this argument. And then there is another thing, it is the wrong interpretation. Which brings us to the question I want to ask

"Which interpretation should be followed?"

I am sure every group feels that they have the correct and divine right to interpret the law the way they want it. But what about the others who don't agree with them?

Blowing up for Swat

The title is stolen from Bowling for Columbine, not that I am a big fan of Michael Moore, who I think starts off by asking the right questions and then usually reaches the wrong conclusions.

So there we have it, in the valley of Swat, the government of NWFP (Read Pakistan) has agreed to implement Nizam-e-Adal with the help of the local armed and dangerous warlords. I am not sure what that means, and pretty sure that nobody really knows what it means, but so be it.

They have tried doing this a few times before, I remember in the nineties, they wanted everyone to drive on the right side of the road, since driving on the left is synonymous with driving with Satan. Although that might mean that they would require left hand drive cars, I am pretty sure they didn't think that through.

The Frontier constabulary moved in, and everyone went back to the left side of the road.

After the state's miserable failure at trying to enforce the rule of law for a while, it has been decided that the only way to achieve peace is to give in, amen!

I remember going to Swat in my childhood. I missed out visiting Malam Jabba, which was burnt down last year by the same people who are now going to rule the valley. I do have some great memories of staying in a place called Miandum. Maybe in a few years, outsiders will be allowed to visit the valley after being cleared with having the requisite length of beard and burqa transparency or lack thereof. What will the valley offer as tourist attractions?

I think the biggest attraction will be bombed out schools, the guides will show proudly how they wiped out the dens of vice, that provided basic education to girls and then I think they will move on to bombing all schools which ensures virtue for all.

Swat is also big with timber companies, that cut down trees against the feeble writ of the government, and this new development will help in cutting down pretty much everything that is standing. That should provide some employment for the people there, well at least till they have something to cut down. After a few years, this uneducated lot, who has experience in logging, will follow their ancestors' path of moving south and bringing enlightenment to the rest of the world.

The good news is that after they have all moved out, in a few centuries people may be able to go back there and there will be no sign of them. The Indus Valley civilization had covered drains, which we haven't been able to reconstruct, so nothing will be left. There is always a silver lining to be found!

The killing must stop

My first knee jerk response to Israelis attacking Gaza was that Hamas is firing rockets at Israel, so I guess this is justified. After thinking about it for a bit, I realized that I was wrong and so is everyone else, on every side.

I just wish people learned from history. The Israeli Jews did not learn anything from the past. They have been persecuted since recorded time, starting with the Egyptians treating them as slaves which led to the exodus. Then they are thought to be responsible for getting Jesus hung on a cross with the connivance of the Romans. The Romans redeemed themselves by taking up the cause of Christianity, but the Jews were not forgiven. The next big thing, Islam, followed in the footsteps of Christianity, confirming Jews as the cursed lot. And there we have it.

So the world decides to assuage their collective guilt by drawing lines on a map, with no regard for what implications that may have. Its all wrong, the Israelies are wrong, the Palestinians are wrong, and so is the rest of the world. The killings need to stop. The question is how do we stop the violence without violence. Is there a short term solution to this?

Israel must understand that killing Palestinians is not an answer. Hitler and the Nazis tried to exterminate all the Jews, but that didn't work. And even if the world managed to send a lot of Jews to the promised land, the troubles that originate from the holy land come back and bite them in the ass every once in a while.

There must be a way out, or shall we give up? The Jews need to get over their victim mentality. All of us need to get over this. And for those who are praying for rapture, I got some bad news for you sunshine, it ain't happening!