Taslima Nasrin's Blog, page 31

Four men likely to be sentenced to hang for gang-rape and murder of 23-year-old woman on bus in Delhi last year.

But I think, we will not be able to stop rape by executing all the rapists in the world. Rape will be continued until we abolish patriarchy, and make our world macho-culture and misogyny free.

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero slapped women’s representative Rachel Shebesh and quickly forgot that he slapped her.

The misogynist Governor is so proud of himself, he has slapped a woman, and it is so insignificant incidence in his life that he does not even need to remember. His misogynist supporters ask him not to apologize for his crime and urge him to slap her twice if she comes again.

Sane women and men from all over the world should demand for the resignation anf punishment of Kidero. It is dangerous if you allow a filthy misogynist to stay in the office. If Governments are anti-women, public will be anti-women. Misogyny is contagious. Misogynists are always anti-democracy, anti-human rights, anti-free speech.

For the sake of humanity it is urgently necessary to replace misogynists with feminist men or women.

I bought dozens of bananas and went to Dalhousie road in Delhi. Lots of beautiful, elegant, intelligent monkeys ran towards me to get bananas. I tried to distribute bananas among them in equal shares. But it was impossible to make them stand in a queue. I did not want alpha males to snatch bananas from oppressed monkeys.

They love bananas. Wish I could feed them everyday. But the traffic police around the road was not happy with me, they asked me to stop feeding monkeys. I didn’t know that it was illegal to feed monkeys on the road. Why should love and care be illegal? They don’t find food in the jungle, so they came to the city. Why shouldn’t we feed them when there is almost no traffic and they are very hungry!

He is eating one, protecting another.

He got 3 bananas. But his hands are not free. So he is peeling the banana with his mouth. They are smarter than me.

I personally knew Sushmita Banerjee. She came to my home to tell her stories when I lived in Kolkata in 2004-2007. She told me many horror stories of her life– how she a Bengali woman married an Afghan and how she escaped from Afghanistan, came back to Kolkata, wrote her memoir, and became popular overnight.

I was really shocked when I heard that Sushmita was shot dead by the Taliban in Afghanistan. I have no idea why she went to Afghanistan. Her decision of going back to that country was no doubt wrong. Was that for love? Love kills women.

Sushmita escaped the Taliban in 1995. This year she returned to Afghanistan, the country which was supposed to be better now, and started working as a health assistence at a local hospital. After months of working quite peacefully, Sushmta had to die. The Taliban came to her husband’s house at night, tied up her husband and others, dragged her out of the house and killed her! Do the Taliban need to tie up others when they kill one? May be they need. Or maybe they don’t. Maybe someone from her in-laws informed the Taliban that Sushmita, the ‘immoral woman’, who fled husband’s house and wrote bad about them was there, maybe those men knew about her deeds and whereabouts from other sources. Or they were angry with her because she worked outside home and gave vaccines. Polio activists get killed in those areas. Maybe she did not wear her burqa properly. I can’t stop thinking of her.

I do not know about the conspiracy behind killing Sushmita, but I know why she was killed. She was killed, no matter by whom, the Taliban or not, because of patriarchy , misogyny and religion.

Pope announced a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria.

Francis is asking people to join him next weekend in a day of fasting for peace in Syria. Francis invited people of all faiths to join him Saturday evening in St. Peter’s Square to invoke the “gift” of peace for Syria, the rest of the Middle East and worldwide where there is conflict. Declaring “no more war,” Francis spoke to tens of thousands of people gathered in the square on Sunday. He says the “world needs to see gestures of peace and hear words of peace.” He says that only dialogue, and not armed intervention, can end Syria’s civil war. The five-hour-long prayer vigil in the square Saturday will last until midnight.

Mr. Pope, I believe you know very well that prayer and fasting do not work. Could you show any evidence of a successful prayer or fasting? I don’t think you will be able to show anything. Why don’t you cancel your stupid prayer program and try to motivate warmongers to stop war? You guys always fool around. For once, just stop it.

Egypt’s new constitution limits the role of Islam.

Where the new constitution differs most significantly from the old one is on issues of Islam’s role in governance and law. The 2012 constitution included three articles that broadly defined and significantly expanded the role of Islamic jurisprudence.

Article 2, which dates back to the 1971 constitution, establishes the Sunni branch of Islamic jurisprudence as the basic guideline for legislation. The 2012 constitution added two others: Article 4, which stated that Al Azhar, Egypt’s highest institution of Islamic learning, should be consulted on how to define Islamic law, and Article 219, which effectively includes all Sunni jurisprudence since Islam’s founding as relevant to Egyptian legislation. Secular activists and constitutional experts have harshly criticized Article 219, saying it was open to overly broad interpretation and could effectively be used to affect every aspect of Egyptian law.

In the new draft constitution, Articles 4 and 219 have essentially been deleted.

This is not the best draft constitution but much better than Mr Morsi’s constitution. The new draft prevents people from their right to freedom of expression. Among 50 members who are working to draft the new constitution, only four are women.

I hope good sense will prevail and they will learn how to respect everyone’s human rights and treat women as equal human beings. In the meantime, it would be wonderful if Islamism died a natural death.

Gandhi grew up in Gujarat. He was called Bapu. Asaram grew up in Gujarat. He is also called Bapu. Gandhi was hugely popular among Indians. Asaram has been hugely popular among Indians. Gandhi used young girls for his celibacy test, even when he was over 70. Asaram is now 72, and he rapes young girls.

Asaram is now in jail. But most Indians still support him and believe that he is not guilty. Most Indians support Gandhi. They believe Gandhi had the right to make young girls naked and sleep with him. Godmen exploit people for wealth and fame and sex. God-fearing people go to Godmen to get their blessings, because they are told that Godmen have a direct connection with God.

You may imprison a rapist Godman. But it will not make Godman business disappear from superstitious society. You will not be able to defeat god beliefs, god-men, superstitions by any other weapons but science. You bet.