South Asia

Articles

• Bangladesh’s war crimes trial must remain on track
  31 January 2013, by siawi3

  Given Bangladesh’s highly polarised politics - of which the legacy of the Liberation War is an integral part - it is all the more imperative that the war crimes trial is allowed to reach its logical conclusion. For that alone will provide the sense of closure that Bangladeshi society desperately needs. As Bangladesh gears up to commemorate its 42^nd Victory Day, it must renew its resolve to uphold the war crimes trial and vindicate its secular ideals.

• Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party calls hartal in protest against war crime trials
  31 January 2013, by siawi3

  The Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, said in a press release that it called a nationwide dawn-to-dusk hartal for Thursday, for unconditional release of its detained top leaders

• India: Muslims have bigger problems than Rushdie: Amartya Sen
  4 February 2013, by siawi3

  “A lot of people who are enormously disadvantaged have enormous reasons to complain about other things”.
  “To subvert that issue into a completely different kind of issue and getting offended about something else — that is distracting attention from the real disadvantages that they face,” Professor Sen said. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen said here on Sunday that the Muslim groups who protested against author Salman Rushdie’s visit to the city were distracting attention from “the real disadvantages” that the community faced.

• India: Interview with Salman Rushdie
  30 January 2013, by siawi3

  It’s remarkable for a country like Bangladesh to declare itself a secular republic, for the army to support the idea, for a government to change through elections.
  If you are going to raise in your schools generations of children who are given wrong facts about their country’s past and they are taught about their religion and the rest of the world in ways which are very hostile, then you know that’s going to make trouble.

• India: To hell with modesty !
  28 January 2013, by siawi

  Language is seldom value-neutral. It is more like a looking glass that shapes perceptions, creates moral codes and tells us who we are and what we stand for or against. The vocabulary of sexual assault, as laid down in the Indian Penal Code and used in the courtroom, is no exception. Not only does it betray a lack of empathy for the victim but also shows distinct gender insensitivity and the influence of patriarchy.

• Bangladesh’s watershed war crimes moment
  31 January 2013, by siawi3

  The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh has delivered its first verdict, sentencing a former Islamist leader to death for crimes against humanity. The guilty verdict marks a watershed in Bangladesh’s tortuous history, where for 40 years families of victims have campaigned relentlessly to bring the perpetrators to justice. Tribunals set up nearly three years ago are trying alleged war crimes committed during the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
  Bangladesh says up to three million people died during the war, mostly in massacres by the Pakistan army and their local Islamist allies, the Razakar and Al-Badr forces. The Razakars were notorious for their operations targeting Hindus as well as civilians suspected of being sympathetic towards Bengali nationalists.

• India: ‘Muslim outfits distracting from real disadvantages’
  4 February 2013, by siawi3

  Noted economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen on Sunday said Muslim outfits are not trying to address the issues plaguing the community and instead diverting from them by organising protests against authors like Salman Rushdie. His comments come in the wake of Rushdie’s visit to Kolkata being cancelled at the last minute after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allegedly heeded to Muslim clerics’ demand of not allowing the Booker Prize winning author to land in the city.

• Bangladesh: Blasphemy, Genocide and Violence Against Women: the case of Bangladesh
  19 December 2012, by siawi3

  This article is based on an event organized by the Center for Secular Space on November 27, 2012 while a Tribunal on war crimes committed during the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 is presently taking place. Entitled ‘Bangladesh Genocide, what human rights, anti-racist and peace organizations won’t tell you’ , the exchange took place between executive director of the Centre, Gita Sahgal and Dr. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui (a former Islamist, now Muslim reformer) and Asif Munier.

 It looks at the implication of Britain in the protection of perpetrators, in the name of human rights.

• India: Bhagat Singh and the Assembly Bombing of 1929
  24 March 2019, by siawi3

  “Any man who stands for progress has to criticise, disbelieve and challenge every item of the old faith”. Bhagat Singh

• Blasphemy laws are being misused in Pakistan.
  9 March 2013, by siawi3

  The Pakistan Secular forum has demanded from Government to abolish the Blasphemy laws from constitution of Pakistan. In his press statement the Chairman Pakistan Secular Forum& Anti Torture Movement Pakistan Dilshad Bhutto said that most of the countries have abolished death sentence and Pakistan should do the same especially in cases where murder or death is not involved.

0 | ... | 100 | 110 | 120 | 130 | 140 | 150 | 160 | 170 | 180 | ... | 5440