[Even Urvashi Bhutalia, feminist and publisher, who
moderated the session, was surprised to see so many people in attendance, eager
to hear how stifled voices from conservative countries are breaking
stereotypical norms and getting away from veils, to tell their own unique
tales. ]
By PTI - JAIPUR
When women writers from Islamic countries discuss
sexuality and erotic poems, taboos and male dominance, and mull over breaking free
from conservative norms, the audience is bound to be large.
At the Jaipur Literary Festival (JLF) Saturday, the
hall of the "Baithak" venue was flooded with people eager to hear
discussions at the session "Behind the Veil: Women Writers of the Islamic
World".
Even Urvashi Bhutalia, feminist and publisher, who
moderated the session, was surprised to see so many people in attendance, eager
to hear how stifled voices from conservative countries are breaking
stereotypical norms and getting away from veils, to tell their own unique
tales.
Bhutalia was in conversation with four authors:
Shereen Feki, author of "Sex and the Citadel: Intimate Life in a Changing
Arab World", author of "The Exiled" Fariba Hachtroudi,
Somalia-born Nadifa Mohamed, and Turkish author Bejan Matur.
"I have spent five years in the Arab world
talking about sex. Many of you might think this is the best job in the
world," Feki told the audience here, in a lighter vein.
Feki's parents moved to Canada and as she was born
there, so she never felt any connection with the Arab world till the September
2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in the US.
"I had never thought much about the Arab world
till 9/11. It was then that I decided to know more about it," said Feki,
who was a journalist and has covered HIV-related stories from the Arab world.
"There were so many taboos around sex that it
was hard to tackle," she said.
Her book throws light on the sexual preferences of
women from conservative Arab countries, where women opened up to her and talked
about their sex lives. Though she did speak to men about it too, they have not
featured in the book.
And she strongly believes that the behaviour of
society is strongly related also to what happens behind the closed doors of
bedrooms.
"Sexuality is a rich way of looking at society.
What happens inside bedrooms is related to outside life. If we don't allow
freedom in private lives, it won't be achieved in the public sphere," she
said.
Elaborating how a free body is an essential ingredient
of a free mind was Hachtroudi, who left Iran when she was 12. After writing
extensively on Iran for three years, this journalist felt it was necessary for
her to be inside the country to feel what it was like, back home.
"I was lucky, my friends say. Some say I was a
fool, because I chose to take the Afghanistan border to enter Iran. But once I
was there, it changed my life," she told the audience.
"The power men want to have over women is the
biggest obstacle in our society. Prostitution in Iran began around 1985-86 when
the economy was crippled by war (Iran-Iraq)," she added, saying she has
written erotic poetry.
Another thing that left women powerless was the
decision taken during the Iranian Revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
took away women's right to participate in politics.
"During (Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi )Shah's
regime, women had power to vote and they were in the sphere of politics,"
she said.
She said she is now spearheading a programme to
encourage people to express themselves, creatively.
While it is believed that a country becomes modern by
adapting to western ways, Feki emphasised the need to "change
thinking" to be modern.
"Modernity is not an economic weapon, but a
system of changing thinking and growing," she said.
[The protesters are now focused on an election set for next month that Ms. Yingluck called in a failed attempt to quell the protests. Critics believe that holding the election will extend the dominance of the Shinawatra family and instead want to install an unelected “people’s council” that would guide the country through changes before elections could be held again.]
BANGKOK — An attack on antigovernment
protesters in Bangkok on Friday, most likely with a grenade, killed one person
and injured more than 30, intensifying tensions in the city as a dwindling but
dedicated core of protesters continues to block access to a number of
government buildings and major intersections.
The explosion occurred in broad daylight in
central Bangkok as the protesters were marching down a street, leaving people
dazed and bleeding. It remained unclear hours after the attack who was
responsible, with the protesters blaming the government but refusing to allow a
forensics team to investigate the site fully because, they said, they do not
trust the police.
“The use of a war weapon is of particular
concern,” said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher in Thailand at Human Rights
Watch. “Thailand cannot allow this cycle to spin into something more
dangerous.”
The episode was not the bloodiest during the
protests — eight people have been killed, and about 500 have been injured, in
the past two months — but it was among the most brash, occurring not far from
the city’s main shopping district.
Tensions were already on the rise after a
series of shooting attacks at the protest sites in recent days, as well as
small explosions at the homes of two leaders of a political opposition party
that supports the protesters. The attack on Friday came as protesters continued
for the fifth day to try to “shut down” Bangkok, blocking key intersections in
the central business district.
The leader of the protests, Suthep Thaugsuban,
who was near the explosion but quickly fled, cried when recounting the episode
to his supporters, seizing on the assault as another reason for Prime Minister
Yingluck Shinawatra to step down.
“Leave now, leave immediately,” he said,
asserting that the government was behind the attack. “How many people did you
expect to be killed?”
Ms. Yingluck urged the police to quickly make
arrests in the attack, according to The Associated Press, saying she was
opposed to any use of force.
Her government, buttressed by the support of
voters in northern Thailand who have propelled her party to successive
electoral victories, has been besieged by protesters in Bangkok for the past
two months. This week, officials worked from the relative safety of a military
office on the city’s outskirts.
Ms. Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin
Shinawatra, a billionaire who was removed as prime minister in a 2006 military
coup, are the main targets of the protesters.
The protesters are now focused on an election
set for next month that Ms. Yingluck called in a failed attempt to quell the
protests. Critics believe that holding the election will extend the dominance
of the Shinawatra family and instead want to install an unelected “people’s
council” that would guide the country through changes before elections could be
held again.
In what appeared to be one of the most
explicit acts of sabotage before the planned Feb. 2 elections, protesters on
Friday cut the electricity at the company where ballots are printed.
Although most of Bangkok, a sprawling capital
of well over 10 million people, has been unaffected by the demonstrations,
violence this week in and around the protest areas has underlined a vacuum of authority
and fed a sense of insecurity in the city.
The police are nearly absent from the protest
sites. There have been at least eight episodes of gunfire since the beginning
of the year related to the protests, half of them resulting in injuries.
This week explosive devices were used to
attack the houses of two high-profile politicians who belong to the main
opposition party: the governor of Bangkok, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, and the head
of the Democrat Party, Abhisit Vejjajiva. No one was injured.
Adding to the sense of insecurity and the risk
of further violence are signs of divided loyalties among security forces, a
constant feature of eight years of political turmoil.
Three navy commandos were arrested this week
after police officers at a checkpoint discovered weapons, including one fitted
with a silencer, in their vehicle. The men had “accreditation” issued by one of
the factions of protesters, according to the police. Their reported affiliation
with protesters has not yet been addressed by the navy. The police were quoted
in the Thai news media as saying that the commandoes were working as armed
guards for the protesters.
Protesters have numerous grievances against
Ms. Yingluck and her governing party, arguing that the government has ignored
the needs of southern Thailand, that corruption is rife and that Mr. Thaksin
has overshadowed the country’s king. Supporters of the governing party,
meanwhile, say they are loyal to it because of policies such as universal
health care, microloans to people in rural areas and a fierce crackdown on drug
dealers.
Protesters, especially those from southern
Thailand, say they will continue their demonstrations until Ms. Yingluck is
defeated.
Suwannee Chantamatr, 61, a protester from the
south who witnessed Friday’s attack, said she would not be deterred.
“I feel like it’s dangerous out there,” she
said. “But my heart is calling. My heart is with the nation, and the nation is
calling me out to the street.”
