Category Archives: Government Oppression

Despite having differences in political agendas and standpoints, all political parties have expressed their solidarity towards the Kashmir Issue, CPECs timely progression, and Pakistan nuclear program, comments PML-N central leader, Senator Mushahid Hussain.

He made this comment while addressing the special meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir in Islamabad on Sunday which was conducted to brief the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) delegation belonging to the Organization of Islamic Council (OIC).

The Senator comments that the New York Times had reported that 50,000 people have become jobless and around USD five billion were lost as a result of Indian oppression and the revocation of Article 350 and 35A of the Indian constitution since August 5, 2019.

Thus, he appeals that the OIC which is the apt platform for the representation of the Muslim Ummah should employ a third country to help raise the Kashmiri plight at the International Court of Justice. He takes a leaf from the instance of the Rohingya Genocide where Zambia took the case to the ICJ.

Read more: Why is Kashmir etched into Pakistans psyche?

Moreover, Shehryar Khan Afridi, the Chairperson of the Kashmir Committee commended the OIC-IPHRC nexus to assist immediately to alleviate the woes of Kashmiri people in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) who are facing the brunt of Indian aggression for two years.

Senator Mushahid Hussain also raised the same point during Ikram Sehgals A Personal Chronicle of Pakistan book launch at Marriot Hotel Islamabad on 5th August by referring to Ikram Sehgals article written on 17th July 2020, Kashmiri lives matter. He claims that collective voices in support of Kashmir must reach the international community with great emphasis before the Indian genocide reach new and alarming levels.

The Kashmir Chairperson Shehryar Afridi highlighted the inefficacy of the United Nations in curtailing Indian aggression and its flagrant violation of human rights in Kashmir. He claims that the UN has failed to deter Indian in its ruthless endeavors and claims that humanity is bleeding in both Kashmir and Palestine while the world stands as a silent spectator.

Both Kashmir and Palestine have many similarities in their oppression stemming from land garb, demographic change, politico-religious narrative, and human rights violation.

The scrapping of Kashmirs special status on August 5, 2019, has led to a demographic transformation and is a blatant attempt to convert a majority into a minority. For two years, 4.1 million new domiciles have been issued which validate the nefarious designs of the Modi regime as an influx of non-Kashmiris mercilessly trample on Kashmiris right to live.

Read more: Shehryar Afridi optimistic about Kashmir, Palestine issue

As Kashmiris in the IIOJK suffer miserably under the lockdown imposed by the Indian government, their woes multiply in the wake of the inaccessibility of medical facilities amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Afridi comments that Kashmiris are even denied freedom of speech and expression which is an inalienable right in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights Convention 1948. India is violating this right with impunity by throwing Kashmiris behind bars if they write anything on digital media under the notorious Unlawful Activities Prevention Act laws.

The Senator claimed that all political parties took part in the recently held elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The talent of Kashmiri youth was demonstrated with the help of the Kashmir Premier League. Thus, the motive was not to win Kashmir but to showcase the unity and solidarity on Kashmiri suffering and humanitarian crisis which require unwavering support from the UN and the OIC.

He reminds that Pakistan has worked untiringly to excavate the menace of terrorism from its borders and in the quest has suffered greatly. It had made tremendous sacrifices with blood, lives, and money which the world has acknowledged.

Read more: Why Israel is able to suppress Palestine

Thus, the international community needs to value these sacrifices and perceive its stand for Kashmir under the light of protector of human rights and not as an instigator of violence and terrorism in Kashmir.

Its time that Indias misadventures in the region in the wake of its border disputes with China, Bhutan, and Nepal should be seen in the light of terrorism and violence. Indian obstinate and non-cooperation towards allowing the visit of the delegation by IPHRC to Jammu and Kashmir should be taken notice of, claims Dr. Hacu Alo Aeikgul, a prominent member of IPHRC.

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Political parties stand committed over Kashmir, Palestine, and CPEC, says Mushahid Hussain - Global Village space

The Museum of the Home protest

Sasha Simic, HSUTR, West Bank, Stamford Hill, writes:

Over the last year there has been a campaign to remove the statue of the C17th slaver Robert Geffrye from its plinth over The Museum of the Home in Hoxton.

The statue glorifies a man who made money from the North Atlantic Slave Trade.Geffrye had shares in the Royal African Company and part-owned the slave ship China Merchant.

A public consultation was held by the museum last June over the future of the statue and 71 per cent of those who took part wanted it taken down.

The reason why the statue still stands over the museum, a year after that public consultation, is because various members of Boris Johnsons government have stepped in to defend the Geffrye statue and all monuments to slavers.

They have done so under the cover that they are defending British heritage and culture from, what communities secretary Robert Jenrick has described, as baying mobs of woke worthies.

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has instructed museum directors that they must defend our culture and history from the noisy minority of activists constantly trying to do Britain down.

Home secretary Priti Patel has included a clause in her draconian Police and Crime Bill which would mean a prison sentence of up to 10 years for anyone caught trying to overturn a statue to a slaver.

But neither Dowden nor Jenrick nor Patel have the slightest interest in heritage or culture and prefer Tory myths to authentic history.

Campaigners want the statue of slaver Robert Geffrye put inside the museum- Credit: Holly Chant

For while Dowden has intervened to ensure that the statue Geffrey remains over The Museum of the Home, he didnt lift a finger to stop the 450-year-old Whitechapel Bell Foundry nearby a workplace which cast the Liberty Bell and Big Ben from being converted into a luxury hotel.

Now comes an even more blatant example of Tory contempt for heritage and culture.Highways England, the government-owned company charged with maintaining motorways and major roads, has insisted it will go ahead with its 1.7bn scheme to dig an underground tunnel near Stonehenge despite the ruling by the High Court at the end of July that the scheme was unlawful and that transport secretary Grant Shapps acted irrationally and unlawfully when he approved it.

This proves two things.

The first is that Boris Johnsons government has nothing but contempt for the law.Secondly, it exposes that lie that the government are fighting a culture war in defence of the UKs heritage.

Stonehenge is the best-known prehistoric monument in Europe and an unparalleled human achievement.

Yet the government puts such little value on it that it is proceeding with a discredited tunnel which cant help but impact on one of the wonders of the world.

Its not baying mobs of woke worthies who threaten the Stonehenge site.It is the government of Boris Johnson.

The governments defence of the statue of Robert Geffrye and other slavers has nothing to do with preserving heritage and everything to do with defending the British establishment which is founded on the grotesque exploitation and oppression of the North Atlantic slave trade.

Hackney Stand Up to Racism has called a protest at the Museum of the Home, 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA at 12.00 noon on Saturday, August 21. We are marking UNESCOs Slavery Remembrance Day 2021 by calling on the trustees of the museum to defy the government and take the statue down from its plinth and put it in the museum with the full story of how Geffrye made money made transparent. Thats what museums are supposed to do - deal in facts and the truth.

We urge everyone who can to stand with us on August 21 and tell the trustees that #GeffryeMustFall.

Link:

Letter about protest to remove Robert Geffrye - Hackney Gazette

Feminism August 10, 2021 Fidaa Zaanin

Palestine looks back on a long history of women organizing dating back to as early as 1917, as well as a vibrant history of womens social and political participation in the country. Nevertheless, the coordinated feminist protests that took place on 26 September 2019 took some by surprise.

On that day, thousands of Palestinian women some of them for the first time in their lives hit the streets of 12 cities across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as in refugee camps and the diaspora including a protest in Berlin and another in London, in response to a call issued by the activist group Talat to protest the rise in gender-based violence (GBV), most notably so-called honour killings, in Palestinian society. The demonstrators also denounced all forms of violence be it from patriarchy, toxic masculinity, sexual violence, sexual harassment in the workplace, economic exploitation, local political exclusion, sexist laws, or colonialism.

The catalyst of this newly formed feminist movement was the killing of Israa Ghrayeb, a 21-year-old Palestinian woman, by her family members in the West Bank. Womens mobilizations are not uncommon in Palestine, nor was this mobilization unique or the first of its kind. Yet such strong and coordinated mobilization was definitely a somewhat unusual recent development, and could be attributed to the strong feminist discourse that has linked social and political issues in turbulent times, as well as a general rise in violence against Palestinian women.

The mobilization came after years of what many observers regarded as a stagnation in the womens movement, and an increased marginalization of womens voices and concerns in the Palestinian national struggle. The action developed without the organizers resorting to traditional methods of mobilization specifically, without the resources and networks of the womens organizations directly affiliated with the established Palestinian political parties. The Talat group is independent, meaning that, unlike other Palestinian womens organizations, political parties and formal institutions have no control over it nor the tools and tactics they use.

The Talat mobilization began as an urgent action under the slogan of No Free Homeland without Free Women. It swiftly captured widespread attention: locally among wide sections of Palestinian progressive circles and Arab feminist groups, and internationally among several feminist collectives in Latin America and the United States.

The activists involved successfully overcame military checkpoints, geographical fragmentation, and physical borders. Organizers managed to reach out to different individuals and groups in different cities via their own channels and social relationships. Some knew each other as political and social activists prior to the mobilization, while others met for the first time. Organizers used social media as their primarily mobilizing tool. In several cities, they also hung up posters.

For some Palestinian women, the mobilization represented a glimmer of hope that a better and more just future for all in a free Palestine could be possible. Although it was met largely with praise, optimism, and a great deal of support and solidarity, mostly due to its progressive feminist discourse and firm stance against all forms of oppression, an expected backlash came from conservative and reactionary Palestinians who reject feminism outright and view it as an imported, purely Western ideology with the goal of destroying family values and tearing apart the Palestinian social fabric, as well as from Palestinians who believe that womens liberation can only be achieved later, after national liberation, plainly stating that womens dignity and lives are for now not a priority.

Talat opened a new window of opportunity for Palestinian women hoping for real social and political change to make their voices heard and place a progressive feminist agenda at the core of Palestines national emancipation an agenda that aspires to entrench liberation as a value in all aspects of life. Talat also sparked an online conversation among Palestinian women about feminism the notion itself, what can or cannot be included under feminism, and lastly what it means to be a feminist in the Palestinian context today.

With regard to the last question, a discussion took place around what kind of allies and supporters are welcome within a Palestinian feminist movement. Based on that discussion, attempts made by some Israeli womens groups to join Talat were rejected. Affirming that being a feminist in Palestine today means having total control over the feminist narrative, Talat issued an official statement, explaining in detail why such attempts will always be rejected. Important debates also unfolded among women and activists around feminist discourse in Palestine. The debates I observed were healthy and refrained from speaking of Palestinian women as a monolith, instead recognizing their diverse social and political backgrounds.

Acknowledging such diversity leaves room for articulating the lived experiences of Palestinian women, as shaped by their locations and identities and as subjects of multiple layers of oppression. Such diversity extends to the realms of womens needs, concerns, expectations, and dreams. Many came to realize that for any Palestinian autonomous womens organization or feminist organization to emerge, it would need to recognize those differences. Without doing so it would be just another futile attempt that benefits only some at the expense of others, and would not take us further toward full liberation.

That said, it is practically impossible to depict all feminist discourses and agendas on the ground, or to cover all the diverse viewpoints and attitudes of Palestinian women who identify as feminist. This is a very complex undertaking, as the field is still insufficiently investigated. Moreover, terms such as feminism, feminist discourses, intersectionality, and patriarchy only recently became more common in the public sphere and in conversation.

However, there is clearly a diverse range of feminist discourses and various strands of feminist and women activism which have emerged organically, for the simple reason that this system of structural violence impacts them differently, and the ideas and discourses they develop over time are based on their own concerns. Those diverse feminist discourses agree on several salient points and intersect around central questions, such as national liberation, political participation, femicide, women in the labour market, and womens reproductive health and rights. They differ, however, in the lens they use and the strategies they employ to understand and engage with those questions.

In a culturally conservative society like Palestine, religious teachings and beliefs still have a powerful influence on how people structure their everyday lives, and feminist and womens rights discourses are no exception. The widespread conservative feminist discourse in Palestine views religion as a point of reference for its demands, and a standard what is acceptable and what is not. This conservative feminism is largely confined to what is socially acceptable, and its goals are usually limited to legal reforms such as pushing reforms that protect the rights of women to inheritance in accordance with Islamic law, and protecting this right against threats such as fraud and manipulation.

This discourse generally avoids any issues that are deemed to violate Islamic teachings, such as a womans right to appear in public without a head covering, to travel without a male guardians approval, sex work, or the right to sexuality. These issues, combined with patriarchal social norms, limit conservative discourse and set a very low bar for demands when compared to the other mainstream feminist discourse, namely the secular discourse.

Nevertheless, this conservative discourse since it is less in confrontation with society and the system is granted space to safely campaign without being demonized or targeted, in contrast to what happens to their secular counterparts. The conservative religious discourse around feminism or womens rights has also opened up discussions over the right to education, access to healthcare, the right to work, disability rights, matters related to the so-called personal status law, and violence against women.

One heated, ongoing debate in Gaza specifically revolves around changing the laws concerning child custody and child visitation rights, with the goal of at least adopting the same law as it is applied in the West Bank. In Gaza, divorced women lose their custody rights once their children reach the age of seven (for boys) and nine (for girls). In most cases, they are also denied the right to visitation as a punishment, and may not ever see their children again. Meanwhile, in the West Bank, child custody for women lasts until the age of 15 for both boys and girls, with better regulations regarding visitation rights for both parents.

The debate around child custody was sparked in June 2020 by the murder of 20-year-old Madeline Jaraba, who was killed for getting in touch with her divorced mother. One month later, the ten-year-old Amal Al Jamaly was killed by her father following disagreements between him and her mother. This pattern of killings encouraged women and mothers, most of them divorced, to start a campaign demanding justice by changing the law. Today the group encompasses around 1,500 women, who have already organized media campaigns, a petition, and protests in front of the legislative council, chanting and holding written banners with Quranic verses and hadiths (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) concerning the regulations of familial relationships during marriage and after divorce.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, a secular feminist discourse led by a broader network of womens rights activists and groups can be observed. The demands raised within this discourse go further, and its protagonists are keener to challenge social norms and patriarchal structures whether religion, domestic patriarchy, or structural violence from formal institutions. Both reformist and radical tendencies can be identified, including feminists who are liberal, left-wing, or who are opposed to political Islam.

Violence against women and honour crimes are top of the agenda here, as well as the politicization of womens bodies, sexual abuse, harassment in the workplace, economic exploitation, the hijab, freedom of movement, womens reproductive health, employment rights and legal reforms, changing the penal code, governmental protection for women, tougher laws, and ensuring that laws are in compliance with ratified international treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Part of this secular discourse is a newly-emerging younger generation that identifies as feminist and does not shy away from the term out of fear of backlash. Talat is one example of this generation, while another is the queer-feminist organization Al Qaws with headquarters in Jerusalem and offices in Ramallah, Haifa, and Jaffa. In Gaza there is #MeTooGaza, focusing mainly on sexual harassment and honour crimes.

This younger generation is clearly bolder and has a more nuanced understanding of the patriarchal system, power relations, gender dynamics, and how all systems of oppression are linked both in theory and practice. Its level of understanding can largely be attributed to social media and thus access to information, whether in relation to feminist theory, schools of feminism, or worldwide feminist struggles. It goes without saying that the #MeTooGaza group is heavily influenced by the global #MeToo movement.

There is a clear distinction between these groups and an older generation of women activists who may themselves be aware of gender inequalities, but nevertheless are only involved to a limited extent. The older generation are affiliated with established Palestinian political parties, which have sometimes restricted their feminism in praxis and held them back politically. A member of the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW), the main official institution that represents Palestinian women within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and which therefore represents Palestinian women from all political parties, explained the following in a personal interview:

Women in the GUPW and all Non-Governmental Organizations associated with it, have to prioritize the interests of the party over the interests of women. They have no choice. If the men in the political party see an issue that concerns these women as a non-priority issue, then, it will not be a priority on those womens agenda Women representatives from political parties within the GUPW, would only prioritize supporting and helping women who are members of their same party.

The topics discussed online in younger feminist circles, on the other hand, go beyond heteronormative feminism: they discuss sexual orientation, gender identities, and gender transitioning. They open up conversations about reshaping gender roles at home, where inequality begins and becomes normalized, as well as debates around pleasure, emotional labour, sex work, marital rape, abortion rights, intersectionality, and male control over womens bodies and sexuality. They are also more vocal about sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the private sphere. In a society that considers everything around sexuality and sexual expression as taboo, this is significant.

The emerging young feminist generation is fully aware that addressing social questions, such as the oppression of women, is also a political question. They are accordingly critical of neoliberal practices such as the depoliticization of collective womens concerns via NGO-ization, which then become co-opted into donor-driven projects with deadlines, as happens all too often in Gaza and the West Bank. That is one reason why Talat publicly distanced themselves from this kind of, in their eyes, superficial feminism, stating they were a totally independent Hirak (movement), as many women had lost faith in pro-women NGOs and their agendas.

The emerging feminist generation is also critical of the reformist tendencies among the secular feminist discourse and refuses to ignore the patriarchal nature of the political system, while rejecting the idea that the feminist agenda should be limited to superficial changes that only benefit elite women. For instance, they do not cherish changes that can be leveraged in the service of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and help the PA to improve its public image.

This generation does not simply accept scratching the surface of the problem by appointing more women within PA structures, recruiting women for the police, limiting political participation to acts of engagement within the system, and using the tools of the system such as having more women in the government. This generation clearly views the PA and its institutions as part of the patriarchal system responsible for violence against women and reproducing violence against marginalized groups, and which thus needs to be dismantled in the process of full liberation. There are of course womens rights activists who disagree with that assessment, and view the PA as an important actor that cannot be omitted from the equation.

Looking back at the feminist discourse and activism that was visible in Palestine five years ago, it is clear that a certain maturity has emerged in todays discourse, and it continues to change, even if slowly.

The discourse has become more nuanced: new topics are gaining more space, as seen in contemporary discussions of issues such as the intersection of class and womens oppression, the importance of producing feminist knowledge in Arabic, and even topics like black abolitionist feminism.

In addition, matters that are considered taboo like sex and sexuality are being discussed, even if in smaller circles or online. Nevertheless, those conversations are not yet mainstream, and perhaps take place only in private progressive feminist groups.

Gender-based violence and what are often known as honour crimes are the two main issues haunting women in Palestine. Both are usually swept under the rug as private matters and personal issues, in line with a rhetoric that views such horrific violations as individual cases, not as systematic crimes. Women who speak up or complain are regularly shamed for doing so.

There are no reliable statistics around honour crimes and violence against women. Many incidents go unreported. Recent years, however, have seen a spike in publicly reported crimes on social media. According to womens rights organizations, 35 women were killed in Gaza and the West Bank in 2020 but even this figure is only an estimate. Many cases are registered as honour killings because the family or the perpetrators feel no shame over what they did. However, other killings get registered as suicides or accidents as a way to close the case quickly and avoid public scrutiny.

The notion of honour behind these honour crimes is highly vague, yet is the main declared motive for those killings. There is no catalogue listing the behaviours that supposedly stain a familys honour and thus deserve the punishment. It could be innocuous acts ranging from not sticking to the expected code of morality, maintaining a Facebook account, receiving a phone call from a co-worker, talking to a stranger, or coming home late. This vagueness is tied to the idea that women must preserve their chastity, in line with the dominant religious laws and social patriarchal norms in Palestinian society. Additional pressure is put on unmarried women, as society attempts to control their sexuality and ensure their virginity. Women who adhere to social norms and religious laws are categorized as good women, while those who do not are regarded as bad.

Honour crimes are also used as a cover for crimes committed on other grounds, such as the right to inheritance or the right to choose a partner. Perpetrators know very well that, if they claim they committed the crime on grounds of defending the familys honour, they will receive a reduced sentence or no punishment at all. Even when women are fortunate enough to have the access and privilege to report threats and abuse, their complaints are usually dismissed by police. This behaviour on the part of police or hospital staff is not merely an individual problem: those institutions and employees are guards of the patriarchal system; they, too, are part of the problem.

Reporting sexual harassment and abuse is not an easy process. Due to the widespread stigma associated with sexual abuse, women are often afraid to seek justice. When they do, they are subjected to a long process that violates their bodies through medical examinations, thus adding to their trauma. Women accusers are expected to prove that the incident really happened and navigate a number of bureaucratic hurdles. More often than that, the process ends with the abuser walking away and justice not being served.

As a result, women refrain from speaking out about rape and sexual harassment perpetrated by relatives and family members. They stay with their abusers since governmental institutions and laws offer no real protection. In Gaza, for example, there are two womens shelters one run by the government and one belonging to an NGO. Neither provide real solutions. According to testimonies from women who have been to them, the NGO-led shelter still uses traditional patriarchal ways of dealing with cases, such as male mediation and tribal interventions. The governmental shelter is much worse: women are shamed and blamed for what happened to them, and workers uphold the very same conservative social ideology that subjected women to violence. Rather than find the refuge and protection they seek, women at the shelter find themselves negotiating with patriarchy instead.

The patriarchal structures and social norms of Palestinian society not only permit and normalize violence against women, but also prevent them from seeking justice. This is coupled with the complicity of formal institutions that reinforce and reproduce violence. They provide legal loopholes, allowing the abuser to get away with crimes or receive reduced sentences. Essentially, the whole system is designed to protect abusers.

Women and girls have lost faith in the system, and constantly question the ability of these institutions to provide them with safety and protection. All of this has pushed them toward thinking of new ways of making their concerns public, using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, hoping these would provide them with some protection.

In the case of Israa Ghrayeb, if it were not for the videos and conversations that were leaked to social media, which later sparked outrage leading to a huge campaign demanding justice and investigation under the hashtag #JusticeForIsraa, the crime would have gone unnoticed, and Israa would have been just another victim, another number.

Similarly, in the case of Madeline Jaraba, if it had not been for individual feminist efforts, no one would have known what had happened and that a girl had been killed. In the face of public feminist pressure, her father was arrested but later freed, due to a legal loophole that allowed the next of kin to pardon the perpetrator, who in this case was the father himself.

In August 2020, two young women from Gaza went live on Facebook to speak out about physical abuse by their family members in separate incidents. This unprecedented event defied social restrictions concerning violence against women being a private matter. Alaa Yasin, one of the two girls, went to the governmental shelter in August 2020, and told me: [i]n the first week people working in the shelter were nice to me, in the second week things were getting worse, they tried to take my phone, push me to go back home to my abusive family, it was like a prison, not a place for safety and protection. She eventually managed to leave for Egypt.

One month later, on 17 September 2020, another young girl took to Facebook and Instagram to speak about being sexually harassed by her father and other family members. If there is one thing families fear, it is such issues being made public, where they might harm the familys reputation.

Because of the lack of direct action on the street around these crimes, recently we can observe more Palestinian feminist groups emerging on social media, disseminating information about feminism and womens rights, speaking up about crimes against women, and building networks. They are initiating campaigns like #MeTooGaza that tackle sexual harassment, while the relative anonymity ensured by the internet provides them with safety and protection in a conservative society. At the very least, these groups allow women to share their stories and heal together. They also allow women to discover new ways of supporting each other, which is something that is not possible outside of the virtual world.

Social media has allowed feminists to communicate directly with each other and building support systems online, where survivors and victims know they are not alone in their struggle. This use of social media platforms by feminist groups has also attracted a backlash in the form of online misogynist threats, cyberbullying, and blackmail. This has opened up a conversation about what tactics can be developed to fight such attacks and keep feminist groups and individuals safe.

Compared to Saudi Arabias strict guardianship laws, one could almost get the idea that male guardianship does not really exist in Palestine or the rest of the Arab world. That would be a mistake. Palestine definitely has an informal male guardianship system that is held up and reinforced by society and formal institutions, even if the Palestinian Basic Law states otherwise. Women are often prevented from enrolling in a university, having a job, going for a walk, visiting friends, choosing their partner, or traveling without a male guardians approval.

In one instance, women who tried to leave Gaza via the Rafah Border Crossing, all of whom were over 18 years old, were appalled when border guards asked them to call their male guardian in order to receive consent for their travel. On 14 February 2021, the Higher Sharia Court Council in Gaza issued a circular prohibiting unmarried women of all ages from travelling without their male guardians approval. After public pressure and campaigns, they are said to be revising the circular. That being said, even if it is revised, informally women would still be asked to call their male guardian or risk being returned to Gaza and denied crossing.

The conservative norms prevalent across Arab society provide Palestinian feminists with more than enough social ills to address, but not all of their problems are home-grown. After all, the oppression of Palestinian women cannot be understood outside of the context of the structural violence of the Israeli occupation. The violence Palestinian women are subjected to every day cannot be separated from the reality of Palestinian society as a whole.

Israeli policies and the dispossession of Palestinian bodies and lands for decades also includes gendered violence against Palestinian women, while at the same time the harsh political and economic realities caused by the occupation play a role in reinforcing violence within Palestinian society. For instance, Palestinian women holding Israeli citizenship are subjected to different forms of violence, where Israeli institutions deliberately reinforce patriarchal kin unit structures at the expense of womens lives under the pretext that this violence is a cultural specificity of the Arab community. Meanwhile Palestinian women in Gaza have little control over their lives, living under a tight Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Uniting these distinct experiences, however, is the occupation.

The same feminist activists who oppose structural patriarchy in Palestinian society also fight against colonialist policies. In doing so, they risk arrest and torture in Israel jails, being searched and humiliated at checkpoints, surveillance, having their freedom of movement taken away from them, being besieged, blackmailed, and denied access to healthcare services, and even having their right to self-determination taken away. As this younger generation of feminists emerges, it rejects the rhetoric of prioritizing national liberation and side-lining feminist discourses, instead arguing that the liberation of the homeland and the liberation of its women go hand in hand.

The list of challenges feminists and organizers for womens rights face in Palestine is indeed long, beginning with their difficult position wedged between domestic patriarchy and foreign occupation. Although key driving forces behind building a social movement, such as injustice and oppression, are strongly present, reality continues to impose limitations on their ability to engage in political struggle. When building a feminist movement, geographical fragmentation can pose a huge obstacle.

The lack of resources and infrastructure also poses enormous challenges that affect the ability to mobilize and organize, and hinder the building of a strong feminist movement by making the process of growth much slower. This are compounded by other negative factors like frustration, demoralization, the constant backlash from conservative forces, or the threat of being harmed for organizing under political banners. All these dynamics weaken any attempts made by Palestinian women to launch collective feminist action of any kind.

There have been incredible efforts to build a feminist movement in Palestine in the past years, as the local discourse develops and shifts and feminist groups seek to alter the status quo. That said, what we have today is a Palestinian feminist scene, not a movement. Talat, for example, has gathered momentum, but whether it will be able to persist and establish continuity is anybodys guess.

However, all the recent efforts, as well as how women and feminists are engaging with them, clearly show that there is a thirst for change, and a desire to fight for gender justice and liberation. To build a feminist movement in and for the future, feminists need to redefine the political space and reclaim public space, and not confine womens presence only to national emergencies. We need to rethink organizing and develop new organizational models suitable for the socio-political and cultural context in Palestine in order to be able to conceptualize a broader vision of our collective liberation.

This article first published on the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung website.

Fidaa Zaanin is a socialist feminist from Palestine currently residing in Berlin.

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Feminist Protests in Palestine - The Bullet - Socialist Project

Very few people in the world fit into clearly defined boxes of the good and the bad, with most toeing the zone in the grey area. While recounting the life of Phoolan Devi, one of Indias most prolific women, it is easy to see that she too belongs in this space where she has been termed both a dauntless dacoit and an icon in resistance.

Born in Uttar Pradeshs Ghura Ka Purwa village in 1963, Phoolan was the youngest of four children, of whom only two survived till adulthood. She was part of the Mallah community which is deemed an oppressed caste.

Phoolans first rebellion started young when she opposed the cutting down of a neem tree on the familys land. After standing her ground, she had to be beaten unconscious with a brick and taken home. According to the book, Insurgents, Raiders and Bandits, she was then married off to a man thrice her age who later sexually and physically assaulted her. After allegations of theft by her uncle, she was taken into police custody where once again, she was subjected to physical abuse.

It was towards the start of the 80s that Phoolans journey as The Bandit Queen began, after falling into the company of dacoits. There is a caste lens with which her actions thereafter should be viewed which is often missing in the retelling of her story where most people focus on the gender aspect alone.

Her autobiography details out how gang leader Babu Gujjar raped and brutalized Phoolan for over three days and was eventually killed by the second-in-command Vikram Mallah, who belonged to Phoolans caste. Rape has, and continues to be a tool to oppress and exploit the power skew between genders and communities.

Mallah eventually became Phoolans partner and led the gang through activities such as looting upper-caste villages, kidnapping, and highway robberies. From a wider perspective, it was easy for society at that point in time to simply look at Phoolan as a criminal who got caught up in nefarious activities.

Phoolan Devi in Mumbai to attend the all India conference of the Samajwadi Party.

But in retrospect, her voice against her oppressors is a historic act of resistance for women from the lower castes who have often been treated as pawns in socio-political conflicts. In their 1987 study, researchers Hanmer and Maynard write, Violence has always been a commonly used tool to keep an oppressed group under terror and rape is perhaps the ultimate form of violent expression of both class and patriarchal oppression.

The return of two brothers Shri Ram and Lalla Ram to the gang set in motion a series of conflicts and bloodshed that resulted in the death of Mallah. Their resentment for Mallah and Phoolan was only exacerbated by the fact that the brothers belonged to a dominant caste that traditionally owned more land and thus held more power. Phoolan was then locked up in Behmai village, raped for days on end by men from the oppressor caste.

On the evening of February 14, 1981, several months after her escape from Behnai, Phoolan rounded up 22 upper-caste men from the village and ordered them to be killed to avenge her rape. Outrage erupted across the country especially from those who belonged to the dominant caste.

After spending 11 years in prison as an undertrial, all cases against her were withdrawn by the Samajwadi Party government whom she later joined. She was still considered an outlier in politics where the presence of a woman from the lower castes is still extremely limited. Challenging caste and gender supremacy, she fought for the rights of female laborers from oppressed castes and tolled away for the rights to own land.

She was still an MP when she was killed in 2001 in New Delhi by a trio of men from the oppressor caste in what was seen as a revenge attack.

Sher Singh Rana, who was nabbed by the Delhi Police in the case was later paid homage to by the Kshatriya Samaj for being the symbol of Kshatriya honour and upholding the dignity of the community. It was clear that she rattled communities who could not stand to see their ranks challenged by a woman who dared to stand up in the face of centuries of oppression.

Read more: Why The Rape And Murder Of A Dalit Girl Eats Away At Our Collective Conscience

It is irrefutable that the impact that she has had on Indian history is still relevant even two decades after her death. Earlier this week, Vikassheel Insaan Party party chief Mukesh Sahni said that they would distribute 50,000 statues of Phoolan Devi to party workers, reported the media.

The move comes days after idols of Phoolan Devi were confiscated by police and government officials before they could be installed around Uttar Pradesh. Sahni stated that this was a measure to ensure that the ideology of Pholaan would remain alive amongst party workers.

In a story for Dalit History month, Anusha Chaitanya writes about the legacy that Phoolan leaves behind, Phoolans inimitable and unmatched spirit endures. She continues to be Bahujan feminist icon and an inspiration to countless young people. From a violent warrior to an inspirational figure, Phoolans life has managed to traverse the full spectrum of peoples perceptions.

(Edited by Amrita Ghosh)

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Hero, Bandit & Murderess: Untangling The Life Of Phoolan Devi - Yahoo India News

A 300,000 artificial intelligence project at the university is sponsored by Tencent a Chinese company reportedly involved in censorship, surveillance, and Xi Jinpings propaganda regime

Tech research conducted at Oxford University costing 300,000 is being sponsored by a company accused of invasive and suppressive surveillance tactics linked to the Chinese state, the Byline Intelligence Unit and The Citizens can reveal.

The Oxford-Tencent collaboration on large scale machine learning, led by Professor Yee Whye Teh and Associate Professor Dino Sejdinovic, has produced seven papers since 2018 on novel methods for machine learning, including at least one of direct relevance to facial recognition technology.

The artificial intelligence (AI) research is fully funded by Tencent AI Lab a subsidiary of Chinese tech giant Tencent. Prior to recent crackdowns on gaming practices by the Chinese state, Tencent was the worlds seventh-largest corporation. The organisation has faced scrutiny in recent years for its technological support of an increasingly oppressive Chinese state system accused of grave human rights abuses.

Its collaboration with Oxford Universitys department of statistics raises questions about the potential complicity of British universities and how their research might inadvertently facilitate human rights violations in China.

Tencents most popular app, WeChat, triples-up as a messaging, social media and mobile payment service and has faced accusations over its invasive and suppressive tactics both in China and abroad.

In January, it was reported that a group of US-based claimants filed a lawsuit against Tencent, alleging that the companys mobile app censored and surveilled them and shared their data with Chinese authorities.

WeChat currently has more than 1.2 billion active users. However, concerns have been raised that the app has helped to fuel the Chinese Governments ability to perpetrate alleged crimes against humanity, particularly the internment in camps of the Uyghur minority. The NGO Human Rights Watch claims that Tencents platform has entrenched the Chinese Governments censorship, surveillance, and propaganda regime inside the state.

Despite such concerns, Tencents influence in the UK has grown quickly.

In 2018, as part of a UK-China trade deal, it was revealed that Oxford University would partner with Tencent to offer new esports courses at the university. More recently, Oxford faced further criticism after it re-named the 120-year-old Wykeham Physics Professorship, the Tencent-Wykeham Professorship in recognition of a 700,000 investment from the Chinese firm.

Outside of academia, Tencent acquired UK games developer Sumo Group for 919 million this month, reflective of its growing business interests in the UK.

These growing ties raise questions about how the research of British academics and institutions could inadvertently provide the technical knowledge to support further oppressive practices in China.

One area of particular concern is the work being carried out at Oxford University relating to facial recognition technology a key focus of Tencent AI Lab.

The large scale machine learning project has proposed methods for user-controllable semantic image inpainting using advanced techniques to aid the identification of missing features from facial images with gaps.

A paper co-authored by the projects lead, Professor Yee Whye Teh, raises questions as to how such technological advancements may be deployed in the future. Facial recognition software has become a deeply valuable element of the Chinese states surveillance arsenal.

Often hosted by private companies, this technology is used to regulate large swathes of public life. Chinas controls range from the superficial including shaming individuals for wearing pyjamas in public to the more extreme. Facial recognition software has been used to track criminals and to send out Uyghur alarms, when cameras spot members of the persecuted minority.

Tencent is not one of the Chinese companies unlike Huawei and Dahua currently implicated in the development and utilisation of Uyghur-spotting facial-recognition software. However, its recent willingness to use facial recognition technology to regulate Chinese Government-imposed gaming laws, alongside the companys alignment with a regime implicated in the suppression of the Uyghurs which has been condemned as genocide by the US has caused unease among critics.

Recent reports claim that Tencent has utilised facial recognition software to catch children trying to circumvent Chinas state-enforced cyber-curfew. This law prevents those under the age of 18 from playing video games between 10pm and 8am. Tencent introduced the measures after it was found that children were using their parents or grandparents accounts to dodge the official measures and play online games late into the night.

Although some have been in favour of controls believing that the curfew will help to tackle internet addiction amongst Chinese teens others fear the ways in which data could be fed back to authorities.

Help to expose the big scandals of our era.

According to author and foreign correspondent Ian Williams, British universities have shown an astonishing level of greed and naivety in their dealings with China.

His latest book, Every Breath You Take: Chinas New Tyranny, explores the creation of what he calls a digital totalitarian state in China and cites a startling lack of due diligence from universities regarding their partners and collaborators.

Earlier this year, almost 200 British academics were investigated on suspicion of breaking intellectual property export laws as a result of commercial deals with Chinese companies.The scholars were suspected of transferring world-leading research in advanced military technology such as aircraft, missile designs and cyberweapons, which could have indirectly aided the Chinese Governments ability to produce weapons of mass destruction and to repress political dissidents and ethnic minorities.

Unlike aircraft and weapons, facial recognition and AI technologies create less tangible and obvious threats to national security and individual liberties. But this software is a highly valuable tool to the Chinese states programme of surveillance and oppression both at home and abroad.

Joe Bidens US administration has continued to place a growing number of large Chinese companies on an economic blacklist in response to their complicity in human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in China.The UK Government, however, has been less forthcoming in its condemnation of Chinese businesses.

Meanwhile, British academic relationships with the China continue to grow, with the Oxford-Tencent collaboration another strand in the fast-growing web of collusion between UK universities, Chinese firms and Beijing.

A spokesperson for Oxford University told Byline Times: The university has a rigorous due diligence process and Tencent has been approved as an appropriate donor by our independent committee to review donations and research funding, which includes independent, external representatives.

We have a very clear position on academic independence from donations. Our donors have no say in setting the research and teaching programmes of the posts they fund, nor do they have any access to the results of research, other than publicly available material.

Tencent AI Lab was approached for comment.

This article was produced by theByline Intelligence Team a collaborative investigative project formed byByline Times. If you would like to find out more about the Intelligence Team and how to fund its work,click on the button below.

Byline Times is funded by its subscribers. Receive our monthly print edition and help to support fearless, independent journalism.

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'An Appropriate Donor': AI Research at Oxford University Funded by Controversial Firm Linked to Chinese State Byline Times - Byline Times

By Sami Zaptia.

(Photo: GNU archives).

London, 11 August 2021:

Prime Minister Abd Alhamid Aldabaiba told Khalifa Hafter, the Commander of the eastern-based Libyan Arab Army (formerly known as the Libyan National Army -LNA), that the Libyan Army cannot be affiliated to an individual.

Aldabaiba made his statement yesterday in his role as the Defence Minister at a Tripoli ceremony commemorating the 81st anniversary of the founding of Libyas pre-independence army.

The Chief of General Staff (of the western-based Libyan Army), Lieutenant-General Mohamed Al-Haddad, the Commanders of the Military Regions, and several ministers were also present.

In his speech, Aldabaiba stressed that the military institution cannot be affiliated with a particular person, whatever his capacity, noting that the mission of this institution is to protect us and preserve the sovereignty of Libya without any loyalties.

Aldabaiba did not mention Hafter by name, but his remarks were clearly a response to Hafters comments on the army the day before.

The Prime Minister added that the army could not point the barrel of its guns at the chests of the people of the country, regardless of the reasons.

Referring to Hafters war on Tripoli, Aldabaiba said that capitals are precious pearls and armies were found to protect them, not to storm them, terrify their people and destroy their property.

He added that the army was born to protect peace, and its strength should be a constructive tool, not a tool of demolition and fighting, and not everyone who takes war as a political means or for arrogance and adventures will succeed.

This was a reference to Hafters attempt to solve Libyas political impasse on the battlefield rather than in the negotiating rooms.

Concluding his speech, the Prime Minister stressed that Libya will only be a civilian state with a strong army whose goal is to protect the country.

The government reported that the anniversary celebration included a military parade of the Libyan Army units affiliated to the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff.

Responding to Hafter

Aldabaibas comments were no doubt a direct response to Hafters own comments made at the alternative 81st anniversary celebrations of the establishment of the Libyan Army held in eastern Libya a day earlier.

During that celebration, Hafter had said that his Libyan Arab Army (formerly the Libyan National Army LNA) will never be subject to any civilian authority.

He said the army will not accept deception in the name of civilian (rule) or otherwise and that despite the sharp differences in attitudes towards the homeland, he extends his hands for a just peace.

Haftar said that his eastern-based Libyan Arab Army has never been a tool of oppression and that it has not been authoritarian or arrogant over the people or biased towards a tribe and that it will not be subject to any authority.

He also stressed that the Army is committed to confronting the waves of terrorists who stormed Libya, who raised slogans of death by slaughtering and beheading, and he considered the Libyan Army as the main pillar on which it is based.

Hafter said to the Libyan people, when their future, fate and present were at risk, the Libyan Army was the obstacle to terrorist currents.

He referred to the role of the Army in forming the Joint Military Committee (5+5 JMC) and that the Army played a role in preparing the country for the (Libyan Political Dialogue Forum LPDF) Road Map, and that without it, the planned 24 December 2021 elections would not have a place on the (political) map.

New military promotions, appointments and reorganizations

Haftar had also announced a series of military promotions, appointments and reorganizations, including the appointment of former Prime Minister Abdalla Thinni as the head of the Armys Political Administration.

Clash with Presidency Council

Hafters announcement of the appointment of military personnel in the eastern region had come a day after the Presidency Council had made a statement, in its capacity as the Supreme Commander of the Libyan Armed Forces, in which it stated that issuing decisions to promote officers, appoint commanders of military regions and establish military units, are all the original jurisdiction of the Presidency Council. It had added that any decision that contradicts this from any party or position is null and void.

Hafter says his Army will not be subject to civilian authority | (libyaherald.com)

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PM Aldabaiba to Hafter: The Libyan Army cannot be affiliated to individuals | - Libya Herald

On November 20, 2018, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey sparked controversy by holding a poster that read Smash Brahmanical Patriarchy.

This made Congress leader Manish Tewari furious.

Although Brahmanism is an ideology and theoretically not equated to any particular social group, but in popular reception, anti-Brahmanism is often interpreted as being anti-Brahmin, which is also evident in Tewaris tweet.

Even though there was no substance behind Tewaris claim, he would not have thought that three years later, the flag-bearers of Mandal politics, whom he blamed, in Uttar Pradesh Bahujan Samaj Party [BSP] and Samajwadi Party [SP] would take his claim so seriously.

The announcement by BSP, which was followed by SP, to hold Brahmin Sammelans (Prabudh Varg Sammelan) across the state to woo the community to revive their electoral fortunes, gives rise to the host of issues. Is BJP forcing parties like BSP and SP to redefine their politics? What happens to their anchoring principles of social justice and secularism in the process of this re-envisioning? Would such a move yield electoral dividends for these parties?

The effort by SP and BSP to lure Brahmins would appear an ill-convinced strategy as they have not lost elections because the community has stopped voting for them. Rather, one of the prime reasons behind their electoral debacle is the shift of non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits towards the BJP.

For instance, data from the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 suggests that 72% of non-Yadav and non-Koeri-kurmi OBCs have voted for the BJP, and only 18% of them have voted for the gathbandhan. Such a decisive shift of lower OBCs and Dalits is puzzling, primarily because their representation in the BJP is marginal and not proportionate to their share in the population. A total of 44.9% upper castes, as opposed to 19.7% OBCs, were fielded by the BJP in UP.

Also read: Heading Towards the UP Polls, What Lies Ahead for Akhilesh Yadav?

No economic progress

What explains the shift of lower OBC and Dalit votes towards a party primarily dominated by upper castes? How has the BJP managed to penetrate the imagination of these communities without stoking discontent among its own core voters?

It can be said that these groups have switched their allegiance because Mandal politics has neither benefitted them materially (in terms of jobs and education) nor politically (political representation and recognition), and most of the advantages have been cornered by some influential castes. These claims are not entirely ungrounded.

For example, the commission, appointed in October 2017, to look into the matter of sub-categorisation within the OBCs at the central level observed that according to the last three years data of OBCs admissions to Central higher education institutions, including universities, IITs, NITs, IIMs and AIIMS, 97% of Central OBC quota benefits have gone to just under 25% of all sub-castes classified as OBCs. Around 983 OBC communities 37% of the total have zero representation in jobs and admissions. Besides, just 10 communities of OBCs have availed 24.95% of jobs and admissions.

It appears that reservation has worked as a double-edged sword. Although it was instrumental in uniting the disparate lower castes against the dominance of upper castes, at the same time, such a skewed and uneven distribution of the benefits of reservation has proven to be a severe handicap for the larger solidarity and collective action. It also partly explains the increasing number of caste-specific outfits (such as the Nishad Party) and loyalty towards a single jati, which is used as a bargaining chip to appeal to particular castes, bereft of any larger concerns.

Consequently, it paved the way for the BJP to mobilise the lower castes into its fold without offering any tangible benefits or representation. Thus, the massive fragmentation amid a rampant BJP is the twin crisis that Mandal politics is witnessing recently.

Also read: UP: Will Rivalry Between Two Caste-Based Parties Over the Nishad Community Benefit the BJP?

Lessons on caste politics from SP-BSPs electoral rout

In spite of the fact that the concerns of lower OBCs and Dalits are genuine, BSP and SP have been reluctant to take their grievances seriously and even failed to acknowledge them. The inability and unwillingness to comprehend the reasons for their electoral rout has resulted in drastic changes in these two parties electoral strategies in each successive election.

To illustrate, SP fought the 2017 assembly elections on the plank of development; symbolised in the slogan kaam bolta hai (construction of expressways and metros, distribution of laptops, etc.), but had to switch to social justice; embodied in the idea of samajik nyaay se mahaparivartan, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. But it failed miserably on both occasions.

In a similar vein, BSP tried to win over Muslims by giving over 100 tickets to them in the 2017 assembly elections, but this also failed to pay-off. BSP is now trying to do a similar experiment with the Brahmins. Thus, neither development-oriented nor Mandal style of politics seems to be paying dividends for these parties. No doubt, the BJP has redefined the electoral mobilisation based on caste by pitching some sections of the OBCs against the others. But instead of trying to win back the support of those social groups who have hitherto supported SP and BSP, these parties are trying to entice Brahmins.

Ironically, in this process of reimagining their politics, they are increasingly becoming indifferent towards the fundamental principles of Dalit-Bahujan politics: social justice and secularism. That is why we hardly see any spirited struggle by these parties on the vital issues of social justice such as the continued non-implementation of existing quotas and denial of OBC reservations in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) for several years,the introduction of lateral entry without any provision of reservation in government jobs, governments refusal to carry out caste census and the passage of EWS reservation, etc.

Besides, BSPs Brahmin Sammelan in Ayodhya appeared to blur the distinction between BJP and BSP, which was evident in chanting of the Jai Shri Ram sloganand a promise to make the temple faster than the ruling dispensation.

Interestingly, instead of denouncing these events, Mayawati has announced to intensify the sammelans in the wake of FIR against the organisers for violating the COVID-19 protocols during BSPs Kasganj sammelan. Ironically, BSP seems to be compromising on its core values in a context wherein caste-based atrocities and oppression have increased in recent years in Uttar Pradesh. The National Crime Record Bureau data recorded an increase of 7.3% in crimes against the Dalits between 2018 and 2019.

It must be noted that BSPs assumption that Brahmins would vote for the party as they did in 2007 is too naive, as the political landscape has changed radically. The ascendant BJP has benefitted Brahmins in almost every sense, be it economically (10% EWS quota, disinvestment and privatisation), politically (number of ministers, MPs etc.), or culturally (cow vigilantism, thrust for vegetarianism and construction of Ram Mandir).

There is very little that SP or BSP can offer to Brahmins in comparison to the BJP in the current scenario. Therefore, the much-hyped Brahmin anguish with the BJP should be seen as a bargaining tactic to extract a greater share in power by the community within the BJP. There is hardly any substance in their anger: it has more to do with the hurt pride, which is evident in their cry over caste-based encounters (even of deadly criminals) and their reluctance to digest the Rajput dominance.

Also read: As UP Polls Inch Towards Bipolar Contest Between SP and BJP, Alliances Remain Crucial

Thus, it is doubtful that they would switch sides and join hands with those parties that challenged their socio-economic supremacy in the first place. Besides, the interests of the Brahmins and Dalit-Bahujans are largely antithetical. It is amply clear that BJP is setting the discourse, and these parties are dancing to their tunes. And in this process, parties are themselves becoming active agents of counter-revolution against Mandal politicsrather than fighting against it.

Hence, it is not theBrahmin Sammalensthat would revive their electoral fortunes. They need to devise a strategy that should be able to combine two things at once: continue adhering to the central concerns of social justice and secularism, yet reframing them in a manner that appeals and caters to the aspirations of new generations.

Additionally, they need to acknowledge the grievances of lower OBCs and Dalits and find ways to accommodate their interests. An increased number of tickets to candidates belonging to these social groups would be the first step in this direction. In this regard, they can learn from the tactics Tejashwi Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) employed during the Bihar elections last year.

It tried to stick to its ideological commitments of secularism and social justice by introducing reservation in party organisation for lower OBCs, vehemently opposing EWS reservation and Citizenship Amendment Act, and protesting against the dilution of SC/ST atrocities Act. It played a central role in the passage of resolutions in the state assembly both in support of caste-based census and against the pan India NRC.Instead of falling prey to the terms set by the BJP, Yadav and his party set the electoral agenda and surprised us with his leadership style, electoral promises, and ability to appeal and gain support across castes.

On the contrary, the SP and BSP have constantly failed to reinvent their politics in the right direction and lack an ideological anchor. That is why they appear to neither offer anything new to the electorate nor being sincere to their foundational values. However, it must be kept in mind that these parties cannot afford to be defensive on these vital issues as it can further alienate their core voters. The shift of Muslims towards All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Bihar must be seen as a warning sign for Bahujan politics across North India that Muslim votes can no longer be taken for granted.

Pankaj Kumar is a PhD scholar at Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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The Irony of BSP and SP Going From Being Anti-Brahmin to Now Wooing Them - The Wire

He seemed to be speaking with a seething, barely-controlled rage. He tried to sound reasonable and magnanimous and statesmanlike. It availed little; it was fooling no one. Were talking about Monday evenings address to the nation, from a high place, broadcast on national television a colossal flop that changed no minds. You see, despite the attempt to sound agreeable, his bitter words came out like wormwood and gall; they fell from his tongue, as would dripping venom from mouth of a snake.

The performance, totally lacking in nuance and subtlety, reminded many of the clever seduction of the woman in John Miltons treatment of the story of the fall of man in PARADISE LOST. Save that, whereas Miltons snake was cool and cunning, he of a high place here in our fair State was boorish and off-putting. How else can one describe a leader hissing and spitting a diatribe replete with bile such as, Our political opponents deceptive, demonic agendas to fuel chaos and confusion . . . violent aggression and lawlessness . . . partisan thugs posing as freedom fighters . . .blah, blah, blah. Losers, loafers hot air, hot air, . . . criminal elements . . . blah blah blah. . . .The prime time speech was spectacular for its manifest contempt for the people.

Of course, in the aftermath of last Sundays face-off between the police and the peaceful, law-abiding citizens of this fair State, we here at NEWSCO began asking questions, and based on the answers that weve been receiving, it appears as though there is much discontent in Antigua and Barbuda. For one thing, we suggest that the setting of fires, the stone throwing at buildings, such as the old PDO building, and the widespread defiance displayed by the people speaks to a general frustration with this callous out-of-touch administration. Seems, alls not well in Mudville! Seems, this is Gotterdammerung, the implosion and daily diminution of a regime, desperately fighting to remain relevant. The thing is that the people have already begun looking past the incumbency. They are daily reminded and persuaded that the future of Antigua and Barbuda does not, indeed cannot, lie with this hapless administration.

The people are tired of the routinely late monthly wages, and their inordinately late Social Security monies. Contractors are fed-up with the non-payment of bills on the part of this welching administration. Nearly everyday, some entity is taking action against this administration for non-payment of monies owed. (See one of the school-uniform suppliers). Many persons who have had dealings with National Housing all have horror stories faulty wiring, incomplete work, shoddy workmanship, bedrooms that are too small, and National Housing personnel in high places that are rude and belligerent, and so on and so forth. It is a national disgrace!

Daily life is a herculean struggle for the masses of the people who can find neither hide nor hair of the people whom they elected to represent them. Of course, they are only asking for running water, decent roads, clean gutters, and sidewalks that are not a threat to life and limb. Sadly, with this administration, those basics are a bridge too far, and the people languish in disillusionment and despair. There is an overall dissatisfaction with the way that this administration has been handling the affairs of State the sloppiness, the lack of polish and savoir faire that ability to handle matters smoothly and with a reassuring confidence. This administration says or does one thing, then back-tracks and second-guesses and bungles. It screws up everything it touches in an astonishing reverse Midas touch. Oh so amateurish!

And then there is the naked aggression. Some in high places seem to thrive on getting involved in petty back-and-forth on trivial matters. They threaten and bully! They engage in silly and unbecoming name-calling and assorted public foolishness. Tsk! Tsk! Whatever happened to graciousness and fealty to the dignity of the offices held? All fall down! Instead of paying attention to finding the other/s involved in the Nigel Christian shooting, instead of bringing to account the person or persons who allegedly forged a signature at Customs, instead of sorting out our electricity and internet situation, instead of keeping the many promises that they flippantly make, those in high places are busy gratifying themselves with melee and stupidity on social and other media.

So, he of a high place, goes on national television to defend the indefensible. The defense falls flat, because he does not even believe the nonsense that he spouts himself. Remember, while in opposition, he and his band of agitators and rabble-rousers routinely staged marches and protests, defying the authorities and engaging in name-calling most vile. The cloak of piety this past Monday fools no one.

Interestingly, our fair State earned the dubious distinction as one of only two countries around the world to tear gas its citizens for their opposition to some of the governments policies as they pertain to vaccines. Heres what the WASHINGTON POST [August 1, 2021] reported on the goings-on in Paris: Police in Paris used tear gas Saturday as thousands of protesters joined marches to denounce plans for vaccine health passes,the latest tensions around the world over government mandates to reward those who get vaccinated and maintain restrictions on those who refuse. Hmmmm! Ah yes, in the land of liberte, egalite, fraternite! (the national motto of France and Haiti) Sigh!

Perhaps we ought to end this piece with the words from the second stanza of King Short Shirts NOT BY MIGHT: Give me liberty or give me death / Guns will never quell / The struggles of freedom / Where injustice dwells / The spirit of revolution / Will never bow down to a man / The quality of virtue increases beneath oppression / The more we are suppressed and denied our right / To pursue all happiness and liberty / Its the greater our resistance / To tyranny shall be. No power, not by might! Never mind the tin-pot dictators!

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Gotterdammerung the twilight of the gods - Antigua Observer

On a late Friday night in Khartoum, a small crowd of young men and women dances at Al-Sutooh, a newly opened rooftop venue that holds cultural events in the city.

A popular female singer, Mahdia, sings in Arabic to a live band as Samia al-Jalabee, the venues owner, pulls members of the audience to their feet, encouraging them to dance.

Until now, a lot of events happened in closed areas. The rooftop is a new idea, Jalabee explained. Its an idea of a free space a place directly open to the sky.

Related:Two years after revolution, Christians in Sudan evaluate gains

Jalabee opened the rooftop venuethis year, and its one of few places in Khartoum to enjoy live music. The place serves coffee, tea and snacks.

For 32-year-old Jalabee, the rooftop symbolizes the newly gained freedoms that women, in particular, have had in Sudan since the 2019 revolution that saw former president Omar-al Bashir ousted from office after 30 years in power.

Today in Sudan, women can freely wear their hair uncovered in public and wear trousers. Women now hold top positions in leadership and genital mutilation has been banned.

Some women in Sudan say that the new governments changes are a good start for undoing historic, gender-based oppression, but that the country has a long way to go on womens rights.

We were suffering from the old laws for 30 years.

We were suffering from the old laws for 30 years, said Jalabee, who was one of countless Sudanese who took to the streets to reject Bashirs oppressive, Islamic regime.

In particular, the Public Order law of 1991, which said anyone who commits an indecent act in public, or wears indecent clothes can be flogged, fined or both. The morality law was enforced by special police with a broad mandate for interpretation.

Related:Sudans troubled attempt at education reform

At Al-Sutooh, some youngwomentold The World they would have never attended a public event like this with their hair uncovered or danced openly with men out of fear of arrest under the Public Order law.

Its a law that actually that the government put, so as to hinder the movement, hinder the mobility of the women, said Manal Abdulharim, a womens rights activist.

The law was one of the first repealed by the new, civilian-led, transitional government in 2019.

For Abdulrahim, it was the culmination of decades of women-led activism to challenge the strict Islamic laws of the former regime.

Young women, they were actually leading the revolution.

Young women, they were actually leading the revolution, she noted.

Since then, however, Abdulrahim has noted with concern the slow pace of womens rights and gender equality since 2019 and questioned whether the new government will live up to its promises for reform.

Only a handful of women have been appointed to top leadership positions, including the minister of foreign affairs, since 2019, and some, notably two state governors, have faced local opposition to their appointments.

Related:Sudans troubled attempt at education reform

Abdulrahim said the government is not prioritizing gender equality or issues that impact women, like the reform of the conservative 1991 Muslim Personal Law Act of Sudan which governs legal codes about marriage, divorce and the family.

Most of the personal status law comes from Islamic law and is personal jurisprudence of religious scholars, explained Salwa Bassem Youssef Mohamia, a Sudanese lawyer who has worked with the Ministry of Justice to review proposed amendments to Bashir-era laws.

The law, which states that married women must obey their husbands and makes the age of consent for marriage puberty has been criticized by human rights activists for years.

Still, Mohamia notes some positive developments for women's rights. This year, Sudan ratified two international treaties: The Maputo Protocol and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

But the nearly all-male council that signed the latter pact didnt endorse the parts of the convention that declare women are equal to men at political and social levels or have equal rights in marriage, divorce and parenting.

For many, these reservations were a sign of how remaining representatives of the former regime, conservative Islamists in particular, are resistant to fundamental social and legal changes.

They are there and ready to prevent any changes to religious basics, Mohamia said. So, now, they are working hard to not make any drastic changes.

Still, Mohamia argues that the biggest impediment to change comes from within Sudanese society itself. Even among women, there is little consensus about sensitive issues like inheritance and polygamy, which are shaped not only by religion but also by cultural and traditional practices and norms.

At the Coffee Republic cafin the upscale Riyadh neighborhood of Khartoum, well-dressed young people mingle, hang out and go on dates.

After the revolution ... girls in general, got comfortable, guys got comfortable, you know, going out on dates in public places, explained Rudy Mohammed, a 20-year-old international relations student.

But for Mohammed, the changes in Sudan make her uncomfortable.

I was raised to be religious, and then the whole, staying out of trouble.

I was raised to be religious, and then the whole, staying out of trouble, she said that meant, dressing modestly in public, not hanging out with boys, or staying out late.

She criticized how some young people are taking advantage of their new freedoms to wear inappropriate clothing, drink and smoke. She fears they are setting a bad example for children.

Related:After the revolution, a secular Sudan?

While the old laws were too strict, Mohammed said they also made sense for the country.

I feel like they had they had things under control, Mohammed said. At the end of the day the majority of Sudanese people are religious.

The laws were there to make sure the principles of Islam were followed, she said, and to protect morality in the country.

But shes conflicted about where the line should be drawn between religion and state.

For example, she said the government should encourage people to dress modestly but not force women to cover their hair which is a personal religious decision.

Too many restrictions will always backfire, she said.

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After the revolution, Sudanese women ask whats next? - The World

The Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, on Wednesdayordered a judge-led investigation into the alleged rape, murder and forced cremation of a nine-year-old girl. The girl belonged to the Dalit caste, which has historically endured oppression, deprivation and extreme discrimination at the hands of Indias upper-caste Hindus.

TheDelhi police arrested four individuals in connection with the heinous crime two days after it was committed amid rising protests demanding death penalty for the accused. The four suspects include an upper-caste Hindu priest, Radhey Shyam, and three of his associatesKuldeep, Laxmi Narain and Saleem.

The girls family alleged that the girl went to the crematorium on Sunday evening to get cold water. Later, the priest summoned the girls mother to the crematorium and informed her that her daughter died due to electrocution. Further, the priest allegedly told the mother not to report the death because the girls organs would be stolen during the post mortem. Thereafter, the accused cremated the girls body without the mothers consent. The funeral pyre was only extinguished after the mothers cries were heard by nearby residents and she shared her suspicions that her daughter had been raped.

However, the medical board constituted to investigate the cause of death informed the police that the cause of death could not be determined because only burned remains were recovered from the funeral pyre. Initially, the police charged the accusedonly with culpable homicide, wrongful confinement and destruction of evidence. However, after protests erupted and the family gave a statement to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, the police added rape charges as well. Kejriwal assured the protestors and the general publicthat top lawyers will be engaged to get the culprits punished.

Meanwhile, theDelhi Commission For Women issued summons to Delhi police to produce the complete case file and report the actions taken by them in the matter. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights also tooksuo moto cognizance of the case and ordered the Delhi police to furnish a detailed report on the matter.

In September 2020, a similar case was reported in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, when a 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by upper-caste men. After she died in the hospital, the police allegedlyhurriedly cremated her body without the familys consent.

Sexual violence against women in India has been on a rise in recent years. According to a reportby the National Crime Records Bureau in September 2020, crime against women increased by 7.3% in India in 2019, with over 32,000 registered cases of rape. Furthermore, crimes against Scheduled Castes also increased by 7.3% during the same period.

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Delhi government orders judicial investigation into alleged rape and murder of 9-year-old Dalit girl - JURIST