Category Archives: gender

Gay Justice

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Gay sex decriminalised in India

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that homosexual intercourse between consenting adults is not a criminal act.

In an earlier post on an Indonesian rock musician’s theory on homosexuality, I had written how strange it is to hold on to such prejudices in this day and age when Science has already shown that there are possibly ‘biological explanations for sexual orientation across species — including humans’. This bold judgement coming from my ultra-conservative country is sure to do some justice to this much maligned group of our fellow human beings.

[UPDATE: Loved what Gautam Bhan says in Indian Express:

"This judgment should be seen by all of us, gay or straight, no matter what we think of sexuality and homosexuality, as a victory for a secular, democratic, constitutional and free India. We should all be proud."

]

The rumblings of protest from religious bodies have begun – my only prayer is that they do not grow loud enough to drown out the voice of rationality.

On a similar note, watch the movie Milk if you haven’t. It is the story of Harvey Milk, an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. Sean Penn in the title role does a beautiful job in portraying such a sensitive character and rightfully earned a Best Actor Oscar for his performance.

One Woman, One Mind, One Vote

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A great read! Simply put, honest and sincere, but potent.
It is about the power of the individual in a democracy. Often we forget how important our vote is or are too cynical to realise its power. This should serve as a wake-up call.
I love the way she ends it,

“They have the right to ignore me.
But I too have the right not to vote for them to represent me.
My vote is not a gift. I cast my vote with a hope that they will fight for me and for people like me.
Yes, one vote from one woman probably means nothing.
But they should remember: In Indonesia, there are millions of us and we all can think.”

To Abort or Not To Abort

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(Warning: If you possess religious sensibilities and they are easily offended, I advise you to refrain from reading further. And especially if you think the following quote from Voltaire is a bunch of bullshit: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.”)

Dr. George Tiller’s murder is unquestionably outrageous and frustrating and I have been keenly following the story like most of you, as it further polarizes the two sides of the abortion debate. It is undeniably a most difficult issue to easily decide on your colours. As a rationalist I lean towards pro-choice but I am aware how difficult it is to determine where life begins – in the womb, or later. And to me that is the pivot around which the whole debate rotates – for if we say life begins in the womb, then taking it is murder.

To me this is not a religious question – I am as irreligious as they come but it would be hard even for me to fully accept that an unborn foetus is not life. You need only watch the eyes of any parent looking at an ultrasound scan of the unborn baby to realize that. (Of course when the Pope says don’t use condoms, then that is sheer religious bullshit!)
So I guess I will tilt towards no abortions for unwanted pregnancies, unless it was rape and am willing to be damned by all my liberal and libertarian friends! It is as simple as, you were stupid enough to get yourself in this mess, now deal with it! And if you are a teenager, then your parents were stupid enough not to teach you about the birds and the bees, so let them face the consequences!
But how about those cases where the scans hint at some serious problems with the foetus which could result in a considerable amount of pain and suffering for the parents and also the baby in the future? Then I think the debate boils down to the debate of euthanasia. And in this debate I know for certain which side I am on – the go-for-it team! Here the religious opinion that god gave us life and we have no right to take it, even my own, just does not cut any ice with me. 
My parents brought me into being by a not-entirely-unpleasurable act and there was absolutely no third-party involved except the doctors and nurses at the hospital and they received payment for their services and have relinquished all claims and rights! Being a mature individual (well opinions may differ a bit on that!), such above-mentioned rights to my life have been wholly and completely transferred to me. So I am at complete liberty to decide when to die – no state or institution can dictate to me on that matter. In other words, I support euthanasia and to go another step forward, suicide. As long as you have exhausted all options, explored all avenues, weighed all pros and cons and have decided that there is nothing left to live for, the least society can do is let you die in peace.
But there is a pitfall in my argument – my argument for euthanasia still does not wholly justify the abortion of a foetus with deformities – since a foetus, though a rudimentary form of life, has still not acquired the higher intelligence and collective human experience that makes man a thinking animal and he/she has no chance of deciding his/her own fate. So it is the parents who are making the decision for him/her, assisted by modern medical science and its practitioners. Will not that still be murder, albeit a collaborative one with accomplices? I told you this debate is not easy!
Now is the point where we have to be rational! The foetus though a form of life, is only an elementary form of it and has no capacities for thought. And his/her biggest well-wishers are most often the parents (and hardly ever the Pope sitting in Rome!). So if they decide to abort to save everyone concerned from pain and suffering, based on the advice of neutral experts- doctors, then this should be allowed. 
(The same argument could be used for terminally ill or paralysed patients who can’t express themselves or patients in coma. And I support euthanasia for such cases too.)
And if you are incapable of rational thought, maybe this piece written by a lady who had an abortion at Dr. Tiller’s clinic will appeal to your emotional side. 

“…The MRI reminded me of my other son’s. He’s autistic, and when he was three he’d had an MRI that also showed abnormalities. …we couldn’t handle having another special needs kid. Psychically, we just couldn’t handle it. …I cry all the time, and that will be for the rest of my life. Because I really, really wanted that baby.”

And if you are devoid of both rational and emotional faculties, maybe it is time you considered euthanasia – its not a bad thing, you know!
(On the darker side, here’s a sarcastic piece from Onion – “Christ Kills Two, Injures Seven In Abortion-Clinic Attack“.)

The ‘Moral’ Police

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(Warning: If you possess religious sensibilities and they are easily offended, I advise you to refrain from reading further. And especially if you think the following quote from Voltaire is a bunch of bullshit: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.”)

There are very few things I strongly hate in this world and one of them has got to be the moral police. Two stories in today’s news caught my eye and both are related to this issue – one a severe, disturbing example, the other a far more light-hearted, even ridiculous but nonetheless disturbing – one in Pakistan, the other in India.

In Pakistan, in the Swat valley, which the government virtually gave up control of in favour of Taliban militants, a 17 year old girl was publicly flogged for having an affair. (Read it here and watch it here.)
Apart from the fact that 

“they did this brutality just on suspicion. There was no trial. No evidence, no witness was produced.”

lies a very fundamental question, what is exactly an affair with reference to a 17 year old girl? Is she married? If she is, in my humble opinion that is a far greater crime than the one she has purportedly committed, assuming that a 17 year old married girl was probably married off against her informed will or decision. If she did make an informed choice and decided to commit adultery, then as an individual she has every right to. I am truly unaware of her circumstances, of her relationship with her husband and hence cannot make an unbiased judgement. 

The real rationale of punishing an adulterous woman, it seems to me is the ingrained jealousy of a man when a better man comes along and steals his woman. The problem with this approach is the implication that a woman, once married is the property of her husband. But we are not talking about non-living assets here, or even a living asset such as a cow or a dog, we are talking about a thinking human being, who is capable of judgement, no matter how flawed.
This is one of my problems with religion. Most religions relegate a married woman to the status of an asset. Just yesterday I saw this web comic, which talks about the status of women according to the Bible, and this is the New Testament, not even the controversial Old Testament. The comic is reproduced below.
 ByTheBook61.PNG
To come back to the 17 year old girl in question, if she is unmarried then an affair would probably just mean a harmless teenage romance. And to view that as a crime worthy of a public flogging is beyond my normally vast comprehension. When we were growing up, the most conservative of parents would at the most admonish their daughters in the privacy of their homes for such a crime, impressing upon them to concentrate on their studies. But I forgot, in Swat valley, after the Taliban took over, girls are not allowed to go to schools!
I find it frankly ridiculous that the Pakistan government so steadfastly hangs on to its claims of control over extra territories (read K-a-s-h-m-i-r) when it can’t even control the territories it already possesses! Don’t get me wrong – I am all for a Kashmiri plebiscite. But that is the subject of a separate post.
To diffuse the tension of the last few paragraphs, let me move on to the next story. Akshay Kumar, the Bollywood star, who I am not a big fan of, asked his wife, Twinkle Khanna to unbutton the top button of his jeans, which belongs to the Levi’s ‘Unbuttoned’ range of which he is a brand ambassador, in a fashion show in India. This offended a certain social worker, Mr. Anil P Nayar, who promptly filed a case against him with the police in Mumbai/Bombay. 
As if there is not enough social work to be done in India, not enough backlog of court cases, not enough unsolved crimes, terrorism and what-have-you, Mr. Nayar has all the time in the world to waste his own time and the courts’ time and the police’s time for this. I strongly believe that such people need to be flogged in public and not a 17 year old girl accused of having an affair!

Sounds Like Power

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“An American admirer and reviewer of Hindi films; dilettante; geek of all trades” has a blog dedicated to Shabana Azmi, Sounds Like Power.
The name of the blog apparently comes from a quote attributed to Shabana Azmi, as mentioned in the footer, though I confess I had never heard it before and googling for it didn’t give me much leads either. But it sounds, well, powerful!

“Say ‘Shabana’ and it is nectar. Say ‘Shabana Azmi’ and it sounds like power.”

I have always been a huge admirer. In fact, when I was still in school and someone asked me who was my favourite actress in Bollywood, I had answered quite unabashedly, “Shabana Azmi”, to which the reply was, “But she is old!”!
In fact I have been a fan ever since she went on a hunger strike to stop the evacuation of slum dwellers in Bombay and also protested the killing of Safdar Hashmi, the playwright, not to mention her movies, Ankur, Arth, Ek Doctor Ki Maut, Fire, Khamosh, Mandi, Masoom, Paar, Shatranj Ke Khiladi etc. etc. etc.

Rock on Straights!

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(For non-Indonesians, Ahmad Dhani is an Indonesian rock musician who is also part of the Indonesian rock band Dewa.)
He says that homosexuality is like being addicted to drugs. It is the responsibility of parents to ensure that their children don’t become gay. And especially the father’s, for if someone becomes gay it is the father’s fault that he did not instil the male spirit in his sons.
And what is his suggestion for all the fathers in the world?! Rock music!! He has fed his sons on a healthy diet of Rock to ensure that they become real men! Because, he says, gay men do not like Rock music. If your son does not like Rock, you have to be careful. 
(The italicizations are mine.)
That reminds me of some famous rock stars who are/were gay – Freddie Mercury (Queen), Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day – he is a bisexual), Michael Stipe (R.E.M. – bisexual). It is strange how people hold on to prejudices when Science has already shown otherwise. But on second thought it is not so surprising after all, prejudices reinforced by religion are the hardest to let go.

The Evil That ‘Men’ Do

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“We do not want the problem of these ‘little dragon ladies’ to escalate. These women are enticing local married men into having affairs with them and are causing family disharmony.”
This is hilarious! Pity the poor little dragon ladies!!
This reminds me of another something from India a while back. To quote from the Times of India article:
According to the five petitioners – three of them women – Delhi is a “rogue city because of the high incidences of crime, and therefore, not mature enough to have pubs and bars with women bartenders”. 
So the argument is, because the men are such animals, we need to restrict the women. Could someone remind me again which century is this?!