One Billion Rising: Global campaign against violence against women

Eve Ensler, founder of the One Billion Rising movement. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian.

The well known feminist activist, playwright and actor Eve Ensler has given a call for One Billion Rising campaign that aims to mobilise and bring out one billion people on streets across the world on February 14th, 2013 against violence against women, and in celebration of women’s power (One Billion Rising on Facebook).

Noted women activists from all over South Asia, including Kamla Bhasin of Sangat, OBR’s South Asian coordinator, were at the launch in Nepal. (Photo: WFS)

This, writes Ensler, “is a call to the billion women who have been violated and the men who love them, to the women who have been beaten and raped and mutilated and burned and sold and who know the destruction of the female species heralds the end of human kind. A call to walk out of your homes, your jobs, your schools and find your friends, your group, your place and music and dance” (‘One Billion Rising: Together we can end violence against women’, op-ed in The Guardian). Continue reading

Dekh zinda hoon mein – Malala’s response – A poem

malalah-ka-jawab-e1515555118701.pngA poem for Malala by Shariq Ali, received via email, transliterated below, with English translation, by S. Ali Jafari, son of the well known satirical poet S. M. Jafari.

TRANSLITERATION OF THE URDU SCRIPT

Dekh zinda hoon main
Humla awar mere
Dekh zinda hoon main!
Meray Rab ki raza
waqt ka faisla
Dekh zinda hooan main!

Ik teri soch hai
teergi ki makeen
Korh main mubtila
Haath main aslaha
Munh chhupaaey huay
Begunaahon pay tu
chhup kay hamla karay
Ye tera hausla!

Continue reading

Malala’s plight is “related to the potential for world peace”

Vigil for Malala, Charlestown, Boston

My report on the vigil for Malala Yousufzai in Charlestown, Boston, last Sunday, an event that local families are holding on a weekly basis to show their support for her and for the right of children, especially girls, worldwide to get an education. Please also see the I am Malala campaign initiated by the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, aiming to get every child in the world to school. Continue reading

Malala’s injuries and treatment: some details and updates

MalalaYousafzai2

Photo released by QEHB on Oct 19, 2012. Malala, the world is praying for you.

For official updates on Malala Yousufzai’s condition, see this website set up by Queen Elizabeth HospitalBirmingham, where she is being treated. An additional update posted on Friday 19 October 2012, at 13:50 hours (reproduced below), lists details of her injuries and what’s being done to treat them. The latest update is that she is stable, comfortable and responding well. She is communicating through writing notes, and thanks all well-wishers for their support and the doctors and nurses who are treating her. She will need a significant period of rest and recuperation before undergoing reconstructive surgery. Continue reading

Malala Yousufzai – Some updates

Demo for Malala in Mumbai earlier this week

Adapted from the post I sent to my Yahoogroup a little while ago:

No point repeating what happened a week ago in Swat, when Taliban shot Malala Yusufzai, the 14-year old school girl who has been speaking out courageously for the right of girls to be educated, supported by her equally brave father, Ziauddin Yusufzai, principal of the school she was studying at.

Malala was already a hero to many. Now she has become a worldwide symbol of the right of girls to education, as well as of resistance to the Taliban. In this, she represents millions of Pakistanis – and world citizens. Her friend Kainat who was also injured, told CNN from her hospital bed that she hoped to continue her education and that Malala would come back and join her schoolmates soon. “I want to tell all the girls to continue their mission to get an education,” she said. Continue reading

IN SOLIDARITY: Charlestown families honour Malala Yusufzai at Bunker Hill, Boston

Joanne Samuelson lights a candle for Malala

“Families in Charlestown are gathering on Bunker Hill monument on Sunday October 14 at 5:30 pm to hold a vigil for Malala Yousafzai. Please try to attend and spread the word, all welcome,” read the email circulated by the Pakistani Association of Greater Boston on behalf of Joanne Samuelson, a Boston resident who works at M.I.T.

The drizzly weather cleared away allowing the sun to come out in time to endorse the gathering at this historic spot in Charlestown, Boston, the site of a major battle between the revolutionaries and the British colonists. Continue reading