South Asia Citizens Web

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• Shame, not honour

  by Syeda Hameed 15 May
  It is the apathy of the state and the lack of a standalone law, even after decades of honour killings, that deserves greater focus today. While we remind ourselves of instances where representatives of the state have condoned crimes against women and men in the name of honour, sided with traditional councils for petty political benefit and got away with it, we must also raise our voice in support of better institutional frameworks that enable protection of victims and conviction of the guilty. We owe it to the countless victims, to ourselves and to our Constitution to create an overarching law, but more importantly, a social support structure that would protect India’s young women and men, and give them a chance for self-realisation. We need to urge Parliament to pass the Prevention of Crimes in the Name of Honour and Tradition Bill, 2010, and implement its premise of according “all persons, including young persons and women, with the right to control their own lives, a right to liberty and freedom of expression, and a right of association, movement and bodily integrity”.
  
  

• India: SAHMAT statement on the textbook cartoon controversy

  by Sahmat 15 May
  We the undersigned are concerned that Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource Development, made an ex cathedra announcement, that the cartoon in the Class XI text book, found offensive by several members of Parliament, would be removed, and that he was looking into other potentially offensive cartoons with a view to their possible removal.Whatever be the merits of the case against the cartoon, the matter should not be treated as one of mere executive discretion. This establishes the kind of precedent that should be avoided. Such issues are bound to come up from time to time, therefore appropriate procedures have to be followed, such as the setting up of a Committee of academics to look into each case, so that summary judgments of the ministers concerned, under political pressures of various kinds, do not determine the contents of our academic syllabi.