South Asia Citizens Web

Lotika Sarkar (1923–2013), who passed away in Delhi recently, had done foundational work in terms of the feminist interpretation of the law in India. As one of the four writers of the famous letter protesting the Supreme Court Judgment on the Mathura rape case; as one the key authors of the important The Status of Women Committee Report; as a co-petitioner in a significant Public Interest Litigation case, she will continue to inspire future generations.

A Harvard University task force has been set up to advise on the implementation of the Justice J S Verma Committee report. It is led by Jacqueline Bhabha, a lecturer of law at the Harvard Law School and of public policy at the Kennedy School. Professor Bhabha speaks to Padmaparna Ghosh about the limitations of the rape ordinance and how good laws are useless without the political will to implement them:

For a Pakistani woman seeking to travel on a motorcycle, socially sanctioned rules define how she may sit. Although unwritten and unspoken, these are inviolable: First, no girl or woman may drive a motorcycle or clasp the handlebars with both hands. Second, although she can be a passenger behind a male driver, she cannot straddle the pillion seat. Instead, she must perch herself with both legs on the same side and hope she will not fall off. To sit otherwise is considered a violation of female modesty.

PUCL strongly condemns the serial blasts in Hyderabad on 21.02.2013 which has resulted in loss of life and grievous injuries to many. PUCL extends its sympathies to the families of all those who lost relatives and hopes that the injured recover speedily.

Is Bangladesh just trying to process its dark legacy, the trauma of the genocide that took place during the country’s Liberation War in 1971? Or is there something afoot? On February 5, activists of a network called ’Blogger and Online Activist Network’ occupied a key intersection in Dhaka, Shahbagh, and started protesting against the verdict pronounced by the International Crimes Tribunal in the case against Abdul Quader Mollah.