South Asia Citizens Web

Why good intentioned liberals fall into the trap of supporting fundamentalists - in the name of ’Muslim women’s rights’!

Today, words like "progress" and "development" have become interchangeable with economic "reforms," "deregulation," and "privatization." Freedom has come to mean choice. It has less to do with the human spirit than with different brands of deodorant. Market no longer means a place where you buy provisions. The "market" is a de-territorialized space where faceless corporations do business, including buying and selling "futures." Justice has come to mean human rights (and of those, as they say, "a few will do").

Despite international human rights Conventions, we are nevertheless encountering a growing proclivity among some to justify “anachronistic” punishments in the name of ancient legal codes, often associated with fundamentalist interpretations of religion. The result is the making of “normative standards that go against human rights.”

That is why the sentence of caning imposed on Kartika concerns us. If she were to be caned, not only would she be the first woman ever to be caned in Malaysia, she would be so punished on the basis of a particular interpretation of sharia law.

Speech delivered yesterday on 25 September 2009, the twentieth death anniversary of Rajani Thiranagama

ndtv.com, September 26, 2009