Sindhi women publicly announce free-will marriages: DAWN News

Young women from the province frequently publish announcements in Sindhi newspapers declaring their intention to marry of their own free will. – Photo by Dawn

HYDERABAD: Honour killings and forced marriages in Sindh receive wide attention in the national media. What is less well-known is that young women from the province frequently publish announcements in Sindhi newspapers declaring their intention to marry of their own free will.

As a way of fending off allegations that they have been kidnapped or have committed adultery, it is a bold move by these women but is known to few people beyond the readership of these regional papers.

Shabana Khatoon, 23, of Bhango Behan in Khairpur district, declares in widely circulated Sindhi daily Kawish that her parents wanted to sell her to an older man for marriage. Ms Khatoon’s announcement is a summary of an attested affidavit she had a lawyer prepare for her and explains that she decided to run away and marry another man,

On Terrorism: Articles by the legendary Eqbal Ahmed

A Presentation at the University of Colorado, Boulder

October 12, 1998 

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Jewish underground in Palestine was described 

as "terrorist." Then new things happened. By 1942, the Holocaust was occurring, 

and a certain liberal sympathy with the Jewish people had built up in the 

Western world. 

At that point, the terrorists of Palestine, who were Zionists, suddenly started 

to be described, by 1944-45, as "freedom fighters." At least two Israeli Prime 

Ministers, including Menachem Begin, have actually, you can find in the books 

and posters with their pictures, saying "Terrorists, Reward This Much." The 

highest reward I have noted so far was 100,000 British pounds on the head of 

Menachem Begin, the terrorist. 

Then from 1969 to 1990 the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization, occupied 

the center stage as the terrorist organization. Yasir Arafat has been described 

repeatedly by the great sage of American journalism, William Safire of the New 

York Times, as the "Chief of Terrorism." That's Yasir Arafat. Now, on September 

29, 1998, I was rather amused to notice a picture of Yasir Arafat to the right 

of President Bill Clinton. To his left is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 

Netanyahu. Clinton is looking towards Arafat and Arafat is looking literally 

like a meek mouse. Just a few years earlier he used to appear with this very 

menacing look around him, with a gun appearing menacing from his belt. You 

remember those pictures, and you remember the next one.

Who’s afraid of democracy? by Hajra Mumtaz

IN an interesting reversal, the liberals and secularists of post-‘Arab Spring’ Egypt seem to be veering towards supporting the continued oversight of the army on the country’s affairs.

The situation, though causing consternation on the face of it, is perfectly simple. If elections are held in September as planned, or even a year later, there is a good likelihood that the Muslim Brotherhood may come to power. At stake is the future constitution of Egypt: the secularists and the Islamists have, obviously, differing expectations.

Egypt is currently governed by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces which is talking about a transition to democracy (with special consideration for the military, its interests and institutions).

In the referendum held on March 19, just over 77 per cent of the voters approved a package of constitutional reforms that included the holding of parliamentary elections and the election of 100 members of parliament that would form a constituent assembly mandated to formulate the country’s new constitution within six months. Another referendum is to decide whether that constitution will be approved or rejected.

All this is very right and proper, and functioning exactly as it should under the ideals dictated by the theory of democracy.

Here’s the rub, though: the March ‘yes’ vote was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and the majority of other Egyptian Islamists; most secularists, it seems, including the majority of leftists and liberals were the ones to vote ‘no’ in that referendum.

According to news reports by various organisations, they