Nothing Unites Indian Muslims & Hindus More Than Their Hatred for Gays

Wow.

It is a weird day.

Finally, the conservative Hindus and Muslims of India agree on something- HOMOPHOBIA!

I guess the only thing more powerful than their love for religion is their hatred for LGBTQ people.

The moment I stumbled across the scrapping of 377 landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of India yesterday on my Facebook timeline, I thought this was too good to be true. Probably fake news.
But as I scrolled down and read this shared by countless pages, I thought to myself OK this is true.
And the realization made me jump with joy!
Not because I’m gay but simply because I believe all humans should have the right to love and marry who they please. Just like I don’t need to be a tree to care about climate change. It’s just a positive and progressive change that would give relief to countless people who were oppressed. A major step towards progress.
I too added my joy to the ongoing chatter and posted it on social media.

Within minutes it met with abuse and trolls.
My joy was short lived.

I am a Muslim myself and used to cringe at the thought of gay relationships. That’s social conditioning. The environment I grew up in, the teachings I received and what I saw on TV and in Bollywood.

But that was ten years ago. I had to unlearn a lot of this homophobia when I moved to the UK and actually met people from different beliefs, cultures, orientations, and ideologies in general. Plus I read peer-reviewed academic journals to support my thoughts about various issues.

In fact, I did a post just a few months ago I Hated Gays But Then…

I urge you to please read the article above and understand what takes a Muslim gay hating woman to become an LGBT ally.

I was open about my support for this decision and got heavily trolled online. In fact, I was so shocked that except a handful of people in my friend list, most people are highly offended that LGBT people can now live like humans.

I never get why two people being in love or just sharing their bodily autonomy upsets the society so much?

I know the law has been scrapped and the people will no longer be put behind bars but seeing the amount of #homophobia today, I got deeply depressed. And I am not even one of the ones facing discrimination. I cannot even fathom what these people have had to go through, not just in India but in the entire world all through the ages.

Also notable is the fact that PM Modi has not uttered one word on this. The RSS has openly condemned this and the majority of India is going nuts in fear of the rainbow flag. Makes me feel we are far far away from having dignity and social acceptance for the LGBT people on the grounds and within homes.

Advertisements

Can denying women’s conditions in India really help?

To treat cancer, one has to first admit that something in their body is not right. Then they go to a doctor. Based on the doctor’s reports, they might confirm that their body has cancerous cells, and then they discuss the course of treatment. It should be the same when it comes to women’s safety. However, Indians are too overwhelmed by ‘the glory’ of their country to admit that something is not right. So you can forget about going to experts to seek advice (the equivalent of going to a doctor in the case of cancer).

India is not an individual person but a nation among many others who share this common place called Earth. But ‘the doctor’, a.k.a the Thomson Reuters Foundation, went ahead and did the examination anyway and provided their diagnosis:

“India ranked world’s most dangerous country for women.”

READ MORE ON YKA 

Is displaying BIGOTRY in public really that bad?

You may have seen, heard about, got involved or moral policed public displays of affection. You know, when a couple holds hands, kisses or cuddles in public.

(And somewhere in India a sanskari uncle, a.k.a an Alok Nath, burps real hard everytime someone engages in PDA). PDA is old and totally not sanskari. Of late, India has its own favourite thing to practice and bond over:

READ FURTHER ON YKA

Orgasm ≠ Consent, Orgasm ≠ Consent, Orgasm ≠ Consent

This is something supreme courts judges, lawyers, police and almost everyone in the society gets wrong except for sex educators and scientists who study it:

No means no has proved to be rocket science for Indians.

Don’t know if I can blame those who think that because of the stupid messages we receive:

“Ladki ki naa me haan hoti hai (There is a yes hidden in a girl’s no)” or literally the song “kab tak ruthegi, chikhegi, chillaegi?” (Until when is she gonna get upset, scream and shout)

No wonder Indians, who are denied basic sex education, think weird things when it comes to physical intimacy with their partners. Despite sex being a taboo subject, our internet search history record for porn shows how desperate and horny our nation is most times.

Rapes and assault cases are prevalent like a nasty virus.

Should we blame the younger generation for displaying affection, expressing love and wanting to be together or do we blame the older generation for not providing safe spaces and proper sexual education to children so that they don’t have to put themselves in risky situations when they are vulnerable and just want to be loved?

Read more here.

Slut Shaming the Most Powerful Woman of India

Moral policing and slut-shaming are the best hobbies of Indian men and women. And when they are on it, they don’t spare anyone. Even if they have to spread lies about it.

Read my post on YKA:

My Facebook newsfeed flashed this image recently.

The idea behind sharing this image was to shame Sonia Gandhi for wearing a bikini. How could a senior woman politician in India possibly be in her swimwear, right?

First of all, the woman in the photograph is Ursula Andress, and the still is taken from the James Bond movie “Dr. No”.

Secondly, even if it was Sonia Gandhi, so what? How is wearing a bikini in any way comparable to having rape charges against oneself or being responsible for a genocide of thousands of human lives?

This slut-shaming and moral policing has gone too far.

I trolled the trolls :p and I couldn’t be happier.

I recently wrote an article about women’s right to choose their dresses.

Obviously, I was trolled because the article brought out male tears.

I did not let it go this time.

My usual response to comments on my shared material is plain silence. It was fun to see that just within five hours of posting, there was already a pile of comments there. And of course, there was trolling from people who are the root cause of this problem.

I wanted to share them with you all and highlight the problem of the masses- this mindset.

So, you’re ready to have some fun troll on troll action? Let’s go!

Here is the first one.

Read the full post here.

An Open Letter to the average Indian in the times of divisive politics.

Lately, Hindu-Muslim tensions in India have been on the rise. There is a lot of friction caused due to the divisive politics.

In this environment, it is crucial to have a dialogue with both groups and find common ground.

My latest piece published on Youth Ki Awaz is that open letter.

Dear average Indian,

I write this today with a heavy heart because I’m searching for you in this crowd of people who seem to hate each other so much that they allowed this hatred to rip apart an eight-year-old child’s life.

I know you are there somewhere, no matter how agitated, lost for words and shocked. Hence I made this effort to write to you.

 

Find it in full here.

Asifa’s Lawyer is a ‘hot’ ‘anti-national’- WTF Seriously!?!?!

This is beyond words. Somehow I managed to put some together.

Read my full post on Youth Ki Awaz.

The last couple of days have been tough. Not just for me but for every person that calls themselves an Indian. I have been writing articles non-stop because there is so much going on in the aftermath of the publicity of the rape case in Kathua.

At night, tired, I turn down my laptop thinking, “No, we can’t go any lower than this.” And yet, the next morning when I wake up, I see that we have managed to find a new low.

A crime itself is a mediocre reflection of the society because it is reflective of the individual. But the rhetoric that circulates after and about that crime is the actual reflection, the pure one, of our society, due to the collective perception.

The Quint, like many other news channels, shared the interview of Deepika Rajawat, the fearless woman, an intelligent lawyer, fighting for the eight-year-old rape and murder victim in Kathua.

Why #riseAboveReligion in Asifa rape case is meaningless

India is shaken.

Once again, it is a rape case.

The only thing different is the ‘religion factor’.

I wrote about the role of religion in this case and why it should be paid due attention. My post was published as a guest contribution on FEMINISM IN INDIA.

Please read it here.

Asifa Bano, an 8-year-old Muslim girl was gang-raped for days inside a Hindu temple in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir. The nation is again seeing outrage poured into social media and protests being held, sadly not in support of the dead girl, but in support of the men who did this to her.

Twitter is an interesting playground when incidents like this happen because in 120 words you can see a common rhetoric at play. First, you see highly offended Hindus upset that the rapists used the temple for their crime and using Ram’s name to get public sympathy.

Not Beti Bachao but ‘BETA SUDHARO’- India after Asifa rape case

Sadly, we are once again mourning an innocent rape victims death and worse is the fact that the victim was an 8-year-old girl.

I wrote a guest post for YKA about the things wrong with the whole picture commenting on the way the case is dealt with.

An 8-year-old girl is kidnapped and gang-raped for eight days inside a temple in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir.

On the eighth day of gruesomeness, the culprits strangle her with her scarf and mutilate her head with a stone before dumping her body on the roadside.

And while Kashmir is watching this charade of barbarity, Unnao is mourning the loss of the father of a rape survivor, also a minor. The father was allegedly beaten to death as the culprits desperately attempted to shut the case down. The CM is quiet on the issue – and the alleged culprit, a Member of the Legislative Assembly, is loitering around with pride as he is the political leader of the ruling party. The rape survivor has no recourse.

One might think there must be a missing law or something that gives the rapists such confidence that they commit rapes without fear.

There does exist the POCSO or The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The POCSO Act 2012 was formulated in order to effectively address sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children. Any suspect arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, CANNOT be granted bail. The goal is to keep the suspected paedophile in prison even before the evidence is collected, just to be safe.

Read more here.