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I feel physically, vilely, wretchedly sick to the point where words feel too delicate and airy to actually describe the repulsive feeling. The death of Baby P. How he was trained as a dog by his mother's murderous boyfriend. Trained to kneel on the floor waiting to be punished. The baby lived in a house where human faeces and rat infestations were a normal reality. Where he awoke everyday to a mother who slept routinely till lunchtime not bothering to even acknowledge him, let alone tend to him, breaking his spine like he was the piece of plank from Karate Kid, spinning him on a chair till he came crashing down to the floor. It's excrutiating to read and listen and fill your mind with this. As my husband just told me to stop it, 'I don't want to hear it.' But that's it. We don't want to hear it. We don't want to see it and tomorrow it's another disaster we've ascribed to anomalies of evil in our developed, technologically advanced society.

The Baby P media focus has been quick and harsh to point all the blame on Haringey Social services, who admittedly tripped up badly having not dealt with this case promptly despite all the clues. However this is a very easy scapegoat. A palpable, graspable organisation we can all hound on. Purge our grief on and then walk away tomorrow brushing the dust off our hands. And this is why it's Baby P today, Sharon Matthews kidnapping her daughter yesterday and so many other children being sacrificed due to a bigger problem that yet has not been identified.

Forget the peripheral organisations who have this minimal capacity to try and monitor people and their behaviour; let's actually ask the golden question - Why is it that it is so normal for our society to produce the likes of Baby P every so often, such examples of human irresponsibility, cruelty and utter eradication of the difference between right and wrong? Do we not ask why? Do we not ask what have been the consequences of us living in a culture and society which values as its cornerstone the freedom to lead our lives as we please, accountable to nothing and no one, living for today, forget what happens tomorrow. A society where pleasing our sensual desires becomes the paramount goal in life, like a sniffer dog lured by its goldmine; over all need to construct our lives by a higher calling.

We're not animals. We're mammals with a mind and unless we use it to differentiate ourselves from animals, it seems that society will become a jungle of battling desires and disasters. Let's please begin to point the finger in the right direction. That human beings are made up of a mixture of desires, emotions and particular natures. If we are left to decide for ourselves how are life should be, such cases are inevitable and as we are seeing, are becoming normal. For all those who believed a society based upon Islam was a dilly dallying daydream, I ask do you really still think so? Are you really still happy to settle for this quagmire we now live in? Set aside all the scapegoats and please, I beg of you, just contemplate the realise the viscous, wretched jungle of anguish will we see if we sit back and just passively wait...

Obama ahoy!

Obama fever has ransacked not just Atlantic shores but global expanses. Everybody's talkin' about the new black brother, knocking on ordinary people's doors a year ago conjuring political support; to now becoming the the world's latest Greek demiGod. Mr Barack Obaaaaaama. Don't worry I'm not just here to have a rant and a rave at every single TV show falling and blubbering at his every image, I've just made a few observations myself that I'd like to share.



Firstly I do not want to, in any way, belittle the sense of enormity this political event would have meant for those who lived through the Civil Rights movement and life before that - The absolute segregation, degradation in life that had to be endured by a people whose only fault was the shade of their skin. To have been roused by the visionary dream of Martin Luther King, imagining a day where equality of treatment and opportunities would have seemed as dreamlike as Hans Christian Anderson's fairytales. No one would underestimate the feeling of achievement that people such as Jesse Jackson would have felt to have seen this day.



However, just as the American idealistic bubble puzzles us once in a while I feel it's doing so once again. This idea that the advent of a Black political role model is an absolute new start for race relations in America is kinda puzzling. I'm thinking Colin Powell. I'm thinking Condeleeza Rice. Yes, not Presidents, but one could say you couldn't get much closer than they did to having their fairshare of the political leadership of America. Thus this idea that this a whole new dawn for African Americans appears more Obama campaign spin than it is reality. If representation
actually had impact then why was it that having the likes of Colin Powell in such high esholons of American politics didn't actually affect the twisted and deep-rooted racism that took place after the atrocity of Hurricane Katrina?Then what real difference can another Black politican really, practically make?



And this is where my problem lies. Democracy at its core places representation as a key value. The idea is that you work towards representation of the people, to be able to create justice and equal rights for them. But isn't this in reality a fallacy? For example, the ongoing plug to get more women into higher political positions - how does this actually affect the attitudes and treatment of women in real society on the ground? Another woman in the House of Commons for example, doesn't really have a bearing on the prejudices, oppression and exploitation of rights many women go through in all walks of life on a grassroots level. Tessa or Ruth sitting in the House of Commons debating anything from childcare to troops in Iraq moreover seems mutually exclusive from the issue of Samantha being prostituted for drugs in Bethnal Green, or Alisha scared for her son's involvement in gangs.

The argument is that representation creates better empathy and understanding of problems. So Obama may understand the feeling of being degraded due to his skin and Tessa might understand the importance of children for a mother - But we're human beings with weaknesses, fallacies, different perceptions of what is good bad, important unimportant. To rely purely on that empathy or possible experience of someone who you feel represents you, is absolutely naive. I wouldn't trust any stranger to look after my kids, why would I want one to use their perceptions and experiences to legislate rules for them?



The Rwandan Government boasts a whopping 56.25% of its Parliamentary seats belonging to women - the current shining world record. So do they have a women's rights record as gleaming to match? Well we know that during the civil war in Rwanda, one of the most widely used weapon was that of rape against women (HRW 1996). A common practice of 'marriage by abduction' which takes place today in Rwanda deems it possible for a man to abduct a woman to marry her and he then holds absolute power over her, despite what she wants, thinks or feels. Developments on tackling such deeprooted exploitation of women in a country with the best female representation in Government in the world, has been minimal.



Islam does not rely on representation as a means of achieving justice. A Khalif (ruler) in Islam is at the service of his people, to rule by Islam and the Shariah. So he does not have the mercy to give ample rights and advantages to a group of people, and take away or forget another. The rights of people are laid out in Islam and he must execute them, otherwise face removal. He has a measure by which people can judge his ruling, the Shariah. Thus just because he is not a woman, doesn't mean he cannot rule over them with justice - Because the law he rules with is that which has been created by the Creator of all women, the Creator who knows the nature and needs of women the best. When Umar ibn Al Khattab, the second khalif of Islam decided to fix the dowry rate it was a laywoman who stood up and accounted him, warning him that he could not restrict something which Allah and his Messenger did not restrict. He immidately agreed with the woman's comment, deeming her right, and that he was wrong. It was therefore Islam which was supreme, not perceptions of what Umar or his assistants felt were right.



Obama symbolises i'm sure the road to recovery, change for the world's superpower who it felt almost overnight became crippled by a plethora of problems. But all I ask is that we all think outside of the lines that are drawn for us. That there is a world beyond democracy and that our vision and mind is not squashed into the box of what politics has come to mean. Because if justice is our goal, then we need to look at the bigger picture and work out how to really achieve it; even if this means rethinking whether the map which we have always used up until now, really does set out the right way.

The New Fire - The Jewel of Medina

It' s those blood thirsty, hot blooded raging Muslims at it again. The jewel of Medina is the latest book by American Sherry Jones who wanted to write a fictional book, based around the Prophet SAW and his youngest wife, revered by Muslims worldwide. Interestingly she has been very outwright wanting to engage with Muslims about the book, assuring all that she doesn't want to paint Islam or Muhammad SAW in a bad light - in fact she views him as a very gentle and loving husband, as well as Aisha being a dazzling character who always interested her. However the problem may not be in the fact that Jones has a calculated plan of spiteful vengeance which she wants to unleash on Muslims and the beloved revered people of their faith; but rather the paint which she brushes her story with. Aisha, she claims is a woman subjugated and controlled by men and contemplates the freedom that other women observe. The Prophet SAW is depicted as having some sort of lustful fixation with women through his repeated marriages. More than anything, the book distorts the context of the time these people lived in -Women, wealth, fixation on the lures of life actually came to mean very little, in fact they became a drop of water compared to the ocean which then occupied them - Allah and the Hereafter he promised.
Jones' discussion about women's place in the book is pinged around the scales of value perceived for women in the West and the lenses of Western values are what Jones sees through. Women's happiness is deemed by how much equality and freedom they are granted with in life. But Islam and the Muslim women of the early days around the blessed Prophet SAW were more than intellectually aware of what value meant for women; what real liberation meant and that the entire emphasis in life for Muslims transcended beyond petty concerns that seem to flood the minds of people in the society we live in. Muhammad SAW and Aisha, in Joneses book, are not the Muhammad SAW and Aisha which we know through undisputed historical documentation, rather they could be a Tom Dick or Harry from Western society, with all their longings about satisfying oneself and asserting one's freedom.
Lastly, the freedom of speech lark all over again. And frankly I'm a bit tired of it. Cuz let's call it how it is. It's not really 'freedom of speech' is it, more like 'the let's see how far we can push the Muslims game'. No one contests the ability to have honest sincere and productive dialogue. But why would a society want to encourage us to act on the freedom to insult and offend? None of us would knock on our neighbours door and start rudely insulting every member of their family and the way they live their life - We'll see them on the way to work the next mrning, and will need them to kindly keep an eye on the house when we go on holiday. Living with people, requires the need to hold respect for one another - actively.
And it would be near impossible for Jones to have ignored the high esteem with which Muslims hold these people in their history. To the extent that they will not stand images of them being created, send blessings after their names everytime they are mentioned and would never dream of misquoting them. Therefore to walk the rope of deciding to get into the minds of the Prophet of the Muslims and his revered wife and make-up their thoughts, can't have been an innocent, naive choice of action. As one reviewer said, if Aisha was alive, she could have sued for libel.

Too busy with Ramadan

Spiritual hedonism. A contradiction of course. Spirituality is seldom hedonistic, in whatever faith you look at. But my view, is that it can be. The most awe-inspiring, majestic month of Ramadan is now upon us, moreover, is fast dwindling away from us with its most blessed days now in our grasp. The masjids spill out onto the street, the banter and warmth between the Muslim brethren is more than ever. The salat are lengthy, the duas are tear-filled, alhumdulilah. The spiritual feeling of the Deen, exists in the hearts of people in abundance and people we see run to perform the nawafil deeds with longing and desire.

There is goodness in this of course, however it's no doubt that the atmosphere created in this month is utterly feel-good. There's a sense of unity and sense of togetherness which one feels as everyone is carrying out these ibadah actions. So one who seldom prayed a fard salah, stands still to the recitiation of taraweeh salat through the night, day after day within such an atmosphere. Of course as Allah Almighty says, that it is the rememberance of Allah, that hearts do find rest. But should we not be careful that the objective of our ibadah truly is subservience to Allah, and not in seeking the pleasure of feeling spiritual and at rest?

I mention this not to pick a bone, but because someone in this blessed month, when asked whether they had been discussing the recent devestating Pakistan bombing on their Ramadan radio station, stated that they had simply been 'too busy with Ramadan'. Too busy with this month to have been able to use a section of their radio airtime to discuss this critical and devestating event which not only killed Muslim brethren, but was important politically for the Muslims. To discuss that political unrest plagues the air of Pakistan, the place where no leader in the current system - be they Musharraf, Bhutto or Zardari - has acceptance from the people. Where the government, whoever the ruler, has betrayed the people by fighting it's warped war on terror against its very own people (I here have to mention Dr Afia Siddique). Where secular law has escalated sectarian and tribal violence; and where the people now call for justice and there is a growing call for Islam.

As Muslims it is our duty to understand the affairs of our Muslim brothers and sisters and be able to engage in advocating the correct politics for them in their declined state with the absence of Islam. This is a a crucial part of being Muslim. It was in the month of Ramadan that our beloved Prophet SAW became busy enough to fight the Battle of Badr, and in the 13th century that the famous Ain Jaloot battle in Palestine was fought by the Muslim army. Isn't it the month where all good deeds are multiplied, so giving in charity, wanting for your brother what you want for yourself, speaking for the oppressed and accounting tyrant rulers? Ibadah is living by Allah's rules, laws and commands. Be this fasting, praying, or politics.

Ibadah for a Muslim ain't just no feel-good drug. It's our passport to Allah's promised Paradise. Therefore we have to ensure that we use the rest of this month to not only multiply and intensify our ibadah to him - our praying, dua, Qiyam ul Layl through the thickness of the night; but our obligations to this noble Ummah of Rasulullah SAW.

Al Qamar

I heard you wake when we all sleep

When you change your face for the day to come

Your man-boots, your struggle,

Your journey to keep going.

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

It's a male affair

But you've swallowed the pain

And glide through with dignity,

Making the floors that you sweep

Pages of your deeds

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

Five innocent hearts await

The echoes of your steps

You hide the bruised knees

From their glances

They know not but I do and of course

Does the Almighty above

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

The scent of your perfume

And the tenderness of your hands

return to fill the air

in a house of islam

Oh my sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

But your heart doesn't stop

Your mind doesn't rest

The promise of Allah holds it's unrelenting thread

you give everything, every breath left in that day

To scatter forth the word of Allah

And the hope of the Amir who we know, inshaAllah

is to come

My sister, my sweet sister, I love you.

Winds, seas and miles of land

Hurdle between my smile and yours

But I pray that my Creator

In all of his mercy

One day unlocks me to you

Till then, my sister

Stay strong

Because I pray to Allah

Oh Allah

That blessed Jannah yearns for you

It's just a piece of cloth

It's just a piece of cloth
Without your headscarf, you'll attract flies. The elusive Egyptian ad campaign has not only stirred up discussion, but interestingly laid another misdemeanor on the whole veil debate. The poster shows two pink lollipops, one wrapped and the other unwrapped and covered in flies. The caption reads, "You can't stop them, but you can protect yourself." Crazy I would say. How can a piece of cotton, chiffon or maybe even luxury authentic pashmina stop men from sexually harassing a woman? Headscarves are not woven with secret weapons or conceal personal rape alarms, but to the surprise I'm sure of everyone, really are just pieces of cloth.
I myself donned my headscarf and jilbab several years ago, not actually because I decided I needed a weapon to protect myself - Moreover I anticipated subjection to torrents of verbal and perhaps physical abuse at the time by donning it, as it was shortly after 9/11 in a very heated political climate.
It is of course true that the hijab is part of the social system of Islam, which seeks to create a society which is harmonious and void of lewdness and promiscuity. However the argument that covered women somehow have acquired an automatic man-repellent, is a well repeated one across the media. And it's high time that such a supposition is broken down, as it is no way as simplistic as this - A lollipop wrapper really can't just solve the acute problem of the continuing exploitation of women.

The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) recently conducted a survey of hundred of Egyptian and foreign women of all backgrounds. Shockingly, 84.5% of them said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment, with most reporting that they were bothered by men every day. This seems shocking, and many may feel that a Muslim country would have lower levels of sexual harassment due to the Islamic viewpoint towards women. But this is where it is crucial to understand the importance of the implementation of Islam in society over, the practicing of Islam amongst families and within the home. The authors of the Egyptian ad campaign may have attempted to try to solve the harassment problem by urging women to cover up, but have failed to realise that even if women cover up in the society they live in, they will still be subject to harassment and sexual exploitation once they leave the home. This is because whether the women cover up or not, once they walk out their front doors they are subject to the free and secular ideas which are thrown around about women in society.
No Muslim nation today implements the Islamic Shariah and rules by Islam. Therefore all of the Muslim nations have a deadly concoction of many ideas in their societies, with a presumption that Western free and secular values must be withheld upmost to be able to progress. But what people fail to recognise is that it is these very values, coupled with traditional tribal values, which are growingly to blame for such degradation of women in our society.
The Prophet SAW said in a hadith: 'The world and all things in the world are precious but the most precious thing in the world is a virtuous woman'
Women instead of being treasured and protected as is laid out in Islam , are left to be savaged by the ravages of freedom and secular thought. It has allowed men, as well as various industries, to view women in whatever way they please, be it a sexual object and this has became reality in many of the Muslim countries. Ruby, the famous Egyptian singer, is a popular success of the Egyptian music industry and has pushed the path of liberation for women by dressing and singing as provocatively as possible. Such images and messages about women have given the all OK in society allowing people, all the more, to view women through their sexual appeal. It is irrelevant then whether a woman covers or not, as the way in which that woman should be seen in society has already been defined.
Additionally the Muslim societies have taken on board again the many backward, tribal and traditional ideas that exist about women within various cultures - That men have the right to exploit them and dominate them. In modern day Egypt, such ideas have manifested themselves in an extremely low reporting rate of sexual crime. Women, the ECWR further found, felt ashamed and embarrassed about the harassment they underwent and therefore did not want to report it. It's a devastating thought to see women feel so helpless and out on their own in a society, that they couldn't even feel they could report a crime carried out against them. Such subversion of women also existed before the advent of Islam in the time of the Prophet SAW - Women were exploited and routinely gang raped. However when the Islamic Shariah was implemented, it ensured that such practices were abolished - Adultery and fornification have strict punishments, as well as the crime of accusing a chaste woman in Islam. Hence the Islamic Shariah, ensures that the value and protection of the women, the mothers of the Ummah, in society, is paramount.
The Islamic social system are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. They need to all fit together to work to create the harmonious society Islam envisages. And the essence of this harmonious society proposed in Islam, is ensuring that respect and dignity of both sexes in society is absolutely enshrined. Therefore the Islamic social code promotes and restricts whatever is needed to protect this. Women are not to be viewed as sexual commodities in society, through billboards, music or TV ads; and it is obligatory in Islam for both men and women to dress in a particular manner and lower their gaze so as to not even begin the process of the wolf whistles. The Prophet SAW maintained a general segregation of men and women in the society he governed, except for specific situations and needs. What all this did, was create a society where sex and the agitation for sex, was taken out of society. This is to guarantee, as much as possible that people are not urged to view each other sexually as and when they please, rather sex is something for stable marital relationships. But all this in itself means nothing, unless the actual society and state ensures that the mentality of chastity, respect towards the opposite sex and accountability to God is present in each and every individual.
Islam does in no way promote the idea that women are responsible for any sexual harassment they undergo, rather Islam promotes the idea that women are to be valued and respected, and not viewed as sexual commodities. The headscarf cannot therefore in itself fight it's own battle, it is merely part of a wider system which Muslims believe has been divinely constructed to attempt to deal with many of the social problems humankind has faced for time.

Bangladeshi Universities and their power for prem

I always remember cuddling next to my mum, engulfed in big fleecy deshi blankets, and joining the family glued to the latest natak (drama) that had been shipped over from relatives in Bangladesh. For anyone who has never watched a Bangladeshi serial drama - the real authentic ones, not the ones where heros and heroines now dance around trees, will know that they do depict a life which is considerably true to the life of people in Bangladesh. I cannot now recall names and storylines very exactly from those sleepy days, but one thing I do remember was almost every one had some sort of cushy romance between a young female student and her teacher, or tutor.

Last month the Bangladeshi Mahila Parishad organised a meeting to propose a policy to tackle the growing sexual harassment happening in universities and colleges in Bangladesh, by the teaching staff on female students. A policy to curb it.

“Our movement is not against a particular teacher or teacher community, rather it is the movement against the ailing culture that might engulf the whole society if not resisted,” said BMP President Ayesha Khanam.

What strikes me, strong and hard(!), is how a policy to attempt to restrict such behaviour by teachers and lecturers will really work. I mean cmon its Bangladesh! Since when did the rule of law mean anything to anyone? No one's saying it's not implemented, but it's fact that everyone and anyone from the very elite to the very middle classs to the poor, just to get by, have to evade the rule of law, participate in bribery and ghoosh just to live their daily lives. This isn't exactly a culture and society where the rule of law and policy has really helped to alleviate problems.

More than anything, President Ayesha Khanam said it herself- 'an ailing culture that might engulf the whole of society'. It's a culture not a legislative problem. Legislation can help deal with perpetrators and depict the states' viewpoint on the issue, but society and culture in Bangladesh is saying a totally different thing. On the suburban streets of Dhaka, women who are progressed and a touch above from the commonfolk are seen as those who have taken on the model of the free, liberated, sexually alluring as seen in the West.. and of course Bollywood. It is the sexual aspect and femininity of the women which has had to be exposed, revealed for her to be seen as progressive and appealing in society. Weeks before even the advent of Ramadan tailors across Dhaka were fully booked all preparing people's jaw-dropping Eid outfits, beauty parlours have mushroomed across the city in which every type of beauty treatment is not only offered, but is the norm for many young women. Therefore the viewpoint towards women being sexual commodities is being normalised, allowing everyone, including men, companies, to also view her in this way. It is then no wonder that such a view of women in society has given rise to sexual crimes against her - If society, media and advertising is telling us to view women in this way, why shouldn't I, the common man may consciously or unconsciously feel.

Therefore new policy, women rights groups and all the rest may try to bring their share of solutions to this growing problem, but they are building sandcastles to close too the shore. Current thoughts in society about women, trickled over from the West, will eventually wear and wash them away. President Ayesha Khanam is right. We should fear an ailing culture, but instead of trying to patch it up and work with it, we need to uproot secular, free values to replace it with a society which will truly value and protect the viewpoint towards women.