A video about Sameena, a female taxi driver in Mumbai was recently published by Worldfocus. Here is the link to the piece.
The video can also be viewed here:

There are several interesting comments on the site which I have decided to copy and paste here to allow the discussion to continue and evolve. And in light of the rulings in France by Nicolas Sarkozy and his Government there is a lot to be said about this Muslim lady and her decisions. Go ahead and give your take!

04/01/2010 :: 02:47:09 PM
Secretary Says:

One day she will learn that wearing a burka is similar to being branded with a large M on her forehead. It took a long time for American slaves in the 1860s after Americas civil war to lose that feeling of being a slave. So will this lady to get rid of the past and step into the world where she can be free. She is very brave to put her face on the world stage since she is going against her fellow Muslims belifs.

04/01/2010 :: 04:53:59 PM
Steve Says:

I am fully aware of oppressive, patriarchal history and culture that led to various head coverings and “hiding away” of women. And before I came into contact with so many women who wear head covering, I probably would have said precisely the same thing as “Secretary” above.

But, while I still believe such coverings are oppressive, I also see that the actual lives and narratives of the women I know who wear them completely contradict the idea that this oppression has been fully successful.

I know proud, stubborn, fully empowered women who– for their own reasons — do not feel it to be a contradiction to wear a head covering. Or, if they do see the contradiction, many of them seem so comfortable and confident in their independent identity, that they simply live with the contradiction.

This does not mean that I am comfortable, either with the contradictions or with the head coverings themselves. I know the history that they represent.

But if and when various cultures evolve past the need to hide and imprison women and cover their faces, it will not simply be the removal of those head coverings that will lead to full liberation as human beings.

I’m afraid that internal struggle is not so easily and directly related to external garb.

04/01/2010 :: 08:58:14 PM
David Jamadar Says:

Change are slow but inevitable. As time passes either we adapt or get left behind. I never like to see women wearing that covering is hides their true beauty. And when you can see really see things. I think that women soon would realize that the world is moving on. These small clips about independent women makes me feel proud.

04/02/2010 :: 11:02:10 PM
Azizah Says:

Lovely, I love this, women getting employed, owning business and taking economic independence. Cheers to the future!

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, a former Pakistani lawmaker issued an anti terrorism fatwa in London this Tuesday. It stated that suicide bombing was banned by Islam “without any excuses, any pretexts, or exceptions.” This is a great stand and one that many other organizations have taken before. Even recently after the incident at Fort Hood, The National Coalition of South Asian Organizations released ‘their fatwa.’ The NCSO consists of over twenty organizations who had issued this strong statement after the tragedy in Fort Hood. It is not any different from most of the voices I heard in the Mumbai taxis. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Parsis and Jews traveling through bustling Bombay commented on this unfortunate misconception between Islam and Terror and voiced the same concern as Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri and The Quilliam Foundation.

When will mainstream media truly pay attention to all the voices of dissent? Like I said , a great stand but one which has been stated by the common man for decades. May this fatwa enter the domain of pop culture and be talked about on twitter, blogs, backyards in Alabama, streets of Kabul, Mc Donalds kitchens and headlines of every big publication Worldwide as much as it was talked about in the Mumbai taxis. Inshallah!

I wanted to spread the word about a great film screening today where I will be talking about my own experience of using Web 2.0 strategies for The Taxi Takes on Terror. I will be presenting along with Daniel Bowman-Simon of the People’s Garden project, and Sam Gregory from the human rights group Witness.

10 Tactics for Turning Information Into Action is a film by the Tactical Technology Collective that includes stories from activists around the world who have successfully used digital technologies to change the world. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion. The New York premiere is with their partners, Grassroots Camp.
In addition the Tactical Tech Collective is giving away incredible Toolkits.

When: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 7:00 PM
Where: The Tank Space for Performing and Visual Arts – 45th St. and 9th Ave. New York City
Tickets are $5.00 in advance: http://www.brownpapertickets. com/event/ 96989

The film includes the famous Pink Chadi campaign and post 26/11 Mumbai twitter tactics in India.

I woke up this morning to a text message, ” Terrorist attack in Pune just now! Bombay on high alert.” Later I checked Facebook expecting to see more news scribbled all across people’s walls.I found only a few. The attack wasn’t big and spectacular enough to capture our imagination and interest for long I guess. There was no plane flying into any tall building, no posh World heritage site under seige or even hostages. Instead what caused the attack was a small package maybe like the one displayed by the MTA in New York under the sign,’ If you See Something, Say Something’, probably a brown box tied up in string. Who knows. A well meaning waiter probably trying to do his job, touched the package and today was his last day working at the German Bakery. As of now 9 people have been reported killed and 45 injured.

A lot of talk is going on about if this is a terrorist attack or not. India has witnessed years of ‘bombs being left in packages’ type of blasts. Back then they were not termed terror attacks, just a bomb blast. Now with talks between India and Pakistan scheduled for February 25th 2010, authorities are trying to get more evidence and different departments are scrambling from New Delhi to get paper work going and official press releases prepared.

But at this time I think of the German Bakery. As an engineering student in Pune my brother used to live in Koregaon Park, 5 minutes away from German Bakery. I went there when the wooden seats and tables were literally on the road itself and the only thing that divided the open road from the sweet bakery was a bamboo like fence and a makeshift roof which sheltered us from the scorching sun. With growing popularity the owners decided to put up a bamboo wall and paint it green in keeping with all the healthy snacks and drinks they sold. A Bamboo wall is a bit like a sky roof. Nothing very imposing and barricading about it. A soft target with zenned out folks from the Osho Ashram with musical instruments and granola bars, tie and dye skirts and wooden beads. The Bamboo wall splintered into smithereens when the package went off today. Many people have lost their lives and many more have lost brothers, sisters, hope, maybe a livelihood, maybe a dream of coming to India on a spiritual journey……who knows.

If the German Bakery ever re-opens it will never have a bamboo fence again but probably a big metal door and many security guards. Bags might be searched and forget about taking a guitar inside to sing and strum. A story similar to the warm and lively Leopold Cafe in Bombay that was targeted. Terror strikes to induce cold hostility and calculated caution. Maybe that’s why India is getting hit again and again. Someone wants the ever welcoming hospitality to cow down and put up its big metal walls. But I hope it never does. Who knows.

It’s beyond ironic to think that President Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace prize. This, just as he makes the largest blunder in the history of wars and orders more troops to catapult an ongoing escalation into another decade of suffering. It has been the aggressive policies post 9/11 that have sharpened the dagger of Islamist terrorism in the World. The Iraqis, the Afghanis have already acted like a forest that is being burnt down in search of a target – sometimes a man named Bin Laden and at other times fictitious Weapons of Mass Destruction. To send more troops into Afghanistan at a time when America is still struggling under economic debt is creating more enemies. In fact this time, I think Obama is creating enemies out of his own American citizens who once believed in ‘change’ and now plead for health reform and more jobs rather than America’s 6th war since the end of WW II.

Artists, writers, news anchors, journalists, filmmakers, poets, trapeze artists and anyone else with a voice and body need to have their say and speak out. The cartoon above was published on Little Alex in Wonderland along with the eloquent and incredible Noam Chomsky‘s ‘take’ on ‘War, Peace and Obama’s Nobel.’ Michael Moore, the famous, talented attention grabbing documentary filmmaker wrote a letter to his president. Huffington Post carries this Open letter to President Obama.

Read it and go have a conversation with your Pakistani cab driver in New York. He’ll probably tell you he’s not planning on taking a trip back home this X’mas. Obama’s choices are creating an inferno of problems in Pakistan and the Indian sub continent. And with this surge, it’s only going to get worse I predict. Unfortunately no ‘Change’ for the better.

Pritish Nandy says we should ‘stop jabbering about 26/11.’ To quote him he says,

” Terrorists do not need to celebrate the success of 9/11 or 26/11. We are doing it for them, even as we weep for the victims and tell the world that we are better prepared to face future strikes. Let’s not kid ourselves. Terrorism is the scourge of our times and no Government, no police force is ever adequately equipped to anticipate it. The more we talk about the pain, the horror, the memories of these terrible events, the more the perpetrators celebrate, the more they go down in history as villains or heroes, depending on who is providing the perspective, and to whom.”

You can read his entire post on the Times of India blog.
Well I commented on his blog post but he didn’t approve my comment so I decided to publish it here. This is my Take.

“I completely disagree. We are not jabbering about our fears, mistakes and failures alone. To be silent would be similar to witnessing the holocaust and remaining quiet about it! Yes I agree, the terrorists do feed off headlines. But that’s where insightful journalism plays a role.
Talk, discuss, deliberate about the future, about larger issues which need to be addressed in the World community as far as Modern Terrorism goes. Give your perspective and yes speak out, in fact shout out against such inhumanity I say.
I’m working on such a project. It’s about taxi drivers and passengers in Mumbai taxis talking about 26/11 and related issues. It’s a new media project called ‘The Taxi Takes on Terror’

So Manmohan Singh and Obama will meet soon or are meeting as I write this. I’m hoping that Mr. Prime Minister of India will not be quiet about 26/11. In my mind given that one year would have gone by since the tragic attacks, no Indian citizen should be quiet.

Famous Anti Nazi Slogan translated into Arabic

“We Will Not Be Silent” was the slogan of one of ‘The White Rose Society‘, one of the few anti Nazi societies which existed in Weimer Germany. This slogan was taken up and became the anti war slogan for several organizations like The Artists Against War.I did a presentation about them and was gifted a T-shirt which has that slogan written in Arabic. Read about Raed Jarrar who was stopped from boarding a flight at JFK for wearing the same t-shirt on Democracy Now.

Nope Mr. Nandy, ‘We Will Not Be Silent.’

Newsweek has done a great job at condensing the news and events of this past decade into a short 7 minute film.

Of course US news and its elections take center stage but pertinently enough Terrorism seems to have dominated this decade in more ways then one. Ofcourse some direct associations can be made with each American President and the corresponding World Wars and events also. Ironically Madonna and Britney Spear’s kiss hogs more screen time than the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A foreboding and predictive way in which the media is already heading towards titillation rather than truthful fact informing. If NDTV made this, would they give Rakhi Sawant’s ‘swayamvar’ more time than the Naxalite problem? Probably yes I say.

The Fort Hood attack and it’s coverage in the US is a scary example of stereo typing and even ignorant reporting. More to come on that.
So will the next ten years have a corresponding increase in headlines on Terror? What’s your prediction?

I had the great fortune of meeting Malalai Joya, a wonderful voice against the occupation in Afghanistan. She is against the warlords and drug lords in Afghanistan who she says are just as bad as the Taliban and are becoming stronger and more corrupt with the support of the US. A good account of the talk, written by Ellora Derenoncourt can be read here on the South Asia Solidarity Initiative site.
It was an honor to stand by this incredible human being.

In solidarity with Malalai Joya at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

On a separate but related note, this Sunday The South Asian International Film Festival SAIFF is screening ‘Made in Pakistan’ which appears to be an interesting documentary posing a fresh un-stereotyped view on what Pakistanis themselves feel and are doing in their country. Possibly some good post Halloween realism.
Tickets can be purchased here

Malalai Joya is speaking tomorrow at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

This extraordinary woman and her story of courage and spirit is just what the World needs! During the Taliban rule Malalai Joya started underground schools in defiance of the oppressive militants. She spoke out against the war criminals and drug Lords of Afghanistan and at the age of 27 stood for parliament elections while facing death threats. Her enemies call her a ‘dead woman walking’. “I am young and I want to live. But I say to those who would eliminate my voice: ‘I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.” The Independant has done a great story on her while The Gaurdian features her message to the British people. After being deposed in 2007 for publicly denouncing the corrupt war Lords in the Aghani Parliament her voice sounds a signal of truth and justice at a time when words like democracy and freedom are being misused to send more troops into Afghanistan.

Malalai Joya

Watch Wide Angle’s documentary about this Woman Among Warlords. It’s an incredible story about about one woman’s conviction and strength to stand against deadly wrongs and believe in her power as an individual. If this doesn’t move you and Hollywood’s heroic tales do, then we all might as well ask Will Smith to save the World. Because according to me the cards are on the table and increasing troops in Afghanistan is America trying to star in Hollywood’s next version of ‘The Declaration of Independence.’

Come hear these women raise their voices.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27TH, 2009

THE SKYLIGHT ROOM, 3 PM—5 PM

CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, 365 FIFTH AVE @ 34TH ST.

Malalai Joya, Minister of Parliament in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. She is the author of A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice (Simon and Schuster, 2009).

Awista Ayub fled Afghanistan in 1981 for the U.S. After the fall of the Taliban, she returned to Kabul and founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange, dedicated to nurturing Afghan girls through soccer. Her work is the subject of However Tall the Mountain (Hyperion 2009).

Nasrine Gross, founder of The Roqia Center for Women’s Rights, Studies and Education in Afghanistan. Professor Gross’ work is profiled in Walking the Precipice: Witness to the Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan (Feminist Press, 2009).

Moderated by: Laura Flanders, GritTV