literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

http://www.geocities.com/tulsidas_ramayan

http://sulekha.com/chpost.asp?for...ilosophy&show=0&cid=80645

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3429695.stm

Storm over Indian women's mosque

by Soutik Biswas

BBC News Online correspondent in Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu

Daud Sharifa is spearheading the drive for the women's mosque

Daud Sharifa is meeting a group of distressed Muslim women - business
as usual at her red-brick office in sleepy Pudukkottai, in India's
southern state of Tamil Nadu. The shy women tell in low voices
stories of how they have been divorced, abandoned and mistreated by
their husbands.

Sharifa, a 39-year-old single woman who runs a 3,000-strong network
to help Muslim women, gives advice.

The audience listens to her impassioned plea for women to build their
own place of worship and be involved in community rulings on
marriage, divorce, domestic abuse and child custody.

"Would having a place of worship of your own help? Would a jamat
[community elders at mosques who adjudicate on family matters] of
women be more sympathetic to your cause?" asks Sharifa.

The women nod in unison.

Rising complaints

Sharifa, an unlikely feminist in India's traditionally male-dominated
southern heartland, has caused a storm by leading the movement for
the women's mosque.

Some women complain rulings in mosques are biased against them

"We want our space to meet, talk, discuss our grievances and pray. We
want to have a say in community rulings," Sharifa told BBC News
Online.

In India, Muslim women mostly pray in buildings adjoining mosques; in
some big mosques there are separate prayer enclosures.

"The majority of mosques do not allow women to pray," says Badar
Sayed, a Chennai-based lawyer and chairwoman of Tamil Nadu's Waqf
Board.

Waqf boards are elected bodies of Muslim theologians.

Ms Sayed says it is extremely important for women to be a part of a
mosque congregation.

"Sometimes the sermons relate to women. Women should be present,
listening in and finding out what they are all about," she says.

Female worshippers must often pray in adjacent buildings

Sharifa says the idea of a women's mosque was motivated by the rising
number of complaints from local Muslim women against what they see as
partisan rulings by the jamat.

Last year, she received over 100 petitions from women against jamat
rulings in matters of dowry, divorce and domestic violence.

"The mosque will be a symbol of our awakening. Men are welcome to
come and pray, but women will manage the affairs and be on its
jamat," says Sharifa.

Badar Sayed agrees that the "male-dominated jamats" are often biased
in rulings that affect women.

"Women are oppressed. The jamat does rule against them most of the
time," she says.

"Men are sitting in judgment. Jamats should accept women into their
fold."

Compromise

But Mohammed Sikkandar, secretary of Chennai's Purasawalkam mosque,
says the jamats are "by and large fair".

"In matters of family dispute, we take our decision after talking to
the affected women. Nothing is hastily decided," he says.

Mr Sikkandar says that of the 40 family dispute cases that came to
his mosque in the past year, all but five were settled with a
compromise.

Our mosque will help us to get together and vent our feelings

Rashida Begum

He says jamats have even given away hefty compensation packages to
women, citing the example of a 400,000-rupee ($8,800) award his jamat
paid to a woman divorcing her abusive husband.

But this does not deter Sharifa, who says that there "might be a few
good men, and a few good jamats", but the system is stacked against
women.

She has toured villages and towns, collecting 9,000 rupees ($200)
towards building the mosque. She will need $55,000.

Rashida Begum, a 21-year-old teacher and divorcee, is one of the
Pudukkottai women supporting her.

"We are confined to our homes. Our thoughts are pent up. Our mosque
will help us to get together and vent our feelings," Ms Begum says.

Rajitha Begum, 37, whose husband abandoned her, says a mosque would
help women who have "nobody to go to".

"You don't realise how helpless women are. We have no fallback, no
opportunities to decide our fates. Our mosque will show the way," she
says.

===========

'India will be a superpower in 20 years'

MUMBAI: When Jeffrey Armstrong predicted over 20 years ago that
Silicon Valley would be overrun by Indian innovators and engineers,
no one believed him. Today, his prophecy has come true manifold.

"I based my forecast on the fact that Indians have a very strong
Sanskrit background,'' he says. Sanskrit being the perfect language
for computer programming, I was confident even then that Indians
would outshine others in computer innovations.''

His next prediction is equally interesting: India will become a
superpower in another 20 years, even earlier if Indians propagate
their culture and legacy effectively in the West.

The motivational speaker, who left his corporate job seven years ago
to foster the spread of Hindu and Vedic culture in the West, looks
like a typical American till he opens his mouth.

The barrage of Sanskrit shlokas, names of ancient rishis and quotes
from Indian philosophers that emerges thereafter, however, could give
any desi a complex.

Lauding Indian contributions to the world of science and the arts,
the incorrigible Indophile rues the fact that Indians abroad are not
networked.

"It's also unfortunate that there is no systematic plan to reach out
to the millions of non-Indian people in the West who love, respect
and follow Indian traditions like yoga and vegetarianism in their
daily life,'' he says. Currently on a tour of India , the Armstrongs
are now settled in Canada .

Maintaining that India is already becoming an intellectual leader of
the world, Mr Armstrong says that even ayurveda is fast picking up in
the West.

"In the US alone, over half a dozen universities have been approached
to recognise ayurveda as a complimentary therapy and I am hopeful
that within a couple of years, this branch of medicine will be as
popular as other Indian therapies like yoga and transcendental
meditation,'' he says, adding that the National Ayurvedic Medicine
Association (NAMA) has already been set up in Canada and the US to
promote the cause.

To bolster his prediction about Indians becoming leaders of the world
in the near future, Mr Armstrong declares that the maximum
outsourcing for the West is now from India .

"In almost every sphere of activity, Indians are the frontrunners,''
he says. "Most of the prominent scientists, doctors, technocrats and
innovators are Indians.''

Mr Armstrong, who worked as a sales manager with Apple Computer for
six years, is married to Sandy Gramah, who shares his passion for all
things Indian.

The couple, which has founded an educational institute called the
Vedic Academy of Science and Arts (VASA), is now working on creating
a permanent library of Hindu and Vedic culture in Vancouver .

Their clients include successful businessmen, lawyers, corporate
executives and leaders of society. "Bring as much knowledge from
India as you can,'' concludes Mr Armstrong. "People in north America
are eager for it.''

Get your own free IRC Chat room