Saki and Satire

Women's Learning Partnership: For Rights Development and Peace

2007-06-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

I’ve been meaning to write about this wonderful network - the Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) - before but have been procrastinating.

No time like the present:

In a nutshell, they’re about female empowerment as part of human equality, and positive thinking : they’re a network of networks - they work with 18 autonomous and independent partner organizations in the Global South, particularly in Muslim-majority societies, to “empower women to transform their families, communities, and societies.”

One of their particular campaigns that I wanted to highlight is ‘Claiming Equal Citizenship‘: the Campaign for Arab Women’s Right to Nationality.

Women’s right to equal citizenship is guaranteed by the majority of Arab constitutions, as well as by international law. Yet across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the Gulf, women are denied their right to nationality – a crucial component of citizenship.

In almost every country in the MENA and Gulf regions, women who marry men of other nationalities cannot confer their original nationality to their husbands or children. Only fathers, not mothers, can confer their nationality to their children.

Discriminatory laws denying women equal nationality rights undermine women’s status as equal citizens in their home countries. Such laws send the message that women do not enjoy a direct relationship with the state, but must access their citizenship rights through mediation of a male family member, such as a father or a husband. Until women in the MENA and Gulf regions are recognized as full nationals and citizens, they cannot participate fully in public life, nor claim the other rights to which they are entitled as equal members of their societies.

The denial of women’s nationality rights also created real suffering for dual nationality families living in the woman’s home country. Children and spouses are treated as foreigners and must obtain costly residence permits. Children are often excluded from social services such as social security, healthcare and subsidized or free access to education. In many countries, spouses and children have limited employment opportunities and are unable to own property. In terms of psychological impact, many women feel isolated and guilty because they feel responsible for the difficulties faced by their families, while children suffer from low self-esteem because of their second-class status.

I have written about this problem as affecting Bangladeshi women in the past - not being able to confer nationality upon their children - as it is passed through the father. Essentially this is how I found out about this campaign, one of the WLP activists commented upon my post and pointed me to their work.

The goals of the campaign are to call for

Legal reform enabling women to confer their nationality to their husbands and children without condition
Full implementation of reformed nationality laws and equal access to these laws for all women
Recognition of women as equal citizens in all areas of life

Please sign the petitions to support equal rights to citizenship for men and women.

Your signature sends a message of support to partners, who can use the international visibility to strengthen their advocacy efforts for amending nationality laws.

On troubling Hadiths

2007-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

A few thoughts on hadiths and religion in general:

I had a difficult relationship with religion while I was growing up. As a child, I used to be a voracious reader and stumbled upon lots of things, including the Hadith collection my parents had. Now there was one particular Hadith that I read when i was about 10 - which was a real shock to the system. I cannot emphasize how shocking - and how much impact it had - but in any case, it’s something that troubled me for a long long time. Frankly I couldn’t believe it. And it wasn’t something you could speak about to people - a) it was extremely indecent or so I felt as a child ( and the horror of having found it in a Hadith collection, can you imagine) and b) not the sort of thing you can broach to ‘religious’ people very easily - and plus the whole ‘ forbidden areas of thinking’ thing. I felt terribly alone - had anyone else read this stuff? what did they think about it if they had? no answers for a long time.

Now fast forward to the days where you can look up anything on the net -hooray ! and ask all sorts of people questions on the internet and generally find out more about what’s going on in other people’s heads. I’ve had some discussions about this hadith - but not too many -and then I tracked it down just to be sure i hadn’t dreamed it up, thanks to the USC MSa Compendium of Muslim texts which is searchable and a handy resource.

And of course as a child I had no idea about sex slavery or concubinage (whatever you want to call it) - or that islamic fiqh had regulated the conditions of slavery. of course the war booty thing ties in with the ‘taking women ransom’ but I’d never heard such justifications back then. If i had, i’m sure my feelings at the time of the Iraq invasion would have been even more complicated. {and plus all the stories you hear from relatives in bangladesh about the pakistani soldiers raping women in the war} These sorts of things are everywhere, but you don’t expect to read about them in compilations of ‘religious texts’. Why doesn’t it bother more people that’s what I wanted to know, what I still want to know, or how it can be ‘rationalised’. Some people are thinking about these knotty issues, but most people will brush them under the carpet. I daresay that is the natural thing to do - avoid controversy.

The Hadith in question is taken from Sahih Muslim, Book 8 which is the “The Book of Marriage” (Kitab Al-Nikah)

Chapter 22: AL AZL (INCOMPLETE SEXUAL INTERCOURSE): COITUS INTERRUPTUS

Book 008, Number 3371:

“Abu Sirma said to Abu Sa’id al Khadri (Allah he pleased with him): 0 Abu Sa’id, did you hear Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) mentioning al-’azl? He said: Yes, and added: We went out with Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to the Bi’l-Mustaliq and took captive some excellent Arab women; and we desired them, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, (but at the same time) we also desired ransom for them. So we decided to have sexual intercourse with them but by observing ‘azl (Withdrawing the male sexual organ before emission of semen to avoid-conception). But we said: We are doing an act whereas Allah’s Messenger is amongst us; why not ask him? So we asked Allah’s Mes- senger (may peace be upon him), and he said: It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born.

So that’s pretty much what rocked my boat: I don’t know what people manage to rationalize as adults but as a child that was pretty damn shocking to me, particularly given what I was told by my Mother about the ‘morals of sexuality in Islam’.

The next few narrations in Sahih Muslim which touch on this as well:

Book 008, Number 3372: A hadith like this has been narrated on the authority of Habban with the same chain of transmitters (but with this alteration) that he said:” Allah has ordained whom he has to create until the Day of judgment.” Book 008, Number 3373: Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (Allah be pleased with him) reported: We took women captives, and we wanted to do ‘azl with them. We then asked Allah’s Messen- ger (may peace be upon him) about it, and he said to us: Verily you do it, verily you do it, verily you do it, but the soul which has to be born until the Day of judgment must be born. Book 008, Number 3381: Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (Allah be pleased with him) reported that Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) was asked about ‘azl, whereupon he said: The child does not come from all the liquid (semen) and when Allah intends to create anything nothing can prevent it (from coming into existence). Book 008, Number 3377: Abu Sa’id al-Khudri (Allah be pleased with him) reported that mention was made of ‘azl in the presence of Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) whereupon he said: Why do you practise it? They said: There is a man whose wife has to suckle the child, and if that person has a sexual intercourse with her (she may conceive) which he does not like, and there is another person who has a slave-girl and he has a sexual intercourse with her, but he does not like her to have conception so that she may not become Umm Walad, whereupon he (the Holy Prophet) said: There is no harm if you do not do that, for that (the birth of the child) is something pre- ordained. Ibn ‘Aun said: I made a mention of this hadith to Hasan, and he said: By Allah, (it seems) as if there is upbraiding in it (for ‘azl).”

Apparently the reason they seem to talk about this “al-azl” thing so much is all tied up with the permissibility of contraception, or so it seems. So that’s what the men were bothered about: contraception - not - oh is it okay if i just have a quickie with this woman captive/slave girl here? and personally what i found the most shocking was that the Prophet was amongst them at the time - so what was he doing there while these men were ‘enjoying’ the captive women? I really had a lot of trouble with this one - once I’d read that I felt really resentful when as a teenager - time and time again- people would say ‘well we are all very moral people. we do not believe in boyfriends or girlfriends’. Sure aunties and uncles..i wanted to say..how do you explain this stuff then? {but of course good asian girls are not mean to answer back to the ‘community’ are they now, oh no}
Wholesome reading isn’t it. I can’t understand personally when you have lurid tales like these why anyone is bothered about cartoons. It seems to me if there is anything that would defame the character of a Holy Prophet then Hadiths like this one are the culprit. Would I choose to accept this as ‘religious tradition’ - well no of course not. If this is meant to be true then I can’t say honestly that I am impressed at all.
A note on inauthentic and authentic hadiths: These Hadiths are from the Sahih Muslim collection. For a long time I was vaguely aware that there were ‘weak'’ hadiths around - basically Hadiths that were ‘questionable’ and didn’t have a reliable ‘chain’ of narration. So for a while I assumed that this creepy stuff about coitus interruptus with captive women would surely fall into the ‘questionable’ camp, oh no - it turned out to be in Sahih Muslim - which according to Sunni tradition after Sahih Bukharis meant to be the two most reliable ones! ( don’t take my word for it - read the wikipedia links below). Well as far as I know anyway - i’d love it if someone came along and said, actually this stuff is bollocks too. Apparently Shias dismiss Sahih Muslim as inauthentic - I wonder why?
“A Sahih hadith is the one which has a continuous isnad, made up of reporters of trustworthy memory from similar authorities, and which is found to be free from any irregularities (i.e. in the text) or defects (i.e. in the isnad)”

wikipedia tells us that:

Muhammad’s sayings and deeds are called sunnah and are transmitted through hadith. Imam Muslim (full name Abul Husain Muslim bin al-Hajjaj al-Nisapuri) was born in 202 A.H. and died in 261 A.H. He traveled widely to gather his collection of ahadith, including to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Egypt. Out of 300,000 ahadith which he evaluated, only 4,000 approximately were extracted for inclusion into his collection based on stringent acceptance criteria. Each report in his collection was checked for compatibility with the Qur’an, and the veracity of the chain of reporters had to be painstakingly established. Muslim was a student of Bukhari and Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

It is important to realize, however, that Imam Muslim never claimed to collect all authentic traditions. He tried to collect only traditions that all Muslims should agree on its accuracy. There are other scholars who worked as Muslim did and collected other authentic reports. After Sahih Bukhari, this is the most authentic hadith collection in the Sunni perspective.

According to Munziri, there are a total of 2200 hadiths (with no repetition) in Sahih Muslim. This would bring the total of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim to 3000 hadiths. According to most Hadith scholars^[1], there are 1400 authentic hadiths that are reported in other books (mainly the Six major Hadith collections).

Cross-posted @ shorno.net

Eye on Backbiting Muslims

2007-02-20T04:03:00.000-08:00

Yes indeed. Funny title I know - but i visited a very strange blog which i haven’t seen in ages but caught my attention a while back - eye on gay muslims - and boy are they a bunch of whiners. I mean they’re pleased some one got fired for ‘inappropriate’ views on sexual orientation. Puh-leese - they do seem rather a mean lot of people. (call themselves compassionate as well.. ) their main aim in life seems to be self-denial (good for you - if that’s what you want) and trying to enforce the same on everyone else. oops no - not quite - just anyone else who is gay (oops excuse me - SSA -same sex orientation rather) should do the same. should anyone try to reconcile their religion and their sexual orientation - oh dear! - woe betide them - the eye of eye on gay muslims will be on them, pouring their wrath on them for daring to have a personal individual interpretation of religious beliefs. ooh dearie me..

really it’s people like this lot that make dogma what it is. they seem to forget every person has agency, and the right to individual interpretation, seeing as they’re the ones who’re accountable for their own actions.

New Year

2007-02-14T07:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I've decided to expand my repertoire - I've been neglecting this blog and not using this enough. One day when I look back, I'll regret it. . what happened to my 'memory box'? Instead of restricting myself to certain topics or subjects which is holding me back I shall write willy nilly on all sorts of things and anything.

The India trip 0ver Xmas and New Year was great fun and the wedding colourful and glamourous. More photos and travel journal type writing soon but this is currently what i've got saved on my computer so far..

Kashid Beach

Painted Page: Folio Society Gallery @ the British Library

2006-12-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

Right now the Painted Page exhibition at the new Folio Society Gallery @ the British Library is showing Images of medieval life in the Luttrell Psalter. You can view the original 13th Century illuminated mansuscript in the John Ritblat Gallery also at the BL.

The exhibition uses a mix of facsimile images of the manuscript + technology to make what is usually considered ‘for antiquarian interests only‘ an enjoyable, interactive experience and accessible to the public. There are explanatory notes on what the various icons and imagery might have meant + their social significance: providing insight into the 13th century world and how they may have viewed their reality and their life. Which is what’s interesting about illuminated (i.e. illustrated) manuscripts of course. The metaphorical and allegorical nature of medieval imagery and art is particularly interesting to me. Generally I’m interested in the social aspects of history.
The exhibition is free and runs until 7 January 2007. There is some fantastic technology at work here - the ‘Turning the pages‘ interactive feature is loads of fun and hopefully will soon be out of the ‘innovative’ bracket into ‘usual IT bracket’ : hmm let’s see.

** The John Ritblat Gallery showcases the ‘treasures’ of the British Library drawn from the millions of items they have in their collection: there’s a new room dedicated to the Magna Carta.

***

Illuminated manuscripts are the most common historical artefacts from the Middle Ages and the best surviving specimens of medieval art. And for some earlier periods of history they often are the only surviving examples of painting.

“An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration or illustration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniatures. In the strictest definition of the term, an illuminated manuscript only refers to manuscripts decorated with gold or silver. However, in both common usage and modern scholarship, the term is now used to refer to any decorated manuscript.”

You can find out more on this fascinating topic on wikipedia and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek - the National Library of the Netherlands

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol. III)

2006-08-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol. III)

Maugham was a witty fellow. This collection of short stories features the British agent Ashenden - who it is said inspired Ian Fleming’s Bond, particularly with regards to Bond’s interactions with M.

In any case, they revolve around the First World War - and are loosely based on the author’s experience of being an agent for the Intelligence Dept. during this time. As he puts it - ” The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless, the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable’

Apparently some of his stories were juicier and closer to the truth but were axed by Winston Churchill because they violated the Official Secrets Act..

Very readable, witty, highly recommended.

Another work - Ashenden: Or the British Agent which Somerset Maugham published in 1928 and is a complete collection of all the Ashenden short stories.

technorati tags: W. Somerset Maugham, Ashenden

***

William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874, his father the solicitor at the British Consulate. He studied literature and philosophy at Heidelberg University, and then medicine at St. Thomas’ in London. It was during this time as a medical student he built on his experiences and published Liza of Lambeth in 1897.

After the 1930s Maugham’s reputation abroad was greater than in England.

x-posted at shorno.net

The Rule of Four

2006-08-07T03:09:00.000-07:00

The Rule of Four - Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

Great - I really enjoyed reading this - I admit i’m fascinated with ancient and mediaeval texts and a good mystery at the same time so this was right up my street. It’s focus is the mysterious, lengthy, erudite and anonymous Renaissance text - the Hypneromatochia Poliphili

“A mysterious coded manuscript, a violent Ivy League murder, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide in a labyrinth of betrayal, obsession, and genius..”
shorno.net book journal

2006-07-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Zadie Smith discusses her latest book ‘On Beauty’ at Wanstead Library this Saturday - 29th July.

This is her third novel and was published in 2005, and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction. It’s been referred to in a lot of reviews as a ‘homage to EM Forster’.

Starts at 7.00 p.m. and tickets are £3.

Wanstead Library is in the London Borough of Redbridge

Spratt Hall Road
Wanstead
London
E11 2RQ

Tel: 020 8708 7400

Images From Old Books

2006-06-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

A lovely resource i've found via Leighton Cooke - From Old Books : here you can find scanned images, engravings and pictures from old books.

"Remains of Ruined Castles, Deserted Abbeys, Old Manor Houses, mansions and stately homes.."

Ah..

internet: library and labyrinth

2006-05-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Green Tea

2006-05-18T03:27:00.000-07:00

Green Tea and Other Tales by Sheridan LeFanu

Irish writer born in 1814 well known for his ghost stories and supernaturalist fiction. M.R. James was a great fan of his work. He published his vampire story Carmilla in 1872 - predating Bram Stoker's Dracula - ( it is theorized that Stoker was possibly influenced by Carmilla).

the wikipedia article on him points out:

"His best-known works, still read today, are the macabre mystery novel Uncle Silas (1864), 'The Rose and the Key' (1871), and the collection In a Glass Darkly (1872), which contains Carmilla as well as 'Green Tea' and 'The Familiar', two famous stories of enigmatic hauntings apparently provoked by obscure guilt "

A lot of his work is available online - the Green Tea e-text is available here

Web Braille Petition

2006-05-18T03:16:00.000-07:00

Web Braille offers access to thousands of electronic braille books on the Internet for the use of eligible braille readers by the Library of Congress National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS).On May 11th 2006 NLS made the following announcement on the Web Braille website:

“Because of technical and security difficulties, Web Braille will be unavailable in the near future. NLS regrets the inconvenience and will provide further information as soon as possible.”

Unacceptable and unfair - this needs to be resolved immediately! Please add your voice and sign the online petition- they need to sort this out ASAP.

Thanks…

via As it Happens

news update

2006-04-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

some people have kindly linked to this site - please note - i shall shortly be moving the content on this site over to the book journal section of my wordpress blog - the past, present and future.

Reasons for moving? Hmm, this Blogger software is just so crap really, that's it - in a nutshell. it appears attractive, but re: functionality, i'm not so sure. Wordpress is miles better, hence i'm sticking to that publishing platform. the blogger experiment will soon be over.

Survival of Classical Literature

2006-01-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

At the Warburg Institute

Renaissance Astrology and Magic Texts

2006-01-29T10:27:00.000-08:00

Renaissance Astrology and Magic Bookshop

Uffizi Gallery

2006-01-29T05:15:00.000-08:00

The Past Present and Future had a post on the Virtual Uffizi - a website where you can view images of most of the Galleries' works, as well as finding out more about visiting the Gallery.

The Infernal Parliament - More Saki

2006-01-28T06:39:00.000-08:00

I found this on a blog called Laudator Temporis Acti - and in an amusing post titled 'Political Correctness in Hell' he refers to, and publishes, a short story by our friend HH Munro - Saki: The Infernal Parliament

technorati tags: Saki, Infernal Parliament,HH munro

Allen Ginsberg talks about poetry

2006-01-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Allen Ginsberg on poetry

friday the 13th

2006-01-13T08:57:00.000-08:00

Friday the 13th of October 1307 - the day all the Templars in france were arrested by Philip IV ( called Philip the Fair and King of France from 1285-1314) on a variety of wild charges and accusations.

Organ Recitals at the Temple Church

2005-12-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

Organ Recitals are held on Wednesdays between 1.15 - 1.45 pm, at the Temple Church and are free and open to the public. For a full timetable of the series for 2006 please click here,
a few upcoming dates are highlighted below.

Also, the services are open to the public, and information is available at the link.

11 JANUARY -Francis Jacob [(in support of the Keyboard Trust]
18 JANUARY James Lancelot [Durham Cathedral]
25 JANUARY Ian le Grice [Temple Church]
1 FEBRUARY Robert Quinney [Westminster Abbey]
8 FEBRUARY Robert Houssart [Gloucester Cathedral]
15 FEBRUARY Colin Walsh [Lincoln Cathedral]

technorati tags: architecture, Knights Templar

The Athenian Murders

2005-12-13T09:57:00.000-08:00

The Athenian Murders by Jose Carlos Somoza is definitely reminiscent of a Chinese puzzle. A mystery within a mystery. It's been called a postmodern novel amongst all sorts of other things - and its definitely worth a read. Featuring 'Heracles Pontor - Decipherer of Enigmas'..

Ghost Stories of M.R.James

2005-12-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) is known as one of the originators of the modern ghost story. Either which way, they are a fantastic read - and definitely so for anyone interested in the 'classic' ghost story. Also, for antiquarians they're particularly fun.

The 1904 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary' was succeeded in 1911 by the second collection - 'More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary'. H.P. Lovecraft called him 'a literary weird fictionist of the very first rank'.

technorati tags:ghost stories

Best Secondhand Bookshop in London

2005-12-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

Skoob Books, Russell Square. Currently the physical premises are 'under construction' so check out the online shop.

technorati tags: Books, Bookshops

Arthurian Texts and Images

2005-12-10T14:52:00.000-08:00

Holy Grail Texts

Chapman, William Ernest. "The Departure of the Knights." From: Sterling, Mary Blackwell. The Story of Sir Galahad: Retold from Le Morte D'Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory and the Original Stories by Mary Blackwell Sterling. New York": E. P. Dutton, 1908.

Short Stories by Saki: Esme

2005-12-10T04:25:00.000-08:00

One of his wickeder and funnier stories, Esme - this a link to a lovely site which has a few of Saki's short stories featured. Enjoy the read ( oh he does have a sharp sharp edge) As copyright has expired, there are actually quite a few places on the web where you can enjoy Saki's stories for free. Project Gutenberg is one of them, i shall be refreshing my memory and placing more links from this site.

technorati tag:Saki

Beyond the Shadows: Classic Gothic Tales

2005-12-10T04:19:00.000-08:00

Beyond the Shadows - an audio collection of four classic short stories from the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Edgar Allan Poe - The Tell-tale Heart

The second two tracks are Saki's The Open Window

And the last one is by Louisa May Alcott - ( you might remember Little Women): A Pair of Eyes

Directions to Inner Temple and the Temple Church

2005-12-10T04:11:00.000-08:00

Temple Church

2005-12-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

The Temple Church was built by the Knights Templar in the 12th Century. Like other Templar churches, the Temple Church has a round apse, and built to the plan of Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre; the significance of this is not often realised today.

The Temple Church had until recently, been one of London's best-kept secrets, and has been for four centuries been maintained by the Middle and Inner Temples, societies of lawyers whose offices ('chambers') surround the Church.

technorati tag: Knights Templar, Churches, Architecture, London

The Holy Blood, Holy Grail

2005-12-10T03:42:00.000-08:00

It's interesting, the craze that Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code have created. now all of a sudden everyone has heard of the Templars, the Merovingians and - so is everyone suddenly interested in esoterica and hermetica?

Well i thought it was an amusing read and i do find it fascinating that old stuff and history and myth is suddenly viewed as not so boring by many. of course lots of people won't take it any further but the image of 'templar enthusiasts' may change slightly..who knows we shall see!

The original Holy Blood Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln was published in 1982 and followed on from a BBC documentary. A lot of - or shall we say - most of the stuff in the Da Vinci code came from the theories expressed in this book.

The wikipedia article on this book is useful to read. I shall enjoy myself immensely when i read this book.

Technorati tags: da vinci code, Priory of Sion

Who was Saki?

2005-11-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

'Saki' was born Hector Hugh Munro in what was then Burma and is now Myanmar, the son of Charles Augustus Munro, an inspector-general in the Burmese police. Munro's mother, Mary Frances Mercer - died in 1872 and interestingly and rather revealingly, according to some Internet sources - she was "killed by a runaway cow in an English country lane."

That may explain some of his stories. The pseudonym Saki is thought to be taken from the name of the Cupbearer in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

A couple of quotes from Saki to whet your appetite and entice your curiosity about this interesting and rather enigmatic character:

"Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts"

"He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death"

technorati tag: Saki

The Unrest Cure and other Beastly Tales

2005-11-24T09:20:00.000-08:00

Absolutely the best read ever. The Unrest Cure is something that should be more well publicized.

technorati tag :Saki