Letter to editor

 

This letter was written late 2005, when there was a tough discussion in federal parliament about banning the hijjab in public places. I, having come to Australia recently, was really outraged by such proposals by  a liberal MP named Bronwyn Bishop. I asked an aussie friend of mine, if i could have a say in this regard, and he kindly told me to write a letter and send it to editorial section of local and national newspapers. That is what i did. here is the letter which i wrote on the time and luckily it was published by age, although i sent it to 4 or 5 of them

 

Dear Editor

 

 I am writing to you about the very fundamental issue of banning the hijab in public schools, which has been the point of argument for the last two months. It has made me think about the crucial consequences of this suggestion, which was made by Ms. Bronwyn Bishop a liberal MP.

 

 Initially, president Chiraq proposed the controversial ban in France. This lead to the division among the different religious groups in France, though they wanted cohesion and tolerance. The criticism was that conspicuous religious symbols such as the hijab are divisive, due to being easily recognised.  This suggests that obvious religious symbols, such as Muslims headscarves, Jewish skullcaps or Christian crosses, create prejudice, intolerance and discrimination among the people. In reality people use symbols for their identity, faith, survival and guidance. In fact Hijab is more than wearing a piece of cloth, it is the spiritual protection from sins and corruption. 

 

In conjunction with the French decision to outlaw the wearing of Islamic headscarves in state schools and public places, banning the hijab in a tolerant, multicultural and fair-go society as Australia would be divisive and a step towards demolishing human rights. It should be pointed out that there are many other conspicuous symbols existing in our society, which could destabilise a democratic society and creates fear such as the bikies having their own very visible violent symbols. The point is that why don’t our MP’s back a push to regulate their behaviour instead of attacking a particular religious group?

 The suggestion to ban the hijab deliberately encourages religious and cultural separation and hatred in the multicultural society of Australia, rather than acceptance and improving the relation among the different religious groups. Indeed, we need integration, harmony and understanding the principles of all the religions existing in the country.

 

All in all, there is no room for decisions that gives credit to intolerance, selfishness and separation in a modern democratic society like Australia where everyone should be equal before the law. We must join our voices to stop prejudice and discrimination and improve cohesion and harmony, and learn to tolerate the diversity of religious and cultural groups because it is the test of confidence in our own identity.

 

 

Besmellah Rezaee         

Eight March

 

International Women's day: Looking Back

Introduction

International Women’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. It is an occasion for looking back on past struggles and accomplishments, and more importantly, for looking ahead to the untapped potential and opportunities that await future generations of women.

In 1975, during International Women's Year, the United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day on 8 March. Two years later, in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women's Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions. In adopting its resolution, the General Assembly recognized the role of women in peace efforts and development and urged an end to discrimination and an increase of support for women’s full and equal participation.

History

International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.

1909: The first National Woman's Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.

1910: The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women's Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women's rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women. The proposal was greeted with unanimous approval by the conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, which included the first three women elected to the Finnish Parliament. No fixed date was selected for the observance.

1911: As a result of the Copenhagen initiative, International Women's Day was marked for the first time (19 March) in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, where more than one million women and men attended rallies. In addition to the right to vote and to hold public office, they demanded women’s rights to work, to vocational training and to an end to discrimination on the job.

1913-1914: International Women's Day also became a mechanism for protesting World War I. As part of the peace movement, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February. Elsewhere in Europe, on or around 8 March of the following year, women held rallies either to protest the war or to express solidarity with other activists.

1917: Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for ‘Bread and Peace’ on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Czar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

Since those early years, International Women's Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike. The growing international women's movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women's conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women's rights and participation in the political and economic arenas. Increasingly, International Women's Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

The United Nations and Gender Equality

The Charter of the United Nations, signed in 1945, was the first international agreement to affirm the principle of equality between women and men. Since then, the UN has helped create a historic legacy of internationally-agreed strategies, standards, programmes and goals to advance the status of women worldwide.

Over the years, the UN and its technical agencies have promoted the participation of women as equal partners with men in achieving sustainable development, peace, security, and full respect for human rights. The empowerment of women continues to be a central feature of the UN’s efforts to address social, economic and political challenges across the globe.

A brief History of Afghanistan

 

A Brief History of Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN'S HISTORY, its internal political development, its foreign relations, and its very existence as an independent state have been largely determined by its location at the crossroads of Central, West, and South Asia. Waves of migrating peoples poured through the region in ancient times, leaving a human residue to form a mosaic of ethnic and linguistic
groups. In modern times, a.. well as in antiquity, great armies passed through the region, establishing at least temporary
local control and often dominating Iran and northern India as well.

Although it was the scene of great empires and flourishing trade for over two millennia, Afghanistan did not become a
truly independent nation until thetwentieth century. For centuries a zone of conflict among strong neighboring powers, the
area’s heterogeneous groups were not bound into a single political entity until the reign of the brilliant Ahmad Shah Durrani, who in 1747 founded the monarchy that ruled the country until 1973. After his death, the absence of a strong
successor possessed of military and political skills resulted in the temporary disintegration of the kingdom he had created, a frequent pattern in the society’s history. Just as it was the arena of conflict between the Mughal Empire of India and the Safavi Empire of Iran in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, Afghanistan in the nineteenth century lay between the expanding might of the Russian and British empires. It was in the context of this confrontation that Afghanistan in its contemporary form came into existence during the reigns of Dost Mohammad Khan.

Historical patterns of the past several centuries remained relevant to the nation’s situation in the mid-1980s. First, because
of Afghanistan’s strategic location geopolitically, great rival powers have tended to view the control of Afghanistan by
a major opponent as unacceptable. Sometimes the Afghans have been able to use this circumstance to their benefit, but
more often they have suffered grievously in the great power struggles. Great powers have considered Afghanistan’s internal politics more as a reflection of international rivalry than as events in themselves.

A second pattern has been the inability of central governments to establish effective and permanent control over the
Afghanistnn: A Country Study numerous peoples of the society. Only in response to foreign invasions or as part of a conquering army outside the country have the many diverse groups found common cause, the pashtuns, Hazaras, Tajiks Uzbuks and other minorities have always resisted against the foreign invadors . Neither the heirs of Alexander the Great nor those of Genghis Khan, Timur, or Ahmad Shah were able to subdue the tribes permanently.

A third enduring pattern in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been the gradual extension of Russian control
into Central Asia. The strategies used by the tsar’s generals to subdue the khans north of the Amu Darya may have been
instructive to Soviet commanders who moved across the river in 1979. The Afghans, like the Turks and Iranians, historically have had both a fear of the Soviet Union and a desire to benefit from relations with their northern neighbor.
Finally, one cannot examine Afghan history without noting the key role of Islam. Even Genghis Khan was unable to uproot Islam, and within two generations his heirs had become Muslims. Religious leaders have always played a political role
and, as in many other nations, religion has served as a means of political expression. An important, if often unacknowledged, event in Afghan history that played a role in the politics of Afghanistan’s neighbors and the entire region up to the present was the rise in the tenth century of a strong Sunni dynasty- the Ghaznavids-whose power prevented the eastward spread of Shiism from Iran and thereby assured that the majority of Muslims in Afghanistan and South Asia would become Sunnis.

          

 

 

Country name:
 conventional short form: Afghanistan
Region: Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran
Religions: Islam
Population: 28,717,213 (July 2003 est.)
Area Total: 647,500 km2 Area Land: 647,500 km2
Coast Line: 0 km (Landlocked)
Capital: Kabul
Ethnic groups: Pashtun , Hazara ,Tajik, Uzbek  , Turkmen , Aimaq 
Languages: Pashto and Dari are the major languages; Balochi, Pashayi, Uzbek, Turkmen, Arabic and Tajiki are also used. There are approximately 45 living languages in total and a large degree of bilingualism
Geographic coordinates: 33 00 N, 65 00 E
Currency: 1 afghani (AF) = 100 puls
Independence: 19 August
Natural resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones
Average Daily Temperature
Climate: arid to semiarid; cold winters and hot summers
January: -2.8?C / 27?F
July: 24.4?C / 76?F
Annual Rainfall: 330.2mm / 13'
Boundaries
total: 5,529 km
Pakistan: 2,430km
Tajikistan: 1,206km
Iran: 936km
Turkmenistan: 744km
Uzbekistan: 137km
China: 76km

A letter to the UN secratary General

 

 

To:  The Secretary General of the United Nations Organization, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, European Union Heads of State, Members of the European Parliament

1- On September 30th, 2005, 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were published in a Danish newspaper (Jyllands Posten). These caricatures were then republished in other magazines in Germany, Austria and France.

2- However, according to the International Convent on Civil and Political Rights that was ratified by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966 and entered into force 23 March 1976, these actions are considered crimes and in violation of international law.
The 2nd paragraph of article No. 20 of this covenant states: "Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law."

3- Therefore, both as Muslims and 1.5 billion of the 6 billion citizens of the global community, we ask the United Nations Organization and the leaders of the world, in particular the European politicians who supported the Danish newspaper paper and delayed enforcement of international law, including the International Covent on Civil and Political Rights, Declaration of Principles on Tolerance and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to investigate our complaint and judge those who committed this crime in a proper international legal tribunal.

4- We Muslims do not seek violence. According to our religious beliefs, the humanity of a person remains incomplete unless he is free and we hold the conviction that according to this saying of Imam Ali we are obliged to: “Be kind to people! Because if they are not your brothers and sisters in religion, they surely are your brothers and sisters in creation."
In a world increasingly moving toward hatred and division, wherein ideas like peace, tolerance and friendship among nations seems quite fragile, it is your duty to keep your sworn commitments that you believe in the shaping of an equal world, free of war and discrimination. We hope you prove to us that you respect us as we respect you as equal, intelligent and civilized humans. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

                                     Regards.

Children

 

 

Children are so often the innocent causalities of situations which cause them great physical, emotional and psychological harm. We as adult do not always recognize the extent of their loyalty, bravery and tenacity when placed in situations of danger and uncertainty

Children have been the victims of the war and political disputes in many ways. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in indiscriminate bombing and shelling of their homes, schools or playing fields. Hundreds, possibly thousands, have been subjected to deliberate and arbitrary killings and torture at the hands of the numerous armed political groups. Girl children, and at times boys, have suffered rape and sexual assault. These innocent children never know about nature of harsh situations they face, and they have no idea of why are they being harmed by the uncertain and dangerous situations. These situations have caused them great physical, psychological and emotional harms. The harshest situations brought about on children have undoubtedly harmed them but on the other hand they have coped and undergone these situations with great courage, bravery and persistence which we adults have never realized.

 

 Children have no control of the situation they are placed in, the fact is further revealed in studying the true stories on children during the war and all times harsh situations. The diary of Tatiana[1] a young Russian girl which starts with the invasion or Russia by German’s during world war 2; there are bombs every night; their house is destroyed; they move but it is cold, there is no heat, everyone is sick and now they are out of food. Then Tatiana is taken captive and shipped to Magdeburg Germany as captive labor. First, she is carted off to a farm where she must work in the fields; she collapses and is sent back into town to work for a printer and then in a munitions factory; the work is hard, the hours brutal, there is little to eat and they are locked in at night. Anne frank’s[2] diary tells another harsh situation. The German born girl due to the religious belief of her parents, with family hides in a sealed off office flat. Later she together with her family was arrested by Germans and sent into concentration camp. She had no control of what was going on. Jamie[3] born in Shanghai china is put in the harshest situation ever after the invasion of China by Japanese. He is separated from his parents, arrested by the Japanese, placed in detention center where food is scarce; people are dying of hunger and scarcity. He is later shifted to a prisoner-of-war camp. He never knew what was going all he knew was to survive.  Latife’s[4] deadly situation brought about by Taliban is another bitter experience by a child. She is imprisoned in home; becomes the target of Taliban heaping inhumanities and indignities on her because she is female, females are banned from working, from schools, from public life and from leaving their homes without a male relative.

 

Despite being placed in the most brutalized situations, children have shown great bravery, courage and tenacity. Tatiana is one of those courageous children. When she is finally freed from captivation, she longs for home and her Mother. Yet when she gets to her homeland, she is called a "traitor" because she worked for the Germans! Desperate to finish school, she is told she is too old and not eligible; she is told to leave town! In fact, she meets with more rules and less kindness than she had in Germany, but she never loses her courage. Determined, she appeals directly to the highest military commander in Stalingrad and gets permission to go to school. She becomes a teacher. Jamie, despite the poor living conditions help the doctor with a dying patients; Jamie administers CPR  and the patient shows signs of life despite having obviously died. Jamie is overly excited at his prowess and frantically continues CPR despite the patient’s passing.  He rescues Dr. Rawlins from the wrath of sergeant Nagata, who beats the doctor for defiance. As the doctor lays bleeding on the porch of the camp hospital, Jamie delivers a humbling speech to the sergeant, who stops the beating and storms off. As a reward the doctor gives Jim a pair of golf shoes that belonged to a deceased patient. Bamse in Hitler’s canary is another example of a determined child. He despite the terrifying situation, does his best to help his brother in resistence movement. He becomes ready to do anything for the sake of his country and his family. Children have undergone and recognized the worst situations, feared it, and feel superior to it all at once.

 

Children have on the other hand suffered physical, psychological and emotional traumas during these harsh situations. The loss of innocence and the onset of adolescence are the common affect on children. What makes Jamie’s situation unique is that the adolescent phase of his life develops against the backdrop of international war. Jamie  is forced to deal with his impending transition into adulthood., experience a crisis of identity. When he is reunited with his parents, he has the haggard stare and physical look of a wartime survivor, one that has seen more horrors of war than most children normally would. This illusion is somewhat dispelled when he sees his mother for the first time in four years and touches her face as a younger child would. He sees people dying in front of him and that absolutely harms him psychologically. While considering other situation most children have been affected physically. Anne frank even loses her life. Most other survivors of trauma and tragedic situations suffer emotionally and psychologically through their life having fearfull and voilent night mares as Ali who is the survior of a tragic war in Afghanistan, and who has came through blood shed when he was just 10.

 

Although the horrible situation has always been created by the adults without the children knowing anything about it, children have shown great courage, tenacity and bravery through their life in such situations. On the other hand these situations have caused them great losses. They not only have lost their childhood inocence but also their sense of humor and have been harmed physically. No one yet have reallized the incredible extend of their persistence in coming through all these dangerous and uncertain situations. 

 

 

Besmellah Rezaee 

 

 

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[1] Tatiana, V. 2002 a hostage to war.

[2] Anne frank diaries,

[3] empire of the sun

[4]  Latifa, 2002, my forbidden face, Virago press. UK

Justice

 

Justice is one of the main principles that brings cohesion and stability in a society. however virtually it is never acheived in its fullest extent. The following essay is a well researched piece about the justice in South Australian judicial system which i wrote late 2005 

                                                           

 

         JUSTICE 

       

    

       Justice in its fundamental form is the outcome of all legal systems. It is human’s internal peace and harmony and the societies pillar for righteousness and social cohesion. It is a human virtue that makes a person content and satisfied. While on the other hand due to the simultaneous nature of human beings and different perspectives, justice can never be seen to be perfect.     

      Australia, being a democratic country and having an adversary system, has a highest reputation for justice in its legal system. Sections of the community lacking the understanding of the legal processes, principles and structures of the legal system have always raised their concerns that justice has not been achieved. Media as the only source of awareness of the masses has, on the other hand, used sensationalism and provided the community with misconceptions of justice not being achieved in our legal system. This has lead to a perception of injustice developing in the community. This is more obvious when considering the 80,000 cases being dealt with each year in state’s criminal and civil courts and only one or two come out in the newspapers, radio and television, and develops the sense of injustice among the masses[1]. In the last three years, corespondents repeatedly refer to two examples, Nemer and McGee. As Alexander Ward, former president of the law society said “How could one rationally say that one problem out of more than 80,000 cases represents a judicial system in a state of crisis?”  It is very rare to find the media reporting and preaching the justice that has been achieved as in the case of  McCullagh who has been sentenced for 20 years murdering 21 year old Melanie Harnden on September 1999[2] Moreover this perception of injustice has been supported by the government and media continuously, as [3]Mike Rann announced publicly that our legal system has failed to achieve justice and announced a royal commission into the police investigation and prosecution of [4]McGee a lawyer who hit and killed Mr. Gilchrist Humphrey. The media and Government have been able to falsely manipulate the public into believing that the current justice system is not providing the community with a sense of justice. The community and unfortunately the government have never considered that judges and lawyers in criminal courts are administering the court in accordance with the law and procedures which are prescribed in constitutional law. In sentencing, they must consider the sentencing act section 10 and appropriate case law[5]. Section 10 outlines the criteria for sentencing a criminal and must be adhered to most stringently, especially as the Judge must give reasons for their decision. The judges can not impose a sentence based on their level of conscience and the balance of kindness and cruelty rather they impose a sentence in accordance to the sentencing act.

     The principles of the adversary system, the method of administering justice in courts, well and truly are the obvious factors that justice is being achieved in the community[6]. The rule of law; a fundamental element that everyone is treated equally before the law, natural justice; a person’s right to a fair trial, which refers to the standards of behaviour by officers of government, executive and judicial are the simple facts that justice is being achieved. Independence of the judiciary from executive and legislative arms of the government and the rule against bias is another factor which ensures judges decide cases according to law, not by arbitrary influence. The right to be heard and many more, are the principles that ensure justice is being achieved in our legal system. Being realistic one has to admit that the judges resolving the disputes in criminal courts are human and human do commit mistakes, a common fact we all know. Referring to the case of Josiah Finch, a 20 year old guilty of murdering Karim Morrison, who is sentenced for 14 years and yet he still denies the responsibility of murdering. The parents of the victim Karim Morrison are not happy with the sentence imposed. They believe it has been an injustice to them and the accused wishes it was him who died. In such a controversial state, Justice White has considered the criminal background of the accused and in accordance with the sentencing act has sentenced Finch to mandatory life in jail with a 14 year non-parole period[7]. Justice has absolutely been achieved in the eyes of an optimist.

Justice is furthermore visible in the case of Sydney tri athlete Glenn Bennett, who suffered incomplete quadriplegia for injuries in a swimming accident hitting his head at submerged storm water pipes. He sued Manly council and the Sydney Water Corporation for negligence and the Supreme Court found both defendants in breaching their duty of care. Supreme Court fined the Sydney water corporation a sum of $1.75m paying Mr. Bennett[8].

      Despite all our criminal justice system is under funded as the Chief Justice John Doyle mentions it in the Selway Lecture at Adelaide University[9]. He believes it is because there are no votes in courts. And says the ability of courts to administer justice depends upon funding support from government. Hereby it is the responsibility of the public to voice their concern and appeal to the government for funding rather than being critical of the justice system without exactly knowing the limitations and factors that judges have while deciding on a case.  Undoubtedly there are strengths and weaknesses in our legal system. The adversary system has proved to be the best justice system in the world to balance the rights of the individual against the community’s expectations that people who break society’s laws will be punished[10]. Equality before the law, party control, judicial independence, respect for individual legal rights and right of appeal are some of the strengths. The weaknesses in the legal system are due to some outer factors such as inadequate funding which effects efficiency of the courts management in achieving justice and broadening accessibility of courts to all sections of the community.

    Finally apart from the media publicising the controversial cases and government representing the legal system to be failing, Justice has been the sole priority and outcome of our legal system and it has been achieved through the fundamental principles of our system. The sections of community whom have voiced their concern and given rise to perception of injustice are required to pay deep consideration to cause not the effect.  

                                                                       By: Besmellah Rezaee 13 Dec 05

                                                                                  Adelaide South Australia.

 

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[1]  Alexander WARD A.W, 2005, Legal Standards in a fine state, thanks, Australian/New Zealand Reference Centre, Advertiser

 

[2] Peter Gregory, march 30, 2006 the advertiser, www.advertiser.news.com.au

[3] http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,593615188453%255E1702,00.htm

[4]  www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/sa/SASC/2005/254

[5] Geof Bailey, G.B, 2006, Legal Studies Key Ideas Stage 2, Essentials education series, Adelaide Tuition Centre

[6] Geof Bailey, G.B, 2006, Legal Studies Key Ideas Stage 2, Essentials education series, Adelaide Tuition Centre pages 260-269

 

[7] Alexander Economou, court reporter 29 march, the advertiser news, www.theadvertiser.news.com.au

[8] ABC Online 4 April 2006 Tri athlete gets $1.75m payout for swimming accident, http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1608162.htm

[9] Colin James 30 march 2006, the advertiser, www.theadvertiser.news.com.au

 

[10] Geof Bailey, G.B, 2006, Legal Studies Key Ideas Stage 2, Essentials education series, Adelaide Tuition Centre pages 308-317

 

Hello and welcome

Dear friends and viewers

Hamta-english is a place where english essays, poems, notes, stories and other relevant materials would be published. the sole purpose of its creation is to interact with some of the non-dari speakers who can not contirbute to my dari blog nor can understand what is going on. well i welcome u all who so ever come to visit this page

in the very near future i will upload my essays once they are ready

 

for now all the best