Happy Independence Day!

Today is August 15. . 66 years ago India got independence from British rule. Let’s celebrate the day.

I was asked by The Hindu, one of he leading newspapers of India to write about my own experience of this country.

Here is what I wrote.

‘When I first visited India in the late ‘80s, I did not for an instant think I was in another country. I felt I belonged here and that it was, in some fundamental way, inseparable from the land I called my own. The reason for this was not my Hindu forebear. The reason was not that one of India’s many cultures is my own or that I speak one of her many languages or the fact that I look Indian. It is because the values and traditions that define India are embedded deeply within me. These values and traditions are a manifestation of the history of the subcontinent; I have been enriched and enlivened by it. I am also a victim of its poverty, colonial legacy, communalism, violence, bloodshed, partition, migrations, exodus, riots, wars and even theories of nationhood. I have been hardened further by my life and experiences in a poverty- and famine-stricken, ill-governed country called Bangladesh.

The intolerance, fanaticism and bigotry of Islamist fundamentalists forced me to leave Bangladesh. I was forced to go into exile; the doors of my own country slammed shut on my face for good. Since then I have sought refuge in India. When I was finally allowed entry, again, not for an instant did I feel out of place. Even after spending decades in Europe, it never felt like home. However, I felt a deep connection with India; I felt I knew the people; I had grown up somewhere very similar, almost indistinguishable. I felt the need to do something for this country and its people. There was a burning desire within me to see that women become educated and independent, that they stand up for, and demand their rights and freedom. I wanted my writing to invigorate and contribute in some way to the empowerment of these women who had always been oppressed and suppressed. Moreover, I wanted to do everything possible to make people aware of the need for secular education to become enlightened, tolerant, rational, and peace loving.

Not many people understand why I, as a European citizen and a permanent resident of the U.S., am so eager to live in India! I know it is not easy to live here; my book was banned in this country, five fatwas were issued against me, prices were set on my head, religious fanatics physically assaulted me. I was bundled out of West Bengal, I was thrown out of Rajasthan, I was put under confinement in a “safe house” in Delhi, I was forced to leave the country — but I did not give up. I came back again and again to live in the land that abandoned me and humiliated me.

I asked why the world’s largest democracy, a secular state, could not shelter a person whose entire life has been spent for the cause of secular humanism, a person without a country to call her own, someone who regarded India as her home. I have been struggling to settle in my beloved country; it has now become a challenge. I want India to prove that a secular state can honour a secular writer. I want India to honour the nation’s tradition of great hospitality and its democratic principle.

India is a land of plurality, with people from different religions, ethnicities, languages and cultures coexisting together. I want her neighbouring countries to learn from India how to secularise the state and how not to violate anyone’s right to freedom of expression. I believe that India, unlike Bangladesh, will triumph over all kinds of fundamentalism. The love and respect I get from Indians makes me feel this is my true home. I still believe that for a sincere, honest, secular writer in the subcontinent, India is the safest refuge, the only refuge.’

Manage your penis.

Suzanne Moore advised men to follow 10 rules to manage their penises. All 10 rules are important. But 3 rules are more important than other rules. If men are unable to follow other rules, they must follow these 3 rules.

2) Do not neglect your penis. I am talking hygiene. Women are subjected to pharmacy aisles full of fresheners, wipes and sprays that encourage us to believe that without them our genital area is just a smelly, slimy mess, but there is no equivalent for men. Surely there is a gap in the market for products to encourage men to stay boxfresh under their boxers. And if they must encase themselves so prominently in Lycra and skinny jeans in this weather … something has to be done. Urgently.

5) Do not ever put your penis into someone who does not want this. Do not ever fool yourself that they really do. Even if they are drunk. Or you are married to them. This is rape. It is not difficult to know the difference between someone who is consenting to penetration and someone who isn’t. There is never any excuse. Ever.

10) Do not mistake your penis for your brain. The silly idea that men possess wicked willies and can’t help acting on impulse is surely rather insulting? If Freud is right and all women suffer from penis envy then all I can say is if I had one I would love, cherish it and put it only where desired. Is that so much to ask?

I am inviting everyone to add more rules for men to manage their penises. I am adding 5 rules: 1. If you suffer from erectile dysfunction, you must inform about it to your would-be partner. Be brave. 2. Correct your erectile dysfunction with available drugs (e.g. Sildenafil) before having sex. Don’t show your dysfunction to your partner. It may inhibit her sexual desire for you. 3. Never lie to your girlfriend about the size of your penis. If your penis is 3 or 4 inches long, tell her that it is 3 or 4 inches long, do not tell her that ‘it is like 9 or 10 inches long.’ It is not good to be caught red-handed later. You should not be considered a liar only because you are embarrassed telling the truth about the size of your penis. 4. You must not insist a woman to suck your penis when you have no intention to give her oral sex. It is not good to make your penis selfish. A selfish penis may end up being a loser. 5.If you have multiple sex partners, you should have blood tests every now and then to see whether you have any sexually transmitted disease. You must not infect any one with your disease. Be clean.

You ban women from singing, laughing, going outside without veils, because you believe men are bad.You insult men.

Muftis are misogynists. If they truly believe in religion, they have no other alternative but to force themselves to become woman-haters.
Grand Mufti in Jammu and Kashmir issued fatwa against music in February this year. He said, ‘music is un-Islamic’.

Leading religious scholar of Jammu and Kashmir, Grand Mufti Mohammad Bashiruddin, on Sunday issued fatwa against the region’s only all-girls rock band run by the teenage girls and against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for extending support to them.

The Grand Mufti termed the three teenage girls, who formed the rock band, ‘non serious’, saying such an approach leads to ‘gang rape’. “Shameful incidents like gang rapes, that happened in Hindustan recently, are a result of all this. It happens when women are given freedom to roam around, sing and dance,” Bashiruddin told The Tribune.
The fatwa — an advisory by an Islamic scholar, who has knowledge of theology, religious jurisprudence and law — has been issued by the “Supreme Court of Islamic Shariat” headed by Bashiruddin.

The Grand Mufti asked the girls not to get impressed with support from the political leadership. Bashiruddin also criticised Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for extending solidarity with the teenage girls, terming it as “unnecessary support”. “It will be unfortunate if our society leaves the right path and gets entangled in musical instruments,” the fatwa read.

Omar had yesterday extended support to the rock band after it emerged that the teenage girls have decided to shut their band following a barrage of abuses targeting them and their families.

The girls’ band had come to limelight last December when the three 16-year-old girls made their first and the last public performance at the “Battle of Bands” competition here, where they battled against other bands consisting of boys.

And then again the same stuff that we hear whenever women refuse to be shackled that women are nourishing Western culture. Whatever Muftis do not like, is Western, and Western is always bad.

Referring to the girls’ band, Bashiruddin said, “Such non-serious acts are the first steps towards national disaster”. Criticism also poured in from the hardline separatists led by Syed Ali Geelani, who termed the support extended by the Chief Minister to the rock band as “tragic and surprising”. “There are some values (which) a citizen has to adopt to safeguard the ethical, moral and religious traditions. Kashmir being a sacred place of saintly persons, there is no room to nourish western culture and immoral values,” hardline Hurriyat’s spokesman Ayaz Akbar said.

Though it distanced itself from the threats issued against the rock band, Hurriyat said parents of these girls should have ‘rectified’ their behaviour. “No noble family will allow their girls to choose dancing as a profession which is a thing of pleasure for strangers,” Hurriyat spokesman said.

After the fatwa was issued, Muslim girls who had their own all-girls rock band had to stop singing. They were banned.

But Mufti enjoyed men’s music. It is alright if men sing. Then music is not anymore un-Islamic. It is only un-Islamic when women sing, because women’s soft and nice voices must not be heard by men who are not their close relatives.

Now, another Mufti issued another fatwa against women who use Facebook and Twitter.

The Mufti is not pleased about women being on Facebook to make friends and is definitely against them uploading pictures on the social networking site.

“Women should not post pictures on Facebook or anywhere else on the Internet. This is un-Islamic,” he said.

A Maulana from the minority Shia sect too endorsed the Mufti’s views.

“Women are not allowed to show their faces to anyone apart from their ‘mehram’ (male kin like father and brothers). So posting pictures on Facebook is ‘haraam’ (banned),” Maulana Saif Abbas Naqvi said.

Muftis are against women playing music, women posting pictures on the internet, or women moving their butts. Muftis are not alone. Allah is with them. Allah asked women not to go in front of non-mahran men . If Allah knew about the internet, he would have advised women not to post their pictures on facebook or twitter.

Islam prohibits music. Women’s voices must not be heard by non-Mahran men or strangers. Allah (33:32) told prophet’s wives that they must not ‘soften’ their voices when they talk to male strangers, they should rather make their voices firm and rough. But why is this? Isn’t it very easy to guess! It is because male strangers might get sexual desire if they hear soft and beautiful voices of women.

Because singing requires “softening the voice” and since prophet’s wives are the role models for all women, women’s singing is forbidden in front of unrelated men.

Now, you can say everything Islam and Muftis say in very simple words and sentences so that everybody can understand,– ‘if women sing and if men hear women’s soft voices and if women’s faces and hairs are shown to public, or on the internet—men have no other alternative but to fuck those women, because men are so fucking assholes that they do not know how to control their sexual urges.’

Muftis actually insult men, not women, when they force women to wear veils, or prevent women from going outside home, or stop women from singing in public places. Banning on women proves that men are nothing but a bunch of rapists, their brains are made of dicks and their hearts are made of dicks.

A secular baul!

You know about baul, the troubadours of Bengal. Don’t you?

You may know about Lalon too. Lalon was probably the most secular baul in the baul community.

When Hindus and Muslims were hating each other over the differences of their religious beliefs, Lalon sang songs questioning their beliefs!

Lalon was an illiterate poor man living in a Bengal village. He did not go to schools. But he was a self taught secular philosopher. The man from the 18th century probably could not imagine that his country one day would be divided on the basis of religion, and in the 21st century people would continue hating each other for having a different faith or a different cast.

Good that he does not see the atrocities that we see everyday. Hatred and bloodshed in the name of religion everyday.

Sufi Music

Perhaps you know about Sufism. And how Sufism was replaced by Islamic fanaticism in the Indian subcontinent.

Listen to a Sufi song. My favourite.


This song is about Bulleh Shah, the Sufi poet who was asking to demolish temples and mosques. He was against all religious rituals. And very fond of alcohol. Once upon a time he was respected by people of different faiths.

If Bulleh Shah were alive today, he would have been killed by radical Islamists.

They Deserve Buraqs

Allah sent Muhammad buraq, the winged horse, so that Muhammad,the prophet could travel to heaven. He went to heaven on buraq and met Moses, Jesus, a few more bearded guys and finally Allah the almighty.

Now look at the condition of Bangladesh today. They don’t have enough vehicles to travel. Millions of people are travelling to home to celebrate eid, the biggest Muslim religious festival, with their family and friends tomorrow. They are desperate to get some space in the trains,buses,boats. Train roofs and doors are overcrowded. Boats will sink. Many people would die. Allah should have sent Buraqs,the winged horses, to take these poor people home safely and quickly so that they can celebrate eid that Allah asked them to celebrate.

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People are sitting on the roof of an already packed train while others are waiting in a Dhaka station.

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The same crowd previous year.

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I feel so sorry and I am so worried for these people. It happens every year. The same tragedy. What does Allah feel? Why doesn’t he make a miracle once for these people? Some winged things to fly home!
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Not long ago….

Once upon a time but not long ago, women didn’t have the voting right. Most people were against women’s voting right and their right to education. In some parts of the word, women had the right to education, even they had the right to work, but they did not have the right to vote. American women are telling us their stories.

Throughout history, there were people who did not want women to vote. Women would work, they would pay taxes, they would technically be considered citizens… but voting was for men. In America, when the right to vote was extended to include all races, all social positions, and all incomes, women were still not included. It didn’t matter if a man was illiterate, had been to jail, or if he was the town drunk. He could vote, and a woman, no matter who she was, could not.

Women suffragists (suffragettes) began campaigning in democratic countries all over the world to change this, starting in the mid-19th century. Their campaigns were largely peaceful and dignified… at least by 21st century standards. But by 19th century standards, these women were abhorrent and indecent, making fools of themselves by demanding to be treated like men.

One of the most notable things about the arguments put forth by the anti-suffragette movement was how weak its position was. Anti-suffragette arguments relied heavily on emotional manipulation and downright hateful nastiness. Humor was a much-used weapon against suffragettes. They were easy to depict as embittered old maids, brutal scolds, and cigar-smoking transvestites.

Ophelia tells us how 20th century London was.

You can see what kinds of hatred misogynists expressed in their cartoons against women’s voting rights.

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Men could not tolerate that women left home to join suffrage movement in the beginning of 20th century. They were so scared of taking care of their children! They feared that if women could get their rights, men would lose their’s. They still have this fear.

Women got the right to vote. They got the right to access to politics and to education. They go outside to work. They spend money they earn for their family. But still men don’t share chores and child care at home.

The feminists today suffer from the same misogyny the feminists yesterday suffered from. They are humiliated, hated, insulted, abused the way their feminist sisters were humiliated, hated, insulted and abused.

People get shocked today when they learn women were not allowed to get the right to vote and the right to education in the 20th century. People would get shocked tomorrow when they would learn that women were not allowed to get equality in the 21st century.

Lunatics are fighting over the lunar cycle.

Believe it or not, lunatics are fighting over the lunar cycle. They do not think that scientists can ‘set the date’ for the next moon. The scientists announced that the new moon would appear during the night of August 6-7 at 2:52am. But according to Hijri calendar, the new moon should be seen at the end of Ramadan. The announcement provoked a storm of criticism, with some Muslim clergy arguing that the observatory data could not be true. Haji Fuad Nurullah, deputy chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Office, said, “It is known to Allah alone. If Allah does not renew the moon, how can people know about it in advance? How can they guess? “

I like some comments–

‘Oh my…it’s like I’m reading the Onion.’
‘Science versus fossilized mythology?’
‘Religion has created every obstacle to the progress of science. When will we say enough is enough.’

Many Muslims still do not believe that men walked on the moon.

Scientophobes are more dangerous than ignorant religionists. But if you are both scientophobes and religionists, your brains should be kept in the lab for the future generation to study. I am afraid to know what they really are.

Punished for love

Hate is alright.
Assault is almost alright.
Rape is not so alright in some cases, but alright in many cases.
Killing is alright in many cases too. For example, the state can kill in the name of capital punishment, you can kill people as much as you want during the war, you can kill a passerby if you feel you would get attacked by him.
But
Love is not alright.
You can be jailed for love in a country called Bangladesh.

Here is the news.

A 22-year-old Muslim woman in Bangladesh has been arrested and charged with kidnapping after she eloped with and married a Hindu teenage girl in what could be the first reported same-sex marriage in the conservative country that bans homosexuality.

Police arrested Sanjida Akter and her 16-year-old girlfriend in Dhaka on July 23 after the minor’s father registered a complaint, saying his daughter had been abducted.

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Abduction charge? Then the girl who abducted the other girl should be arrested, why the girl who was abducted was arrested? Old men forcefully marry girl children everyday in the rural areas. I have never heard any man gets arrested for their crimes to marry minors. Now, a couple who love each other and start living together arrested. I doubt whether the younger girl is really 16. It can be a made up age to make the arrest easier. We live in a violent world, where love and love making are often considered crimes.

“We detained them in a house they rented and were stunned to discover this is a lesbian case,” Lieutenant Sazzad Raihan, an officer.

“Both told us that they love each other. They fled their homes in Pirojpur district to start a family in Dhaka. (The younger girl) told us that they were married under Hindu traditions at their home the previous night.”

Homosexuality and same-sex marriages are illegal in the majority Muslim south Asian nation and people who are open about their sexuality often face discrimination and violence. This may be the first known case of a same-sex marriage in Bangladesh, although the wedding was not performed by a cleric, priest or magistrate.

Homosexuality is illegal in Muslim countries. But homosexuality is legal in Muslim heaven. Beautiful young boys are kept in heaven to serve men wine and sex. Muslim countries are terribly hypocrite to ban alcohol and homosexual Love. Alcohol is not really banned in Bangladesh. People drink alcohol as much as they want. Male homosexuals are roaming around the cities, they don’t get often punished for being homosexuals. But girls get punished for being homosexuals only because they are girls, I don’t think they are punished because one of the married girls is a minor. The court would not recognize their marriage anyway. They only exchanged the garlands of flowers to be married.

Why so much anger against girls? Is it because they have denied to marry men and denied to be humiliated, abused and raped by men and denied to be treated like child bearing machines and slaves by men? The loving girls did not kill or harm anyone. Their only crime is they kick the ass of male dominated patriarchal system. Right, officers?

“A jinn (evil spirit) has possessed her since she was a student in class four [9 years old] and we tried many ways to free her from it. This is what’s provoking her into this behaviour,” Abdus Sobhan, Sanjida’s father said.

“No one will ever lodge any complaint against me. Not even [this girl] as I did not abduct her. She went with me willingly,” she told the newspaper before going to jail.

Finally! Women love women, so women must be possessed by evil spirits. Now beat her up until jinns leave her body. What a wonderful solution for the same-sex-love!
Patriarchy, religion, misogyny, ignorance, barbarism all walk hand in hand to destroy women whoever dare to enjoy the rights they deserve.