2007 - Manavi

Transcription

2007 - Manavi

have the right to live a life of dignity that is safe and
free from violence. Women have the right to live a life
of dignity that is safe and free from violence. Women
Journal
Annual Publication 2007
Manavi Staff
Manavi Journal 2007:
Aditi Desai
Social Change as it Relates to Women
Aisha Ijaz
Maneesha Kelkar
Minu Mathew
Razia Meer
Movement Building: Perspectives from the Field
Page 3
Advocacy’s Dilemma: Change or Service
Page 4
Sasi Vishnubhotla
Saswati Sarkar
Those Who Stayed Back: The Other End of Change Page 6
Smitha Katragadda*
Being Childless: The Narrative of a Mother
Page 8
* Staff members who were with
us at some point in 2007, but
are no longer at Manavi.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Reviewed
Page 10
Rays and Splinters: “True” Art in a “False” World
Page 10
Collective Updates
Page 13
Letter from a Current Ashiana Resident
Page 15
Donor List
Page 22
Board of Directors
Madhavi Prakash
Chairperson
Pavitra Menon
Member
Sheetal Patel
Member
Surekha Vaidya
Treasurer
Aisha Ijaz:
Editor
Manavi’s mission is to empower women and assist
Aditi Desai:
Design & Layout
them in their attempts to end the cycle of abuse in their
Minu Mathew:
Creative Consultant
lives and progress towards self-reliance and autonomy.
2
Manavi Journal
Movement Building: Perspectives from the Field
By Maneesha Kelkar
Frequently, the larger community does not
see Manavi for what it is – a women’s rights
organization, engaged in creating social
change. Often, the depth of our work gets
lost in the statistics and the minutiae – number of women served, legal clinics hosted,
court accompaniments, case work, Ashiana
residence… there is after all, no good measure of social change, no satisfactory method
of evaluating whether the process of working
with a battered woman has led to her empowerment. Community members limit their
understanding of our work to the practical
aspects of what they see – the numbers. The
numbers are undoubtedly critical, but does
our work end with numbers?
movement.” According to her, “community
education and outreach” as well as
“Manavi’s organizational capacity building
technical assistance that supports other
South Asian women’s organizations around
the country” as “helpful in creating larger
social change.” Board Member Surekha
Vaidya identified “the power of the victim or
potential victim to fight the abuse as well as
the support of the community the person
lives in” as contributing to social change.
Board member Pavitra Menon strongly believed that Manavi serves as an agent of
social change, saying “awareness helps in
changing the attitudes that contribute to the
problem and when those attitudes change,
permit violence against South Asian
women and its efforts to grow resistance
to oppression and violence are critical
elements for social change”.
To Lakshmi Rajagopal, ex staff member,
“it is sometimes misleading to think of it
as a movement, since this conjures up a
sense of swiftness and revolution”. Social change, according to her, “is a glacial process most of the time – and
Manavi’s voice is clear and consistent in
creating this change.”
Although Manavi members spoke eloquently about their feeling of belonging
and contributing, albeit in different ways,
to a social change moveTo assess the underment, some did point to
standing of Manavi’s
“Manavi's commitment to transforming the condi- shortcomings. As long time
work in the community,
volunteer Shefali Mehta put
we decided to talk to tions that permit violence against South Asian women
it, “this movement of social
those who had at some
and
its
efforts
to
grow
resistance
to
oppression
and
change is seen only by
point been involved
women who decide to
violence are critical elements for social change.” those
with Manavi. We called
challenge the norms and
volunteers, ex-staff
boundaries, and that in
members, ex-board members - anyone who
itself is the limitation of the movement.”
social change is affected.”
had been closely involved with Manavi in
Ex-staff member Lakshmi Anantnarayan
some way, and asked them two questions:
Ex-staff member Soma Dixit reminisced
spoke from the broadest perspective
their understanding of Manavi’s work; and
about her experiences at Manavi that made
when she said, “Social change happens at
whether they felt part of a larger social
her feel part of a social change movement.
various levels ranging from the individchange movement while working with
“At Manavi, we asked some uncomfortable
ual to an entire community. The most
Manavi. This is an attempt to capture the
questions of each other… discussed patriarbasic level of social change that I feel
essence of their ideas.
chy and how it sometimes privileges certain
women too.” She added, “I am reminded of
honored to have experienced at Manavi
The most stimulating component of this inwas in the glorious transformation of a
so many instances when different people
formal survey was the range of thoughtful
woman from a victim to a survivor to a
have shared personal stories to demonstrate
responses we received. It is reassuring to
self-reliant, assertive and compassionthat all women are considered deficient
know that so many of those close to Manavi
ate individual … who earnestly wants to
somewhere, sometime, somehow. This for
don’t just do the work, but think about it too.
move beyond her own life and make a
me is social change, so that not only the
Most respondents spoke passionately about
difference in other women's lives. I bewomen who are receiving services, but other
empowerment as a vehicle for creating social
lieve that such a deep transformation at
people take ownership of issues as well.
change. Said volunteer Urjasi Rudra, “As
the most fundamental individual level
Little by little attitudes shift, and change
advocates, counselors and ultimately, as
happens.”
is perhaps the strongest and most lasting
change agents, we simply enable women to
form of social change that Manavi can
acquire empowerment and make informed
Previous program director Soniya Munshi
initiate.” As if in response, a survivor
decisions about their lives.”
felt that her work with Manavi was part of
noted, “Manavi has given me a platform
the larger social movement work in which
Several people identified building commufrom where I can reach other victims and
she was engaged. “I draw inspiration from
nity awareness as the vehicle through which
let them believe that they also have a
social movements that are engaged in the
Manavi attempts to create social change.
chance in life. It’s not late and there is
complex intersections of injustices,” she
Vinita Jethwani, who has worn many hats at
still hope. All they have to do is take that
explained. According to her, “Manavi's comManavi, considered “some of the work that
one little step and the rest will come
mitment to transforming the conditions that
Manavi does to be part of a social change
along.”
3
Advocacy’s Dilemma: Change or Service
By Shamita Das Dasgupta
One of the central dilemmas that haunt
anti-domestic violence workers and for
that matter, activists in any field, is how
to strike a balance between advocating
for social change and providing services
to the affected. In the U.S., the antidomestic violence movement was
launched when victims of intimate violence began to speak up and demand that
the state take responsibility for the safety
of half its citizenry. Their individual
efforts gained strength when feminists
joined the ranks and introduced strategies
to keep women safe by developing NGO
based shelter systems, modifying police
and legal responses to victims and perpetrators, creating community awareness
and establishing various individualized
services to deal with the aftermath of
abuse. Over time, these scattered endeavors turned into a formidable movement that produced new laws, social
awareness, wider service networks and
higher funding to support the work. As
the movement matured, its emphasis
swung from ending systemic oppression
of women to providing deeper and wider
services to victims.
This shift has
brought serious controversies in its wake,
as the service approach is often considered a betrayal of the original principles
of social change in obeisance to funding
agents and patriarchal politics. Albeit the
artificial separation between service and
social change, it is this stress on one in
lieu of the other that has created dispute
among activists and their supporters.
Although the anti-domestic violence
work in the U.S. is dominated by the majority (read: White) community, women
of color have contributed vitally to the
movement by introducing complex reality based barriers in women’s lives such
as race, culture, immigration and language. At times, conflicts between the
mainstream and minority groups on relevant issues have been intense enough for
supporters to claim existence of several
4
conducted in favor of individuals or
simultaneous movements rather than a
groups whose voices and interests are at
single cohesive one. Manavi was born
risk of being ignored in society. Socially
out of such a divergence of focus and
marginalized ideas as well as concerns of
interests from the dominant movement.
Manavi’s existence and
the subsequent formation “It is essential that anti-violence workers
of over twenty SAWOs provide assistance to individual victims, but
assert three issues: (a) this
it is also just as imperative that they work to
is a community distinguished by culture and change society to end battering altogether.”
ethnicity with specific
individuals or populations are at the cenagendas that cannot be subsumed under
ter of all advocacy efforts. Fundamenthe mainstream’s; (b) woman abuse extally, advocacy is a set of actions that is
ists and has esoteric nuances in the combased on the belief that not everyone has
munity; and (c) successful intervention
equal chances of getting their needs met
must be instilled with culturally, linguisin society and amplifying these needs for
tically and legally appropriate underindividual/s and group/s will ultimately
standing of the needs of victims, perpeimprove their living conditions. Thus,
trators and the community. Over the last
the central premise of advocacy is that in
two decades, SAWOs have forwarded
a fair society, each individual or group
their own agendas with tremendous courshould receive the same advantages as
age, inventiveness and commitment.
others. Advocacy is about righteous acIn the last few years, the debate on sertion.
vice versus social change has been raised
Actions involved in advocacy may range
in the South Asian movement as well.
from speaking, persuading and organizWhereas older agencies seem to promote
ing to taking legal actions, mass media
the notion of changing prevalent family
campaigns and (non)violent confrontaand social structures that support womantions. Advocacy is a fundamental and
abuse through advocacy, newer ones apvalued activity in society that serves the
pear to be more concerned about providextremely useful purpose of equalizing
ing services to individuals. My intention
social power to some degree. Advocacy
here is to critically address this deviation
is neither charity nor altruism. It is about
between advocacy for social change and
justice, right and changing society to an
service provision to highlight their releeven world. Furthermore, advocacy is
vance to anti-domestic violence work,
about empowerment of the powerless.
particularly in the South Asian commuThe final goal of advocacy is to instill the
nity.
power of self-advocacy in powerless
Advocacy, Service and Social Change
groups. To sum up, social justice is at
Advocacy is an umbrella term that dethe heart of advocacy.
notes organized action in support of an
Working for social justice means going
issue, interest, cause or idea. The action
beyond one’s personal ethics. That is,
of advocacy is focused on changing opinone can be just and fair in his/her perions, attitudes and conducts of individual/
sonal conduct and yet have a responsibils or group/s. Advocates generally act to
ity to support and change the larger conmake something better, instill social jusditions in society that continue to
tice and right something they perceive as
Continued on page 16
wrong. Furthermore, advocacy is usually
Manavi Journal
Manavi Updates
New Internship Program
This past year Manavi created
an official internship program
and since then has had 5 excellent interns! Bhupinder
Kaur, Tanya Nguyen,
Shveta Thakrar, Vithya Murugan and Meghana Joshi
have worked on many independent projects and assisted
staff on numerous events during their internships including
the Annual Community Dinner, the Capacity Building
Institute, updating resource
binders, editing publications
and spearheading research on
transnational issues. Since
Manavi is a relatively small
organization with few fulltime staff, we rely largely on
support from interns. We
would like to extend our
heartfelt appreciation to these
wonderful women for volunteering their time and efforts
at Manavi. If you or anybody
you know is interested in interning at Manavi, please
email us at our main email
account: [email protected]
to enquire about openings or
look us up on idealist.org
where we post internships.
“At Manavi I have
had the opportunity to
actively participate in
the behind-the-scenes
efforts of social
change.”-Vithya
Murugan, Intern
Community Dinner 2007
Comedian, Dan Nainan, chatting
with guests.
Since violence against women
is a very serious subject,
Manavi strives to make its
Annual Community Dinner as
uplifting and fun as possible
for the many volunteers, survivors and donors that have
worked so hard to keep
Manavi going for the last 22
years. In previous years we
have had classical Indian
dance performances and
speakers such as Bapsi Sidhwa, the internationally re-
nowned novelist and human
rights activist whose novel,
"Cracking India," was made
into the movie, Earth, by filmmaker Deepa Mehta.
This year's dinner was held at
Royal Albert's Palace in
Fords, New Jersey and it was
a huge success. The dinner
kicked off with survivors'
stories followed by comedian
Dan Nainan, who's IndianJapanese background gives
him a unique (and hilarious)
perspective on the world.
Dan's performance was followed by two sets of fusion
Jazz by the 15 member
Brooklyn Qawwali Party. We
also honored the lawyers who
donate their time and advice
to the women we work with.
The Community Dinner is
always a fun event and we
look forward to seeing you
next year!
New Jersey Independent South Asian Ciné Fest
The New Jersey Independent
South Asian Cine Fest,
NJISACF, produced by the
Asian American Film and
Theater Project in association
with Manavi, is committed to
the exhibition of independent
films by and about South
Asians. It promotes and recognizes the talents of the new,
the established, the best and
the brightest Indie filmmakers
from across the globe.
The first annual New Jersey
Independent South Asian Ciné
Fest was a grand success with
over 300 people in attendance
throughout the two day festival. A festival attendee later
told Sakti Sengupta, the festival director, “You have
brought a great gift to New
Jersey and to the South Asian
community."
We would like to thank those
of you who supported the festival by attending. The
Manavi segment featuring
Tales of the Night Fairies and
The Children We Sacrifice
could not have been possible
without sponsorships and support from the NJ Coalition
Against Sexual Assault, the
NJ Coalition for Battered
Women and Dr. Rashmi Jaipal along with organizational
support from Shamita Das
Dasgupta and Anu Gurnani.
Stay tuned for information
about next year’s festival by
going to www.njisacf.org.
Dr. Mohan Agashe and Sarita
Choudhury - Honorees at the
film festival.
5
Those Who Stayed Back: The Other End of Change
By Mrittika Sen
As a woman in a new world, I am excited
about the miles we have traveled and the
many directions we are yet to walk. However, it may be a good time to stop by the
roadside, look back and around. As a
woman I am never free from thoughts, and
as worlds change around and within me, I
am thinking.
Who are the women who shaped this path
for us? Who taught us to think, respect,
accept and value the world and its people?
While politicians were signing treaties,
economists were championing globalization and sociologists were theorizing about
the new concept of the global village, a
different script was being penned in all our
homes, in our neighborhoods. An entire
generation of women, or two in some
cases, of mothers, aunts and grandmothers
was teaching us priceless lessons every
day. We learnt tolerance from them, learnt
grace, confidence and patience. Many of
them were unlettered and most of them
had never worked outside their homes. Yet
they imparted a lot of practical wisdom to
us – their daughters, nieces and granddaughters.
As the beneficiaries of social change that
has happened in our countries over the
past two decades, we are now armed with
an awareness that we believe sets us apart
from the preceding generation of women.
Some of us saw violence in the obvious
form of physical abuse at home or some
home we knew. We now know that some
of our male family members also practiced
other forms of violence – indifference,
discrimination, strong judgment and ridicule. Our mothers tried to play their roles
in a home and a society where a clear division of labor was practiced and there was
never a doubt as to whose voice bore authority.
As we grew up, we began asking questions to which we had to find our own
answers. As the social distance between
men and women grew smaller, and we
6
began interacting with men as friends,
fellow students and colleagues, we grew
further and further apart from our mothers
and aunts, thinking of them as the “other”
women—women who are not as enlightened or as confident as us. We learnt from
their mistakes and their limitations, but we
could not identify with them. We loved
and cared for them, but they were not like
us.
Some of us had working mothers or aunts.
They were professors, bankers and doctors, and we always looked up to them.
They were not silent teachers and their
lives and work were exemplary to us. We
grew up appreciating their personal wisdom and their professional expertise.
These women were older than us, but they
were like us. Rather, we wanted to be like
them.
Yes, our lives improved. We cannot
deny that they did. There are reasons
why we all miss our homelands, yet we
don’t return. If we come to another
country to study, we stay and get a job
or marry a classmate or someone who
works in the same country. If we accompany our husbands to a foreign
land, we raise our kids there, make
friends and form our own cosmopolitan
society. We take annual trips to our
country, with stories and gifts for everyone, eventually returning to our busy
lives. It is not anybody’s fault, we say,
such is the way of life.
And an entire generation is now left
alone. They do not blame anyone; they
also believe their children have better
opportunities abroad. Such is the way
of life, they say. The women who had
worked silently to raise their children
do not allow themselves to feel anything. They have always had someone
else make their decisions for them, and
they think it is silly and wrong to miss
their children or expect them to make
adjustments in their lives. They think
they have done their duties well, and
ironically, they even praise themselves
for their children’s success in going
abroad, although they are no longer a
And then we traveled. As the world
opened its doors for educated women from
developing countries, we flocked to universities, laboratories and offices in the
West. Immigration to Western countries
for educational purposes had been common in the ‘70s and ‘80s. After globalization began to engulf the world and South
Asia became an important source of intellectual property, work-related immigration
became the norm rather than the exception. Some women mi“As the beneficiaries of social change
grated to a different
country to pursue higher that has happened in our countries over
education or a career;
others got married to the past two decades, we are now armed
someone who did. This with an awareness that we believe sets us
kind of migration had
apart from the preceding generation of
existed within the counwomen.”
try, earlier – women had
to relocate from villages
part of it. Their husbands have never
or small towns to bigger cities for better
been their friends and they have had
opportunities for themselves or their huslittle outside the home - now with no
bands. Suddenly in the ‘90s, more and
one to dote on, they are lonely and sad.
more women began crossing International
The professionals who we looked up to
borders, grappling with different time
zones and currencies!
Manavi Journal
Manavi Updates
Shame Screening
“A powerfully written and
directed essay in courage,
Shame tensely relates the
story of Mukhtaran Mai, a
Pakistani village woman who,
in 2002, was publicly gangraped to atone for a crime her
brother allegedly committed.”
-Variety.com
Manavi was proud to host a
screening of this powerful
film on June 14th, 2007. The
screening was followed by a
Q&A session with director
Mo Naqvi. The night was a
true success with over twenty
volunteers and staff in attendance. We wanted to give our
special thanks to Mr. Naqvi
for coming all the way from
New York to present his film
to us. We would also like to
give our thanks to Karuna and
Smitha who graciously
opened up their home to us for
the evening.
Mo Naqvi, director of
Shame.
India Day Parade
Volunteers and staff march in the India Day parade.
Manavi participated in the
India Day Parade in Edison,
NJ on Sunday, August 12th.
The parade which went from
Cinder Road in Edison to
Middlesex Avenue in Iselin
was a true success with over
5,000 people in attendance.
Minu, the Outreach Coordinator organized Manavi’s
participation in the parade and
over 15 volunteers attended. We
wanted to thank everybody for
coming out and making Manavi’s
presence felt. Please join us again
at next year’s parade. It is a great
opportunity to reach out to the
community and show your support for Manavi. It’s also an extremely fun event for everyone!
Capacity Building Institute
Manavi’s Capacity Building Institute was
held at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, NJ from September 21- 22, 2007.
The training conference organized with
the aim of increasing the service provision capacities of emerging South Asian
Women’s Organization was extremely
successful. Nearly forty participants including advocates, activists and members
from different South Asian Organizations
across the country participated in the
conference. The Institute covered fourteen hours of interactive training and
engaging discussion on a range of issues
around non-profit management and program development. Some of the topics
discussed included the History of the
South Asian Domestic Violence Movement in the U.S., Organizing, and Community Engagement, Strategies for Staffing and Board Development and Fundraising and Grant-writing. The confer-
ence provided an excellent platform for
emerging South Asian organizations,
advocates and activists to create a synergistic approach towards ending violence
against South Asian women. Participants
felt that the conference was a “great
learning and networking opportunity.”
Manavi would like to express its great
appreciation for the support provided by
our volunteers, interns and staff for making this event a success.
7
Being Childless: The Narrative of a Mother
By Meghana Joshi
Can the story of one woman be a story
about ‘women and social change?’ Does
a narrative have that kind of power?
Maybe, maybe not.
But what if the narrative is in the
woman’s own voice? In her words that
describe her experiences of marriage and
of carrying the label of infertility. Of
challenging that label, of reflecting on
her desires and expecting a change in the
life she has lead so far.
Can the narrative of reflection be the beginning of change; social change for the
way women view themselves and for
how they are viewed?
In this article I present sections of the
narrative of a woman who was a part of
my M.Phil study on understanding
“Experiences of Childlessness among
Low Income Group Women in Mumbai
Slums.”
NT (random name assigned) worked as
an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) in
the gynecology out patient department
(OPD) of a public hospital in Mumbai.
As an ANM her primary responsibilities
included child immunization and counseling women regarding pregnancy care
and sexually transmitted diseases. After
several months of contact and trust building (while I was interviewing other
women at the OPD) NT revealed her
story to me. All the while she had been
talking to me as a para-professional. Only
at the end of my time in the hospital did
she speak as one of the researched.
This is her story.
It is largely excerpts (translated from
Marathi into English) from NT’s narrative. There is no analysis so that the
reader hears NT’s life experiences and
her opinions through her own voice. Each
reader can interpret the struggles and
resistance that are apparent in the narrative in her/his own way and get a glimpse
into this woman’s attempts at exercising
8
agency.
Marriage and Relationships
We met at my brother’s place. Actually
the whole meeting was staged and I did
not know about it till later. When we
were introduced and I learnt that he too
was in the government health service, I
warmed up to him. Later my brother
asked me if I would consider him as my
future husband! I was actually quite ok
with the idea. My husband is a very, very
soft-spoken man. He leaves quite an impression. But I wanted to make it very
clear to my husband that I would not
leave my job after getting married. He
assured me that my work would not be a
problem at all. And he has been true to
his word.
All throughout my husband has been very
supportive of me. You know when we got
married we lived in a slum settlement. We
have really struggled and put money together slowly and steadily. We made progress in jobs, saved up, were very careful
with investment. We have 3 different
places in my name today- two of which
have been given on rent and this flat we
live in has been bought for 9 lakhs. It has
been possible only through similar thinking and through combined efforts.
year of marriage is completed. Often the
age of the girl is less; she's not even developed enough to bear a child. Often the
husband and wife may not even have
regular sexual contact, as they don’t stay
together yet they expect the woman to
conceive. There is tremendous social
pressure.
Often a better and cheaper option in such
cases is the husband's remarriage. The
woman is psychologically harassed and
told that if she could not reproduce it is
her fault ad therefore naturally her husband needs another wife!
Resisting Images of Motherhood
7-8 years ago we adopted a baby girl!
There had been an unmarried woman
who had given birth to this girl in the
hospital and did not want to keep the
child. And everything seemed to happen
in a flash. My husband has been the
greatest support in taking this decision.
He told me that she could shut wagging
tongues by telling them that it’s his blood
that runs in the child’s body.
A Storm (Vadal): Turning Point
In the interim period a storm had rocked
the boat to an extent that it has left me a
changed woman.
My mother in law on the other hand has
physically and mentally harassed me
throughout our married life. She even
tried to cause an accident to hurt mepossibly kill me. For someone like me- I
have a mind of my own-it has been a
tough task to tolerate her. She has tried
all possible things to get my husband to
hit me but of course that has never happened as of now.
Well by storm I had meant, 4 years ago,
my husband got involved with another
woman. This went on for 3 years. It’s
only been over a year now that he has
stopped meeting her and is filled with
such a sense of remorse and guilt that he
is perpetually down on his knees, waiting
for me to forgive him and to have things
the way they were earlier. But how is it
possible?
Role expectations
You know I don’t have a problem with my
husband being attracted to another
woman and also having an affair with
her- what makes me angry and fills me
with utter disgust is the fact that instead
Women are not considered complete if
they don’t marry and reproduce.
People are always in a hurry to conceive
and come for treatment even before a
Manavi Journal
Manavi Updates
Silent March
On Saturday, October 20, 2007, Manavi
held its third Annual Silent March.
Manavi began conducting the Silent
March in 2005 as a way of saluting South
Asian women survivors of violence. The
March is held in October which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
This year Oak Tree Road in Iselin, NJ
was chosen as the location for the March
as it is a busy South Asian business district. Around 25 people attended the
March including Manavi staff members,
board members, volunteers, members of
the community and supporters from
Women Aware and Legal Services of NJ.
Manavi volunteers handed out flyers detailing Manavi’s services to curious
onlookers and information was also distributed to store owners who displayed it
for their customers.
The event was very successful and many
people stopped to read the signs which
addressed the issue of violence against
South Asian women. Signs were made in
various South Asian languages such as
Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and
Urdu so that the message was understood
by all. The community showed its support with “thumbs up” signs and by
honking their car horns. The March was a
great way to raise awareness about the
issue of violence against women and to
let the South Asian community know
about Manavi’s services. Support and
cooperation from the community coupled
with the enthusiasm of the marchers
made this a very successful and memorable event.
This event could not have been possible
without the support of our volunteers,
board members, community members
and friends from Legal Services of NJ
and Women Aware. Thank you for your
continued support!
9
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Reviewed
By Sadaf Qureshi
Mohsin Hamid’s second novel, The Resound like a fundamentalist to me—at
less, his intimidating beard is enough to
luctant Fundamentalist fails to meet all
least, not a religious one.
trigger caution and suspicion from the
expectations. As I pull the slim novel off
American tourist. Changez makes his
Changez’s story is cleverly framed within
the library shelf, the face of a dark comown assumptions and is equally distrusta one-sided conversation that takes place
plexioned man framed by fragments of
ful of the American. This, for Hamid, is
in a café of the Old Anarkali district of
the American and Pakistani flags stares
the definition of fundamentalism—
Lahore. We, the readers, listen to
back at me. This, along
perceiving something or
with the suggestive title, “Thus, Hamid’s novel reminds us that fundamentalism, someone in only one light,
seems to imply someand being blind to all other
thing—it seems to tell now inextricably linked to religion (particularly Islam), possibilities. In this case,
the story all on its own. I
the fundamentalist sits on
is indeed an independent word.”
flip to the first page of
both ends of the table, as
Changez recount the tale of his love aftext, and expect to be introduced to an at
each one fails to go beyond appearances
fair with, and subsequent abandonment of
least partially devout Pakistani-American
and generalizations.
America to an American tourist. Over a
Muslim. I expect the writing to reflect the
Thus, Hamid’s novel reminds us that
cup of tea, Changez flaunts his complesentiments of someone who is angry and
fundamentalism, now inextricably linked
tion of a Princeton education, which is
deeply disappointed, let down by the
to religion (particularly Islam), is indeed
followed by a quick absorption into corAmerican people in a post-9/11 world.
an independent word. The assumptions I
porate America, working for a prestigious
Fortunately, I am wrong on all accounts.
initially held are the result of the world in
valuation firm known as Underwood
Within the second sentence of the novel,
which we live and the media which we
Samson & Company. Even with his upChangez, the narrator, has proclaimed
are exposed to. The complete absence of
ward-spiraling social status, Changez has
himself to be “a lover of America.”
religion, in the end, says more than any
always felt like a bit of an outsider, but
Changez drinks without reservation. He
discussion of it could. Islam is not fundaafter the 9/11 attacks occur, it is a feeling
is in an open relationship with a skinmentalist; the politics of our time are
of treachery, not estrangement that
bearing girl named Erica from the Upper
fundamentalist; the way we have begun
changes Changez’s world.
East Side. He has even been endowed
to perceive the world around us is fundaBut even after returning to Lahore,
with the not-so-subtle name Changez,
mentalist. Fundamentalism, then, is a
Changez does not become a religious
Urdu for Genghis, the Mongol who infear-inspired, human phenomenon; not a
man. He is as calm and lucid as the
vaded the Muslim world. He doesn’t
religious one.
Changez we met on page one; nonethe-
Rays and Splinters: “True” Art in a “False” World
By M.S.
How many rays of compassion and respect can illuminate the nobility and
complexities of a woman’s soul? And are
the many splinters of ridicule, violence
and betrayal that ravage that soul more in
number or force than the betrayal it suffers in the words that promise to tell its
story? Khaled Hosseini has asked the first
question in his much-awaited and recently published second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. And as he chronicles
the splinters and rays that destroy, as well
as eventually honor, a woman’s life,
death and meaning, the reader has to ask
the second. His almost egalitarian novel
10
(his first, beautifully written and hugely
successful, The Kite Runner dealt with
the male world of honor, comradeship
and trust) deals with the impact of tradition, compounded by war, and the effect
of both in the lives of women. There are
many questions that Hosseini is accountable for despite his soaring sales figures
and popularity, or perhaps because of
them.
Social change in non-Western countries
has come through years of struggle, upheavals and tragedies. It has often become synonymous with the evolution of a
country, its systems and its people. There
is always the conflict of beliefs because
beliefs run very deep in these countries
with several thousands of years’ worth of
tradition behind them. Women have been
the perpetrators of justice, and change,
in these Countries and they have often
been at the receiving end of the brutalities that bring about such change. How
this struggle is depicted in forms of art,
especially those forms which are disseminated freely in the rest of the
Manavi Journal
Manavi Updates
Manavi Chosen as Leader of Social Change
Manavi was honored at the Women’s
Political Caucus of New Jersey Honors:
Passion, Power, Progress event held on
November 27, 2007. This event serves to
recognize those whose leadership, civic
involvement and professional efforts
have helped make New Jersey a better
place for women. The Women’s Political
Caucus of New Jersey, a chapter of the
National Women’s Political Caucus, is
dedicated to increasing women’s participation in the political process and creating a women’s political power base to
achieve equality for all women. Among
the honorees were Lynn Fontaine
Newsome, Esq., President of the NJ State
Bar Association, Hon. Rolando Torres,
Jr., Commissioner at the NJ Department
of Personnel and other influential figures
from the state. Manavi is pleased to receive this honor and will continue to
work towards a world free of discrimination and violence against all women for
as long as it takes.
Manavi Co-Founder Wins Diane Reese Award
The National Network to End Domestic
Violence (NNEDV) awarded Shamita
Das Dasgupta the annual Diane Reese
Award in June 2007, to honor her for her
outstanding commitment to social justice
and advocacy for battered women. In her
lifetime, Diane Reese demonstrated a
commitment to a broad vision of social
justice by working on a multitude of issues, including domestic violence. Diane
was a Team Coordinator of the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence for 14 years, and was active in numerous statewide and national projects to
improve services and supports for battered women and their children, and to
expand the vision of justice for those
affected by domestic violence.
Every year the NNEDV honors a person
who exemplifies all that Diane Reese
stood for during her lifetime. In continuing Diane’s work and vision, Shamita has
been relentless in her work on behalf of
women. Shamita declares that she is
profoundly proud of two distinct accomplishments. The first is that she has
helped to bring the issue of woman-abuse
to the forefront in the South Asian community and the second is that over the
years, she has been able to inspire and
train numerous young activists who are
dedicated to social change work.
Shamita Das Dasgupta - Manavi
Co-Founder.
Verizon Honors Manavi
Manavi was honored at the Verizon annual conference held in Basking Ridge, NJ on
September 11, 2007. This year’s proceeds from the Shower for Shelter Collection
Drive organized by South-Asian Professionals Inspiring Cultural Enrichment (SPICE)
were donated to Manavi. Manavi was also given the opportunity to reach out to the
conference attendees via an information booth.
“We felt wonderful that an
organization as large as Verizon took the time out to
honor the work we do.” -Staff
Member
Launch of New Manavi Website - www.manavi.org
Manavi is proud to announce the launch of its brand new website. After a long creative process, the much anticipated website is up and running. Check it out and spread the word!
We would like to thank the people involved in undertaking this
project. Ranjan Chari donated his web design skills in order to
make the website come alive online. You can check out Ran-
jan’s design work at www.bigappledesigns.com. We would
also like to thank Lakshmi Anantnarayan for her immense contribution in creating much of the written content for the website.
In addition to their efforts, Manavi staff members including
Smitha Katragadda, Aisha Ijaz and Aditi Desai put in numerous
hours coordinating many details of the website. We greatly
appreciate all of their work.
11
Manavi Updates
Body Evidence: Intimate Violence Against South Asian Women in America
Body Evidence: Intimate Violence Against
South Asian Women in America recently hit
the bookshelves with our very own Shamita
Das Dasgupta, one of Manavi’s six cofounders, as the editor and one of the contributors to the book. Das Dasgupta, once a
professor at Rutgers University, now
teaches clinical law at New York University.
In Body Evidence, more than twenty scholars and public health professionals uncover
the unique challenges faced by victims of
violence in intimate spaces . . . within families, communities and trusted relationships
in South Asian American communities.
Topics include cultural obsession with
women's chastity and virginity; the contin-
ued silence surrounding intimate violence
among women who identify themselves as
lesbian, bisexual or transgender; the consequences of refusing marriage proposals or
failing to meet dowry demands; and ultimately, the ways in which the United States
courts often confuse and exacerbate the
plights of these women.
"If you can read just one book to understand
domestic violence in this country, read Body
Evidence. Das Dasgupta brings nineteen
brilliant voices together to explicate the
meanings of sexuality, class, ethnicity, gender and legal status in the struggle to end
violence against women in intimate relationships."-Dr. Ellen Pence, Director of
Praxis International
Manavi Publishes First Installment of Occasional Paper Series
This year Manavi has taken a step further in its Journey to Justice by introducing its new initiative - Manavi’s Occasional
Paper Series. With the publication of the first five papers of an
ongoing series, 2007 has become a defining moment in
Manavi’s movement to end violence against South Asian
women. The initial papers in this series have been made possible by a grant awarded by the Office of Violence against
Women, U.S Department of Justice. The first five research pa-
pers of our Occasional Paper Series address an array of issues
we encounter working with women survivors of violence from
the South Asian immigrant community in the United States. As
we move into a new year, we endeavor to further weld the connection between theory and practice through our occasional
paper series, informing the research and activist communities in
the U.S and beyond, about the South Asian anti-violence movement.
- Paper No. 1: Exploring South Asian Battered Women’s Use of Force in Intimate Relationships
- Paper No. 2: Working Together for Change: Engaging Our Communities to Address Violence Against South Asian Women
By gita mehrotra and Soniya Munshi
- Paper No. 3: Communicating with Faith: Anti-Domestic Violence Advocacy in Religious Communities
- Paper No. 4: Transnational Legal Issues: Domestic Violence Complications Among South Asian Immigrants in the United States
By Devyani Prabhat
- Paper No. 5: Assessing the Procurement and Utilization of Funds: A Case Study of South Asian Women’s Organizations in the US
By V.G. Julie Rajan and Vinita Jethwani
12
Manavi Journal
2007 Collective Updates
Advocacy Collective
Manavi’s Advocacy Collective is comprised of volunteers who are trained to
provide culturally specific, peer supportive counseling to women survivors of
violence. The year 2007 saw three volunteers successfully complete the mandatory advocates training required to join
the Manavi volunteer advocate family.
The training was held in February 2007
and volunteers were introduced to critical
issues in intimate partner violence over a
span of two days. Relevant resources,
policies, counseling skills and effective
listening techniques were also shared
with them. We want to extend a warm
welcome to our new volunteer advocates
– Bindia, Deepa and Vandana.
As always, our volunteer advocates have
been actively involved in counseling
women and providing them with support
in the form of court accompaniment, job
assistance, transportation and interpretation to name a few. The Advocacy Collective has started meeting regularly to
discuss issues and concerns that come up
in our work and to support each other. A
heartfelt thank you to all our active volunteer advocates for their hard work and
dedication – Bindia, Deepa, Doris, Irvi,
Jinny, Jyothi, Rita, Seema, Shefali,
Urjasi and Vandana.
Ashiana Collective
Ashiana, Manavi’s transitional home, is a
safe space for South Asian women and
their children who have been displaced
by violence. Since 1997, Ashiana has
been providing women and children with
safe, rent-free housing while the women
work towards independent living. Since
January 2006, 14 women and 6 children
have resided at Ashiana.
As of November 2007, Manavi staff
members have been conducting support
groups at Ashiana twice a month. The
residents also have support from the Jewish Family and Vocational Service of
Middlesex County where they can attend
computer classes, have access to the
phone and assistance with resume writing
and looking for jobs, five days a week.
The volunteers continue to support Ashiana by giving their time to doing groceries, providing peer supportive counseling
and providing transportation for the resi-
dents over the weekends. The committed
Ashiana volunteers and the residents
have also helped with the Ashiana makeover by putting in many hours to paint
the whole house. New carpets and beds
have also been purchased to complete the
make-over! The day to day functioning of
Ashiana is only possible because of our
dedicated volunteers - a big thank you to
Anjali, Christine, Corina, Jinny, Lakshmi, Lata, Nihar, Ritu, Shefali, Shubra, Uma and Vandana.
Legal Collective
Manavi’s Legal Clinic continued to be
held twice a month, alternating between
New Brunswick and Jersey City, in the
year 2007. The clinic, which is for low/
no income South Asian women in abusive relationships, continues to be a much
needed service facilitated by Manavi.
Manavi held 17 clinics this past year
(January to October) which provided 43
women with forty minute, free consultations with both family and immigration
law attorneys in a culturally sensitive and
linguistically accessible environment. In
between scheduled clinics, Manavi staff
consulted attorneys on behalf of 59
women, staff gave out attorney referrals
to 80 women and staff also accompanied
women to court for a total of 90 hours.
These clinics and phone consultations
would not be possible without our team
of dedicated volunteer attorneys – we
thank you for your continued support of
Manavi.
Beyond the Legal Clinics, Manavi staff
strives to provide legal support and assistance to women by being well versed on
legal resources and the most current family and immigration law information. In
that vein, staff attended three in-house
legal trainings this year. The first training
conducted by Sherril Reckord of Legal
Services of New Jersey focused on the
intricacies of various family law procedures in NJ. The second training given by
Monica Gural and Anisa Rahim of LSNJ
pertained to assisting victims of violence
through the divorce procedure. During
the third training, Tim Block and
Raquiba Huq from LSNJ went over
changes in immigration laws and updated
staff on the newly released U-visa regulations. All of the staff appreciated these
wonderful trainings and would like to
thank the attorneys and staff at Legal
Services of New Jersey for putting them
together for us.
13
2007 Collective Updates
Outreach Collective
The Outreach Collective has been actively involved in reaching
out to the South Asian community through participating in various community events and conducting cultural competency
trainings for mainstream organizations. The Outreach Collective is made up of Manavi staff, Board members, volunteers
and community members who make it possible for Manavi to
be present at many community events. The main focus of the
Outreach Collective is to raise awareness about violence against
women in the South Asian community and to inform community members about Manavi and its services.
Below are the Outreach Highlights for the year 2007:
- Marching in the India Day Parade held in Edison, NJ.
- Tabling and presenting on Manavi’s services at the Verizon
South Asian Professionals Inspiring Cultural Enrichment
(SPICE) Annual Conference held in Basking Ridge, NJ.
- Tabling at the Kerala Association of NJ’s Onam celebration
held at Bridgewater High School, NJ.
- Tabling at the Dushahra Celebration held in Edison, NJ.
- Presentation on domestic violence in the South Asian context
at Rutgers University’s Silent Witness Exhibit, NJ.
- Flyering and passing out handouts in Jersey City, NJ.
- Cultural Sensitivity training for Planned Parenthood of Central NJ in Monmouth County.
- Cultural Sensitivity Training at Robert Wood Johnson, New
Brunswick, NJ.
- Manavi’s 3rd Annual Silent March in Iselin, NJ.
- Presentation at the Johnson & Johnson Chinese New Year
Celebration, New Brunswick, NJ.
- Presentation on Manavi’s services to students at Matawan
High School, Colts Neck, NJ.
- Presentation at a Community Forum in Quibbletown, NJ.
Manavi always welcomes community members interested in
volunteering their time and services. Interested individuals are
required to attend a volunteer orientation prior to begin serving
as a Manavi volunteer. Two volunteer orientations were conducted in 2007: one in April and another in October. If you are
interested in volunteering with Manavi please contact Minu at
732-435-1414 for more details.
- Presentation on Manavi’s services in Westchester, NY.
- Presentation at a Trafficking Conference at Bloomfield College, NJ.
- Presentation on domestic violence in the South Asian context
at Yale University, CT.
- Presentation on domestic violence and Manavi’s services at an
IKNCC Church in Rockland City, NY.
- Tabling at the National Night Out Against Crime held in East
Brunswick, NJ.
Manavi Direct Service Statistics, November 2006 to October 2007
From November 2006 to October 2007 Manavi worked with a total of 296 women who approached us for assistance. Out of this
total, 216 women were new callers and 80 women the past continued using Manavi’s services. The following is a break-down of
Manavi services offered to women in hours:
Individual Counseling
517
Support Group
30
Advocacy
351
Housing/Job Assist
40
Ashiana
131
Interpretation
56
20
Transportation
300
Legal Assistance
Court/Medical Accompaniment
14
109
Manavi Journal
Letter from a Current Ashiana Resident
The last year passed by so quickly. Sometimes time just flies by - or seems to. I still remember those agonizing moments when time seemed to stand still and not move forward. ..
I had moved to the US in 2004 after my marriage to a US citizen who then sponsored me and my daughter so
we could come here. After a few days the real personality of my now ex-husband began emerging as that of
an abusive husband and thus started the difficult period. I had to move out of his house twice, first I went
back to my country with my daughter, but then he apologized and promised to do better and I went back
again, only to get out again in the next 2 weeks. I was living in Houston then and had no friends or family in
the US. A non-profit in Texas called Daya helped me deal with my situation, and soon I went back to my
country yet again, all broken hearted and devastated.
I might have continued living in my country, had my family’s behavior not made things more difficult for
me there. So I decided to come back to the US with my daughter again and try making a life for us here. I
arrived in NJ because of a friend who had very generously opened her house to us. And that is how I came to
know of Manavi. And I can say without any hesitation that Manavi played an unforgettable role in my life
from then onwards. I was having a lot of problem getting a job here and my friend was also running out of
the lease of her apartment, so it was under those very difficult times that I contacted Manavi and they told
me about Ashiana, their transitional home.
I just can not fathom what I would have done without Ashiana. I had a young daughter to take care of, and
here I was in the US with the last 100 dollars in my bank account and no job, no home and no one to turn to.
As it was I had a battered and scarred spirit, some thing those who have gone through domestic violence
understand very easily.
So I moved to Ashiana with my daughter, who was immediately enrolled in the local public school in the
town. The Ashiana coordinator made sure that every thing was taken care of and the Manavi staff was there
so I had a shoulder to cry on whenever I needed one, which was quite often in those days. They were there to
seek advice and to discuss the most personal thing with the surety that my secrets would be safe with them.
Living at Ashiana I never felt as if I was living on charity, because no one ever made me feel like that - neither the Manavi staff nor the volunteers. Every body’s attitude was such that it helped in making me feel that
I should actually feel proud of myself for not buckling under pressure and for trying to improve my situation.
I am very positive had I been living with some relative here, in this situation, my self esteem would have
suffered a lot.
Now I do have a good job, with prospects of moving up in the future, and just last week I was able to apply
for my own apartment rental - something I could not even think of doing just a few months earlier. It was all
because of the Manavi and Ashiana being there for me. Now I am able to relax a bit and to think of future
steps that I need to take such as improving my credit score and fulfilling my dream of my daughter going to
college here.
15
Articles Continued
Advocacy’s Dilemma...
discriminate against people. Advocates
have to recognize that individual moral
decency is not enough to live in an ethical community and state.
To take this logic one step further, it is
important to recognize that advocacy is
not service. In the U.S., most nonprofit
“Regardless of their differences, both service and social
change work are necessary
and significant aspects of
anti-domestic violence work
and I believe they are complementary.”
organizations provide a variety of services to individuals who are victims of
violence, unjust treatment or other socioeconomic deprivations. Some of these
agencies are geared for advocacy even
though they provide services, while others are basically service-offering organizations. For instance, providing shelter
or legal aid to victims of domestic violence who have been displaced would fall
in the category of service provision,
whereas changing housing regulations
and laws that affect battered women
would be considered advocacy for social
change.
Regardless of their differences, both service and social change work are neces-
sary and significant aspects of antidomestic violence work and I believe
they are complementary. It is essential
that anti-violence workers provide assistance to individual victims, but it is also
just as imperative that they work to
change society to end battering altogether. While we can put a band-aid on
the bleeding victim who is seeking immediate help, we must also recognize that
any amount of salve would not transcend
society to find a permanent answer to
woman abuse. Challenging, modifying,
and reconstituting the existing structures
in society that sustain violence against
women can lead us to such a solution.
Being Childless...
of admitting that this happened, instead
of coming to me and talking straight, he
uses whatever possible means to cover up
his mistake. How can I stand for this?
And why I feel this immense sense of betrayal is because I could have expected it
from any other man but my husband- I
have narrated to you how we have struggled together, what kind of a husband
and father he has been, how he has always treated me with respect and care
and now this. How could it happen?
And instead of putting sense into their
brother, my sisters in law were ready to
taint my name and say that there is a
problem with me which is why my husband is involved with another woman and
has to marry her so that she can bear him
is child. And what is the lowliest and
most disgusting thing that my husband
has done is that he kept his mouth shut.
And what do you know it is he who has
very low sperm count-my body is healthy!
16
If I wanted I could have left him right in
the beginning, but I stuck on, I supported
him, in the hope that maybe one day the
medicines will increase his sperm count
enough for me to conceive. If I had left
him in my younger days I could surely
have gotten married again and had a life
with someone else and with my child. Not
only did I not leave him, but also I saved
him from a complete breakdown, from
taking his own life!
“For the last one-year I have
resisted in every possible way.”
One day I decided to confront him and
said- why don’t you get married to your
lover, I will find one for myself and we
can all live under the same roof. Then
one of the women will get pregnant and it
doesn’t really matter who the father of
the child is! So you can be protected from
your shame.
When he heard me saying this, he broke
down and was on his knees asking for
forgiveness.
For the last one-year I have resisted in
every possible way. Not keeping my
mouth shut, speaking for myself or freezing people out. Now my husband has
turned into a completely different personthose 3 years he was so cold to me and I
would think a man who has never even
once used a verbal abuse against me why
is he treating me like that, but now he
begs me to forgive him. I have tried to
cope in my own way but I find it very
difficult to accept what he has done and I
have such hatred against his sisters.
I went to Igatpuri for meditation- that
really helped me conquer my anger to a
great extent. Everyday I sit quietly for
half an hour and try and relax myself.
Maybe I will consider artificial insemination…
I stay only because of my daughter. I love
her more than any woman would love her
own biological child.
Manavi Journal
Articles Continued
Those Who Stayed Back...
are still immersed in their work and
lonely in their own way. They have a
world outside home, yet their bodies and
minds are growing feebler and more confused. They shared our experiences and
shaped our minds when we were young.
Now they wish that we, as young professionals, were available to share their lives
and guide them like they once guided us.
Emotional and familial ties apart, we all
know the women of the previous generation who worked within and outside our
homes. We love them, we cherish them,
but as we grow up and grow apart, do we
understand them? When we call them or
visit them, all of them smile and encourage us as they always have and always
will. For a brief moment they become an
active part of our lives again. Then we
hang up the phone or board a plane and
come back to our lives.
Eastern cultures worship the mother figure. Motherhood is expected to overshadow a woman’s sense of self and all
her other identities. The life of a mother
in the East is supposed to revolve around
her child, well into his/her adult life. If
she works or takes time to care for herself, she has to strive harder to achieve
some sort of balance because her child’s
dependence on her cannot be compromised at any cost. What is seldom talked
about in this entire setup is that along
with the child’s dependence on her/his
mother, the mother’s emotional bond and
dependence on her child also grows. Her
function in her child’s life strengthens the
child. He/she rides on this strength and
moves on. Everyone accepts that as the
normal course of life. When that happens,
mothers are left without a purpose in life.
They feel betrayed, lost and meaningless.
If this scenario involves distance, matters
only become worse.
Ironically, mothers have also been socially and psychologically conditioned to
believe that they are not supposed to feel
or express emotions to anyone, including
themselves. Such feelings, they have
been told, are signs of a weak mind and
may complicate their child’s road to success. So they continue living and suffering in this false state of being where they
are not even confidently at peace with
their own feelings, questioning them at
every step. When they come to visit us,
often to take care of our children while
we work, they are uprooted from a familiar surrounding and their mobility and
comfort are constrained by language and
cultural differences. We think we are
taking care of them by having them come
over once in a while but often we do not
notice how difficult it is for them to adjust. Since we are so used to them making adjustments all the time, it does not
seem like a big deal.
On both sides of the generation divide
immigration has had entirely opposite
social, cultural and emotional effects.
This social change has undoubtedly been
progressive for younger women. It has
changed our perspectives, our goals and
our achievements. It has brought us a
long way forward. But it has also been
regressive in its own way. It has not
really changed the goals and purposes in
the lives of the women who sculpted the
base of our lives. It has left them a long
way behind, grappling with an emptiness
their early life had not prepared them for.
As we traveled and they stayed back, the
distance between us grew in every possible sense. We may ask them to go out of
the house and get a life like we did. We
may advise them that one’s happiness
should be attained on one’s own, independent of others. We may call them
more often. We may buy them the comforts that they never got for themselves as
they were busy providing for us. But we
cannot give them our time and company
- the only things they really desire and we
all know they truly deserve. It is nobody’s fault; such is the way of life.
We have come a long way. Metaphorically. And literally.
Rays and Splinters...
world, has to be befittingly challenging to
the enormity of the struggle. Sadly, in
most recent popular literature and films
the depiction is disproportionately meager and simplistic, to say the least.
I went to hear Salman Rushdie’s speech
on “Public Events, Private Lives: Literature and Politics in the Modern World” at
the Boston Public Library. He spoke elo-
quently about the way literature has to
increasingly become informed with details from this tumultuous world we live
in. Authors can no longer exist in a vacuum, nor can their stories. Interestingly,
towards the beginning of his talk he
chose to mention The Kite Runner and
Reading Lolita in Tehran, attributing
their popularity to the fact that they docu-
ment what he called “lived experiences.”
Rushdie put his faith in the writer’s wisdom, calling literature the carrier of truth
in all languages, in all countries. According to him writers are the first to be targeted during trying times because of this
very fact.
17
Articles Continued
I did agree with some issues that this
respected and popular writer spoke about.
As a student and professional of literature, and a reader myself, I respect authors and their right to freedom of
speech. I am anything but conservative,
but I cannot help notice that the world is
getting more and more polarized everyday and one end of this is seldom spoken
about, at least in reasonable terms in
works of art. No one in this educated
world of speeches and book tours questions the integrity and affiliations of authors. We assume that an author always
tells the truth and authors like Rushdie
would have us believe that. But what if
he is not telling the whole truth? While
authorities and fundamentalists make it
too obvious that they do not want the
world to know about the atrocities that
they commit, and in the process commit
crimes against artists and intellectuals,
the latter often ride on the victim wave to
gather trust and popularity.
If religious fanatics are one end of the
world, surely the moneyed West with its
sales tactics, figures and subtle policing
is on the other! And the author is no mere
prophet nowadays; he is touted as a sensation, the next best thing, an icon. We
hear the mullahs and the pundits screaming, banning and burning and we label
them uneducated lunatics. Sadly, we do
not witness the marketing strategies devised in conference rooms of big New
York publishing houses. We do not realize that the West conducts its policing in
a much more subtle way, by blunting its
citizens’ receptacles and silencing protestors and dissenters quietly.
Being a Bengali myself, I cannot forget
Taslima Nasreen sensationalizing and
selling Bangladesh to the Western world.
When the Bangladeshi Islamists victimized her and she had to flee her country,
she settled in Europe and began writing
18
about how she was targeted as a woman
and was now living in exile. As Indian
Bengali intellectuals began to gather support in favor of granting her asylum in
India and sympathy for her predicament
quickly changed to popularity, Nasreen’s
writing suffered, swaying complacently
between radical tirade and patriotic mush.
In her case, at least, she was taken at face
value and believed by the West because
she enraged some of her countrymen and
they reacted to her writing.
One of the documented reasons that Orhan Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize
is that he ran into sufficient problems
with the Turkish government. Salman
Rushdie’s head had a price to it, but a lot
of that price translated into money paid
by more and more readers who bought
his books! Maqbool Fida Hussein, the
barefoot Indian painter, painted nude
pictures of Hindu goddesses and the
Hindu fundamentalists reacted to it. Hussein sells his paintings to business houses
and wealthy patrons because the more
you are targeted by one group, the more
you are supported by another. If Jhumpa
Lahiri’s “The Namesake,” with stereotyped women characters like Ashima and
Moushumi mocked Bengali habits, culture and parenting skills and gave an incomplete depiction of the retro New
Yorker boy who is embarrassed with his
Bengali origin, Mira Nair’s much-talkedabout film made a worse hash of it. She
simplified the plot of a film she clearly
meant to show in the heart of New York
City so that entire lives become collages
of one-dimensional images such as the
Durga Puja, the Howrah Bridge and Indian classical music.
We assume that an author, especially one
from a culture that is alien to the West, is
speaking the truth and portraying an exact picture of his country. Often this assumption is where the process begins.
The author, painter or filmmaker, educated and talented as s/he is, cashes in on
this and produces a half-informed and
half-educated guess at his own culture. S/
he manipulates the truth to suit the taste
of her/his target readership. It is not
merely a co-incidence that the most well
known Indian writing in English has been
produced by Indians who work and/or
were educated abroad. Western education
teaches them to identify the most attractive tenets of their own culture, a culture
that is almost as alien to them as to an
editor or reader in the West. Then they
portray this extremity in a language that
brings home the brutality but is beautiful
by itself. The self-appointed cultural
guardians of the world use their literary
acumen to pass strong judgments against
their own countries and cultures. Coming
from a so-called insider’s pen, that judgmental opinion is all the more convincing. Of late it has become a literary fashion to have American or British writers
of non-Western origin write in eloquent
English about intimate details of the lives
of Afghans, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Japanese and other communities.
No one should have a problem with that.
But when these authors claim to be cultural authorities and wise, truthful messiahs, they are undermining the integrity
that they claim is all they have. Their
popularity is a sure sign of the number of
people they are reaching, people who are
otherwise clueless about the country or
culture they are reading about. Such writers should be more responsible for their
knowledge, research, commitment and
portrayal. Sadly, they do not seem to care
much about this. Fundamentalists, on
their part, try to victimize them, often
ensuring their popularity and marketability.
Manavi Journal
Articles Continued
The newest kid on the block is the hugely
popular Khaled Hosseini. Everybody has
read his book, or is trying to. A country
that brutalized Sikhs after 9/11 because
some Americans thought they were Arabs, has suddenly discovered an Afghan
telling them about Afghan lives in a language that they understand! Hosseini is
doing just that, and although his second
work is brilliant at places, I could not
overlook how he painstakingly embarks
on drawing an exotic Afghan picture for
an American drawing room wall.
Obviously, his novel is set in Afghanistan, the land of his origins and the land
of many wars and deaths. To make it
more acute and effective he chooses
women protagonists. In all non-Western
cultures, women are the obvious victims
and thus the most effective subjects.
Hosseini is confident in depicting the
childhood of Mariam, the bastard child of
a local businessman. She has a delicate
upbringing and is torn between loyalties.
After her forced marriage, however,
Hosseini’s writing assumes a pace and
predictability that weakens the novel.
Scene after scene depicts Rasheed, the
husband, as positively evil, replete with
terrible sex and worse violence. Mariam
miscarries seven times in the course of
four years (I, for one, thought it unrealistic that she physically survived so many
abortions and given her situation and
Rasheed’s yearning for a son, was kept
alive and stayed married) and her life
falls into a rut, hurting and eventually
numbing her. We then move to Laila and
her end of the spectrum.
Laila is beautiful and at the age of nine,
intelligent beyond her years. Her life is
complete with a doting universityeducated father and a soul-mate in Tariq.
While Laila grows up and Mariam grows
older than her age, Afghanistan crumbles
under the Soviets, the Mujahedeen’s and
then the Taliban. In a nation steeped in
tradition, each faction bends religion and
culture to suit their political and powercentric purposes. Hosseini begins drawing his parallelism here, juxtaposing personal tragedy against that of a nation,
domestic violence against war and the
travails of a person’s life against the historical journey of a country. It is especially interesting to see how violence
takes on a multi-fanged state in the second half of the book when after Laila’s
parents’ sudden and violent death, Rasheed manipulates Laila to marry him and
begins to justify domestic violence
through the highhandedness of the Taliban. The Taliban in turn keep away from
personal matters, thereby corroborating
with Rasheed. This is a manifesto of violence and all the reasons that a man uses
for hurting the only person he has any
power over: personal failure, national
decline and physical force.
In such a setting, Hosseini is brilliant in
his portrayal of the unlikely bonding between two women. Laila is meek and
lonely, especially after she hears about
the death of Tariq, her childhood lover.
Yet, Mariam feels threatened by her
beauty and popularity with Rasheed.
Laila eventually falls from favor and the
women realize they have to co-survive
the wars within and outside their walls.
Hosseini goes a trite out of his way to
depict a hellhole where women are turned
away from hospitals and where Laila has
to have a caesarian delivery without anesthesia. Yes, it is bloody, too graphic for
bedtime reading, and probably true. But
that is not the whole truth, and Hosseini
is quiet about how Laila recuperates from
this unimaginable ordeal because she
does that in the same country and in the
same setting too!
A question arose in my mind with A
Thousand Splendid Suns and was reinforced with Salman Rushdie's speech Can any culture be adequately described
in terms of another that is totally different? Salman Rushdie spoke of how literature is a poignant testimony of history.
But does contemporary literature educate
enough? I was appalled when the Director of the Boston Public Library described Salman Rushdie as a great thinker
and writer of our times, almost canonizing him. Is this literature what "our
times" will record for posterity? Where
one world and its events are explained to
another world in broad, simplistic terms?
In this world of diminishing boundaries
and cross-cultural exchange, artists are
contributing their share in broadening the
gap between cultures by mystifying and
stereotyping one culture to sell it to another. Art, especially literature, as Salman Rushdie said, is a dependable and
believable medium of spreading awareness and reaching out across all barriers
because it is not owned by anyone. But
art and literature can be, and are, owned
in multiple ways. They are the creation of
an artist or author who by Rushdie's own
admission, cannot function in a vacuum
and are therefore aware of trends and
figures. They are then the property of
corporations who ostensibly are interested in profits. Any form of art, especially the literary form, can indeed become dangerous if taken to opportunistic
lengths. And worse, very few are aware
of the danger of something as benign and
beautiful as literature. I wondered after
Rushdie hailed authors as prophets,
branded the media as celebrityworshippers, and governments as liars
and suppressors of knowledge, how many
readers in the audience
19
Articles Continued
that day would bother to seek the whole
truth about the Indian Emergency, the
Taliban regime or a family in patriarchal
Bangladesh? Would The Midnight's Children, A Thousand Splendid Suns or Lajja
inspire anyone to go far and deep into a
culture they would much rather weep
over and then forget? And if they were
interested in knowing more, where will
they go for authentic information?
How much of our world, our nonWestern histories and eastern culinary
practices do we have to aggravate and
mellow to suit Western readers and tourists? How much do we need to explain,
tone up, down and sideways to make
them feel sorry enough for us? Hosseini’s
novel stinks of an apology and a strong
judgment a lot of Indian writing in English also carries these days. Afghan expressions are followed immediately by
English synonyms in the dialogues; Persian phenomenon (Laila-Majnoon) are
explained in Shakespearean terms
(Romeo-Juliet). At the end when violence
ends with Rasheed’s death and the Taliban have fallen, he even has Tariq, the
ubiquitous good man, wonder if the
American invasion has indeed been good
for the country. Laila and her new family
eventually return to Kabul, a meaningful
gesture on Laila’s part, but Hosseini’s
writing makes her decision seem an excuse to describe, almost discover, the
revival of the city of “a thousand splendid suns” after the U.S won the war.
But as he himself says in the course of
the novel, a war cannot end another war.
Wars are the same everywhere, all the
time. And I decided after I read Khaled
Hosseini and heard Salman Rushdie that
everything eventually comes down to
one’s own integrity – as an author, a soldier, a politician, a voter or a buyer.
20
Hosseini’s novel seems to be an effort to
convince the West about atrocities in the
east that cripple countries at large. At a
time when the U.S is fighting a war and
taking lives as a reason to stop the brutality caused by a dictator, the American
people, many of whom are Hosseini’s
readers, are divided on the meaning and
need for the war. As politicians try to
convince the people in this country that
even after Saddam Hussein’s execution
the war is needed to further demonstrate
the philanthropic nature of the U.S, one
cannot overlook and suspect the timeliness of a novel from an Afghan man that
seems to suggest how necessary those
philanthropic acts were for his country.
Hosseini seems to be apologetic for his
country, almost making his novel an Afghan man’s reasoning and justification
for the U.S invasion. And while he seems
to be driven by the urge to make a lot of
people, especially women, feel lucky, I
must ask, why must art be suspect of anything?
Yes, we are lucky - every woman who
ever wore makeup and could love a man
and talk openly and laugh freely and
make personal choices, is lucky. Upper
class urban white women in the US, who
incidentally dominate the New York publishing world, are very lucky. But the
only strength of the entirely other
women, women burdened under repressive layers of poverty, religion, tradition
and culture, is not only in their selfless
sacrifice, as Mariam’s single act of any
consequence, her impulsive murder of
Rasheed, her confession to the Taliban
and subsequent martyr-like requests to
not meet Laila or anyone else, seem to
suggest. Hosseini is surprisingly quiet
here, quiet on Laila’s actions while
Mariam refuses to see visitors in prison,
quiet on where Laila is on the day of
Mariam’s execution, how she gets to
Tariq amid the haunting glare of the Taliban and why the beautiful and young
second wife of Rasheed is spared from
being named an accomplice of Mariam. It
is as though Hosseini wants us to believe,
as he himself perhaps does, that now that
Rasheed is dead everything will fall into
place for Laila and Aziza. Mariam’s
function is over, so she may as well die
uncontested!
As countless women of closely clubbed
generations suffered and changed and
regretted every day of their lives, they
also formed philosophies, defenses and
strengths that are hard to imagine and
harder to portray. They learnt from their
lives and their lives cease to be plain instrumental through that learning. Mariam
is such a woman, unlettered, patientturned-numb and almost predictable. Her
single act of utility is not the only one
that should set her apart. And if it does,
the plot should be a little more detailed
and plausible for her.
A Thousand Splendid Suns succeeds in
Mariam, Laila and, in a limited way,
Aziza’s personal lives and beliefs. It depicts two women caught in domestic and
national violence, the abiding heartfelt
love they share and the ultimate victory
of their souls. Hosseini tests his protagonists through predictable fires but carries
them through with dignity, honor and
love. There are signs of literary perfection like the metaphorical comparison of
Aziza’s stutter during her days in the
orphanage to the mild tremor that is felt
on the surface of the earth even when
major disruptions are breaking its core
apart.
Manavi Journal
Articles Continued
And as a reader and follower of nonWestern literature I cannot overlook the
new heights that Hosseini scales in portraying the dreams of two battered
women in the throes of utter helplessness.
Immediately after Rasheed is killed by
Mariam’s fatal blow to his head, Laila’s
instinctive reaction is to flee. Hosseini is
poetic here, depicting a scene where
Laila mindlessly rambles on about green
mountains and a free life as Mariam cradles her. She tries to convince Mariam of
a life that is complete and without any
man. Hosseini’s apology is absent here,
and thankfully he also seems to have
stopped pitying these women for once.
As Laila weaves a dream that need not be
beautiful or achievable through the presence of a man, her willing suspension of
disbelief gives us a moment of sublimity
and strength.
A Thousand Splendid Suns gives us the
lives of two great women and tries to
bring out their characters through the
bond they share. Mariam shines in how
she embraces Laila and her children, how
she feels the initial insecurities and then
rises above them. Laila’s trip to Herat to
relive Mariam’s childhood, on the other
hand, stems from feelings that befit heroes. The ending is sublime, and Hosseini
counts the rays of the thousand suns in
Mariam, the childless mother who saves
the life of another mother.
Like many contemporary works of art
this novel is not impartial or adequately
informed, and thus not a wholly authentic
document of Afghan culture and its
women. It can be read for its human
touch, the bare minimum expectation
from a novel that was as hyped as this.
The other dimension in Hosseini’s relentless parallelism – the novel’s historical
canvas – falls quite flat on its face because it is too forceful, and although not
entirely fictitious, too contrived. Sadly
Hosseini tries to address two equally
powerful domains and their inter-relation
– the personal and the public – and his
effort remains suspended somewhere in
between. His characters never attain a
height that make Afghanistan a setting
like the Russia of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Nor can Hosseini bring out Afghanistan and Kabul as characters in the novel
because that is too ambitious a task for
him given his preoccupations as an Afghan expatriate writer writing for an
American editor and an American market. Those who read A Thousand Splendid Suns will be able to sympathize, if
not identify with its plot or characters.
But the men and women Hosseini tries to
portray are not the ones who are meant to
read or understand his work. More importantly, even if they could, they might
not wholeheartedly agree with a lot of
things he says and sells and claims to be
entirely correct about.
21
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