Sexual harassment bill
The passage of sexual harassment bill by the Indian Parliament needs to be commended as the bill envisages protection of women’s rights. This disclosure is really alarming that 20 percent of female workers under the age of 35 suffer physical assault by a colleague or manager at the work place. The said bill has been passed now in the lower house of Parliament but is still to be passed in the upper house of Parliament, after that it will become a law. Actually every kind of harassment is awful particularly the sexual harassment is a serious crime; no respectable person would sexually harass a lady. Protection of female staff is must, definitely when this bill becomes an established law female employees will feel much safer and protected. But at the same time it is equally important to make sure that the complaints filed against men are genuine and no tricks are played to blackmail them and to exploit the law. False accusations should be strictly rejected after a through investigation and the fake complainants should be dealt with iron hand according to law. — Zakaria Sultan, Riyadh
Unwarranted prohibition
This is in reference to the letter by Anees Lokhande in response to the article “Problems facing Muslim nations.” I was amused and bewildered with his sort of contempt toward the works of art and his attempt to restrict or rather impose unwarranted prohibition in the name of religion. As the writer has agreed that the Holy Qur’an encourages the entire humanity to ponder and contemplate, there is nothing to stop the process of thinking and reflecting. Most of the forms of art including music, theater and painting provide means to express the underlying thoughts of artists and to curb such forms will mean stifling or strangulating the ideas. The works of art did contribute to the progress in the field of math and science. When Prophet (peace be upon him) urged to keep learning even if that requires travel to China, he was encouraging to allow the faculties of mind to grow and enrich it with knowledge. Therefore, there is no point in being dogmatic in our approach and deny ourselves the right to express and take pleasure. Nor is there any truth that those who indulge in different forms of art and literature do not progress in their career. — Safi H. Jannaty, Aurangabad, India
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It’s heartening to note that persons like Anees generally keep themselves to Op-ed pages of the newspapers only, and don’t come out on the street to implement their thinking. This comment is in the backdrop of a recent incident in Karachi wherein a religious extremist injured another person for watching TV/listening to music. Such people reject everything modern if others are using; but for them music is no issue when it is used in their YouTube clips to glorify their killing spree across the globe.
I couldn’t help laughing at Anees’ proposal of “halal” enjoyment such as enjoying the beauty of the nature, reading good books, watching scientific programs and doing physical exercise. But again he will have issues with the definition of these so-called “halal” enjoyments — what is a good book, how to filter a “halal” scientific program on TV (except it’s about how to cook a “halal” chicken), then he will have issues with my attire for jogging or will ask for segregation of genders at picnic spots.
I am afraid tomorrow Anees may also demand that we shall stop using electricity, aircraft, trains, cars, computers, phones and all the other luxuries (better say necessities) of modern life because these were not there at the time of Islam’s advent. We need to see things in their perspective; if anything which is useful for mankind shall be adapted though not mentioned in the religious scriptures, however, if there are negative aspects of the same, those should be addressed in a logical manner.
We shall be able to educate ourselves to distinguish between good and evil on their merits, not to accept or reject something without a rational thinking process. — Masood Khan, Jubail
Letters: Sexual harassment bill
