padma's blog

According to articles in the BBC and the Hindustan Times, the new health appraisal forms for civil servants in India now require women Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers to disclose details about their menstrual cycles and when they last sought maternity leave. 

 To quote Sharwari Gokhale, a civil servant in Maharashtra, "It's gob smacking."

Many women have strenously objected to the new form, stating that t

I'm still crazy busy with this conference work, but I thought I'd put up a quick post with a link to this article from the New York Times about the obstacles Asian Americans face in trying to become pop stars--the major hurdle being the fact that they are, well, Asian.

I've been insanely busy for the last week because of a conference I'm organizing on women's sexuality in India. It's taking me away from my roti responsibilities and depriving me of sleep. So I figured I'd take advantage of my posting privileges to engage in a little self-promotion and some ranting. First off, the self-promotion for those of you who are in the area and are interested in attending:

PRAKRITI FOUNDATION
THE THINK TANK
Stree: Sharira: Exploring Sites of Women's Sexuality Today
March 16th, 17th, and 18th

Locations:
Anokhi: Old #47 (New #85), Chamiers Road, R A Puram, Chennai-600028
Alliance Francaise de Madras: #24, College Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai-600006

As an organization committed to exploring new discourses in the politics of gender, sexuality, and cultural practice, the Prakriti Foundation is proud to announce a three-day conference on women and sexuality in India, dedicated to the late Chandralekha. Titled Stree Sharira: Exploring Sites of Women's Sexuality in India Today, this conference-- based in Chennai--will present the work of academics, artists, and activists in an attempt to initiate a multi-valanced dialogue on the experience, performance, representation and regulation of women's sexuality in India. Registration is free, but space is limited. We invite all interested people to register and save a seat for themselves!

There’s an article in today’s Hindu about a program being run by the Stenographers’ Guild for training transgender women in office management skills so that they can be placed in jobs. The president of the Tamil Nadu Aravanigal Association explained the reasons that members of the aravani (transgender) community need job training of this nature: “P. Aasha Bharati…said it was the lack of job opportunities that forced the transgendered to resort to begging or the flesh trade.

...my head…is...EXPLODING!

Brace yourselves for this one. This is the kind of news that makes me want to wrap myself in a blanket and start rocking back and forth, muttering. I was looking at the Village Voice this morning and saw an update on the saga of Maher Arar’s arrest. You might remember him as the Canadian software engineer who was kidnapped by the CIA in 2002 and taken to Syria to be tortured for ten months on the basis of a bad tip from the Canadian Mounted Police about his supposed support for Al Qaeda. Well, on January 26th the Canadian prime minister finally issued a formal letter apology to Arar and his family, along with $10.5 million as compensation and reimbursement for his legal expenses, and his removal from all Canadian terror watch lists.

And what has the United States done in response to this? Nothing, of course.

Salon today has a really interesting lead article about the practice and politics of Islam in the modern world. Steve Paulson--who, in addition to being a Templeton-Cambridge fellow for journalism in science and religion, is also the executive producer of Wisconsin Public Radio's "To The Best of Our Knowledge"--has been putting out a series of interviews in Salon with prominent intelectual figures in the religion vs. science debate. (Past interviewees include Karen Armstrong and Richards Dawkins.) For this month's edition, he spoke with prominent Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan. The article is titled "The Modern Muslim", and it's actually a very non-confrontational, informative read. I actually did not know much about Ramadan before reading the interview; he's evidently a very well-known critic of both conservative Muslim practice and xenophobic European policies and attitudes towards Islam. Here's a quote from interview:

I know this is a little out-of-date, but I wanted to post a little something about an episode of the incredibly popular National Public Radio and Public Radio International syndicated show, This American Life. I’m writing about it because it’s stayed with me ever since I’ve heard it, and I’m not sure what to think about it. The episode is called “Shouting Across the Divide”, and it aired on December 15th, 2006. The theme of the show is “stories of what happens when Muslims and non-Muslims try to communicate and misfire.”