Vulgarity as Censorship

A stroll down the Lahore’s Abbot Road, lined by cinema houses, will reveal what vulgarity is. Vladimir Nabakov put it like this: nothing is more exhilarating than philistine vulgarity. Maybe this intellectual elitism was itself vulgar.

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Anoushka Shankar’s brave confession: Moeed Pirzada’s coward rejoinder

While lending support to the One Billion Rising in India---a women rights mobilisation in reaction to the Delhi Gang Rape---, in this video-message Ms Shankar courageously admits that she as a child was sexually abused.  ‘As child, I suffered sexual and emotional abuse for several years at the hands of a man my parents trusted implicitly,’ she says. ‘Growing up like most women I know I suffered various forms of groping, touching, verbal abuse and other things like I didn’t know how to deal with, I didn’t know I could change’, she adds. Reacting to Ms. Shankar’s message, Moeed Pirzada, a noted Pakistani TV anchor, posted the comment below on his Facebook...

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Living through the void

As I sit in Hong Kong’s rapid transit railway to move from one island to another, I notice it has a lot of women. Most of them are white-collar workers, menial labourers and students. Like most developed countries, Hong Kong’s women population outnumbers men by a few per cent. And, therefore, you see a lot of them on the streets, working, walking and enjoying equality.

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Media Trials

Sir,

Image by Majid Tamoor

I am deeply disturbed by a televised sting operation conducted by a TV anchor on a massage centre in Punjab Society in Lahore. If I feel that drug smuggling or prostitution is happening near my house - can I conduct an on-camera raid there?

Firstly, a police raid shouldn't be televised because the accused and the arrested can be proven innocent. Secondly, a television anchor cannot lead a raid instead of the police. The woman anchor accused the staff at the centre of running a "sex centre" several times, interrogated them, and even searched their private property.

In what capacity did the television anchor do this? Legally, only the police can search my property and that too with a search warrant. Why should I be violated on camera, interrogated and accused before I even get a lawyer to defend myself? Will any cameraman barge into my house today and question why I have a condom or a pregnancy test kit, and search for my passport and professional licenses?

The women were foreigners, shocked and unwilling to come on camera, and couldn't even speak English or Urdu. Being foreigners they can legally buy alcohol. Merely possessing a condom or a pregnancy test kit doesn't make anyone a prostitute or adulterer. A drug inspector was named and accused for coming to this centre as a "client" and seeking a "monthly". This was open defamation of the drug inspector.

Police officers, the workers' parents and the clients were speaking to the anchor. Instead, they should have questioned the legal authority of this moral policewoman armed with a mike.

The entire country was shocked when a woman in Swat was flogged by the Taliban. How is this televised raid any different?

PEMRA did not take any action against a similar TV show in which the anchor harassed young people in a park and accused them of immorality.

I strongly recommend that this channel should be fined and the show should be discontinued immediately. I also expect PEMRA to ensure that our right to privacy is protected.

This letter was first published in the Friday Times.