Wednesday, November 19, 2008

 

devadasis

i guess this is no country for old men. I think i'm now truly on the other side of the generation gap. take this word pengkid for example. I've never heard of it in the whole of my life until a couple of weeks back and that only because there was a little storm in a teacup about some people wanting to protest in the nude because they disagree with the fatwa on pengkid. protesting in the nude in malaysia?? where?! i'd dearly love to come to one (just as an observer of course.) but malaysian authorities are not only incompetent and corrupt assholes , they are also boring and sour puss. they ought to encourage people protesting in the nudes!

pengkid. i wonder where that word comes from. that doesn't sound like bahasa malaysia to me. the media sometimes translate it as 'tomboys' and sometimes as lesbians! and as so often these days, the easiest way to know anything is just to google it. and when i did, i get this. harmless enough i think and i personally have no problem with either tomboys or lesbians . in fact i find them quite sexy but here's the thing. i don't fight with fatwas. i RESPECT fatwas.

and another thing. non muslims have no right to comment on fatwas. this is the realm of islam and for people professing islam. let them fight and bicker among themselves but others, please stay out of it. you see, i don't think it's my business and would never think about protesting against christian religion for example for making nuns 'the brides of jesus' and make them celibates (if i were to be unkind i'd say; what a waste of good pussies). and so by the same argument, non muslims should refrain from poking their snouts into other people's affairs.

one thing i learn about religions. philosophically ALL religions are GOOD . but as they say the devil is in the details. ALL religions have at least some astoundingly stupid and ridiculous aspects . some are completely demented in in their dogmas and belief (eg christianity) , some in their practise (eg my own religion Islam) and so on and so forth.

and take hinduism for example. i'm currently reading Huston Smith's The world's Religions and i find the philosophy behind hinduism amazingly logical and beautiful (and to be fair so are the other religions too). but then i came across a very interesting article in a not so recent the New Yorker issue about devadasis. these young girls dedicated to the goddess yellamma would be deflowered as soon as they reach puberty either by the temple priests or the highest bidder in the village who usually are the village head or the rich who are invariably much older than the poor devadasis. and so you'll get a sixty year old man having sex with a twelve year old girl. such is life and fate for the devadasis. they will ultimately end up either as temple prostitutes or more often than not these days end up in mumbai in the 'cages' in kamathipura, reputedly the biggest red light district in the whole world. this article Serving the goddess by william darlymple is on line and you can read it here. and for a less prurient and more balanced article on the subject, probably this 52 page academic write up Devadasis-sinners or sinned against by Anil Chawla is a good start as any.


i've never been to mumbai but i can well imagine what it's like. several years ago i was in kolkata and one day i took a taxi and asked to go to sonagochi , the largest red light district in this city. unfortunately the taxi driver happened to be a pious muslim and refused to escort me to go around the warrens and alley ways of this hell hole. but sometimes next year i'll make sure i visit mumbai's kamathipura. i may bring a bag of condoms and pretend to be one of those boring NGO persons working to save the world. and i'll make a point to look out for those young girls with the distinctive necklaces. the devadasis.

Comments:
Hi

Non-Muslims are not required to "respect" fatwas.
We can criticise them from our own perspectives and different worldviews.
Our criticism shouldn't be taken as an assault on Islam if you truly believe in ISlam than our comments should not affect you.
Also it's probably futile to "defend" your faith 'cos we are not attacking it.
Fatwas are just about power, you as a MUslim giving up your individual freedom to a group of people that you believe should be able to dictate your life....
 
Ms JY;

do i sound like i'm "defending' my faith? nobody need to defend anybody's faith.

nobody should meddle into anyone else's.that's the point. stay out of family quarrel so to speak. respect.

what non muslims need to understand is Islam's world view is quite different to other religions. for example in case of christianity: 'render unto ceaser what is ceasar's', the separation of church and state is totally opposite to islamic world view where every aspect of life is govern by Islam. muslims can not escape islamic rule. 'islamic laws' hence the syariah, fatwas etc.

it's true that you can express your disagreement based on your world views but to demonstrate and protest against fatwas are like muslims trying to protest against christians alalowing gay marriage or gay priests. we DON"T do that. that's none of our business.
 
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