On Young Girls' Swimwear: Baby-Bikinis and the Lack of One-Piece Swimsuits for Underage Girls

The word "underage" in the title really means prepubescent, or outwardly nowhere near puberty. 

If you live in the West (and/or in the U.S.), have you ever gone to the beach or swimming pool and noticed that not one little girl, say under 8 years of age, is topless, that aaaaaall the girls, from toddlers to, say, 8-year-olds wear a two-piece swimsuits? Why do you think this is?

Well, in July, I had a Facebook status and a tweet that went something like: When I go to the beach/swimming pool, I never see little girls (oh, say ... from toddlers to around 7, 8 years old) with bare chests; they're always wearing mini-bras or other tops that cover their flat chests, even though they are nowhere close to developing breasts. So why do they always have a top on? It's not like they've anything to cover. What's the logic behind it, y'all?

I got some very interesting responses, which I want to share here.

The Recent Rumor about Respected Sardar Ali Takkar

Yesterday, I read on a pathetic Facebook page that highly respected Pashto musician Sardar Ali Takkar had passed away. It was simply the most devastating information I had read, and it broke my heart; it was as if the world had stopped for that half an hour or so while I was trying to get confirmation from those who know him personally. So I asked people on Twitter to confirm, and they did—and it turned out that it was all a lie: Alhamdulillah, Takkar saab is well and alive; we are still blessed with his presence among us.

Shame on those who started the rumor! What pity that you exist among us, that you call yourself Pukhtun, that you are mistakenly classified as human! What pity that you would spread such an abhorrent lie, creating unrest and disturbance among your own people! But why?!

Todd Akin and Rape: Dear Mr. Akin, I want you to imagine ...

In a recent interview on rape and abortion, Representative Todd Akin of Missouri, who's the Republic candidate for the Missouri State race, said:

First of all, from what I understand from doctors, (pregnancy from rape) is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

"Thing"? What "thing" is he talking about? And how dare he! And what exactly is "legitimate" rape? Is there really such a thing as an illegitimate rape? Does he not know that, as President Obama responded, "rape is rape"? Someone forcibly entering another person, violating their body, attacking their dignity, destroying their life, ruining their sense of confidence, ripping them of their right and freedom to say NO? Naa, it's just a "thing" we're talking about here, and who'd know better than Akin himself how a rape victim can shut the whoooole thing down! Oh, wait a minute - he's never been raped. Heck, he doesn't even know what rape is! Because, obviously, some people do have a right to violate another person's body. I wonder who those people are and when they can have that right. Perhaps a husband forcing himself on a wife? Perhaps an individual abusing his position of authority to force himself on an individual with a lower position? I don't know--I can't imagine when rape can ever be okay. I can't imagine who wouldn't let go once they're told "NO"; I can't imagine who doesn't know that NO really actually does mean NO. You're not wanted inside someone, don't go in, you unwelcomed dirty piece of shit. And, surprise surprise--most rapists are people that the victim knows very well, like a boyfriend, husband, father, uncle, etc. Yes, you read that correct - a husband can rape his wife, and that happens whenever he forces himself on her, like when she's unwilling, uncomfortable, maybe not ready. And so on!!!!

You, Todd Akin, are destroying the life of the mother of the unborn child of rape in order to save the life of that unborn child of rape.

Why the lack of Pukhtun Women's Leadership - Part I

I've been asking Pukhtuns on Twitter and Facebook what they think are some of the major obstacles to Pukhtun women's leadership--i.e., why is there a lack of leadership among Pukhtun women? Why are they threatened and, in some cases (re: Farida Afridi, Malalai Kakar), killed? Why is our society (both men AND women) intimidated by a woman's voice, a woman's leadership, a woman's presence? Why do we feel the need to make the woman feel invisible?

I have my own thoughts on this (peghor (basically, people's talks and taunts, intended solely to offend someone's honor), shame, honor, lack of confidence--I don't think education has much to do with it), which can be accessed via SafeWorldForWomen. But until then, these are some of the responses I've received. More are still welcomed and appreciated!

Pashtun Personality of the Week: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the Non-Violent Soldier of Islam

What better day than August 14th to write about the prominent Pashtun leader and thinker, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan - popularly known as Bacha Khan (or Badshah Khan)!

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Bacha Khan (1890 - 1988)

Bacha Khan

Bacha Khan, father of Ghani Khan and Wali Khan, was born in 1890 in the Utmanzai (Charsadda) in Peshawar. The fourth child, he was sent to a local mosque for religious education. After the completion of his Qur'an lessons, he  was sent to the Municipal Board High School in Peshawar, where he later joined the Edwardes Memorial Mission High School. When his elder brother was sent to Bombay for medical school, Bacha Khan remained with his family servant, who later influenced Bacha Khan's decision to join the British Indian army. However, as he was in the process of applying, he witnessed a British Raj officer mistreating a countryman and also realized that the Guide officers, an elite corp of Pashtun soldiers for the British Raj, were treated like second-class citizens; this highly offended him and made him change his mind about joining the army.

Hiroshima Tragedy's 60th Anniversary: "Dad, which terrorist group did THAT?"

I think this picture is so telling it deserves its own post. Talk about double standards, hypocrisy, injustice ...  I'll write on the the tragedy of Hiroshima/Nagasaki soon, but for now ... let us just pause to think about this. Go, America. Go. I wonder how the father was able to muster the courage to tell his child, "Son ... that would be America...." with his head hanging in shame, I imagine? ... My heart goes out to all those who have been destroyed in the name of politics (U.S. destroying innocent peoples of other countries), in the name of religion (the case with Muslim terrorism), white chauvinism (colonialism! The wiping out of entire religions and cultures and races, such as the natives of the Americas and Australia and the enslavement of almost entire races, such as many in Africa), and so many other forms of terrorism and injustices it breaks one's heart to realize what kind of a world we live in ...

Peace to us all, anyway.

When Zakir Naik Said Every Muslim Should be a Terrorist

Zakir Naik once said in one of his lectures to a thousands-of-people audience, "If he [Osama bin Laden] is terrorizing the terrorist, if he's terrorizing America, the biggest terrorist, I'm with him. Every Muslim should  be a terrorist! The thing is that if he's terrorizing the terrorist, then he's following Islam." The video I'm citing here is not complete, but it still gives you an idea of what he's talking about and what he's trying to answer: a question on whether Osama bin Laden's terroristic activities are Islamic and acceptable or not, and whether Naik agrees with them (I presume? I forget what the original question was; heard it years ago and totally not willing to go through it again). I'm not going to go into the politics of terrorism, Bin Laden, and U.S. former (good) relations with Bin Laden, but I want to talk about something else here: Naik's ludicrousness in saying that "every Muslim should be a terrorist."

Child Sexual Abuse - Part I: how my Quran teacher sexually abused girls

Many people have witnessed and/or experienced and/or heard of the sexual abuse and molestation of young kids, but few talk about it. Even fewer acknowledge that someone with the important role of teaching religion/Quran, the Holy Book of God, could be capable of doing such a shameless, such a cruel, such an indecent thing. So, here. It's time I shared exactly what I saw my school qaari, the Qur'an teacher, doing to his female students daily for 3-4 years of my elementary/primary schooling. (I have no doubt he stopped just because I didn't see him any longer.) And so the reason I have included "Quran teacher" in the title of this post, sort of highlighting the profession of this filthy, vicious man, is not to attack mullahs/qaaris and other religious teachers. I instead am trying to make a statement--that someone many of us might trust the most, someone we would least expect such a crime from, someone who teaches us our religion, someone who touches the Word of God (the Qur'an) several times day, someone we respect so much we can never imagine would do such a thing ... actually does do such things (no, he's not the only type of person who'd do such a thing, but he's not the angel we all think he is either); he's not incapable of sexually abusing a child just because he teaches us God's Word! And he knows he'll always get away with it, he knows no one will trust the child if the child speaks up, he knows he can abuse his authority and report the child to his parents to keep the child quiet (e.g, to tell the child's parents that "Your child doesn't respect me!" or "Your child needs disciplining!" or "Your child isn't doing well and doesn't listen to me," etc. etc.) and he knows that the parents will trust HIM and not their own child. And so this continues to happen, and we think ignoring it will eventually make it go away. But we're so wrong. And we know we're wrong.

Because I have a lot to say and because this is a problem prevalent all over the world, in different ways, committed by different people, faced by different victims, I think it requires the time and space of more than just one blog post. It needs to be talked about a lot more. More people to talk about what they have witnessed and/or experienced. I can completely understand the discomfort in talking about personal experiences of this kind of abuse, but please, please do whatever you think might help even a little bit another child who is going through this.

So this is going to be Part I. Here, I will only narrate what I saw--sexual abuse in my classes when I was a kid. In Part II,  I will narrate some other people's experiences and observations (they've told me their stories so that I can talk about them here). In Part III, I will discuss child molestation/sexual abuse as committed by qaaris (those who teach the Qur'an to children), imams/mullahs/mulvis/etc., other religious teachers, and other figures of influential authority in our communities. No, I will not claim anywhere that a certain professional group is worse than another; I'll explain then what I mean now.