I really support Areej Rana’s letter published on July 11th and agree with the concerns shown by her with regard to “Anti-dowry campaign” recently launched in Jeddah. No day passes without a dowry death or harassment for dowry is heard either through newspapers or news channels. Until how long we will be reading such painful incidents and keep quite. Are we not answerable to God Almighty about this evil practices in the society? Surely, we are. God Almighty says, there should be a group amongst you who should stop the evil and preach the good.”
It is the need of the hour for all the sane people to come forward leaving behind their personal, religious and regional differences and fight against the “dowry” as well as all unwanted customs related to marriages in whatever capacity they can.
I thank Arab News as well for publishing such articles and views which help us get awareness and take positive steps to eradicate such evils from our society. (Mohammed Abbas Khan, By e-mail)
Caste politics in India
The article “India’s caste politics draws flak at UN rights body” has very finely reflected the issues related with the caste system and alienation of a significant portion of the Indian populace and the discriminatory treatment meted out to them. I am sure the writer would agree with me that the situation has been changing rapidly and now it is not as bad as it was during the pre-independence era. Unfortunately, this class has always been exploited by the politicians to serve their vote banks, yet, as the writer said, they have been marginalized in savoring the fruits of democracy due to their low social status.
Thanks to the abolition of feudal lordship, spread of education, inter-caste marriages; the caste system or discrimination against them is not practiced at least in the open now. What is actually required is changing the mindset of the communities by continuous campaign both by governmental and nongovernmental agencies. What needs to be elucidated all through these campaigns that on no single ground a human being can be discriminated or subjected to unfair or unequal treatment in any respect anywhere.
In all cases, as the UN has failed completely in stopping abuse against humans or protecting the rights of several ethnic groups in different continents and was a silent spectator of atrocities and mass killings of hundreds and thousands of people in Palestine, Armenia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Rwanda in the recent times, it has lost its credibility. (Safi H. Jannaty, Dammam)
Time to hang up boots
Ace South African wicket-keeper Mark Boucher, already a world-record holder for most catches, is like most sportsmen who fail to hang up their gloves when at the peak!
Now finding himself in an unfortunate position of having to forcibly retire due to the freak injury sustained during a friendly match in the UK, he gets, deservedly, all the tributes accorded to great sportsmen!
With Sachin Tendulkar, who also wants to continue breaking records, the tendency for sports personalities not to “see the light” and retire gracefully, is stretching it a tad!
When it’s time to go, just do it! (A. R. Modak, Johannesburg)
Forgotten heroes
Safi Jannaty has raised a valid concern in his letter “Focus on Boson (July 12) over ignorance and negligence on the part of the Indian government and the media when it comes to honor the national heroes such as Indian physicist Satyendranathe Bose. Their brethren across the border are no different — how many people in today’s Pakistan are aware that it was a Pakistani physicist, Dr. Abdus Salam, who was at the forefront of theorizing the particle in 1960s-70s which (Higgs Boson) is known as the final piece of the Standard Model of Particle Physics; a theoretical model leading to the fundamental particles and forces that control our Universe. From 1959 onward, Salam, Glashow, and Weinberg worked to mathematically prove this theorem. Salam was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1979, along with his colleagues — Glashow and Weinberg, for contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including inter alia, the prediction of weak neutral currents.
Salam, the only Pakistani to ever get a Nobel Prize, pioneered a number of projects in his homeland, Pakistan, which have now grown and proving their immense worth.
A road named after Dr. Salam in CERN Geneva where this Higgs Boson particle was discovered in Large Harden Collider (LHC), shows the respect for him from the world’s scientists community. It’s sad that we have forgotten our real heroes. As once former US President Calvin Coolidge said: A nation that forgets its heroes will itself soon be forgotten. (Masood Khan, Jubail)
Letters — Anti-dowry campaign
