Squeezed between two extremes

A jury in London has sentenced Pakistani parents to life in prison for murdering their 17-year-old daughter, Shafilea. Both the parents — Iftikhar and Farzana — are from a village in Punjab province of Pakistan. Iftikhar immigrated to the UK in 1960s. Shafilea was brought up in the UK but her parents always pressurized her not to follow Western culture. Earlier she had been drugged and taken to Pakistan in February 2003 to be forced into a marriage with a much older man. She was so terrified of the marriage that she drank bleach, and was taken back to Britain where she spent eight weeks in hospital.

Her eventful life came to an end in 2003 when she was strangled/suffocated to death by her parents. Her younger sister, Alesha, who was 12 at the time of murder, testified against her parents. By doing so, this high-profile drama which had gripped the UK Muslim community for last many years, came to an end.

My question to all such parents who are not ready to accept that in the West either they have to integrate with the country’s culture and values, or face an isolated life full of contradictions, then why do they immigrate to the West? More or less every other immigrant family from Muslim Asia faces the same issue as Shafilea’s patents did, squeezing the children between two cultures, forcing them to live “a rural Pakistani life” while in the West; is it not better they stay back in their home countries and bring up the children per their cultural and family values. — Masood Khan, Jubail

Female gynecologists

This refers to the report “No female doctor in hospital’s gynecology dept” (Aug. 3). Indeed, people in Taif must be having a difficult experience as their pregnant wives may not have a female gynecologist in their emergency time. In other countries, people do not mind visiting male gynecologists for deliveries but it’s not the same in our culture. In this case, Thulum Hospital should have given due consideration toward this obvious and basic human needs. I am very much surprised to know that how come Thulum Hospital does not have female gynecologists in the department. I think calling the female gynecologists from other hospitals to Thulum is not a good idea, as it will put pregnant patients under unnecessary duress. — Anees Lokhande, Alkhobar

Friedman warns US politicians

The renowned New York Times columnist and three times Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas Friedman in one of his very recent article in NYT has urged all US politicians — Republicans and Democrats to stop feeding on the Middle East conflicts, especially the Israeli-Palestinian issue, for political gains. He says that by doing this they can make enough trouble for themselves on their own. Romney’s whole trip to Israel was about how to satisfy Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. His trip to Israel was about Jewish money. How much money Romney is supposed to collect by saying whatever the Israeli right waited to hear and how big a jackpot of donations Adelson would shower on his campaign in return? In order to garner more Jewish votes and money, the GOP has decided to “out-pro-Israel” the Democrats by being even more unquestioning of all Israeli wrongdoings. The challenge has been effectively met by the US president during the election year. He is not questioning the new Israeli settlements coming up every day and not even talks about any new peace initiative for fear of being branded as anti-Israel. The increased role of money in US politics and the importance of single donor have created a situation in which there are almost no brakes, no red lights concerning Israel emerging from America anymore. — S.H. Moulana, Riyadh