Covered- Up Katrina Kaif Skirts Row On Visit To Ajmer, Islam, Women and Feminism, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam, Women and Feminism

Covered- Up Katrina Kaif Skirts Row On Visit To Ajmer

HER TALENT as an actress may be debatable, but one can’t find fault with Bollywood bombshell Katrina Kaif’s memory.

She has definitely not forgotten the dressing down she got three years ago — from some clerics and the public — for visiting Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti’s shrine in Ajmer in a short skirt.

During every subsequent visit to the revered shrine in Rajasthan, Kat has been adequately dressed.

The actress was seen at the shrine on Friday, with boyfriend Salman Khan’s sister Alvira Khan Agnihotri in tow.

She had covered her face and body in a black veil.

Katrina was severely criticised in October 2006, when she visited the shrine in a short skirt. The actress, who was shooting for Vipul Shah’s Namaste London, was there along with co- star Rishi Kapoor, to film a scene.

According to tradition, devotees at the shrine must cover their head, hands and legs. Kat drew a lot of flak for not maintaining the decorum of the place.

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India shows maturity in accepting a Pakistani as the UN’s rapporteur: When will Pakistan?, Islam and Human Rights, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Human Rights

India shows maturity in accepting a Pakistani as the UN’s rapporteur: When will Pakistan?

Asma Jahangir’s report should nudge us to live as mature neighbours

By Jawed Naqvi

Monday, 09 Feb, 2009 | 09:04 AM PST |

PAKISTAN’S human rights star Asma Jahangir visited India to compile a fairly damning report on the state of religious freedoms and beliefs in the country. That she was invited by the Indian government to travel to the various hot spots and meet officials concerned and victims of bigotry across the country, including the sensitive state of Jammu and Kashmir, speaks for New Delhi’s maturity in giving her free access. It must have taken something for it to accept a Pakistani as the UN’s rapporteur on religious freedoms and beliefs in India. Moreover, it shows Ms Jahangir’s standing as a fighter for rights not just for Pakistanis but also for victims anywhere.

Ms Jahangir was given unhindered access to carry out her duties when she visited India in March last year for more than two weeks. She had a few problems in Gujarat though. Policemen and plainclothes sleuths tailed her, which violated the terms and conditions of the visit, and put her interlocutors at grave risk. She has said so in the report. On the other hand, she was slandered by others for meeting Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi during her trip. Newspapers in Pakistan described it as a sell-out when Mr Modi cleverly used an official meeting with her to project his communal politics as sanctified by the UN envoy. Noting could be more bereft of truth.

During her mission she spoke with representatives of various religious or belief communities, including Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Humanists, Jains, Muslims, Sikhs and Zoroastrians. I strongly feel that she should have met Qadiani representatives, since they are frequently subjected to physical attacks and calumny by India’s Muslim extremists, a situation not too different from Pakistan.

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