Readers' Scan

Open Letter To French President

To
The President of France President Nicolas Sarkozy

Respected Sir, I am a writer and a social worker. They call me a saint. Why are you against the head scarves of Muslim women?

Islam believes that men and women should be evaluated for intelligence and skills instead of looks and sexuality. Men must stop treating women like sex objects. Men ignoring outer appearance of women becoming attentive to their personalities and mind are pure men. Men should take women seriously and treat them as equals and not just chase them around for their bodies and physical looks.

A Muslim woman who covers her head and body is making a statement about her identity. Anyone who sees her knows that she has a good moral and character. Head covering with good dress is completeness for a woman.

You say that burqa or veil debase women. Sorry, it is not true. What Muslim world needs is education and understanding. Education does not mean nudity. Education means modesty with inner brightness. You fail to understand because your wife is known for pornography. Carla Bruny is a prostitute.

Nazneen O. Saherwala,, Surat, Gujarat


Reduce Price Of MS

Dear Editor, Recently I chanced to see your December issue of Media Scan. While appreciating your bold initiative in bringing out such a good magazine, I would like to suggest some avenues of improvements. Some spelling and grammatical mistakes can be rectified. There has been too much coverage (nearly 50% of the contents) on the topic of Madrasah and its Board in the issue. AQ & A(question & answer) column by eminent scholars on subjects like, Career Guidance and Health would make MS more informative and interesting. No doubt cost of materials and manpower justified your present cost of magazine, a reduction in price (say to Rs.15/-) would increase readership.

M. Suhail Ahmed, Vaniyambadi, Tamil Nadu


Minarets & Burqa Ban

Sir, I was amazed to know that a ban on mosque minarets was demanded in the secular Switzerland out of the fear that existence of minarets might Islamize whole Europe. "Swiss Demand Ban on Minarets: In Fear Of EURABIA?" (Media Scan, January).Now it is France where a draft bill is under consideration in the Parliament imposing a fine of Euro 700 on any woman wearing burqa covering her whole body in any public place and her husband twice as much if he forces her to wear burqa. Earlier, France had banned Muslim girls wearing hijab in schools saying that these religious symbols interfere with its commitment to secularism and its secular culture.

Such ban will only build up resistance among traditional Muslim women and they would try to defy the law resulting in social tensions. The fact is, in countries like these, when there is a freedom of flaunting your body in public, there should be a freedom for the women to cover their face, if they so desire and if they think it is requirement of their religion.

Farzana Khan, Jharkhand


Good Editorial

Respected Editor, I read the editorial of Media Scan, January and found it very interesting and informative. It has rightly outlawed the unjust distribution of wealth. The most important part of the Indian society, farmers, often fall prey to negligence while political agendas are formulated. I appreciate Media Scan for giving special coverage to their issues.

Otherwise, as of general media, if you go through a week of any major
newspaper in India and see how many times you find the words and phrases - farmer, rabi, kharif, rain- fed, rural indebtedness, fractured land-holdings, scarcity of seeds, procurement price.

I would guess that in an average week these words would be hard to find. Their absence tells a story-not just of the neglect by the media of a sector that concerns the majority of people in this country, but the direction the Indian media has chosen to take. From a time when the media understood its 'role' in India as one of recording all developments and reporting as much of the news as possible - including events that were not particularly exciting like crop failures -we now have a situation where the media has chosen to ignore a whole slew of issues and events, treating them as non-news.

Mohd Ziyaullah Khan,, Maharashtra


Miles To Go...

Sir, Gadkari's dead serious features better symbolise what the cover story is really up to. It is as much realistic as if he actually was very attentive as to how it may be possible to propel the drowning BJP afloat. The issue for reservation of workforce in multi-national companies being put up is really food for government's thought. Editorial dealt with it adequately. And the story written by Mark LeVine exposed the irrationality of Swiss government's banning the minarets construction. But still you have a long way to cover in order to present even better journalism acceptable for all sectors of people. Wish you all the best.

Abu Zar Ghifari, UP


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MONTHLY MEDIA SCAN
No. 2, 2nd Cross Artillery Road, Ulsoor, Bangalore-08, or emailed to: monthlymediascan@qmail.com