Scourge of oppression
Every woman in Australia wearing trousers right now is violating Article 152 of Sudan’s criminal code. Thankfully, unlike our Sudanese sisters, we don’t get whipped for it. If we did, I wonder how many of us would have the guts to seize the whip and thrash back?
Censors sweeten the fruit
Censorship of art inevitably backfires. It’s a pity Chinese Government officials here in Australia haven’t worked that out yet. Their attempts to silence a Melbourne film-maker, along with considerable efforts this week to intimidate the director of the Melbourne International Film Festival, MIFF, have backfired beautifully.
Cloak of silence over us
Picture this: the place is Cairo, and two Egyptian women are eyeballing each other on the subway. One is dressed from head to toe in a burka, and the other is wearing a hijab. The black-clad woman asks the other why she is not wearing a burka. The young woman points to her headscarf and says, “Is this not enough?” The woman in the burka responds, “If you wanted a piece of candy, would you choose an unwrapped piece or one that came in a wrapper?” “I am not candy”, the younger woman replies. “Women are not candy.”
Headline acts, vocal spin
I have voices in my head. Lots of them. I’ve had them for years and I’m rather used to it. But this week two new voices popped in, and they’re different from the others. One is called Kylie and the other is Bruce. Odd names for voices in one’s head, I know. But I didn’t name them. My broadcast colleagues did.
Mahboba’s Promise
After almost three decades of bloody conflict, Afghanistan has one of the highest rates of widowhood in the world, and more than one and half million orphans. It takes a brave woman to roll up her sleeves and dedicate her life to fixing the problem. Sydney woman Mahboba Rawi travelled Australia raising money to feed, house and support the orphans and widows of Afghanistan. Last month she returned to her homeland after a two year absence, only to find life on the streets is tougher than ever. (Video)
Ban unAustralian burka
I’ve seen it elsewhere around the world, but I didn’t expect to see it here. Certainly not on a hot summer’s afternoon at the Canberra Centre. But there it was. A ghostly figure walking towards me, clad from head to toe in a heavy black niqab, black gloves and dark shoes. She was trailing along behind her husband and four little children.
Education’s ray of hope
For a moment I wasn’t sure if Europa was about to cry. Her huge brown eyes were fixed on the Australian soldier towering over her. He was handing her a little toy. She looked at it, then back at him. Both he and I held our breath. Finally, slowly, Europa’s face softened into a beautiful smile. She took the toy.
Dress code for refugees
I will never know, or understand, why I won the passport lottery and Sedique, or Meena, or Obaidullah, or any other would-be refugee lost out. I just happened to be born into one of the safest, cleanest and wealthiest countries on earth – Australia. Those three happened to be born into one of the most dangerous and deadliest countries in the world – Afghanistan.
How we love a swine
So Gordon Ramsay is a pig. We knew that. He’s paid to be. In fact, Ramsay is probably one of the highest-paid pigs on the celebrity circuit right now. And after his most recent piggish act Down Under, he’s probably in for a pay rise. He’s proven – yet again – that bad behaviour is a ratings-puller.
Devoured in dream dash
What is it with Susan Boyle? The come- from-nowhere singing sensation, who took Britain and the world by storm, is in a funk. She’s now “resting” in an upmarket psychiatric clinic, after police were called to her hotel room on the night of her last television performance.
Brave voice for freedom
What a strange place Australia must seem to Shazia Shakib. She arrived in Adelaide on Wednesday, having flown from war-torn Afghanistan, via Pakistan. She’s 25 years old and has never been to “the West” before.
Summernats? Get it off
There’s a beaut line in the film Annie Hall, when Rob, who’s just moved to LA, is taking Alvy and Annie on a car tour of the ritzy Beverly Hills. Rob loves the place and can’t stop boasting its charms. “And the women, Max, they’re like the women out of Playboy magazine, only they can move their arms and legs.”
Narcissism and the NRL
Rugby league is the most tactile game on Earth. Men fly through the air to belly flop on top of other men. They hug and grab flesh; fling arms around hips; thrust their face against another man’s groin. They grunt, pull and poke at each other’s bodies. Then nosedive into their opponents’ buttocks.
Facing Taliban terror
One of Afghanistan’s leading women’s rights activists, Sitara Achakzai, was booked to fly out of Kabul last Friday, to visit her ageing mother in Canada. But she didn’t make it.
