The inevitable delay

Nepal News reports that Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has said the term of the constitutional assembly can be extended by six months if the constitution is not finished by May 2010.

Up to now, despite delays which have lead to the squeezing of timeframes, politicians have been unwilling to admit the possibility of missing the deadline.

British editor targeted for publishing letter on homosexuality

I’ve been meaning to write about this since it kicked off in early October.

An editor of an English news website has been accused of diluting Islam and promoting homosexuality in the Maldives by an Islamic group who have asked for her deportation.

The religious group took offence after Maryam Omidi, who took over from me as editor of Minivan News at the beginning of the year, published a letter written by a reader who said that the 100% Muslim country should recognise gay rights.

The Islamic Ministry, headed by the religious conservative Adhaalaath party, then condemned the publication of the letter and asked for an investigation into both the letter (to establish its author) and the website. The rest of the government, headed by President Mohamed Nasheed – who was jailed for his writing in his 20s – were silent.

The situation worsened after a TV channel decided to take up the cause and lead biased coverage against Maryam; I was in the Maldives at the time. DhiTV editors then organised a meeting with Maryam but didn’t turn up. Instead they filmed her leaving the building and broadcast the footage on the evening news.

Despite calls for investigation and Maryam’s deportation, the Maldivian police force said there was nothing to investigate.

The law is grey on the issue. A new constitution in 2008 ruled that citizens should be able to express themselves freely, but there was a caveat: as long as it was in line with Islamic Sharia. But as there have been no alligning media laws, it is ambiguous territory (this is also the case with defamation).

Most media outlets self-censor, not just for fear of a backlash but also because many believe that press freedom should have these limitations: that you should not publish anything that questions Islam.

For all its new found freedoms as a democracy, rights for gay and lesbian communities is still far from reach in the Maldives. I have met a couple of openly gay men, but it’s not easy for them living in a country where societal attitudes and the law are stacked up against them.

It is also yet another worrying sign in a country where democratic values, such as press freedom, are still very much in their infancy and, at the same time, religious conservatism is growing.

Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals begins

Just got back from the biggest animal sacrifice in the world, which I covered for the Guardian and which can beread here.

It was a crazy couple of days but thankfully everything worked out. The BBC corro, Joanna Jolly, and I based ourselves in Birgunj, around 45 minutes drive from the festival. On the first day, vehicles were stopped quite far from the festival and we had to walk from there. Unsurprisingly, there was no internet access on the grounds so us journos had to madly rush to and from the area to get material and then back to file.

Huge traffic jams and mass crowds (more than a million visitors were expected to attend) swarmed the dusty roads and open areas in what I decided was a Nepali-style cross between Glastonbury and the Highland Show, only with bare feet instead of welly boots.

The atmosphere was celebratory, although it didn’t look too fun to be sleeping in muddy areas surrounded by litter and with lines of scrambling (and often drunk) festival-goers stepping over you.

But there was plenty of chai (or ‘chiya’ as the Nepalese call it) and snacks, loud Hindi music, lit-up temples, fortune-telling robots flashing with lights and even a ferris wheel which looked like it was going far too fast.

And there were also plenty of animals, all brought to be killed in worship to the Goddess Gadhimai. Nepali and Indian worshippers bring a goat or buffalo to be scrificed as a way of giving thanks, or to make a wish to the goddess. Many ask for the birth of a son.

The event has roused controversy due to calls from animal rights groups for the sacrifice to be banned.

Pramada Shah from Animal Rights Nepal and some others argue that animal sacrifice does not have to be part of the Hindu tradition. There is a short comment piece in the Guardian about it here.

But, despite protests, the show went on.

On the way back I had asked to hitch a ride with the animal rights group, but wondered how long it might take to get back to Kathmandu when I realised we couldn’t leave before a vet arrived for a sick dog they had found.

Fortunately we gave up the wait after it was decided it could be dealt with by one of their friends.

An hour or so along the road and we suddenly made a detour off the road and arrived at some big gates. I realised we were at a zoo. “We just have to check on a leopard we rescued recently,” Parwan, who works for Roots and Shoots, explained.

Finally I got home to a house in darkness – the hours of electricity are growing shorter and shorter – and a cold shower. Oh well, I thought, things could be worse. I could be a buffalo at Gadhimai.