world – Fifth Pillar

The Soldiers on Foot

By ~ Gaurpriya Singh Roy

All capacities of the 7 oceans together wouldn’t be good enough to fit in our gratitude and indebtedness towards the Indian Armed forces. As a whole their greatness, pride, and impeccability are depicted in The Soldiers on Foot, I would be delighted to elucidate with you about the profound infantry regiment of the Indian Army, One of the largest in the world also anointed as the “Queen of the Battle”. The infantry is the Indian Army’s backbone.

Infantry Day is ascertained in India to commemorate the first military event of Independent India, when the first battalion of the Indian Army’s Sikh regiment fought a battle to defeat the Pakistan Army’s first attack on Indian soil on October 27, 1947, in Kashmir valley, in an attempt to seize Jammu and Kashmir.

They were part of the team defending Indian territory against Pakistani invaders advancing on Srinagar. Infantry Day 2022 honors the bravery and valor of the Indian soldiers who took part in the difficult mission.

During wars, infantry soldiers bear the main brunt of the damage. These men possess the traits like belligerence, physical fitness, and rigor. With the passage of time, the Indian Army’s infantry units have been modernized, equipped, and trained to rank among the best in the world.

Bill Mauldin once said, “The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry.” And I think it is justified after the rash decisions the Government exerted during such critical times of 1947, let it be influential political leaders approaching the UN when India was already on the lines defending its land or let it be the delayed sending of the soldiers to the battlefield or be it declaring cease-fire even when Pakistan disagreed that his soldiers were at line Says the Himalayan blunders an extremely controversial war memoir penned by Brigadier John Dalvi. This book also explains why a Referendum was not Necessary after the Weapons were already taken, even after such missteps

The infantry regime remained fearless and followed orders courteously in 1947, The Sikh regiment’s first battalion landed at the Srinagar airbase. They demonstrated extraordinary courage and strength in thwarting the Pakistan Army’s invasion of Kashmir with the help of tribals. During the first India-Pak war, the Douglas DC-3, also known as the Dakota, transported troops from the Army’s 1 Sikh Regiment to Srinagar, as well as supplies and refugees. This regiment served as a border guard for the Indians. Thus, Infantry Day commemorates the first military event in India.

To vaguely narrate the night of the 26th; Initially, it was decided to send a brigade-level force. However, because the road from Pathankot to Srinagar was in poor condition, the Sikh regiment was flown in by Dakota aircraft. The road was then followed by the brigade-level troop. Around seven Dakota planes were built. Only two of these seven were from the Indian Air Force. The remainder came from private airlines. This included Biju Patnaik’s aircraft (former chief minister of Odisha). The troops were assembled in the middle of the night and airlifted at dawn. Everything was planned in a single night.

At this point, it is not even surprising how flawlessly trained and skilled our Jawans are, appreciating, acknowledging, and admiring their sacrifices and bravery is the only sinch thing we can do; soldiers like Capt Vikram Batra PVC (9 September 1974 – 7 July 1999) late officer of the Indian Army, posthumously awarded with the Param Vir Chakra.

Lieutenant Colonel Dewan Ranjit Rai, commanding the 1st battalion of Sikh Regiment in Gurgaon wherein his role was making arrangements for the refugees, was given the nation’s second highest gallantry award, “Maha Vir Chakra” for his outstanding leadership, fighting spirit, and supreme sacrifice. He became independent India’s first officer to receive the Maha Vir Chakra, he was also called the first shed in independent India.

They forever live among us, and we to date celebrate them through their heart-whelming phrases like “Either I will come back after hoisting the Tricolor, or I will come back wrapped in it. But I’ll be back for sure”

~ Captain Vikram Batra.

“Ye dil maange more”~ Capt. Vikram Batra.

Well-known media platforms as such The all India Radio news also celebrated by tweeting :

The 76th Infantry Day is being celebrated today. It was on this day in 1947 that Infantrymen from #IndianArmy, led by 1 SIKH, landed at Srinagar Airfield and saved J&K from a ruthless and treacherous Pakistani invasion.#infantryday

Respect and pay tribute to the valiant Indian infantry soldiers who fought and were martyred to save the nation and its people during the Pakistan Army’s invasion of Kashmir during the period of independence. This year marks the 76th Infantry Day for the Indian Army and we humbly and truly honor them very mundanely through this glorious day.

Honest Review: The Climate

By: Anagha Vinay

Climate Crisis is entangled with every aspect of our lifestyle. The Climate Transparency Report is a comprehensive annual review of the state of climate performance of the G20 nations. Its assessment includes 100 indicators for climate adaptation, risks, protection, and finance. The G20 countries coming under this are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union.

The report shows a comparative analysis of the climate actions taken by these nations to achieve a net zero emissions economy. It is a global partnership with a shared mission. It is a concise report developed by experts from 16 partner organizations from the G20 nations. The 2022 report theme is ‘G20 response to the energy crisis: Critical for 1.5°C.’ It bridges climate emergency to the energy crisis.

According to the 2022 report, climate change has had a massive impact across G20 countries with wildfires, heatwaves, tropical storms, and rising global emissions. Exploiting our environment for development at an unsustainable pace left us blind and deaf to the wailing cries and consequences of the ecosystem, and now the tables have turned. It is not Mother Nature who is pleading, it is us. We don’t have a choice, but to act, immediately. In this time of crisis, there are going to be no more excuses, and there are going to be no next times.

The report shows that the prices of fossil fuels rose exponentially in the second half of 2021 mainly as a repercussion of the Russia-Ukraine war. China, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom have the highest total fossil fuel consumption and production subsidies. Energy emissions were found to have rebounded across the G20 countries by 5.9 percent last year, returning to the pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, emissions in the power and real-estate sector were higher than pre-pandemic levels. The per capita emissions in these sectors in China and Turkey are currently higher than in 2019 levels. However, the share of renewables in the power generation mix has seen an increase in all the G20 countries between 2016 and 2021. Countries with the highest increase in renewable energy share are the United Kingdom (67 percent), Japan (48 percent), and Mexico (40 percent), and the lowest increase are Russia (16 percent) and Italy (14 percent).

India has suffered the highest heat-related labour capacity reduction, nearly 167 billion labour hours, resulting in a financially crippling loss of about 5.4% in the GDP, equivalent to $159B. India even witnessed reduced wheat crop yield due to record heat waves. It is estimated that around 142 million people or 10 percent of the population of the country may be exposed to summer heatwaves at 1.5°C. India stands third among the G20 nations with high methane emissions, with a soaring 10.5%.

Climate Action Tracker statistics have rated India’s overall climate action efforts as highly insufficient. For instance, the average temperature experienced in the summer of 2017-2021 has been recorded to be 0.4°C higher than the 1985-2005 global mean temperature increase. About 33% of the country is drought-prone, and approximately 50% of this area faces chronic droughts. This, right here, is the Code Red for Humanity. But there’s still so much we can do, together. This is why we need to be out there, making our voices heard as one, louder, and stronger than ever before.

Real change will happen when the concerns of all the vulnerable groups have been addressed and every possible action has been taken to protect our ecosystem. This is the need of the hour. Let’s join hands and be a part of this. Let’s strike to make them listen to us. Let’s strike to make them act. Let’s strike because now the time has come, when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or fully in measure, but very substantially. The real change is coming. All we have to do is be in this fight for what is just, and we shall triumph.

One World, One Heart, One Pride

By: Gaurpriya Singh Roy

“Loving yourself is the greatest revolution,” proven by the LGBTQ+ community just by doing the most mundane thing: fighting for love,

Love-a language misunderstood and mistaken. Hence, the month of pride brings to us the opportunity to know and explore the lengths of magnitude people have gone to for the sake of love.

Many consider the month of pride to just mean the celebration of sexuality, but Pride Month is an entire month dedicated to the uplifting of LGBTQ voices, a celebration of LGBTQ culture, and the support of LGBTQ rights. Throughout June, nationwide, there have traditionally been parades, protests, drag performances, live theatre, memorials, and celebrations of life for members of the community who lost their lives to HIV/AIDS. It is part political activism, part celebration of all the LGBTQ community has achieved over the years. Hence, the community knows the actual struggle for this piece of joy acquired.

Over the years, celebrating Pride has grown, not just in numbers within the LGBTQ community but also in popularity. This is wonderful but also presents a few problems. While people stand by watching corporations selectively jump on the bandwagon for a few weeks, the LGBTQ community has to live the truth and support each other all year long.

The month is a monograph of mixed emotions, perspectives, and celebrations—celebrations of not only emotions but also of people, their struggles and joys; mourning their losses and applauding their accomplishments. Although in reality, just a month could never be enough to acknowledge the profundity of joy and sorrow, this one month does sure serve its initial purpose of spreading awareness. ‘The biggest idealism about pride is about hope’, The purpose of this commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.

They say LGBT people are not people, they are just an ideology. Living in a place where people are dehumanized, we, as individuals, community or not, have to find ways to help, support, and fight for basic rights.

In conclusion, to me, pride refers to the freedom of expressing one’s true self—one that has been masquerading beneath government policies fuelled by orthodox societal norms—specifically those about homophobia—for a very long time. Pride Month and celebrations aren’t just about watching drag queens throw t-shirts from a float or buying items with a rainbow on them. Pride matters for many reasons beyond this and is much more than a few events in the summer. Activists and campaigners have certainly played a crucial role in bringing about what can be seen as a major turn of events in terms of the increasing numbers of egalitarian and human rights cuts across communities throughout the globe. It means celebrating the victories of what the community has achieved so far and also a revolt against what we’re still being deprived of. Thus, pride is and will be a ceaseless fight.

Masked Love

By: Anagha V

“Dear Friend,

Occasionally, when I lay down and closed my eyes, I used to feel like a skatefish in pisciculture. Bleak lifelessness around me – a world drained of joy. They only saw in black and white, do you realize?

The funny thing is, I swam around. I floated around like a little plastic toy, discarded into the vast ocean by some rich spoilt kid. As light, weightless, and wasted. I felt my fins and tail as I traversed the water, the strong current against them.

My teachers had always told my parents that I was a queer child and that I daydreamed too often. Maybe they did get some part of it right, but I never dared to make the pun evident. Who are dreamers but lost souls, right?

My room used to be no different from my terror of a thought loop. It was almost like a black hole, everything sucked you in, and you lost your nature. You know, like the universe is no longer to be governed by the Laws of Senses. If absurdism gets narrowed down, the only thing defined in it would be human hypocrisy. They ask you to love and then say you are not supposed to. They preach to you to be true to yourself but accept only sugar-coated lies. I know.

My school was no better. It was not like my friends were any kinder. Their images flickered in and out of my daily life like a television channel on a poor signal. Despite being left with all these people around me, I was permitted only to use one bland, broken communication device. Will they ever know me for who I truly am? And then I’m in the pond again, my form obscuring my vision. Would it have changed who I am? Would I have forgotten who I was? I am glad you were there through all this.

At times I used to feel like this life was a conspiracy. But then you told me about the other colorful, joyous worlds I could spiral into when I was lost. Maybe all everyone in such a wicked world as mine needs is an ally. Things did not seem as hard. I finally had the courage to stand up for myself. You were not right by my side physically, true. But you were with me, in your heart. That is more than anything I wanted or needed. All this suffocation of shutting myself inside is finally off my shoulder, and I just wanted to say thank you.”

People are often just scared to speak up for themselves. They have to realize that what makes them unique is everything about them- their age, gender, identity, sexuality, interests, and whatnot. The pride community is not for today’s relief or tomorrow’s comfort. It is a movement for as long as it takes. And it is home. To love is human, and to love is divine.

Pride and Disprejudice

By: Dibyan Goswami

“Genders are like twin towers, earlier there were two but now it’s just a sensitive subject”. This is exactly what is wrong with our perception of gender, gender in itself is not a sensitive or confusing subject but it is our arrogance that makes it so. The fact is straight-forward, gender is not a discrete spectrum but rather a continuous spectrum of human identities. It is nothing to be afraid of or to be disgusted with but rather a change that should be welcomed with warmth as it is this change of gender identity that accommodates fellow humans as humans.

Disagreers would often say how earlier there was no mention of LGBTQ ever and gender was binary. But that’s exactly where we go wrong, if we were to broaden the time upto which our “earlier” extended, that is, if we go back to the ancient world, there was never any mention of LGBTQ because there was no concept of heterosexual or homosexual relationships. There was no “us” and “them”, it was only “us” and it was all about loving who one liked. In fact, same sex-relationships were highly common in Mesopotamia. In ancient Mesopotamia, god Enki is said to have created a third-gender as servants for his daughter, thus, the non-binary gender was recognised thousands of years ago as the third gender. The Almanac of Incantations contains prayers for both opposite and same-sex marriage proving how gods even blessed same-sex relationships.

Records dating back to 600 BCE refer to same sex-relationships in China where it was believed that the upper class lover would dignify the lower class lover, bringing prosperity into his life. Chinese literature is home to several poems and anecdotes on same-sex relationships, one of these known as “the cut sleeve” tells how emperor Ai was resting with his lover Dong Xian who had fallen asleep on Ai’s robe. Instead of waking up Dong Xian, emperor Ai instead cut off his sleeve so that his lover could sleep peacefully and went to attend court in a disheveled state. Isn’t this a very wholesome story? There is nothing wrong in bringing back a tradition that can be home to thousands of such wholesome stories.

Back in 1250 BCE, the Indian law code, Manusmriti treats both same-sex and oppsite-sex relationships equally and the Kama Sutra references the third gender too. While the third gender (Hijra) is marginalized in present day India, there is nothing in ancient scriptures that marginalizes them. Our culture is undoubtedly one of the richest cultures in the world and we should be proud of it. While we talk of returning to our traditional values, it is still a taboo to talk about same-sex relationships. While the ancient Indian culture never stigmatized same-sex relationships and transgenders, “modern-day” Indian culture does, surprisingly, same-sex relationships in India were made illegal by a colonial era law establised by the Britishers. Now, in modern-day British culture, same-sex relationships are being welcomed as an indication of a more “modern”, self-aware and educated society. Irony lies in the fact that our society was always more welcoming and wholesome for the third gender and same-sex relationsips.

Thus, talks about pride month shouldn’t really trigger us or make us feel uncomfortable, rather they should act as a reminder of our ancient culture that made India the richest country at one point of time, home to the strongest empires and housing the most diverse and rich culture. Hence, as an Indian we should proudly talk about same-sex relationships and rights for the LGBTQ+ community. In the end, it is all about loving who you like as love knows no gender.

Abducted Ambitions: Hijacking lives

-by Aniket Banga

The Act

Human trafficking is the act of forced, fraudulent, or deceptive recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or acquiring people for profit. This crime devastates men, women, and children of all ages and backgrounds, occurring in every corner of the globe. Traffickers frequently use violence, phoney job agencies, and false promises of education and career possibilities to deceive and coerce their victims. They prey on people’s dreams and lure them away for their benefit.

Millions of people get abducted and forced into the system every year; around 71% of victims are women and girls, and about 1/3rd of the victims are children. An estimated 40.3 million individuals are being trafficked or enslaved around the world, in addition to the estimated 21.3 million refugees. Suffering unimaginable psychological, physical, and social pain, these victims are part of a global crisis that we witness, touch, and assist daily without realising as outsiders to the network. Human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry worldwide, tied with arms dealing and succeeding drug peddling by a thin margin, yet the fastest-growing one.

A recent article published around a year ago on the Forbes website, “Cracking The $150 Billion Business Of Human Trafficking” (linked below), sheds light on how it has been the third most lucrative criminal industry and has only been growing exponentially. The most common forms of trafficking are sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced labour, while others also include debt bondage, domestic servitude, organ removal, forced begging, and child soldiers. It is an insult to human dignity and an assault on their freedom.

The Purpose

Exploitation, this one word, holds so much meaning for victims of trafficking that it holds power to incorporate all they have to go through throughout their contest—the global data hub on human trafficking records around 1 million cases from all over the world every year. Considering that these are only the number of reported cases, estimates suggest that only about .04% of survivors of human trafficking cases get identified;06 we can see that the problem is much more crucial than it already seems on the outside. Sexual exploitation accounts for 66 per cent of human trafficking revenues, although only 19 per cent of victims get trafficked for sex.

According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the average annual yield made by each woman in forced sexual servitude ($100,000) is five times more than the average profits generated by each trafficking victim worldwide ($21,800). According to studies, sexual exploitation can generate returns of 100 per cent to 1,000 per cent, while enslaved labour can create more than 50% profit even in less profitable sectors (e.g., agricultural work in India).

Because of their susceptibility and innocence and the market demand for young victims, sex traffickers target youngsters. Not just high school pupils are at risk; studies suggest that human traffickers have had victims as young as 12 years old. No one is safe from these evildoers who target minors online, on the street, or in large public areas like sporting events or shopping malls, or through friends or recruit through other adolescents at schools and after-school programmes.

Enabling Means

Human traffickers frequently use international channels to transfer migrants who get forced to seek the services of a smuggler due to poor living conditions. Recruiters use various methods to find migrants, including the Internet, employment agencies, the media, and local contacts. Mediators who recruit from within the native country are frequently culturally similar to migrants. Migrants see smuggling services as a way to escape destitute situations in their native countries and go to more stable, developed areas.

Smugglers provide migrants with fake passports or visas and instruct them on evading detection by border-control authorities since such circumstances make it impossible for victims to obtain legal travel credentials. On the other hand, transporters keep the migratory process going by using a variety of modes of transportation, including land, air, and sea.

Even though many victims leave the target nation of their own volition, most are unaware of being recruited under a human trafficking operation. Some people are kidnapped or coerced, but others get bribed with fake job offers, passports, or visas. Transporters are rewarded only after transporting victims of human trafficking from the origin country to the responsible party in the destination country. The traffickers seize all immigration documents, whether legal or counterfeit.

Legal response

Article 23(1) of the Indian Constitution makes it illegal to traffic in human beings or persons. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act of 1956 (ITPA) is the most crucial legislation preventing commercial sexual exploitation trafficking. In addition to that, various other legislations relating to trafficking in women and children got enacted, such as the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, Bonded Labour System. Apart from specific sections of the IPC, such as the (Abolition) Act of 1976, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994.

In addition, sections 372 and 373 deal with the selling and buying of girls for prostitution. Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) criminalises trafficking offences that involve any act of physical or sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery, and servitude. It prescribes penalties ranging from 7 to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine for offences involving an adult victim, ten years to life imprisonment, and a fine for those involving a child victim.

A detailed analysis of the steps taken by the Indian government can be found in the “2021 Trafficking in Persons Report: India” by the US Department of State (linked below). India’s national crime records bureau (NCRB) also released another comprehensive study (attested in the referential links).

Prevention and control

Intending to tackle the menace of human trafficking, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has undertaken several measures such as Anti Trafficking Cell (ATC) for communicating various decisions and following up on action taken by the state governments. Furthermore, advisories to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of the law enforcement machinery in tackling crime.

India is also a part of international conventions like the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime (UNCTOC), the SAARC convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution to prevent transnational trafficking. Our country has also set up a bilateral mechanism along with Bangladesh to avoid cross border exchange of victims.

Many people in our nation, including renowned children rights activists and Nobel peace laureate Mr Kailash Satyarthi, have constantly been preventing and rehabilitating trafficking victims. As citizens of our country, we can also contribute to the drive against this inhumane crime by playing our part. A few things that would help reduce the cases substantially are:

Learn the indicators of human trafficking by training or self-learning. (a few resources are under references)
Report to 24*7 hotline numbers (attached below) if we spot any cases.
We can also spread the word through social media.
We need to be aware while shopping from businesses of any exploitation of labour while producing their goods and services.

In conclusion, the current state of human trafficking around the world does not look very exemplary. It requires continuous efforts from national, international and state-level government organisations and individuals to ensure that the cases are reported and acted upon properly while also ensuring that the victims get proper aftercare and reinstatement. It is a series of long continuous efforts that we still need to make to ensure that no human stays deprived of the right to live and the freedom to breathe.

References:

Cracking The $150 Billion Business Of Human Trafficking. – Forbes article

India – United States Department of State – USDS report

Chapter – 6A – Human Trafficking – NCRB report

Resources for self-training to identify trafficking:

24×7 helpline numbers:

1800 419 8588 – Operation Red Alert | Report Sex trafficking in India

1098 – national child helpline

0141-2744000 – national women helpline

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/human-trafficking.html

https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-trafficking

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/otip/about/ways-endtrafficking

https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/human-trafficking/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-trafficking

https://www.mea.gov.in/human-trafficking.htm#:~:text=Trafficking%20in%20Human%20Beings%20or,trafficking%20for%20commercial%20sexual%20exploitation.

www.stophumantrafficking-mha.nic.in

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/human-trafficking-numbers

https://www.unodc.org/toc/en/crimes/human-trafficking.html

Human trafficking is now the SECOND MOST PROFITABLE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY in the United States!

https://www.migrationdataportal.org/themes/human-trafficking

https://www.unodc.org/southasia//frontpage/2018/July/unodc-conversations_-nobel-peace-laureate-kailash-satyarthi-urges-society-and-governments-to-act-together-to-end-human-trafficking.html

Taliban, Afghanistan and The World

-by Viraaj Kumar Kulshreshtha

August 15, 2021. That was the date when the Taliban took over the provincial capitals of Afghanistan, a move that most western countries were not prepared for. This takeover has been described by analysts across the world as a massive intelligence failure.

Before we go ahead understanding how we reached this point, let’s first understand what the Taliban actually is.

Taliban, a Sunni Islamist Organisation, was formed in 1994 and was made up of former Afghan resistance fighters known as the mujahedeen that fought against the Soviet forces in the 1980s. Their goal was to impose their interpretation of Islamic Law on Afghanistan and remove all foreign influence. When the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, they established strict rules. Women were forced to wear a head-to-toe covering, weren’t allowed to work or study, and weren’t allowed to travel alone. TV, music, and non-Islamic holidays were also banned.

This was the status quo all the way till 2001. During the 9/11 attacks, 4 commercial planes were hijacked by 19 men. Of which, 2 crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, a third at the Pentagon, and a fourth one that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks killed over 2700 people and were orchestrated by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who at the time operated from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

In 2017, the Taliban issued an open letter to the then US President Donald Trump, asking him to withdraw his forces from Afghanistan. After almost 3 years of negotiations, the Taliban and the Trump administration signed a peace deal in 2020, with the US agreeing to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan and release about 5000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban agreeing to take steps to prevent any group from using Afghanistan to threaten the security of the US and its allies. After this agreement was signed, the tension in Afghanistan grew, as violence in the country rose to the highest level in 2 decades.

Taliban in the past has claimed that they are committed to the peace process, to have an inclusive government, and to have some rights for women, in an attempt to set themselves apart from their past selves.

The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was seen as a rather daring move, with the risks becoming rather apparent. The capture of the provincial capitals by the Taliban forces and the collapse of the Afghan National Security and Defence Forces caused chaos at the Kabul Airport during an already tardy and poorly planned evacuation effort.

While the long-term effects of this withdrawal on the foreign policies of many countries aren’t apparent and its impact on the international community will depend on how long the Afghan crisis persists.

While the Afghan forces numbered in at over 300,000 personnel, with over a trillion dollars being spent on their training and providing them with modern equipment, they still lost against 100,000 armed Taliban fighters which, analysts believe, was because of lack of coordination within the Afghan forces.

For years, analysts have been warning governments of the insurgents’ territorial expansion and how it posed a threat to women’s security, even going on to say that an ill-prepared U.S. exit could erase women’s hard-won gains. As the United States rushed to evacuate its diplomatic personnel from Kabul, many women voiced their sense of abandonment, anger, and despair as the advances of the Taliban to them were anything but a surprise.

While the US government has invested a lot in promoting education for women and has worked towards gender equality in Afghanistan, Taliban, on the other hand, has been forcing women to stay at home, away from schools, universities and jobs. They are also forcing women to get married against their will, and are having targeted attacks against women and girls.

Even Indian officials have engaged with representatives from the Taliban, and have faced a thorny road ahead, but the chances of the Taliban and India finding a workable balance might just be possible.

While all we can do right now is sit and speculate as to how this whole crisis might play out for the international community as a whole, it all depends on how the Taliban Government conducts itself within the international community because actions speak louder than words. Currently, the best-case scenario for India would be its access to a global partnership with countries that have been invested in the future of Afghanistan.

References –

Vaccination Shots: Israel Immunization

-by Sanjna Katoch

Isn’t it ironic when the whole world is undergoing vaccination, two countries are firing shots? Remember that I am not talking about the shots of vaccination but the shots of bullets that penetrated the hearts of two countries: Israel and Palestine. The bullets soared in the skies and became a primary cause for the death of several innocent people.

The burning question of the day is – Why are these wars even fought? When the world is still undergoing such a severe covid crisis, are fighting these wars even necessary? The conflict between Israel and Palestine has the potential to trigger a third world war. The recent assault which began during the holy month of Ramadan shook the international community. The Palestinian territory under Israel has a troublesome story that varies from lens to lens. Unfortunately, this narration is not about the brutal war for which you could find plenty of reasons flooding the doorsteps of news channels, it’s about Israel’s secret vaccination drive instead.

Remember March, when Israel was praised for supporting one of the most formidable enemies who live in the Gaza strip? It even caught the attention of the United Nations when it provided a helping hand to certain Palestinians living on West Coast. Al-Jazeera rightly stated that “The Israeli regime, which singlehandedly depleted the capabilities of the Palestinian healthcare system through its decades-long armed occupation, was being praised for allowing a little medical supply donated by international actors to be transported into Gaza.”
This gives us a hint about how kind and considerate Israel was being towards the people of Palestine. Israel was even praised internationally for allowing citizens of Palestine to voluntarily undergo effective treatment in the Tel Aviv Hospital. But just as the saying goes, “All that glitters is not gold“. Unfortunately, these so-called humanitarian efforts do have a dark side. The principal cause behind this philanthropic attitude was the conspicuous Israeli agenda that many did not understand. The military seized the hospital so that people would be unable to get treatment on Palestinian land. Consequently, people were forced to go to Israel and get treatment.

Such inhuman treatment because of ideological differences was distressing. I would refrain from taking a side because as they say, “it takes two to make a quarrel”. Similarly, Hamas fired the first shots the first indiscriminately towards Israel. In retaliation, Israel fired rockets and it looked as if they were adamant about killing innocent Palestinians. In my opinion, this is not a conflict between good and bad, it’s a conflict between bad and worse. Several questions remained unanswered. Was the vaccination conspiracy started by Israel right or wrong? Is it right to bow down to such an extent? Were these steps right to satisfy one’s selfish agenda?
There could be many possible answers, but I believe war should never be the answer. Millions of people have shed their blood for the sake of their land and many continue to do so. Yes, the unknown land which inevitably becomes the fundamental reason for slaughtering people. I believe everyone should strive to secure peace and make this world a better place.

Pas Touche A Mon Hijab

-by Sutanuka Chanda

France, often called paradise on Earth, is one of the most beautiful countries in this world. With lush patisseries and sensual views of the Eiffel tower from a French balcony covered in silk drapes, France is truly a sight to behold. But as much as macarons melt in the mouth and the air in Paris feels electrified, there are also lingering horrors for people, who’ve lived their life long enough to know the other side of the coin by heart.

The hijab ban in France started slowly; from the gruesome attack in Nice, France where terrorists killed eighty four people and injured several others, to the stabbing that happened last year, killing three. After the Nice attack, France banned “burkinis” on the beach, which is a clever swimsuit designed by an Australian which covers the head and body modestly, as their justifiable form of retaliation against Muslims.

“Religious Garb generally contravenes the French vision of secularism,” writes Sital Kalantry, “The French Veil Ban: A Transnational Legal Feminist Approach,” University of Baltimore Law Review (2017)

The amendment to the ‘anti-separatism’ bill, which prohibits women under 18 to wear a headscarf in public has drawn collective outrage from women all across the world. While on paper, the proposal of the ban is to secure France’s secular bonds and to decrease the divide between Muslims and other religions, in practice, it is a clever approach to ‘de-Muslimise’ them, to strip them off a big part of their religion, of their rights, to humiliate them.

Sixteen-year-old Mariem Chourak is a devout Muslim who told The Reuters, that wearing a hijab is an expression of her devotion to the Prophet Mohammad but she is afraid of this religious right being snatched away from her.

A clever tactic, used by politicians to slowly dilute the Islamic religion, a small step to take away their beliefs, until step by step, they peel off all the layers of a Muslim until there are no Muslims anymore. The idea is to eradicate, to ‘cleanse’ the world of them, because in their mind, Islam is the root cause of all problems.

On a surface level, the Hijab Ban is also the savior complex of middle-aged men acting up, where they try to save women from oppression, dogma and their peculiar and imaginary sense of division that the Hijab causes, when, in fact, they themselves are the oppressors. This constant policing of women’s bodies and choices, taking away their agency and freedom, is their acceptable method of saving Muslim women from oppression.

Political men who pass the bill, and the countless others who support it, take it without any factual evidence that Muslim women cannot be feminists, because Hijab is a tool of oppression and Muslim women are brainwashed into thinking that wearing one is a choice, and it is the collective duty of non-Muslims to save women from the cruel oppression of a patriarchal religion. How? By forcing them to give up their beliefs and humiliating them into wearing clothing of their choice or threatening them with legal consequences. So how are they any different from oppressive Muslim men?

France is just one of the countries that I have mentioned that has villainized Islam, considering it as a rift from achieving Utopian secularism; Muslim women are infantilized against their wishes, imaginarily rendering them incapable of making their own choices about their own bodies. The same men, when threatened with a Sindoor ban or veil ban would chant a different tune, quite contrary to their radical empowering voices that rise when it comes to letting Muslim women wear whatever they want.

Hijab ban is the first step of ethical cleansing, an extermination of Muslims by taking their beliefs, their freedom by uprooting their core. If Muslims are oppressed in their religion, they have the voice to bring forth the issue. Forcing the narrative of oppression by invalidating their beliefs and their faith, to fit in a mold which non-Muslims think is an acceptable form of expressing their core is the beginning of the eradication of a religion.

Russia, Crimea, and Ukraine

February and March of 2014, Russia executed covert operations using naval and special forces to seize control over the Crimean Peninsula. This operation was disguised as a snap exercise and employed the use of a distraction force near the Ukrainian borders, using speed, mobility, and an element of surprise to its advantage. The annexation of this region gave Russia substantial advantages – the proximity of this region to Russia, the presence of a fleet in the Black sea, and the geographic advantage that this region granted. And the region was easy to seal from the mainland as the occupation of only a few points were needed to acquire control and it was relatively simple to defend from a counter-attack.

Russia maintained a historical claim over the region, colonizing the region during the reign of Catherine the Great and they found the peninsula’s main port and the largest city of the region, Sevastopol as the homeport for the Russian Black Sea Fleet. However, in 1954, this region was transferred administratively, to Ukraine.

On March 16, 2014, a referendum was held, to declare the independence of the Republic of Crimea which resulted in an overwhelming yes. However, this referendum became the target of international condemnation as the United Nations General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution on the 27th March, declaring the referendum and the status of independence invalid.

The actions of Russia in the region of Crimea broke many agreements, including the UN Charter, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, the 1994 Budapest Memorandum of Security Awareness for Ukraine, and the 1997 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia.

The 1975 Helinski Final Act puts its signatories under an obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force and to refrain from assaulting the frontiers of the signatories and refrain from making each other territories the objects of military occupation. The 1994 Budapest Memorandum entailed the transfer of all nuclear weapons from Ukraine to Russia, in exchange, Russia, the USA, and the UK, ensured that Ukraine’s territorial integrity would be respected. By invading Crimea, Russia violated all these clauses, disrespecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine and using military force to occupy the region.

Following a few months of armed conflicts, the Minsk Protocol or Minsk I was signed in September of 2014, calling for a ceasefire in the region, however, this ceasefire was broken in December 2014 itself. As a result, the Minsk II was signed, establishing a 13-point plan that involved a cease-fire, withdrawal of arms, safe access and delivery of humanitarian aid, pardon and amnesty for fighters, and restoration of state border control among other measures.

The Annexation of the Crimean Peninsula led to sanctions being imposed on the Russian Federation, which caused the collapse of the Russian Ruble and the Russian Financial crisis. These sanctions caused economic damage to a number of EU countries, with an estimated loss of 100 billion Euros as of 2015. Following the 2018 sanctions, Russia saw a growth of 0.5 to 1.5% in its GDP.

Russia’s operations in the Crimean region represent an efficient seizure of territory from another state, executed with speed and complete competency. The violation of the aforementioned documents in 2014 has caused a lot of unease among the neighbours of the Russian Federation.

The Crimean Tatars have been forced to leave the peninsula since the annexation, being driven out by the presence of aggressive Russian presence. And of those that remained, many have been subjected to harassment, arrests, and imprisonments by the Russian Authorities.

One might suggest taking this issue up in the United Nations Security Council, but the fact of the matter is that Russia can and will use its veto power to counter all measures taken against it. It has done this before and may do so again in the future. This abuse of veto power isn’t just limited to Russia though, the world has seen other permanent members of the UNSC using their vetoes in a similar fashion when the resolutions were against them. Among other things, this begs the question, are veto powers really necessary in a world that has been pushing for equality for all? But that is a question for another time.

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