Take Back The Tech: Tale of two stalker mullahs
January 3, 2010 – 6:04 pmDisclaimer: This note by NO means aims to bring a bad name to the bearded individuals or religious clerics in general and the purpose is solely to share a story of two nasty mullahs.Also both these stories come from my dear and near ones who have been so close to me that there is no room for questioning the veracity of information provided.
Tale 1:
She was in her early teens and was waiting outside her bungalow for someone to open the gate as she had just got back from school. It was then that she heard a sound as if someone’s calling her and as she turned, she saw a flying kiss coming her way from a Mullah going on a bicycle. From the looks of him, he seemed to be one of so called “Maulvi Sahibs” who provide home based teaching of Quran to kids and are often seen going from one home to another on their bicycles. While it’s a SHAME for a person engaged in such a noble profession to be doing such acts of disgust,the next story makes one feel even more shocked!
Tale 2:
She had just started learning to read Quran and was barely 8 years old or so. Her Maulvi Sahib whom she used to respect a lot was also a young guy in his late teens or early twenties. Days went by and she kept getting her lessons regularly,however, one day, while she was revising her lesson infront of the maulvi sahib, she felt the maulvi sahib is staring her instead of looking on the Quran-e-Pak. As she raised her head to look at the Maulvi Sahib sitting right beside her,she found him smiling at her.She felt a bit uncomfortable and confused but what came ahead left her dumbfounded. Maulvi Sahib said to her with a smile “Kya aap k dil main meray liye mohabbat hai?” - “Do you feel love for me?” The 8 year old who was probably not even aware of the terms “romantic love” didn’t know how to answer but she sensed something is wrong so just to get herself out of the situation, she said “I will call you bhai (brother) from tomorrow”. Her answer changed the expressions on Mullah’s face but thankfully brought an end to the torturous lecture session.Right after the lecture, the 8 year old ran to the washroom and cried her heart out, she wanted to let everyone know what maulvi sahib had said to her but she felt embarrassment, she felt fear, she just didn’t know how to say it out. She wiped her tears and decided to remain quiet.
Next day came, the maulvi sahib came right on time and 8 yr old went to take her daily lesson but this time unwantedly. She wanted to quickly recite till the given Ayat, get over with the lesson and run but just when the lesson ended, maulvi sahib told her again with the same wicked smile “You did not call me *bhai* today?” and poor 8 year old again found herself trapped in the same situation that she had barely got herself out of a day ago. Today, she does not even remember what she told maulvi this time, may be something like “I’ll call you bhai now” or something, she does not remember exactly but all she remembers is feeling extremely uncomfortable, scared. After the maulvi sahib went, she again ran to the washroom and cried a lot, she was feeling shame.Note that victims of child abuse/female harassment often feel shame even though it not their fault to be a victim but somehow in the absence of proper guidance, the psychological changes triggers a sense of embarrassment in them and this 8 year old little girl was no different. After trying to figure out how to solve this problem, she finally decided to talk to her mother about it. So, she ran to her mother, and told her the entire story while bursting into tears. Her mother comforted her and asked her not to feel either bad or worried about it. She told her that she won’t have to get any lessons from the Maulvi Sahib now and the very next day she fired the mullah from his job.
While the 8 year old was wise enough to get her mother intervene and come out of the situation without any major harm, everyone young kid might not be this lucky! In my next note, I will discuss a few tips on how to secure kids in your family or surroundings from such nasty men (and sometimes women too).
PS: For those who do not know what TakeBackThetech is? Check out my blog post:
Let’s TBTT!
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6 Responses to “Take Back The Tech: Tale of two stalker mullahs”
damn.,.. thats ajeeb…
By UTP on Jan 16, 2010
Well, it takes all kinds to make the world, as they say.
Not every one has a fully developed sense of conscience and, besides, being bombarded with all sorts of images by the electronic and print media also complicates matters, even for those ordained as priests. Add to that the general erosion of ethics and moral values in all sections of society, including, obviously, the clergy, over the past few decades.
By Sidhusaaheb on Jan 31, 2010
since you have clearly mentioned in the disclaimer that the motive of this narration is only to highlight an isolated incident so there is no question on the intention of this article.
but one thing we need to understand…clerics or religious persons are humans just like us..they have their short comings and emotions like each of us have.. so it is naive to expect them to become angels once they are associated with religion..No one is sinless.. i am sure if a clean shave guy sporting a pair of jeans and shirt would have done the same thing with the 8 year old girl that would not have prompted you to share the story in your blog..it is due to our erroneous pre-conceived notions about someone who in some way or the other have a religious inclination in his personality or actions..we some how unconsciously keep a watchful eye on him and a slight aberration from our religious or social values land these souls in the midst of all condemnation and their ramifications extend to religion as a whole.
In this case too ..as was mentioned that the molvi sahab was teenager ..so he did what you can expect from any of his age-group (this is no way to justify his action though) would have done at both the occasions, but probably would not have become the victim of our wrath .Its only because that guy had a beard or was teaching quran that we get such a shock of his nasty comment.
i hope next time if such incident happens with the perpetrator not having a beard or does not teach quran..you will be equally motivated to share the disgust you felt this time and would condemn that (as we all do ) in equally stern terms
By Aamir on Feb 2, 2010
@UTP
Indeed..
@Sidhusaaheb
Agree to each word of ur comment…so right!
@Aamir
Welcome to my blog and thanks for taking the time out to read and comment. I really respect your opinion but would slightly disagree with you. There are certain people whom we look up to always…be it doctors, paramedical staff, teachers or religious clerics…they have got an added responsibility on their shoulders of living up to what you call “the pre-conceived image”
Even if we keep this aside, there are certain boundaries that we need to keep in mind and every religion demands a level of respect. Why don’t we go perform prayers or read Quran without ablution? Why don’t we see having dance parties at a church? If all this seems disrespectful to a religion, then how come we can justify a person harassing a kid while pretending to teach her to read Holy Quran?
I’m sorry but I just don’t understand how to let go of what this mullah sahib did by just thinking that he is a human and to err is human…
PS: Any case of harassment whether it involves a bearded or a clean-shaved person, man or woman, triggers in me the same kind of rage. While I don’t get time to blog each and every incident, I make sure to at least tweet it, so you are most welcome to follow my tweets at @FarihaAk and witness urself.
By Fariha Akhtar on Feb 5, 2010
@ Fariha
I would not say that you missed by point altogether …but didn’t grab it full either
“how come we can justify a person harassing a kid while pretending to teach her to read Holy Quran?”
Err..I never “justified” that..on the contrary..I tried to consciously emphasize a couple of times in the comment that it is in no way defending or justifying his lecherous remarks, but only pointing towards the aspect of human behavior ,which does not change no matter at which pedestal of piety you sit , or to which pinnacle of modesty you reach.
My intention was to only highlight that we should not view any incident or individual in isolation from its surroundings, be it molvi sahib,my self or any other person we all breathe in the same society where all sorts of temptations and deviations are on a constant rise .. what we need to ponder is why we expect angelic behavior from human beings in the first place ..no matter to which profession they belong, that does not deprive them of their core nature which you very aptly wrote..to err is human.. though I agree with your contention that there are certain professions or personalities which we idealize and we aspire to become like them but unfortunately in this process, unwittingly exclude them from the circle human emotions (be them wicked or virtue) and when this idol of our holiness crashes, we are stranded amid a state of shock and awe, where we cannot blame anyone except our selves, as we should not expect someone to have prophets like traits in this age .
P.S: thanks for invitation on twitter. Its nice to hear that you view all these actions without using the prism of physical appearance ,gender or age.
By Aamir on Feb 6, 2010