I can't believe that this happens some where ,already it doesn't make sense , may be those Hindu widows are from a radical sect in India ,because we must not forget that Indira Gandhi was a widow , also we should not forget all those loving mother widow heart breaking films in the Indian Cinema like "For my sons"
Ironically I didn't believe Jules Verne when I read his 
Already this is not only in the Hindu or the in the Indian culture , in fact unfortunately I don't know why there are several communities who are disrespect the widows
For example in Nigeria ,in some states the widows suffer till death after their husbands death
the Egyptian Proverb
The Shadow of a man is better than a Shadow of wall
Despite its silliness and despite I don't believe in it , seems to be true in some societies
I don't know but I feel the UNICEF must do something for these widows , they are not less than young women who suffer in their lives
Really I feel so angry from those whom they gave birth , I don't know how their children leave them like that ??
Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die - CNN.com
I think this news article does not deserve the first page publishing. This clearly describes how the author is representing something that majority of Indians may not even be aware of. Lack of information or over confidence in publishing. There was a movie made on this topic and I had the same opinion on that movie as other than the interesting script or good acting, it does not represent even 0.1% of what Indian society really is. Vrindavan is just a city in India. I have lived in India for 3 decades and ironically (contrary to this article), I never hard of anyone who was in this state. Publishing an article that may only to few thousand people in a population of a billion is not a justification. That's the reason I always consider CNN reporting to be one sided and that lacks substance and usually is interesting but is not a true picture of the society. I would be happy to talk to the author and explain what India is and would like to see if they can publish articles that represent the true India. At this time, I have never seen any social cause article before on CNN (published on the front page) so this is a true misrepresentation of any country.
ReplyDeleteI invite you all to look at a study done about this subject, and then make your opinions:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.griefandrenewal.com/widows_study.htm
Especially look at the tables at the bottom, including age demographics, locations, etc.
This is surely some one's way to get to the next level in CNN. Does not reflect the majority. I mean the 99.99% of widows. 15K out of 40Mil is less than 0.037%
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, how many western families take care of their parents! Talk about the issues in own country rather than looking around to find sensitive topic around the world. Actual issue could be poverty.
If CNN is really worried about it, please do something about poverty rather than encouraging wrong war!
I just saw that in the comments section for this article, CNN has published a comment by someone called Rajen Patel who says "Not to mention that not too long ago, the Hindu bastards forced their widows to be burned alive with their dead husbands". This is clearly inflammatory ( the whole tone of the comment is inflamatory and fundamentalist in nature) and comments like this can cause social disturbance. Given CNN's editorial policy that comments are moderated, the unedited publication of such comments casts a lot of doubt not only on CNN's motive in publishing this comment, but also on publishing this article as headline news in the first place - again I condemn that this practice occurs at all, but the original article's lack of statistics brings into question the wholesale generalization attempted by it, the author's motivation in writing the article, and CNN's motivation in publishing it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I looked at the study you mentioned. It is informative about the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the widows in Varanasi and Vrindavan. However, the study does not have a "control group" drawn from widows outside these cities (a sample drawn from all matropolitan cities in India for example), with the stattistics regarding their conditions and their socio-economic and demographic characteristics. If that were there, we would know about the self-selection bias of the Vridavan/Varanasi sample.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1
This is not true. In Indian culture both Mother and Father are respected. In India, women enjoy reservations in jobs, schools, free education, politics. All our gods are also Women. When it comes to widowhood, they are not considered as auspicious by other people during ceremonies or when they start some work/activity. But, sons and daughters love their mother very much. If you have seen some deserted widow, it could just be a mere indication of poverty, but that has nothing to do with religion
ReplyDeleteThe insinuation that this is a common practice in Hindu society in India today is completely bogus and blatantly untrue. Story on India = shocking or exotic. The editors at CNN need to grow out of the elephant/snake-charmer vision of India, seriously. The story of the destitute widows of Varanasi is one of human tragedy. But the cruelty meted out to them is an exception, not a rule. It speaks more about the depraved mentality of the children and extended families of the victims who throw them out, than of Hindu society in general. THIS is the distinction that the CNN story conveniently avoids. It's like reporting a story on the murders of homeless on the streets of America's cities and leaving the story open-ended to show that that's how Christian America treats the poorest of its citizens. However, it is shameful that such a situation still exists in this day and age in India today, in however small a scale. That said, there is nothing more ironic than an American news organization lecturing Eastern societies on how to take care of the elderly! Coming from a country where there is no concept of 'respect', and where it is an accepted part of life to be put in a 'home' once you are past your use-by date, only to be visited once every two years by the same children that you once parented, it is a bit rich!!
ReplyDeletein the last week period, as a sample in your blog you recieved 7 comments on an issue related to the widows of a small sector of the indian population while you received a lot smaller number of comments on other important Egyptian matters that happened specially in the last week. O O seems that we are gradually losing interest in our identity or maybe getting more desperate regarding our own issues. By the way Zeinobia, thank you for the brief biography. I was wondering are you living in Egypt or posting from another Country and if you are student or have a job. I might go with the family for a short vacation to Egypt in September. If you said you are a student then I will invite you with your family to a place that still have very good memory of in my mind- the Nile Pharoa cruise. If you answered that you have a job then I will expect you to invite us ( smile ) Dr. SR
ReplyDeleteYes, you are running a big risk there. Always check your facts even when you get them at CNN. I've written a critique of the CNN article at http://atmaav.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteAs a Hindu and a Registered Nurse, I deeply resent CNN using a single issue like widowhood to point out social in-equality. I live in Atlanta Georgia, USA., home of CNN. I also worked as a nurse at Grady Memorial Hospital down the street from CNN, in the inner city. The city streets all around CNN Center are filled, after night fall with the hundreds, if not thousands of poor and desperate homeless of Atlanta. CNN to date has done NOTHING of a HUMANITARIAN nature to help alleviate this horror. Grady Hospital also serves the largest poor, uninsured and under-insured population in the entire state and will be forced to close its doors in Januray unless someone rescues them financially from bankruptcy. CNN also has not done anything about this social problem! Altanta also has the fastest growing AIDS/HIV population in their home state of Georgia another social issue CNN is very busy doing NOTHING about! Bravo CNN News Muck Raker to the world. RAgriffith1@comcast.net
ReplyDeleteThe CNN article was written by a Muslim woman who is from Turkey. I am not surprised how she is twisting the story to make it sound like this social problem that affects widows and older people in general is somehow linked to Hinduism and India. I can tell by the links at the base of the article that this is her intent. She is probably trying to make Islam seem less harsh by dragging Hinduism into the media spotlight. Mistreatment of the elderly is everywhere, and its a very sad thing. If you visit the homes in Florida or even on Mercer Island, you'll see that they have no one to speak to. This has nothing to do with Hinduism. Mercer Island homes are 99% Jewish. The ones in Bellevue are mostly Catholic. Arwa Damon is clearly a biased journalist. Not sure what she did to get this story on the front page of CNN.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all thanks for commenting ,I feel that things are now more clear to me , it seems that there is huge misunderstanding , as in CNN they are generalizing this terrible situation in some city and made it as if it were the general the rule in India , still for me it is shocking
ReplyDelete=======
@rahul , the CNN is trying to capture audiance , this is the oldest game in the media now , to turn like tabliods but on more international scale , looking for bizzare news ,the best way is to inform them they are wrong whether to comment in their website or to send them email
=========
@anonymous,thanks for the study it is very shocking yet informative ,of course it confirms what is stated in the article but in more realistic way
=========
@g this is what I wrote about it this city population from widows compared to the huge population of India cis unfair and yes I don't like the west treatment for the elder than them to nursing homes
=========
@anonymous"2" I didn't read the comments and i don't the policy of CNN regarding it because simply comments in the News websites are always full of hate and racism
another thing about the Patel claims , well I am not indian and for quite sometime I had this idea that the Hindus burry the wife with the husband till I know it was wrong , and that misunderstanding came from novels like "around the world in 80 days" ,not all people know the correct difference between Thugee ,Parsi and Hindu ,pardon me but of course again I am not an indian
===========
anonymous"3"
I think you write having samples from widows from other cities would give it more strength and showed those cities as Unique example in India compared to the other cities
@Seedhan ,I believe that as I said it is enough to see the indian films to see the position of the widows and mothers
ReplyDelete@Shuhbo , I am afraid Snake-elephant charmer India is much attractive for the western reader than IT India ,they want bizarre things to know about
again It is bit ironic because they are attacking Vrindavan and forgetting that they got an enchanced version of it , leaving the elder in houses to stay there visiting them once a year , this is the rich civilized version of Vrindavan
==========
@Dr.SR
I was surprised too ,I never recieve that number of comments ,I think I will write more often about India ;) Seriously the topic provoked me when I read it in the CNN plus I believe I love to change the mood of the blog from time to time , I once asked the people here what they think about the blog and they told me not to be 100% political blog and seriously this blog wasn't like that in the past ,it used to speak about every thing and i am trying to return these days again
thanks for the invitation ,no I am not student anymore , I am a graduate and that' what I can say for now and thanks again for the invitation , I tried NIle Pharoah before and it rocks , the Nile is fantastic
========
@abhishek , I think I wrote that the CNN article was strange to me because it contridicts with what I know about Women in India and at least now I know the truth
======
Shivadas
The CNN will never cover those poor in Atlanta but they cover those poor from a country that suffer from poverty not a country that is from the richest countries in the world
=============
@anonymous
I didn't know that she is a Muslim , nor most of the readers
To DR SR:
ReplyDeleteIt should be clear now, also for you: No thanks!!
It is easy to read why you keep asking about more details, biography and age.
I understand you; the woman is fantastic, who would not do any thing to reach here?
ACG
ACG or ECG, dont stalk me please. We are both separate visitors to Zeinobia's blog. Ethically We should only communicate through HER not to use her weblog to communicate directly the way you do. you can do that when you are in your own blog. Thanks dear.
ReplyDeleteok is there something I miss here ??
ReplyDeleteif you read the above then you didnt miss much
ReplyDeleteI read and I hope that my blog did not turn as some sort of dating website , already I thought the Dr. was laughing after all I thought it is "30zamt Marakabia"
ReplyDeleteWow Zeinobia, it seems that your suitors are competing over your attention:) keep up the good work
ReplyDeleteoh yeah I am so happy as you see this what I want from my blog !! oh brother men !!
ReplyDelete