Tag: Zainub Priya Dala

  • Zainub Priya Dala supports the Charlie Hebdo award

    Zainub Priya Dala posted a note on Charlie Hebdo and free expression v intimidation to my Facebook wall, and gave me permission to quote it. I’m sure you remember her experience of violent intimidation.

    Regarding the PEN American Center’s decision to present the PEN Free Expression Award to Charlie Hebdo:

    In a similarity to my experience, (albeit my assault – on a much smaller scale)… It is not a question of content, but a question of style. Literary satirical style throught the ages has always been met with persecution. It is a style that is poorly understood, where artists attempt to create discourse and debate surrounding an otherwise taboo subject. I support freedom of expression in all its forms, be it admiration of a “banned” writer or a deep dissection of a cartoon in all its complexity. Using violence to silence opinion is tantamount to medieval gagging practices. If we cannot debate sensitive issues without fear of retaliation, we are in no way progressing as a society. The Charlie Hebdo tragedy was disgusting. It was bullying. It was unneccsary loss of lives. An award should be given, a commemoration of sorts…. Otherwise the lost lives will have been in vain. When we venerate people who have been persecuted for their craft, we open the way for courageous people to follow in their wake. I say all this because I knew and still know now the sound of being silenced~zpd

  • She just wants to go home

    News24 reports on the situation of Zainub Priya Dala, but the only new news it has comes from her Twitter feed, which I’d already seen, so I’ll just quote her directly, starting 9 hours ago.

    I am admitted to St.Joseph’s Psychiatric Wing it was diagnosed that I have PTSD. No, I was not dragged kicking and screaming here

    I spoke to a religious leader as I was in turmoil and his views were that I be admitted here so I can reflect on my religion and imaan

    I then reluctantly came in for admission and soon realised I won’t be left alone as a staff member recognised me and the news spread

    It seems like bad and also confused advice. Why would a psychiatric hospital be a good place to reflect on religion?

    Due to very strong meds and the people pointing and whispering I told the nurses to call my doctor and discharge me

    I felt that I would be safer at home, especially with the journo’s etc calling non-stop. But my doctor was gone on leave and

    it was understood that his locum ( a qualified psychiatrist) herself could not authorise a discharge. She placed me on further meds

    Ok that seems fucked up. I know pretty much nothing about how psych hospitals operate, and nothing about what kind of turmoil Dala was in, but even so, it seems badly wrong that she couldn’t leave when she wanted to. I could see waiting if she had no immediate way to get home and had too many drugs in her system to drive herself, but that’s not how she describes it. It seems outrageous to force her to wait for release from a doctor who is gone on leave.

    Hence I am here at St. Josephs and cannot be sent home until the doctor comes back. The wait, the reporters as well as the other patients

    adds to my anxiety & paranoia. I know this: I need to get home. My husband is not FOR me being here, he just wants all this to just go away

    After being harrassed by a journo about “The Satanic Verses” I admitted it befuddled me.He reported that I expressed admiration for it!

    All this because she said, at a writers’ festival, that Salman Rushdie is among the writers whose style she admires.

  • They’re drugging her

    English PEN has more on Zainub Dala:

    English PEN is gravely alarmed to hear that South African novelist Zainub Priya Dala has been admitted to a mental institution in Durban, South Africa. Dala is also a psychologist and a physiotherapist specialising in autism.

    In March, at a literary event at a school, she praised the works of Salman Rushdie. A day later, three men accosted her when she was in her car, placed a knife at her throat and hit her face with a brick. She was addressed as ‘Rushdie’s Bitch.’ She believes that if a minibus taxi had not pulled into the vacant lot that she would have been stabbed.

    Dala has since been under pressure from members of Durban’s Muslim community to recant and repent. She has now been sent to a mental institution – St Joseph’s. She has no access to laptops, only has use of her mobile and is unable to write.

    They then quote her, I guess via her mobile:

    I’ve been … drugged till I can barely walk … and basically broken down into a submission where I will follow the straight path (if there is one). I feel that the far-reaching damage to my kids will be severe as they attend schools that are 90% Muslim. And I refuse to educate them with fire and brimstone stories about how they may go to heaven but their beloved grandmother will burn in hellfire. That’s what they are teaching the kids now anyway. I have also been harangued to withdraw, dissect, explain and renounce my admiration of [Rushdie’s] works. I could just as easily burn my Oscar Wilde collection because some homophobes came calling. I can’t turn back now and pretend I never admired his writing. I would look like a fool.

    Ellipses in the original.

    PEN concludes:

    English PEN calls for Dala’s immediate release and for the campaign of intimidation against her to cease. ‘The repercussions of her public statement of support for Salman Rushdie should appal anyone who cares about freedom of expression in South Africa,’ said English PEN director Jo Glanville. ‘That this assault has been followed by pressure from Dala’s own community, leading to her detention in a mental institution, is not treatment that any of us would expect to see in an open society.’

    It’s clearly not her “own community.” Just being a Muslim doesn’t make her part of a “community” that bashes women in the face with bricks, tries to force them to disavow their own literary judgments, and imprisons them in mental institutions. Dala’s “community” is writers and thinkers and liberals and freethinkers. That’s our community.

  • When she continued to refuse to make a religious vow

    Remember the attack on Zainub Dala last month? After she said at a writers’ festival in Durban that one of the many writers she admired was Salman Rushdie? Well now, according to PEN America, she’s been shoved into a mental institution. Bookslive.co.za reports:

    Now, according to PEN America, the shocking news has come about that Dala has been put under “extreme pressure” by members of the Muslim community in Durban to “renounce her statement about Rushdie’s work” and “to make a public vow of religious loyalty to Islam”.

    When she refused, she was apparently admitted to a mental institution.

    PEN America has called for Dala’s “immediate and unconditional release” and has also called on President Jacob Zuma and the South African Authorities to “ensure Ms Dala’s safety and to prevent reprisals against her freedom of expression and thought”.

    The PEN statement:

    PEN American Center expressed outrage at the harassment and confinement in a mental institution of South African psychologist and novelist Zainub Priya Dala (ZP Dala) exacted in reprisal for her comments in appreciation of the writing of former PEN American Center President Salman Rushdie. Speaking at a literary event at a school several weeks ago, Dala voiced public appreciation for Rushdie’s work. Shortly thereafter she was the victim of a violent attack in which the assailants referenced her praise for Rushdie. She was hit in the face with a brick and had a knife held to her throat, resulting in a broken cheekbone. Regrettably, rather than rallying around Dala, some members of the local Muslim community in Durban, South Africa, have ostracized Dala, putting her under extreme pressure to renounce her statement about Rushdie’s work, to repent for her “sins,” and to make a public vow of religious loyalty to Islam. When she continued to refuse to make a religious vow or other statements inconsistent with her personal beliefs she was admitted to a mental institution.  A psychologist by profession, Dala is the mother of a young child and ultimately consented to go to the hospital to avoid intense and intrusive harassment at her home. She also reports continued questioning about her beliefs by hospital staff.

    It just never ends.

  • Hit in the face with a brick

    A South African author was hit in the face with a brick last week for daring to say she likes the writing style of Salman Rushdie. The Hindustan Times reports:

    An Indian-origin author in South Africa was brutally assaulted and verbally abused after she praised controversial writer Salman Rushdie whose work has angered Muslims around the world.

    No. That bad phrasing again. Some theocratic Muslims decided to make an issue of one of Salman Rushdie’s novels, and worked up other Muslims to join in. His work did not just straightforwardly “anger Muslims around the world.”

    Zainub Priya Dala was hit in the face with a brick last week after she praised Rushdie’s writing at a school in Durban, a city on the country’s east coast.

    Dala had been due to launch her novel What About Meera in the city on Saturday, which was ironically Human Rights Day in South Africa, but had to postpone it after being injured.

    That is ironic, isn’t it.

    The allegation is that three men forced her car off the road as she was leaving the festival.

    When she stopped her vehicle, two of the men came to the car, one allegedly putting a knife to her throat while the other struck her in the face with a brick as he verbally abused her.

    Dala said she believed the attack occurred as a result of a comment she made during a writing forum for schools earlier in the week, when she and two other authors were asked to comment on their favourite authors.

    She replied that she liked the styles of Rushdie and Indian author Arundhati Roy, which led to a number of teachers and students attending the workshop walking out in protest.

    Godalmighty how squalid.

    Steve Connolly, managing director of Random House and her publisher, said: “We condemn completely the brutish attack on author ZP Dala.” “Have we reached such a state of intolerance that we cannot listen to one writer profess admiration for another without wanting to attack her with a brick and a knife?

    “It is ironic that at a time when the communities of Durban are welcoming writers, some elements are attacking those writers who hold different views. We must not let this shameful and violent bigotry prevail,” Connolly said.

    Men, this is. Using a knife and a brick. Three men with weapons attacking one woman with no weapons – because she uttered an opinion about literary style. The squalor is unfathomable in every sense.

    Thanks to Kausik for telling me about it.