TNIE recalls incidents that exposed how intolerance plagued various walks of life — be it politics, religion, cinema or campuses — over the year. On Dec 31, we will bring to you the newsmakers of the state and end it all on Jan 1, with what Kerala hopes to see and achieve in the New Year – 2018. So, here goes...
Learn together, separately
Girls and boys sitting together in a classroom is frowned upon at Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram, as was seen when the college authorities banned male and female students from doing just that. The best part: The objection by the faculty was raised after students started sitting together post attending a seminar on gender sensitisation! This led to heated debates in the parents-teachers association meeting with the PTA saying students can sit together. When some teachers objected, students protested. Mainstream and social media began debates, forcing Health Minister K K Shylaja to seek a report from the college. Later, principal Thomas Mathew announced there was no such ban.
Funda-’mental’ Mob on the prowl
In perhaps, the worst incident of moral policing, a group of Muslim girls were trolled online and fell victims to cyberbullying in December after they performed in a flash mob in Malappuram town as part of World AIDS Day observance. Muslim fundamentalists abused the girls for dancing in public. Those expressing solidarity with the girls also received a fair share of the criticism and abuses.
Covered face = Principles
Bigotry towards woman, or rather, those who raise their voice against the bigots, played out in an episode at Kasargod. In October, District police chief K G Simon posed for a photograph with a 100-odd girl students, all of who were clad in burqa. The viral image was panned by lawyer C Shukkur, who berated Simon for posing for the photograph, and said how could a woman have a social or professional life if covering her face was equated to religion.
Shukkur was slammed by many over his ‘against the niqab’ comments and for his liberal stand. Another incident in January saw Jamal Ahmed, a medical superintendent of Nileswaram Taluk Hospital, being asked to conduct an awareness class at a religious centre in Nileswaram for around 100 women, with a blue screen in between. The arrangement aimed at preventing Ahmed from seeing the girls. His request to get the screen removed only discomforted authorities.
Two strikes for the MET
The MET Arts and Science college, Nadapuram, in Kozhikode was in the news this year for all the wrong reasons, two of which stood out. In August, the college union poll poster of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) faced social media ire for replacing the faces of nine women candidates with dummy images. The poster ironically, vouched for a ‘discrimination free campus’. MSF soon defended its action saying the women candidates themselves had demanded their photographs not be printed.
The second incident saw K Ajin Lal, a commerce teacher in the college, being sacked for posting a poem on ‘wet dreams’ on Facebook a month later. Reason: Some social media users found the post ‘objectionable.’ Students even wrote abusive comments on Ajin’s Facebook page. The college held Ajin was sacked over his poor performance and complaints from students and parents.
Our state: Open defecation-free. Our schools: Open hugging-free
A seemingly harmless hug led to the expulsion of two children from school, fuelled a media debate and finally saw the school – St Thomas Central School, Mukkolakal – hastily going on the defensive. It all began with teachers objecting to a Plus-Two student hugging a junior girl on campus. While students said it was an innocuous gesture, the school authorities apparently saw it in a different light. The boy was promptly expelled and the girl placed under suspension.
Parents flayed the action. To save his future, the boy approached the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and won a favourable decision. The school moved the High Court which quashed the commission’s order but said the school had the liberty to take a re-look at the issue considering the children’s future. Caught in full media glare, the school made a hasty climb-down and asked the boy to meet the principal, while conveniently turning a blind eye towards the girl’s plea her suspension be revoked.