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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Veena Malik immoral?


Pakistani actress Veena Malik has mounted a fiery defence of her appearance in the controversial Indian reality show Bigg Boss, taking on mullahs who had criticised her. Malik took Mufti Abdul Kawi to task for calling her "baigharat" (immoral) on a talk show on television and said if she were in the wrong, so was he because Islam doesn't permit a man to cast a second look at a woman who isn't his relative. "One can be punished for looking at a woman a second time, you should be punished," Malik, clad in a black sleeveless dress, told the Mufti on Express News' Frontline show. Malik's outspoken defence of herself received widespread support from Pakistani liberals and civil society activists on social networking websites like Twitter, which were flooded with messages praising her and quotes of her witty repartee with the Mufti. Malik, who was ousted from Bigg Boss after spending 84 days on the show, described her appearance in the programme as a "beautiful, terrible, exciting, emotional, sad" experience. She said the most beautiful thing for her was the love Indians showered on her by voting for her. Malik refused to apologise for her behaviour on the show, saying the show was not aimed at promoting the culture of any country. "It isn't a religious show either. The format of the show is to get people from various walks of life under one roof... I was contacted for my bravery," she said. "I wasn't even representing office-going women of Pakistan. I was a Pakistani from the entertainment industry," she added. Malik snubbed critics who claimed she was dressed scantily, saying, "I wore only clothes that I have worn in Pakistan before. I was representing myself... and I am like this only." The talk show also featured Ashmit Patel, who said that Malik regularly prayed on the sets of the show even though that was never shown on television and also made him offer the 'namaz' once. Malik said the Pakistani media had been unfair to her by not highlighting the positives -- such as when she was complimented by Salman Khan -- and not coming to her rescue when she was abused on Bigg Boss. "I belong to the entertainment industry and I went with my agenda. I wanted to show the world that there are other types of Pakistanis too, not just those who are in the news for terror acts."

Sudan split


Almost 99 percent of south Sudanese who voted in an independence referendum chose to split away from the north, the first official but incomplete figures published by the vote's organizing commission showed Friday. The results were the latest indication of a landslide vote for southern independence in last week's referendum, promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. The final official figures are expected in February. The website for the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission showed a 98.6 percent vote for secession, with more than 80 percent of the votes from the south counted, and 100 percent counted in other areas. The commission earlier confirmed the turnout had passed the 60 percent mark needed to make the result binding. Officials from the oil-producing south have so far given a measured response to the early results and warned voters not to stage early celebrations to avoid antagonizing the north. The calm, controlled mood in the southern capital Juba has been in sharp contrast to the jubilant scenes that greeted the start of voting, when campaign posters described independence as a liberation from war and northern oppression. "This is the outcome we expected ... the results won't change much," the commission's deputy chairman Chan Reek Madut, a southerner, told Reuters. The only area to show a majority for unity was a small pocket of voters in the northern Sudanese state of South Darfur. According to the figures, 63.2 percent of voters wanted to keep the country together and only 36.8 percent went for secession. "It is not surprising because of the way they conducted their registration. Some people passed as southerners who were actually northerners from Darfur," said Madut. "They took advantage of the lack of security in the area. It won't impact seriously on the result." Darfur is the scene of a seven-year conflict pitting rebels against the government. A senior official from north Sudan's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) said he would wait until the final announcement before giving an official reaction. "But the expectation is that the result will be for secession," said Rabie Abdelati. "The party is working for the post referendum period now -- the demarcation of the borders and the resolution of the Abyei problem. We are doing our best to prepare for the consequences of secession on the north." Northern and southern officials still have to agree how they would divide oil revenues after a split and sort out the ownership of the contested border region of Abyei.