By host on
4/24/2011 9:26 AM
ISLAMABAD: The government has referred a draft of “Minorities Protection Bill” to the Ministry of Minority Affairs to legislate on the Marriage Act for Hindu, Sikh, Parsi and Bahai minorities. The decision has been taken in response to the pleas submitted by Hindu community representatives in the parliament secretariat last year for registration of marriages of minorities.
Sources inside the minorities’ ministry said that the new bill adopts almost all suggestions proposed by the Hindu community representatives, with only minor changes. Under the proposed bill, every marriage solemnised under the Hindu religion will be registered.
The 1998 census showed over one million Hindus in Pakistan, while currently the population has increased to over 4 million, making it the largest minority in the country. Currently, marriage registration facility is provided to Muslims in the form of a”Nikah Naama”, and to Christians in the form of “Certificate of Marriage”. All other communities are deprived of this right of registration of marriages. To pursue their demands for marriage registration bill, representatives of the Hindu community had recently threatened to hold a sit-in before the parliament to push the government to introduce the much-awaited bill in the parliament. ...
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By host on
4/20/2011 3:05 PM
Source: BASED UK
By Helena Hastie
“Social change is not a project that one group of people carries out for the benefit of another.” [i]
This clear statement from the Universal House of Justice, the supreme institution of the worldwide Baha’i community, is laden with implications. Baha’is all across the world view their work as contributing to the process of building communities from the grassroots up. How then can a Western development agency translate its vision of assisting communities in less economically prosperous countries without carrying out a project for unknown ‘others’?
The worldwide endeavours of the Baha’i community are coordinated by an international Office of Social and Economic Development which monitors projects across the globe, and helps development agencies to learn from each others’ experience. This office writes:
“ Some communities…...
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By host on
4/12/2011 4:16 PM
Iranian Baha'i leaders hit by 'vindictive' sentence extension
International news
Apr 1 2011 - 09:27am
The seven members of the Baha'i community detained in 2008. © Private
The reimposition of 20-year jail terms on seven leaders of Iran's Baha'i religious minority is “outrageous”, Amnesty International said today as it made a renewed call for their immediate release.
The seven had previously had their sentences cut from 20 to10 years by an Iranian appeal court, only for the authorities to reverse the decision.
"Yet again, the Iranian authorities are manipulating their own justice system to persecute members...
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