Chilling Effect:
“An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence Tuesday for a journalism student accused of blasphemy for asking questions in class about women’s rights under Islam. But the judges still sentenced him to 20 years in prison. The case against 24-year-old Sayed Perwez Kambashkh . . . has come to symbolize Afghanistan’s slide toward an ultraconservative view on religious and individual freedoms.”
—Associated Press, 10/21/08 (See AP story here. And from the (London) TimesOnline here.)
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Kambashkh, handcuffed, flanked by Afghan guards. (AP Photo)
Was it really necessary to use the word 'ultraconservative' when 'repressive' would have been more accurate? We've so overused 'conservative' and 'liberal' that they've lost their meaning and serve only to stereotype.
ReplyDeleteAn alert WORDster writes....
ReplyDelete(I would say “ultraconservative view” is a gross understatement (if understatements can be gross. But I know for sure the court’s action was gross.)
JS
I don't necessarily disagree with Anne's comment, but that was the AP story.
One other comment: Alert WORDster Betty Medsger in NYC raises a good question: Is the Committee to protect Journalists (http://www.cpj.org/) involved in this case?
ReplyDeleteI agree that usage of the term 'ultraconservative' is not appropriate...
ReplyDelete'conservative, liberal, ultraconservative' are all subjective terms that depend for their meaning very much on where one sits on the spectrum...
As a middle-aged (biological fact), middle-class (economic and educative status descriptor), white (ethnological fact) feminist shaman, many of the evangelical christian people I come across would probably class me at the far end of the 'liberal' scale as a hell-bound pagan with no morals or values, while some of the people I hang out with in my social activist role see me as still being too 'mainstream', not 'liberal' enough, too near the 'conservative' end of the political spectrum for their comfort...
In my own eyes, I'm not aligned with any idea or definition of what is liberal or conservative.
I chose a long time ago to respond to each situation as it arises, in the moment, basing my judgments on an assessment of what's going on in that moment, what are the needs and possible solutions and what seems the naturally 'right' thing to do to restore balance and harmony.
That means I have no fixed rules about life and how to live it - life is a state of change and flux and every situation is different.
In my opinion, there are no 'one size fits all' solutions and identifying and living from definitions of conservative or liberal limit the capacity to respond most effectively to whatever changes or challenges occur.
Makes for a lot of uncertainty, yes, but also for a lot of freedom...
And I've decided its not my place to tell others how to go about making their own choices....
I agree that the term 'repressive' would have been far more accurate in this context....