What we really need is refinement of personal laws, not a uniform civil code, which is anti-women, anti-human and anti-religion, writer Khadija Mumtaz has said.
She was delivering a talk on ‘Women and Law’ at the International Literature Festival of Kerala here on Wednesday.
Addressing the session, lawyer Asha Unnithan said that legal literacy is important to understand and utilise laws for the benefit of people.
At a patriarchal society there is a need for continued awareness programmes on women-friendly laws, social activist Sheeba Amir said. Politics, religion, laws and society should work together for ensuring rights of marginalised, said transgender activist Sheethal Shyam.
Malayalam literary criticism
Criticism is the life of democracy, literary critic M.M. Narayanan has said. Addressing a session on ‘Malayalam literary criticism ‘ at the ILFK, he said literary criticism is no longer active in Malayalam.
The onslaught on democracy has resulted in destruction of literary criticism, said critic S.S. Sreekumar. Young critic Rahul Radhakrishnan said that literary criticism should evolve according to the changing times. Writer G. Ushakumari said women are not getting their rightful space in literary criticism.
Music and Poetry
A world without music will be violent in nature, poet and lyricist Rafeeq Ahmmed said. He was addressing a session ‘Music and Poetry’ at ILFK.
The mood of people who read poetry is almost spiritual, while music is for the crowd. However, we used to have a generation who was drawn to serious reading by hearing film songs, he recalled.
Genetic making of a society is important in their taste of music, poet Engandiyoor Chandrasekharan said. In modern songs, the tune of the music gets more importance than the lyrics, lyricist B.K. Harinarayan said.
Meanwhile, a book exhibition organised in connection with the ILFK has been drawing crowd due to its huge collection of books on diverse topics. The exhibition has 100-odd stalls by 65 publishers. Most of the stalls provide attractive discounts on the books.
