“Women to Reclaim Public Space” Women’s Action Forum held a program of defiance and resistance at Karachi-Pakistan Press Club on 8th May 2009. Arundhati Roy was the closing speaker.

Taliban boy’s interview who asked the interviewer that government can ban the plastic shopping bags by making law then why can’t government of Pakistan ban women to not to come out of the houses? The point is that the plastic bag was made in a factory but so was the boy. He was made in a factory that is producing this kind of mind. Taliban got the hold in Swat because of lack of justice in that area for decades and Taliban has exploited that injustice.

The Indian army is quite a sacred cow especially on TV and Bollywood. But at the same time if you talk to the people in the Indian army, they say that they feel that the media is very critical of them. I don’t share that view. I think it is a sacred cow. People are willing to give them a lot of leeway.

In India, there are two kinds of terrorism: one is Islamic terrorism and the other Maoist terrorism. The definetion of terrorism is a complicated one.

It is true that Taliban exploited the injustice in Swat to establish their hold there. However, it is not just injustice only, people were terrorized by Taliban and they just wanted peace in the area.