Re: Staged stoning at Daily Star
Aasha Mehreen Amin, Editor, The Star
aashamehreen@gmail.com
Dear Ms Kabir,
I was completely flabbergasted by the article you have written about The Star's
'staged photograph' on the cover of an issue. Obviously you have completely missed the point. There was no reason to make ANYONE believe that this was a real photograph. Even a five year old would know that. The cover was meant to be symbolic , this is a common practice in many international magazines, to use symbolic images on covers.
It is called a 'reconstruction of events' a method used by the most reputed news agencies such as the BBC and Al Jazeera use it to illustrate something that couldn't possibly be photographed. We have had covers with symbolic images for many stories such as stories on rape, child pornography, trafficking etc where symbolic pictures have been used. It is ridiculous to assume that there was an evil agenda behind all this. Everything in the actual story is based on facts and quotes from real people. The fact is that these horrible crimes are being committed in villages and we, city people are far removed from this reality. It is our duty to highlight these stories so that crimes against women because of distorted interpretations of religion are stopped. It is ludicrous to think that an actual stoning can be photographed so why would The Star even try to do that? But stoning and lashings of women are true facts. Your comments and the follow up by others are unwarranted and have only served to incite people who either endorse such medieval practices or just want to get a shot at The Daily Star. It is unfortunate and sad that someone as respected as you could actually be part of this.
Aasha Mehreen Amin, Editor, The Star
aashamehreen@gmail.com
Dear Ms Kabir,
I was completely flabbergasted by the article you have written about The Star's
'staged photograph' on the cover of an issue. Obviously you have completely missed the point. There was no reason to make ANYONE believe that this was a real photograph. Even a five year old would know that. The cover was meant to be symbolic , this is a common practice in many international magazines, to use symbolic images on covers.
It is called a 'reconstruction of events' a method used by the most reputed news agencies such as the BBC and Al Jazeera use it to illustrate something that couldn't possibly be photographed. We have had covers with symbolic images for many stories such as stories on rape, child pornography, trafficking etc where symbolic pictures have been used. It is ridiculous to assume that there was an evil agenda behind all this. Everything in the actual story is based on facts and quotes from real people. The fact is that these horrible crimes are being committed in villages and we, city people are far removed from this reality. It is our duty to highlight these stories so that crimes against women because of distorted interpretations of religion are stopped. It is ludicrous to think that an actual stoning can be photographed so why would The Star even try to do that? But stoning and lashings of women are true facts. Your comments and the follow up by others are unwarranted and have only served to incite people who either endorse such medieval practices or just want to get a shot at The Daily Star. It is unfortunate and sad that someone as respected as you could actually be part of this.
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