Chay Magazine http://www.chaymagazine.org Sex and Sexuality in Paksitan Sun, 11 May 2008 17:15:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Muslimah Media Watch http://www.chaymagazine.org/2008/05/05/muslimah-media-watch/ http://www.chaymagazine.org/2008/05/05/muslimah-media-watch/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 02:19:57 +0000 Kyla Pasha http://www.chaymagazine.org/?p=10 Muslimah Media Watch has reviewed us and seem to like what we’re doing. In their view:

Like every human being on this earth and every piece of writing they may produce, Chay magazine has its own perspective and agenda. And their agenda is clear - sex and sexuality are normal. Everyone experiences them. Not talking about such a central aspect of our lives is detrimental to the health of our society. Talking about the issues surrounding sex and our sexualities will make us better as a society. Considering Pakistani society has increasingly higher rates of violence against women perhaps confronting and talking about the issues in an open and frank forum will help stop and reverse the increasing numbers. Anything that can help at this point should be welcomed. Additionally, it would be welcoming to see this be a friendly arena for those of alternate sexualities to gain support from and educate others.

We are excited for the attention to our project as well as the discussion it has fostered on their own site. Check it out here. Particularly, take a look at their riff on why we called it “Chay”. Thanks for pointing to us, folks! And stay tuned.

]]> http://www.chaymagazine.org/2008/05/05/muslimah-media-watch/feed/ The First Issue http://www.chaymagazine.org/2008/04/30/the-first-issue/ http://www.chaymagazine.org/2008/04/30/the-first-issue/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 06:23:39 +0000 Sarah Suhail http://www.chaymagazine.org/?p=9 We have been asked many times since we first announced this magazine what we would like for the first issue. Our call for submissions was limited for space and we wanted to cover broad themes for the first four issues. So, here, we have decided to set out in detail what we would like the first issue to be about. You will note that comments are possible on this post, so feel free to share your thoughts. If you do have submissions, however, please send them to our email: chaymagazine AT gmail DOT com. We will not read any submissions posted in the comments.

These are the questions we would like to address:

  • Why engage sex and sexuality in our conversations, and in Pakistan?
  • What are the different conceptions of sex and sexuality?
  • Conceptions of sex and sexuality
    - alternative sexualities: heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, transgender, transsexuality, interesexuality, questioning sexualities.
    - awareness of sexual drive and desire
    - value attached to sexual desire (usually negative - why negative?)
    - sex as socially and religiously sanctioned
    - sex as legally regulated, criminally and Islamically prosecuted outside of marriage.
    - how are ideas of sex, gender and sexuality are based on constructed binaries: male and female with male and female roles that are specific, hierarchical and often mutually exclusive.
    - gender roles and binaries naturalized and explained with medicine and biology when in fact they are socially constructed
    - questioning binaries of sex (male/female), gender (masculine/feminine), sexuality (homo/heterosexual)
  • What are the taboos and why do they exist?
  • Why is there a need to explore the taboos and open the discourse?
  • How do taboos and silences affect the lives of everyday people?
  • - young people in romantic relationships
    - marriage proposals, love marriages
    - sexual autonomy in love relationships, marriages

If you would like to write on one or a few of these topics, please submit essays of 500-1000 words with a short author bio by June 1, 2008. Please send your submission as an email attachment with an .rtf or .doc extension (we cannot accept .docx extensions).

We are also accepting, poetry, fiction and artwork related to the above themes. Please see the call for submissions page for details.

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