NEWS
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - 3
* ON CAMPUS
University prof
discusses health
care rationing
Dr. Peter Ubel, an associate professor
at the University's Internal Medicine
Department and director for the Uni-
versity's Program for Improving Health
Care Decisions will be speaking today
as part of the events under the Bioethics
Grand Rounds.
His lecture "What is Wrong with
Health Care Rationing?" will explore
the area of health care rationing many
people believe to be "unnecessary and
immoral." The event is today from noon
to 1 p.m. in Room F2304 of the C.S.
Mott Children's Hospital.
Lecture to focus
on library changes
The School of Information is spon-
soring a lecture today from 3 to 5 p.m.
in the Alumni Center Founders Room.
The lecture, "Human Connection:
Words, Power and Change in the Bib-
liotech Age," will be presented by
speakers Frank Kurt Cylke, director
of the National Library Service for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped of
the Library of Congress and Margaret
Wolfe, coordinator of the Washtenaw
County Library for the Blind and Physi-
cally Disabled, in Ann Arbor.
The event is to "further help the
public understand how the digital age
affects retrieving, storing, and using
information wisely."
Student athletes
to hold discussion
on gender issues
The third event in a series of five pre-
ceding the production of the Vaginal
Monologues on Sunday is set for today
at 8 p.m. in Room 124 of East Quadran-
gle Residence Hall. The event will fea-
ture a discussion by University athletes
about gender issues.
CRIME
S NOTES
Caller reports
fraudulent use of
parking permit
A caller reported a fraudulent use of a
parking permit at 508 Thompson St. on
Monday afternoon. A report was filed to
the Department of Public Safety.
Woman with
warrant turns
herself in to DPS
DPS reported that a subject turned
herself in to the court on Monday after-
noon because there was a warrant out for
her arrest for obstructing justice.
Subject loses
vehicle, later found
A subject in the Thayer Street Carport
reported to DPS that he had misplaced
his vehicle late Monday night. An officer
assisted him, and the vehicle was later
located in the carport.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Students abandon
Ann Arbor arcades
Feb. 16, 1983 - The sounds of video
games echo through Ann Arbor's arcades
these days. Strobe lights flash, but not on
crowds of people. The "video craze" is
p subsiding and it shows.
The once-packed video rooms are no
longer bursting with customers, and local
arcade managers say that the decade's
biggest fad thus far is fading fast.
With today's dismal economy, many
students say they cannot afford to spend
quarters on video games.
"I'd rather save my quarters for laundry
machines than to spend them on video
games," junior Karen Lauhoff said.
Todd Bradford, a visiting Alpha Tau
Omega member from Indiana University,
said his fraternity "wanted to cut the cost
10 of spending so much money at arcades
cn we used cnmp hnse funds to huv an
Panel discusses famous Islamic poem
By Amber Colvin
and C.C. Song
Daily Staff Reporters
While studying abroad in Morocco, Fareeha
Khan entered a mosque and heard a recitation
of a famous ancient Islamic poem, the Burdah,
which is now being made into a musical - the
first Muslim one to be produced in America.
At the time, Khan said she did not know
Arabic very well. "Even though I couldn't
understand it, it was very beautiful."
She said her immediate love for the poem
led her to help develop the first Islamic Ameri-
can musical in history.
The musical, "The Poem of the Cloak," will
premiere March 17 at the Ford Community
and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn. The
story applies the precepts of the Burdah to the
struggles of a Muslim American family.
Khan, a doctoral student in Near Eastern
Studies at the University, was joined by Parvez
Ahmed and Jonathan Glasser in the Rackham
Building last night for a panel discussion of the
Burdah called 'Changing Voices for the Poem
of the Cloak: Cross-cultural Adaptations of
Qasidah al Burdah.'
Parvez Ahmed, a student in the Department
of Asian and Near Eastern Studies at Wayne
State University, discussed the historical
aspects of the poem.
Written in 1212 CE by al-Busiri, an Egyptian-
born poet, the Burdha has been translated into
many languages. It has been set to pop melodies
in Egypt and South Asia, sung at wedding cer-
emonies, memorized by children and recited at
conversion ceremonies and on Ramadan.
The poem was inspired by the story of al-
Busiri's miraculous cure by Muhammad. Accord-
ing to the tale, the Prophet appeared to al-Busiri
- who was paralyzed from a stroke - in a
dream, tossed him a cloak and cured him.
The 160 to 165 lines of the poem, varying
with the translation, praise Muhammad for
his act of kindness. Ahmed described it as the
ecstatic love that Muslims feel for the founder
of their religion.
"It's really a deep sense of love and venera-
tion," Ahmed said.
Jonathan Glasser, a Rackham student in Near
Eastern Studies, played different samples from
a recent recording of the Burdah in Morocco
and explained the variety of arrangements.
Glasser also examined the conflict between
restrictions on music in the orthodox practice of
Islam and the way the Burdah is performed.
He said controversy arises when the Burdah
is performed with instruments, contravening
the beliefs of some Muslims.
LSA sophomore Azmat Khan said she
appreciated the way the event was centered on
the Burdah. She said people at the University
need to discuss the poem more.
"Islam is (not only) a religion of peace, but
(also) a religion of art," she said.
Rackham student Ali Hashmi said he appre-
ciated the University's willingness to discuss
the Burdah.
"I think overall the message is so very popu-
lar," Hashmi said.
Hashmi said the need for discussion of the
Burdah comes from its themes of love and
gratefulness.
"That's really the backbone of Islam,"
Hashmi said.
The event was the first production put on by the
Office of Diversity Affairs, which is part of the
Rackham Graduate Studies Program. Patricia
McCune, the director of the Office of Diversity
Affairs, organized a series of events after discov-
ering the theme of the semester would be Cultural
Treasures of the Middle East.
Tashara Bailey, a doctoral student in higher
education who works at the Office of Diversity
Affairs, hosted the show.
"I thought it was wonderful, a good chance
for students to learn about the literary form,"
Bailey said.
Abused women speak
about time in prison
By Laura Frank
Daily Staff Reporter
Mary Heinen was sentenced to life in prison
for a robbery in which her husband shot and
killed several people 30 years ago.
While serving her sentence, Heinen earned
four university degrees, including one from the
University, and started a law library through
which she and other prisoners attempted to
find ways to appeal their cases.
The inmates sought to get out of a place
where they said they faced constant abuse.
Heinen succeeded in getting out and, along
with India Stewart, who also spent time in
prison, spoke about abuse within the prisons,
both by guards and by other inmates at the
Michigan League last night.
Abuse by guards - which included touching
female prisoners inappropriately or watching
them undress - is widespread, Stewart said.
Both women spoke about the need for
increased legal advocacy for battered women
in prisons.
Heinen added that while there has been legal
action taken in some prisoner abuses cases -
one was settled for $3.8 million - there is still
rampant abuse within prisons.
"A case that was settled a few years ago
will have no impact on what goes on in the
(prisons)," she said.
Heinen also spoke of being threatened with
retaliation and intimidation by prison offi-
cials who learned of her legal efforts to leave
the prison. With her hard work, Heinen was
granted clemency and released after serving 30
years in prison.
The event was part of a weeklong campaign
sponsored by the Michigan chapter of V-Day,
an international organization that works to end
violence against women.
According to RC senior Erin Kaplan, one of
the event's organizers, women - especially black
women - are the single fastest-growing prison pop-
ulation in the United States.
In addition, Kaplan said that 95 percent of impris-
oned women have been abused at one point during
their lives, either before or after being incarcerated.
"I don't know anybody who hasn't been abused,"
Stewart said.
Both women also talked about abusive relation-
ships they had been in. Both were married as teenag-
ers to men who later abused them, and each spoke
of the emotional damage and life-changing conse-
quences they suffered during these relationships.
While some laws have been passed to protect
women from being prosecuted for crimes against
abusers, Heinen said these laws are not retroactive,
and there are many women currently in prison who
should not be there - either because they were
forced to participate in crimes by violent partners or
because they killed abusive partners in self-defense.
"I was able to litigate myself out," she said, "But
that's a real unusual situation."
Stewart, who said that her abusive boyfriend
robbed a bank and forced her to drive him away,
served three years in prison.
Two of her daughters still live with the man, and
she is currently fighting for custody, but she said that
transitional programs for people returning from
prison do not do enough to help women regain
their families.
"Most of the programs cater to men," she said.
Heinen said she believes that violence
against women is often accepted and that it is
promoted by video games, the media and the
government.
"Women have been seen
traditionally as property,"
she said.
Community High
School junior Christine
SHUBRA OHRI/Daily
India Stewart and Mary Heinen, abused former prisoners, speak to a group in the Michigan
League yesterday about the injustice they suffered in and after prison.
Martin-Buck said that while she has heard of
some of the issues surrounding female prison-
ers, the speakers "put things in a whole new
perspective."
Stewart and Heinen also offered advice to
others who may be involved in abusive rela-
tionships.
"Don't be afraid to ask for help if you're a
victim," Stewart said. "I thank God every day
that I was able to get away."
This is the first year V-Day has sponsored
this event, and organizers were very pleased
with the turnout. LSA senior Kyle Stock said
she was especially impressed given the difficul-
ty of advertising and reaching audiences about
such a difficult issue.
Heinen and Stewart concluded the dialogue
by urging people to support petition drives
and the Michigan Battered Women's Clem-
ency Project.
"You're more powerful out here than you
think you are," Stewart said.
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