Hoping to launch our next Newsletter soon

             We, as Aligarh Activists' Society have planned to print our mouthpiece named as "Tehreez" on a monthly basis. The response of last month's issue was quite appreciative & it encourages us to continue this task with even greater fervour. A lot of positive feedbacks & suggestions were received which we will try to implement in the upcoming issue for the month of October/November. 

             Aligarh Activists' Society welcomes contributions from everybody interested, especially the students of Aligarh Muslim University.  We wish to create a sense of awakening which can be inferred from the title of our Newsletter i.e. Tehreez, meaning awakening the sleeping person. We wish that, through our efforts we will contribute towards the betterment of our beloved institution.

Tehzeeb v/s Progress: An Analysis of the Great Divide over Abdullah Hall

                       Abdullah Hall. Women’s College. A mere reference to these words is enough to set alight any dhaba discussion or hostel gup-shup in our University and immediately polarise the participants. Anyone taking a supposedly “pro-women” stance is immediately labelled anti-Islamic, ‘communist’, 'deheria' and the like. Anyone taking a “pro-tehzeeb” stand is immediately labelled anti-women, ‘conservative’, daqiya-nusi and their ilk.

             The only agreement that seems to exist is over the fact that there is some problem in the Women’s College, requiring some sort of a solution. The disagreement exists over everything else, be it the problems or the solutions to those contested problems.

Freedom to Express, Insult, spread Hate and be Islamophobia?

The recent controversy over the movie called “Innocence of Muslims” and the publication of derogatory cartoons in a French magazine is representative of one of the most continuous and repetitive problems of our age.


Those who say this is an issue of freedom of expression speak a lie. They are either heavily misinformed or else they deliberately intend to misinform others. This is not a question of freedom of expression because nowhere in the world does the freedom of expression include the freedom to insult. The laws against libel and slander practiced in almost every country of the world are testament to this.

Faculty of Desolation

 The Faculty of Arts looks quite picturesque from outside, I thought idly, as I leaned against my bike on the road opposite the gate. The green lawns leading to the spouting fountains and the somber walls have an aesthetic effect visible from afar. Yet when you slowly approach the faculty, sauntering past the guards at the gate, reality begins to encroach on the fantasy. At first you notice the patches of grass at the edges of the lawn which have gone desolately dry. Then you observe (with mild disgust) that the water in the fountain is of a greenish hue because of algae growing in it. When you actually enter the building you are relieved to find that at least the foyer is clean and the tiles are new.

Aligarh Activists' Society : Pictures of the Programme Held at Department of Islamic Studies

Here are the snapshots of the seminar organised by Aligarh Activists' Society on "Concept of Human Rights in Islam" held on 27th September, 2012 at Conference Hall, Department of Islamic Studies, A.M.U.