World vignettes

The Tamil Muslim Jama8217;at said in a statement that quot;talaqquot; divorce, by award-winning local playwright Elangovan 8220;brings disgrace to Islamic principles and its values.8221;

The play, a two-hour monologue by one of 12 divorcees among the minority ethnic Indian Muslim community, depicts the ordeal of women suffering in silence while being victimized by their husbands.

It has played to packed houses here and has also been published as a best-selling book.

Both the play and the book have been licensed by Singapore authorities, who usually take great care in approving such works to avoid offending religious sensitivities in the multiracial island.

The Tamil Muslim Jama8217;at objected to the play8217;s ideas about Islam, such as non-Muslims marrying Muslims and the perception that the wife is the slave ofthe husband. It also condemned the publicising of a husband and wife8217;s sexual relationship.

It also objected to a scene in which the actress emerges from 20 years of beatings and humiliation at the hands of her husband by removing her long black robe.

Elnagovan, 41, and the leading actress Nargis Banu have received anonymous death threats for allegedly smearing Islam.

Treasure chest

APIA: Organisers of Samoa8217;s 2000 celebrations have mined the works of Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived his last years here, to come up with the Samoa Millennium Certificate, to be stored in a treasure chest until 2100. The millennium certificates went on sale last week and passengers on a cruise ship in Apia Harbour at the time snapped up 206 of them. Treasure Island, Stevenson8217;s most famous book, was the inspiration. Certificate holders take the document home but leave behind written goodwill messages which are placed in a capsule then in a treasure chest for their descendants to read when it is opened up again in2100. The Samoa Millennium 2000 Society and the Stevenson Museum have joined up for the project and will decide where the chest is to be stored. As in the book the exact location of the Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Chest Time Capsule8217; is a secret for now. The chest, now being built, is to be sealed shut in a ceremony at the museum on June 1 2001, also the day celebrations of Samoa8217;s independence start.