A section of the clergy is dragging Pakistan back to Stone Age
As newspapers show, this has happened many times before. But this time it looked too shocking because none had expected it to take place on the busiest street of the capital of Punjab and that too outside the gates of the Lahore High Court. The gruesome act of stoning young Farzana Iqbal to death for marrying against the parents’ wishes stunned the city. As per records maintained by the HRCP, between July 2012 to September 2013 there were 90 acid attacks on women, 72 cases of burning caused by other means, 491 cases of domestic violence, 344 cases of gang rape and 835 cases of violence. Fifty-six women were killed for no other reason than giving birth to a girl rather than a boy.
The killing of Fazana Iqbal shows the phenomenon of crimes against women is both widespread and deep rooted. Even Pakistanis settled in Britain have been found guilty of honour killing. The first step towards dealing with the problem is to recognise its existence. The media in particular has to highlight the issue of the crimes against women.
What keeps these crimes to continue to take place is the complicity of the rural elite as well as of clerics with a primitive mindset. In 2008 when three women were buried alive in Balochistan because they wanted to pick their husbands themselves, two Senators from the province defended the brutal act as part of the Baloch tradition. Rural elite sitting in jirgas have ordered collective rapes of women as retribution for the wrongdoing of their male relatives. The horrendous custom of Karo Kari continues to claim hundreds of victims every year on account of the complicity of the elite. The government needs to implement the laws strictly in all such cases, setting aside political exigencies. But the question is, will it? Unless laws are strictly applied the ignominy will persist.
The way a section of the clergy is trying to drag Pakistan to medieval backwardness by denigrating the status of women creates an environment conducive to attacks of the sort. Clerics of the Wafaqul Madaris, Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) and religious parties strongly resisted the enactment of the Domestic Violence Bill. Their main argument was that any attempt to deny the husband his presumed right to beat his wife would step up the divorce rate. In other words, the women have to put up with violence. Attempts are currently afoot to allow men to enter into second, third or fourth marriage without the first wife’s consent. While Jinnah strongly opposed child marriage, the CII has permitted this, putting the health and in cases the very life of a girl child in jeopardy. Unless the government appoints an enlightened scholar as chairman CII and introduces proactive legislation to ensure an equal status for women, crimes of the sort that make many Pakistanis hang their head in shame will continue to take place.