KARACHI: Aafia Movement Pakistan leader and noted neuro physician Dr Fowzia Siddiqui on Saturday said that to observe the International Women’s Day was a compulsion of the West as it was their ideology that women were born in sin and they were sinners by birth.
However, Islam does not agree with this notion as it gives even extra respect and honour to women. She said this during speaking at different functions and programs on the occasion of the Women’s International Day here.
She spoke at programmes organised by Human Rights Network (HRN), Aga Khan University Hospital, Hareem-e-Addab, Sindh Women Development Department and Warsi International Organization and said that it was Islam that gave equal rights and respect to the women.
She said there is a difference in treatment of women in the Western societies and Islamic society She reminded that when Islam was teaching people to respect women, the Western scholars had been debating if women were human beings or not and if they were human beings to which category of human beings they should be classified.
Dr Fowzia said, in fact, women are symbols of respect and honour to any society, be it Islamic or secular. She said the societies that stop respecting women gradually lose their respect and importance in the global community. She said four years ago, India took all-out efforts and brought back home their daughter Devyani Khobradage from the USA with honour and respect and today India is amongst the top 10 economies of the world.
She asked what we, as a nation, have done in the case of the Pakistani daughter, Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who was kidnapped and trafficked from our own country along with her three minor children. She said today if we have no respect on international level, it is not without a valid reason.
She said those crying hoarse on the Kasur tragedy should also think that why this tragedy took place. She said when societies keep a mum on female prisoners of Abu Ghraib and Bagram jails then it is natural that the daughters in these societies would go unprotected. She said we should ask from ourselves what steps we have taken to secure life and honour of female members of the society.
She said still we have time to pledge as the nation that we will not vote the rulers who are involved in selling and trafficking of our daughters. She said that illegal detention of the kidnapped and trafficked Dr Aafia Siddiqui is a big question mark on the honour of our male-dominated society.