The horror on the Mall

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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.

2 COMMENTS

  1. An excellent article. Pakistanis will always find a justification to do something murderous. They will quote Quran,tradition,culture and so on .The woman in question was 25 years old and pregnant and exercised her human right to marry the man she loved and not the man she was ordered to love . Her life was taken away for it.I am amazed to read that women too were involved in this callous murder. A life of the unborn baby was taken too. This was a premeditated murder. Will there a punishment i doubt it. Will we remember it tomorrow—no. While i read this article iam reminded of a novel written by a bengali moslem where she describes the status of women in Bangladesh. When a cow dies in a village the whole village mourns the loss of milk but when a man becomes awidower the whole village consols him and promises him a new wife asp. i suppose the newly widowed husdband will get the same offer soon.

  2. I am surprised why there is no Azab e Illahi on such land where inhumanity is at rise and government is greedy and busy in sucking blood. Justice is sold out for cheap desires.

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