By  Dr. Mahjabeen Islam
Toledo, Ohio

October 27, 2006

The Sole Redemption

Umar ibn Al-Khattab was busy burying his young daughter alive, following the custom of the day. She reached out to brush the dirt away from his beard. He paused momentarily, though still snuffed her out. And how he cried in memory! Pakistani society today essentially buries thousands of women alive, some as young as 12, throws them in jail for years or lifetimes for the crime of being raped and the ironic inability to provide evidence, beyond reasonable doubt, which would lead to conviction of the accused. The light of Islam had not reached Umar ibn Al-Khattab. Pakistan perpetuates this travesty with the stolid self-deception that it is abiding by Islamic law. This is cause to more than pause for we are implicated in a dual crime: the first of collective condemnation of the innocent and the second, the grievous sin of defaming Islam as being cruel and inhuman.

The worst legacy of Ziaul Haq’s rule by far was the introduction in 1979 of the heinous Hudood Ordinance. This saw a sudden spike in the number of women filling an already bursting-at-the-seams prison system, with many delivering children there, the child remaining incarcerated with the mother. One Safia Bibi, blind from birth, was charged with adultery, for she was unable to identify her rapist.

The Quran enjoins us to be just even if it goes against ourselves, our parents or our kin (Surah Nisa 4:135). I count myself as one of the harshest critics of General Musharraf, but it is disingenuous to rob credit when kudos is due. The Hisba Bill was passed in 2005 by the MMA dominated NWFP Assembly. The decision of General Musharraf to challenge it in the Supreme Court and the opinion of the Court declaring it unconstitutional was a first in Pakistan's history. The Court stated that no one had the monopoly over interpretation of faith, especially not the obscurantist mullah. This proclamation will serve as a much needed jolt to Pakistan’s appalling human rights record.

In the same vein as the Hisba Bill, comes the Protection of Women Bill. But before that discussion, an important aside is instructive: the genesis of the mullah. Even non-Muslim parents don’t celebrate when their child decides to pursue religious studies as a career. Muslim parents in general, and Pakistani parents in particular, carve out more material paths for their children, and almost invariably the gifted become doctors, lawyers, architects and accountants. Some of the rest become mullahs and part of that mullah pool is obtained from orphanage-madrassas. The socio-emotional perspective of these religious graduates is thus self-explanatory.

That in a nation of 170 million people, there is a handful of Islamic scholars such as Muhammad Khalid Masud and Javed Ahmed Ghamdi is testimony to my theory above. America does not have to bomb us into the Stone Age, the mullahs and feudals left alone will do it faster.

The concept of individual and collective sin here is very instructive. No Muslim shall escape individual accountability. The onus on imams, shuyookh, muftis and mullahs is much greater. Akin to sadaqa-e-jariah, if they promote the good to their congregants, they get a double bonus, if they misguide, they shall be interred with the burden of the sin of all those that followed them. They specialize in fire and brimstone rhetoric so here is some for them: beware the Day when men and stones shall be the fuel of that Fire (Surah Baqarah 2: 24).

Jinnah in 1929 in the case against child marriages made an eerily predictive speech: “I cannot believe that there can be a Divine sanction for such evil practices as are prevailing in India.” As though clairvoyant of the mire Pakistan is in now, he continued: “public opinion is not so fully developed in this country, and if we are going to allow ourselves to be influenced by the public opinion that can be created in the name of religion when we know that religion has nothing whatever to do with the matter, - I think we must have the courage to say, “No, we are not going to be frightened by that”.

The MMA opposes the Protection of Women Bill on the grounds that it changes the Quran. And by this very approach, they immediately give credence to the claim that theirs is a blinded, convoluted approach that deliberately misses the forest for the trees. The premise of Islam is equity. Let alone practice, to even believe that Islam would promote, that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), the one sent as a Mercy to all mankind would condone this torture and collective condemnation of women is, in and of itself, a lie attributed to Islam. In myriad verses in the Quran, God demands to know “do they attribute a lie to God?” (Sajdah 32:3)

Utopia would be repeal of the Hudood Ordinance. The realistic is its amendment in the Protection of Women Bill. In this Bill the aim is to retain what is in the Qur’an, delete what is not in the Quran and move the extraneous to the Pakistan Penal Code. It will go very far in providing relief in the current national predicament. Most importantly the offence of rape will be taken out of the Hudood Ordinance and moved to the Pakistan Penal Code where all criminal and evidentiary procedures will apply. Thus in rape cases the danger of a woman being convicted for not being able to prove the crime will be eliminated.


That there is an essential abdication of vital social responsibility is evidenced by the role of various groups in the country. The choke-hold of the Hudood Ordinance is perpetuated by the mullahs and the feudals. In practice the MMA, a six party religious alliance, the PML (N) and PML(Q) leaders Chaudhary Shujaat and Pervez Illahi the last two in, perhaps, individual capacity and for personal political power. Garnering and growing a political fiefdom is quite the Pakistani trademark.

Another significant reason for Pakistan’s struggle with democracy is the perpetuation of feudalism, something India abolished at partition. It is the feudal landlord that often marries his sister to the Quran to retain property (top PPP leaders like Makhdoom Amin Fahim equally culpable in this respect), that abuses power, gender and patriarchy to rape and intimidate women, leaving them the choice of prison or silent submission. Where there are thousands languishing in jails, there are countless suffering this virtual prison, tortured by monsters of their sordid past.

The PPP backs the Protection of Women Bill, but human rights advocates are sadly laboring under the all or none premise. They want repeal of the Hudood Ordinance, not realizing that we must toddle before we sprint. The greater rigidity is on the part of those who do not give even tepid support to the Bill, for it is sponsored by Musharraf, who, they say, is a dictator and usurper of the constitution. Here the importance of being just and appreciating the critical importance of this Bill is very important.

The MQM, to its credit, wishes to do all it can “to protect the rights of women”.

Pakistanis need reminding that the mullahs were against the creation of Pakistan. Why have they been allowed to arrogate to themselves the vital task of shaping its future? The mullah dominated parties do not hold majority in parliament, but it is very worrisome that the nation is held in a state of suspended animation by their obscurantist views. When challenged in their myopic interpretation by well respected, ijtehad-practicing modern day Islamic scholars, they are unable to respond or sensibly debate. They resort to kindergarten tactics: either the school yard bully or the coward that always threatens then runs.

The debate on the Protection of Women Bill is set for the end of October. Pakistan must have this national conversation here and now. Every woman in Pakistan currently runs the risk of lifetime incarceration, if caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. The influential can wheedle out their compromised daughters but is our national conscience so moribund that we are entirely blind?

In the 99 names of God about 90 describe His love, mercy and forgiveness. We are enjoined to adopt those characteristics. His justice is finer than the weight of an atom (Al-Zalzalah 99:7). And here as a nation created in His name, and faced with such a gross injustice in the Hudood Ordinance, we look the other way.

Musharraf is implicated in peccadilloes and many more substantive errors since his coup in 1999. The threat by the MMA to resign from parliament should not cause him to capitulate again. The Protection of Women Bill is his sole redemption. And actually another barometer for the soul of Pakistan.

Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and freelance columnist residing in Toledo Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com

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