They
Have Decided to Fight Back
By H. Maker
Helpline Trust
Karachi, Pakistan
Every time our Gen. Pervez
Musharraf goes abroad, he impresses his audience
with his blunt, frank and candid speeches. But
unfortunately, he also seems to start a controversy
with some of his comments relating to women’s
rights, rape and honor killings in Pakistan. And
the print media, women rights activists and NGOs
immediately pounce on those remarks and what follows
becomes headline news.
During his last goodwill trip to Australia and
New Zealand, the General confessed that it was
he who had ordered that Ms. Muktharam Mai should
be placed on the infamous ECL and prevented from
going abroad and “wash our dirty linen in
public while speaking on women rights violations
in Pakistan.”
He had explained that he had done so in the best
interest of the country and to protect Pakistan’s
image abroad as some NGOs were exploiting the
plight of Muktharan Mai to embarrass his government.
Unfortunately, on his recent visit to the US he
was accused of saying that for some women rape
has become a means of getting Canadian citizenship
and money.
The General has claimed that he has been misquoted
and what he had said was that “People are
saying that …..”. He is angry at women
rights organizations for raising issues of violence
against women in Pakistan every time he goes abroad
and that it is a deliberate attempt by these groups
to show the country in a bad light.
But then people say a lot of stupid things, even
about the American President and the British PM,
but surely the General would not go around, repeating
them to the press. I am neither a pro- nor an
anti-Musharraf person, and I am simply interested,
as I am sure most citizens are, in how we are
governed and not who governs us.
But I have always appreciated the General-President’s
straight and frank style of speaking his mind,
with no frills attached. Such a statement coming
from one of his spin masters and misinformed ministers
would not have been surprising, but coming from
the “enlightened” General is sad and
inappropriate.
There is no denying that none of our past “democratically
elected” governments with heavy mandates
could have managed to successfully make so many
dangerous u-turns in our foreign policy on Kashmir,
Afghanistan, India and now Israel, as the General
has. At the American Jewish Congress dinner, Senator
Tom Lantos, who presented President Musharraf
with a Congressional citation, called him a “quintessential
Muslim leader” and a “beacon to other
Muslim states”. He complimented Gen. Musharraf
for having braved physical and political danger
to come to address the American Jewish Congress.
And in his welcome address, American Jewish Congress
president Jack Rosen described the president’s
decision to address the Congress as “an
act of individual courage, leadership and vision”,
a remark that brought the audience to its feet.
Almost all world leaders also share these views.
My friend, Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) in Rawalpindi,
has forwarded me the following information from
a website www.islamweb.net/ver2/archive/article.php?lang=E&id=45724,
which is quite alarming. The crimes committed
round the clock in USA are: One crime every 2.7
seconds, one property crime every 3.0 second,
one larceny/ theft every 4.05 seconds, one burglary
every 14.0 seconds, one motor vehicle theft every
25.7 seconds, one violent crime every 22.0 seconds,
one aggravated assault every 34.8 seconds, one
robbery every 12.0 minutes, one forcible rape
every 5.8 minutes, (250 per day, 90,620 per year!!)
one murder every 32.0 minutes.
I would like to add that during my recent visit
to Delhi, I watched a video of a sting operation
carried out by Tehelka newspaper in which an Indian
IG Police was taped molesting and forcing himself
on a woman. The film was being aired on all the
Indian channels and yet the news never made international
headlines. However, the Indian media did pick
up the story and the scandal made headline news
in all the Indian newspapers and the investigations
are still being reported every week. But neither
did the President, the PM nor the Indian government
accuse the Indian newspapers of washing dirty
linen in public.
Such scandals and incidents take place everywhere
in the world, including America: former President,
Bill Clinton was almost impeached during the Monica
Lewenski scandal, but the government did not go
into overdrive to defend itself, as the due process
of law was taking its course.
Unfortunately in Pakistan, the uproar over such
ugly incidents stems from a serious lack of law
enforcement. Women right’s activists, NGOs
and “enlightened citizens” have been
demanding that laws on Karo Kari, Hudood Ordinance
and women’s rights must be reviewed. Despite
recommendations from the Women’s Rights
Commission, headed by Jst. Majida Rizvi, no action
has been taken by the government so far.
The General continuously states that we should
examine the root cause for the desperate acts
of terrorism: “We should look for deeper
causes of this malaise and for the motivations
that drive individuals to extreme irrational behavior
to commit acts of terrorism. Shutting one’s
eyes to the root causes of terrorism would be
a sure recipe for failure”.
Sir, when a raped woman is denied justice, she
becomes desperate. These ladies, who are victims
of rape and other abuses, are also driven to desperation
when their cries for justice fall on deaf years.
Instead of crawling into a corner to die, as is
expected of them in our society, they have decided
to fight back, expose our hypocrisy and demand
justice from the government, the judicial system
and society.
And instead of tying bombs on their bodies and
killing themselves and innocent citizens in the
process, they have had the courage to stand up
and demand their rights and justice. To accuse
them of using rape to make money is cruel and
unwarranted.
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