Sorry, I Couldn’t Save You from Flogging!
By Anila Ali
Irvine, CA
The recent flogging of a seventeen-year-old girl in Swat is by far the biggest indicator of the failed, corrupt government of Zardari.
As a Muslim I can unequivocally say today that I am ashamed. I am ashamed to say that a young woman was brutally flogged 46 times in a street for walking with her father-in-law. I am ashamed that I was not there to help her. I am ashamed that I can’t go back to Swat and be a voice for all those women who are battered, oppressed in the name of Islam. I am ashamed of the way my religion has been hijacked by the barbaric Taliban.
I am a Muslim woman too. The Allah I know is Merciful; in the Qur’an I read and understand, Allah encourages us to forgive each other, repent and ask for his forgiveness- if we expect his mercy we must first show mercy on each other. Islam is the most beautiful religion, whose teachings have been brazenly distorted by the very people that are supposed to safeguard them. The Qur’an I read commands my husband to take care of me, just as my parents did. The Prophet of Islam that I follow said that the best among all mankind is the one who treats his wife the best. These un-Islamic people are not Muslims - they are the followers of Satan; out to defame Islam. They have lost all humanity and are using the name of Islam to inflict injury on the weak; to batter weak women so wantonly, so wickedly, is no act of bravery.
Then there are those that say it is Allah’s order to flog women or men if found guilty of fornication. But hold on…you need four witnesses, these witnesses must be of sound character, sound judgment and must be seen as fair and honest. If any one of the four is not found to have any one of these qualities, he must be given appropriate punishment for lying. The poor girl was laid flat on her back, held like an animal for slaughter by two men, and then flogged 46 times because she went out for a walk with her father-in-law! The Taliban authorities say a father-in-law is not a mahram. But according to the Qur’an a father-in-law is a mahram, a father-in-law cannot marry his daughter-in-law so he is a mahram. Why wasn’t the father-in-law flogged? He went for a walk with her, didn’t he? If these barbarians who call themselves Muslims are going to misinterpret Islam, they need to first learn how to read it themselves instead of relying on their clerics for interpretation.
Why don’t we see Muslim men flogged who have raped women and killed innocent people? To deflect attention, the Muslim clerics are creating preposterous stories about some conspiracy theories suggesting American involvement in this flogging. They suggest that this would give the Americans a reason to enter Pakistan. Preposterous!
The corrupt and spineless government of Zardari has sold Pakistan to extremist elements. The Information Minister dismissed this occurrence as having happened before the FATA peace accord. These are the same leaders who dismissed the burying of five women in Baluchistan as simply “an age-old custom.” These apathetic leaders must be put on trial for allowing this barbaric and shameful act to occur. As a leader of the free world, I urge President Obama to force President Zardari to investigate this shameful brutality against an innocent woman.
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