Fight Hudood, Protect Women

There are 2 main allegations against the Hudood ordinance that are often repeated in the international media and local press.

1. Hudood ordinance requires 4 witnesses for rape conviction.
This is false. 4 witnesses are required only for Hadd punishment. Conviction can still take place by normal evidence. In this case Taazir punishment is applied which could be as much as 25yrs or death in case of gang rape.

2. Rape victims risk conviction for consensual sex.
This is also not true. Confusion arose because in one or two cases the lower courts had convicted women by considering their unsuccessful rape allegation or illegitimate pregnancy as evidence of unlawful sex. The Federal Shariat Court threw out all such convictions and clearly stated that the woman does not have the burden of proving herself innocent[Safia Bibi vs. State].

I wish Beena had, in the interest of fairness, set the record straight on these issues.

However, Beena`s article does a good job of highlighting another aspect of the Hudood ordinance. It criminalized consensual sex which was never a crime under the earlier British laws. It can be argued that the change was consistent with conservative cultural norms of the country. But the net result was that a lot of women were brought under the Criminal Code of Pakistan and many innocents suffered due to corruption in the police and judicial system. Relief was provided , without amending the Hudood laws, through the Law Reforms
Ordinance, earlier last year which added Section 156-B to the CrPC. According to this section, no person can be arrested for ‘zina’ unless non-bailable arrest warrants are issued by an authorized court of competent jurisdiction. Furthermore, zina cases will not be investigated by a police officer lower in rank than a SP.
The Women`s Protection Bill went further and made consensual sex very difficult to prosecute. Now, police cannot register a case for zina unless directed by a court. And a court will do so only if someone brings a complaint along with 2 witnesses. It did not completely decriminalize consensual sex.

So the whole issue was criminalization of consensual sex. The other issues were red herrings, raised only because it would have been impossible to argue effectively for decriminaliztion of consensual sex in a conservative society like Pakistan.

It is all nonsense and a sheer waste of time to discuss laws or amendments thereto; the laws which were made fourteen hundred years ago with reference to a slave-owning, polygamous, tribal society. Morally, our Paky Mullah ridden society of today is worse than the pre-Islamic `Jahiliya` society of Arabs. As it is, the condition of four witnesses having been made optional any whore can now blackmail any male with the charge of rape to get him punished under the common law.

Btw, what is this `Taazir`? Does it mean a punishment having some religious sanction?

Cut from a different cloth - Burqas and belief

I saw this documentary on PBS and have not been able to get it out of my mind. In the documentary they show an NGO shelter for the welfare of women. A young woman with a couple of kids is there with her mother, and complains that she wants a divorce from her husband. She charges him for bringing other men to her to have sex with so that he can make money. The shelter is able to get her a divorce, but the man gives her the divorce with the following agreement. She can keep the kids till the age of 13 when he will come and take them, during this time he will not provide any support for the ex wife or the kids. When he comes to get the kids at age 13, he will give her, her dowry money. The deal is being made with the mother in law and not the wife, who claims that she has no choice but to agree to itbecause she is poor and powerless, and the wife says that she is satisfied because she is no longer a prisoner.

The decree and the conditions set in seem roughly what Sharia law states they are. This being that although the children belong to the man, the woman can take care of them till the age of … and that he is obligated to pay her mehr and although he is delaying that, this has been customary, very few people pay for their wives on their wedding day (most never pay for them) and most pay them after the divorce. So we can only fault him for delaying this a bit further.

Let’s assume her allegations are true. From your knowledge of Sharia law and from Islamic justice point of view, questions I have are:

- Was there an offense committed against her? Rape cannot be proven as there aren’t 4 eyewitnesses to the act. What would that offense be by the perpetrator?

- What obligation does she have to follow her husband’s order i.e service other men?

- Did he (her husband) commit an offense, and if so what is the offense and the prescribed punishment under Sharia Law.

- What about child support and spousal support, given a culture which puts such a high premium on virginity – now she is damaged goods (she looked hardly beyond her teens) and has no chance of ever marrying into a better situation.

Re: # 49

khurram:

Thanks for laying out the scenario so clearly. Does the Shariat Court`s judgement set a strong preceedent? In general, how easy is it to go against preceedent?

#49 khurram sahib

Very good post. But, what about this case?
I read a case of a 13 years old BLIND girl who got raped by two men (father and son) in Pakistan and only due to this Hudood ordinance they got VINDICATION and the poor girl got punishment for committing adultery.

What do you say for this? Please share your pov.

Re: # 10

Nasah - Hi. In the heat of the moment, one can propose whatever one may desire, but I do not think that in a country like Pakistan, women would be able to resolve this issue of hudood on their own.

In fanatic countries like Pakistan, the rules of the game are quite different. Women may fight for their causes but at what expense? Their life. To give an example, just because a man on the street disagrees with a woman leader`s view should not make that woman lose her life. After a long time, I was really disgusted to read what happened in the recent past when an educated young female leader was shot right in her face for a maniac`s displeasure on her attire. I still cannot believe that happened in Pakistan. Yes, there have been worse episodes; but this is really disgusting and reveals a sick lawless society. The ruling powers need to thrash the law and order officers than focus on ripping apart the maniac. Irony is that the law and order system is untouchable. Women have lost their lives, but the system does not let any rules or laws change and actually be embraced. Ironically, for any change to take place the culture of that society needs to be receptive to that change. You cannot tweak or twist a law for a certain group and have it inapplicable to the rest.

If I look at the title, ``Fight Hudood, Protect Women`` is misleading. It assumes that by fighting hudood, women will be automatically protected. There is much more to this madness.

Yes, the fight should continue; and hopefully if all the fighters are ``alive`` at the end of thier struggle, they will be able to reap the rewards.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali in her work “Infidel” (as quoted in today’s Washington Post):

From ``Infidel``:

``A woman . . . is like a pious slave. She honors her husband`s family and feeds them without question or complaint. She never whines or makes demands of any kind. She is strong in service, but her head is bowed. If her husband is cruel, if he rapes her and then taunts her about it, if he decides to take another wife, or beats her, she lowers her gaze and hides in tears. And she works, hard, faultlessly. She is a devoted, welcoming, well-trained work animal.``

Amidst all the turbulence and constant fights in the world, some of us will still celebrate the Women`s History Month in March and International Women`s Day on March 08th. The amount of energy that is spent on deciphering the nuances of hudood ordinance, rape and adultery in Pakistan is simply appalling. I guess the rest of the world will continue with their focus on science, philosophy, art and its derivatives (to mention a few subject areas), and will hopefully allow less abuse of power. On the contrary, the Pakistani society will speak vocerifously on the nuances of Hudood Ordinance. Leading to what ? I guess more convoluted interpretations.

Re: Abbassi Sahab:

Was there an offense committed against her? Rape cannot be proven as there aren’t 4 eyewitnesses to the act. What would that offense be by the perpetrator?

Absolutely there is an offense committed against her. Who told you she needs 4 witnesses, numerous present day Islamic scholars have said that DNA test would suffice, if she says she was raped and the DNA prooves it, they can be hanged.

- What obligation does she have to follow her husband’s order i.e service other men?
Zero. Zilch. Nada. None what so ever. Women are obedient to husbands in matters that Allah swt has asked them to be obedient in. So much so that if a husband asks his wife to take care of his mother she can say no, because Islam doesnt makes it incumbent upon her, its a duty upon the man to take care of his ailing mother but not the wive`s.

- Did he (her husband) commit an offense, and if so what is the offense and the prescribed punishment under Sharia Law.

His offense is as grave as prostitution if not graver, if its proved that he forced her in to prostitution than he should be hanged, there is Islamic precedence. No need for witnesses here either if she says he did and there is circumstantial evidence, he can be bbq`d.

- What about child support and spousal support, given a culture which puts such a high premium on virginity – now she is damaged goods (she looked hardly beyond her teens) and has no chance of ever marrying into a better situation.

Prophet PBUH almost made it mandatory on husbands to give mehar as soon as they get married, preferably the first day of marraige, there is a surah in Quran which says that wives can WILLINGLY surrender mahar but the actions of Prophwt PBUH and the companions tell us that it should be given as soon as you get married. His children are his responsibility their food, clothing and shelter are his responsibility.

Those who cry and wail against the Hudood Laws don`t realize that they are becomming equal partners in the distraction created in the name of religion and hence are equal players in keeping women down by taking attention away from REAL issues affecting them.

If you want to defend the rights of women, pick the real issues that affect them, not distractions that become fodder for the Western elite as well as their local lackeys. Issues affecting women, given the numbers, and refer to the miniscuel number out of the over 80 million women in Pakistan, given by the author, are not the Hudood laws but issues like maternal mortality, poverty, lack of health care etc. These are the real issues, Hudood laws in Pakistan are a mere distraction, sought by those who want to fool the masses into useless issues to take advantage of the Mullah`s obsession with sex, and his tendency to reduce all morality to those of a sexual nature. Even in the absence of hudood laws note that most crimes of violence against women, including rape, go unpunished in the US and the woman is blamed for it. The numbers are much larger than any affected by the distraction termed Hudood Laws in Pakistan.

Also note that those who want to use these distractions and generalize that Pakistan has become a theocracy as a result are equally oblivious of the role of religion in this society and how that role has been implanted from the outside and people have been manipulated as a result. The masses in Pakistan are well aware of the real issues and when the opportunities arise they have voiced that opinion. They await an organizing force that in a non functional social structure with an abnormally developed military institution can only arise in the form of a charismatic leader. The mullah then has always become secondary to them and his rantings and ravings, which are quite against the spirit of Islam have not meant much to them.....

Re: # 54

Zahraj -- the assassination of Zille was a shocker -- you are exactly right --``for any change to take place the culture of that society needs to be receptive to that change.``

And that CULTURE of total insensitivity to the most regressive backward primitive laws like Hudood, almost unheard anywhere else in this in civilized or even uncivilized world in this day and age -- are visible in shameless posts, amateurishly wrapped in sham socialist sophistry -- right here on this forum on Chowk -- where apparently educated elitist male chauvinist pigs from Pakistan describe Hudood as a `distraction`!

Of course anecdotal but such posts confirm the validity of what you just said -- it does appear that there is not even a remote prospect that such a `sensitive culture` will be in place in Pakistan any time soon.

#59 etc
One is amazed that fourteen centuries after Hijra, there are Muslims in the world and more so in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan who believe that SHARIA as practiced by them is Quranic, that is Islamic!
Either they are utterly ignorant or the `mutrifeen`-- their Church operatives called Mullahs(priests)--are extremely clever to have brain wahsed the ``believers`` in to believing so.
These Judeo-Christians customs, even the Jews to a large extent and the Christians to totaly have discarded but the Muslim church insists on reviving.
Some times one wonders if the word SUNNI means those who ` sun sun kay Musulman huwe hain`--believe in hearsay!
Rashid

Mian masadi so let me get this straight -we shouldnt try and undo the h. ordinance because this is not a real issue for women. so who died and made you the judge of what is good and what is bad for women? I find this a very ironical statement indeed. Yes religion is focus here, abuse of religion and support of that abuse by people like you. If a country like the US can be obsessed about abortion rights, we can atleast do the right thing by our women.

Hello rashid_s :), you know I am the last Pakistani who would ascribe to such stupidity.

Abu-Sawaan

The issue that you have brought up appears to be a dilemma but in fact it is not. Currently, in Pakistan there are two schools of thought that have emerged as a result of some compelling cricumstances in the society. These schools are as follows:

the first school says;

1. We must strive for the implementation of Islamic laws in Pakistan as much as possible. As the laws will take force, they will automatically rid the society of the social evils that ail it. This school is mostly headed by the religious political parties.

the second school says:

2. We must prepare an educated social class first. As this class will increase in number, it will demand the implementation of Islamic laws and thus by the time those laws will be enacted society must have taken care of many of its social evils by then. This school of thought is spearheaded by many social reformers as individuals and as groups, like Dr. Israr Ahmad, Tableeghi Jamaa`t, Sunni Tehrik, and allama Tahir ul qadri etc.

You seem to be promoting the second school of thought. In hindsight it is a very strong argument given the history of Pakistan in the last 20 years when some Islamization of laws has in fact proven itself to be a formidable tool in the hands of corrupt, munafiq, and oppressive social class that used those laws to control and oppress poeple. As a matter of fact as long as this corrupt, hypocrite, and oppressive ruling social class is at the helm of affairs in Pakistan they will distort any law (not just Islamic law) to their own benefit. Hence, in my opinion your approach is very valid. The Islamic revolution must emerge from the grass root level. The munafiqs and corrupt are very well aware of this too and they even have a name for this phnomenon too. They call it the ``Talibanization of Pakistan``. This corrupt social class has opened up war front at this level too, where schools and madrassas are being terrorized, ulema are being assasinated, mosques are being demolished, school children being bombed with laser guided misiles, people are being ``disappeared``, tortured, and exiled. In other words, people of Pakistan are now being terrorized into submission by the gastapo tactics of this corrupt social class.

Hence in my opinion, the door to take either of the two approaces has been made equally difficult. But before an all out civil war breakes out the path of least resistance is still the two approaches as listed above. Therefore, my proposal would be let those people who are pursuing through the Approah 1, do their job, and let those who wish to reform the society first do their job too. In fact these two groups cannot do without one another. We must support each other and we must be prepared to fight the war against corrupt, munafiq, and lawless on all fronts, because the forces of corruption, lawlessness, and infidelity are united on all fronts too, and so should we.

Re: # 51 tehsin abbasi

There is no more reason to worry about such cases any more. Under the orignial Hadood law, pimping was a cognizable crime with minimum punishment of a life sentence. But now under the new Musharafian hadood law, pimping women is still an offence but with a discretionary sentence by the judge ranging from a confinement for a week or two or a fine of Rs. 50, which is same as the offence of unnecesassrily pulliing the chain to stop the train. On the bad side of the things, NGOs would not be opening the shelters for women who escape their pimps.