I Protest!

I`m sorry but I have no clue about this murder at ``Dastak``. Could you tell me more about it?

These Islamic fundamentalists truly baffle me - for on the one hand they preach about the importance of female virtue and respect in accordance with Islamic laws and yet their tactics to achieve these goals are quite un-Islamic. Are they blind to the violence and cruelty they commit in the process of trying to achieve this female honor - do they not see that they are breaking many other Islamic laws in the process.

Re Futema: ``The narrow-mindedness that we see in Pakistan is more a result of a cultural interpretation of Islam rather than Islam itself``.

Right on! The following article explains it in much more detail:

http://www.submission.org/hadith/hadith2.html

I completely sympathasize with the cause of the walk. I am just curious why a vast majority of walks, which are for sensible causes, fail to attract any following other than people from the educated upper class which make up less than 5% of the population. I would like to raise possible explanations and would welcome comments on them.

- the issues that these organisations raise have nothing to do with the key problems facing an average Pakistani. e.g. forcing a women to marry someone she doesn`t want to is very unfair, but how critical is it to a person more concerned about where the next meal is coming from.

- Another possible cause could be that the people leading these organisations are from a class which is not trusted by the people because they represent the class which has been robbing people blind for decades.

- Pakistani`s are suspicious of the western funding/ backing of the organisations no matter how well meaning it might be.

Good Job. Pakistani women are second to none courage to stand up for what is right. Let them serve notice to the male bullies, be they the greedy bridegrooms of India and Pakistan, or the cowardly rapists in Serbia, or the bearded Einsteins of Afghanistan, or whatever. Anyway, let them at least serve notice to the ones in Pakistan. And let the Pakistani men take example from their brothers who stood by their sisters in Peshawar as described by the author.

Reading about your personal participation and eye witness of this event -- and the spirit behind it -- has inspired a spark of HOPE (no matter how tiny) in those of us who have reached the point to utter despondency. As long as there are people like you in that land, there may yet be hope for our grandchildren`s generation -- for surely, it will take at least that long if things started getting better starting today.

May the gods watch over you and yours,

...SR

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Hats off to you for your fight for womens` rights. I totally agree with villager. The narrow-mindedness that we see in Pakistan is more a result of a cultural interpretation of Islam rather than Islam itself.

And while the late dictator may have pushed Islamic ideals upon the nation, let`s be realistic in admitting fault where fault lies. Even with over half a decade of existence under our belt, we still carry our cultural baggage and a hodge-podge version of Islam regardless of where we go. We are the ones who lack in understanding...not the religion.

Islam is fundamentally a religion of peace...regardless of how the world practices it.

Re: Zeejah

I salute you and all those who are with you in this herculean fight against stone-age jihalat. You are a brave soul. I feel like a coward, as compared to you, writing these lines from a safe home in a nice and secure suburb in the US. If brave people like you don`t keep a check on the ``Bearded Brigade``, Pakistan is on the same path to hell as Afghanistan of the--very ironically named--Talibans. May the victory be yours.

Please dont take this the wrong way...but I thank Allah everyday that I do not have any sisters.I dont know if I could really stand by and watch them yelled at,abused,beaten,and bullied into doing what the ``System`` demands.I am not sure if this

is due only to religious narrow mindedness.Definately these misguided zealots play a part but the true pathology is cultural.Our Hindu brothers seem equally adept at punishing women simply for being women.The one thing that is truly missing in the subcontinent is respect for basic human dignity.

After hearing that the parents and brothers of Samia(may she rest in peace)all agreed that she no longer deserved to live after dishonoring the family....I truly believe that in the eyes of Allah we are amongst the worst of the damned...

.

Regards.......MAR

I agree with you that the late Terry Thomas was responsible for the medival deja vu in Pakistan, but not according to The Economist`s obituary, when his chariot crashed in flames and he became a dinner course for Jeffery Dammer.

According The Economist, that comedian did more to fight and stop communism than anyone alive, with the exception of Ronnie One Knobi aka Ronald Reagan, and his resistence to the Soviet invasion is being heralded as the final straw, which started the process that lead to the Germans singing in the Potsdamer Platz on a cold November night.

Why do you ask did the late sergeant-major play such a havoc in Pakistani life?

I will tell you a secret. That regimental mullah had a phone line with God and each night, he would call his maker and ask for advice, but this being Pakistan the connection was awful and only two words out of ten could be clearly understood. One day, during a really bad phone connection, our cross-eyed Clarance the Lion asked God what should he tell the people of Pakistan to do and the answer was ``celebrate``, but with the lines so bad, Mr. Cancel My Last Announcement thought God said, ``celibate`` and since that day, Pakistan has been a mess!

Makes you wonder what might have happened if there was a fibre-optic line in place! :)