The Politics of Rape

since u guys were talking about the women who tried to compete in the beauty pageant in japan, here`s something that came in dawn on it in the issue of oct 6 -- omar

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Sanctimonious hypocrisy




By Omar R. Quraishi


It has to be said, perhaps a bit unfortunately, that we South Asians in general take the cake when it comes to being sanctimonious. The so-called furore - more in the pages of some newspapers and in the mind of the federal culture secretary - this last week surrounding the presence of Pakistani contestant in a beauty pageant in Tokyo has been, to say the least, in extremely bad taste.

It all started when a foreign wire service released what it said was the photograph of a contest at the Miss International Beauty in Japan. This pageant is not to be confused with other more-known contests like the ones that elect Miss Universe or Miss World but nonetheless it was being organized in Japan and had contestants from around 58 countries. It was not clear whether the contestant was resident in Japan - the country has a Pakistani community several thousand strong - or whether she had gone from Pakistan to participate in the contest. The matter should have rested at that but didn`t. At best it might have aroused curiosity in some people here, probably surprised to see a Pakistani contestant for a change.

The media in Pakistan, led by an English daily (not Dawn) over-reacted to the appearance of this photograph. A story came on the back page with the contestant`s picture and the title `Beauty queen or an ultimate disgrace?`. The article never quoted the contestant on whom it was based, automatically assuming that such a decision to take part in a beauty contest ran counter to not only religious injunctions but also to Pakistan`s cultural values.

Instead of making even the slightest efforts to get in touch with the woman - probably easy for the reporter to justify since the story came from Islamabad while the contest was being held in Tokyo - the article instead quoted Pakistan`s culture secretary whose sense of modesty and propriety seemed to have been thoroughly outraged. In fact, reading the language contained in the story a reader would have had no trouble imagining a bureaucrat huffing and puffing at a perceived slight and attack on our Pakistani `culture` just because a Pakistani woman decided to take part in a beauty contest.

A story carried by AFP two days later and printed in the same newspaper, this time from Tokyo and written in much more temperate language, said that the contestant had withdrawn after the Pakistani embassy had been asked to pursue the matter with the contest`s organizers.

Now for the specifics. The argument that this goes against our religious values is not new. However, all one has to say in response to it, and perhaps to assuage the hyper-ventilation that the federal culture secretary seems to have experienced after finding out about the contestant, is that contestants from several other Muslim countries were taking part in this competition.

Apart from contestants from Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Lebanon, Maldives, Egypt and even Bosnia routinely take part in international beauty pageants. Yes, there might be some opposition locally by people in these countries - and the opposition can even come from the other end of the ideological spectrum, i.e. from feminists - but it boils down to a decision of personal choice.

In fact, the reigning Miss World happens to be a Nigerian and that`s where this year`s pageant is going to be held.

As far as the cultural aspect is concerned, the federal culture secretary is not our official keeper in that regard. This might sound tedious but for the benefit of those in our bureaucracy cultures always change and evolve. Besides, different people have different ideas on even their own culture. And people should be allowed to make choices in the way they want to be identified, which is basically what this contestant was doing. If the government felt so strongly about something - something at last on which it has a definitive stand - then it could have pursued the matter in a more discreet professional manner. And, to ask our embassy in Tokyo to force a beauty pageant contestant to withdraw is not exactly the best use of our generally limited diplomatic resources.

And yes, our culture ministry would have us believe, when a woman walks on a Pakistani street, - no man dares even look at her. Those who blew this story out of all proportion should also know that beauty pageants have been organized even within Pakistan, albeit at a quieter and local level.

Just recently, Indus Music organized a face of the year contest, which was amply covered by leading newspapers. Going by the pictures that were published, it was also a beauty contest, and sponsored by some of the biggest multi-nationals. Why wasn`t there an over-reaction in this case?

Frankly speaking, local television channels, especially PTV, are littered with vulgar dances and performances that have little to do with artistic creativity or aesthetics. In fact, the majority of these performances are decidedly more sleazy than an international beauty pageant. But these shows are shown without any problem, and some of the performers wear clothes that would humble even our would-be Tokyo contestant. Why doesn`t the ministry of culture do something about this first before trying to harass a poor woman and her imagined attack on Pakistani `culture`?

In any case, it really seems quite sanctimonious of senior government officials to be acting all self-righteous just because one woman decided to make a foray in this way.

Postscript: The winner of the International Beauty pageant in Tokyo was Christina Sawaya,representing Lebanon.

(email:omarq@cyber.net.pk

nikhat #78 I find it amusing (in a disgusting sort of way) your sniffing at what you call the ``masses`` whom you distinguish from the ``classes``. The fact, my friend, is that the 3 out of 4 ``educated`` Pakistanis are incapable of using their minds. They have been brought up in a culture that rejects the right of the individual to think for himself, and in an education system that suppresses creative thinking while promoting rote learning. They respect wealth and power, have no understanding of the rule of law, and have no respect for the individual who happens to be poor and illiterate. The problem is not as simple as you think. It will take generations before we have a substantial number of Pakistanis who have the necessary character to build a civilized nation and to be a source of solutions, rather than problems, for the rest of the world.

``The government must take action against illegal rulings, whether made by tribal chiefs or religious leaders`` - What action will an impotent government take when it bends to accomodate the dictates of religious parties/ feudal lords/ industrialist / the farmers association (?) ETC in order to build its own legitimacy? I agree with Romair that the first step will be to eradicate the feudal system that allows such heinous practices to be continued. Mass education - and by that I mean not just literacy but proper education that includes religious and secular fundamentals - is an equally important first step. If the masses cannot think for themselves they will never abadon the majority of chauvinistic, corrupt and misled clergy. The mullahs run riot - the uneducated masses flock behind them like sheep. The 20% of educated Pakistanis have given up on their country and are flocking abroad. The educated lot have to push for education and take some responsibility of it, because only once people begin to question the validity of the religious clergy/ the government/ the feudal lords, will they be able to rise against them. Revolutions have always sprung up from the masses - not from the classes.

jay #32 i accidentally read one of your posts (I obviously had nothing at all to do with my time just now). I see you mention me as follows ``tahmed took refuge in the poverty and illitaracy to legitimise the honour killing``
I dont recall every trying to apologize for, or explain, the issue of honor killing. So I assume this is just another example of the imaginary world you live in. I do recall recommending you take the pills meant for your mental health a number of times. But you obviously dont listen. We`ll have to put you on electric shock treatment again! (and dont start wetting your pants at the thought - you have been repeatedly advised to take your pills if you wish to avoid more drastic treatment!!).

PM14,

There is no intended contrdiction there. It is the first time that a pakistani has posted that honour killing and stoning to death has nothing much to do with tribal traditions and islamic extremism. It is there simply because the military has allowed it to be there, simply because the great constituion of pakistan has legitimised it, simply because the educated elites of the likes of romair and ferzok refuse take responsibility for it by blaming it on the tribal trditions.

It is heartening to see an educated pakistani blaming it on their own inaction.

All along in the previous posts, the lkes of tahmed took refuge in the poverty and illitaracy to legitimise the honour killing. For once some has cited instances where lynching did not take place because the blasphemer happened to be a pakistani with US passport. Suddenly the ilks of tahmed have no where to turn to other than seeing the collusion of the military in lynch mob activity.

Beena Sarwar wrote in her conclusion:

``The government must take action against illegal rulings, whether made by tribal chiefs or religious leaders. It must ensure that no one takes the law into their own hands, pass or execute `sentences`. And, finally, it needs to ensure that its functionaries will no longer participate in such activities.``

After what has recently been done to the legality of Government and the constitution, these are indeed high expectations.

Ras

arjun #26 Such news must do wonders for your inferiority complex, given the way you parade it around. Trouble is, what you have is not an inferiority complex, but inferiority itself. And positive news about the achievements of some Indian wont cure inferiority, even if it helps soothe the complex. Nor will posting negative news about Pakistan, for that matter (ask uncle jay - he has been trying to get rid of his inferiority for a couple of years now on chowk, but it just gets worse with every posting).
Cheers!

There seems to be some confusion in regard to my previous post. I am not stating that religious parties (at least in their current form) should gain any influence in Pakistan. I am just stating that passing on every Pakistani problem to religion and religious parties, allows the other equally, if not more criminal parties of Pakistan, to get away with murder.

Relgious parties may be a problem, if they start running Pakistan. But they haven`t been running Pakistan. Hence, they cannot be held responsible for the current state of Pakistani affairs. One needs to put the blame for the panchayat type decisions on the feudal system of Pakistan. Rather than having the feudals pass it onto religion or onto the Army. Army and religious brigade should definitely be blamed for the problems they have caused. They should not be used as a convenient cover for the problems other groups have caused.

If I had Musharraf`s power, I would have spent the last three years 1) stabilizing the econmy, 2) introducting massive land reforms and thus initiating the process of taking the evil feudal out of Pakistani politics 3)straigtening out the mullah brigade. Then I would have 4) held elections, banning in anyway possible the previously known corrupt leaders. And then 5) would have resigned and move to Boston, rather than becoming an on-going President.

Musharraf did three of the above four (economy and mullah and elections). He did nothing to the feudal and is continuing on as President. Not great, but not bad either. Regardless of one`s views about the current govt., one has to support certain provisions that are coming into Pakistan due to his govt. Like joint elecotorate plus reserved seats for religious minorities. Joint seats and 17% to 33% seats for women. These are breakthrough steps for Pakistan. Pakistan maybe the only country in the world now, where religious minorities and women (at least constitutionally) are more enfranchised the other citizens of the country.

It is not a coincidence that religious minorities (and businessmen) are Musharaff`s strongest supporters, while mullahs are his biggest opponents (along with feudals and individuals who just hate the whole Army in a racist manner). Most others are indifferent towards him. I can make a bet that had an NS or BB govt. been in power, we would have not had joint electorates and the Meerwala type cases would have been shoved under the carpet. Since they are committed by the kith and kin fellow feudals of BB and NS.

There was a detailed survey carried out by Pakistani Herald magazine a few months ago. It had the following interesting results:

60% of Pakistanis support Musharraf (this number has gone down around ten percent or so, since the referendum)
30% oppose Musharraf
80% want some religion in their public life
67% (or some such figure) do not support the current religious parties in politics, however
Restoration of Democracy ranked 9th biggest problem for Pakistanis
Unemployment ranked 1st biggest problem (potential war with India ranked 2nd biggest problem)
Kashmir ranked 6th or 7th biggest problem
etc. etc.

Interestingly, these are contradictory to what many, if not most, posters on Chowk present as a picture of Pakistan and its problems. It is however, in line with what I have been stating to be the correct picture of Pakistan. The only religious problem in Pakistan are the misguided religous parties. Otherwise, all of us are pretty balanced in a religious sense. However, the religious parties have no popularity. The real problem of Pakistan is feudalism, certain over-ambitious Generals (not the whole Army, mind you), corruption, dominance of one large province (Punjab) over the rest of Pakistan, lack of education, etc.

I don`t know why we waste our precious mental bandwidth trying to portray secularism or religion as the main issue for Pakistan. Pakistan will be equally good or equally bad whether it is religious or secular, provided the above-mentioned problems are solved.

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Urstruly aka PROPHET OF GLOOM & DOOM:

I won`t hold my breath. Why ? because people are busy making the most of their lives and making ends meet and experiencing change. People around the world have alot more hope, strength, and vision than you give them credit for. The people who are hopeless, who are losers, who can`t deal with change, who have created anarchy in the past and egged others to do so, are the true troublemakers. They don`t have a vision or goal except to promote anarchy and cause destruction, because they are holding on to the past and cannot deal with change.

True, their are injustices in this world, and I fear will always be. But thats no reason to give up hope. Come on fella, do something good or at least feel and make others feel hopeful. If it doesn`t work out at least you can take comfort in the fact that you tried.

Re: Mukhtaran Bibi, I don`t think what happened to her has got anything to do with what happened in the last decade. If anything, its got to do with a centuries old culture that needs to change to be considered humane at the minimum. Just like certain practices and beliefs that certain Muslims hold about Islam need to change.

the way you talk, you should carry one of those signs saying the world will end on XX, 20Xx and walk around town. Learn to embrace and create change, not fear it.

THE COMING ANARCHY

A nation who can afford and manage to live without any legitimate legislation (and a constitution) for three years must expect worst things for their women than what happened to Mukhtar Mai. The notions of justice, law, and order are nothing but a mental luxury for such nations. Unfortunately, this system is going to continue for an extended period of time in future, not because it is particular to Pakistan but it has become the global trend now. The powers that be cannot afford at this time to familiarize people with notions of social justice, law and order because that would make their own legitimacy very questionable.

The world that was becoming a reality because of the imagination of people like Rousseau, Locke, Hume, and Hobbes is quickly vanishing. The trend of empowerment of the people has turned into empowerment of the Governments. The social contracts are quickly becoming obsolete. And this new world order is top down i.e. from the most open societies to the most conservative ones. Governments have now found ways to circumvent the freedom of speech; in other words this value has been rendered meaningless. The world has been clearly divided into two groups now- the people of the colonial powers and the oppressed people of the world. This is the new colonial order.

It did not happen over night, rather, it took a decade to shape the world as it has become. Governments, regardless of being democratic, have become extremely oppressive. The prime mover behind the actions of the governments is now to maintain the order and status quo even at the cost of disempowerment of people and not to mention stripping them of their basic human right of right to life. But the phenomenon of resistance has also emerged globally, since it is not in the nature of man to accept the tyranny of other. How can you contain anger when one disenfranchised sees that even dogs and cats in other part of the world have health insurance, whereas he can`t feed his children with a chappati. And the worst part is that he is aware that he is the one who is paying for that health insurance.

This phenomenon of Governments gobbling up all sources of power is most obvious in our part of the world whereas it is subtle and slow in First World. It is most obvious in Pakistan where people are brutally being disenfranchised and status quo is being shoved down their throats with the lubricant of sham ``deMocKracy``.

On the Indian side, if the results of recent elections in Kashmir are not an indication then what is? The status quo, however, will be maintained through brutal force despite claims of having democracy. What happened in Gujrat is an eye opener; where state machinery conducted genocide to suppress a minority and to disenfranchise them. The result was expected when a group of assailants stormed a Hindu temple in Gandhi Nagar to protest the brutality of the Government. The attitude of Government was shameless. When the rest of the world was trying to figure out whether the assailants were two, three, or four, the Government machinery was already obfuscating the issue by blaming that the attackers were Muslims and Pakistanis. Perhaps the Government officials saw the assailants flaunting their circumcised penises atop mandir roof. Nevertheless, one thing is obvious as daylight that the status quo of oppression will come at a cost.

But the situation is not that bad. A new dynamics is also emerging. The relative silence of rabidly anti-Muslim secular Hindus even after the massacre since Amarnath yatra and other attacks indicates two things i.e. either they have realized the gravity of the situation and how they were made puppets in the hands of an oppressive and un-ethical Government OR they have realized that the ``world government`` have interests of its own; and one of such interests is to maintain the status quo. So the message here is that the howling, barking, yelping, and snarling has no effect at this time. The post Kargil era has come to an end.

It is yet to be seen, however, whether this calm before the storm is because of the cognizance of worthlessness or is it in the gripping anticipation of the coming anarchy.

Ref AAmir #19

[Karachi, Sept. 30 (Reuters): Pakistani police paraded a man today who confessed to having been trained by Indian intelligence and carrying out bomb attacks in the country.

State media quoted police as saying they had arrested another man they described as an Indian terrorist and who had planned to sabotage next week?s national elections in Pakistan.]

Disrupting elections in Pakistan? You mean, Musharraf will NOT get 98% in a referendum but 97.99%, thus lowering his perceived legitimacy?

I feel so bad!

digging up dead pirs and the deconstruction of scientific theories and flights of fancy .....

........as a child, i always wanted to dig up the nau-gaza pir in quetta to deconstruct the silly myth ..........but my grandmother, who i loved dearly, really believed in this twenty-seven foot tall man ......... so i left him alone ..............

......... as an adult, i always wanted to find a ninety year old pregnant woman with a schizophrenic husband and a virgin with a son who walks on water to deconstruct the theory of human reproduction and fluid mechanics ........... but the american medical association and the wild-eyed gynaecologists and the equally wild hydraulic engineers threated to stone me to death for blasphemy, so i gave up the quest ......... it is a queer theory that defies deconstruction ........

Beena,
thank you for this article...liked your analysis.
i am somewhat hopeful that the outrage for all the violence committed against women will spread...any society that condones such violence, and hampers education for everyone in the process of thumping their chests and reinforcing their military complex and continued occupation shows no signs of moving forward...and that mythical rock of Sisyphus keeps sliding downward, especially where women are concerned.

#16 by hamidm2

1: pls send a polite note to chowk editors to fix yor nick...

2: comparing samina to hobby?...man, have you lost your glasses?...this is the stuf of grand blassphemy...here...(swoooooooosh)...that is the sound of the first stone i hurled in your general direction...(damn!...will even haave to pay to replace this window pane)

3: never mind

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