Physically assaulting women for not conforming to a prescribed dress code. Assaulting and booking men because they were found eating in Ramadan. Parading women in states of undress to humiliate their men folk. Assaulting and sexually abusing little boys housed in seminaries. The list goes on... It is all about the exertion of power, of subjugating those who are physically or socially weak and making them subservient to the powerful few. This goes on almost all over the world but for us it comes with a cover of religion. Somehow, most heinous crimes, be they suicide bombings or cutting off noses and ears of so called errant wives, are all explained away through religion. Whose religion? one may ask ... Well definitely not Islam, not the religion which promises to be a code of life , which had no tradition of organized corrupt clergy and in which God promises forgiveness even for the worst sinners. Moreover with Judges, Juries and Jailors all comprised of menfolk it is in most cases the women and the underprivileged who face the entire force of this dispensation. Those who speak out for them are either cut down in broad daylight like Governor Taseer or threatened with dire consequences and cowered into submission.
Be it Dictators or Democrats the laws for women and the weak do not change, even the very powerful Musharraf backed down and back tracked. The present government lost a very courageous man but could not muster enough courage to outright condemn the man made law that spurred his killer. When will this outrage end? We have the Afghan Talibans to our north, the Pakistani Talibans in our midst and in between, all sorts of self-styled religous scholars espousing their mantras , aimed at mostly taming the so-called modern woman: A woman who merely wants breathing room for herself and her family, who wishes to earn her living if she needs to in peace, acquire an education without the family jirga sitting down to decide and be considered as a truly contributing if not equal member of society.
In most countries it is the State which ensures these rights. In our case it is only lip service; we twice elected a woman to the highest office, we have a woman speaker, indirectly elected daughters, sisters, wives and significant others as assembly members but do we hve a spokesperson of credibility amongst them for women rights,just basic rights? A big fat No! Those who have ever dared are shunted into obscurity and yet we hope to compete in the world. I am just taking the case of women as a very obvious example, but it is all those who are marginalized may they be our fast dwindling minorities or those who are at the lowest strata of society totally at the behest of the powerful. If we do not give a level playing field to all, all will soon be lost. This level playing field must be created by enshrining these peoples rights in our constitution in a way which cannot be subverted or misused. In this way, abuse of power in the legal system, in the law enforcement, and in the government can be minimized.
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