Daily Times

Punjab government has given in to the pressure from religious political parties who remain dead against any policy that can even faintly hint of protection to women. Their protest is under the garb of “destroying family structure” and because it is a “western” concept. We are all victims of our patriarchal traditions, of feudal elites, who hold important positions in our decision-making and policy institutes, and have a very powerful nexus with the clergy who base their principles on control-the-weak, where women become n easy target.

While we consider everything that is rational to be a ‘western agenda’, we actually give in to the hegemonic tradition that we are ostensibly fighting for their preservation. Everything that demands a practical solution based on real life problems — like violence against women, child abuse, limiting their movement and political associations and obstructing their opportunities in professions and education — is met by a fierce campaign by clergy who undermine such laws by declaring them to be against Islam. The recent wave against the ‘controversial’ Women Protection Bill adopted by the Punjab Assembly and duly signed by the Governor of Punjab, is based on the assumption that it stands in clear contradiction of article 31 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which defines the Principles of Policy for lawmakers. According to this article, the state is to enable Islamic way of life in society, which it already does. According to law experts, nowhere does this ‘questionable’ bill stand in contradiction to the constitution. However, Maulana Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, Chairman, Council for Islamic Ideology (CII), has very strongly protested against criminalising domestic violence. Use of religion for every social problem is extremely unfair, because there is absolutely no room left for rationality and empathy, which calls a crime a crime. The clergy has not been able to present their arguments in favour of brutal acts of murder or abuse other than their religion excuse, and this is exactly what makes religion disturbing. Many scholars agree and endorse that disciplining wife through beating is sanctioned in Islam and consider it to be the prime right of men. However, little has been done to pay heed to the alternative view of other Muslim scholars who contend that the Arabic word used in the Quran in that context is derived from the word daraba, which has been linguistically misappropriated by many translators and interpreters of the Quran. I do not mean to imply that this is the correct interpretation, but it must be acknowledged that there are a million versions of Islamic texts, which make them nothing more than a jargon of interpretations, thus making it extremely difficult to ascertain what God actually said or did not. In fact, such ideological debates turn a blind eye to our real problems in society and let them persist.

Let us briefly go through the visible examples of how people easily get away with their actual or potential crimes. Recently, a draft bill on criminalising child marriages to be presented by Marvi Menon in parliament had to be withdrawn due to absolute protestation of the CII by stating that it contradicts the Islamic sanction that girls as young as nine years are eligible to marry. There is no acceptance of the alternative views of other scholars who maintain that there is no such thing as child marriage in both the Quran and Sunnah, and contend, through their academic reasoning that the age of Hazrat Aisha (RA) was 19, and not nine, at the time of her marriage to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Let us also see how some prominent religious clergy, like Mufti Muhammed Naeem have endorsed pedophilia and rape as religion-sanctioned practices. A key opinion-maker, Orya Maqbool Jan, had actually endorsed, under the garb of religion, that the Pakistani army had a right to keep captured women as their sex slaves during the 1965 war in Khem Keran. Let us also not forget our politicians, like Imran Khan, who has, in his habitual appeasement of the clergy, announced that the Khyber Pakthunkwa (KP) draft bill on women would first have to be approved by the CII before it is presented in the KP assembly. Khan gives credence to a body that does not even hold a democratic mandate of the people, nor is it authorised to make policies for government. Let us not forget that it is the same Imran Khan, who, along with other politicians and clergy, vehemently opposed government’s passing Protection of Women Rights Bill (Criminal Laws Amendment) 2006, which had made the much-needed differentiation between rape and adultery, which until then was not a part of the Hudood Ordinance. For something as rational or commonsensical as this law, it was still opposed as something as a ‘western’ conspiracy.

In response to the adoption of the Women Protection Bill in Punjab, the clergy have come in unity to denounce it, and have given an ultimatum (or rather a threat) to government to completely repeal this law by March 27, in spite of government’s will to review the bill and make amendments where they are necessary. Instead of focusing on a rational, working model for ensuring protection of women from violence, the Punjab government seems to be coming under pressure and providing a soft corner to the clerics once again. Where there are academic and practical confusions in Islam, making it a guiding principle for making laws, naturally, calls for more problems. This is one of the reasons why the religious nuisances are created by the CII, owing to various misinterpretations and misguidance on Islam. The CII should at least have a reasonable representation of the unbiased Muslim scholars, minorities and women. Moreover, for the sake of ensuring that there are no conflicts in society, the state should not be the one to define religion for others. It should be there to only intervene when one’s rights, dignity and safety is undermined, and any threat or practice of violence must be taken very seriously.

The misogyny in our traditions, which is further reinforced by religion, makes women indifferent towards abuse; some of them have accepted it as a norm because they are made to believe that they deserve it. This regressive behaviour is indeed reflective of a sickening mindset that has been vehemently protected by clerics to protect women from ‘western agendas’.

The writer is a secularist and a freelance journalist. She can be reached at zeeba.hashmi@gmail,com, and on twitter at @zeebahashmi