Since his wedding, Imran Khan has been in the spotlight for tying the knot with a woman having an ‘objectionable’ past, which appears to be contradictory to the aura of Islamic values the PTI leader has carefully created around him and the party. Videos of Reham Khan dancing, wearing miniskirts, at festivals held in the UK have been circulated widely on social media and WhatsApp. People have written extensively against Imran’s decision to choose Reham. Many have even cast suspicion over Imran’s Islamic demeanour, taking it as an eyewash to peddle the rightist agenda that sells like hot cakes in Pakistan.
During my conversation with the leading dissenters of this marriage, I gleaned a typical psyche at play, one that sprouts from patriarchy and a scheme to belittle women. Our society has a typical penchant to regress in the name of ‘sin’. Making an effort to seek sawab (Allah’s reward) by shunning gunnah (sin) has been the mainstay of our religious discourse for many years, especially during Ziaul Haq’s rule. Deliberate attempts had been made during his rule to disseminate books explaining Allah’s wrath for those who commit sin. Maut ka Manzar (the scene of death) was one such book. It gave graphic explanations of punishments reserved for those who led a sinful life. Interestingly, the entire discourse of sin was woven around rituals. Those who missed prayers, fasting, or who failed to perform certain religious acts according to a defined code of conduct were given the bad tidings of qabar ka azaab (punishment in the grave) and azaab-e-akhrat (punishment on the Day of Judgment). The pulpit of the mosque was used to induce the guilt of sin. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) took over responsibility for removing the possibilities of committing sin from students in the University of Punjab and other universities of Pakistan through forced segregation between men and women. The wave of Islamisation, emphasising sin versus reward, enveloped the entire country.
Women became an easy target of the sin programme with references of honour emanating from the chaadar and chaar dawari (the covering and the four walls) syndrome associated with them. Men, in the meantime, avoided the fault line using the reference of masculinity to sift the good from the bad.
Imran Khan was already fading from the cricket world when I was growing up. I remember him characterised as a playboy and a charmer of the ladies who enjoyed every bit of his bachelor life around girls and partying. His marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, a British woman, was accepted for being instinctive, very much like Imran. With the passage of time, as Imran widened his political vision, he donned the rightist hat while carefully putting aside the liberalist hat for his private life. Gradually, all his ‘sins’ were forgotten and his ‘objectionable’ past forgiven. It was a perfect spectacle of patriarchy winning the battle of sin. He offered prayers and recited Quranic versus during his rallies and sit-ins. Iyaka Nabudu wa iyaka Nastaeen (from Thee we seek guidance and from Thee we seek help) were the opening words of many speeches Imran made from atop the container. However, ever since Imran married Reham, his own religious credentials have been placed under the microscope. Even though the lady with an ‘objectionable’ past, has decided, ostensibly, to live a protected and sheltered life, the doors of forgiveness are shut on her — the same doors that were opened wide for Imran when he renounced a flirtatious life. Interestingly, while Reham’s past was being explored and laid out threadbare, nobody even touched upon Imran’s, which reinforces the fact that Reham is being subjected to gender discrimination on the altar of the sin discourse.
So far, Imran’s efforts to involve Maulana Tariq Jameel to clear the air for Reham’s survival have backfired because of the Maulana’s own past where he has often refused to meet namehram women (women with whom a man can contract marriage) unless they agree to veil themselves or hide behind curtains. The pictures of the Maulana’s visit to Bani Gala went viral on social media showing Reham, accompanying the Maulana along with Imran, at the dining table. No veil or curtain was involved. The Maulana has since received enough bashing for sitting exposed in front of Reham, adding to her sins perhaps.
I can safely guess that had there been a Rehman and not Reham it would have been a different ball game altogether. The sin of a woman compared to the sin of a man is hard to forgive and forget by the self-styled custodians of Islam. Reham’s objectionable past and Imran’s objectionable past are viewed not from an Islamic but from a patriarchal perspective, underscoring the common belief that a woman’s honour lies in her body. We may have become ‘modern’ but we have grown not an inch beyond this pathetic way of defining a woman’s honour.
I fervently wait for the day when we start discussing real issues concerning a woman, i.e. her ability to raise a good family, which is not possible unless she is groomed with the right values, ethics and education to undertake this important duty. From the quality of the people we have around us, it seems women in our society have long forsaken this significant job. Perhaps the burden of honouring her body and the accompanied guilt of sin have sapped all the energy she required for such a demanding task.
The writer is a copywriter and freelance journalist with an academic background in public policy and governance. She can be reached at [email protected]