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(c)copyright by
Stephen Gill. The article cannot be
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stephengill@cogeco.ca
Dr. Stephen Gill
Soon after the formation of
According to the 1988
census, women voters were 46.3 percent of the total; in 1993, this number was
reduced to 45.5 percent. In March 1985, there were 13 women who contested
elections-- no one was successful. In May 1985, only one woman contested and was
elected in the federal election. In 1989, 4.9 percent of women were employed
with the government and in the same year no woman there were no women was
ambassadors; in 1993 there were two.
"Every few months
there are reports of the public humiliation of women. They are paraded naked
through the streets by locally influential people while the police look on.1
M. Naz Rehman observes in Jafakash
that in some areas of Pakistan, including Sindh
province, some girls are married at the age of nine, and often to older men. In
1998, 17 females were killed every week--20% of them were teen-age girls. In
the same year, one third of the women killed were due to alleged illicit
relations. In 85% of
cases, the police could not or did not act against the culprits.
In 1998, 195 minor
girls were gang raped. In 1998, 828 females were kidnapped-- 424 were not
legally adults. Only 49 females were
found. In 1998, 77 females were stripped publicly to disgrace them and their
families.
M. Naz
Rehman observes further that in Pakistan, girls are
never consulted in family matters. With one excuse or another, they are not
sent to school. The parents say they will go to another home after their
wedding and therefore why to waste time and money on their education. It is
also said that if educated, they will write love letters.
On jobs in the fields,
they are paid less than males, though women work with more responsibility. The
feudal lords say that women work to buy their make-up and clothes and talk a
lot and work less.
Moreover, any husband
can blame his wife for having illicit relations with another man and has the
right to kill her to save the honour of the family. A Human Rights Report says
that every year around three hundred women are killed under the cover of this
excuse. Normally, the main grounds are property and enmities.2 Irony is that most killings are said to be based on the
laws of their religion.
On the stage of this
background, Zia-ul-Haq enacted the melodrama of his
repressive laws concerning adultery and marriage which has hit the women of the
minority groups and particularly Christians very hard. It may help to add
something about Hadith because the laws
of some Muslim nations, especially of
One of the laws that is
hostile particularly to the women of the minority groups, is the Law of Evidence (Qanoon-e-Shahdat).This
law forbids a non-Muslim advocate from appearing in the Shariat
Court, although a non-Muslim can be subjected to a decision of this court.
Under the Hudood Law, it is required that there be 4
male Muslim witnesses, or two male and four female Muslims, in a Hudd case (Islamic punishment). The testimony of a
non-Muslim is not admissible, either to maintain innocence or to condemn. This
law discriminates on the point of evidence of women and non-Muslims. In certain
cases, women and non-Muslims are not admissible as witness under the hudood ordinances. In other cases, women are defined as
half witness. Here is an example to show how this law is hostile particularly
to non-Muslim women:
For instance, if mischief makers raped a non-Muslim in a house in the presence
of other non-Muslim household members, the perpetrators could go unpunished
because all the witnesses were non-Muslim. The same applies for robbery or
murder. The Evidence Law allows a Muslim to go into an all-Christian or
All-Hindu locality and commit any kind of atrocity, rob homes and kill whoever
they want. The perpetrators will not be convicted if there are
no Muslim witnesses.4
The law about witness
violates all the norm of human rights. It builds up a fearful situation for
non-Muslims in Pakistan where right from a constable down to higher police
authorities, judges and lawyers are Muslims. To expect them all to be fair and
non-discriminatory in a society which is dominated by religious considerations
is a dream. If even one of these persons is discriminatory, it will have a
strong impact on the case as well as on the victim. In such cases, where
punishment is only death, the procedures for the investigation and decision
should be made strictly in an atmosphere in which religion cannot penetrate.
The law relating to
marriage is very discriminatory. According to this law, if a Christian converts
to Islam, the earlier Christian marriage stand dissolved, and the subsequent
marriage to a Muslim is valid. This ruling goes against the Shariat
Act itself which claims it would not interfere with the personal and family
laws of the religious minorities. It has the effect of desecrating Christian
marriages and making Islam a religion of convenience. Any unwanted marital
responsibilities can be eliminated by converting to Islam.5
I.I.S.I.C.
Bulletin states:
According to Pakistani law, if either spouse of a non-Muslim marriage
converts to Islam, then the marriage is automatically dissolved. There have
been a number of cases in recent years of Muslim men abducting Christian women
and forcing them (sometimes at gunpoint) to recite the Muslim creed, which all
that is needed to become a Muslim. After that their abductor promptly marries
them, on the basis that their former marriage is now dissolved.6
The unjust aspect of
the Personal Law for Muslims is ruining the life of the children of the
minorities in Pakistan. "The marriages solemnized under Family Laws of
non-Muslims stands dissolved with immediate effect, according to a decision by
the Federal Shariat Court (PLD 1988, SC 78, Sardar Masih vs. Haider Masih). The decision
further said that the marriage of a non-Muslim woman stands dissolved after Iddat (three menstrual cycles) if during this period her
husband does not embrace Islam."7.
These laws have created
social and marital problems of a very serious nature, because many men and
women become Muslims to get rid of their spouses as well as their obligations
towards their children. Any person with
a certain amount of understanding will disapprove of a law that allows a spouse
to have another marriage without dissolving the first one, and without deciding
the fate of the children from the first marriage. It seems this law is there in
Pakistan to increase the number of Muslims.
Human
Rights Monitor 97 quotes a case of Naziran
alias Khalida Parveen vs.
the State, PLD 1988 :
"If a Non-Muslim married woman, marries a
Muslim man after embracing Islam and after completing a period of Iddat (three months), she will not be liable to adultery
and the previous marriage need not be dissolved. The subordinate courts since
then have been deciding cases of abduction of minority women in light of the
above mentioned decision."8
Another frightening law
is about adultery (Zina). Adultery (zina) has been defined as "A man and woman are said to
commit zina if they wilfully have sexual intercourse
without being validly married to each other".
Advocate Naeem Shakir says that
"among punishments for this offence, stoning to death at a public place
and whipping upto one hundred stripes have been
provided under Section 6 of this Ordinance. In order to prove adultery (zina), or zina-bil-jabr (rape)
liable to Hadd, at least four Muslim adult male
witnesses (about whom the Court is satisfied that they are truthful persons who
abstain from major sins) are required as eye witnesses for the act of
penetration. This is how it has been laid in Section 8 of this Ordinance."9
Below are a few
comments by knowledgeable persons to show how the Muslim laws of Pakistan
concerning adultery and marriage hurt non-Muslim women. Mr. Abid
Hassan Minto says:
Hudood laws are all saved by the
notorious 8th Amendment of General Zia. This
amendment is the most crude statement in support of fundamentalism
and in derogation of women and minorities. Women, besides having fallen victim
to the unfairness of the so-called Islamic laws also face the threat of almost
complete non-representation in the parliament since the lapse of the
constitutional provision entitling them to reserved seats in the Parliament.
This means, given the backward social and economic status which women are
forced to retain in the country, that half of the country's population has
virtually no representation in the national assembly and no influence or
contribution to the making of laws which govern them just as much as the other
half of the population10
Amnesty International
adds:
"The Zina Ordinance prescribes
punishments which are cruel, inhuman and degrading and thus prohibited under
international human rights standards. The hadd punishment for zina and
rape are either stoning to death in a public place or 100 lashes administered
in public. The ta'zir
punishment for rape is imprisonment for between four and 25 years, 30 lashes
and fine; for zina
it is imprisonment of up to 10 years, 30 lashes and a fine."11
Intercede in February 1994 quotes from World
Pulse :
Through Islamic laws introduced by the late Zia-ul-Haq,
a woman who accuses a man of rape may wind up convicted of adultery."12
Amnesty International supports the view when it considers "the possibility
of a rape victim ending up being accused of zina (adultery) is not a mere
twist in the law or of academic interest. It frequently happens to women in
Pakistan. The knowledge of this perverse reality has emboldened men,
particularly police officers familiar with the law, to rape women in their
custody and effectively stopped women from seeking redress.13
The demon that Intercede, Amnesty International and
several advocates and organizations talk about has already victimized Christian
girls. One of those victims is Asyia Parveen, who was 13 years old when she was raped by a
Muslim:
"There were 12 witnesses who saw Javad Iqbal follow her into the fields on October 12, 1996. This
year the case against him was dropped, his family filed for some $300,000
damages, and Asyia has been charged with having sex
outside marriage by a judge pressured into using the Islamic Hadood (fornication) laws.
"From a clay house marooned in a
sugarcane field, where the family now lives in hiding, the teenager says: why
am I being punished for a crime when I was a victim? I am ruined forever. I can
never go back to my village or marry. She pulls her veil over her face, ashamed
to let anyone look into her eyes. If found guilty, Asiya
will be flogged 80 times with a bamboo cane."14
The laws of adultery,
rape and evidence hurt the minorities more than they hurt others, because of the
prevailing religious discrimination. Here is another case of two young teens who were abducted, raped and forced to accept Islam.
"14-year old Nasreen Daniel Neno claims she
was abducted and raped many times. After a month she was forced to marry her
abductor, and the following day was made to publicly embrace Islam at a
ceremony in a mosque.
"Nasreen was allegedly kidnapped by the sons of an influential Muslim feudal lords. When her parents made
an official complaint, the men were initially allowed to go free without bail
whilst a charge was brought against the girl of having sex outside marriage..
She has been released
on bail but awaits a court hearing of her adultery. The police refused to
listen to Nasreen's father. Only when the case was
brought before the Justice and Peace Commission, headed by Catholic Bishop John
Joseph of Faisalabad, would the police register a formal complaint.
Three months later, the
kidnappers petitioned to keep Nasreen in their
custody. The judge turned them down, but also refused to let Nasreen return to her family. Instead, she was placed under
the supervision of the local jail superintendent. During this time, she was
allegedly raped repeatedly by a police officer. A further ten weeks passed
before she was released on bail.
There was pressure on
the family to withdraw their accusations. Mr. Neno
sold his family home to bear the expenses. He had to move to a secret location
to save his life. He lived under constant fear, but stood firm in pressing the
charge of abduction and rape against the abductors. He filed a separate charge
against the police officer, and also for the annulment of his daughter's
marriage to her abductor...
The dilemma that he
faced was if Nasreen had returned to Christianity,
she was likely to be killed by religious extremists. Under Islamic law it is a
capital offence for a Muslim to convert to another religion. According to the
family lawyer, Nasreen's father could face a
counter-claim of blasphemy against the
Koran and Mohammed. If found guilty, he would face a life sentence or
execution.15
Another case is of Razia Iqbal. She has had to
survive the shock of abduction, enforced conversion to Islam and the criminal
charge in Islamic Law of sex outside marriage.
Below are a few additional
cases to show how the laws about rape, adultery and conversion to Islam affect
Christian girls:
"Two sisters
(Veronica and Salonica) of Shiekhupura
were allegedly abducted while on their way back home from college in 1996. The
abductors were police constables of the local police station. The girls were
produced before the High Court after six months of the alleged abduction and
after great efforts by the human rights activists.
"The girls stated
before the Court that they had embraced Islam and married the said policemen,
therefore they would not want to go with their parents. In March 1997, one of
the girls returned to her parents. The other was reportedly pregnant. The
outcome of this case amply explains what must have been the reality."
Another case is of
fourteen year old Shahida Mughal,
a Christian from Faisalabad, who was a grade nine student in 1990. She had to
abandon her school because the principal of the school, a Muslim, wanted her
custody on the ground that she had become a Muslim and had married him, though
the girl denied it.
"Mohammed Yousaf, the Principal of New Millat
Foundation School, reportedly got Shahida to sign a
blank stamped paper when she filled out admission forms for the matriculation
exams. This is how he managed to forge some documents. On 11 April 1996, the
civil judge of Faisalabad decided the case in favour of the applicant, Mohammed
Yousaf.16
The parents of Shahida Mughal appealed in the
Sessions Court against the judgement. Shahida had
denied the marriage repeatedly and lived with her parents. The outcome is not
known.
Another
worth-mentioning case is that of Sumera James, a girl
of fourteen years, who was raped in March of 1997 in Kamoke
in Gujranwala district by five boys who belonged to
an influential family of feudal lords. There is every reason to believe that
the parents of the girl were forced to come to a compromise.
Another case is that of
Samina Bibi, a 15 year old
girl, who was abducted by Bashir Ahmed Dheenga of Chak 15/4L. Bashir was a dangerous abductor of over 50 years of age.
After keeping the abducted girls for a while, he was known to sell them to
brothel owners. Her father, Inyat of Chak 15, 4.L of Bir, was poor and
helpless. The abductor was a feudal lord with close religious and political
ties with higher authorities. The local member of parliament
did nothing and neither did the police. Christians did their best to get the
girl back, but they were against a politically and religiously strong wall of
fundamentalists.
A human rights organization
can fight the case only if the victim is strong and wiling to go ahead. But in
most cases, it is not possible because the victims, Christians, are poor. For
their livelihood, they depend on Muslims in an environment which is
predominantly Muslim and in which laws support Muslims. Moreover, the Hudood Ordinance poses problems to prove rape particularly
for non-Muslims.
A few cases are
reported above from Human Rights
Monitor 97 to show how the laws work in favour of Muslims. There have
been several cases when conversion to Islam was used to cover-up crime and the
use of force.
Non-Muslim women living
in remote areas suffer more because of the non-availability of help. For example, "two Christian women abducted in Noshran Virkan, Distt. Gujranwala, were
too far for any human rights organization to contact. The case was spoiled
before an intervention by the human rights bodies."17
Mr. David Paul
reports several cases of the unfair treatment meted out
particularly to Christian women. He says:
The sufferings of the Christian women are very troublesome. They go
through a different kind of brutality. Under the Islamic Laws, the rights of
women folk have been eroded. Women are not equal to the men folk. In Pakistan,
two women are equal to one man. Under the Islamic Evidence Act, whenever any
woman is raped, and she wants a criminal case registered against the rapist,
she has to produce four Muslim men as witnesses. If any Christian woman is
raped in a Christian house or school hostel, then from where can a woman
produce four adult Muslim men? The evidence of the Christian, be that a man or
woman, has no validity against any Muslim rapist.18
The Hadd
punishments of Pakistan do not differentiate between an adult and a girl of 12
years who has reached puberty. Legally, she is an adult and therefore can be
stoned to death. In the majority of cases, judges take the age of the defendant
into consideration and pass lenient sentences. However, lenient punishment for
children is not a matter of right.
One platform of Bishop
John Joseph was to stop the abduction of non-Muslim girls by Muslims. The Maulvis (Muslim
clergy) boiled with rage for the Bishop's strong stand against this tyranny. He
"declared publicly that from now on, we will not tolerate this ugly
practice, which is becoming more and more recurrent :
A Christian woman is abducted, converted to Islam, and married to the Muslim
abductor, even when she is already legally and validly married, has one or two
children and a husband-- all this abduction, conversion and re-marriage in the
span of a day or two! From now on we shall put up a court case against the Maulvi too, who performs this sacrilegious marriage."19
David Paul, president
of Pakistan Christian Community Council of Lahore reports:
"Hundreds out of thousands of Christian women are going from house
to house to clean their lawns, toilets, cattle stables, and carry the garbage
and human waste in the basket on their heads. These women are treated inhumanly
as members of the lowest class community. Their situation there is just like
slaves to the Muslim masters. These women and girls are often kidnapped, raped
and made Muslim. Then they are married to Muslim men. Whenever the parents or
husbands of these women approach them to take their women back, the Muslim
kidnappers and police authorities scold and rebuke the Christians and tell them
to go away. Now this Christian woman has embraced Islam and is not Muslim
according to the Islamic Law. The Muslim women should not reside into the Christian
house. In this way, the Christian families are going through the worst type of
breakage, obstruction of a Christian family."20
"In
the Zia's drive for Islamization,
the minorities, the Ahmadiya community and women were
special targets"21. Zia's Muslim
laws have encouraged unprecedented growth in the sexual abuse of the non-Muslim
women. "According to non-governmental sources, Christian and Hindu girls
and women are the victim of rape (especially those working as servants or
nurses) and kidnapping to convert them by force to the Muslim religion"22.
Mr. Onkar Nath Saxena has the same view to share when he says:
"Religious fanaticism is often mixed with sexual abuse of Christian
women. In a village of Sangla Hill, local feudals have made it a pastime to abduct Christian girls
and wives, rape them during unlawful custody and then drop them back in the
village. There is indirect sanction of this crime in a Lahore High Court
judgement that the previous marriage of a Christian girl is automatically
annulled if she embraces Islam. In case of trouble the feudals
declare them having embraced Islam and yet get away with the crime."23
The impact
of Muslim laws are everywhere. Below is an example how they have
coloured even the TV industry: "One
of the country's best known actresses turned down the leading role in a new
television series because the government now requires all women to wear dupattas,
or veils, over their heads on soap operas, newscasts and other programs on the
state-run television network. The actress complained that wearing the dupatta would have been out of character for the part she
was asked to play.
"In another television show, directors wrestled with a scene in
which a woman's
head had to be covered with a scarf while her hair was being shampooned. During this summer's Olympic Games, the
government refused to allow women's swimming events to be shown on televisions
because the swimsuit were considered too immodest for Islamic sensibilities.
Television censors have banned to use female models in commercials for men's
products and radio censors have ordered 100 songs dropped from their
selections."24
Obviously the legal
machinery works for the imposition of the Koranic
laws which go against the beliefs of Christian, Hindus and other minorities. The machinery
has created a religious atmosphere that is more prejudicial towards non-Muslim
women because they have fewer legal rights.
============================================
WORKS CITED:
*1PAKISTAN : time to take human rights
seriously. Amnesty International, June 1, 1997
*2Jafakash.
March 1999 (Urdu monthly), Karachi, Pakistan, pages 4-10
*3Columbia Encyclopedia,
The. 3rd Ed. New York, London,
1968
*4Islamic Watch.
January 1993
*5Islamic Watch.
January 1993-- Dec. 1992
*6International Institute for the Study of
Islam & Christianity. UK. January 1994- December 1994
*7Human Rights Monitor 97 : a report on the religious minorities in
*8Human Rights Monitor 97 : a report on the religious minorities in
*9Emerging Trends in Human Rights
Situation in
*10----------------------------------------.
page 48
*11PAKISTAN : time to take human
rights seriously. Amnesty International, June 1, 1997, p. 29
*12Intercede.
Feb. 1994
*13PAKISTAN : time to take human
rights seriously. Amnesty International, June 1, 1997, p. 29
*14Reader's Digest. January, 2000, page 154
*15Asian Focus (
*16Human Rights Monitor 97 : a report on the religious minorities in
*17Jang.
Lahore, November 13, 1997
*18Miseries of Christians in
*19Peaceful Struggle, A. Ed. Fr. Khalid
Rashid Asi. National
Commission for Justice and Peace, Faisalabad, Pakistan, 1999, page, 53
*20Miseries of Christians in
*21Hindu, The.
May 17, 1998.
*22Mirror, The.
April, 1999
*23Hindustan Time, The.
May 24, 1998
*24Washington Post. The.
Oct. 21, 1992, p. A33
stephengill@cogeco.ca