AA's profileAFAQPhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
WOMEN IN TODAY'S PAKISTANWestern media and people think they are all veiled, kept behind bars (or locked doors) and serve as objects of pleasure in a modern, enlighted Pakistan under the equally enlightened leadership of army generals and feudal lords who hardly have anything with the name of vision in their minds or brains, well, except for the veil part, the media and people in West are right. That is the painful reality of today's world and state of affairs in the Islamic republic of Pakistan. Ironically it is neither a republic nor Islamic for the past 50 years. To think that it was founded in 1947 only hehe.
Women and men in Pakistan (and this included kids even) are facing a major shift in policies, faces and masks these days after yet another era of alternating drought and torrential monsoons and almost another decade of army rule.
Here is a brief account of what Pakistani women are supposed to do, behave and conduct themselves. Please note that by women we mean the vast majority of women who live in the houses and under the strict and mostly harsh and cruel umbrella (aka protectiveness)of the males of society. Interestingly and painfully the same males in their respective roles as fathers, brothers, brothers-in-law, husbands find themselves free to break law, find ways to divulge in all kinds of unholy and unethical activities and yet claim to be pious and religious once within the four walls of their homes and expect their kingdom of womenfolk (wives, daughters, nieces, any dependent females) to do the exact opposite in terms of their spectra of activities. Irony is that women are forced to believe in them as they are not given any other choice. Thus voices of dissent are either non existent or are silenced. This act of silencing the voices and the voice bearers is termed as honor-killings in modern day Pakistan. It consists of a hired marksman or any enraged male family member who follows the daughter hereforth called the 'honor' of the clan/ caste with frothy mind if not mouth. No educational barrier or graduation-for-legislation stops this hunting game which has a scared, fearing-for-her-life and that of her husband, usually a guy of different caste/clan or merely a poor guy as compared to the status enjoyed by criminal and illicit wealthy culture prevailing at her own home front, liberated, educated woman of 25-30 years as the prey. She might take refuge in government run 'dar ul amanz' or a Asma Jahangir's "affiyat (the shelter)", she is the fugitive and must be eliminated to safeguard the family honor. She is gunned down alongwith the guy who dared to stand up and raise his head in front of the tyrant feudal lord cum dad of his wife. Next day newspapers publish a story that an honorable family of Punjab/ Sindh/ NWFP or Baluchistan (there are only four provinces of remaining post 1971 Pakistan) has killed the couple or the daughter alone and the matter is raised at various fora and NGO's raise some hue and cry and mostly storms in teacups. By the end of next week the whole gore cold blooded murder is conveniently forgotten as there is nothing as important as 'honor' in the culture of Pakistan. Honor here means the status enjoyed by 'higher' clans/ castes like Tiwanas, Rajputs, Sayyeds, Gujjars, Maliks...no end to that list. Ironically it was the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) who abolished the caste/clan system and preached and ordered tolerance to His followers, the majority Muslims of Pakistan are proud to belong to His ummah. No honor is awarded to any poor family or caste in Pakistan. They include kummies, lohars, jolahas, nai's, mirasis, etc. Honor has nothing to do with state of higher education or liberated minds as is commonly believed in the West. Its centuries old tradition borrowed from Hindus and now baptised to be included in our code of ethics as Islamic, they are NOT remotely related to any of the principles of Islam. In no other country these killings are considered pious. Lets us examine the case of a post graduate student in a major city of Pakistan. She did her master's in 2002. All names and places are fictitious but all characters are seen abundantly everywhere in large or small cities. (continued part II)...
Comments (4)
TrackbacksThe trackback URL for this entry is: http://afaqahmadqureshi.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8B3316703F1C3CCF!346.trak Weblogs that reference this entry
|
|
|
