Pakistan’s purdah politics

Press, 5 January 1987, Page 13

Pakistan’s purdah politics

Islamic fundamentalism has sparked off a women’s movement in Pakistan, reports MARYA BURGESS, “Observer.”

When Pakistan was bom in 1947, its founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, proclaimed that no one would ever be discriminated against on the grounds of sex or religion. This promise was en shrined in Pakistan’s constitution and its spirit was upheld by successive governments which tried to enhance the status of women. But over the past nine years the climate has changed. General Zia ulHaq’s regime of marital law has taken the country down the road to fundamentalism in his avowed mission to “Islamise” Pakistan. As a result, discrimination has been written into the statute books.

The Eighth Amendment of 1985 ratified the Hadood Ordinances, religious penal laws relating to rape, adultery and theft. To obtain conviction, the evidence of four adult male Muslim witnesses is required.

A woman barrister in Lahore, Asma Jahangir, now advises women not to prosecute for rape; too many cases have been thrown out for lack of evidence but the woman, having by her own admission had extra-martial sex, has been punished for adultery. Asma Jahangir feels she cannot risk putting her clients in jeopardy. Now a new threat exists, in the form of the Ninth Amendment and Shariat bills, both backed by the mullahs. The Shariat Bill, proposed by the extreme right-wing JamaateIslami, calls for the reassessment of all existing laws on the basis of whether or not they are "Islamic,” according to their own interpretation

of Islam. It would also instal Shariat or religious courts as the highest legal power in the land, able to overturn even the judgments of the Supreme Court. The bill is so extreme that it is at present under review by the Law Minister. , But the Ninth Amendment Bill has already been passed by an overwhelming majority in the Senate, and is now being discussed in the Assembly. It allows a broader interpretation of what is “Islamic” and exempts the constitution from the scope of the Shariat Bill. Liberals see both as a threat to democracy and parliamentary rights. They argue that the bills discriminate against women and non-Islamic

minorities. Shariat court judges would not necessarily be lawyers but Islamic scholars, and since they would be appointed directly by the Government, all legal power would ultimately be in the hands of the President. Women are understandably wary of what they see as a sweep towards a Saudi Arabia type of fundamentalism, alien to Pakistan. They fear that by using a strictly Islamic interpretation, both bills would cancel the Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 which gave them some protection as far as divorce, polygamy and inheritance were concerned. The situation would revert to pre-1961, when women were frequently

unaware that they have been divorced and there was no restriction on polygamy (at present the permission of the existing wife is needed). Shariat courts already exist (although without the consummate power either bill would give . them) and the judgments so far do not inspire women’s confidence. An example is the recent coining of the verdict “preparation to rape,” which carries a much lighter sentence than attempted rape. In this case, the man’s “preparations” were only interrupted by neighbours who heard the woman’s screams. Pakistan, which has always been proud of its record on women’s rights (even now, 20 per cent of its politicans are women), is seeing the growth of a women’s movement for the first time. Asma Jahangir says: “When the U.N. Decade for Women started in

1975, no women’s movement existed. But now the atmosphere is such that women feel they are in danger.”

A member of one group, Women’s Action Forum, described the legislative discrimination against women as “purdah politics.” Women, she says, feel they are being pushed back into the home. Some have been attacked for walking the streets “improperly dressed.”

In a horrific incident last year a bus conductor was stoned to death after he went to help a woman being harassed by a group of youths.

Women politicians have promised that neither bill will be passed in its present form; they will insist on certain compromises. But there are many who have little faith in these assertions, coming from the very women who

voted in the Eighth Amendment, Hadood Ordinances and all.