 | Just to make sure they're Islamic enough. |
A government-appointed panel plans to review strict Islamic laws in Pakistan which rights activists say discriminate against women. The Islamic Hudood Ordinances were passed in 1979 under the military rule of General Zia-ul-Haq. One of their most controversial provisions is that a woman must have four male witnesses to prove rape, or face a charge of adultery herself. | The new reforms will make that ten, including a holy man. |
| ... who's not a participant. |
Men and women found guilty of adultery also face stoning to death or 100 lashes, although such punishments have never been executed after being handed down by a court. The Islamic Ideology Council, a government body made up of clerics and lawyers charged with ensuring that laws confirm with Islam, has decided to review the controversial laws. Its chairman, Mohammad Khalid Masood, said the council would consult scholars from Muslim countries attending a conference on Islamic criminal law this month in Islamabad. "We have the power to review laws in the country. We have reviewed many other laws and we plan to look into these laws as well," he told Reuters.
| "We got all the best Muslim scholars coming in from Iran, Sudan and Mauritania!" |
He said the council would make recommendations to the government but any change in legislation would be a matter for parliament. President Pervez Musharraf, who espouses a moderate and modern Muslim state, has long called for a review of Islamic laws but has faced stiff opposition from powerful religious groups.
| "It is as it was, and ever will be." |
Secular political parties, civil rights and women's groups say the numbers of rapes and violence against women have soared since the laws were passed. Women's groups say many rapes go unreported, partly because of the difficulty of proving the crime under the Hudood laws.
| And partly because of the fear of being killed by the rapist and his many cousins. |
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