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India-Pakistan

80% of jailed women facing Hudood charges

2006-03-20

There are over 6,000 women and juvenile girls in various jails throughout the country, 4,621 of whom are the victims of discriminatory laws including the Hudood Ordinance, said a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report on the state of women. The HRCP said that there had been no decrease in honour killings despite the anti-honour killing law passed in 2004. Instead, the number of women murdered had increased in the year 2005 as compared to the previous year, it added.

The National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) said that 50 percent of government-run shelter house Darul Aman inmates were implicated in Hudood cases. "The commission had suggested that the law be repealed. However, the proposal had now been pending before the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for several months," said a NCSW member. Almost 80 percent of the total women jailed are facing charges under the Hudood Ordinance.

Posted by:Fred

#4 6000 women jailed for being raped or committing adultery. Gee, I wonder who they were having sex with? No men in those 6000 cases?

TW2412-you have a point about the risk of lots of women being killed for starting to be "uppity", but I think resistance really DOES have to come from women-otherwise, there won't be
buy-in by "eastern" men that women will no longer accept mistreatment. Change would merely be seen as a western imposition (which in a sense it is, but is nevertheless necessary).

But you're right in the sense that resistance currently has no cultural foothold there. I think where decent, fairminded men from outside the culture could help is by continuing to speak out on behalf of the women, as so many men on rantburg and other media do. I think the tide will turn by those women accessing ideas never encountered before-via radio programs, via words of leaders like Wafa Sultan and Hirsi Ali, etc, who speak out against female servitude and mistreatment, via words of everyday western women who speak as these eastern women have never heard the like of before. Women in the east have strong oral tradition-we need to find ways to get them talking to each other, in groups, as women. "Did you hear about what a woman named Hirsi Ali said?" Word of mouth is extremely powerful, especially in these types of societies. When they sense that they are part of a community of women fighting together, they are more likely to find courage to face the terrible risks of doing so. I guess maybe it's something like the solidarity, loyalty and courage that comes to men in the horrors of war.

And JM-that same old argument? I'm a feminist, and I'm right here, speaking out against these abuses of women.

Posted by: Jules 2006-03-20 12:30

#3 i wish it were as possible as you make it sound. But it would lead to wholesale slaughter.

The courts are against them. Sharia is against them.

Change of this sort neeeds to come from outside the culture - or at least provide a cushion for the action within. The alternative is piles of orphans and dead female children.

Hate to poke back at you, but the uprise must come from men. Sharia is a dangerous place for women. Massive death killing "upstarts" is already a given.

Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 2006-03-20 10:53

#2 I keep saying that the way to end this nonsense in a hurry is for women there to be presented with the *concept* of making violence. Most males collapse like a house of cards when a woman gets violent--even the threat of violence cows most men.

If even a small handful of women behaved this way, and the word got around that it was *possible*, it would change everything. The few would have to be brave, as they could be severely abused or even killed. But it would change their entire nation.

A religious policeman criticizes their dress, so they grab a blunt or sharp object and hit him, no comment, no argument, no warning. One of their brothers slaps her, so she stabs him in the hand.

Some judge throws a woman in jail on some Sharia charge, he can't go near a woman without fearing for his life, or at least to get a stab wound in the abdomen.

Again, very, very few women actually need to do things like this for a sea change to happen. In some cases, even the *rumor* that women are doing such things will significantly change attitudes.

These are men who are raised to already hate and fear women, and to try and dominate them. If the women refuse to be dominated, most men just don't have the chutzpah to try and force the issue, so will slink away like a spanked dog.

Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-03-20 10:07

#1 Where's the outrage, or public outpourings of righteous indignation, from the ACLU or NOW, or are they too busy having lunch with Mother Cindy and "Damn It, Janet" Sarandon, planning to free "occupied" NYC and Tiffany's from Dubya???

Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-03-20 00:28

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