Ex MNA from Kohistan Threatens Working Womendawn.com
MANSEHRA, May 5: Former Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MNA from Kohistan Maulvi Abdul Haleem on Saturday warned women working in non-governmental organisations against entering his district and said violators of the warning would be forcibly married off to locals. “I issued a decree during Friday sermon that getting education for degrees by women is repugnant to Islamic injunctions because if a woman …
What Choices for Hindu Girls in Pakistan?SC Verdict Throws Minority Community into Despair
By Zehrab Nabi Newsline
On April 18, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ruled that the three Hindu women who had been converted to Islam, Rinkel Kumari, Dr Lata Kumari and Aasha Kumari, should decide if they want to return to their parents or stay with their new husbands. All three stated that they had willingly converted to Islam and wanted to live with their …
SC Verdict Leaves Hindu Girls Conversion Issue Unresolveddawn.com
ISLAMABAD, April 18: The chief justice was in a hurry for once. In just the second hearing on Wednesday of a case related to the conversion of three Hindu women, a Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, wrapped up the case and announced its judgment. The three young women present in the court were told to …
Taliban Rules Return for Afghan WomenWomen TV Presenters become the Canaries in the Mines
AFP
KABUL: Afghanistan has instructed women TV presenters to stop appearing without a headscarf and to wear less make-up, officials said, raising fears about creeping restrictions on the fledgling media. “All the TV networks are in seriousness asked to stop women presenters from appearing on TV without a veil and with dense make-up,” the information and culture ministry said. “All women …
National Assembly Votes in Autonomous Women’s CommissionThe Battle Must Go On
By Zubeida Mustafa
SUCH are the paradoxes in Pakistan’s politics, that at a time our politicians are locked in a grim power struggle in Islamabad, the same gentlemen joined hands to pass unanimously the women’s commission bill last Thursday. Whether this show of unity on a matter concerning women should be interpreted as an act of chivalry or a demonstration of ‘woman power’, …
Pak Senate Passes Pro Women LegislationCivil Society Celebrates 'First Step' against Customary Laws
Faiza Mirza Dawn Dec 13
The Upper House of the Parliament passed two flagship bills on Monday, in order to protect the sanctity and rights of women living in Pakistan. Both the bills entail significant policies and mandates to protect women from practices such as forced wedlock, honour killing, marriage with the Quran and inflicting pain and torture by throwing acid on them. The bills …
Still, Continents Away Immigrants Obey Customary LawsTwo tales of Honor Killings Rooted in Pak-Afghan Culture
By Murtaza Haider dawn.com
Halfway between Toronto and Montreal, ghastly details of a murder trial are unfolding. The dead are three young Muslim girls and their stepmother. Stand accused of their murder are the parents and the brother of the dead girls. What makes Muslim parents murder their own children, especially daughters, is a question that has leapt to the front pages of newspapers …
Women Legislation Outlaws Best Kept Feudal SecretExcerpt on Practice of 'Marriage to Quran' in ATDT (Pgs 105-8)
In 1991, a male colleague and I headed to a small town in interior Sindh, where the peasants and low-income traders were spiritual disciples of feudals in Benazir’s cabinet. We were escorted by guards through a magnificent fortress with high walls and cemented pathways, which wove into a labyrinth. My male colleague and I were taken into a grand drawing …
Pak Women Politicians Strike at Customary LawsPrevention of Anti-Women Practices Awaits Senate Approval
www.dw-world.de/dw
After twice being rejected by the National Assembly, the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act 2011 was approved unanimously on Tuesday. Although it still needs to be passed by the Senate, civil society in Pakistan has welcomed the move and praised the efforts of Pakistan’s women legislators in particular. The bill was first tabled in the lower house …
Revealing a Gap Between the Leaders and the PeopleThe Washington Post, June 2, 2002 - By Nafisa Hoodbhoy
WESTFIELD, Mass. – A group of women from India and Pakistan who came here for a peace conference in April returned home to find their countries on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe. One of the delegates wrote back to me about the “horrific atmosphere of war,” which can be averted, she said, only through “sheer good luck.” Luck, of …
A Future Veiled in False HopesThe Washington Post, November 11, 2001 - By Nafisa Hoodbhoy
Twelve years ago, I was astonished by what I found on a trip from my native Pakistan to Afghanistan. I couldn’t have imagined a neighboring Muslim country with so many women in public places. Each morning, the Afghan capital was abuzz with young professionals on their way to work, most dressed in Western clothes and some even in miniskirts and …
Fundamentalism and Social ExclusionICSW, June 2001 - By Nafisa Hoodbhoy
The emergence of fundamentalist movements in Muslim countries, more properly known as Islamism, is being viewed by some scholars as the last wave of anti-imperialism of the 20th century. Muslim fundamentalist movements that show militancy against Western colonial influences include the Hezbollah and AMAL in Lebanon, the HAMAS in Palestine, the National Islamic Front in Sudan, the Islamic Salvation Front …