WHILE cries of five young educated girls of Mianwali District who were forcibly married to illiterate persons against their wishes by way of settlement of murder cases have not yet died down, the press has reported another horrifying incident of gang-rape of a young woman Irshad Mai in village Dunyapur of Lodhran District near Multan who was later married to a minor boy of 9 years. This has reportedly happened with the connivance of a local landlord against whom the police have tried to hush up the matter as normally is the case in our rural setting. Despite tall claims by the Government and so-called feminist leaders in the present set-up, the poor woman had to run for her life from her area and related her woeful tale to newsmen in Islamabad on Saturday. Irshad Mai who is accompanied by her brother is in the Federal Capital knocking at the doors of high-ups to seek justice. The heinous offence has escaped the notice of senior level Punjab Police functionaries and the wronged woman expects that some one in Islamabad would promptly act to save her life.
This and similar incidents have become a part of our culture. Day in and day out young girls and women are being dishonoured. An overwhelming majority of women and girls as also their families, who are victims of excesses, generally keep quiet to protect their honour. Only very few dare to come out in the open to expose crimes against them. The few lucky ones thanks to some NGOs catch attention of the President and Prime Minister and resultantly Government machinery begins to move. Lately, present Chief Justice of Pakistan has taken suo moto notice of excesses against women. The police appears to be on the mat but justice is being delayed in cases where even the apex court has chosen to intervene on behalf of the helpless. Our society apparently is not bothered about inhumanity against the weaker sex. Some say that in a male-dominated society women ordinarily suffer. Others are of the view that this will gradually change with the spread of education. However, even educated men are guilty of committing excesses against women. Their attitude is in contravention of Quranic teachings which advise ex-husbands to treat their former wives with respect. Religious teachings, education and a host of laws against excesses against women, including laws against karokari, vanni, forced marriages, marriage with Holy Quran, etc. have failed to make any impact.
There appears to be lack of political will. Quite a sizeable number of legislators from the rural background are not pushed. They consider the continuing excesses against the weaker sex as part of our culture. Education will take long to spread in a country such as Pakistan where population explosion is nullifying the Government measures to introduce universal education. As a nation we need to stand up against excesses against our women folk. To treat women with respect and to give them an equal place with the men folk is not a modern concept. Islam attaches highest respect to women and grants them rights equal to men. It enjoins upon followers of the faith to show compassion to the weaker sex. The adherence to Islamic teachings will alone give protection to the rights of women. The excesses against them must stop.

Another ‘democratic’ vote in Central Asia

KAZAKHSTAN goes to the poll today to choose the new leader of the Central Asian Muslim country. It may take a while before poll outcome is made public. However, the people of Kazakhstan, and the rest of the world, do not have to wait for the official results to know the outcome.
As is the case with many nations in this part of the world, we all know the outcome of this election even before it’s been held. As Kazakhstan’s opposition groups fear, today’s election is yet another ‘democratic’ exercise to perpetuate the regime of President Nursultan Nazarbayev for another seven-year term. The ex communist, who metamorphosed himself into a ‘democratic’ leader without any difficulty after the demise of the Soviet Union, has already been in power for the past 15 years.
There is no doubt that under Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan has done well economically. With a relative degree of political stability, the country has maintained an impressive growth rate of 10 per cent. It’s sitting on huge oil and gas reserves and owns the world’s largest unexplored energy resources. It has been engaged in high economic cooperation and energy trade with the three global players, US, Russia and China. Maybe this is why Kazakhstan’s democracy, or the lack of it, hasn’t attracted the kind of negative attention generally reserved for other ex Soviet states in Central Asia.
Nazarbayev has used these friendly ties with the West as well as Russia and China to concentrate power in his own hands. Opposition groups, strictly monitored and restrained as they are, find it hard to effectively take on the President and the powerful establishment. No wonder opinion polls predict 78 per cent vote share for the president. While there may be some degree of truth in Nazarbayev’s argument that Kazakhstan is not as yet ready for Western style democracy, the kind of one-sided affairs Kazakhstan has seen in the name of election, do not meet the basic criteria of a free and fair democratic process. No election in which opposition has no role to play can claim to be legitimate and represent people’s mandate.
Today’s poll is being monitored by 600 foreign observers including 440 from the European Union. Yet, it is likely that the regime will get away with yet another orchestrated election, just as many in the neighbourhood have in the past several years. As long as Kazakhstan’s leadership is not persuaded to allow genuine democracy and hold free and fair elections in the country, there will be little change in the lot of the people of Central Asian Muslim nation.

—Khaleej Times