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Reform-minded Muslims are getting vocal

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Dec 10, 2008

Today, on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it would easy for me to rail against the massive abuses of dignity that we Muslims continue to inflict on each other. I could call on Muslims — yet again — to dig deep into our own consciences before pointing fingers at the West for this or that transgression. And make no mistake: I’ll persist in conveying those messages until the problem is addressed once and for all.

But on this, the International Day for Human Rights, I’d rather share good news with you.

For starters, tens of thousands of Indian Muslims have been rallying against religious terrorism. Galvanized by the leadership of Muslims for Secular Democracy, a Mumbai-based group headed by my friend Javed Anand, the number of protestors has exceeded even his expectations! Javed writes:

“When we came up with this idea less than a week ago, we told ourselves we should mobilise at least a hundred Muslims in Mumbai. It is really a very happy sign that everyone who heard of it also wanted to participate and by Sunday scores of organisations participated in 11 different cities cutting across sectarian divides.”

Javed tells me that in the coming days, he’ll be posting more photos and newspaper reports chronicling these Muslim anti-terrorism demonstrations. For now, if you could do with a dose of hope, get familiar with Muslims for Secular Democracy. You’ll see why I have faith that not all is lost.

“But what’s happening in the alleged home of the Mumbai terrorists?” you might wonder. “Where are the reformist Muslim voices of Pakistan?” Let me assure you that progressive Pakistanis abound. We rarely hear about them. All the news that’s fit to print apparently doesn’t make it into the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Guardian as often as it should. Just the other day, I emailed a Muslim woman to thank her for writing an excellent piece about honor crimes — and writing it in the Pakistani press.

She’s not alone. Take, as another example, Ferhan Mahzer, Chairman of Rays of Development Organization in Sargodha, Pakistan. Just the other day, he sent me a commentary published in Chanan, an Urdu-language publication. The commentary’s title: “Even after 1400 years, burying women alive remains our tribal tradition.” I’m re-printing it here:

At last a few Senators in Pakistan have refused to remain silent on the live burial of three girls and two women. Senator Yasmeen Shah took the initiative, and the rest of the senators joined her later. When a Israr Zahri, the Senator from Balochistan stood up and said that burying women alive in this manner was a private matter for Baloch tribes, everybody in the Senate was shocked. The last blow was given by the acting chairman of the senate, Jan Muhammad Jamali, who said that the journalists in Islamabad are ignorant of these tribal norms and traditions which allow men to bury their female relatives alive.

Senators Jamal Laghari and Abdul Ghafoor Haidri should be applauded because they protested against this barbaric act and highlighted that there is no such law in tribal tradition which allows to the live burial of daughters and female relatives.The leader of the opposition, Senator Kamal Ali Agha also should be condonded for his stance against this inhuman act.

It remineds me of another story which I reported three years ago. If Senator Kamal Ali Agha had not intervened for three female victims of violence, I could not have been able to do anything for them.

The earthquake of October 2005 gave an unique idea to two brothers, residing in Gujjar Khan. They went to Mirpur Azad Kashmir and kidnapped the son of an overseas employee for ransom. They brought the child to Gujjar Khan and told their family that the parents of the lad had been lost in the earthquake.

The women of their home started to take care of the child. Two girls of this poor family had already donated their dowry to victims of the earthquake. Both brothers discouraged their sisters to develop any affection with the child.

After recieving the ransom both brothers handed over the child to his parents. The Mirpur police raided the house in Gujjar Khan on the direction of the child who had been in that home for many days. The mother and her two daughters, who were not aware of anything, were busy in preparing the dinner for the family when police raided their home and took all the family into custody, and subjected them to torture.

The father, mother, two sisters, one aunt and a brother of the kidnappers were locked up in a room in the Mirpur police station. The father and an eight-year-old sister were released on the condition that they should bring the kidnappers so that they can get their prisoners freed. Both the brothers had fled, and police had only one way to bring them back: to keep their women locked up and to continue to torture them. These women remained in custody for 26 days, with only the clothes they were wearing.

When I learnt of this horrific story I went to the Mirpur police station to report a story for my newspaper, where these innocent women were in detention without any legal charges or legal proceedings. I was astonished to hear from the police that until both brothers surrendered they would not free the women of their family. The police admitted to me that they knewn these women were innocent and unaware of the kidnapping. The police also told me that for this reason they had not registered an FIR against these women. The father of the kidnapped boy also agreed that these women were innocent but said he was helpless before Pakistan police investigation methods.

Mean while I came to know that the DSP of the Mirpur police had taken these women to his residence several times for investigation. At his home one day, when the DSP was busy torturing these women in his drawing room, his own daughter came into the room upon hearing their screams. He pushed her also out of the drawing room. Everybody I talked in Mirpur accepted that these women were innocent but to capture the kidnappers they beleived it was essential to keep their women under custody.

I contacted IG Police of Kashmir; he defended the methods of police and said “What else we could do?”

That night I came back from Mirpur with thinking that men have designed so many ways to torture women. Firstly, these two men didn’t think for a second that by kidnapping a boy about what pain they were plotting for their mother and sisters. These women paid the price of the crime of their menfolk and about which they were totally ignorant. In this male-dominated society the police punished these women although they were hundred percent sure that they were not involved in the crime.

When I filed this story in my news paper about the illegal detention and torture of innocent women for the past 26 days in Mirpur police station it caused a wave of shock. At that time, Senator Kamal Ali Agha, although he was sitting in government benches took up their case in the Senate. I was also threatened by the Mirpur police with a fake case of abduction against me. In their point of view, by writing in support of these women I had also participated in the crime of the kidnapping of the child. The Minister of Interior at that time also showed keen interest in this case. After the publication of this news in the media, Mirpur police tactically registered an FIR against these women in dates before they had detained them.

At last after the involvement of Senators like Kamal Ali Agha, these women were set free after 26 days of torture and illegal detention.

Now after three years, once again I see Senator Kamal Ali Agha protesting against the live burial of five women in Balochistan. I wonder in my heart for how long I will be writing stories of violence against women and for how long Senators like Kamal Ali Agha, Yasmeen Shah, Jamal Laghari and Abdul Ghafur Haidri will protest against this kind of barbaric acts. Most of the stakeholders in the government are those who agree with such tribal norms which allow violence of this intensity against women.

It was very easy for them to claim that the journalists like me, sitting in Islamabad, are not familiar with the traditions of tribes which include the live burial of women and girls, as if we don’t have the right to write about such heinous acts. After hearing such remarks I am forced to think that if such traditions are so sacred for them, then why they have joined the democratic system of this country?

1400 years ago, before the advent of Islam the tribes of Arabia used to bury their female infants alive. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) also urged for the rights of women in the face of this brutal tradition. The only difference we have observed after 1400 years is that we bury the female members of society only after they have been educated and reached puberty.