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An interesting article in Voice of America discusses the state of women’s rights in Pakistan<\/a>. In some ways, women’s rights are flourishing, especially in the cities, where women’s relatively rapid economic advancement is driving a lot of local women’s rights activism. At the same time, rural areas are remain reactionary, supporting woman-hating practices like forced marriages and “honor” killings.<\/p>\n One focus of Pakistani feminist activism is “the country’s most controversial Islamic law, known as the Hudood Ordinance,” which activists are trying to have overturned.<\/p>\n Trial lawyer and women’s advocate Jamila Aslam says the laws protect rapists and punish the victims.<\/p>\n “You find most women will not report the rape because they don’t expect to get justice. They go to the police station. Chances are if she’s pretty, she’ll be raped by the policeman. Second, they’ll say, oh, you’re a culprit because a sexual act has been performed. It’s a man’s world out here,” added Ms. Aslam.<\/p>\n She says the law has sent more than 20,000 mostly innocent women to prison.<\/p>\n But religious groups in Pakistan strongly oppose any changes to the law, saying it protects core Islamic values. <\/p><\/div>\n Unfortunately, the police and the president are firmly, and sometimes violently, misogynistic. The courage of women’s activists in Pakistan is stunning. From the International Herald Tribune<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n This didn’t happen to some unknown student or impoverished villager. This happened to Asma Jahangir, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion and head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the country’s largest such nongovernmental group. The setting: a glitzy thoroughfare in Lahore’s upmarket Gulberg neighborhood. The crime: attempting to organize a symbolic mixed-gender mini-marathon on May 14. […]<\/p>\n In Washington and London, Musharraf presents himself as the face of enlightenment; in Pakistan there is another face. The Bush administration, Musharraf’s chief backer, should realize that its friend in the war on terror came to power in a coup, continues to hold office without facing Pakistani voters, refuses to schedule a vote, and bans women from running in mixed-gender races. Those who stand for the values of human rights and democracy that the Bush administration calls universal are seen as the enemy within and are beaten on the streets. <\/p><\/div>\n The website Fiscal Study has put together a good collection of short articles about women’s rights in Pakistan<\/a> (from which I swiped the photo at the top of this post). If you’ve got a few minutes, it’s well worth reading.<\/p>\n What’s striking to me is that Pakistani culture isn’t a monolith of misogyny, which is how it’s sometimes portrayed. The Pakistani women’s rights activists are as much a part of their culture as the misogynists are, and the feminist protestors pictured at the top of this post are as important an image of Pakistani womanhood as the more often seen photos of veiled women. The US should be looking for ways to support feminist activism in Pakistan, rather than just supporting a misogynistic head of state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An interesting article in Voice of America discusses the state of women’s rights in Pakistan. In some ways, women’s rights are flourishing, especially in the cities, where women’s relatively rapid economic advancement is driving a lot of local women’s rights … Continue reading Under the ordinance, women who fail to prove rape claims are charged with committing adultery, a criminal offense.<\/p>\n“Teach the bitch a lesson. Strip her in public.” As one of the police officers told me, these were the orders issued by their bosses. The police beat the woman with batons in the full glare of the news media, tore her shirt off and, though they failed to take off her baggy trousers, certainly tried their best. The ritual public humiliation over, she and others – some bloodied – were dragged screaming and protesting to police vans and taken away to police stations.<\/p>\n