Council of ‘Islamic’ or ‘sexist’ Ideology?


Pakistan, just a couple of days past the International Women’s Day, is slapped with the latest World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report for having the second lowest ranking in the measure of gender-based biases - failing to provide equal access to women in health, education, economic  welfare and politics.  And on top of this, came our very Council of ‘Islamic’ Ideology and their 'indispensable' role! They overruled the provision in Pakistan’s Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of ‘having a wife’s consent for another marriage’ or ‘marriage of under-eighteen girl being illegal,’ calling the provisions against Sharia.

Thinking of the level of ‘ultimate intellect,’ behind this inference of Maulana Sheerani and his gang of mullahs, is enough to throw your mind in disarray.  What were they thinking of? The higher cause of saving the men species from being endangered by their nagging first wives? Ones who would give an absolute ‘over my (or your) dead body’ reply to the consent papers for a second marriage? Or they just can’t allow women to grow into a wise age to decide for a sane husband over a ‘four-women-man (or mullah)?' Or as if booking rape victims under adultery wasn't enough for these sadist members of Council of ‘Sexist’ Ideology; they needed a fiasco, at an even bigger scale?

I am unable understand, for the life of me, why do their actions and statements remain so passive in the face of killings of innocent people in terrorists attacks, rampant display of intolerance and corruption that are eating away our very existence? Why don’t they do as much proactive campaigning for these serious issues, as they do for their sexist causes?

Whatever their reason for such an outrageous ruling was, it surely has made it clear, that in a time when this country is absolutely plagued by the ghastly extremism, ruining all its functions to the core, what sort of trivial things occupy the minds of our maulvis and the heads of our leading Islamic institutions. 

What a shame!

Bushra
0112 hours
Thursday 13 March 2014

The dying Thar

The heart-wrecking images that we’re seeing in thar - of hunger, misery and death, are enough to bristle the hair on the back of your neck.


Yet, our governments remain so inefficient - either trying to brush the damage under the carpet, or using it as a political opportunity by blaming an opposition party and establishing new voter’s base. Is ‘humanity’ a word that ever sounded familiar to them?

Oh sure, they’ll be granting the aid money to wipe off the issue – but only temporarily! A permanent solution for recurring annual famine, lack of basic infrastructure or utilities in such a vast piece of land would never strike them. For, they won’t bear sowing seed for the next government in line to reap.

It’s not just Thar, the entire province, apart from the metropolitan and adjoining urban areas, is awfully under-developed with extremely scarce access to education and economic welfare. The irony could be imagined by the mere fact that even Larkana district of Sindh, the birthplace of two Pakistani Prime Ministers from the PPPP that is the ruling party in Sindh for consecutive governments, is considered scarcely developed. And all that keeps the current Sindh government busy is the promotion of the ‘much-needed’ Sindh festival, that too out of public funds.

It reminded me of the childhood story of a king, who in a competition to beautify kingdoms, invested all the kingdom’s treasure and labour in getting the splendorous structures being erected and roads being beautified, while his subjects stood in rags, starving, as inspected by the competing king.

Bushra
2320 hours
Sunday 9 March 2014