| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
13 Sep 2006 11:24:21 AM |
| Object: |
Pakistan rape reform fails after Musharraf caves in |
Hey guys!
Are you single? Tired of not getting any when you want? Don't
like the risk of STDs or being labelled a "John"?
Then come to Pakistan! Yes, work privately in your own business
and sexually assault your secretary with impunity! Rape your
wife or any neighborhood girls in the secrecy of a kidnapping!
Muslim Sharia law is still on the books!
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1521834.ece
This message brought to you by the U.S. Government, Pakistan's
ally in the war(s) on terror (and human rights).
Bob Dog
Atheist #153 = 1^3 + 5^3 + 3^3
EAC's chief cook and brainwasher
-----
"Our religion is Christ, our politics Fatherland!"
- Hans Schemm, Bavarian Minister
of Education and Culture (1930s)
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a
bit longer."
- Henry Kissinger
"Professor Telhami's accurate depiction of America's non-
credibility in the Muslim world encapsulates the consequences
of a half century of U.S. Middle Eastern policy that moved
America from being the much admired champion of liberty and
self-government to the hated and feared advocate of a new
imperial order, one that has much the same characteristics as
nineteenth-century European imperialism: military garrisons;
economic penetration and control; support for leaders, no
matter how brutal and undemocratic, as long as they obey the
imperial power; and the exploitation and depletion of natural
resources."
- Anonymous, "Imperial Hubris" (2004)
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Pakistan rape reform fails after Musharraf caves in
By Jerome Taylor
Published: 12 September 2006
In a setback for women's rights in Pakistan, the ruling party in
Islamabad has caved in to religious conservatives by dropping
its plans to reform rape laws.
Statutes known as the Hudood ordinances, based on sharia law,
currently operate in Pakistan. They require a female rape victim
to produce four male witnesses to corroborate her account, or
she risks facing a new charge of adultery.
The ruling party in Islamabad, made up of a coalition of groups
allied to President Pervez Musharraf, had hoped the new
Protection of Women Bill would place the crime of rape within
the country's secular penal code, which works in tandem with
sharia.
But the government said rape would remain a crime punished by
Islamic law yesterday after conservatives in an opposition group,
Muttahida Majlis-I-Amal (MMA), threatened to walk out of
parliament in protest if the government pushed ahead with
reforms.
"If there are four witnesses it will be tried under [Islamic
law], if there are not, it will be tried under the penal code,"
said the law minister, Mohammad Wasi Zafar. "In the case of both
adultery and rape, the judge will decide how to try the case." A
new amended bill will now be presented to parliament on
Wednesday.
The news is a significant victory for the MMA, which have
vehemently opposed any attempts to lessen the influence of
sharia.
The Hudood ordinances were enshrined in Pakistani law in 1979 by
General Zia ul-Haq in an attempt to appease the country's
powerful religious elite following his military coup. They have
been routinely criticised by local and international rights
groups. Previous governments under Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz
Sharif have tried to repeal the laws but failed.
General Musharraf had told rights groups he was willing to back
plans for rape to be tried in the secular courts as part of his
much trumpeted "enlightened moderation" ideology. The timing of
the amended bill will be embarrassing for the President, who is
touring Europe and the United States. Pakistan's Western allies
have pressured General Musharraf to improve the rights situation
in his country, particularly for women.
The failure of the new bill will be also be a bitter
disappointment to women's groups in Pakistan, whichhave
campaigned against the Hudood ordinances. Most women refuse to
report a rape for fear they will be treated as a criminal. Under
current laws, a victim risks courting punishment if she reports
a rape allegation as the Hudood ordinances criminalise all extra-
marital sex. A woman who fails to prove that she was raped could
then be charged with adultery under the same legislation.
According to a 2002 report by the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, a woman is raped every two hours and gang raped every
eight hours. However, because of social taboos, discriminatory
laws and victimisation of victims by police, campaigners say
that the scale of rape is almost certainly higher.
Despite the dangers, Pakistani women had begun to fight back. In
2002, a woman named Mukhtar Mai forced the government
drastically to reassess women's rights in Pakistan after she
dared to speak out publicly. She had been gang-raped by a number
of men on the orders of a village council.
The Protection of Women Bill was, until yesterday, part of the
government's attempts to reform Pakistan's laws following her
rape.
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