Rape Law Reforms in Pakistan

Finally on Wednesday, after years of dilly-dallying and foot-dragging, the "honorable" legislators of mamlikat-e-khudadad Pakistan decided to relieve the raped women of the burden of producing 4 pious Muslim male witnesses or face incarceration under adultery charges. "Moral" brigade still managed to include fornication as a penal offense. For the record, I don't share the euphoria of Daily Times editor about this marvelous achievement of "His Enlightened Moderation" who, for years, has been adulterating the constitution of Pakistan at his will but dithering to take the bull by the horn. A BBC's report on this issue.

Razi Azmi produced a splendid rebuttal to the "moralists" who gloat over the "moral superiority" of Pakistani society by comparing its ("reported") rape rate with that of US. I wrote a metaphorical fable to highlight this contoversy. Dedicated to all "pious" Pakistanis and Muslims who are very "concerned" about the plight of raped women in US.

Once upon a time, in a not-so-distant land, a person went out for journey with his son. They were riding a donkey. When they reached the bank of the river, they saw a drowning woman crying for help. The son was about to get off the donkey to rescue the woman but his father forbade him to do so. The son said that the woman was in trouble. The father replied that the evidence of a single woman was not enough to substantiate that she was in trouble at all. She might be just "acting" to get their "attention". Women were nothing but a source of "fitna". The son said that we are all creatures of God and saving the life of a single creature of God is equal to saving lives of all creatures of God. The father replied that approaching a "non-mahram" woman was a highly "sinful" act and no amount of virtues could compensate this sin. He further said that the actual place of a woman was her home and she should not come in public unless accompanied by a male chaperone. That woman being alone and drowning in the river was the indication that she had run away from her house against the will of her male guardians and now she was tasting the fruit of "divine justice". The father told his son about a nearby town situated at the bank of another river. That nearby town was very famous for producing state of the art "life jackets". The town also had a well-trained teams of "life-guards". Girls and boys were taught swimming from the early school days. Yet in spite of all these factors, the rate of drowning women was far higher in that town compared to that in their native town. The son wondered what could be the reason. The father replied that only those who have the passionf or swimming face the risk of drowning. Those who never set foot in water have zero chance of drowning. In their town, they simply didn't allow women to come out of homes, therefore, for the women of their town, jumping into water, learning swimming and getting drowned was out of question. The son said that it was not the right time to indulge in these discussions. The life of a human being was at risk and she needed their urgent help. He further said that the woman might had been abducted by some powerful men who brought her out of her house against her consent and threw her into river to drown. The father replied, "Let her drown, God will sort her out."

The father and the son kept sitting on the donkey, playing with their theological puzzles and the drowning woman kept crying for help. The rest is history.