Qazi: Equal opportunities for women; action to be taken against honour killings

mAd_ScIeNtIsT · November 6, 2002, 6:21am

Peshawar, Oct 20: Vice President of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmed on Sunday promised equal job opportunities for women, new laws on violence against women including issue of honour killings.

“We will give women honour, respect and dignity, and bring laws to end discriminatory laws,” Qazi Hussain Ahmad told a largely attended Women Convention here. The convention was participated by hundreds of women. Among others, several provincial and central leaders of the MMA’s women’s wing and Jamaat-e-Islami also addressed the convention.

Allaying the fears as propaganda, Qazi Hussain said the “massive participation at the rally today is proof that both men and women want Islam in this country.” “We will treat women with respect, provide them education and training and there will be no job restriction on women.”

Qazi vowed the MMA would introduce an Islamic order in the country under which men and women will enjoy equal rights.

He said the alliance plans to set up educational institutions exclusively for women, including universities and vocational training centres.

Women will receive both religious and secular education and female experts in teaching, medicine and other fields would be offered “a conducive atmosphere to work in dignity.”

“Laws will be passed against sexual harassment of women and special centres will be established for widows and destitute,” he said.

“Islam has given women more rights than any other religion,” he said, adding that “it allows woman to marry a person of her choice.”

He also declared as “wrong” a ban tribesmen had clamped on women’s right to vote during the general elections, saying that MMA would abolish all unfair practices.

Several provincial and central leaders of the MMA’s women’s wing also addressed the convention, held to hail the alliance’s election gains.

People were saying that the MMA victory heralds a Pakistani Taliban? You should really rip yourselves away from the propaganda aginst anything Islamic…

Pakistani_Tiger · November 6, 2002, 2:38pm

We'll see!

ahmadjee · November 6, 2002, 2:54pm

I can't agree more with them on the issue of honor killing! Though I would like to know where they stand on the issue of punishment for the person(s) who "bring shame" to the family?

Do they support the stoning to death punishment?

And what do they plan to do about safe guarding such punishment's from abuse that have been alleged for quiet some time. Do they have a plan?

Malik73 · November 6, 2002, 10:33pm

These are fine words, and they are important coming from an MMA component party. To often Islam has been used quite wrongly to justify dicrimination and acts of persecution of women in some parts of Pakistan. The religious parties taking a lead in this matter is a welcome step, and hopefully in government whether at provincial or federal level they will implement these promises?

Nadia_H · November 7, 2002, 9:40am

:o Sorry, i don't mean to always be the most annoying person in this Forum, but does this

[quote]
"We will give women honour, respect and dignity, and bring laws to end discriminatory laws."
[/quote]

mean that they will fight for an end to the Hudood Ordinances? A sincere sorry and a load of thanks in advance.

mAd_ScIeNtIsT · November 7, 2002, 6:09pm

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
:o Sorry, i don't mean to always be the most annoying person in this Forum, but does this

mean that they will fight for an end to the Hudood Ordinances? A sincere sorry and a load of thanks in advance.
[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure about the official position, but I know one of the MMA's female MPs has made it clear that she will do whatever it takes to keep the Hudood Ordnance in place and that she fully supports it.

If their women think like that, I very much doubt the party position would be any different.

Nadia_H · November 7, 2002, 10:29pm

Alright, thank you, Mad Scientist.

From a personal point of view, i find it a bit problematic that the female MMA MP has stated that she will do whatever it takes to keep Hudood Ordinances in place. Clauses within this Ordinance have permitted, in several known instances, the jailing of women who have declared rape against someone. What has ended up happening, and i have personal experience with this, is that the female who has filed a case with the police regarding being raped, is subsequently - under the jurisdiction of the Hudood Ordinances - treated as the culprit or the accused, and she herself is accused of committing adultery. The rape victim, in numerous documented cases, has ended up in jail rather than her rapist who is ofcourse walking around scot-free.

Adultery is, manifestly, a serious crime in and of itself, which deserves the appropriate punishment as according to Islam and nothing less. IMHO, rape is no less serious. For these reasons i was wondering whether or not MMA would fight for repealing the Hudood Ordinances or, at the least, reforming those principles within it that so desperately require improvement.

PyariCgudia · November 8, 2002, 2:28am

I agree with Nadia.

I'm sorry if this sounds crude and biased. But there has been immense proof that what the MMA says is not necessarily the same as the REALITY.

They can talk all they want about women's rights and equal employment and all... but can u tell me what percentage of their wives and sisters and moms are working women? What percentage are college gradautes?

Yeah, okay, i think i prove my point well.

mAd_ScIeNtIsT · November 8, 2002, 5:37am

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by PyariCgudia: *
They can talk all they want about women's rights and equal employment and all... but can u tell me what percentage of their wives and sisters and moms are working women? What percentage are college gradautes?
[/QUOTE]

Err...could you tellme what percentage of the PPP's wives and sisters and moms are working women? Or can you give me similar figures for the PML-Q, or the PML-N, for that matter?

Generally, political parties don't give out statistics on what their families do. You can give one or two isolated examples of individuals (i.e. Bhutto) but that's it - one or two examples are not representative of the whole party.