Prisoners of fate

Qudsia Kadri Khan

How ironic and stereotype I feel as I once again pick my pen to write about International Women's Day. It seems just like yesterday that special columns and seminars, workshops and conferences were held a year ago-and we the women of Pakistan have not moved forward. In fact we hardly took a few steps and were grounded. We in retrospect have begun to stagnate, to face oppression, to face violence, abuse, dishonour, hunger, prejudice, and murder.
While the oppressed women of the world took the help of government, non-governmental organisations and women groups, to seek means within their own countries to address gender violence, we the Pakistani women could only lament our fate, could only write about the atrocities committed, could only shed tears and hope for justice.
We could only pray that horrendous honour killings, shameful rape cases, open and unhindered sexual harassment are treated as punishable crimes and the law is implemented without any discrimination and bias to punish the predators who violate human dignity.
No doubt women all over the world have been at the receiving end since time immemorial, and particularly in the sub-continent where it has been almost impossible to come out of this web of tyranny. But unfortunately in Pakistan the number keeps rising and our very own Human Rights Commission has reported that at least 80 per cent of Pakistani women are victims of male aggression.
Only the record of the past year (2004) shows an unprecedented rise and upward trend in gender related offenses such as rape, acid attacks, mutilation and murder in the name of honour.
The women of this Islamic Republic have been braving obstacles and hardships since so long that many have accepted it as their unfortunate fate. Every time an honour killing takes place and goes unpunished, the family of the dead woman hides behind a charade of acceptance many a time because of reasons arising from fear to poverty, to undue pressure exercised by the influential persons, clans and tribes involved.
The horrific end of a woman declared and killed as "Kari" is the lowest ebb of humanity. She is left to lie on the streets for hours and is not allowed a funeral-imagine a Muslim woman exposed even after death for all to watch, and then being buried in a piece of land far away from a graveyard. Where and when did the Almighty God order such abuse of a human body even after death.
The pre-Islamic culture where a girl-child was buried alive at birth by the pagan Arab gods was one of the first rituals done away with by Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him). In no way does the Holy Qur'an or Hadith condone this savagery.
The love, the respect, the honour of women was actually propagated by Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him). He urged the Muslim men to treat with reverence and give the rightful place to a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a sister. Why then are successive governments in this country afraid to kill this crime and punish the murderers. Why then have we made our religion sway towards a reprehensive tradition, such as "Sati" across the border.
We seem to have glorified honour killings. We seem to have come to a halt instead of advancing, we seem to have reverted back to the dark ages. The saying of a famous philosopher comes to mind "Advance and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path for they draw only corrupt blood."
So international women's day will come and go, but till such time that our souls are not cleansed of the dirt it is engulfed in, till we educate ourselves as the beginning of wisdom is knowledge of the self, as a nation that outward manifestations, rituals and traditions are not religious revelations from God, the fate of the women of this country cannot change.
However, let us continue writing and speaking against the ills of society, against the weak-minded male-dominated society which treats a woman as an object to be played with and then trample over her right to live a decent and honourable existence.
"The poets and writers are trying to understand the reality of woman but up to this day they have not understood the golden secrets of her heart, because they look upon her from behind the sexual veil and see nothing but externals; they look upon her through a magnifying glass of hatefulness and find nothing except weakness and submission."