Quran, hadith & women

By Asghar Ali Engineer

THE Quran indeed had ushered in a revolution as far as women’s rights were concerned. Women hardly enjoyed any rights before Islam in marriage, divorce or inheritance. They were left totally dependent on father, husband or brother and had no individual identity. The Quran straight away gave them distinct individual, legal personalities. At the time women did not enjoy such status anywhere in the world. In fact even philosophers like Aristotle thought women and animals had no soul. However, this revolutionary approach to women’s distinct individuality was hardly acceptable to Arab society.

Arabs were, by and large, a patriarchal society and wanted to keep women under their thumb. But after Islam became a national religion for Arabs they could not easily deny what the Quran gave to women. Thus many found a via media of hadith and thousands of traditions were falsely attributed to the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) that were quite derogatory to women and sought to take away from them what the Quran had given them.

The real issues in Pakistan

Dawn Editorial, 18 Sep, 2009

PEOPLE are dying queuing for grain in Pakistan. This is a country where food inflation is forcing parents to pull their children out of school – they can eat sparsely or be educated, not both. Lives are being lost to ailments that are easily curable. Street crime is rampant across a country where human life is worth less than a cellphone. Yet our political leaders appear oblivious to the misery that is everywhere. They seem to have no perspective, no grip on reality. Does a man who can’t feed his children really care whether or not Pervez Musharraf is tried for treason? Is a mother whose child has died of gastroenteritis likely to give much thought to America’s military presence in the region? Will a jobless person be impressed by the president’s much-touted ‘achievements’ during his first year in office? Our leaders have clearly lost sight of the core issues.

This is a country where religious minorities are targeted by Muslim mobs while the law-enforcers look on. Deadly attacks against Christians, in particular, are on the rise in Punjab. As is usually the case in such incidents, the violence has been triggered by unproven allegations of blasphemy. Robert Fanish Masih, who had been arrested last Saturday on blasphemy charges after Muslims went on the rampage in village Jaithikey near Sialkot, was found dead in his cell on Tuesday. The next day his family and community members, who had all been forced to flee Jaithikey, were prevented from burying him in their native village. And this heartless, inhumane act wasn’t the work of Muslim vigilantes alone. The local police also told the mourners to turn back, on the grounds that their presence could fan violence. In short the victims were punished, not the aggressors.

The Punjab government needs to take urgent steps to protect minorities in the province for the situation there is deteriorating. Its stance on minority rights will be gauged by its response. The centre, meanwhile, should start working towards the repeal of the blasphemy laws. For too long they have been used to settle personal scores, grab land – and to kill. These draconian laws must be struck off the books.

Taliban backlash haunts Swat locals

Tuesday, 04 Aug, 2009 | 10:02 AM PST |

 Frightened civilians fear the Taliban will pounce again on Swat as residents try to rebuild shattered lives and shot nerves in the mountain valley once likened to Switzerland.

What’s gone wrong at the CIA, and should it be abolished?

By Rupert Cornwell   Tuesday, 14 July 2009 Published in ‘ Independent’.

Why are we asking this now?

The CIA is currently embroiled in two controversies that go to the heart of the problems surrounding the world’s largest intelligence agency. It is accused of keeping Congress in the dark about a secret post-9/11 project, on the orders of the former vice-president Dick Cheney and probably in violation of the law. Meanwhile the Justice Department is moving towards a criminal investigation of whether CIA operatives illegally tortured captured terrorist suspects. A rule of thumb about an intelligence service might be: the less you hear about it, the better it’s probably doing its job. Instead, the CIA seems to be eternally in the headlines.

Sex workers being educated, trained on health Dawn Friday, 10 Jul, 2009

KARACHI: A three-day skill building workshop on STIs (sexually transmitted infections) and HIV got under way on Thursday to educate and prepare sex workers for running various preventive health programmes solely for their own benefit.

The United Nations Population Fund, an international agency, is organising the workshop with the collaboration of the National Aids Control Programme. About 70 female sex workers, mainly from the red light areas of both Karachi and Hyderabad, turned up on the first day to attend lectures and interactive sessions.

The female workers were brought to the workshop entitled ‘Skill building workshop on HIV and sex works’ with the support of an NGO and contraceptive marketers, said an organiser, adding that there was a plan to bring the female sex workers operating from kothis, bungalows and those giving services on call to such a forum in the future.

Update Swabi Camp

With every passing day the situation of the IDPs living in the camps is getting worse. The weather is getting warmer day by day  making it more and more miserable and affecting the health of the people  badly. The most vulnerable group are children and women (specifically the women who are pregnant). They are suffering the most and need urgent attention.

The average number of people visiting the medical camps has increased significantly, according to the medical assistant, Salma, working in the population welfare department.  She has told us that nearly fifty patients visit their camp daily, out of which 10 are women who are pregnant. She told us that due to insufficient nutrition they are weak and developing complications According to Salma there is no doctor available in the Population welfare department’s camp to see the patients. When we asked her that how do they treat the serious patients she answered that they refer them to the other medical camps serving in the colony.  Unfortunately these camps are hardly any better. 

The other depressing issue is that women are giving birth to children in an unhygienic environment. Due to this the new born are highly susceptible to infections. Another volunteer, Riaz Mohammad, who has been working in the camps for past couple of  months, informed us  that two infant baby girls died a couple of days ago due to heat and inappropriate healthcare services.

 Riaz Mohammad also observed that while initially there were numerous  relief activities and volunteers and  there was a steady flow of aid , the situation is much harsher now. He told that the activities have now slowed down with the passage of time and are not sufficient enough to meet the needs of the camp populations. While on the other hand the IDPs are more in need of help compared to earlier. He told that one of the three medical camps set up a month ago has been closed in the time when people need it more .  Riaz Mohammad said that there are other camps managed by the private organizations which are performing better. But again the problem is that the service is not sufficient for alleviating the problems of IDP

 The need now is to not let the ‘ donor fatigue’ set in. And help in any way we can. Vision 21 is now working on a plan to provide nutritional supplements and such for pregnant women and children.  

To help us deliver this please call us on  +92 51 250 5030 or email on info@thevision21.org.

 

A tragedy of errors and Cover-ups – By The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is convinced that the cost of the insurgency in the Malakand Division has been increased manifold by the shortsightedness and indecisiveness of the non-representative institutions and their policy of appeasing the militants and cohorting with them. While the ongoing military operation had become unavoidable, it was not adopted as a measure of the last resort. Further, the plight of the internally displaced people has been aggravated by lack of planning and coordination by the agencies concerned, and the methods of evacuation of towns/villages and the arrangements for the stranded people have left much to be desired.

 Based on reports by HRCP activists in the Malakand Division and other parts of NWFP/Pakhtunkhwa, visits to IDP camps by its activists and senior board members, and talks with many displaced people and several Nazims and public figures, the commission has released the following statement on the situation, its conclusions and recommendations:

Changing the way we have been By Ayaz Amir

( Comment by Awaam :  So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable—-Aldous Huxley )

The stakes couldn’t be higher nor the opportunity hidden in this hour of seeming distress more promising. Provided we don’t prove exceptionally unlucky once more — or exceptionally stupid — the crisis in which we find ourselves is an opportunity to change the face of Pakistan, change our direction and our established modes of thinking and make up for all the lost years — years lost to mediocre leadership, both civil and military.

It is not us who have created this moment of opportunity. Indeed it lay not in our power to do so. It has come our way through a combination of factors: America’s presence in Afghanistan; the growing Taliban threat within Pakistan; and Barack Obama as US president.

It is Obama’s approach to Afghanistan which has enhanced Pakistan’s importance — whether Pakistan’s inept leadership understands this or not. Crucial to any American success in Afghanistan — anything that enables the US to make a half-dignified exit from there — is Pakistan’s role or, specifically, the role of its army.

Global poverty: the human-rights dimension by Kate Allen

 Kate Allen is UK director of Amnesty International

The worldwide economic recession is working its way through every level of the global economy. Most people in the rich states of the west in one way or another are experiencing its negative effects with regard to their jobs, savings, prices for basic goods, and career-prospects. But the recession’s impact on people in the poorest and most conflict-ridden parts of the world – who were already living with great insecurity of employment, food and shelter – is even greater. Amnesty International’s latest annual report on the state of the world’s human rights, published on 28 May 2009, documents the devastating consequences of the crisis on the world’s poorest people – and finds that the economic problems they face are at their heart human-rights problems too. We are concerned that world leaders’ tendency to reduce the recession to a financial issue that requires limited technocratic solutions ignores this deep human-rights dimension.

Who will bell the cat ? And How ?

Here are three pieces published in daily ‘The News’. These represent a cross section of views. Although they discuss the problem of Swat Operation and IDPs from different perspective, the common theme is ‘What needs to be done and how it should be done?’. However no one clearly comes up with the answer to the question ‘Who’ needs to do this. And if the government is failing, as they all say or imply, how the hell are we going to change this?

Is any one listening? Who will bell the cat?

On the other side of despair. by Ali Asghar Khan, 

No escape from hell by Noreen Haider    and     

Winning the peace by Dr Maleeha Lodhi

On the other side of despair. by Ali Asghar Khan

“Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.” –T S Elliot

Amidst the insanity, the brutality, hate and intolerance, there remains an overwhelming desire for peace and security. In the face of daunting issues and powerful actors, many may doubt their ability to contribute to change and question the relevance of making an effort. The importance of raising citizen concerns individually or collectively for creating checks and balances is greater now than ever before. We as citizens must demand that the manner in which we resolve our problems reflects our reality and our interests. For ordinary citizens to abdicate this role under the present circumstances is simply suicidal.

Hypocrisy, fast becoming a national pastime, should no longer be tolerated.

The next phase. Dawn Editorial Sunday, 31 May, 2009

 FOUR weeks into the military operation in Malakand division, the flow of mixed news continues. Militarily, successes are being achieved; the latest good news is that Mingora has nearly been secured by the army. But on the humanitarian front troubling news continues to pour in: on Friday, the NWFP information minister claimed that the number of IDPs in the northwest has touched 3.4 million, and this at a time when international aid agencies are running short of money and supplies. Overall, the picture that is emerging is one of a reasonably successful military operation set against a humanitarian crisis of staggering proportions.

Indians and American weapons used by Tehreek e Taliban Terrorists

Now that Indian made weapons have been found in Swat, will the civilian government take up the matter on a diplomatic level?

By Sabeen Hafiz.  Originally published on ‘thecurrentaffairs.com’.

Briefing reporters about the progress of operation Rahe Rast, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas yesterday revealed the extent of foreign support that the TTP terrorists are getting from Afghanistan. Large caches of weapons of US and INDIAN origin have been found as the security forces completely secure control of Mingora city, destroying various training centres of terrorists and killing important militant commanders, the military said.

The Americans have their excuses in order – Earlier this year it was revealed that over 200,000 US weapons – including assault rifles and grenade launchers – are ‘missing’ from the US army’s inventory in Afghanistan. The US army is unable to provide serial numbers for a large number of the missing weapons and no records have been maintained for the location or disposition for the rest.