Adil Najam
This photograph was published in Daily Times, January 12, 2009. The caption read:
“Women are not allowed in the market,” reads a banner displayed at the entrance of a market in Mingora. Taliban have banned the entry of women in markets and ordered the killing of women who violate the ban. Most shop owners have sold or shut down their businesses because of falling sales following the restriction.
What would have made this tragic depiction comical had the context been different is that from the picture this is clearly a textile and cloth market - the type of market where, in Pakistan, you would expect most customers to be women!
@Tinwoman
the world is bound to notice the muslim shouting the loudest, even killing and maiming. as it should. timothy mcviegh’s name is slightly more likely to stick, than thos eof the millions of other lanky young men roaming the main streets of the american mid-west.
zia used his absolute power to introduce laws that the taliban would have been proud of. (ironically, and painfully and humiliatingly so for pakistani moderates, he got the red carpet treatment in washington + lots of money, and european capitals). musharraf used his absolute power to do next to nothing about correcting zia’s wrongs. indeed, he milked the gangrinous wounds that the diseases introduced by zia had become. (equally ironically, he too received royal treatment + pleanty of dollars, in the west, to the despair and disillusionment of pakistani moderates and democrats.)
it is an existential battle for pakistan and pakistani moderates. we’ll fight it and drag the appeasers and the cowards along with us, no matter how many and what excuses they make.
when the world, the UN or universal morality speaks of freedom to practice religion, it means strictly in the personal domain. there is no human right which allows freedom to impose religion upon others (even your co-religionists. indeed it is a breach of other people’s human rights). an individual, group or nation that sees a public, especially political (and therefore, potentially, military) role for religion must be seen very suspiciously and stopped at the first sign of the slightest breach of another’s human rights. this has to be done with whatever legitimate means necessary in proportion to the gravity of the breach and therefore the threat. root causes like opression, ignorance, poverty can be addressed simultaeously but must never be confused with the need to nip a crime in the bud, with extreme alacrity and thoroughness.
i can hardly be inspired by some kind of bias or prejudice against muslims, since i am one myself. a fairly religious one at that, not that it is any body’s business. i only stated it publicly as a defence, in advance, of an anticipated accusation. otherwise, my religion has no role, whatsoever, outside of my private and personal life. i’m a pakistani too, and a patriotic one at that, so.. No, I am not anti-Pakistan. What I am against, however, vehemently and to the core of my being, I think I have made plain in the first paragraph.
salam to taliban…………
oops sorry , i couldnt remember they are all illetarate, so how they will read my comments,
so guys just think about the above two lines… and that what TALIBAN can be described as totaly JAHIL and unaware of both islamic mdern world society. shame…….
best regards
asad
exactive manager of kaif industries
lahore.
@tinwoman
Complex social and national problems cannot be solved by attacking religion as a whole. Religion is here to stay, you better reconcile yourself to it.
@tinwoman
Attacking religion as a whole is a mistake secular fundamentalists routinely make. Your history of Islam regarding women and its expansion is also wrong. Islamic empires indeed grew through the sword, but so did all empires in history. Islam on the other hand spread mostly through choice, which is why lands like India, Spain today are not Muslim-majority.
Social issues and national problems cannot be solved by simply saying “F–K religion”.
@tinwoman
I think you are absolutely right. But here’s the problem. I would be surprised if even 2% of Muslims are ready to hear what you have to say, even the ‘moderate’ ones. Actually I think you can get executed in some Muslim countries for saying something like that. The best we can hope for at this point is some sort of reform.
And this is not just true for Muslims either. Christians, Jews, Hindus etc all have delusions about their religions being divine and true and perfect. That’s what sustains these primitive doctrines.
Sorry Tinwoman.
My apologies for the typos. (This happens when one reads a really stimulating post and can’t wait long enough to respond).
The first para should read:
That is all I can say. After all the pussyfooting around the elephant in the room (that religion is) by all of us moderates, your post comes as breath of fresh air.
@ Tinwoman
Amazing.
That is all I can saw. After all the pussyfooting around the elephant in the room by all of us moderates, your post comes as afresh of breath air.
Not being a muslim myself, I personally feel uncomfortable spelling out my own stance in so many words but agree with your point wholeheartedly.
Religion; of any kind, belongs to a person’s personal domain (which in my case is limited to questions of philosophy) and yet we see all sorts of absurdities in the name of religion when applied to the public arena in the modern world.
The sooner that modern natione recognise this (more so those with composite societies like India and Pakistan) the better it is.
Teachers and educators (along with othe rsocial leaders) carry a special responsibility in this regard since the young and impressionable minds are the ones most vulnerable to seduction and subsequent exploitation in the name of religion.
Only one religion belongs in the public arena and that is Insaaniat.