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!
Can someone here please clarify what Islam really says about women though? If the Taliban are to be refuted, moderates should have some proof on hand to counter their propaganda, since they claim to be implementing the real Islam.
Does Saudi Arabia, as a native speaker of the language in which most Islamic precepts are written down, implement the correctly interpreted Islam? If not, who does and on what basis?
@Adnan Siddiqi
Hey I dont think i communicated what i tried to convey properly.
My objection was very simple. Someone put a banner that women are not allowed to shop in some market. Every modearate (including me) raised their voice in protest. Awesome!!! Thats what should happen in any civilized society.
Someone wrote in Pakistan’s constituion that women can’t be President. Why that was written at the first place and why there is no protest from the same. Talibanis bombed the schools of girls in SWAT and disallowed girls to study. No governemnt action was taken(i mean hell should break loose) ? Why nobody raised a voice then ? Someone wrote that since rape laws were being monitored by sharia law, women’s witness was not entertained(http://tinyurl.com/yk7lz5). Why this was allowed at the first place ? Don’t you think that inequality of women in Pakistan is a much broader phenomena than conveyed by this banner ?
And oh… As far as women in US are concerned, i think you only see vulgarity in US and not their achievements. Just see few other areas(Business,Science,politics, Medicine) to see women achievements there. The fact that you are using a computer, you owe something to a lady called Ada Lovelace.
As far as shaving cream thing is concerned, let them show anything. Why should i have any objection as long as shaving cream is good ? When you open your shaving company, show only beared Mullas :D rather than pretty girls, nobody will be objecting.
@EMM ECH
>>>1. THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT ISLAM AND WOMEN. >>>It is about TALIBAN AND WOMEN
IMHO the reason Taliban/Women/Islam is getting intermixed in this dicsussion is this:
_Taliban_ is saying that according to their interpreration of _Islam_, _Woman_ should stay indoors, not go to school, cover herself from head to toe in viel etc. The reason this is a threat to Pakistan is because they have used the method of fear to force people follow their interpretation in SWAT and they have started using same statergy in other cities like Islamabad by bombing up the things.
The only hope is the leaders at the captial whoe IMO are modearte enough. But , God forbid, one more General Zia ul Haq and even Islamabad will be vieled.
These are criminals and thugs. We should not glorify them as being religious anything. We should treat them as what they are. Traitors, criminals and thugs. The government should enhance the police action against these criminals and give them the due punishment against the country of Pakistan. They should be tried on the charge of treason since that is really what they have done by taking control of and going against the authority of the state.
All this other nonsense about religion, whether from them or from some outside commenters is exactly that and should best be ignored.
@ Bonobashi
Thanks for the post. Your answer is clear when one reads between the lines. I hope that your answer to my question (As to what the moderate Muslims think of other non Muslims) is shared by most educated Muslims in Pakistan. I agree with your premise that Islam of Bulleh Shah (and of Baba Farid, Mian Mir and countless Sufi other saints) is a South Asian treasure.
My original intent for the questions posted though was to find out what interpretation of Islam is being espoused by middle of the road Pakistanis.
It is quite clear reading most posts that most believe that Taliban’s extreme interpretation is unIslamic.
However, it is felt by many observers (Non Indian, Western journalists) outside Pakistan that Pakistani middle class is quietly turning to a more Puritanical world view.
I am aware that this forum is concerned mainly about the treatment of women by the Talibanised radicals but am asking the above question is a attempt to understand the larger political-social context of current Pakistani Society. Do most Pakistanis feel that equality of women in all aspects of society is compatible with their interpretation of religion?
Do most Pakistanis feel treating other non Muslims as exact equals as human beings compatible with their beliefs?
I live in Northern California and though not a Muslim myself, I occasionally get these questions asked by other Americans; (on the account of my brown skin maybe ;-)) by people who sometimes equate all Asian Muslims with the Wahabi interpretation).
Personally I agree with Bonobashi regarding the Islamic values and have the highest regard for those values.
It is the interpretation of these values by the young educated Muslims that I am hoping I can get an answer on.