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!
Jab tak ye madrassay band nahi hu gay ..ye naam nihaad jehadi aisay hee bantay rahaein gay.. …. The present day taliban are the product of these madrassas where the education is based on hatred… The system was created to produce FREE FOOT SOLDIERS for Afghan war and now they produce nothing but pain for Pakistan and Ummah.
I wonder why these days…
1. Our media completely ignore the coverage of atrocities done by these barbarians and call them ‘Shidat-Pasand / Askariyaat Pasand’ rather calling them criminals and Dahshaat Gard…. no one pointing fingers when Army choose to look the otherway while Taliban go on murder spree.. an example is killing of pro Pakistan Peer sahab and regular killings in main bazars.
2. Today our nation is more worried about Palestenians being murdered in Gaza then Pakistani being murdered in Swat?? No julus against the Taliban but big rallies against Irael…??
3. How come the Taliban killed the local leaders of ANP and PPP but never go against MMA, JUI, PML people in NWFP??
The sad part is that there are still Pakistanis who try to defend these acts of crime as if they had something to do with religion. Just because these bunch of frustrated hooligans say that they are doing this in teh name of Islam does not make it Islam.
I agree, Pakistan’s biggest challenge is dealing with the rise of these criminal Talibans. Those who really care about Islam and Muslims shoudl be most concerned about putting an end of this Talibanization of Pakistan.
@ Anwar! The Islamic values that we Muslims live our daily lives upon! You and i know the ethics and morals of humanity, that how we should present ourselves in the public, what we wear, what we do? I am not talking about core Islamic values, because its Pakistan and no one can deny the fact that Pakistan has always been governed by corrupt landlords which fails to bring forward simple solutions for people to have normal lives. You can talk about extremism in North and economy to the shores of Pakistan and hence, everything happens, good and bad, but in the end people in Pakistan still live their lives in a closed box!
This is just plain shameful and more than just a tad stupid. Although, there’s no real surprise there.
While the world goes onwards, here we are regressings slowly to pre-jahilia times thanks to an illiterate group of people whose ideology is completely alien to any sensible human.
This is a really sad state of affairs and shows that these Taliban are now in full control. Today it is Swat, tomorrow it will be Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. These people with their killing and fear tactics really have to be stopped. All true Pakistanis should be united in the fight against these enemies of Pakistan.