Adil Najam
Report from News (21 February, 2007):
A fanatic shot dead Punjab Minister for Social Welfare Zill-e-Huma Usman “for not adopting the Muslim dress code” at a political meeting here at the PML House on Tuesday. A party worker caught the accused, Maulvi Sarwar, and handed him over to the Civil Lines Police. Huma was at the PML House to hold an open Kachehry. As she was busy meeting the PML women activists, the accused sitting in the audience approached her with a pistol and pumped bullets into her head from a point-blank range… The accused, M Sarwar Mughal – popularly known as Maulvi Sarwar – is a resident of Baghbnapura in Gujranwala. Two police stations of Gujranwala and the Tibbi police of Lahore had booked Maulvi Sarwar for the murder of six women, but he was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence. His alleged spree of killing “immoral” women started in the year 2002. In his confession statement before the police on Tuesday, he said he was opposed to women holding public office. He added that after he read in the newspaper that the minister was holding an open court, he decided to kill her.
Sometimes you just wonder why! Sometimes you just want to give up!
I have been feeling sad and numb and down and dejected all day. I heard about the brutal murder of Punjab Minister Zile Huma Usman’s murder by a crazed fanatic some 10 hours ago. And I have been in utter shock.
I have tossed and turned. I had thought earlier that I would not even write about it. What is the use? When a society goes so mad that a woman is killed just because she is a woman, what can a blog post do. Just ignite more silly debates; more childish heckling; more immature point-scoring; trying to show how smart you are; or, more likely, trying to show how idiotic others are; reaffirming your own belief that you are always right, and everyone else is always wrong; single-track chest thumping; self-righteous finger-pointing. No remorse. No compassion; not a word of sympathy; not a shred of caring. All there is, is anger; getting high on our own anger; anger for its own sake; getting so very angry that you even forget what or who you are angry at.
But now I do want to write about this. We, as a society, have some serious thinking to do.
What killed Zille Huma Usman? Not religion. Not madness. But anger. Uncontrolled anger.
A society that seems to be fueled by anger. No conversation is seen to be legitimate unless it is an angry conversation. And the solution to everything seems to be violence. ‘Kill the infidels’ say the believers. ‘Kill the mullahs’ shout the modernists. ‘Hang them by the gallows.’ ‘Put them in boats and let them sink.’ ‘Death is what they deserve.’ We have heard it all right here. I suspect we will hear it again. That dastardly, self-righteous anger. This violence in the language, as Zille Huma so tragically found, becomes the violence of bloodshed all too easily. Today it was in the name of religion. Tomorrow it will be something else.
So, do me a favor folks. Give her some dignity. Hold your anger. Think about what happened. Ponder. And pause. For the sake of whatever is sacred to you; please pause!
An innocent woman’s life has already been taken by our inability to put a lid on our passions and our anger. Let us please not make a tamasha out of her death by making her a poster child for whatever ’cause’ we are parading for right now.
I believe the idea behind Adil’s efforts was to ask us, that inhabit these pages, to save our best for constructive ideas. In other words, not to be unemotional but to let our emotions work up into thoughtful expressions.
Here is something that I just read that pushed me over the hump to make my post:
“Males banned from women WC qualifiers in Pak”
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/women/content/curr ent/story/281163.html
I think this issue throws light on the sad killing of the woman minister. If society believes ‘women’ have a certain circumscribed role, invariably every push to extend that boundary will be met by resistance. Ex, women taking part in politics. The progress will be slow. This resistance can radicalise with impunity when law&order enforcement is weak. Similarly, weak institutions mean it cannot be checked effectively.
If institutional mechanisms cannot, for a variety of reasons, check the menace, what other methods exist?
1. A counter-radical group take the fight to the radicals(obviously a gory and undesirable idea)
2. The victims take to the street (meaning women and their supporters) and try to win power. (cannot happen given very few women have a sense of their rights; two, votes don’t matter currently)
3. Higher power (read Musharraf) is convinced, and uses his power to put down the menace. (but he’s got his compulsions, so no political will)
Which leaves me to think that the one legitimate method left is for society to isolate these radicals. i.e. take a clear, unbending stance against even a whiff of this intolerance, in all walks. For ex, not support this idea that single men cannot watch women play cricket (unless there is real danger that the single men will overpower the security personnel and harm the women). So, isolation – just isolation, no need to label the radicals, labels often blunt the edge when fighting for a progressive cause I believe. And each person’s isolation will have a different flavor. Needless to say, this strategy can have an impact only if a good number (esp those with some power) adopt it.
Maybe that would be a good start. Whether such a thing is happening to a meaningful extent in Pakistan, I would like to know.
My two cents…
[quote comment=”35129″]lets just give up hypocricy,just admit it,in this particular islam is directly responsible for the murder of zille humma,doesnt islam say women should stay in their houses?doesnt islam say women should wear the hijab ,and it is the responsibility of men to safeguard a womens honour,so it all sums up,we must give up our rather silent approach regarding islam,nobody is buying our words anymore that islam is a religion of peace,soon the islamists will be branded as nazis and punished,when i say soon,i mean very soon,cos already the west has made it clear that islam is incompatible with western way of life.[/quote]
[quote comment=”35129″]lets just give up hypocricy,just admit it,in this particular islam is directly responsible for the murder of zille humma,doesnt islam say women should stay in their houses?doesnt islam say women should wear the hijab ,and it is the responsibility of men to safeguard a womens honour,so it all sums up,we must give up our rather silent approach regarding islam,nobody is buying our words anymore that islam is a religion of peace,soon the islamists will be branded as nazis and punished,when i say soon,i mean very soon,cos already the west has made it clear that islam is incompatible with western way of life.[/quote]
and let’s learn to spell and punctuate while we’re at it. Anyway, if you have anti-Islamic views, you do not have to disguise yourself as a Muslim.
What’s most unfortunate is that our mullah jahils seem to be getting their education from Osama et al and our ‘parhay likhay’ elite seem to be getting their religious education from Fox News.
May God grant her the highest level of jannah and give her family peace. The women of Pakistan do need to stand up for themselves. We cannot look to anyone but God for help.
I skimmed through some of the comments and I liked the idea of setting up a fund or a scholarship in her name. I would certainly contribute to it.
[quote]”Well sorry to burst your bubbles â€
It’s pathetic that people here playing dirty politics and using a death accident to promote their agenda.