Adil Najam
This is a VERY DISTURBING video. Please view at your own discretion.
It is important, however, that we speak about and shout out about this video.
It shows a 17-year old girl being flogged by a Taliban leader of some sort in a perverted form of justice. Reportedly the incident happened in Kalakalay, Swat around 3 months ago (before the supposed peace deal with the government). The girl is being ‘punished’ for going somewhere without a male relative. Supposedly, the male companion was also flogged.
This video is also be discussed vigorously at Pakistaniat’s new Facebook page. Some of that disussion does not carry over here, although we hope it ultimately will.
In more recent developments, supposedly Sufi Mohammad in Swat has condemned the act and said this was not Baitullah’s Taliban. More importantly, the recent reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has taken su moto notice of this incident. According to The News
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Friday took a suo motu notice of the media footage in which a 17 year old girl is being whipped out in the broad daylight in Swat. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhdy ordered the matter to be presented before a larger bench on April 6. He also summoned Secretary Interior, IG and Chief Secretary on April 6. He ordered formation of 8-member larger bench to be headed by himself.
This is a story that all Pakistanis and all Muslims must speak about and speak against. There are those who will try to make this a story about what Pakistan or Islam is. Such bigoted approaches are to be resisted. This is not a story about what Pakistan is. This is clearly not about what Islam is. This is a story about what the enemies of Islam and enemies of Pakistan are doing. This is a story about what Pakistan must not allowed to become. The bad news is obvious in the video itself. The bad news is about the criminality being conducted in the name of religion. The good news is that the media, the judiciary and ordinary Pakistanis ARE speaking up and speaking out. We must do more so. For if we do not speak out against this criminality, who will?
1) Whether this video is fake or not, whether it is new or old are questions of lesser significance then the question of whether such things can be possible in NWFP and large parts of Afghanistan. The answer to the latter question, judging by Taliban’s track record in the 90’s, is a resounding ‘yes’.
2) Many of the bloggers of Pakistani origin who knew Pakistan of pre-Zia era can testify the sea-change in Pakistani mindset from a Sufi-oriented South Asian Islamic society to a jihad-crazed society in just over a decade between 1977 and 1989. Pakistan had seen a prologed military rule before under Ayub Khan but Pakistanis were basically the same in their mindset in 1969 as they were in 1958 as far as religion is concered. General Zia ul Haq destroyed Pakistan from within. No wonder his own son lost his seat in his home constituency in the Feb. 2008 elections.
3) Pakistan cannot win the war against the Talibans (or whatever militants) unless the war becomes known as Pakistan’s own war. Musharraf failed miserably in selling the war to Pakistanis. Zardari had no chance of convincing the nation that it is Pakistan’s own war. May be Mian Nawaz Sharif then? He is ideologically much closer to the religious Right.
Totally agree with comments made by walking_by….” Decoupling of religion and state is one of the fundamental requirements for a healthy society. “….we need to get rid of interfernce of religion in state…..this is barbaric….no one has any right to interfere in someones personal affairs and then punish them in public…..it is strange that we see a woman beaten for nothing…but have never heard these talibans beating up a rapist, or a murderer….they all desrve to die…may they burn in hell for ever…amen
hmm..according to the Wall Street Journal this girl was lashed for having “relations” with her father-in-law (at 17!). It is highly unlikely that this was consensual–we know that in India and Pakistan young women are often raped by their fathers and brothers in law. In other words, she
To see Asma Jahangir condemning this act and abusing those doing it was expected.Where was this champion of women’s rights when Afia Siddiqui was picked up and taken away to a US detention center.She kept a mysterious silence on that.
Neither has she ever spoken against hundreds of people gone missing from Pakistan.
Her only achievement so far has been to free hundreds of prostitutes held up in jails across the country.
She lobbied hard to get them released and to be back in business again.
Her activities should be watched closely and her backers need to be exposed.
I think the courts should start proceeding against the Taliban, starting with this spokesman guy, for spreading fitna. I don’t like violence but I will not mind seeing him being flogged the same way for spreading hatred and fitna in society.