Hello friends,
I don't know how many of you know about the Hudood Ordinance in Pakistan. It's basically a law that intends to implement the punishments as mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, for example 80 lashes for drinking or amputation of left hand for theft. However, the Hudood Ordinance it most criticized for the punishment it metes out to raped women.
Under this law, a woman who is raped is asked to provide four Muslim male witnesses to testify that the woman was raped. Otherwise, the raped woman is guilty and the rapist is set free. If the raped woman is unmarried, she is guilty of fornication and is given 100 lashes. If the woman is married, she is guilty of adultery and given death by stoning.
Now, in Pakistan,I have still not seen or heard of death by stoning, but rape cases almost always blame the woman, and the rapists are free. I still fail to understand how a woman is supposed to produce four witnesses, according to this law, to prove her innocence.
Just yesterday, the Hudood Ordinance was to be repealed, but instead, it was watered down much to the disappointment of the human right activists and NGOs.
I have sympathy for President Musharraf. As much as he is trying to steer Pakistan to modernity, he is being held back by the more conservative elements in society. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.
Mansour
2 comments:
as you already know, this topic really angers me. i hate it when so called "muslim" countries want to impliment one part of Islamic law while ignoring all others. Shariah was ment to be taken as a WHOLE not in part. The quran says that someone who practices 90% islam is a zalim, kaffir, and munafiq.
in re this whole rape/witnesses thing, i still say that it is a misunderstanding of the intention of the law. many scholars believe that regular evidence rules apply to crimes such as rape, while fornication and adultry require 4 witnesses.
btw, when i say "someone who practices" i mean someone who rules (not the common muslim who ofcourse doesn't always practice 100% islam) and it is surah An-Nisa that says in more than one place "those who judge by anything but the quran are zalim, kaffir, and munafiq".
so. if we are going to judge, then we must ONLY judge by the Quran, and in that case, a lot of other rules in pakistan and elsewhere must change.
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