Party Vibe

Hudood laws can punish women for extra-marital sex

The Pakistani parliament has resumed debating a controversial women’s rights bill which seeks to change existing strict Sharia laws on rape.
The bill was tabled but withdrawn in September in face of angry opposition.
Pakistani religious parties have warned of protests if they deem attempts to revise the laws to be “un-Islamic”.
Currently, all sex outside marriage is illegal. Women alleging rape must produce four male witnesses – if not they can face prosecution for adultery.

The government’s attempts to pass the legislation are being seen as a crucial test of President Pervez Musharraf and his stated commitment to an enlightened, moderate form of Islam.
On the eve of the debate, Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani said the government meant to see the bill through “no matter what the opposition”.
But the BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says the signs are that the government has watered down the legislation in the face of opposition from the powerful religious lobby.
‘Lewdness’
A woman is raped every two hours and gang-raped every eight hours in Pakistan, according to the country’s independent Human Rights Commission.

Correspondents say these figures are probably an under-estimation as many rapes are not reported.
Campaigners say the way current laws are framed makes it virtually impossible to prosecute rape.
The version of the Women’s Protection Bill put before legislators in the summer caused such an outcry that parliament was prorogued.
It would have allowed alleged rapists to be tried under civil as well as Islamic law.
Human rights activists said this would create confusion, allowing powerful religious lobbies to manipulate what is seen as a weak judicial system.
Pakistan’s religious parties called the legislation “a harbinger of lewdness and indecency in the country”, and against the strictures of the Koran and Sharia law.
They are now threatening nationwide protests if the revised bill is not to their liking.
Addressing parliament on Wednesday, the leader of the six-party MMA Islamic alliance, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, said without changes the bill would “turn Pakistan into a free-sex zone”.
Law Minister Wasi Zafar, meanwhile, told a television station that “some of the MMA’s proposals had been included in the bill”.
Lashings
Rape and adultery in Pakistan are dealt with under the Hudood Ordinance, a controversial set of Islamic laws introduced from 1979 by Gen Zia-ul-Haq.
They include sections prescribing lashing and stoning as punishments for adultery.
The bill tabled in the summer has since been reviewed by a panel of ulema, or Islamic scholars, who suggested three revisions.
The government says it wants to achieve consensus. Observers say much depends on which draft has been tabled in parliament.
“The version which they distributed in the assembly appears to be the ulema committee’s version,” a senior ruling coalition MP told the BBC on the eve of the debate. The BBC’s Barbara Plett in Islamabad says the women’s bill is also being seen as an indication of what political alliances might contest elections next year.