Girl's fight for justice breaks silence on incest in Pakistan

After her father began raping her, Mariam felt scared, ashamed and vulnerable.

The Pakistani teenager, who was around 13 or 14 when the attacks began, couldn’t have known her case would lift the veil on an explosive issue long-shrouded in stigma and bereft of justice in her country – incest.

In 2009, the year the attacks began, a trio of human rights organisations took up her case: international group Equality Now, as well as Pakistani women’s rights organisations War Against Rape, Lahore and Nasreen Welfare Trust Legal Aid Services (NWT). Mariam* served as the inspiration for their report “A Struggle for Justice: Incest Victims in Pakistan,” issued on Jan. 24.

Incest isn’t even listed in the Pakistan Penal Code. It’s rarely discussed and even more rarely reported, according to the report. There are no statistics on incest and, often, little or no punishment for those who perpetrate it. Families typically cover it up and discourage victims from reporting it out of fear that the family honour will be tarnished.

“The kind of damage that this concept of honour can do to entire families is beyond belief,” Mehr Qureshi, programme officer at Equality Now and a lead researcher on the project, told TrustLaw.

The two-year research project breaks ground in an area that few have explored. No one knows the scope of the incidence of incest in Pakistan.

“I have not come across any credible numbers on this particular crime,” Qureshi told TrustLaw.

However, she said, anecdotal evidence from groups on the ground indicate that “it is quite widespread.”

The report highlights the obstacles that stand in the way of alleged victims of incest who want to pursue justice against their attackers. The chronology of Mariam’s experience illustrates these obstacles vividly.

After years of physical and sexual abuse by her husband, Mariam’s mother left her six children. Shortly after that, Mariam’s father began molesting and raping Mariam, threatening to kill her siblings if she complained.

But a vigilant teacher noticed her distress, learned about the sexual abuse and called Mariam’s mother. Her mother took her daughter to the police station, where officers expressed scepticism and encouraged the mother and daughter to drop the matter. Such behavior by police is typical, according to the report.

Undeterred, Mariam’s mother pressed the issue and registered the case. But the prosecutor assigned to the case was equally reluctant to proceed and attempted to get the case dropped. At that point, Equality Now and a lawyer from NWT took the case. They had the prosecutor suspended and the case reopened for investigation.

The medical examination Mariam endured was traumatic, conducted by a medico-legal officer who doubted Mariam’s story and referred her to a gynaecoloist, who misplaced the test results. The case proceeded, but with numerous delays instigated by the defence lawyer. That resulted in lengthy and costly waits for Mariam and her family in court waiting areas shared with her father.

When it finally took place, the trial also was difficult for Mariam. At the insistence of her lawyer, the court allowed her to testify behind a screen, carted daily from a nearby hospital, so she would not have to testify in sight of her father.

The prosecutor, who was supposed to defend her, harmed her case by noting that the medical exam showed no sign of bruising or other violence, raising questions as to whether the sex was consensual between father and daughter. Mariam’s lawyer objected and prevailed.

On July 22, 2011, the court sentenced Mariam’s father to death by hanging for raping his daughter. The judge found the defence case flawed and ruled that the absence of marks of violence did not support the defendant’s contention that sex was consensual. Her father has appealed the sentence and is currently in jail, awaiting the appeal hearing.

It was a rare victory in the history of Pakistani incest cases, which the report documents extensively.

In many cases, the report said, prosecutors may be bribed by wealthy defendants to either drop incest cases or mishandle them by suppressing summonses, failing to inform complainants of court dates or not representing the best interest of the alleged victims for whom they are supposed to advocate.

Eight of the report’s 33 pages are devoted to recommendations on legal and procedural reforms to improve reporting of incest and facilitate its prosecution in Pakistan. Included are detailed examples of best legal practices in this area, including many from other Muslim countries that have legislation on incest.

“We are planning to send this to members of the Law and Justice Commission in Pakistan, have them take a look at it and have them review it and see how they feel would be the best way to move forward on this,” Qureshi told TrustLaw.

The Law and Justice Commission is a federal body headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and includes 12 other high-ranking members representing every province, including the chief justices of the superior courts, the attorney general, the secretary of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights and the chair of the National Commission on the Status of Women.

“The report advocates for reform of laws and procedures to guarantee that the rights of survivors are safeguarded and to ensure better implementation of laws through capacity-building of all stakeholders in the legal justice system,” Yasmeen Hassan, global director of Equality Now, said in a statement.

“It is our hope that this report will be utilised as a tool toward making the Pakistani justice system more victim-friendly which will encourage greater reporting of cases and simultaneously have a deterrent effect on perpetrators.”

*Name has been changed to protect identity
source

Poor enrollment of Muslim women in colleges prompted her to embark on a mission

Some people are born with a mission. Others discover it along the way. A few develop it just about when others of their age are ready to retreat into seclusion, to spend their remaining days in contemplation and introspection, doing the little things of life – reading or gardening- that they were too busy to do earlier.

Prof. Hasnath Mansur’s life demonstrates that it is never too late to contribute to society. She started active social work after she retired, committing herself to improve the lives of Muslim women, “Education is their way out” she says.

Bangalore-based Prof. Mansur should know. For 23 years she was the principal of a girls’ college. Throughout her life, what struck her most were the dramatic absence Muslim women in higher education.

She had started her education in Salem, Tamil Nadu. In the local Sharada College, of the 2,000 students, only five were Muslim girls. In a college in Coimbatore where 1,500 students were enrolled, just four were Muslim.

She says “It was so depressing. These were big colleges getting huge grants from the government. But the visibility of Muslims was nonexistent. I started wondering what’s wrong with my community?”

Over the years, she discovered that acute poverty was the main culprit. Except for a few households, most Muslims in the area were dirt poor. Parents could not afford the fees. “One of the biggest and enduring myths is that it is our religion that stands in the way of Muslim women’s progress. But I can say with conviction that it is not Islam but poverty that is the root cause” she says.

It was disconcerting that many Hindus and Christians believed the myth that Islam imposed restrictions on women. “But far more disturbing” says Prof. Mansur “was that many Muslims too believe this myth.” There was very little that Prof. Mansur could do to break this myth as long as she was working. Life was too hectic. But when she retired, she felt the urge to do something for “the hapless, voiceless section” of her community.

If Islam did indeed forbid education for women, then here devout father, a district sessions judge, would not have educated her. The trouble was that poverty unfortunately kept the Muslim community not only poor, but backward, ignorant, superstitious and illiterate. Prof. Hasnath points out that this enabled a misguided section of the orthodox clergy to get away with their misinterpretations of Islam. The indisputable fact is that when it took root in the 7th century, Islam enshrined more rights for Muslim women than what were enjoyed by Jewish and Christian women at that time. But some self appointed male custodians of social more misinterpreted the Koran to accord religious sanction to the prevalent patriarchal, tribal and feudal traditions in Arabia. And that continues till this day. Thus in addition to poverty, ignorance and ill health, Indian Muslim women had to cope with the added burden outdated or incorrect interpretations of the Islamic Law (Shariah).

Prof. Mansur was clear on two things: First, that Islam guaranteed rights for women. And second, the Indian constitution also guaranteed rights for women. It became her mission to propagate these ideas to poor Muslim women so that they could improve their lives and the lives of their families.

However, the real problem lay in the fact that there is no universally codified legal interpretation of women’s rights in the Muslim Ummah (community). The challenge therefore lay in educated Muslim women like her coming to the forefront to ensure that the right of women under the Qur’an and Shariah are progressively interpreted, ensure that these rights are protected and create awareness among Muslims, especially the women, of these rights so that they are protected so that they do not continue to be legally, economically and socially undermined in a male-dominated society using religion as a pretext.

But Prof. Mansur was in a bit of a dilemma. She had retired and finally has time on her hands. But she didn’t know how to go about it. She says: “What can you do after retirement? I didn't want o join politics or sit in dharnas. I was too old for all that. This country is not for old people.”

But rather fortuitously, she connected with IFES, an international NGO committed to the spread of democracy and human rights. They had just set up shop in India and had started the Muslim Women’s Initiative to promote Muslim women’s rights. Her agenda coincided perfectly with the IFES, which had evolved a comprehensive tool kit, comprising information leaflets, posters, handbills and charts. Thus together, from2005, they started conducting a series of camps to spread the message.

Instead of people coming to them they went to the people with their message. Prof. Mansur recoils with horror as she remembers her first foray into a poor Muslim neighborhood in Bangalore.

Says she: “It was so horribly dirty and stinking. The smell was so foul, I couldn’t breathe. There were open, festering slimy drains all around, just think, children are born and die here.”

The local residents mocked her: “You can’t breathe this air for five minutes. But we live here.” Her heart broke but her eyes blazed with anger. “Everyone goes on about Bangalore being the Silicon Valley of India. Our authorities spend millions of Rupees beautifying Brigade Road and Commercial Street. But in localities like these, where no VIP ever visits even the basic civic amenities are missing. You become cynical.”

But rather than succumb to cynicism, the grim reality only strengthened her resolve to extricate her community out of this mess. Ultimately, women would get to know of their right and insist on securing them if they were educated.

In her camps, Prof. Mansur quoted from the Qur’an and the Indian constitution to inform the Muslim women about their rights. Recalls Prof. Mansur: “Words like Constitution are too big for them to comprehend. So one has to describe it in ways that they understand. It has to be relevant to their condition if they are to make sense of it.”

So she talked about the rights an Indian Citizen enjoyed under the constitution, the freedom and the protection guaranteed by it, the right to have food, clothes, house and work. The Muslim women were amazed when she quoted verses from the Qur’an that protected the rights of women.

She stressed the need to become literate. The Qur’an guarantees women the right to education, income and share in property. A marriage cannot be consecrated until girl has given consent. Mehr (dowry) is paid to the bride and it must be handed over to her before the marriage is solemnized.

Islam prescribed the hijab (head scarf) but not the niqaab or face veil that is more of an Arabic custom. The Qur’an emphasis is on women preserving their dignity and modesty so as to not reduce themselves to sexual objects. Prof. Mansur told them: “It doesn’t matter what your local Imam says. This is what our Hazrat (Prophet Muhammad) has said.”

The camps created a subtle but significant shift in attitudes. Till now, most Muslim activism was restricted to charity work, collecting money or relief materials and distributing to the needy. Says Prof. Mansur: “We were doing something for the first time. We are giving information. Facts and verses from the Qur’an. We are making them think.”

Significantly, the camps did not only address women. Men boys, students were also encouraged to attend. Some camps in fact were exclusively for men. Reveals Prof. Mansur: “We expected some resistance from the men. But we surprised. They were supportive, they were very impressed by the charts and kept telling us that they didn’t know this is what the Qur’an actually stated.”

In the beginning, the men were a bit diffident, not entirely forthcoming. “But” explains Prof. Mansur, “they were a bit withdrawn, not because of their gender but because they were uneducated.”

Inevitably, there were some illiberal sections of the Muslim community that viewed the camps with suspicion. Prof. Mansur calls them “subversives”. They threatened and warned, proclaiming they would urge people to boycott, pelt stones and disrupt the camps.

But Prof. Mansur and her team took it in their stride, remained undeterred in their mission. Eventually, nothing of the sort happened. Says Prof. Mansur: “It’s all a matter of traditional elite wishing to continue to exercise their power and control over the masses. They can do so only if the bulk of Muslims remain poor, uneducated and backward.

“They feed them with illusions of the after life so that they meekly endure the misery and injustices they suffer here on earth. When these elite see their power and control weakening, they hit back. They browbeat and threaten us. But we have to offer stiff resistance. Eventually, they will back off when their hold on the populace genuinely weakens. Education, especially for women, is the best way to ensure that this happens. It may take a generation, but it will happen.”

source

Sheltering the marginalised: The Pakistani Mother Teresa

LAHORE: Meet Josephine, a 34-year-old divorced mother of two. She runs an orphanage outside Lahore, where she gives shelter to children and has become a saviour to those bonded by labour.

“I visit brick kiln factories, where single parents and the elders of orphans make these little ones work to pay the debt they have taken,” says Josephine
Her task is not an easy one, as she has to convince the guardians that they are better off with her. “I am currently pursuing a mother of five to give her children to me because her husband died and now she has to work day and night along with her children to pay his debt.”
Brick kiln owners are the main hurdle and have threatened her. “They say if I can pay their loan, I can take the children, otherwise they will work till the loan is paid.”

In Pakistan, although illegal, slavery in brick kiln factories is common knowledge and it originates from a vicious circle of debt which sucks in labourers. Josephine has surveyed these factories for a year and has been able to convince almost 20 families to give their children to her.
She only helps the Christian minority currently because she feels they are more marginalised. “Most of the workers at these places are of Christian faith, and that is why I contact the local pastor of the area and take him along too, to get easy access.”

Trained to be a nun but not allowed by her parents to leave the country, Josephine now uses what she has learnt to mother the orphans.
She has rented an upper portion of a house, 20 kilometers outside Lahore, for Rs5,000 per month, where she lives with her own two offspring plus another 10 boys and 7 girls.

“I do not have any funding source. I teach at a local private school, and with whatever money I get, I try to give these children their lives back.” Along with this, she receives help from her brothers and the school principal where she is employed, but things are still hard. “Thankfully the principal has acknowledged my efforts, and has waived off fee for these children.”

Surprisingly, ever since she started the orphanage, she has been asked by a number of parents to take their children away. “People are so poor in these villages that they want to get rid of the children even they are not in debt.”
But she rejects them saying that she doesn’t want those who are orphans to feel different while living with such children who have parents.
The children in Josephine’s care were not allowed to go to school due to their slavery status, Now they have learnt how to read and write.

source

'Strict Muslim' raped four women at knifepoint to 'punish them for being on the streets at night'

Comment: Only 11 years imprisonment! This is a disgrace, this man is a curse on humanity.

A Muslim man who raped women to 'teach them a lesson' for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely today because of the danger he poses to women.
Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strict Muslim family, dragged his terrified victims - including a 15-year-old - from the street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign of terror.
Police fear that Islam may have attacked many more.
Three of the assaults took place close to his home in Barking, east London, while a fourth occurred in nearby Forest Gate.
Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing him to a minimum of 11 years, said: 'The harm you have done to your victims is incalculable.
'The nature and extent of these offences drives me to the conclusion that you represent an extreme and continuing danger to women, particularly those out at night.'
He was traced through the number plate of his girlfriend's car after he kidnapped and raped the 15-year-old in September 2010.
He grabbed her from behind as she walked home with a friend and bundled her into the car at knifepoint before driving to a secluded spot where he raped her twice despite her claiming she was only 11 years old.

Judge Lees said: 'You told her you were going to "teach her a lesson", and similar things were said to the other women.
'Those words are a chilling indictment of your very troubling attitude towards all of these victims.
'You seem to observe women out at night as not deserving respect or protection.

'I have no doubt that you were out that night looking for a victim, as you were on each of these occasions.'
The teen, who feared she would be murdered, was in court and smiled as her attacker was jailed.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, she said: 'No one will ever understand the flashbacks - they are so real. At night, I lay in my bed and it is like I am there.
'It is like a screen in my mind forcing me to relive that night again and again.
'People will say time will heal, but I think time has helped me accept the truth - that I will never escape what has happened to me.'
After his arrest, Islam's DNA was linked with three other attacks near his home in Barking, prosecutor Sara Lawson told Woolwich Crown Court.

The judge said on July 8, 2010 he subjected a 20-year-old prostitute to 'his trademark double rape' and then tied her up, repeatedly punched her in the face and stole her wallet.
She said: 'He treated me like an animal and made me feel worthless - I thought I was going to die.'
Six days later, in Forest Gate, he struck again on a 28-year-old when he dragged her into his car and forced her to commit a sex act.
She managed to kick out the back window of his car and escape despite being throttled.
His fourth victim, also attacked in September, did not come forward until police found the 31-year-old's blood in the back of the car along with a knife he used to threaten his victims and plastic ties he bound them with.
She was repeatedly repeatedly punched in the face until she was bleeding and then tied up and raped twice.

Islam, who told the jury he was a practising Muslim, was convicted of seven charges of rape, one of sexual assault and one of kidnap.
Tana Adkin, defending, said: 'The only piece of mitigation is his age. He was 21 at the time of these offences and comes from something of a strict background.'
His mother, in religious dress, sat with her covered head bowed throughout and wept as her son was jailed.
Judge Lees said: 'The fact that you have attacked these women not withstanding your background must represent your own wholly warped personality.'
After the trial, Det Chief Insp John Sandlin, of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command who investigated the offences, said they believed there may be other victims who had not come forward, but Islam has not been charged with any further offences.

source

HADITH OF THE DAY: 'OBEDIENCE IS REQUIRED ONLY IN WHAT IS GOOD'

A military commander appointed by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once issued an improper order to his troops. When the soldiers asked the Prophet about how they should have reacted to the order, he said: "(There is) no obedience (required) for evil deeds. Obedience is required only in what is good."

Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 9, Hadith 363

Imam Bukhari: The founder of Hadith science

Imam Bukhari is a name that creates a sense of reverence and respect in every Muslim's heart. He was one of the greatest scholars of Islam and the founder of Hadith science. His prestigious compilation named Jame Al-Sahih is regarded as the second authentic book of Islam after the Holy Qur'an.

It was in the second century Hijrah when most of the Sahaba who had learned Islam from the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) directly were diminishing one after another. The last of Prophet's companions passed away in 110 A.H. Subsequently a possibility of misquoting the Prophet (peace be upon him) by some people with vested interest was quite apparent. So it was essential to collect and authenticate true Hadiths without sponsorship of any ruling authority, regional or national. It was a gigantic work to collect all the prevailing statements and to classify them into the relevant categories, as authentic, good, poor and false.

This was a great task, which Imam Bukhari, a non-Arab from Khorasan, shouldered. He spent 16 years in searching, collecting and refining the material of Hadith. Not only this, he fixed the most rigid rules to evaluate and authenticate any circulating Hadith. Thus he is known as the Founder of Hadith science. The rest of his life was spent in teaching and propagating the Hadith literature. One of his students, Imam Muslim, rose to the second position in the world in Hadith compilation.

Imam Bukhari was born in Bukhara in 196 A.H. (810 A.D.) now in Uzbekistan). His father died when he was still young. He had lost his sight in infancy but his mother's prayers and invoking blessed him a sharp sight and sharp memory that enabled him to read and write in the moonlight and if he had read or heard something, it would remain in his memory forever.

He memorized the Holy Qur'an at the age of 9. Then began to learn Hadith from scholars of his region. At the age of 18 he traveled to Makkah and stayed there for 16 years collecting Hadiths. He visited Egypt and Syria twice, Basra four times, spent many years in Hijaz and went to Kufa and Baghdad many times. It is said that he learned about 600,000 Hadith from more than 1,000 scholars.

While returning to Bukhara after 16 years he began to compile Jame Al Sahih. He judged 7,275 Hadith from his large collection and arranged them in 93 chapters. Though Imam Bukhari wrote many books, he shot to prominence because of Tarikh Al-Kabeer, Adab Al-Mufrad and Sahih Al-Bukhari. The first one he wrote in full moon nights at the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah. Imam Bukhari had a very sharp memory. He memorized 70,000 Hadiths at an early age and later in his life, this figure reached 300,000. Among those 100,000 Hadiths were Sahih and 200,000 were Hasan, Da`îf, etc.

In 250 A.H. he settled at Neshapur where he met Muslim ibn Al Hujjaj as his disciple who compiled Sahih Al-Muslim which is regarded only second to Bukhari in the Muslim world.

Imam Bukhari's book on Hadith is regarded as the top of Sahah Sitta which are the most authentic six books of Hadith collected during 200-300 AH. These are:

• Sahih Bukhari by Imam Bukhari (D. 256 A.H.),

• Sahih Muslim by Muslim ibn Al Hujjaj (D. 261 A.H.),

• Sunan Al-Sughra by Al-Nasa'i (D. 302 A.H.)

• Sunan Abu Dawood by Abu Dawood (D. 274 A.H.)

• Jami Al-Tirmidhi by Al-Tirmidhi (D. 278 A.H.)

• Sunan ibn Majah by Ibn Majah (D. 273 A.H.)

Hafiz Ahmad bin Adi has described that when Imam Bukhari reached Baghdad, the leading scholars tried to test him and mixed 100 Hadith between the narrators’ chain and the text and gave to 100 persons to ask the authenticity of such Hadiths. Imam Bukhari said he never heard any Hadith like this. Then he repeated the incorrect Hadith as quoted by each questioner and then recited the corrected Hadith for each person separately. The people were astonished on the depth of his knowledge and paid great respect to him.

Imam Bukhari was a rich person but he lived life of a very simple man giving most of his income to the poor. Mohammed Hatim Warraq, one of his disciples said that when Imam was establishing a Sarai (inn) near the city of Bukhara, he was laying bricks with his own hands. When Warraq said to him, leave this job for me, he replied, “On the Day of Judgment this work will be of benefit to me.” Regarding his worship it is said that Imam recited the entire Qur'an daily in Ramadan and recited one third of it in the night prayers.

In 250 A.H., Imam Bukhari moved to Neshapur where he was well received. Imam Muslim Neshapuri said he had never seen such a grand reception given to any scholar or ruler. Imam Bukhari began his lectures, which were attended by thousands. His popularity irritated the local ruler and Imam Bukhari decided to leave Neshapur for Bukhara where again he was received with great enthusiasm. He began his lectures and also established a school for regular teaching. But after some time due to differences with the local ruler he decided to leave his hometown for Samarqand.

But when he was still a few miles away from the city he was prevented from entering it. When he found he had no place to go, he prayed to Almighty Allah saying, “O Allah, the Earth despite its grandeur is becoming narrow for me and is troubling me greatly. So take me back to You.” His prayers were answered and he died at Khartang, a place between Samarqand and Bukhara. It was on the night of Eid Al-Fitr, the first night of Shawwal 256 A.H. He is buried in Muhammad Al-Bukhari mausoleum at Khartang near Samarkand, in Uzbekistan

“Abd Al-Wahid ibn Adam Awaysi states: ‘I saw the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in dream standing with a group of Sahaba and asked, 'For whom are you waiting?' He replied, 'For Bukhari.' After a few days I heard the news of Imam Bukhari's death. He had died at the very moment that I saw the Prophet (pbuh) in my dream.”

Sahih Al Bukhari is regarded as the most authentic collection of Hadiths, which covers almost all aspects of human life in providing proper guidance from the Holy Prophet. As for piety, Imam Al-Bukhari never wrote any Hadith in this book without performing two rakah salat of guidance from Allah and when he was sure of its authenticity, only then he wrote it in the book.

Imam Bukhari lived for 62 years only but during his span of life he did a marvelous work, which has been guiding the Ummah for the last 1,200 years. Tens of commentaries have been written on his treatise and hundreds of scholars are teaching Bukhari to thousand of students daily around the world. May Almighty Allah grant him the best reward.
source

Which is the best of Islam?

‎

'Abdullah ibn 'Amr reported that a man asked the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, "Which is the best of Islam?" He replied, "Feeding people and giving the greeting to those you know and those you do not know."

Why do Muslims use the word Allah? (Whats the Deal with Islam?)

‘Bol’: a feminist film

A student of mine whose father is a film distributor in the Middle East was able to hold a private screening for her friends (and me!) of the Indian/Pakistani film ‘Bol’ (speech/words/speak) that I mentioned here on Facebook. I am very happy that I was able to watch it and encourage every Muslim who calls themselves feminist to watch it. Bol is a Hindi/Urdu word that is often a noun meaning speech or words, even lyrics but can also be an imperative to mean ‘speak!’

Bol is Pakistani film producer and director Shoaib Mansoor’s brilliant work. Mansoor has very artfully raised almost all the issues that Muslim feminists address regularly. I would call Bol a bold Muslim feminist film. Some of the general and feminist themes that I noticed Mansoor tackle are:

Deep rooted and menacing desire for a male child
Scorn and hatred for the “third gender” (as has now been officially accepted in Pakistan)
Polygamy
Prostitution
Desire for the female child by the segment of society that lives off prostituting women
Honour killing
Forced marriages
Giving young women in marriage to much older men
Sectarianism
Wife beating
Theft and its micro and macro effects
Extortion and bribery
Denial of education to women
Lack of use of contraception
Scorn for rationalism
Rape
Disregard for public by politicians
Belief amongst the under-educated class that gender of the fetus is determined by the mother
Superstitious belief in tarot reading

The desire for a male child is a theme that runs throughout the film and is one that gives rise to other themes. The “patriarch” (I seem to be really milking this term!) of the family, Hakim Sahab, wants a son and this desire causes his wife to become pregnant fourteen times. The eldest daughter, Zainab, is the protagonist of the film who yells towards the end “why is it that only killing someone is a crime while giving birth isn’t?”

Sometimes indirectly and often directly Mansoor tries his best to educate people about issues that plague many societies especially his Pakistani society. There are some points I found powerfully poignant in the film. For example, in one scene Zainab engages in an argument with her father who is abusing her for making her mother undergo tubal litigation after her fourteenth pregnancy that had made her very ill. Hakib Sahab tells his daughter that even though they are deathly poor this should not stop him from having more children and trying for a son because it is Allah who “gives food if He gives mouths” and that the Prophet had once shown his desire to have “the greatest ummah (following) on the Day of Judgment.” At this Zainab retorts that if the first argument was true people wouldn’t be dying from hunger and poverty in many parts of the world and questions why Muslims always understand “greatest” as in population?! Why couldn’t the Prophet have desired a following greatest in wisdom, honesty and prosperity?! Zainab shows her doubt that the Prophet could have wanted a populated ummah that was poor and “as stupid as an ass”! At this Hakim Sahab slaps Zainab for doubting the words and intentions of the Prophet that only he can understand better.

At another point in the film Hakim Sahab is being interrogated by police for murdering his son (who was not a problem for Hakim Sahab to kill since the child was a hermaphrodite and a tarot reading had allowed the father to make this easy decision). The police officer asks Hakim Sahab what prompted him to kill his own son and the latter replies that it was an “honour killing” (the child had been gang raped!). At this the police officer comments very matter-of-factly that “it is only daughters that are killed in the name of honour.”

Hakim Sahab also takes on another wife without the knowledge of his first wife. The second wife is a prostitute and part of his decision to remarry is his desire to have a son since his first wife is “only good at two things: cooking and producing girls.” Nevertheless, he is almost forced into marriage by his new father-in-law, a pimp by profession, who wants a granddaughter that he could prostitute since he has five “useless sons” of his own and he had learned that Hakim Sahab has seven daughters. It is this pimp who educates Hakim Sahab that science (which he says is often disregarded by homeopathic doctors and religious people) has proved that gender of an unborn child is determined by the sperm and not the egg. He is convinced that Hakim Sahab would be able to give him a granddaughter whereas the former doesn’t believe “faulty science” and is hopeful that the new and young wife would give him a son. He has another daughter.

Hakim Sahab who is portrayed as a deeply-religious man is shown having no inhibitions in marrying again without the knowledge of his first wife. He beats her at one point – quite mercilessly, losing his senses in a fit of rage and kicking her in the stomach several times. He kills his child in the name of honour when he is raped and beats Zainab several times in the film for “raising her voice” and “doubting hadith.” His beliefs are often naïve but also very common. He hates his Shite next-door neighbour, doesn’t believe in birth control, doesn’t believe in educating daughters, dislikes modern science, and holds superstitious beliefs. All this makes him a very strict, unhappy and angry man. The only two times he smiles in the film are when he thinks his wife has given birth to a son (who then is revealed by the doula to be a hermaphrodite) and when he is in the private chamber of his prostitute second wife. His innocent son notices his father’s behaviour very early on in his life. When Zainab encourages him to “act like a man” he says, “how hard is it to be a man? All you have to do is yell at your family and be angry.” Zainab corrects him that not all men are like their father.

That is the bottom line – while there may be many terrible men in this world, not all men are terrible. This world is beautiful because there are beautiful women and beautiful men. Good men like Hakim Sahab’s Shite neighbour and his son are also shown in the film. I think Shoaib Mansoor himself is a remarkable man for not only identifying but also boldly highlighting such disturbing issues.
Bol is a film that will leave you asking yourselves many questions. It is a film that has a hard throbbing feminist vein and since it is based on the life of a common Pakistani and Muslim family it may prove a valuable resource to those who are interested in exploring the lives of Muslim women in developing Muslim countries who don’t have the luxury, means or even the permission to know Islamic Feminism and what the movement is doing for their rights.

source

STUFF MIDDLE EASTERN GUYS SAY

Just for a laugh!