Limping out of the Stone Age

For a nation sophisticated enough to develop nuclear (nukular if you must) weapons, Pakistan is as backward a place as one can find. And I don’t mean to harp on the plight of women in the nation, but come the fuck on. When a guy can repeatedly get away with killing women he finds objectionable, yours is a nation that is, if not rife, at least overburdened, with knuckle-dragging, misogynistic savages.

GUJRANWALA, PAKISTAN - Working for the public was a gift from God for Zille Huma Usman, Punjab's provincial minister for social welfare.
But two weeks ago, Muhammed Sarwar violently disagreed, killing her before a crowd because, he said, God does not allow women to work. He later told police that he felt no remorse for his crime.

Ms. Usman's death, which shocked the country, comes at a moment of violent flux over the role of women in Pakistan. As the Pakistani government clamps down on Islamist extremists, the conflict over competing visions of Islam has enveloped the issue of women's rights, turning it into a battleground issue between moderates and Islamist extremists.

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More than religion, what most disturbs observers is that Usman was not Sarwar's first victim. In 2003, he confessed to police that he had killed at least four women and wounded four others, mostly prostitutes and dancers.

His gruesome acts made national headlines, but when Sarwar appeared in court, he changed his story and the cases fell apart. There were also allegations, according to the local press, that religious leaders paid compensation money to the victims' families, who eventually dropped the cases.

[Snip]

Such lapses are part of the larger fabric of abuse toward women that goes unchecked in Pakistani society, according to observers. An October 2006 United Nations' report highlighted that honor killings claimed the lives of 4,000 men and women between 1998 and 2003 in Pakistan.

"Police almost invariably take the man's side in honor killings or domestic murders, and rarely prosecute the killers," said a 1999 Amnesty International report. "Even when the men are convicted, the judiciary ensures that they usually receive a light sentence, reinforcing the view that men can kill their female relatives with virtual 'impunity.' "

One of the hallmarks of modern civil society is some measure of gender equality. In that realm, honor killings are a deal breaker. Pakistan, regrettably, is not singular in this respect. And while Pakistan deserves applause for making progress on the equality front by codifying some rights for women, the violence spawned by the debate betrays the political immaturity of the nation. There are a good many traditionalists/fundamentalists that are so wedded to the notion of feminine subservience and masculine domination that they will fight to the bitter end in service to those misguided ideas.

IMHO, the situation in Pakistan draws a close parallel to the clashes in the America’s own Civil Rights movement in the 60’s, if not a bit bloodier. Let us hope that there is a similar outcome, because societies that provide equal protection under law tend to be more moderate, more stable, and more economically successful. The Talibans and Al Qaedas of the world do not spring forth from Canada or Sweden. These organizations come from places where power is more important than justice, tradition more sacred than freedom, and dominion more entrenched than equality. Ensuring that women have a seat at society’s table goes a long way to guaranteeing that society’s stability and security.