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NEW DELHI, September 24: No head of a country,
no matter how backward, has ever fouled the image
of his own country’s fair sex like General Musharraf
has done in the eyes of the American public through
the Washington Post this month.
He shocked the people at large when he told the
newsaper, and later denied, that women in Pakistan
get themselves raped to make money and go abroad.
His exact words, when asked about the safety of
women in Pakistan, were: “You must understand the
environment in Pakistan. This has become a money
spinning concern. A lot of people say if you want
to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship
and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.”
When faced with hostile reaction to this statement,
he coolly denied he ever made it. “I am not a so
silly and stupid to make comments of this sort,”
he told CNN. General Musharraf should have known
that Washington Post could not have taken
this interview without recording it. It, therefore,
countered his denial by saying that the Head of
Pakistan made this statement about his country’s
women in front of three other journalists and all
that was recorded.
General Musharraf also made a puzzling statement
to the effect that he gave $50,000 to Dr. Shazia
Khalid to leave Pakistan for Canada. She was raped
while on duty in the Sui Gas Plant in Balochistan
by an Army officer. Before an inquiry commission
could give its verdict General Musharraf pronounced
the Army officer innocent.
While she was crying for justice intelligence agencies
forced her to leave the country. She forcefully
denies having received money from General Musharraf.
But if we accept General Musharraf’s claim that
he gave her 50,000 dollars to leave the country,
the question arises why on earth should the Head
of State pay a wronged person to disappear from
the country when she and her sympathizers were demanding
justice for her.
Baloch nationalists said dishonoring a woman on
the soil of Balochistan violated their social norms.
When they became violent demanding action against
the rapists, the Head of State warned his Baloch
countrymen that it was not 1973 when they went up
the hills. This time they would not know what hit
them, he said. Was he hinting at testing the efficacy
of his missiles on Baluchis? In the past 58 years
they have already faced twice the air power of the
Army. In 1973 armed Baluchis had taken positions
on mountains when the military began a crackdown
on them on orders from then Prime Minister Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto.
Recently, General Musharraf told an international
women conference in Islamabad that Pakistan should
not be singled out for the crime of rape. This was
happening in other countries including European
countries as well. But only Pakistan was accused
of it by NGOs, he bemoaned. He had told Washington
Post “rape is happening everywhere.” He had
seen figures about rape in the US, Canada, France
and Britain, he said.
One cannot contest this statement. But what makes
Pakistan different from other countries is the virtual
institutionalization of rape through the controversial
Hudood Ordinance and the indifference of the authorities
to the victim’s plea for justice. Hudood Ordinance
makes it near impossible for a raped woman to get
the rapist punished because she is asked to produce
four pious eyewitnesses.
Worse, she is herself punished for this rape because
she cannot find four pious eyewitnesses. Since General
Zia-ul-Haq’s rule, when this Ordinance was promulgated,
thousands of women have suffered long jail terms
for complaining to police about their rape.
General Musharraf cannot name any other country
where the gang rape of an innocent woman (here Mukhtaran
Mai) is ordered by a Panchayat. There is no civilized
society in the world where (in Sahiwal) a woman’s
leg is amputated on charges of illicit sex. Can
General Musharraf name a country where a girl of
a minority community is kidnapped and forcibly made
a Muslim and married to an old man – as happened
in Jacobabad in Sindh. Sapna is not the only non-Muslim
girl to have been so snatched away from her helpless
wailing parents and community.
One may not find another example of a case like
that of Sonia Naz. This young lady entered the National
Assembly to seek justice when she exhausted all
efforts to get her husband released from the clutches
of the police. The National Assembly called her
a “stranger” and handed her to police. The police
ravished her. The rapists were led by an SP who
has a bad record but enjoys the patronage of Punjab
Chief Minister Pervez Elahi. Sonia’s trauma didn’t
end there: her husband, for whom she underwent all
this trouble, divorced her saying it was shameful
for him to live with a gang-raped wife. But Sonia
alleged the police forced him to divorce her.
Woman organizations have persistently demanded that
General Musharraf prove his adherence to his highly
publicized call for “enlightened moderation” by
freeing women from the Hudood Ordinance. But even
if he wants he cannot for the fear of Mullahs.
On the contrary, by his statement to Washington
Post he has betrayed a mind set typical of
male chauvinist semi-literate, anti-feminist tribal
chiefs and feudals, who are responsible for killing
of hundreds of women every year in the name of family
honor.
Back home General Musharraf will have to do a lot
of damage control. The best course will be an honest
apology to the women of Pakistan.
The writer is Director, Institute for Media
Studies & Information Technology, YMCA, New
Delhi and a former Editor of UNI |
