log / Usman Malik

Since I have been asked this a few times already, here is my “straight to the point” reply.

I as a Pakistani am deeply disturbed on number of unimportant and not so good looking women with Green Passport posing nude. It might be helping them gain traction or much needed attention in their fast decaying careers, but seriously we have a lot better to offer in this country (even in the department of sleaze)! 

I also feel sad that I had to waste a perfectly good post on this topic.

p.s. they both should join a gym and work on their core at least!

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. (Originally blogged via msandrogynous, complete article at Trust.org)

Overheard a Mom being pissed off at her three young boys at the bookshop earlier tonight. She paid for the items and then yelled at her boys, “WITH THREE BOYS WITH ME I HAVE TO CARRY THE BAGS! SHAME ON YOU ALL!”. One of the boys grabbed the bag but had to leave the shop still hearing her on a non-stop repeat; “shame on you, shame on you”.

Made me feel how thankful I am to have a normal Mum.

Came across this video on Facebook (in Urdu) which shows a woman getting stares and unwanted pervert attention from every single man on the road. She getting annoyed by the things is comforted by a colleague who recommends her to try wearing a black sheet on her self (read Burqa) to avoid the stares. She agrees and is impressed by the results. People don’t stare at her any more! But interestingly she does say that people are always expecting her to take her face veil off for them.

Personally I am not a fan of women moving around in Summer heat wearing black curtains on themselves but I do believe that if it is her choice, she should keep on doing that without any hindrance. But when the lady who offered this ingenious solution says “see how much life got easy and also now men will not be committing Sin by looking at you” - I wanted to cry on the mentality which so many of us have.

In the end I decided not to leave any sarcastic or angry comments on the video thanks to a reference they did make towards the men, reminding them to “lower the gaze” and “protect their modesty” something which Quran very specifically asks them to do.

As for that lady in the video she wanted to buy one for herself and wear it out all the time.

Having talked to so many women who have faced sexual harassment while wearing very modest clothes, burqa, niqab and above all on the very occasions of Hajj and Umrah - doesn’t it occur to you for once that maybe we are looking at it in a very wrong way?

I usually do not find Friday sermons at local mosques any interesting. They are mostly on cliché topics with very less intellectual value, often even contrary to at least my sensibilities. The mosque I go to for most of the Friday prayers has even a greater problem. The Imam there is an Indian Gujrati (import) who cannot even speak proper Urdu let alone any decent English and has a tendency to deviate from topic so much that when you mix his lack of command on proper Urdu with this, it just becomes one giant ball of confusion.

But today finally after good few years any Imam in Glasgow delivered a Khutba (Sermon) worth appreciating. In short he covered the following:

• Your wives are not your servant. Religiously they are not even supposed to cook for you rather it is your duty to provide for them even the food on the table. If they do it for you, it is their greatness and you should show your gratitude for it. Islam gives them so much freedom that they can even ask you to pay for the breast feeding or generally taking care of your child with them.
• Your wives are not your parent’s maid, if they serve them, good for them and another thing for you to show your gratitude for.
• Be respectful to your wife’s family because she has already left them for you and when you treat her or her family otherwise you are doing a great sin.
• Be kind to your children and others around you (including your non-Muslims neighbours) because if you do not show a superior Ikhlaq (Mannerism) how are you going to be respected as a Muslim or your faith be respected because of you?

I hope more Friday Sermons and otherwise lectures in mosques are like this, so they can educate people on this very important and much neglected topic!

If Islam is the perfect religious and social model of life with high emphasis on fairness for all, where does it go when it comes to the women? To an outsider and thinking insiders, Islam today dictates a patriarchal society where women takes a back seat in every regard while being reminded that it is for their own good. Women are easily objectified and are without hesitation compared with walking piece of meat if not properly dressed and termed as the reason for Man’s temptation. She cannot travel without permission and custodian, but worse of all does not have equal access to legal system as in case of Rape which unfortunately even to this date is not defined in religious jurisprudence and falls in the category of adultery.

It is easy for anyone to be repulsed by these things and it is even rightly so what should be expected out of any sane person, because this does hint at a very serious problem in Muslim world – the disappearance of women from Religious life.

To understand what has happened let us take it from the start. Islam comes in the time when women did not have any rights, access to inheritance, even other two Abrahamic religion were not in favour of divorce and especially in region…. (read complete here on KOUF - Dude where is the woman in my Islam)

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Just finished uploading an article on how simply women just vanished from Islam.