The Pakistani Spectator

Domestic abuse, rape, dowry killings, acid attacks, human trafficking, honour killings, female foeticide and infanticide, forced marriages, touching women in public, turning wives into servants, depriving daughters of inheritance, etc, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. The list is endless.

Delhi in India is known as the rape capital of the world while Karachi alone has 100 rapes every single day. Horrendous. Shocking. Acid attacks take place frequently in countries like India and Pakistan. Ever heard of acid attacks in western countries? India is number one in trafficking and female foeticide and infanticide, while Pakistan is notorious for honour killings. India and Pakistan are also champions in touching women in public and teasing them.

I really want to ask, what is it with forced marriages. In Islam, it is a woman’s right who she wants to marry, and her permission has to be sought. In both India and Pakistan, women are married against their will. I read in Times of India about a girls marriage to a dog in order to be purified. What a disgrace. Many girls are married if someone pays the father a huge sum of money. Married to old men, married to filthy men, forced to marry, raped to marry, drugged to marry, and killed of they do not marry.

Both India and Pakistan are in a mess. While I do not know about Indians, but from what I have read on TPS, Pakistanis think that all the problems are because of leaders. What nonsense. In countries where half the population is abused, Allah’s mercy will not descend. And if someone is going to tell me that India is rising, I would like to remind them that over 80% of India’s population survives on 20 cents a day. And I don’t even need to begin on how many women are butchered for dowry every single day. Not to mention honour killings, acid attacks, rape, trafficking, etc, etc.

The custom of Sati still exists in India today. Sati is when a woman has to throw herself on the burning body of her husband and kill herself. This is because, according to some, there is no use of a woman’s life since her husband is dead. In places where Sati is not practiced, women have to wear a white saree for the rest of their life. There is also this day when a woman fasts for her husband’s long life. There is also the belief that a wife’s heaven is in the dirt below her husband’s feet. Why don’t men burn themselves to death when the wife dies, why don’t they wear white clothes and not re-marry, why don’t they fast for their wives and why don’t they consider their heaven to be below the wife’s feet?

Even those men who are considered good human beings are hypocrites and have double standards. They want the best for their daughters, but are inconsiderate when it comes to what their wives want. Why is it that a man wants to see his daughter be the best she can be, and wants his wife to work in the house like a maid? Do these men forget that the woman they are abusing (their wife) is also someone’s daughter. The fathers of women who are now wives also had the same aspirations that these men have for their own daughters. A man wants to see his daughter excel in academics, sports, and wants to marry her to the best man out there. And yet does he become for his wife like the man that he wants for his daughter?

I certainly haven’t read anywhere that women can be treated like servants. Maybe the people who blame Islam for the behaviour of Muslim men can show me where it says that men can treat their wives like maids. From what I know, Prophet Mohammad (SAW), despite being an extremely busy man, used to do all the housework himself. I wonder how many mullahs and tablighees help their wives with housework. From changing diapers to washing dishes, men think it is always a woman’s job. In a a lot of cases, men tell their wives not to have a career, and devote all their time in the house. So why did the wife spend all those years in school and university? Is she not a human being? Does she not have a desire to excel?

What people tend to follow is cultural Islam or selective Islam. It is rooted in the culture of countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc, that a woman will do all the housework while the father sits in front of the TV or reads the newspaper sipping tea. This includes those jahil mullahs and tablighees who talk big about Islam. What happened to this aspect of Islam? What happened to Ikram a-Muslimeen? Is it only for people in the mosque? Or is it only reserved for men? How about Ikram al-Muslimeen with one’s wife?

Many women are manipulated to stay in abusive relationships. Women should leave such husbands.