WUNRN
PAKISTAN - RAPE - CIVIL LAW VS.
ISLAMIC LAW - WOMEN'S RIGHTS
Updated
2013-06-07
A
series of events in the past few weeks have again highlighted the injustices
being committed against women in the name of Islam in
While
women are being discriminated in
In
a well-researched
paper published in 1997, Professor Asifa
Quraishi explains that the rape laws in
The
noble Quran forbade Zina (fornication) in Surat Al-'Isrā' (17:32) and
prescribed the punishment in Surat An-Nūr (24:2). The noble Quran then
reads:
Those who defame chaste women and do not bring four
witnesses (shuhada) should be punished with eighty lashes, and their testimony
should not be accepted afterwards, for they are profligates. (24:4)
The
Quranic speech is clear and without confusion. The requirement to produce four
witnesses, and not just male witnesses, is required by the Quran to prevent
false accusations of fornication against women. The Quran does not ask for four
male witnesses, but General Zia’s Hudood ordinance did when it required “at
least four Muslim adult witnesses, about whom the Court is satisfied, having
regard to the requirements of tazkiyah
al-shuhood …”
The
Quranic intent had been to protect the rights of women against false
accusations. General Zia’s Hudood Ordinance accomplished exactly the opposite.
Firstly, it unnecessarily confused rape, a violent crime, with fornication.
Secondly, the Hudood ordinance has made it impossible for a rape victim to get
justice in
Man-made law
How
is it possible that the very Quranic injunctions that were supposed to
safeguard women’s rights were reversed by General Zia to discriminate against
them? Professor Qurashi offers the answer to this riddle by exposing the
plagiarist jurists commissioned by the military dictator to draft the Hudood
Ordinances. She reproduces the texts of the Hudood Ordinances enacted by
General Zia, and the earlier British Common Law of rape. I have reproduced
below verbatim the two texts to demonstrate that what was presented to
Pakistanis as the divine law was in fact a cut-and-paste from the British
Common Law. Even the explanation to what constitutes as rape is identical in
the two texts.
What
the mullahs defend in
Professor
Qurashi points out that requiring four male witnesses, as is stated in the
Hudood Ordinance, creates this situation where women could no longer be accused
of slander. If a woman’s testimony is not admissible in the Court, as per the
Hadood Ordinance, a woman can make false accusations against others without
fearing punishment.
The
Hudood Ordinance, as it stands today, prevents women in
O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in
justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and
relatives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more worthy of both. So follow
not [personal] inclination, lest you not be just. And if you distort [your testimony]
or refuse [to give it], then indeed Allah is ever acquainted with what you do. [4:135]
This
infringement of Quranic law continues unabated in
Is Islam against circumstantial or forensic evidence?
The
precedence for circumstantial evidence is set in Surat Yusuf (12:23 – 12:29) in
the Quran where it narrates the story of Prophet Yusuf (Joseph) being accused
by a woman of attempting to rape her.
The
Quran narrates the story in the following verses (12:23 – 12:29):
And she, in whose house he was, sought to seduce him. She
closed the doors and said, "Come, you." He said, "[I seek] the
refuge of Allah. Indeed, he is my master, who has made good my residence.
Indeed, wrongdoers will not succeed." And she certainly determined [to
seduce] him, and he would have inclined to her had he not seen the proof of his
Lord. And thus [it was] that we should avert from him evil and immorality.
Indeed, he was of Our chosen servants. And they both raced to the door, and she
tore his shirt from the back, and they found her husband at the door. She said,
"What is the recompense of one who intended evil for your wife but that he
be imprisoned or a painful punishment?" [Joseph] said, "It was she
who sought to seduce me." And a witness from her family testified.
"If his shirt is torn from the front, then she has told the truth, and he
is of the liars. But if his shirt is torn from the back, then she has lied, and
he is of the truthful." So when her husband saw his shirt torn from the
back, he said, "Indeed, it is of the women's plan. Indeed, your plan is
great. Joseph, ignore this. And, [my wife], ask forgiveness for your sin.
Indeed, you were of the sinful."
Circumstantial
and forensic evidence are not merely an invention of the modern times. The
story about the Prophet in
The
Islamic tradition provides for the use of the scientific evidence in legal
matters. Forensic evidence can be used under the tradition of Qarinah (circumstantial
evidence) and al-ra’y
al-khabir (expert opinion). The Prophet himself is reported to have
consulted an expert on face recognition to settle a paternity dispute (Sunan al-Dar Qutni, p.
240). By turning our collective backs on science, logic, and ijtihad, we have
brought ourselves to a state where discrimination against women and the
disenfranchised is being committed in the name of Islam.
A
study of 74 cases of rape or attempted rape registered at the Shadman female
police station in
The
five per cent conviction rate for rape has been reported in other studies in
The
superior courts in
If
it is indeed true that the rape laws are anything but Islamic, they should then
have no place in