Category Archives: Terrorism and Violence

Tackling domestic violence

Terrorism and Violence, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

THE same day when Mukhtar Mai filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of her alleged rapists by the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court, this paper carried a report of the Progressive Women’s Association (PWA), an Islamabad-based NGO, that 7,000 burn cases involving women were brought to only four hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The report didn’t specify the period in which these incidents of violence took place. Mukhtar Mai’s anguish is too recent for it to have been erased from people’s collective memory. She is the woman who was gangraped in 2002 in Meerwala village on the orders of a jirga.

And as long as men and women of conscience are alive, Mukhtar Mai will not find herself alone. Only recently an American woman, Benita Lubic, wrote to me, “I want you to know that we do care! I was most distressed reading an article in the Washington Post about Mukhtar Mai and the terrible problems she has had to face and the fight she has against her alleged rapists. My heart goes out to her and others who experience similar situations. I pray for her.”
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Charity begins at home

Education, Terrorism and Violence

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

MERCIFULLY, the voices of sanity are now being raised in support of moderation and religious tolerance. Many high profile figures have vociferously expressed their views on the need for the renunciation of extremism and militancy in religion.

We have had the outgoing Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohammad, the Saudi crown prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and president Pervez Musharraf speak out against extremism and militancy. This must have been reassuring for many — especially those who have fallen victim to the mindless obscurantism of the fanatics.
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Enlightened moderation

Foreign Policy of Pakistan, Terrorism and Violence

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

IN his thought-provoking speech before the UN General Assembly, President Pervez Musharraf said that many Muslims believed that their religion was being demonized. At the same time the West perceived the Islamic world as volatile and the Muslims as fanatics and extremists. He called for “reflection, introspection and action” and proposed a strategy of “enlightened moderation”.
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Message from Almaty

Defence and Disarmament, Foreign Policy of Pakistan, Terrorism and Violence

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

WAS the Conference for Interaction and Confidence Measures in Asia (CICA) summit at Almaty a failure? That is how many in Pakistan feel.

If the expectation was that diplomacy on the sidelines of the summit would bring India and Pakistan rushing immediately to the negotiating table to discuss the future of Kashmir, CICA was a disappointment. But this organization which has been born after a long gestation period of a decade has achieved more than one could have hoped for in its very first high-level moot.
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