By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
The controversy surrounding the Legal Framework Order, the elections of October 2002 and the recent accord between the government and the MMA notwithstanding, one positive feature has emerged under the present political dispensation. This is the induction of women on a relatively large scale in the assemblies and thus, by implication, their enhanced role in politics.
Continue reading What women MPs can do
By Zubeida Mustafa
The ugly tradition of protecting honour by killing and violating women is not limited to Pakistan. Girls from Pakistan living in the UK have been forced into marriages with cousins back home to protect honour, writes Zubeida Mustafa
Five years ago 19-year-old Rukhsana Naz was strangled to death by her brother while her mother held her down by her feet. This happened in Britain, the country Naz’s parents had migrated to from Pakistan and where she had been born and bred. The murdered girl’s crime? She had “shamed her family.” First she had refused to stay in marriage to the man in Pakistan whom she had been wedded to when she was 16. Second, she had decided to return to the man she loved.
Continue reading Against their will
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
MARCH 8 is international women’s day. One can expect a lot of hype on the women’s issue on this occasion. While the feminist activists will be vocal in decrying the poor status of women in Pakistan, others championing the cause of the establishment will be quick to point out the progress which has been made in the field.
Continue reading A new role for female lawmakers
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
AS polling day approaches, the polarization in the public perceptions of the election scene is amazing. There are some who are vocal about the deep apathy and cynicism of the voters, and on that basis alone they confidently predict a low turn-out on October 10.
Others vehemently deny that electioneering is in a low key. They point to the corner meetings and the party workers’ drive to mobilize the voters — as much as they can within the restrictions imposed on them by the administration.
Continue reading The paradox of elections
By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn
IN his recent “neighbourhood diplomacy” which took him to Dhaka and Colombo, President Pervez Musharraf took a major step in his bid to muster support for Islamabad in the region. He expressed “regrets” at the “excesses” committed 31 years ago by the Pakistan Army in what was then East Pakistan.
Thus he emerges as an army general with the moral courage and dignity to concede the wrongs done by his predecessors, the power-hungry rulers of the day who unfortunately also happened to be men in uniform. Earlier in 2001, he had released the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report, which exposed the wrongdoings of those at the helm in 1971.
Continue reading Time to say sorry