Boston Globe Editorial - Pakistan's growing pains

Boston Globe Editorial - Pakistan's growing pains
Copyright by The Boston Globe
Published: August 28, 2006



Pakistan's lower house of Parliament erupted into chaos last week when the government of President Pervez Musharraf introduced amendments to Islamic family laws known as "Hudood ordinances." The laws, detailing offenses of adultery, rape, the sale of alcohol, bearing false witness, and other religious crimes, have become a flashpoint in Pakistan's struggle to improve its record on human rights, especially for women.

Under the ordinances, adopted in 1979 by the regime of General Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, rape victims must produce four male witnesses to bring a charge. If they fail to prove rape, they risk being countercharged with adultery, a crime punishable by jail or flogging. Women arrested under the ordinances can be held without bail, often languishing for lengthy periods without being tried.

The proposed amendments would not repeal the ordinances, the preferred course of human rights groups and the government's own Commission on the Status of Women. But they do provide for bail, clarify rules of evidence, and establish a minimum age of sexual consent - a concept alien in much of a country where girls are married off as soon as they reach puberty.

These tentative steps toward modernizing laws governing what is often called "the family realm" is an important test for Musharraf's doctrine of "enlightened moderation." Since taking power in a military coup in 1999, Musharraf has been striving to polish his credentials as a democratic moderate. He has increased the number of seats in Parliament set aside for women and spearheaded an effort to reform the madrasas, or religious schools. Last month, he told a convention of nurses that he wanted to eliminate discriminatory laws against women and make the Hudood ordinances "compatible with the spirit of Islam."

The attempt has exposed tensions not just between Musharraf and opposition parties, but also between Islam and the West. Religious conservatives in Parliament tore up copies of the legislation and walked out. A senior member of a religious alliance accused Musharraf of the worst betrayal: "Following a Western agenda to secularize Pakistan."

Too many traditional societies see efforts to promote human rights as meddlesome at best or a form of cultural imperialism at worst. Often these cultural conflicts pivot on the rights of women, and they are not unique to Pakistan. Honor killings, genital mutilation, stoning and flogging - these barbaric practices are "traditions" the world can do without.