Under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) violence against women has officially been criminalized. The Punjab Provincial Assembly unanimously passed the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Bill. It has 31 clauses, which provide a proper system for complaint registration as well as penalties for offenders.
In the words of Sharmeen Chinoy, “If people don’t go to jail for honor killing, how will they know it’s a crime?” This basic and simple reasoning pretty much applies to everything, does it not? If one continues to use violence, even murder against another to settle scores or to make a point, and is never sent to jail, wouldn’t he and everyone else think that such acts are acceptable in a society?
According to the new bill, in order to “protect life, dignity and reputation of the aggrieved”a universal toll-free helpline will be available to all to contact protection centers and shelter homes where disputes can be resolved and reconciled. A woman protection officer caneven direct the defendant to move out of the house for 48 hours. Any obstruction or resistance to protection officers will be punishable by a fine of Rs.500,000 and imprisonment for up to 6 months.
The law itself will ensure protection for every woman out there. Any violence/offence under ‘domestic, sexual, psychological, economic and cybercrime’ will be considered a criminal act.
To keep these laws in check and to make sure they are not abused, filing of false complaints will also lead to imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs. 100,000.
In my personal opinion this is a great step that the government has taken and is an example for those countries that don’t consider women as worthy of being protected.
I would have thought that every Pakistani out there would be happy and proud of this big step.
How wrong (and ridiculously naive) I was.
The Chancellor of Jamia Binoria International, Mufti Naeem recorded a video message JUST for all us idiots out there to correct our sinful ways.
In the video, he criticizes Nawaz Sharif for taking these issues seriously and calls it aping the West for these kind of laws are against ‘our culture and Islam.’
He states the rate of divorce is high in the West because women have all the power over there. They can even call the police at 2 am in the night with a complaint.
*Gasp* The horror!
I can just imagine the nightmares Mufti Sahab must have regarding this.
He also puts down Sharmeen Chinoy for highlighting issues in Pakistan in her movies because all it does is make Pakistan look bad in the eyes of others.
First of all regarding his comments, a person who reports the wrong is the one making a country look bad and not the person who is actually committing the act? 1,000 annual honor killings and it is Sharmeen who makes Pakistan look bad for highlighting them?
Secondly, is he trying to say that honor killing is part of our culture? Or that his personal version of Islam states that beating your wife is ok? Well, he refers Sharmeen Chinoy as a “fahisha” why is anyone even surprised.
He goes on to explain in the video, if a man hits or abuses his wife, after two days they will make up and everything will be sunny and hunky-dory again. If he is punished or sent away instead, he will never want to reconcile with her or come back to her.
I am not sure what is cooking in his head, but isn’t that a good thing that a woman no longer has to live with a man who beats her up?
He breaks her arm, but then because he kisses the cast two days later, it is ok? What about the case where the man throws acid on the woman’s face? He says “Oopsy” and that makes it alright? How about when a man gives his wife weekly beatings and then finally one day kills her?
Oopsy then too?
Because reconciliation may take place, it is ok to hit your wife and the violence should be excused?
How about Mufti Sahab said instead that it is NOT ok to hit your wife or inflict any harm on anyone instead of being an apologist for violence.
He says that only a man has the right to divorce his wife because women have no patience. They are easily happy and just as easily angered by their husbands. I don’t know about him, but getting slapped in the face would make most people angry. Even him but then again, in his mind he is “DA MAN” so that might not be case. Also, his reasoning why women should not have the right to make decisions makes it sound like he views women as baby monkeys with no sense.
In the video, he brings up an unrelated fact with disgust that Nawaz Sharif is moving our country towards liberalism because he said it is permissible to eat non-halal food if one’s life was in danger. So a person who is dying of hunger should just die then?
We (and I am assuming him too) use medicines which are not halal day in day out to save our lives.
When we need blood in the hospital, we do not check if it is the blood of a non-Muslim or a Muslim but eating non-halal food to save your life will send you to hell?
Is he even aware that he used the platform of an atheist to spread his message?
Has he ever made the effort to make such a video to speak up against actual atrocities that take place daily in our country? Has he ever said child marriage is wrong and forever ruins the lives of children? Or perhaps that men who rape should be punished.
Anything?
He took all that time out JUST to speak up against the law that has been created to ensure that women are protected in our country.
He is not only an apologist but is also promoting violence with his words. And the biggest issue is that while many may call him out for being sick in the head, there are enough out there ready to listen and have their minds poisoned by his words. They will believe him and think the way he thinks is the right way.
If there was an actual law that said it was ok to hit your wives if you felt like it, Mufti Naeem would surely nod his head and shout out Subhanallah, but since this one is to protect women and that men CANNOT hit them, he suddenly has gotten ants in his pants!
I think an addition needs to be made to the bill to protect women from people like Mufti Naeem as well. His words are just as much of a danger to women as the man who physically assaults them.