ISLAMABAD - Presenting an Islamised version of the women protection bill, Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) chief Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani yesterday proposed curbs on the women.
The proposed alternate women protection bill prohibits mixing of genders in academic institutions after primary level, hospitals and offices. It says, the women would not be allowed to sing and dance ‘under the garb of art’. The female nurses would not be allowed to attend male patients.
The bill proposed a ban on women to work in ‘vulgar’ advertisement but they can take part in politics, it said. “Women should not be forced into labour-intensive work,” the proposed bill, unveiled at a media interaction by Sherani after a CII meeting, said. It allowed husband to ‘lightly beat’ his wife as a punishment if she defies his commands.
Sherani said the CII agreed that contracting a woman’s marriage to the Holy Quran was a crime that should carry a ten-year sentence. Contracting a marriage for Vani (swap) or dispute resolution would also be punishable.
The CII bill says a guardian’s permission is not required for a woman who has reached majority to contract a nikah (marriage contract).
Sherani said it was woman’s right to learn defence for protection from harassment or oppression. “Woman can with her personal will work for defence of her country but she is neither responsible nor somebody can force her for it. However, the state can forcibly put men into its defence, if required,” he maintained. The CII chief said it was obligatory in Islam to kill a male apostate, but not a female apostate. “You can try to motivate her to get her allegiance back with Islam but you cannot kill her.”
He said that uniformed style of writing the Holy Quran should be adopted in Pakistan, which is traditionally being followed with punctuation in the sub-continent, to avoid mistakes.
Sherani said the CII would soon send the 163-page proposed bill to the government although the parliament or the provincial assemblies are not restricted to abide by CII suggestions. Earlier, members of CII showed reservations over Women Protection Bill passed by the Punjab Assembly and an identical bill proposed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.
The CII declared the Punjab’s women protection bill against the Islamic teachings and the country’s constitution. The same views were expressed for the proposed Khyber Pakhtunkhaw bill.
This year, Punjab’s lawmakers gave unprecedented protection to female victims of violence, in a bid to stem a rising tide of gender-related abuse in a country ranked as the world’s third most dangerous place for women.
The yet to be implemented law criminalises all forms of violence against women, whether domestic, psychological or sexual, and calls for the creation of a toll-free abuse reporting hot line and the establishment of shelters.
Pakistan, home to roughly 190 million people, sees thousands of cases of violence against women every year, from rape and acid attacks to sexual assault, kidnappings and so-called honour killings.
In 2013, more than 5,800 cases of violence against women were reported in Punjab alone, according to the Aurat Foundation, a women’s rights advocacy group.
The new law establishes district-level panels to investigate reports of abuse, and mandates the use of GPS bracelets to keep track of offenders.