throw your hands up in the air...
A result of this Islamization, and of the state repression as well, is that many laws detrimental to women have actually been passed. In 1979, the Hadood Ordinance was ratified. By this ordinance on rape, women are convicted rather than their rapists, because rape is confused with adultery, and the raped woman has to produce four witnesses to testify to the occurrence of the act...
- Inderpal Grewal writing about Pakistan under Zia in 'Marginality, Women, and Shame'
As my token Paki friend (I love you!), WOB can perhaps let us know if this is still the case.
2 Comments:
It sadly does still occur. At least, as of my paper written in 2003. But I argue that women unfortunately are also part of the maintenance of such gang rape culture. Here are some excerpts from a paper, where I argue that the main factors of continued violence against women include women, panchayats, the village, and the state:
"A woman’s shame is not just her own, but that of her family, her village and even her nation. Women become symbols of religious and cultural identity (Jalal 79). The woman comes to symbolize not only Islam or Hinduism, or even Pakistan or India – but any collective identity with a social basis…. The idea that a woman symbolizes the moral integrity of the collective has existed throughout world history. And it is indoctrinated into both men and women. It is as though this structured perspective makes it easier to accept gang rape punishment as a just sentence for the wayward woman who forgot her role....
"Thus, women become the concessions of feuds, the symbols of virtue – and the recipients of moral wrath....
"... [V]illage people have taken their problems time after time to the panchayat, acting deliberately on its rulings. Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers – all seem to believe that gang rape is a legitimate punishment for women."
I could go on and on and on.... From what I gathered in my limited research, the South Asian phenomenon occurred in specific "hotspots" of the sub-continent, but it's nowhere near eradication.
this reminds me of what i heard in my latina sexuality class, the phenomenon of the woman's body and the shame thereof being owned not by her but by her family, community, etc. similarly my professor, in her research, found that a mother is the strongest guardian of gender inequality in mexican society. interviewees told her "la madre es la mas sexista"
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