Letter from Ghazala USA response to Nafeesa Habib's Presentation

Thank you Chitral Times for publishing Nafeesa Habib's presentation in Islamabad. It is a real treat to read this essay by a young lady from Chitral. These are the voices Pakistani men, Muslim men need to heed. These are the voices of the future leadership of umma, because these women will raise their children differently than the majority of our contemporaries and ancestors. Compare this presentation to the pathetic letter by Immad-ud-din from Torkhow. What a pity! What a contrast! This gentleman relies on stereotypes and passes his judgments based on stereotypes rejected by history, by sciences like biology, psychology and by Islam itself. He needs a serious education to get rid of his ideas (women "are hasty by nature and not able to keep secrets;" "too emotional and there is a risk of being deceived easily;") that sound dangerously I like the ideas from Old Testament, duly inherited and propagated by Christian Church for almost two thousand years. Even Christian Church and forward looking Judaic churches are revising their positions on women carefully. Yet Muslim men will thrive on ideas handed down to them by cultures and philosophies that are so in opposition to the teachings and practices of the Prophet (PBUH).

I just hope Nafeesa Bibi chooses to teach, and teach women and men who have continued to thrive in the total mental darkness of Middle Ages. When she does that, it will be in the tradition of Umme- momeneen Ayesha, and Hazrat Rabia Basri, to name only two. It is a very challenging job to change a mindset that has started taking hold in Chitral in the last three decades, but if Chitrali men want to set an example for the rest of the province, rest of the country, rest of the Umma, they should pay attention to this young scholar and others like her---men and women who speak with carefully researched arguments, backed up by established sources of history. They should not follow suit like the jirga decision from their neighborly Dir that unanimously approved of "honor killing" in the name of tradition. In fifty years, children of the same men will hang their heads in shame, while Chitralis could be proud---God willing--- that during the same dark days, they had a female scholar-in-the-making named Nafeesa Habib. To this young women, God speed child, and please come out with more.


Ghazala N. Afzal
USA