FRAILTY, THY NAME IS WOMEN

(Yet an Other Story of an Oppressed Chitrali Girl)

Women have remained the victim of injustices and exploitation in our society. They are threatened, burnt and shot to death in the name of self perceived honour. Un-Islamic practices like vani, vata sata, and marriage with the Holy Quran, still prevail in the core of our society. The self proclaimed champions of faith and morality have kept the women in hostage for years. Country needs the resoluteness of a man having an iron will to put an end to these evils that have ruined the entire social fabric of our society. The women of the lower and middle classes are the real victims of these evils. Although women have been given thirty three percent representations in the elected bodies and Women Protection Bill has become a law with the resolute to provide much needed protection to the down trodden women of Pakistan, yet atrocities continue in one or the other form especially on the women of the lower classes.

It�s really a sorry state of affairs for all of us that women making almost half of our population are deprived of their legitimate rights. Treating them inhumanly is an embodiment of being uncivilized. Ignorant Arabs, prior to the time of Holy Prophet (PBUH), treated their women like animals. Civilized nations always treat them in a humane way. Daily Khabrain reported that a Saudi Princess, Hina Aif Aljidar, was deported from the United States for violating an immigration rule . . . . . . found guilty of confining her employees in her house and forcing them to work for her at lower wages. She was sentenced for two years of surveillance and her six months would be confinement in her house.

This is how civilized societies take notice of violations of the rights of their poor citizens even. A case of the same nature has recently surfaced in Islamabad. Shahzada of Lotkuh, Chitral brought Miss Shamshad of the same valley with him to Islamabad in August 2006, with the promise to provide her with education and treat her like his own family members. Poor girl was, on the contrary, assigned the job of a maid servant. Promises of providing education were forgotten by her master and the right of taking food with the family members was never allowed. The oppression and mental torture like forbidding her talking with relatives over telephone and giving some pieces of dried bread with tea for weeks, when her master and his family used to be out of the city, brought the poor young girl to a state of depression. Shamshad couldn�t bear it any more and one day decided to commit suicide, jumping down from the second floor of the house. She fell down unconscious and she was rushed to hospital by the driver of her master after six hours of the incident. Doctors found her leg and arm broken. Getting information some God fearing people, belonging to Chitral, rushed to the hospital. They immediately arranged a female attendant to look after her and so far they are taking care of her. No member of the family of her cruel master bothered to visit her and the driver also disappeared. Shamshad is in refuge in a philanthropist�s house. Her family members at Lotkuh are requested to contact this scriber immediately.

Pakistan is an Islamic country. The citizens, instead of resorting to cruelty, barbarism, and injustices, must work for a just societal structure basing on freedom, equality and justice. Laws on women rights must get promulgated at the societal and individual level.
The people of Chitral should also have a vision of prosperous and modern women living within the injunctions of an Islamic state free of extremism and terrorism.

By:
SARDAR AHMAD
Islamabad.
Cell no: 03335141031