Mindless Medieval Assholes

I wanted this blog to be curse-free when it started and even told my fellow bloggers, NB and Alien Panda, to refrain from crass language. But I'm sorry. I can't help it. The MMA just drives me insane. If I had a scale for things that piss me off, people who put their college sticker on their car would be a 3, the Aussie cricket team a 6, neo-conservatives an 8 and the MMA a 137.

Quick rundown of what's been going on the whole women's rights issue: Government (read: Musharraf) wants changes, is too chicken to say or do anything for 7 years except form committees, decides against repealing Hudood laws and instead settles on amending them, MMA raises hue and cry against proposals, government caves and the bill is watered down to a point where they might as well not pass it.

Poor Musharraf. He should just cancel his trip to the U.S. right now. The mainstream American press is fairly anti-Pakistan to begin with, and now he's going to have to answer questions about (a) Bugti's killing, (b) the North Waziristan deal and (c) this misleadingly named women's rights bill. Not great for a guy who's so adroit in his handling with the media that he once told the Washington Post that women get raped to get visas and citizenship, then denied he made the comments, then ended up with egg on his face when the WP put the entire interview on its website as an audio file.


The thing to note is that it's his own fault. At heart, I truly believe that he wants to better the state of women in the country, his nonsensical attempt to shut Mukhtaran Mai up notwithstanding. But if he wants to further women's rights, why the hell did he ally himself with the MMA? As the Daily Times editorial (linked above) notes, his natural ally is the PPP. But he's too power hungry and stubborn to change course and cut a deal with them. So he's forced to stick it out with the MMA and the luminary Chaudrys, who are ideologically far to the right of Musharraf, and if this anonymous source is to be believed, helped sabotage the entire bill.

Here's the lesson: if you're a Pakistani woman, just pray you don't get raped. That's all you have; a prayer. It's fitting that prayer is rendered the only option by the people who believe most strongly in it: the Mindless Medieval Assholes.