"Our People" Put Promiscuous Teenager In Her Place By Beating Her Publicly
I could watch this video up to the 0:09 mark and no longer, but maybe there are people out there who can stomach this stuff better than me and watch the whole thing. It's the very real and public face of Sharia law in Swat (link courtesy commenter Somethingrichandstrange). I can't warn you sternly enough about how disgusting this video is, so please proceed with caution.
Does anyone actually believe that this girl actually tried to commit adultery? As Arif says, the much more likely explanation is some long-bearded motherfucker wanted to get busy with her, she resisted, and he decided to use the institutional powers bestowed upon him by this crackpot legal system -- if it can be called that -- to get his revenge.
Remember, kids: these are our people, bravely standing up to the tyranny of the West, and all they want is for US forces to leave Afghanistan.
UPDATE: Courtesy reader Tazeen in comments, this article in The Guardian has more on this video. Evidently this girl's crime was that she walked out of a house with a man other than her husband -- if you believe Taliban spokespeople, that is. Then there is this priceless quote from the story:
The woman's brother is among the men pinning her down, she added. "It's symbolic that he does it with his own hands. It gives him honour in local society, that he has done it for the sake of religion."
Is there anything left to say?
UPDATE II: The government of Pakistan -- or three quarters of it anyway -- has sprung into action. President Zardari has "strongly condemned" the act. Prime Minister Gillani has promised an inquiry into the incident, though what exactly they will be inquiring into is beyond me. And since the return of Iftikhar Chaudhary really means the return of Suo Motoness, we have a bench on the Supreme Court looking into the case.
On the one hand, it's easy to dismiss all of this as grandstanding, and I am inclined to do exactly that. Plus, one could politely tell the government that the way to avoid these situations is not to form inquiry commissions that write meaningless reports on the incident, but to not cede whole swathes of Pakistani territory to people who believe that the only problem with the episode was that it took place in public.
On the other hand, faced with a choice of a government not giving a crap about this at all, and a government actually taking notice, I'll gladly take the latter. Small victories, I know, but that's what we're used to around these parts.
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Pakistan
38 comments:
i actually couldnt watch it.
ive had numerous people send it to me, and insist i watch it, but i JUST couldnt. some insisted that unless i watched it, i wouldnt understand the magnitude of the situation. just knowing the content takes care of that.
and arent these upstanding followers of the sharia law na-mehrams to her. how are they allowed to be touching her and holding her down? is it because she's an 'adulteress' and doesnt deserve the 'respect'.
Umm ... one of the guys who was holding her down during the lashings is her brother. According to declan walsh of Guardian, his standing in the society received a huge boost by this manly act of pinning his sister down while shairat was being implemented. The funny thing is, the man who was supposed to be her boyfriend is nowhere to seen and flogged.
Welcome to the nightmare called Pakistan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/taliban-pakistan-justice-women-flogging
I can't get myself to watch the video, just reading about it is making me sick. Our country, our people.
1. Are there going to be a rallies for this girl? And many more like her who we'll hear about (and not once from our famed, activist media)?
2. Isn't adultery an act committed by a married person, and limited to THAT person? In other words, the girl here isn't an adulterer or an 'adulteress', but the guy is. Who, as Tazeen promptly pointed out is nowhere to be seen.
3. Can anyone explain to me, that even with all the love in the world for god, would anyone hold their own sister down so she could get a lashing meted out by no court whatsoever? I understand love for Allah ought to transcend all things, but she didn't commit murderer, and her labelling as an adulterer is very dubious (point 2). So, on the basis of seemingly circumstantial evidence, offered by shady people (for people of god never lie, eh?), this 'brother' decided to score brownie points with the local taliban by partaking in his sister's punishment.
Fucking. Hell.
Like others, I can't watch it. Makes me feel sick...physically unwell.
Which is what I want the fuckers perpetrating this to feel: physically unwell, perhaps induced by one of their own 47's up the rectum.
@AKS
It is our country but these aren't our people. These aren't people, they're not even animals, they're something worse, something vile.
please tell me its u shebby..
paanch rupees doon ga..
Express news says that she was beaten for stepping outside her house without a mehram in tow.
Of course, it's entirely possible that that constitutes adultery in these parts.
this is a sincere question - i hope no one gets offended, but why does it seem so important in Islam to go by The Book. is there a growing section of muslims that accept that a modern society can not be built on what's written in a religous book - that it could serve in a spiritual capacity but it can not and should not be allowed to constrain lives of people like this? i ask this because i have only seen people interpreting the verses in a way to "proove" that Islam is in consonance with modernity - i never hear anyone say - it does not matter what it says, we can't have such and such stuff going on and there has to be a progressive, irreligous constitution to abide by. also must mention that there are other religions that have had their share of irrational dogma but those societies have not seemed to struggle as much in junking that kind of oppressive stuff.
even here i see commenters trying to base their criticism on the basis of islam. of how islam would prohibit this or that - but when people refuse to let themselves be subjugated by the book - wouldn't all this go away? do you really think that if islam and the book is not the central piece of a society, the society would spiral down a path of decadence and destruction?
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=73592
brave?
we shouldn't even be surprised, what can we expect from the taliban who have long instutionalised this... this er, stuff?
the only things i can think of at this time is: those barbarians, savages, sadistic, uncivilised, prehistoric pieces of shit.
all this and i've not even watched the video yet.
actually i watched one video last night which had me reeling for hours after. not so far removed from this topic actually.
can't access YT right now, but someone has blogged it: http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/cop-beats-teenage-girl-for-kicking-off-her-shoe/
I am ashamed (as a human) and delighted as someone who believes Islam is/was/will be a failure and Pakistan is a failed state (what else?)
Looks like all you people are actually decent folks, who believe its worth the fight..so go out there and get some blood on your hands...change your religion and come back and tell us that you fought them with you blood, tears and sweat..coz in the long (or actually very near run), this is going to be your mother and sister soon...
Hello Ahsan,
This was the first thing I saw this morning. At 7:30, I am thinking.. man my day is going to be bad.
Some reinterpretation of Sharia is the call of the day. Pakistan Government should do some arm twisting, bribe some Mullahs, threaten some Taliban, do whatever.
Oh I wrote about it, but didn't realize the video was on Youtube - I was linking to the Guardian piece - thanks will youtube it too.
It's horrific and so atrocious - after reading this yesterday, it actually kept me up late last night thinking about.
What about all the crowd in the video? I wonder what are they doing ? I know they may not dare to protest but they can stay away from the scene. It is sick that they are providing a obedient audience and it makes me think Sharia (of this kind) has the popular mandate.
-AM
I'd actually spent the day before you posted this, wondering if it would be appropriate to post it or not. I saw it all the way through but it made me physically sick.
Asfand:
1. Let's hope so, but I doubt it.
2. No, technically, adultery is simply sex outside marriage.
F-Machine:
Yup, that's what the Guardian report said. And yes, that constitutes adultery in those parts.
Dudelove:
For your reading pleasure:
http://fiverupees.blogspot.com/2006/10/university-life-in-pakistan-and-other_11.html
AM:
Crowds will stand around and watch anything (car accidents, dead birds, whatever).
According to the Wall Street Journal:
The married girl seen in Friday's video was accused of having an affair with her father-in-law because she was seen leaving a house accompanied by him. Under the brand of Islamic law imposed by the Taliban faction that controls Swat, a married woman can only be accompanied out by her husband or a blood relative, said Muslim Khan, the group's spokesman.
He said she was punished after an investigation, although she had not been tried in a proper Islamic court. She "would have been stoned to death if there was a proper Sharia court," he told the private Geo News television station. "Nothing will deter us from enforcing Sharia rule." Islamic law is known as Sharia.
very sad news
it's more sad that this is actually happening in pakistan
captain03: where else did you expect this to happen?
It's either Af or Pak...Afpak rocks...! come on surprise us more...shock us more...it's wonderful ..you beautiful children of allah, you rock..
Well I guess we have all been wrong about the father-in-law thing. Thanks to our express and dawn news.
Here is what BBC has to say about this incident.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7980899.stm
I don't have right expression or sentence to genuinely describe what I felt, but please don't say "you (Pakistanis) are ashamed", how many times you are going to say that...
If I would be her brother and was give a choice to die but not force her face in mud, needless to say, ""I would have died without even a second thought""
And also please don't say He/She or Taliban is not Pakistanis, you know it better than I do.
In between, I am a Bhartiya...(but only after I am a co-human sharing the planet with you, often unfortunately)
Morale police is everywhere..
you have Ramsenas in Mangalore..
orthodox jews who don't use any modern adgets..and their newspaper recently "photoshoped" women leaders who were in the frame with other "male" leaders.
Anyway the Sharia-Islam thing has gone too far to my mind..
The difference is these guys have AKs and RPGs. I mean, this honour thing is a middle-class and lower-class problem. The upper-class/elite are psychologically secure people since they have money and its immaterial to them what people think of them. In middle-lower class, they need this honour thing to have a "holier-than-ur-neighbour" psychological security.
So, they try to keep image of their daughters "fresh" and unfortunately for them link this to family honour. I am amazed why women take this shit lying down.
so this video is everywhere... and every talk show is sitting with its panels and discussing the pros and cons of the 'swat agreement'. i reacted the same way everyone else reacted. i was upset, and outraged. i want the taliban to be crushed!!
but while surfing through various channels i randomly stopped on one, and while not agreeing with most of what was being debated, one statement stood out to me.
will we only react in outrage when a video is leaked. when we actually see physical(?) ermm ... video evidence of what we already know is happening.
this girl's flogging is a HUGE issue... but we stay silent the rest of the time knowing that in the rural areas honor killings are a norm. yes we reacted to the 'girl chased by dogs and shot/buried alive' case... but only when it became public. when it became food for mainstream media and threatened to ruin our image as moderate pakistanis.
if we demand intervention in swat over this case... shouldnt we demand intervention in the rural areas too... which are JUST as un-receptive to the police and other disciplinary forces. they have their own laws too...the jirgas. how different is that from what's happening in swat?
ive gone off on a tangent...and its not for a debates sake...i think im putting all this in text for my sake too. because these are questions im posing to myself too.
i guess the difference here is that the taliban culture threatens to seep into our own, while the feudal culture thrives in its own little world, not bothered or wanting to be bothered.
is that why we stay quite to it. girls are still being shot and killed.
i think i just had a conversation with myself. lol.
sorry.
Khizzy and others,
I am an Indian Hindu and often debated a lot with people in west about "how the hell a westerner should dictate any other country in the World on their women, as what they should wear or not when they have a very poor family values record of their own, but since I belong to a very similar background of morale values and culture, I am really shocked of something like this.. If this was happening in India, I am sure people would have thrown Taliban by now. Given a bad record(in India) of dowry killings and malnutrition etc. etc. it does not make any way a subject of second thought that I would erase every bad practice altogether or none by simply comparing them.
I personally feel that there is some confusion down there in Islamabad as who is a friend and foe or a reconcilable and Americans seems to be a milking cow in a Taliban neighborhood..
otherwise, it either seems to be fairy tale of Taliban wining district by district and region by region or an exit strategy of Pakistan..
This incident is not very different from what our own ram sena did days back.
Fazlur Rehman is presently giving a press conference at Peshawar Press Club, this is what he has to say:
The Swat flogging incident is sad and we condemn it. It is okay to launch a protest. Those in charge of Malakand and Swat also condemn this incident. It is a conspiracy against Sharia.
And it must also be remembered that dozens of innocent people are dying in the drone attacks. Innocent girls are blown to pieces in these attacks. Yet everyone refers to these attacks as actions against terrorism. Our media is only propagating Western interests.
America blah blah blah blah.
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The Geo ticker reads: JUI-F leader Maula Fazlur Rahman strongly condemns Swat flogging incident; terms it a conspiracy against Sharia. Says that protest of this incident is a right act.
(Geo is being too kind.)
------------
I'd like to say this to the Maulana: Fuck you, you land grabbing, deisel smuggling, two timing son of a bitch.
Here comes the same old comparison with India. If u can do it, we can do it better! Ya u proved it, atleast in evil things! Now they are comparing this to Ram Sene incidents. But can you compare the aftermath of the incident? Can ur ladies dare to lodge a "pink chaddi" campaign and get full support from media, ministers, journalist? Can ur student organisations claim what they did with Ram Sene so that they withdrew their Valentine campaign and Karnataka, Goa and MAharashtra govt had to ban them and their chief. Can u claim tht possibility with Taliban in Pak? Evil exists everywhere! Even in the most developed of nations. Its how u tackle the incident makes u different. If this thing would have happened in India, there would have been public outrage and government would be forced to put them behind bars if they had not done already. Or maybe they would have been lynched by now! No one is gonna help u but urselves. So stop silly comprison and stop trying to give uurself some solace. Also I have the same Q as @dudelove. Why interret verses to see if Islam or Sharia supports it. Why not say its not acceptable even though if its approved? Why is flogging and stoning approved even after centuries?
Women are soft targets across the world and one must condemn such gruesome and shocking incidents, wherever they take place. We should not remain a silent witness to such acts of oppression and dominance.These acts should be regarded as serious wake call on the safety and rights of women. It is high time that we, women should become pro active, and make our protests heard against such acts of barbarism and brutality.If we remain disengaged, afraid or indifferent, we’ll witness more such demeaning incidents in future and our silence will be interpreted as supporting cultural terrorism which is completely untrue.So, lets speak up and show our contempt.
@anonymous-11:36
Narrow-minded and intolerant religious extremists who act irrationally in the name of “morals” and “God”are all the same, irrespective of their different faiths but I agree that silence is considered as a weakness.I know that women of Pakistan are strong and capable to fight this violence against this girl with their own pink chaddi campaign.I wish them good luck.
@ the guy instigating pink chaddi revolts
the woman getting flogged in the video is actually no different from just about every other woman in pakistan.
gender discrimination is very openly practised even in the highest echelons of society.
i have studied at pakistan's premier universities, amongst the elite, and even there, parents are willing to educate girls and let them study radical feminism, yet impose curfews on them that they wouldn't even dream on imposing on their sons.
i don't think there is a single family in pakistan where the daughter is explicitly and implicitly given the same freedoms, opportunities and rights as the son.
no woman can go out alone for a drive at 3 in the morning, yet any guy can do that with no consequences to fear.
most people cloak this repression under the guise of "what will people say?" and "Halaat kharab hain" but the point is that our society as a whole, from top to bottom, is geared towards keeping the woman down - so that we can all flog her.
@Karachi Khatmal- I wrote my comments as a concerned Indian woman reader who lives in the U.S. I was appalled to read this gruesome act against this girl.I believe in the power of women and that actions speak more than words.Instead of showing lip sympathy for this girl, I chose to write what I felt right but I agree that I am not acquainted with the situation in Pakistan.If you think, I am instigating a revolt, I take back my words and I apologize.
typical.
girls get raped in pakistan by backwards tribal feudal jirgas in punjab, sindh and balochistan. (no need to explain)
women get raped and killed in lahore and have no recourse to any system of justice in pakistan today. (look at the stats)
sister gets screwed by guyS at beach parties in karachi while her own bro is outside 'having a bud'
no noise on that - simply follow the flock on the latest video posting and diss the taliban.
about the girl in the video: did she die? was she raped? was she f*cked silly while drunk?
well then, shut up. these things do happen in pakistan and its not the taliban doing it. in fact, they're better placed to stop it than most of you self-righteous bloggers.
People! People! Please open your eyes and ears...All such videos and other gimicks are just to destroy the image of Islam and Pakistan.... Please think... can any true muslim can do such a thing..can a muslim..no matter how bad he is..can destroy a mosque?? Reality is that CIA, Mozart & Raw have found a large scale stage and they have directed a great Drama against Pakistan and Islam...Every body has there own interests..USA wants to have the control in the region because of China & Russia, Israel wants to destroy Islam and Pakistan, and India wants Pakistan out of the picture....If there were no Osama Bin Laden, Saddam, Mula Umer and now Baitullah Masud.. then how America would get the opportunities? Please try to analyse and raise your voice...
People! People! Please open your eyes and ears...All such videos and other gimicks are just to destroy the image of Islam and Pakistan.... Please think... can any true muslim can do such a thing..can a muslim..no matter how bad he is..can destroy a mosque?? Reality is that CIA, Mozart & Raw have found a large scale stage and they have directed a great Drama against Pakistan and Islam...Every body has there own interests..USA wants to have the control in the region because of China & Russia, Israel wants to destroy Islam and Pakistan, and India wants Pakistan out of the picture....If there were no Osama Bin Laden, Saddam, Mula Umer and now Baitullah Masud.. then how America would get the opportunities? Please try to analyse and raise your voice...
I'm inclined to think this last comment is an attempt at satire, particularly since it blames an Austrian composer from the 18th century for the "great Drama against Pakistan and Islam".
AHSAN GROW UP BRO..JUST A SPELLING MISTAKE FROM MY SIDE...YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT BUT JUST TO CLEARIFY ITS "MOSSAD"
I think he did actually know it was a spelling mistake, however it was pretty funny, including whole satire interpretation bit.
>
can any true muslim can do such a thing..can a muslim..no matter how bad he is..can destroy a mosque??
>
Yes. Of course they can. As far as I understand people self identify as Muslims rather than pass an exam or anything. But it doesn't stop them being people. People do all sorts of horrendus things. Now of course you might then announce they aren't muslims, just as some Sunni claim Shai aren't and so on. What is your criteria for disqualification from the muslim faith?
C.J: I am checking this blog.Now, I know how you get first hand information on Pakistan. Thanks for recommending this blog. You were right in saying that this blog has lot more to offer than just Indian bashing. I am definitely going to recommend this to my colleagues.Btw,I enjoyed reading your comments.
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