MUSLIM WORLD
Anthony Shahid On Taliban's Religious Policies
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are being derided as extremist and dangerous, as backward, as distorters of the faith.
This torrent of protests is coming from activists in the Muslim world, whose vision of Islam contrasts sharply with the Taliban's dour programme that bans most women from working, bars girls from schools, forces men to grow beards and outlaws everything from cassette tapes to paper bags.
Leaders of the Taliban religious army surprised by the attacks. They say the criticism must be the result of a lack of information about their movement or perhaps a lack of proper understanding of Islamic law.
"We don't worry about the Western world criticising us," he said in a dingy office, its walls bare. "As for the Muslim world, we know their information about our situation is insufficient". (Religious Police force) men roams the streets of Kabul, ready to a beat any woman foolish enough to venture outside without being fully covered and to any man without a turban and flowing beard.
The Taliban consider music un-Islamic Paper bags are forbidden because of the possibility that they might be recycled pages from discarded the Holy Kuran. Flying kites and other "frivolous" pastimes are outlawed spent at prayers.
As a political and military force, the Taliban represents one of today's most successful Islamic movements.
Many Islamic activists question whether the Taliban's vision goes beyond the strict rule of that law.
"The vision they have is a very primitive society, a backward society with many traditions that are against Islam itself," said Kamal El-Helbawi, spokesman in London for the Muslim Brotherhood".
The Islamic movement whether in the Arab world, Turkey or Iran generally has accepted science and technology of the West while rejecting its culture.
At its heart is an attempt to make Islam a modern theology, one that can cope with the challenges of today's world. Some movements have tried to find an Islamic version of democracy or have taken religious obligations of charity to create welfare networks.
Islamic scholars have criticised barring women from work, keeping girls out of school and the injunctions against flying kites, playing music or taking pictures The Taliban's legal code is based more on age-old tribal law than any conception of Islamic purity, the critics say.
Iran, long the standard bearer of political Islam. Has called the Taliban war-mongering, extremist and radical.
(Source: The Times of India, 8 September, 1997)
Pakistan: A Documentary Against Hudood Ordinances
A 13-year-old girl is abducted and raped several times in two weeks by two neighbours. When the case comes to court, it is not the rapists, but the victim who is sentenced - to five years rigorous imprisonment. The charge: having intercourse outside the marriage. The rapists go scot free as the victim cannot produce four adult Muslim male witnesses to the crime A man tires of his first wife accuses her of adultery, She has no way of providing her innocence. She and her supposed lover are sentenced to death by stoning.
These are some of the cases that Sahiba Sumar's documentary, Who Will Caste the First Stone, dealing with the status of women in Pakistan under the Hudood Ordinances and Zina Law, focuses on. These laws were imposed by the Zia-ul-Haq regime as part of the Islamisation drive in 1979.
Under it, a woman is only half a witness and four adult Muslim males are needed to prove a crime against a Muslim man.
The Zina Law deals specifically with adultery and intercourse outside of marriage, with punishments ranging from flogging in public and imprisonment to death by stoning. The law. as is obvious, leaves women in a vulnerable position.
So, coming up with a film that disclaims the law of the land, obviously takes some courage. As in most societies, it is the women of the lower stratum of society that bear the brunt of these laws. "Upper class women are not affected", says Sumar. "The upper class is a compradore class. It has ways of escaping laws that don't suit it". Sumar believes the lack of a radical bourgeoisie in Pakistan, a country with a sharp class divide, is the main reason for the mute acceptance of regressive law.
"The middle class is small and weak". she explains. "It is extremely cloistered and conservative and serves as a repository of tradition.
Pakistan, moreover, does not have an active women's movement, despite the existence of several women's groups. But women's groups have no mass base.
For Sumar, a complete separation of religion from politics is the only answer.
Religion, as Sumar puts it, is (also) subject to varying interpretations.
(Source: The ??????? , 13 October, 197)
