CII’s religion starts from women and ends with women
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: I am at a loss for words at what the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) chairman said the other day in Islamabad. Apparently, for the CII, religion has only one purpose and aspect to follow — how to control your womenfolk. The CII’s religion starts from women and ends with women — how she should dress, how to divorce her, how to physically and psychologically punish her, how to remove women from health, education and other sectors of life, how to make her economically dependent on the spouse, how to ban her movements without a mehram, and the list goes on. It’s very obvious that the CII doesn’t consider women as human beings — they are just property. And then it tries to define rules for men to regulate, control and take care of ‘their property’.
I am not questioning the CII’s proposed ‘model’ Women Protection Bill (read: Women Prohibition Bill) as these so-called scholars and jurists would come up with their interpretation of religious teachings to justify their stand. My question is: is the CII relevant anymore in today’s Pakistan? Our society is trying to come out of centuries-old tribal traditions and customs of the ‘owning a woman’ mentality, and therein the CII has become a flag-bearer of tribal male chauvinism. It’s high time that we dusted down the motion moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar in 2014, which questioned the continued functioning of the CII as it had already completed its constitutional task back in 1996. That motion was vehemently opposed and put aside by the ruling PML-N and that has only encouraged the CII to go on the offensive. In last two years, in a hurry to prove its relevance, the CII has made a joke of itself — rejecting DNA tests in rape cases, justifying child marriages and polygamy, and now, a series of codes and rules to control and regulate women. Since its inception, the CII has put forward hundreds of recommendations; none, barring a few, have been implemented or even debated in parliament, which means the body represents just a waste of taxpayers’ money and a source of political bribes. There is no point in deliberating on this so-called Women Protection Bill — the only way to get out of this mess is to reconsider if we even need the CII.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2016.
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