CII’s ruling shows sacrifices of a brave girl, who fought her case against all odds for 5 years, have gone to waste.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: A Saudi cleric, Abdullah Al-Dawood, recently urged his Twitter followers (who number around 100,000) to sexually harass women cashiers. He considers this a way to discourage women from working in public places. His argument that allowing women to work is the same as human trafficking needs no more discussions as you cannot win against a wall.
The other frustrating bit of news came from Pakistan, wherein the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has rejected the proposal to accept DNA tests as primary evidence in rape cases. The CII insisted that investigators and the courts must go for traditional methodology to ascertain culpability. Is the CII not aware how rapists blackmail and intimidate the victim and her family with dire consequences and get cleared from the witness parade, if it is ever held? In such cases, DNA is the only way to nab the aggressor, even those with influence and money.
The CII’s ruling shows that the sacrifices of a brave girl, who fought her case against all odds for five years, have gone to waste. She not only identified the rapists in a witness parade, the DNA test also authenticated the same. Her case was thrown out by a court in Karachi as it refused to accept the DNA test as evidence.
I have only one question for the CII members: if, God forbid, the victim would have been one of your loved ones, will they still advocate using traditional methods for investigation, go for the DNA test, or avoid reporting the crime?
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2013.
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