Insane practices

We must ask ourselves at some point if we have lost all reason and sense of balance. Certainly, it seems as if, we are turning into a nation of rabid persons who have succumbed to the fever of fanaticism, taking over more and more segments of society. The expulsion of a student of class eight from her school in the POF Colony Havelian, near Abbottabad, following charges of blasphemy against her, is proof of this madness. The child had misspelled a word on an Urdu exam while answering a question about a poem written in praise of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). The error is one any of us could make; yet despite the assertions from the child and her mother that there was no malicious intent involved, the girl was expelled from her school by the POF Colony administration following protests by male students and religious elements. To add to the vindictiveness, her mother, a nurse at a POF-run hospital was transferred to Wah and pressure was also brought to bear by local conservative elements that a case of blasphemy be registered against the girl! There seems little doubt that the fact that Faryal Bibi and her family were Christian played a part in their fate. Similar victimisation of non-Muslim school students has been seen in the past. But what is terrifying is that rather than questioning the teacher who first raised the issue and beat the unfortunate girl as a storm of obscurantism began to brew, it was Faryal who was punished instead. No one appears to have spoken out for her or attempted to defend her; we can only assume fear has drowned out all ability to think or to question what is happening around us. But the question to ask is, where will this take us as a society. The trends we see have already led us into some very dark places indeed. The incident in Havelian only adds to the darkness; another candle has been snuffed out with the action against a small girl guilty of nothing more than placing a letter in the wrong place. Already, minority groups have been sidelined and marginalised; their constitutional status as equal beings snatched away. As this process continues, it will become harder and harder to restore any sense of equilibrium in the society and ensure that the kind of gross injustice Faryal suffered is not repeated again and again.


Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th,  2011.