The writer is an adjunct professor at the Howard University School of Law and holds a Juris Doctorate and LLM specialising in international law. He tweets @warishusain
The stories of Atticus Finch and Rashid Rehman are not dissimilar if one looks to the defendants they chose to represent during their careers. In the case of Atticus, he was appointed to represent an African-American (Tom Robinson) by the local judge, because no other lawyer in town would be willing to take up such a case. This is because defending even an innocent black man in a rape case against a white woman in the United States during the 1930s could lead to death threats or worst for the lawyer and his/her client. This was a time of vicious discrimination against African-Americans, when it was not uncommon in some parts of the country for a mob to lynch a black man based on unfounded accusations, before he could even be arrested.
This should sound familiar to some of Pakistan’s minorities, whether their position as minorities is linked to immutable properties like ethnicity, to their faith, or to their political opinion. The list of Tom Robinsons is growing exponentially, following the increasingly violent and hateful rhetoric accepted in public discourse. Anyone who challenges the right-way’s drift into madness is termed an infidel or fascist, their days numbered, whether it was Governor Taseer requesting reexamination of certain laws or Rashid Rehman having the temerity to provide a legal defence for someone accused of blasphemy.
However, there is a difference between Lee’s Tom Robinson and Pakistan’s minorities. Tom was saved from mob violence and given a prejudiced trial; Pakistan’s minorities are killed at a moment’s notice, whether through the bullets of an assassin, the bombs of a terrorist or the noose of a lynch mob. And where is the state amongst all this civilian bloodletting?
In Rashid Rehman’s case, despite several news stories and complaints to the local police about threats to his safety — which eventually led to his murder — he was provided no police security. Much like Atticus, he was not deterred by threats to his safety, but unlike Atticus, no one could save him from the gunmen that burst into his office.
In this way, reality and the book diverge. In Mockingbird, the lawyer goes on to live his life after he is unable to save his client from a bigoted society. But as far as Mr Rehman is concerned, he lost his life while his client will continue to languish in jail without representation, since taking on such a task may be a death sentence for whichever lawyer is courageous or foolhardy enough to take the case.
So, let us mourn the murder of a guardian for justice, but let’s not forget what he stood for as an attorney and human rights defender. Though his ilk have been targeted continually to the point of extinction and society sits passively numb watching their extermination, the fighters keep fighting. Perhaps, based on a belief they share with Atticus Finch, who argued that “in this country our courts are the great levelers... I’m no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That’s no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality!” As such, it’s time to realise that those working to achieve the reality of justice are not naïve, nor are they purely idealists. They are working every day, risking their personal safety without attention, only to be recognised and appreciated once they are murdered and their voices silenced.
The sympathisers of his killer should remember that Rehman was disturbing the eerie quiet of today’s age of hate with the song of justice. And as Lee wrote “[mockingbirds] don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (9)
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Superb
@Faisal Mansoor: Why cannot he write in this newspaper? Just because he lives in the US? He cannot write an opinion? There are Chinese writing here, there Indians writing here, there Singaporeans writing here, there British citizens writing. It's bigoted Pakistanis like you who have destroyed this country. Who support blasphemy laws. You have just shown your true face.
]Moderator this a response[
@Faisal Mansoor: Typical of the midset of 'land of pure'. " We are the chosen ones, the most sage. We have no problems. We tell the rest of the world how to run their affairs and not the other way around" " And please when is the next Aid instalment coming; our economy will collapse without it !!"
"Lee Harper, s novel describes raceism in America in 19th century , and in Pakistan the case is BALSPHMY that is more critical"
The aspect of racist ideology that Atticus Finch was fighting was the credo that a white accuser should always be able convict a black man of a capital crime, even if proof was insufficient or contradictory. How does it go in Pakistan, that people accused of blasphemy should always be subject to the death penalty, regardless of the evidence? Is that not a similar struggle?
I'd like to point out that during the 1920s - 1960s period the Ku Kux Klan, founded by one of the Confederacy's most successful generals, was a powerful force in extra-legal enforcement of racism in America. The KKK was present at many levels of law enforcement, making prosecution of members caught committing crimes difficult or impossible.
The defeat of the KKK began in the late 1940s when it was infiltrated by an informer who worked not for the government, but for Hollywood: the KKK's secrets were revealed on the popular radio show Superman. This not only embarrassed the organization but damaged its supremacist ideology, setting it up in popular culture not as a heroic enterprise but an evil one. Members of the KKK knew that their day was over when their own kids played with Superman and the KKK was the villain. Membership dropped along with the KKK's hold over the minds of the White South.
I remember the film, with Gregory Peck. I have alse got an opinion about Rashid rehman or Taseer, but I reserve my opinion, as Probably it will not be allowed to appears as a comment. On the other hand unless you identify and point out the real cause, nothing is going to change. Carry on dreaming. Gregory Peck did not get killed.
@Faisal Mansoor:
USA elected a black President .. seems they made some progress on resolving their race issue .. how you doing on your Blasphemy problem?
Thanks for a thoughtful essay. USA moved in one direction in the 70 years since the situation described in the novel while Pakistan moved in quite another in the almost 70 years since its coming into existence. We must also ponder over the fact that Pakistani writers have yet to produce anything coming close to Harper Lee's book in either English or Urdu.
You live you the US and you spent most of your life in that country. So do not comment on Pakistan. Solve your adopted countries problems. We do not confused desi seculars in Pakistan newspapers.
Different Mokingbirds: Lee Harper, s novel describes raceism in America in 19th century , and in Pakistan the case is BALSPHMY that is more critical, American, very much have controlled racism, in Pakistan religious extremism is grorwing day by day and nobody dare to control it.