Women’s rights and Islam
Sir: It amazes me that Haris Ahmad Kayani (Letters to the editor: ‘Don’t blame the religion’, June 23, 2003), could say that “Islam gives women more rights than any country or civilisation”, while sitting in a country where women are prohibited by law from driving cars, and where under sharia, a man can divorce his wife verbally. So much for gender equality under the sharia.
The West should be the model for a progressive Pakistan, as it was in the days of M A Jinnah. If Jinnah had lived a little longer, there is no doubt that he would have ensured that Pakistan had a modern, secular constitution? Sexual freedom is a fundamental human right. No one deserves to be criminally sanctioned for it. Stoning to death, and whipping are cruel punishments and should be abolished.
SHAZIA MIRZA
USA
dailytimes.com.pk
The purpose of Daily Times was to exercise freedom of expression our ability to carry such news and letters against the generals and prevalent doctrines.....puts to rest the case that expression is not free it is if someone has will. Some other letters.......
Double standards
Sir: According to a news item, the generals of the Pakistan Army, including Pervez Musharraf himself, were allotted agricultural land in Cholistan at a throw away price of Rs.1000 per acre. The market value of the land was Rs.50, 000.
It was said that the allotment had been done according to rules.
Being a citizen and taxpayer of this poor country, I would like to ask who framed these ‘rules’? The COAS and his team.
Who set the price at which they bought the land?
We all know that the politicians and government officials were arrested and jailed by NAB for acquiring land at rates lower than the market prices. Why can those in the army get away with the same act?
Why the double standards?
KHALID KHAN
Hayatabad
Unjustified critique
Sir: Apropos Miss Fatima Muhammad’s letter titled ‘West and Women’s rights’ (Daily Times, June 26, 2003). Miss Fatima has the right to express her own opinion but I find her remarks about the Sharia and women’s rights quite baffling. She called the Sharia backward and medieval. True, the western countries provide equal rights to women but let’s not forget that the Sharia is the unchallenged divine law of Allah and guarantees more rights to women then any other culture or religion.
Agreed that we Muslims have let personal interests, tribalism and Mullahs rule our lives but questioning Islam and its laws and considering them inferior to western culture is uncalled for. I would suggest that Miss Fatima read Karen Armstrong’s ‘A short history of Islam’ to see for herself what the Christian author thinks about Islam and its way of life.
ALI MUJTABA
Islamabad |
