Author: Ali Dayan Hasan
Publication: South Asia Tribune
Date: June 16, 2005
URL: http://www.satribune.com/archives/200506/P1_ali.htm
'Teach the bitch a lesson. Strip
her in public." As one of the police officers told me, these were the orders
issued by their bosses.
The police beat the woman with
batons in the full glare of the news media, tore her shirt off and, though
they failed to take off her baggy trousers, certainly tried their best.
The ritual public humiliation over, she and others - some bloodied - were
dragged screaming and protesting to police vans and taken away to police
stations.
This didn't happen to some unknown
student or impoverished villager. This happened to Asma Jehangir, the United
Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion and head of the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan, the country's largest such non-governmental
group. The setting: a glitzy thoroughfare in Lahore's upmarket Gulberg
neighborhood. The crime: attempting to organize a symbolic mixed-gender
mini-marathon on May 14.
The stated aim of the marathon was
to highlight violence against women and to promote "enlightened moderation"
- a reference to President Pervez Musharraf's constant refrain describing
the Pakistani military's ostensible shift from state-sponsored Islamist
militancy and religious orthodoxy to something else (just what it is not
entirely clear).
Others arrested included Hina Jilani,
the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and
40 others, this writer included (an observer, not a runner). The police,
faced with embarrassing media coverage, released us a few hours later.
The marathon was organized by the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and affiliated non-governmental organizations
in the light of recent "marathon politics" in Pakistan. Until early April,
it was government policy to encourage sporting events for women, so Punjab
Province organized a series of marathons in which men and women could compete.
The brief experiment ended abruptly on April 3, when 900 activists of the
Islamist alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e- Amal, or MMA - which was effectively
created as a serious political force by Musharraf and is backed by the
military - attacked the participants of a race in the town of Gujranwala.
According to a government statement
at the time, the MMA activists were armed with firearms, batons and Molotov
cocktails. Yet within days the activists were released without charge and
Musharraf's government had reversed its policy of allowing mixed-gender
sporting activities in public.
The public beating of Pakistan's
most high-profile human rights defenders highlights what most Pakistanis
have known all along: "Enlightened moderation" is a hoax perpetrated by
Musharraf for international consumption. What is known in Pakistan as the
"mullah-military alliance" remains deeply rooted, and the Pakistani military
and Musharraf continue to view "moderate" and "liberal" forces in politics
and society as their principal adversaries.
The reason is simple: Democracy,
human rights and meaningful civil liberties are anathema to a hypermilitarized
state. Pakistan's voters consistently vote overwhelmingly for moderate,
secular-oriented parties and reject religious extremists, so the military
must rely on the most retrogressive elements in society to preserve its
hold on power. Jehangir and others were beaten because they tried - in
a symbolic but crucial way - to challenge the mullah-military alliance
on the streets of Lahore.
In Washington and London, Musharraf
presents himself as the face of enlightenment; in Pakistan there is another
face. The Bush administration, Musharraf's chief backer, should realize
that its friend in the war on terror came to power in a coup, continues
to hold office without facing Pakistani voters, refuses to schedule a vote,
and bans women from running in mixed-gender races. Those who stand for
the values of human rights and democracy that the Bush administration calls
universal are seen as the enemy within and are beaten on the streets.
Instead of allying himself with
espousers of hate and intolerance, Musharraf should pursue a genuine path
of enlightened moderation by telling the MMA and others that the days of
treating women as second-class citizens are over. If human rights defenders
can be beaten for running for their rights, will they have to run for their
lives before the rest of the world and Musharraf's patrons wake up?
The writer is the Pakistan Representative
of the New York-based group, Human Rights Watch. He has been a senior journalist
and Assistant Editor of Monthly 'Herald' in Pakistan. This article was
published first in IHT.
