Author: Zofeen Ebrahim
Publication: IPS News
Date: January 17, 2006
URL: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31800
When Pakistani cricketer Yousuf Youhana, the
only Christian in the national team, announced that he had embraced Islam
to become Mohammad Yousuf last September, the conversion hit the headlines
everywhere.
Editorial writers and the public speculated
about the reason for days. Some ascribed it to peer pressure: the influence
of ex-cricketer Saeed Anwar who is a member of the non-political Tableeghi
Jamaat religious cult. Others said, more wryly, that the cricketer might be
just improving his chances of getting to lead the Pakistan team.
But the conversion of three Hindu girls, a
few weeks later, went almost unnoticed in the media. There was little concern
that the girls, Reena (21), Aishwariya (19), and Reema (17), from a lower
middle-class family in Karachi's Punjab Colony, had run away from home to
become Muslims.
Their father Sanao Menghwar and mother Champa,
who searched for them for two weeks, said they tried to lodge a complaint
at the local police station but were not allowed.
The police finally registered a complaint
on Oct. 22 on the intervention of a deputy superintendent of police. Three
Muslim youths, identified as suspects by Menghwar, were apprehended, but later
released on bail when the girls testified that they had only helped them convert.
Soon after, the family received an envelope
containing affidavits signed by their daughters that stated they had converted
to Islam of their own accord and had changed their names to Anam, Afshan and
Nida respectively. Moreover, they said they didn't want to stay with their
parents; preferring to live in the madrassa (religious school) where they
were being instructed.
The parents went to court, which ordered that
the police arrange a meeting between the parents and the girls. The meeting
took place in the presence of the police, the madrassa instructor and a local
woman. The girls were veiled in black, only their eyes showing. The father
says his youngest daughter's eyes were bloodshot from weeping.
Thereafter, following a notification by the
Supreme Court of Pakistan, the girls were shifted to the Edhi Home for destitute
women, run by a prominent charitable organisation, where they are allowed
to meet their parents and go for their religious education.
''It just doesn't seem right, the whole episode
reeks of human rights violation," says Ayesha Mir, programme coordinator
at the women's rights organisation, Shirkatgah, that has been closely monitoring
the case. ''There are too many questions that remain unanswered," she
adds.
''Why did the women seek shelter in a madrassa?
Why did they veil themselves in front of their parents, no Muslim woman does
that?" she asks.
Rights activists say the girls have been victimised
threefold: they are poor, belong to a minority community, and are women.
In another case, three years ago, Sundri,
a college student in Larkana, went to college one day, never to return home.
Two weeks later, the police told her parents that she had eloped with a Muslim
man and converted to Islam. The marriage did not last. Neither did two others.
She died shortly after the third, in mysterious circumstances.
Anis Haroon, director of Aurat Foundation,
a voluntary agency that works for the empowerment of women, says that conversions
like these need to be discussed as a ''constitutional issue, not a women's
rights or religious issue."
''Minority women, in general, remain more
vulnerable than men," says Javed Jabbar, former information minister.
He reckons their low status in the discriminatory caste system, compounded
by the shrinking numbers of Hindus -- a mere 2.7 million of the country's
140 million people -- makes women more susceptible. ''The rights of Hindu
women require special protection and enforcement by the state," he says.
Tasneem Ahmar, director of UKS, which monitors
the portrayal of women in the media, wonders why more women are converting.
''We have to find answers soon before this sort of conversion becomes a legitimised
practice," she says.
A report by a Pakistani journalist in Mid-Day,
an Indian tabloid, on Nov. 15 says: ''at least 19 such abduction cases have
occurred in Karachi alone", last year. A shaken Hindu community is ''marrying
off their daughters as soon as they are of marriageable age or migrate to
India, Canada or other nations," he writes.
In the recent conversion, the lawyer representing
the father of the three girls, Raja Hussain, says the girls were forced to
marry their captors. He claimed they were kidnapped and harassed by the three
youths. As evidence, he said the girls refused to respond when asked if they
were going to marry the youths.
Article 20 of Pakistan's Constitution protects
the rights of citizens to practice their religion. ''Then what is the basis
or rationale for someone to exercise force against anyone for exercising his
or her rights under these provisions?" wonders Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid,
a retired Supreme Court judge
''Apparently none," he adds. ''The constitution
neither approves, expressly or impliedly, nor permits any forcible conversion.
Violation of others' rights is not justifiable on any ground."
He advises that every effort should be made
to ascertain if the decision to convert was made voluntarily. It is necessary
for police and judicial officers to be trained, and an atmosphere created
where they can discharge their duties ''without fear of retaliation",
he adds.
Haroon puts the blame squarely on the state.
''It has been unable to guarantee civil rights to its people, specifically
its minorities," she says.
Jabbar believes it is everyone's responsibility.
''All citizens have an obligation to protect minorities and prevent coercive
conversion. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are very tolerant and
respectful of religious minorities," he says.
When Shirkatgah visited Punjab Colony to investigate
the conversion, they reported that the neighbourhood was very tense. ''People
were visibly scared and those Hindus, who had earlier told us that they would
talk to us, refused to even recognise us when we went a second time. The father
who spoke to us for 45 minutes, peered outside three times to see if someone
was eavesdropping."
''People are a little wary àthey can
be slapped with the blasphemy law and put behind bars," explains Shirkatgah's
Mir. She thinks the apex court which provided the three women police protection,
should do the same for their parents.
Pakistan's blasphemy laws have been used to
persecute non-Muslims. Minority religious groups have long sought to have
the law scrapped.
Still, Menghwar refuses to give up hope of
getting his daughters back. Neither does he believe their conversion was voluntary.
The girls had said in court: ''We have left our home and religion by ourselves
and no one forced us into this...we used to listen to Islamic programmes on
television and decided to convert to Islam."
