Pakistan : Appels à l’abrogation totale de la Loi Hudood

Daily Times (Karachi edition)
July 11, 2006
Staff report

Hyderabad : A large number of human rights and political activists marched here from Gari Khata to Hyderabad Press Club on Monday to denounce Hudood Ordinance and demanding its immediate repeal.

The protesters were raising "No Hudood Ordinance" , "Wind up Hudood Ordinance", "No change in society without women participation" slogans and holding placards and banner reflected their demands.

The Green Rural Development (GRDO) organised the protest demo.

Talking to the reporters the protesters called the Hudood Ordinance a black law. They said an independent commission on the status of women constituted by the government itself had recommended the law's immediate repeal.

Earlier, the GRDO also organised a dialogue on the consequences of Hudood Ordinance at Labour Hall, Gari Khata. Bashiran Solangi, Qamar Shaikh and others spoke on the occasion. They said the Hudood Ordinance is product of Marshal Law that was imposed on the nation to suppress the women and denied their equal status and basic rights. They said attributing this Law to Islam is an attempt to damage the image of Islam and its teaching. They urged it is the right time to repeal this law, otherwise the women would continue suffering from the discrimination of this law.

The Hudood Ordinance :

The Hudood Ordinance is a law in Pakistan, which enforces punishments mentioned in the Quran and sunnah for crimes such as adultery, rape and theft. It was enacted in 1979 as part of then military ruler Zia-ul-Haq's Islamization process. It is based on Muslim Shari'a law.

The Hudood Ordinance criminalizes all extra-marital sex. Even when the woman claims that she was raped and not involved in adultery, she must have four pious male witnesses to prove rape, but only Muslim men can testify in cases involving Muslim women (non-Muslim rape victims require four non-Muslim male witnesses). But if four witnesses are not provided by the woman but rape is proved by other means (e.g medical evidence) then the jury can punish the accused according to the Pakistani penal court. For married couples, the punishment for adultery is death by stoning but this has never been carried out. Unmarried people receive 100 lashes.

This ordinance is has sometimes been misused against rape victims if they are not able to provide four male witnesses, however the extent to which this occurs is currently disputed. In certain situations, the alleged rapist accuses the raped woman of confessing to consensual intercourse.

The Hudood Ordinance also criminalizes drinking alcohol and punishes it along with theft. Drinking is punished with 80 lashes; the punishment for theft is physical mutilation: the right hand is amputated.

A number of international and Pakistani human rights organizations are making an effort to get the law repealed however are driven by ideological considerations rather than on-the-ground considerations.