Posted by
Aaron on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 7:49:27 PM
http://www.pakistani.org/pakistan/legislation/zia_po_1979/ord7_1979.html
There is currently a debate in Pakistan documented today on BBC's
website about their rape laws. Currently in Pakistan, rape is
prosecuted under their Islamic law. In summary, in Pakistan it is
illegal to have sex outside of marriage and is punishable by death by
stoning, if the individual is married to someone else at the
time. If the individual isn't already married when he or she
engages in sex he or she is punished by 100 lashings and
imprisonment. When a woman is raped, to prove the rape under
Islamic law she has to provide four eye witnesses who have to be Muslim
men. Therefore, if a married woman gets raped and accuses the
man or men through proper Pakistani legal channels, she gets stoned to
death if she cannot provide the Islamic court with 4 Muslim male
witnesses. Currently, there are human rights groups that are
proposing that rape cases get moved into the country's civil secular
court, but have unfortunately been met with great resistance from Islamic
radicals within the country.
This should outrage much more people around the world than it currently
does. Regions of world like Pakistan are held to a low moral
standard by the rest of the world, and in result stories that document
their barbaric and uncivilized way of life are rare. The
Abu Graib prison scandal can cause an outcry from the entire world
community, and result in an endless amount of news stories being printed
about it, whereas, women in Pakistan can get raped and killed for it,
and no one even says a word.