Mar 07 2016 : The Times of India (Chennai)
PAK SCAN - An Oscar offers ray of hope to honour killing survivors
Sameer Arshad
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Saba Qasier, 19, committed a fatal mistake of falling in love with a man her family did not approve of. Her defiance followed a familiar South Asian script when her family in Pakistan's Punjab tried to kill her for daring to marry the love of her life. Saba was shot in the back of her head and left to die in a canal in 2014. But she survived miraculously to tell her tale, which in the form of a documentary has won Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy her second Oscar.The documentary `A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness' highlights defects in Pakistani laws that allowed elders to pressurise Saba into forgiving her family . The lacuna is expected to be addressed as the film moved Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to pledge a stringent legislation against honour killings after Chinoy screened the film for him in Islamabad. Sharif called the socalled honour killings brutal and in humane and added his government was in the process of legislating to stop them in his congratulatory message to Chinoy. Days later, the New York Times quoted lawmaker Maiza Hameed saying initial work on the legislation had started.
Chinoy , who was awarded Pakistan's second highest civilian award after winning her first Oscar, cited her film's power while referring to Sha rif 's pledge in her acceptance speech in Los Angles. Chinoy has reasons to be optimistic as her second Oscar came days after Sharif 's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N)-ruled Punjab province passed the stringent Women's Protection Act against domestic, psychological and sexual violence.The legislation seeks to create a tollfree number for reporting violence, creating shelters for abused women, establishing district-level committees to probe cases of abuse besides using GPS to track offenders. It even provides for removal of abusers from homes in the cases of domestic violence.
The pro-women legislation that was passed despite fierce opposition from reactionary clerics coincided with the execution of Punjab governor Salman Taseer s assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, on February 29. The execution is seen as part of Pakistan's course correction attempts following the Peshawar school massacre that highlighted how the cancer of extremism was corroding the country . The Natio nal Action Plan (NAP) formulated after an all-party meeting in the wake of the massacre to root out terrorism included a pledge to stop religious extremism and to protect minorities .
That Asia Bibi, the poor Christian woman whose pardon Taseer had sought for being a victim of the draconian blasphemy law, is still imprisoned underlines Pakistan has a long way to go. But Qadri's execution is an impor tant step in this direction and follows an important judicial process that holds out hope for the supremacy of the rule of law. Importantly , Pakistan's Supreme Court declared the blasphemy law, which is often abused to settle scores, was not beyond criticism while upholding Qadri's conviction in October. It has added weight to the calls for reforming the law that has often seen as sacrosanct even as the Prophet, for instance, is known for his forgiveness even toward those who heaped insults on him. The legislation, the execution and ban on puritanical Tablighi Jamaat from preaching in schools and colleges followed Pakistan military s criticism of ruling PML-N a few months back for dragging its feet on the implementation of the NAP . In November, Sharif joined Diwali celebrations in Karachi and promised the country's Hindus he would stand by them. The conservative PML-N's efforts of rooting out obscu rantism are not lost on even its fiercest critics.Who would have thought the SharifPML-N government would ini tiate Pakistan' s fightback against obscurantism! A defining moment in Pakistan's journey , tweeted lawyer Salman Akram Raja.
Pakistan's beleaguered silent majority that cannot beat the muscle and lung power of the reactionaries can only hope Sharif stays the course to rid the country of the malignant extremism capable of causing damage beyond its borders.
Chinoy , who was awarded Pakistan's second highest civilian award after winning her first Oscar, cited her film's power while referring to Sha rif 's pledge in her acceptance speech in Los Angles. Chinoy has reasons to be optimistic as her second Oscar came days after Sharif 's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N)-ruled Punjab province passed the stringent Women's Protection Act against domestic, psychological and sexual violence.The legislation seeks to create a tollfree number for reporting violence, creating shelters for abused women, establishing district-level committees to probe cases of abuse besides using GPS to track offenders. It even provides for removal of abusers from homes in the cases of domestic violence.
The pro-women legislation that was passed despite fierce opposition from reactionary clerics coincided with the execution of Punjab governor Salman Taseer s assassin, Mumtaz Qadri, on February 29. The execution is seen as part of Pakistan's course correction attempts following the Peshawar school massacre that highlighted how the cancer of extremism was corroding the country . The Natio nal Action Plan (NAP) formulated after an all-party meeting in the wake of the massacre to root out terrorism included a pledge to stop religious extremism and to protect minorities .
That Asia Bibi, the poor Christian woman whose pardon Taseer had sought for being a victim of the draconian blasphemy law, is still imprisoned underlines Pakistan has a long way to go. But Qadri's execution is an impor tant step in this direction and follows an important judicial process that holds out hope for the supremacy of the rule of law. Importantly , Pakistan's Supreme Court declared the blasphemy law, which is often abused to settle scores, was not beyond criticism while upholding Qadri's conviction in October. It has added weight to the calls for reforming the law that has often seen as sacrosanct even as the Prophet, for instance, is known for his forgiveness even toward those who heaped insults on him. The legislation, the execution and ban on puritanical Tablighi Jamaat from preaching in schools and colleges followed Pakistan military s criticism of ruling PML-N a few months back for dragging its feet on the implementation of the NAP . In November, Sharif joined Diwali celebrations in Karachi and promised the country's Hindus he would stand by them. The conservative PML-N's efforts of rooting out obscu rantism are not lost on even its fiercest critics.Who would have thought the SharifPML-N government would ini tiate Pakistan' s fightback against obscurantism! A defining moment in Pakistan's journey , tweeted lawyer Salman Akram Raja.
Pakistan's beleaguered silent majority that cannot beat the muscle and lung power of the reactionaries can only hope Sharif stays the course to rid the country of the malignant extremism capable of causing damage beyond its borders.
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