Pakistan's Musharraf promises more help for women

[I Have A Dream]

By Augustine Anthony

ISLAMABAD, Dec 5 (Reuters) - President Pervez Musharraf promised on Tuesday to empower women in Pakistan's male-dominated society nearly a week after he signed a new law curtailing harsh Islamic laws dealing with rape.

The Women's Protection Law, fiercely opposed by conservative Islamists, was seen as a key test of Musharraf's resolve to pursue his vision of enlightened moderation for the pre-dominantly Muslim country of 160 million people.

"I congratulate the entire nation that an aggressively progressive bill has been passed," Musharraf told a women's convention in Islamabad.

Controversy over the reform of Islamic laws has highlighted a long struggle between progressives and religious conservatives over the direction of Pakistani society.

(continued at link below)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL341746.htm

[AlamoDemoc]

1. Musharraf is another tyrant dictator supported by the west living off western welfare...n/t

[Vidar]

2. Is he the one that overthrow Benezair Bhuto (sp?), the elected

female head of state, or were there some others in between?

[pennylane100]

3. Call me crazy but I think he is doing a good job

under very difficult circumstances. Pakistan was in a continuous state of government coups, I hope that is the right word, until he took over and he has had to move slowly.

There have been several attempts to assassinate him by militant islamists, and although there was once a woman prime-minister, this is the first time rape protection for women has been written into the law.

I think he has to tread a fine line between all factions to keep the country stable while trying to modernize its laws and seems to be doing OK. However, I am no expert and could be wrong.

[sweetheart]

4. So he's a 'good' dictator that overthrew a democracy

There are some things, you'd think would be really silly to suggest on a progressive website.

That a warmongering dictator that started terrorist wars with india, and has overthrown an
elected democracy; that such a person is 'doing a good job', really is not a description
i'd expect from a free person. Any one of us would likely be in exile, executed or in
prison were we as freely spoken and live'd in pakistan... so you're defending a system
that would even persecute you.

Then i wonder if DU is not becoming like myspace, a chatroom for people to repeat
the narratives programmed by mainstream brainwashing.

Then again, i could be wrong. ;-)

[pennylane100]

5. You might want to tone down the rhetoric

that would go a long way to making this thread sound a lot less like My Space.

There has always been dictators (some of them elected in less than fair elections) running Pakistan and the wars with India have been going on since the beginning so lets not pretend that this particular dictator was any more culpable than his predecessor.

My point was that for the first time there is a law on the books that will protect the women of pakistan, those who who cannot afford to live in exile. The elected democracy that he overthrew did not seem to accomplish that, and he has at least kept the country in relative peace.

Of course free speech is important, but before this law there was no freedom for rape victims in Pakistan and certainly no the right to speak against their accusers in court. So on balance, I would call this a win for women everywhere.

[sweetheart]

7. apologists for the new dictatorship

You represent with that POV, a realpolitic acceptance that democracy is really impossible,
and rather we should seek out benevolent strongmen, and reward such strongmen no matter
what social order they destroy to gain power.

I will not dispute any improvement for women anywhere is a victory.

I would not go so far as to suggest it makes a dictator good. That is a republican position,
not a progressive one. Your rhetoric is right in line with that presumptive elitism of
faux democracy, the non-democratic aspect of the democratic party, the same hollow
rhetoric that justified bombing the shit out of afganistan to liberate the women,
the same wankers who suggested that we were invading iraq to liberate the women,
and really the whole women thing has been overworked to achieve the opposite, the
gross repression of women by dictators and patriarchs across the middle east,
dictators who run armed bombing attacks on their own populations in western pakistan
without the rule of law or courts and due process.

so whilst a dictator drops a bomb on a madrassi and kills 70 people without trial, he
is good for women...

Your circular logic, apologizing for dictatorship with the same old excuse; that is
what belongs on myspace; there where that comfy logic will never be challenged.

[pennylane100]

9. Wow, you are really all over the place with your arguments,

and it seems like you need an army of straw men to knock down to prove whatever point you are trying to make.

Just for the record, I never thought we should have invaded Afghanistan or Iraq. However of all the many excuses the Bush regime used as a justification, I do not remember "liberating Iraqi women" as one of them. Unfortunately, because of the war, Iraqi women have now taken a step backward and their safety will soon be less than that of Pakistani women, who now have some measure of protection, thanks to the law passed by the present Pakistan "dictator".

The United States, under both democrats and republicans, have dropped more bombs and killed more civilians in our last two wars than all you dictators combined and not only did they nor will they ever go on trial, some of the are actually considered hero's. So what exactly is your point. Is it OK to choose to live in exile under such terrible western governments where women have equality and equal protection under the law while criticizing the efforts to bring safety to Pakistani women

Women have alway suffered the most in all wars, and they must take their successes any way they can, including the rights they have been given in Pakistan by the current "dictator" Other than blowing hot air, what exactly do you suggest the women of world to to protect themselves.

[Quantess]

6. Considering that Pakistan seems like

one of the worst ten places to be a woman, I guess that's progress.

[MasonJar]

8. He is working to give women more rights in a bigoted male-dom-

inated society. Kudos to him for this step forward.