Tuesday, April 28, 2009
In our cities, where there is more and more trepidation over the rapid Talibanization of the country, some comfort is still sought in the fact that the larger urban centres may well be able to ward off a similar threat. But can they? We have evidence in many places of the growing Taliban influence. In the Manga Mandi area of Lahore, local police thrashed in public three couples who they stated had been engaged in 'objectionable' behaviour. Rather than rejoice over this attempt to save them from immorality, local people expressed anger over the beating of women in the streets.
There are other incidents too. From Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad accounts come in of women being stopped in the streets and asked to cover their heads or 'dress decently'. The most dire accounts speak of threats to hurl acid. Co-educational schools, ironically enough even those imparting a religious education whose tiny pupils arrive in veils and caps, have been threatened. Some women drivers have reported harassment from youths on motorcycles. It is quite possible, indeed probable, that not all these incidents are true. But what such rumours do is create an environment of fear. This after all is what the terrorists want above all else. It is time that, as citizens, we fought back for our rights; for our space and for our right to live without constant fear. So far this struggle has not been taken up in earnest. It is time to push back the tide and rescue our nation from a fate that will jeopardize the future of all its citizens.
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