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ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
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Monday, April 2, 2007

Islamists radicals release women accused of being ’prostitutes’

By Sheraz Khurram Khan
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (ANS) — Three women accused of being prostitutes have been released from a fundamentalist madrasa (Islamic religious school) in central Islamabad after being forced to “confess” their sins, UK based The Guardian newspaper has reported in its March 30 Special Report.

According to the report one of the three women, Shamim, who was also said to run a brothel, was made to confess her sins in a press conference organized by her captors.
“I apologise for my past acts and promise that in future I will live like a pious person”, The Guardian quoted her as telling reporters at the religious school named Jamiah Hafsa Madressha.

It went on to say that the alleged brothel owner after her release said she had given the statement under duress.

“I could only escape after telling reporters what they wanted me to say. Otherwise there seemed to be no power in the world, including President Musharraf, who could free us,” the Guardian quoted her as telling ARY television.

The women accused of being prostitutes were imprisoned inside Jamia Hafsa under guard by thousands of burka-clad women clutching bamboo staves.
Photograph: AP

It said Police appeared helpless to save Shamim, her daughter, daughter-in-law and six-month-old granddaughter after they were snatched from their home and imprisoned inside Jamia Hafsa under guard by thousands of burka-clad women clutching bamboo staves.

It quoted Shamim as saying that a gang of young men broke down her front door, ransacked her house and dragged her back to the madrasa with a rope around her neck. Inside the madrasa, burka-clad female students abused the four captives, calling them “kaffirs” or infidels, said the report.

“We would prefer to turn to Christianity. At least the Christians would be able to provide us with some protection,” The Guardian quoted Shamim as saying on Thursday night, March 29.

It said the three women and baby were now in protective custody.

It quoted critics as saying that the anti-vice drive highlighted how little control president Pervez Musharraf had over radical seminaries, even in Islamabad.
In a report published this week, the International Crisis Group said the government’s madrasa reform programme was a “shambles”, it said.

The report said that several thousand young men and women, many from poor backgrounds in rural areas, live in Jamia Hafsa and another all-male madrasa, where they are fed, clothed and given a radical Islamist education.

The schools are part of a complex of religious buildings centred on the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, which has been illegally built over the years on government land in one of Islamabad’s wealthiest neighbourhoods, it maintained.

The burka-clad female students came to prominence in January when they invaded public children’s library in protest at government plans to demolish the Lal Masjid, said the report. It said the students still occupy the library but claim outside children are free to come and borrow books.

It further said that recently, male students have warned local shopkeepers to stop selling music and even petitioned passing motorists to turn off their car radios. Combined with Taliban attacks on towns in the tribal areas, Pakistan’s moderate majority is worried, it said.

“The ill wind of religious extremism, confined no longer to some forgotten nook, is threatening to rend the very fabric of society as we know it,” it quoted Pakistan English daily newspaper, “Dawn” as saying.

Both schools are run by the radical clerics, Abdul Rashid Ghazi and his brother Abdul Aziz, who aim to replace Pakistan’s frail democracy with strict Sharia law, it said and added that on Friday, city police vowed to arrest Mr Ghazi and two dozen other students for the kidnapping.

The report quoted Shamim as saying that she would seek refuge at foreign embassies because “they [the Islamist radicals] warned of severe consequences if we speak against them”.

“Unless she’s a British citizen there’s nothing we can do from a consular point of view,” The Guardian quoted a British High Commission spokesman, Aidan Liddle as saying.

The report said that a Jamia Hafsa spokesman, Bint-e-Abdul Wahid, warned the government to take prompt action against other brothels. “Otherwise we will handle the matter ourselves,” the report quoted the religious school’s spokesman as saying.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Pakistan.

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