MADHILA YA KUADHIBIWA BILA KUFUATA TARATIBU

Wenzetu wanaodai kwamba wanaadhibu watu kufuatana na sheria za Huduud ( adhabu zilizotajwa katika Quran tukufu) katika habari hii hata hawafahamu utaratibu wake. Ili mradi adhabu bila kukusanya ushahidi kama alivyofanya Mtukufu wa Daraja (S.A.W.) alipomuuliza mkosaji mara tatu kama katenda kosa na mkosaji akakubali kuwa ametenda (ushahidi wa kukubali - confession). Hapa hakukuwa na kesi iliyosikilizwa ila mijeledi ilitembezwa tu. Na taratibu za mijeledi ilivyokuwa inaelekezwa na Seyyidna Ommar Khalifa wa Pili katika Uislam, ni kuwa isizidi kidole gumba unene wake na wala fimbo isiinuke kupita kichwa cha mpigaji, kwa sababu adhabu hii haikuwa na nia ya kujeruhi ila kumrudi mtu.

The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women! urges the government of Pakistan to bring to justice the perpetrators of the flogging of a young woman in Swat.

On April 3, 2009 a shocking video portraying a 17-year-old woman being publically flogged by Taliban militants in the Swat region of Pakistan was aired on Pakistani television. The video showed two men restraining a young woman while a third man whips her 34 times. She screams and begs for mercy as a large male-only crowd looks on. Reportedly, one of the men was her brother. The woman received no trial before her punishment. In response, Muslim Khan, spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in Swat, has shifted his position from initially stating that had a qazi (judge) been in charge, she would have been stoned to death, to contesting whether the incident happened prior to a government deal with the Taliban (currently awaiting the President’s signature for implementation), to denying the incident ever took place and claiming this was a ‘conspiracy’ by western NGOs. The Supreme Court did take suo motto notice and asked for the woman to be produced in court, but she did not appear and she and the family now deny the incident ever took place. While the Supreme Court has asked for fortnightly updates, we fear the case will be buried.

Hence, the Global Campaign, Stop Killing and Stoning Women! urges the United Nations to investigate this serious infringement of International Human Rights Law and the international community to send a clear message that it is unacceptable for women to be tortured, either in private or in public, while the fact that this flogging was witnessed by many, implicitly legitimizing it, is in grave breach of national and international laws. Reports from the region suggest that violence against women, including other incidences of public floggings, is increasingly common. We also request the United Nations to take note of the draft ‘peace’ deal the Government of Pakistan is entering into with the Taliban in Swat which denies women (and men) their rights under the constitution and will, we fear, open the gates to even greater injustices.