31 Aug 2008
'It's fine to bury immoral women alive'

Now, I'm sure that got your attention because it sure did grab mine in my groggy state (thanks to a bout of cough which I'm curently battling) on a Monday morning by the couch reading yesterday's newspaper. Am I complaining? No. I do remember that there are many of you out there who have bigger battles to fight at work on a Monday morning, so I will just stay here to cough my lungs out and not complain about it.

Yes, the immoral women. Read on.


Islamabad - A Pakistani lawmaker has defended a decision by North-Western tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands.

'These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them,' Mr Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, said. 'Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid.'

The women, three of whom were teenagers, were shot and then thrown into a ditch.

They were still breathing as mud was shovelled over their bodies, according to media reports.

Mr Zehri told a packed and stunned Parliament on Friday that Baluch tribal traditions helped stop obscenity and then asked fellow lawmakers to stop making such a fuss about them.

Several lawmakers stood up in protest, describing the so-called 'honour killings' as barbaric.

AP

How does one respond to a piece of news like the above? In the past, enraged women would go out onto the streets to protest. I was told in the university by some professor that some even burn their bras to declaim their feminist views. Where does that leave the rest of us - modern civilised individuals, some of whom are just beginning to drown in the sea of problems like being stranged in Phuket, dismal childcare leave for fathers, discriminated singles (and worse, if you are a single parent - thanks to ECL for highlighting that!), rising inflating costs and that plate of friend rice costing 50 cents more?

Frankly, my mind is in limbo now. Maybe it's because of I have grown callous to violent and sexual issues after having been subjected to them all the time on the telly and radio and in the cinemas non-stop. Or perhaps it's just my cough-spasm ridden body calling out for more rest and thus shutting down my brain when I refuse to cooperate.

This is madness. I mean, my pathetic breathless state. No, I seriously meant that my cough got aggravated after reading about what they did to the immoral women and some teenagers. There were TEENAGERS???!!

Branding women immoral and burying them alive simply because they wanted to choose their own husbands? Now, that's inhuman.

Perhaps (note, I'm not very coherent now) we should just bury the whole community alive so as to wipe out these barbaric traditions altogether? Afterall, thousands, many innocent, did die brutal deaths during Iraq war?

So you decide. You judge. All I'm hearing now are the voices in my head saying, Who named you acuser? Who called you a judge?

Like many out there, I should just move along with my life.

Labels: babble

2 comments