The cell-phone video of three "brave" strong males holding down and ravaging a young northern-area woman (who may be
Pakistani or
Afghani) with a public flogging was shameful by any standards of decency, morality or humanity.
Even more shameful was the timing of the video's release. It was apparently leaked not to call attention to a serious crime, and dozens of atrocities like it that are committed by spineless, dishonorable, Taliban every day, but to complicate Pakistan's nearly complete peace deal in Swat.
The Internet communities like
Twitter are, for lack of a better word, atwitter (!) with this particular video being used as an example of what must be happening to every woman in every part of Pakistan.
Don't get me wrong. The scourge of the
Taliban, the cancer of
AlQaeda and the repulsive puss-filled sore of Pakistani-killing terrorists brazenly attacking people in Pakistan are serious threats to every Muslim, every Pakistani. But they are, in many cases, byproducts of other fundamental problems that need to be solved by Pakistan and Muslims.
For example, a history of letting some parts of Pakistan being somewhat exempt from the laws of modern Pakistan may have seemed like ceding power and control to local warlords and ancient tribal traditions. But, in many cases, there were also arrangements in place that suited older governments of Pakistan.
They found it easier to buy the peace with a warlord or Maliks or Emirs of the region, even at the cost of not giving the local populace there a vote or a voice in its own destiny.
Even the money given to areas where natural resources were found, and consumed nationwide, the "royalties" did not go to benefit the people of the area, but to enrich the tribal leaders, who became even stronger and more vile forces, somewhat like
Stone Age Godfathers even without the semblance of a competition or law above them.
They ensured that murder, rape and other heinous crimes remained their tools of administering their subservient population. Ensuring lack of education, lack of basic facilities, even medical care for the poor was another way to keep a population barely surviving and not daring to speak up, or even knowing that speaking up was an option.
That is why, though I went to school with many scions of such "
wadera" or "tribal chief" families sons, I did not shed a tear when a certain
Nawab, who was as much an enemy of Pakistan as of his own people, was wiped out by General
Musharaff (in one of the few good things he did as Chief Dictator Officer in Pakistan).
My hope was that many of the tribal leaders' kids going to school with me at
Aitchison College,
Lahore in Pakistan, would one day go and become the new chiefs of their tribes and maybe change things.
I guess power, especially generations old almost godlike power, has its own power to corrupt. Many of my friends went on to have professional careers but I did not see or hear of any of them being the power of change I had hoped they would.
Thus, it is easy to see why the international media, the global community, including God-fearing, law-abiding, everyday Pakistanis, being horrified and angry at the crimes being committed by the sewer rat Taliban fanatics. It is easy to see why decent people around the world, especially on the Internet, would distribute the story to everyone who would hear.
But what gets my riled up is the way the tragic story is used not to influence positive change or to discuss the reasons such groups exist. There is no talk of the role of the United States in creating yesterday's
mujahideen (today's
Taliban).
Ignored is the double standard of
Washington in making speeches about democracy but always secretly praying for, and playing for, a powerful but controllable dictator in Muslim countries.
The worst examples include the repulsive and thankfully long dead
General Zia and moderately pleasant but still Constitution-raping
General Musharaff in Pakistan or the Arab thug
Hosni Mubarak in
Egypt.
The most disgusting to me personally is the concept of all American administrations supporting a monarchy in Saudi Arabia, where Islam brought the earliest concept of people deciding who would rule them after the
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) passed away.
During this time, the fact is that online communities like Twitter have a flood of messages screaming that the sky is falling in Pakistan. They are crying hoarse about how Pakistan is on the verge of a breakdown.
They are maligning Pakistan as if every young or old woman in Pakistan is beaten at the smallest excuse and the rest of the country applauds. They feel Pakistan is a threat to its neighbors.
If you ask a loaded question,
"Which Country Is A Danger To Its Neighbors, Is Unstable And On The Verge Of Breakdown, And Is Terrible To Women?" I am sure Pakistan is what most of them would quickly jump to answer.
The triple irony is that just today's news shows three of America's stalwart, and supposedly stable, allies are the worst examples of what Pakistan is accused of being.
The vile Zionist state of nuclear-armed
Israel continues to show it has no desire for peace, with its own Foreign Minister blowing off agreements they had made with the American governments in recent years for a two-state solution to the Occupation of
Palestine. They treat their Palestinian occupied territory slaves, men and women, worse than the worst Pakistani tribal crook chieftain treats his subjugated poor serfs. And they have an unstable coalition government increasingly run by right-wing fanatics.
Saudi Arabia, where the thankfully gone
George W. Bush could not get enough of kissing, and lip-synching policies with the equally hypocritical and un-Islamic Saudi monarch, (and where
President Barack Hussein Obama was also bowing in deference) is in the news. How they mistreat women and have no civil rights for migrant workers is not even news.
The latest repulsive news from Saudi Arabia was that a man gave his 8-year old daughter to be married to a 47-year old man to settle a debt. I repeat, to settle a DEBT. In the year 2009 AD the Arab Muslims are literally selling daughters to settle business debts. I wonder whom they would sell to settle a mortgage loan.
Lastly, the mother of all daughter-selling countries,
Thailand, a favorite destination for child-porn seekers and pedophiles from Europe and America, not only continues to peddle its wares, and its daughters, it is also now in a state of emergency, in addition to political unrest in various regions around it.
Let's be fair. All these nations also have insurgencies of one kind or another. It is time that America sends in the drones. But this time let's send them to bomb civilian areas in
Tel Aviv,
Jeddah and
Bangkok and deal with the far worse crimes against humanity committed by those three American allies every day.
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Imran Anwar is a New York and Miami based Pakistani-American entrepreneur, Internet pioneer, inventor, writer and TV personality. He can be reached through his web site
http://imran.com and imran@imran.com . You can respond to his live comments on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/imrananwarTechnorati Tags:
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