Pakistan Moves to Amend Rape Laws

[NVMojo]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -

Pakistan's Senate approved a controversial bill to help rape victims, despite vehement protests by hard-line Muslim lawmakers who claim the legislation violates Islamic law.

The bill is now set to go before President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who is expected to sign it.

The Pakistani leader has been a strong supporter of changing contentious sections of the 1979 Hudood Ordinance, or rape law, as a way of softening the country's hard-line Islamic image and appeasing moderates and human rights groups opposed to the statutes.

Activists have long condemned the laws for punishing - instead of protecting - rape victims while providing legal safeguards for their attackers. But conservatives and opposition supporters have rallied to keep the old laws, which were introduced by the late President Gen. Zia ul-Haq to make Pakistani laws more Islamic.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2006/nov/23/112307556.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Rape is a crime;

the person raped is a victim. I have seen nothing in the Qur'an that says what the "hard liners" say. They appear to tend to bend Islam to their way of thinking, rather than bend to the thinking of those who are enlightened.

[bunyip]

2. Pakistan finally enters the 19th century

:rollseyes:

[lapfog_1]

3. 19th... no, more like 17th... n/t

[w4rma]

4. Yup. The Islamic hardline has the same tendency to twist their religion as our Christian ones do. nt

[rpannier]

5. Does this sound vaguely familiar?

"an attempt to promote an alien culture and secularism in ... ."

Taliban types are the same the world over.