Thursday, November 16, 2006

The Micro-Pundit:  Pakistan’s Rape Laws

In Pakistan, if a woman is raped, she has to present four male witnesses to prove it, and if she can’t, she’s considered guilty of adultry and could go to jail or be stoned to death for it.  Yep, you read that right - the VICTIM is considered guilty of adultry and could be killed for her vicitimization.

As of yesterday, though, it looks like this might be about to change.  Pakistan’s scary Islamic Hudood rape law introduced in the late 1970s is in the process of moving from the Islamic morality laws to the penal laws, separating rape from adultry and enabling actual prosecution of rapists.  It’s not final yet, unfortunately, but it’s at least been started.

It’s about damn time.

Links:  NYTimes article, BBC News article, Fox News