By Iffat Farooq
The Marian Persecution has been replayed on the lands of Dera Ismail Khan on a spring morning, when the ghost of death, uncannily familiar to bloody Mary (Mary I of England) appeared, in front of a lady teacher, and mumbled “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” This rottenness has come in to inject not just the political bed but the whole array of society. Rotting, decay, corruption and festering has fogged the entire social topography and terrain. A female teacher at a girl’s seminary was killed by her three students. The deceased and the accused had apparently developed some differences over religious issues. The assailants blamed her of blasphemy.
The accused students claimed that the slain teacher appeared in the dream of one of their relatives and said that the teacher had committed blasphemy. What era are we living in? At what speed are we accelerating towards a highly intolerant culture? The victim and the victorious both are women. How can such a brutal act be committed by the folk that has more compassionate instincts? Since sympathy and kindness is seen as a more feminine trait. Dogma, whatever form it takes, is the ultimate enemy of human freedom. Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells that give them a false sense of ‘I Know’.
This was existent then, in the Church of England by Mary I in the 16th century, and is now being manifested here in this form, even in the 21st century. Stories, desires, imaginations and narratives of faith are closely interlinked with the humankind’s search for identity. Both are awe inspiring. Both beggar the imagination and both have competed for authority. The three students are conditioned girls in the remote area of KPK are a product of triumphalism. There is no attempt to identify the truest of religion and stories disavow dogmatic religious triumphalism.
This singular narrative of religious dogmatism has been born, nurtured and ranged through systematic social religious and culture narratives over the entire landscape of our society. It’s not just about the transformation of faith but it is also about how deeply untrue tales are sneaked into ignorant minds beyond every rural urban divide, form of gender discrimination, and the ignorant educated segment of the society.
Everything is considered a risk in Pakistan. If someone protects a woman, it is a risk. If someone shields non-Muslims, it’s a risk and if someone discusses religion, it’s a great risk. For decades, clergy and clerics have been mustering and employing the masses’ sensitivities and sensibilities to capture the power and polity. A mentally unstable man was stoned to death in Khanewal district by more than three hundred villagers. A street vendor in Pattoki was brutally beaten and killed on minor charges at a wedding but festivities continued uninterrupted.
A Sri Lankan, Priantha Kumara, living in Sialkot was burnt alive on blasphemy accusations. His lynching was recorded and shared widely over the media. Blasphemy laws have devastated the score of lives each year. Even the devoted Muslims are vulnerable. More than two hundred cases are hanging in courts on this very charge; according to the Human Rights Observers Report of 2022 by the Center of Social Justice.
The startling fact of the report is that the largest chunk of accused people belong to the most vulnerable communities and are comprised of oppressed ethnic, religious minorities and women. Many have been hanged to death on mere accusations and false charges. Countless victims are languishing in jails for years with no hope for justice and judicial process that neither robustly facilitates and nor concludes the cases.
Are blasphemy acquisitions just about extra judicial vigilantism? Or is the stringent law framework is also a collaborator in the crime. Blasphemy laws in Pakistan are the harshest in the world and Pakistan is amongst the six countries where blasphemy is punishable by death. An ally of ulema of the Zia regime, updated these laws to avoid interreligious conflicts and validate their political design through religion. There is an intense debate concerning the social risk vs value of religion. The notion of moderate vs extreme religious narrative is simplistic representation and perspective which has great consequences. There is a strong relationship between dogmatism and wellbeing of a society. Research studies suggest that there is significant and negative relationship between happiness and dogmatism.
Life is divided in three terms that which was, which is and which will be. Two terms of our society have been devoured by this antisocial and dogmatic behavior. However, the next and the last term can be pushed and can be shifted towards evolution of the non-violence culture. And a swift shift of non-dogmatism is becoming the most important feature to counter the decade old systematic dogmatism narrative largely evolved by bigoted clergy.
Religious and social violence is a dark contrast to what so many of us still believe –love. The current state of violence, hatred pride, prejudice and moreover the highly judgmental behaviors in our society warrant that we have miles to go to reach a world of inner and outer peace.
The writer is a public policy practitioner, an advocate of girls education and women rights enthusiast.
