TALIBAN VIDEO VIDEO EXPOSES THE BARBARITY

Things to come
EDITORIAL(THE NEWS)


A young woman, probably 17 years old, is held face down by - amongst others - one of her brothers while she is flogged. She is struck hard – these are not token 'smacks' - with a whip 34 times on her buttocks and upper thighs. She screams in pain throughout and begs to be killed. A voice is heard saying 'hold her legs tight'. At the end she stands and is led into a house. The event is watched, apparently in silence, by a group of men, this snapshot of what the future holds for us was somehow caught on camera and eventually made its way to the blogosphere. It has been broadcast on Geo TV as well. Many by now have seen it and sit astonished. It is alleged that the girl came out of her house in the company of a man who was not her husband, hence her punishment. There was no trial, she was unable to offer any defence and she was flogged on the sole evidence of a neighbour. The flogging took place in Swat.

The video exposes the barbarity that lies at the heart of the Taliban movement. This is the Taliban version of Sharia law in action, and it is coming to a chowk near you in the foreseeable future. How should we respond to this? There will be those who will watch the video and say 'Yes…that is the right thing to do. She deserves that punishment. Others should be punished in a similar way.' The people who are of this view are often vociferous, strident even, in their support of an interpretation of religious law that fits their medieval paradigm. We hear their voices every day. Then there are others who will watch it and say 'No, this is not the way things should be done. This is not the Islam that I believe in. Brutal behaviour such as this makes a vile mockery of my faith. I do not want this to happen in my country.' Unfortunately, we do not hear the voices that speak in terms of moderation and tolerance and diversity and acceptance of 'other'. We do not hear them because they are either drowned out by the louder voices of barbarism or because they are voices that speak low and soft, out of the range of normal hearing. We would like to think that the voices not being heard are the voices of the majority, the voices that belong to men and women who want to see a developed and prosperous Pakistan that is a model for the Muslim world.

You members of the softly-spoken majority have a choice to make. Either you continue to speak but have your words drowned out by those who would publicly whip your sisters, mothers, daughters and wives for whatever petty gossip is parlayed by jealous or malicious neighbours; or you raise your voices loud in protest. Say strong and clear that this is not for you. Organise and march and lobby and agitate and protest and in so doing stem the tide of extremism that rolls ever closer. You choose. Because if you don't choose, and the tide rolls around the corner of your street and it is your wife or daughter or sister or mother screaming in front of you as she is flogged – then you have nobody to blame but yourselves.