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Journalism of Courage
Nobody8217;s track record is clean, but some have currently active history sheets. Is that the message of last week8217;s events? We8217;re launched, irretrievably, on Phase Ten in the conflict of civilisations. Let8217;s look at home, first. Take the furore about Imrana and Mukhtaran. Did you read last week8217;s disappointing Op-Ed articles by Mehbooba Mufti and the MPLB lady? The first is the religious indignation of a privileged, protected woman. She cites her grandfather as a perfect exemplar of Sharia and therefore, why is Islam considered unjust to women? Mehboobaji, if, God forbid, you had to face what Mukhtaran did, would your male relatives meekly accept that you needed four Muslim men as witness before you had a case? Would they not enforce all the might of a secular constitution8217;s legal system to avenge you? Did not your father sacrifice a whole country8217;s safety for the sake of your sister, Rubaiya?
The MPLB lady8217;s ire is equally hard to understand. First she says there are other schools of Islamic fiqh law, not just the Hanafi view of Deoband. But why didn8217;t she rush to tell the men who applied the Deobandi fatwa to Imrana and then tell the public? Secondly, she accuses Indian media of picking on 8220;Muslim8221; cases and not highlighting Hindu child marriages or Sati. This is totally unfair. But for our media, nobody would have enforced the ban on child weddings at Akha Teej or criminalised Roop Kanwar8217;s Sati. It8217;s a cheap shot to try the persecution number here.
