Women in Black: Pak’s vigilante madrasas

The vigilantes, including students from an affiliated school for men, shoved the Chinese masseuses into a car, gave them shawls for modesty and hauled them back to the school as hostages, she said. Under pressure from Pakistan’s government, concerned about maintaining its friendly relations with China, the school released the Chinese masseuses on Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours later.

The episode was just the latest brazen escapade in a campaign by Jamia Hafsa, the women’s boarding school, and its sprawling separate male counterpart, Jamia Faridia, to embarrass the government of Pakistan’s President, General Pervez Musharraf.

The students’ effort is being led by the heirs of a famed preacher of jehad, Maulana Muhammad Abdullah, who was assassinated in the mid-1990s at the Lal Masjid, which is adjacent to the school. Abdul Rashid Ghazi, the preacher’s younger son who leads the men’s madrasa, is carrying out the campaign with his older brother, Muhammad Abdul Aziz, who succeeded their father as the chief cleric at the Lal Masjid. The older brother’s wife, Umm Hassan, runs the women’s school. They have the backing of Pakistan’s religious parties, a factor that gives them clout in their battle against Musharraf.

The leaders of this campaign admire the Taliban, who have a growing presence in Pakistan’s border regions. They also say they are friendly with the al-Qaeda, whose leaders are suspected to be in the border region, too The heirs regularly denounce the Musharraf government for being secular and accuse it of being corrupt and a lackey of the US.

Such pronouncements are not unusual from Islamists in Pakistan. But the school, a complex of shabby, white-painted buildings, is almost cheek by jowl with Parliament, right under the nose of the military-led government.

In March, the students abducted three Pakistani women accused of running a brothel and held them for several days. Last month, students from the men’s school barricaded three policemen inside the school, releasing them only after a government security posse threatened to storm the building.

But capturing the Chinese citizens appeared to be a step too far for a movement that so far has been able to outwit the government. After the Chinese ambassador, Luo Zhaohui, intervened, the Interior Ministry issued a statement saying the students’ behavior had “exceeded all limits.”

On Saturday afternoon, Ghazi, the leader of the men’s division of the madrasa, said the masseuses had been freed as the authorities had pledged to close down the capital’s brothels. But he defended the raid. “It is the duty of the government to stop the massage parlors,” he said at a news conference. “Since the government is not doing it, it is the responsibility of society to do it. We have no other choice.”

In an interview, Ghazi (43), a graduate in history of Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, gave a taste of his political views. A Sharia state, which would operate under Islamic law, was a necessity for Pakistan, he said, because the current rulers had failed to provide for the people.

His students asked “many times,” he said, about the legitimacy of suicide bombing. “It depends on the circumstances,” he said. “In a supermarket, no. Suicide bombing against American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, I will say yes, yes. It’s not suicide. It’s a mission, then it’s allowed.”

At the women’s wing next door, the principal, Hassan (38), a woman of soft voice but firm views, said she presided over about 4,500 students ranging in age from 7 to their early 20s. The principal goal, she said, was to produce “true Muslim girls”. The basic curriculum focused on Quranic teachings.

Hassan said she was proud of her raiders. “I said to the students before they went off, ‘The Chinese are masters at karate, you don’t know how to make one kick.’ But they were able to manage.” Her girls, she said, were setting an example. “The government is a lazy mother. We’re doing these things for them.”