WOMEN’S rights groups in Pakistan swung into action, when, a few days ago, renowned religious leader Maulana Tariq Jameel made an upsetting claim that the novel coronavirus had unleashed itself due to the ‘wrongdoing of women’.
During a telethon organized to collect funds for the people hit by the pandemic, the cleric denounced women for their ‘sleeveless dressing’, saying these moral depredations on the part of women had invited Allah’s wrath upon the country.
The well-known maulana — who many Pakistanis look up to for wisdom, assurance, and guidance —made these misogynistic comments during the Ehsaas Telethon fundraising event, in the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan and leading broadcast journalists.
In the same breath, the cleric also blamed the media for propagating lies, but soon apologized for that specific remark. But now, it’s reported that, realizing his mistake over his disagreeable remarks about women, the maulana has also tendered an apology.
Let’s do some anatomy of what maulana said. First, he claimed that women are to blame for a global pandemic. This is not just misogynistic, but also provocative.
In fact, this mindset manifests a society’s unfortunate propensity to relegate women simply because social power setups allow them to be regarded as ‘lesser beings’. The comments also underpin a perilous yet normalized impression that it’s OK to target women in one way or the other. Worse, they also represent our age-long, built-in prejudice against women.
The fact of the matter is that women in Pakistan, and almost everywhere in the world, face general discrimination and violence. During the current crisis, cases of domestic violence have spiked as women are compelled to stay home for protracted periods with their oppressors. In fact, divorce rate even in ‘civilized’ Europe is also reported to have increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notwithstanding these challenges, women struggle to be recognized and smash glass ceilings — as demonstrated by the effective comeback of global women leaders in this pandemic.
While the people’s blue-eyed maulana spouted some really toxic remarks against women—for which he later apologized—we, especially the so-called rights groups, should show a modicum of decency and accept maulana’s apology wholeheartedly. That he is a well-known cleric does not make him immune from errors and misjudgments; after all, he is also a human being.
Second, his disagreeable remarks also gave those elements an opportunity to vent their anger at him who somehow didn’t subscribe to his views about certain Islamic issues and label him a “liberal mullah”.
The maulana was not entirely wrong when he said that that most of the media feeds off lies and deception. Aren’t we aware of the terms “yellow journalism” and sensationalism in the garb of “breaking news”? Isn’t it an open secret that some—if not all—journalists cook up fabricates stories to malign a certain individual or for their own ulterior motives?
That Maulana Tariq Jameel was subjected to such harsh media bashing for his remarks against women and the media fraternity is unfortunate and disappointing. Now that the maulana has apologized for his remarks, the mudslinging against him should stop.
After all, to err is human, to forgive divine.
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