“Thousands of Islamist protesters demonstrated in southern Pakistan on Sunday against a new law that reduces the burden of proof on rape victims by allowing them to seek justice without the need for four male witnesses. The Women Protection Bill, signed into law last month, was seen as a key test for President Pervez Musharraf’s philosophy of ‘enlightened moderation’ for his predominantly Muslim country. The protest in the country’s biggest city of Karachi came a day after Musharraf ruled out any changes to the law despite calls from the Islamists. Some 10,000 supporters of the Islamist parties, most of them bearded, chanted slogans of ‘Down with Musharraf’ and ‘Down with the Women Protection Law’ at the rally and demanded the government scrap the law. The law takes the crime of rape out of the sphere of the religious laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, and puts it under the penal code. Under the Hudood Ordinances, which were introduced by a military ruler in 1979, a rape victim had to produce four male witnesses to prove the crime, or face the possibility of prosecution for adultery. ‘We reject this law because it is unIslamic and also against women rights,’ Fazal-ur-Rehman, a senior leader of the main Islamist alliance and opposition leader in the National Assembly, parliament’s lower house, told the rally. Rehman said the law is a conspiracy to make Pakistan a ‘free sex zone’.” — Yahoo (US)

Ten thousand people protesting against a law that theoretically makes it more difficult for men to get away with the crime of rape — you’d have to laugh at this image if you knew it wasn’t deadly serious. What sort of chants would you hear at a rally like this? “We want rape… We want rape… We want rape…” You imagine these guys packing their bags and moving to Darfur, where a man can still commit sexual assault with relative impunity.

In theory, the previous law governing rape — known as the Hudood Ordinance — was a bum rap for women. They needed to provide four adult male witnesses to “the act of penetration.” Naturally you wonder about the objectivity of these witnesses, since they seem to have hung around watching a woman get raped. What’s more, if the accused is a Muslim, the witnesses must be Muslim too — sound like insider trading yet? — and, if the accusation doesn’t hold up, the woman herself can get charged with adultery, for which she can receive corporal punishment. That’s right, she can end up not only raped, but lashed too.

For a look at the law from the Muslim vantage point, you can read “The Reality of ‘Women Protection Bill’” by Justice Mufti Mohammad Taqi Usmani. He claims that the point of the religious law is not to rebuff women but to inflict severer punishments on offenders than this new secular law will permit. He also claims that in his 17 years on the bench, “not once did I come across a case in which a rape victim was awarded punishment because she was unable to present four witnesses.” Apparently there is also a less stringent burden of proof that can be satisfied by “one witness, medical examination and chemical analysis report. Consequently most of the rape criminals were awarded punishment as per this clause.”

The BBC points out that, however enlightened this new law may strive to be, there remain loopholes. Apparently some cases can still be heard in an Islamic court, where all the stringencies of the Hudood Ordinance remain. In addition, it may actually be more difficult to report rape, since a victim will have to do this in a court — which keeps business hours — rather than a police station, which is always open. And if Pakistani courts are anything like courts elsewhere in the world, you know how grueling that can be. You might show up to report a rape and get sent home because you forgot to bring some insignificant document.

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