If only the solution to all the world’s problem was really so simple, women everywhere might agree to wear something besides blue jeans, but there is more to the story than some off-the-wall rhetoric by a politician in Pakistan to consider.
Despite Fazlur Rehman’s pro-Taliban fundamentalist rhetoric, there are signs that he doesn’t really believe women need to be dressed in flour sacks. Rehman, the head of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami Fazl political party, was speaking at a press conference at a hotel in Islamabad when he made the comments.
Not only did he deride women who dressed immodestly as being responsible for the nation’s ills, be also said they were mobile “weapons of mass destruction.” He added that many of these weapons could be found in many Pakistani cities.
Rehman suggested, not so subtly that if these women were kept inside their homes, and Sharia law were enforced, the Taliban wouldn’t be attacking Pakistan, according to The New Indian Express.
Fazlur Rehman went on to explain that Pakistan’s economic crisis, lack of an energy supply, and the deteriorating security situation could all be remedied simply by adhering to Sharia law. But this is rather strange, coming from a man who was once an ally of Benazir Bhutto, the former female Prime Minister of Pakistan, now deceased.
Some people might think it strange that after once supporting a female leader, Rehman is now targeting immodestly dressed women in public. If anyone doubts his sincerity, remember this, Rehman is calling for extreme measures, too.
He is actively demanding that the Prime Minister and the head of the army deploy military forces across Pakistan to prevent women from wearing jeans. Perhaps he thinks this attire is too “Western,” but in any case, he is serious. He ended the press conference by saying that once Allah stops delivering his wrath through the Taliban, the country’s economy would improve.
