The activists from the civil society organisations and political parties staged a demonstration in front of the Peshawar Press Club and held a walk here on Thursday to condemn religious extremism being propagated by Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid.
The participants hailing from different Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), including Aurat Foundation, Action Aid, Noor Education Trust (NET), Human Resource Management and Development Center (HRMDC), Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), Tribal Women Welfare Association (TWWA), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) turned up at the rally in front of the Press Club on the call of the Peshawar Chapter of the Women Action Forum to register their anger at the forcible implementation of tough and firebrand religious beliefs by the Islamabad-based Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid.
The protesters, most of them woman activists, also walked on the busy Sher Shah Suri Road to send their message to all and sundry loud and clear. Throughout the walk, they kept on raising slogans against the religious intolerance while holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans against bigotry in the name of enforcement of Sharia.
Talking on the occasion, the representatives of various civil society organisations and political parties deplored that a great moderate majority in the motherland had always been held hostage by a small conservative minority to further their own vested interest. They said the clerics of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid were trying to set up a state within a state by forcing the people to conform to their own brand of religion.
They said the illegal occupation of the state lands in the federal capital by the religious fanatics in the name of religion was totally unacceptable. Hitting hard at the extreme actions taken by the Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid administrations, the protesters recalled that Islam did not permit coercion of any type and instead put stress on tolerance and humility.
The participants of the rally were greatly perturbed at the bullying tactics being used by the clerics in Islamabad and called them a threat to civil liberties. "Asking women to give up driving cars and threatening owners of electronic shops to stop selling audio-cassettes, video CDs and switch over to other businesses is nothing but an encroachment on the rights of the citizens," believed the members of the organisations who attended the rally that was also participated by tribal women from agencies of Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur and Orakzai.
The protesters implored all the freedom loving people to rise in unison and join hands against the religious intolerance and extremism. "It is a must as the actions taken by the intolerant religious elements of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid are tarnishing the image of the country in the comity of nations," they concluded while telling the baton-wielding students of the seminaries that the people of Pakistan were well-conversant with religious teachings and there was no need to force on them any ideology.
It may be mentioned here that the Women Action Forum (WAF) was launched way back in 1980s when General Ziaul Haq Martial Law Regime introduced several laws, which the forum believed were discriminatory to women in the drive he initiated in the name of Islamisation process. The forum was re-activated last year. The Aurat Foundation Peshawar is serving as the WAF secretariat for the Peshawar chapter.
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