Author Archives: Rafia Zakaria

About Rafia Zakaria

Rafia Zakaria is a member of the Board of Directors and Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA. Zakaria is the first Pakistani American woman to serve as a Board Director for Amnesty International USA. She is a lawyer and the Director of the Muslim Women's Legal Defense Fund for the Muslim Alliance of Indiana/The Julian Center Shelter representing victims of domestic violence. She is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Indiana University, currently working on her dissertation entitled "Negotiating Identity: Sharia, multiculturalism and Muslim women." She was the John Edwards Fellow at Indiana University for 2007-2008 which is the highest academic honor that can be achieved by a graduate student at Indiana University. Rafia writes a weekly column for the Daily Times in Pakistan and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Arts and Letters Daily, the Nation and the American Prospect. She is the only Pakistani American woman recognized by a joint resolution of the Indiana House and Senate for her work on women's rights.
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Under Siege of Terror: The Shia Hazara of Pakistan

April 19, 2012 at 12:04 PM
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Pakistani Shiite Muslims Hazara protest

Pakistani Shiite Muslims protest after the sectarian killings in Quetta on April 14, 2012. Eight people, including seven Hazara, were gunned down in separate sectarian targeted incidents. (Photo: BANARAS KHAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Sectarian violence promoted by religious extremists  is not new to Pakistan, but the latest series of brutal attacks on the otherwise peaceful Hazara people has reached a breaking point in recent weeks.  Despite the fact that nearly 30 people have died in the past two weeks,  the Government of  Pakistan seems incapable – if not unwilling – to step in to stop this siege of terror.

The situation in the Balochistan province, located  in south-west Pakistan  has always been complex with a number of different ethnic groups, a seccesionist movement and various Taliban leaders all vying for power. Things have become even worse  in the last few years with escalating tensions between the United States and Pakistan over the NATO supply route leading to even more unrest in Quetta, Balochistan’s capital city and bringing an onslaught of tragedy to the Hazara who live there.

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The Vote After The Revolt

January 4, 2012 at 6:42 PM
An Egyptian youth waves the national flag

© Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

Egyptians headed to the polls again this week, even as the brutal crackdown by the ruling military regime continues.  Just last week, authorities raided the offices of 17 NGOs, disrupting the work of human rights groups and foreign election monitors.

While the polling seems to have taken place without violent incidents, Egyptians are still reeling from last week’s raids and the deadly security force attacks on peaceful protesters.  The continued abuses by the military regime point to a tumultuous transition in the months ahead regardless of the election outcomes.

Particularly troubling are statements by Egyptian military leaders that have insisted that they do not intend to cede much power to the newly elected civilian leaders, retaining for instance the power to fire an elected Prime Minister at any time.

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Beyond the Wall in Yemen

December 16, 2011 at 5:22 PM
yemen woman protester

A Yemeni women protesting the death of a woman and wounding of six others at the hands of Yemeni forces. © AFP/Getty Images

In late October of this year, hundreds of Yemeni women marched into a main street in Sanaa, the country’s capital.  In the middle of streets they laid a black cloth. Then in the middle of the cloth they threw their veils, piles of them, black fabric that had used to cover themselves.

Then they did something unprecedented in public: they set fire to them, marking an end to their seclusion and to their silence.

The night before, on October 25, 2011 twenty people had died protesting in Sanaa and nearby Taiz and the women wanted the world to know that they, like everyone else who had endured President Abdullah Saleh’s 33 year old regime, had had enough.

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The Silencing of an Egyptian Revolutionary

October 7, 2011 at 11:58 AM
Maikel Nabil

Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad is on hunger strike in prison © Private

October 1, 2011 was Maikel Nabil Sanad’s birthday and he spent it like he has spent most of the past month, on hunger strike against his imprisonment for speaking out against the Government.

An Egyptian blogger who has been working to expose the abuses of power of the Mubarak regime, Sanad was convicted on charges of publicly insulting the army on Facebook and via his blog.  In his post, Sanad called for an end to military conscription which he said should be voluntary instead of mandatory. He also drew attention to the continuing abuses by the military regime highlighting case after case in which protestors were arrested, beaten as military thugs and even tortured.

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Millions of Slum Dwellers in Cairo Still at Risk after Mubarak

August 24, 2011 at 11:03 AM

The euphoria of the revolutionary moment is wondrous — drawing out from despondency and delivering from despair, young and old, city dweller and peasant, all uniting in a collective that suddenly realizes its power.

In January, the world watched the Egyptian masses stare down the Mubarak regime, millions of ordinary Egyptians transformed into the extraordinary by their numbers and their valiant spirit. In these last days of August, the world is witnessing another valiant rout, as Libyan rebel fighters’ inch closer and closer to deposing a despot who has ruled them for decades.

In the magic of momentous change, it is difficult to spare a moment for the mundane miseries that persist after the crowds have left the squares, and the slogans hang silent. It is the plight of these people that is highlighted in “We are not dirt”, Amnesty International’s report focusing on slum dwellers in Cairo, the pulsing city that is at the heart of the Arab spring.

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War Zone in Karachi, Pakistan

July 8, 2011 at 12:30 PM

Pakistani children mourn during a funeral procession of a man shot and killed by unidentified armed men in Karachi. © ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images

Violence in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city continued on Friday as the death toll in the embattled city rose to over 88 in the past four days. A protest call by the Mottahida Qaumi Movement, the political party that represents much of the city’s Urdu speaking population, paralyzed the city of eighteen million.

Busy streets usually teeming with crowds remained eerily deserted and all petrol pumps were closed preventing city residents from leaving their homes.  Pakistani television reported that many with small children or elderly relatives are suffering owing to the inability to obtain food and supplies.

Uncertainty and tensions in the city have been exacerbated by the “shoot on sight” orders given to security personnel patrolling city streets.  The order leaves Karachi’s citizens vulnerable not only to the ethnic violence ravaging the city but also to excesses by security forces posted around the city who can now kill with impunity.

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No Justice For Gang Rape Survivor Mukhtar Mai

April 25, 2011 at 9:18 AM

Mukhtar Mai © Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

On Thursday April 21, 2011 the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a decision in the case of gang rape survivor Mukhtar Mai.  Mukhtar Mai was gang raped on the orders of a village council in June 2002 when her brother was wrongly accused of having an affair with a woman from a rival gang.

Following the incident, an Anti-Terrorism Court had sentenced six of the accused men to death. This sentence was overturned by the Lahore High Court which acquitted five of the accused and commuted the sentence of the sixth to life imprisonment.

Now the Supreme Court Pakistan’s highest legal authority has affirmed the judgment of the Lahore High Court and acquitted all but one of the accused. In an astounding decision, the Court argues that the accused enjoy a “triple presumption of innocence” without ever defining the term or explaining the burden of proof it entails.

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Assault on Protesters, Migrants Workers Continues in Bahrain

March 23, 2011 at 9:43 AM

Bahraini anti-government look at spent gas canisters, stun grenades, rubber bullets all piled up in Pearl Square, the epicentre of the anti government movement, in Manama on March 14, 2011 (JAMES LAWLER DUGGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

 

As protests in Bahrain continue, we’re seeing increased brutality against protesters. Amnesty International has documented several cases of police brutality in which protesters were fired upon or beaten up and medical personnel prevented from providing aid.

A new Amnesty International report Bahrain: bloodied but unbowed: Unwarranted state violence against Bahraini protestors documents the deaths of seven protesters and beatings of hundreds of others.

Recent reports have also emerged of brutal attacks on Asian migrant workers wrongly believed to be members of security forces. According to reports from the Bahraini Human Rights Watch Society and Migrant Workers Protection Society more than forty workers have been attacked by protesters.  The newspaper Gulf News reported the deaths of four migrant workers since the protests began on February 14, 2011.

The increase in violence reveals how sectarian tensions in Bahrain are being exploited by the ruling family to refuse rights to both migrant workers and protesters.  The use of migrant workers from Sunni countries to brutalize protesters is designed to deflect attention away from real political grievances by the largely Shia protesters.  It also takes attention away from the dismal condition of most Bahraini migrant workers that work long hours and have few or no rights to organize or demand fair employment or housing practices.

Bahraini authorities are pitting one group of victims against another while the real culprits remain untouched and continue to wield power.

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Breaking Barriers in Bahrain

February 16, 2011 at 12:04 PM

Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima and Fadhel Al Matrook wanted to live in a free Bahrain.  For this they came out on the streets, inspired by the courage of protestors in Tunisia and Egypt. For this, they lost their lives.

Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima was killed when live ammunition was fired into a crowd of protestors on Valentine’s Day in a village in Bahrain’s north.   A day later, a funeral procession began from the gates of the hospital where he breathed his last moments.

Hundreds of Bahraini protesters shout slogans as the attend the funeral of Shiite Fadel Salman Matrouk, who was shot dead in front of a hospital a day earlier where mourners gathered for the funeral of another comrade (ADAM JAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Fadhel Al Matrook had come to pay homage to this martyr of freedom but before long, he too became the target of live shotgun pellets fired into the crowd of mourners. He too died of his wounds.

The authorities in Bahrain had no compunction about cracking down on the Day of Rage protests that were organized by rights activists on February 14, 2011.

Inspired by the events in Egypt, protestors have been calling for the right to free expression, the release of political prisoners, a new constitution and an elected government.

Since the deaths, protestors have taken over “Pearl Square” a major traffic intersection at the heart of Bahrain’s financial district.  Thousands of protestors have been spending the night under makeshift tents and blanket, with one protestor using a bullhorn to urge others to stay until the Government responds to their demands for change.

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The Women in the Square

February 9, 2011 at 12:10 PM

Women protestors, Cairo, 28 January 2011. Photo by Sarah Carr

One of the most inspiring sights seen in Tahrir Square this eventful February have been groups of Egyptian women who have braved riots and intimidation by pro-Government forces to join the protests.

At a time, when fundamentalist forces in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan are trying to drive women out of the public sphere, the actions of Egyptian women demonstrate the vitality of women striving for a political voice.

Even while human rights groups have reported casualties as high as 300 and protesters gathered in the square have suffered everything from being charged by horses to being shelled by tear gas and live ammunition, Egyptian women have remained visible and refused to be intimidated.

In addition to providing the world with a testament to the vibrant energy of Egyptian women, their participation has also demonstrated that it is grassroots activism rather than top down quotas that ultimately give women a voice in politics.

In late June of last year the Mubarak Government passed a law creating a special quota for women’s participation in politics.  Reserving a set number of seats for women in the Lower House of Parliament the law aimed at increasing women’s participation in the public sphere.  However, according to Fatma Emam, an editor for Nazra an Egyptian journal for feminist studies, the visibility of women in the protests at Tahrir Square has done far more for promoting empowerment and political awareness among Egyptian women than the reserved quota ever did.  Fatma says:

“The women in Tahrir Square have proven that they can fight and overcome the weak participation of women when they see that they are equal in protest and that their destiny is tied to the country like everyone else”.

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