From Hudood Ordinances to the Protection of Women Act: Analysis of Rape Laws in PakistanPakistan has a very complicated relationship with rape. On numerous occasions, their legal response to rape, as well as other sexual crimes, has brought them to the international spotlight. Pakistan is now known for its poor treatment of rape victims and, according to the UN and Global Citizen, is consistently rated as one of the worst countries for women to live in, officially placing it as a country like Yemen and Saudi Arabia. How did conditions for women regarding rape become so terrible? Has it always been this difficult for women to seek justice against their rapists? What, if anything, has been done to combat the challenges faced by rape victims since the Hudood Ordinances of 1979? and if so, was the attempt successful? Focusing on the Hudood Ordinances of 1979 and the subsequent response to these Ordinances, namely the Protection of Women Bill, 2006, I will analyze how and if the Protection of Women Bill brought about changes significant to how rape was handled in the courts and whether it changed the culture. of rape in Pakistan compared to what it was under the Hudood Ordinances. I will begin by describing the history of rape in Islamic law, giving a brief overview of how Islamic law deals with rape. Next, I will explain what set the stage for the rigid implementation of the Hudood Ordinances and Sharia law in Pakistan. After that, I will introduce the Zina Ordinance, which is the section of the Hudood Ordinances that deals specifically with fornication and adultery, and explain the many drawbacks of this ordinance. Next, I will describe the case of Mukhtar Mai and how her case brought international attention to rape laws in Pakistan, subsequently influencing the decision to create the Protection of Women Act in 2006. After explaining the Women's Protection Act, I will argue that it has failed the women of Pakistan and that Pakistan's justice system is not ideal for combating sexual violence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay To understand the current view of rape in Pakistan, one must establish what is the history behind the construction of rape in Islamic law. In Hina Azam's book, Sexual Violation in Muslim Law, she argues that this story begins not with the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad, but in the pre-Islamic period, because "Islamic legal discourse on sexual violations is unlikely to himself was purely of “Islamic” origin. Many principles, institutions, and practices originate in pre-Islamic Arabia and the late ancient Near East. Previous ethico-legal systems that have influenced rape in Islamic law include Jewish, Latin, and pre-Islamic Arabic. Azam goes on to say that from the beginnings of Islam, Muslim legal authorities maintained the idea that sexual violence was a punishable crime; incapacity and lack of consent were taken into consideration. Early Muslim legal authorities in Islam's formative period used their understanding of the Qur'an and prophetic heritage within a theological, ethical, and cultural framework to condemn rape. Muslim legal authorities of the late medieval period used the earlier works of others and intertwined ideas such as divine and human claims, as well as sexuality andproperty, thus making rape laws more complex. So how exactly did these seemingly acceptable conceptions of rape change in Pakistan for the worse via the Hudood Ordinances and Sharia law? An important event occurred in Pakistan that paved the way for this transition; Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947. After being under British rule for 98 years, it is no mystery why the Hudood Ordinances and Sharia law were implemented in Pakistan. Feeling resentment towards the British and a lack of identity, three constitutions were drawn up; one in 1956, 1963 and 1973. A trend was discernible: each constitution brought the laws closer to the Islamic faith. With each constitution created, the implementation and punishment of offenses including rape always fell under the Pakistan Penal Code. It was only during the regime of General Zia-ul Haq, in 1977, that adherence to Sharia law and the Hudood Ordinances (in 1979) became obligatory. Zia has been credited with initiating the "Islamization" of Pakistan by injecting the Islamic faith into the Pakistan Penal Code. Whatever the repercussions of this situation, it is clear that "Islamization" and the strengthening of the Muslim religion through legislation was a direct reaction to past British control of Pakistan. General Zia-ul Haq thus effectively established the Hudood Ordinance when he was in power, which called for strict adherence to Sharia law. Sharia law, like any other religiously based legal system, has its own major flaws. These flaws already mean that the basic elements on which rape laws in Pakistan are based are not at all stable. Sharia law is derived from the Quran and Sunnah (life example of the Prophet Mohammad) and was created by a Muslim jurist to form an interpretation of what they considered to be the law of God. By nature, any conclusions drawn from their studies were based on the interpretations of individuals, creating several different interpretations of the law and multiple schools of law. The fact that several law schools, all governed by Sharia law in Pakistan, have resulted in different decisions on similar or even identical issues, and in one way or another almost always have not come into play for rape victims. The reason why rape victims did not get justice was partly due to the Zina ordinance. Zina's ordinance specifically deals with adultery and fornication and adheres to a strict punishment of flogging with one hundred stripes, as stated in the Quran. Jurists have interpreted this section of the Quran as punishing fornication (having sex without being married) with one hundred lashes and adultery with stoning to death. Thus, illicit sexual relations, in all senses of the word, became a non-bailable crime punishable by death. Previously, illicit sex was considered a personal crime against husbands and fathers, but now it is considered a crime against the state. The Zina Ordinance also did not distinguish between adultery, fornication, and rape, so all were held to the same standards. The term "Zina-bil-jaber" was used when sexual intercourse took place without being validly married and without consent, which meant that if coercion could not be proven, the victim immediately became guilty of Zina. This has been absolutely damaging to female rape victims. The majority of women in Pakistan do not report rape because coercion is extremely difficult to prove in court, requiring four male witnesses to the rape itself to testify. As.”