In Pakistan, whenever a government finds itself in trouble (as in today's financial crisis), one of its ministers gets the bright idea that cracking down upon women is the solution. In the past, women have been forced to don the burqa to cover themselves but even though that has never helped control inflation or eliminate terrorism, it's always the women who have to suffer.
The caretaker government in Punjab has suddenly decided to close down theaters in the province because they found women dancing there. It should be mentioned here that the caretaker government has no business doing so, as it is there only to conduct peaceful elections and hand over power to the next elected government. But apparently its ministers think that forcing women to stop dancing will bring down prices or curb terrorism.
There's no use telling the government that the public is starved for entertainment, and those who can afford it, want to see plays and dramas just to help them forget the myriad problems they're facing. I won't be surprised if the next thing they do is to close down cinemas because in their opinion, seeing unveiled women turns men into rapists. And it won't be long before they ban women from appearing on TV. Then someone will see something "obscene" on Facebook or YouTube and ban those as well.
Post a Comment