December 23, 2014

Man denied access to ‘brainwashed’ daughter

ISLAMABAD: The father of a 26-year-old Jamia Hafsa student, who has not seen his daughter for the past seven months, joined civil society activists on Monday in the ongoing protests against the chief cleric of Lal Masjid.
Standing right in the middle of the protesters outside Aabpara Police Station, Sheikh Mohammad Qayum, 59, from the Sadiqabad area of Rawalpindi, narrated how his daughter was enlisted in the seminary without her parents’ consent and was later brainwashed to the extent that now she outright refused to return to her family.
Qayum is a younger brother of Muhammad Nazir (also known as Nazir Junior), a former cricket team Pakistan off-spinner turned international umpire.
“It’s been seven months since I last saw my daughter in the presence of Abdul Aziz,” Qayum said.
He said her daughter graduated from a local college for women before registering with a nearby seminary, Madrassa Rozatul Quran (MRQ), for a four-year Sharia programme.
“I allowed her to join it (MRQ), as my whole is very religious,” Qayum said, adding that two of his sons had memorised the Quran by heart and taught religious courses.
He said that one day he was informed by the MRQ administration that his daughter had moved to Jamia Hafsa, a seminary for female students affiliated with Lal Masjid.
“She did not inform us about her decision,” Qayum said.
“As soon as I got the news, my family contacted her friends at MRQ. They told us that Umme Hassan (Aziz’s wife) was in contact with Uzma for the past year and had persuaded her to join Jamia Hafsa,” he said.
“I went to Jamia Hafsa, where the administration only allowed me to meet my daughter in the presence of Aziz,” Qayum said, adding he was astonished during the meeting when his daughter refused to return home, saying that the environment of his house was not in accordance with the teachings of Islam.
“I asked Aziz to allow my daughter to return home as she had joined the seminary without his consent, but he outright refused,” he said.
A number of similar attempts were made by Qayum’s wife, but in vein. “I was denied access to my daughter after the first meeting. My wife is allowed to meet her at the seminary, but only in the presence of the administration of the seminary,” Qayum said.
Mohammad Imran, who is Uzma’s fiancé, was standing next to Qayum.
According to Imran, the seminary administration had brainwashed Uzma to the extent that she now she says that Jamia Hafsa was her home and that she would not feel secure living anywhere else.
“A few months back, we lodged separate applications to get her back with the Aabpara and Sadiqabad police stations, but the police are reluctant to raid Jamia Hafsa and recover her,” he said.
Imran said that on one occasion, members of their family tried to convince Uzma to return, but the seminary administration manhandled and threatened them with dire consequences. He said that one of the seminary staff also hit him with a Kalashnikov butt.
Imran said Uzma was not alone as there were a number of other girls who had been brainwashed and were now refusing to return to their families.
Aziz was not available for comment despite several attempts to reach him.
Express Tribune

December 23, 2014

‘Kidnapper’ lynched

Karachi : A man who was allegedly caught trying to kidnap a minor girl was beaten to death by vigilantes in Sector 7C of Surjani Town on Monday.
SHO Naveed Nasir said the 30-year-old suspect, identified as Jahanzeb Khairuddin who was a resident of New Karachi, was recently released from jail on bail. He was accused of sexually assaulting and killing a boy.
Khairuddin was trying to abduct a four-year-old girl but the locals caught him when they heard the girl crying. They beat him up and handed him over to the police, who took him to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital but he died on the way, he added.
The News

December 23, 2014

Social constraints limit educational opportunities for girls: World Bank

The World Bank (WB) has pointed out that social constraints were limiting educational opportunities for girls in Pakistan. The WB in its World Development Report titled “Mind, Society and Behaviour” pointed out that in Pakistan many girls who wish to attend school must cross two types of social boundaries – caste boundaries and gender boundaries. Low-caste girls may experience stigma and face discrimination if they attend a school dominated by high castes, and all girls are subject to Purdah, a ‘form of female seclusion that restricts women’s mobility and social interactions’.
These social constraints limit educational opportunities for girls. The report further stated that in some cases, policy-makers may be able to bypass the behavioural effects of social norms. Contrasting two hypothetical policies, Jacoby and Mansuri (2011), show that a policy of providing schools to hamlets dominated by low-caste individuals would increase enrolment by almost twice as much as a policy of placing a school in every unserved hamlet, and would do so at one-sixth of the cost. The report aims to inspire and guide the researchers and practitioners who can help advance a new set of development approaches based on a fuller consideration of psychological and social influences.
The title of report, Mind, Society, and Behaviour, captures the idea that paying attention to how humans think (the processes of mind) and how history and context shape thinking (the influence of society) can improve the design and implementation of development policies and interventions that target human choice and action (behaviour). To put it differently, development policy is due for its own redesign based on careful consideration of human factors, the report adds.
The report aims to integrate recent findings on the psychological and social underpinnings of behaviour to make them available for more systematic use by both researchers and practitioners in development communities. The report draws on findings from many disciplines, including neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, behavioural economics, sociology, political science and anthropology. In ongoing research, these findings help explain decisions that individuals make in many aspects of development, including savings, investment, energy consumption, health, and child rearing. The findings also enhance the understanding of how collective behaviours, such as widespread trust or widespread corruption, develop and become entrenched in a society.
Business Recorder

December 23, 2014

‘Kidnap, rape accused’ killed

KARACHI: A man released on bail in a case pertaining to the killing of a minor boy after subjecting him to criminal assault last year was killed on Monday when he allegedly attempted to kidnap a girl in Surjani Town, officials said.
Police said Jehanzeb, 36, was handed over to police after being thrashed by the area people enraged over his attempt to kidnap a girl outside her home in Sector 7-C.
The police said the girl was being taken away when she cried drawing attention of the area people who got hold of the suspect. They gave him a good hiding and handed him over to the police, the officials said. The suspect was brought to the Surjani police station from where he was being transported to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital when he died, the police added.
Resident of New Karachi, Jehanzeb was allegedly involved in the criminal assault on and killing of the child last year, said Surjani SHO Naveed Nasir. He was arrested and sent to prison, the SHO said, adding that he had recently been released by a court on bail in the case.
Dawn News