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Outraged by safe sex workshop: JI to hold counter event on 18th

Shamim Bano

Karachi: The Women and Family Commission of the Jamat-e-Islami (JI) is holding a roundtable conference on August 18 on the topic of “Dignity of Women” in which women belonging to different schools of thought and fields would be invited.

Talking to The News, Chairperson Women and Family Commission Atiya Nisar said that the roundtable conference has been convened in connection with the three-day workshop that was organized by Sindh AIDS Programme, Government of Sindh, in collaboration with the UN entitled, “Safe Sex”.

Women holding key posts in the federal government and provincial governments as well as women workers of other political parties would be invited at the event to discuss in detail about the workshop which, according to JI, had promoted obscenity and making prostitution a legalized profession.

Atiya strongly condemned the workshop “for educating prostitutes to have safe sex”. “Pakistan is an Islamic state and prostitution is considered equivalent to Zina and liable to punishment under Hudood Ordinance and Women Protection Bill,” she added.

In this connection, she said that letters would be despatched to the Presidency and Prime Minister House that the Sindh government of was busy promoting nudity in the garb of creating awareness about AIDS, for which they must be questioned.

The copy of the letter, she said, would also be sent to the first woman Speaker of National Assembly Fehmida Mirza to show her that under her able leadership some people were playing with the sentiments of women.

“Prostitution is a crime. The question is why these women are being trained under government patronage to commit crime in a safe way.

This is like training a robber to commit robbery in a safe way,” Atiya said.

In other words, she added, the government was legalizing the profession as about 70 prostitutes were invited at the workshop and were trained about safe sex.

She questioned that, while the workshop organizers had managed to reach these prostitutes who entered the profession for one reason or another, why did they not approach those “agents” who forced them into it.

She referred to the Millennium Development Goal which has made essential the access to sexual and reproductive health services. However, she added, under this programme the government was conducting workshops related to sex instead, which would spoil society, she alleged. She strongly criticized the amendments to the Hudood Ordinance, as it had abolished punishment to both man and woman. She suggested that the government should fulfill the needs of destitute women so that they would not be forced into this profession.

Instead of teaching safe sex, the government should give them vocational training so that they could earn their livelihood with dignity, she added.

She demanded of the government, Parliament, Supreme Court, ministries of Religious Affairs, Health, Law and Women Development to take immediate notice of this perverse and illegal action an an urgent basis.
Source: The News
Date:8/12/2009