Amid a worsening economic crisis and political instability, Pakistani society is experiencing an increased radicalization at all levels, including even women, who are systematically indoctrinated in the thousands of women-only madrassas of the country, a report said.
On March 29, in a female madrassa at Dera Ismail Khan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, three female students attacked their 18-year-old teacher Safoora Bibi and mercilessly beheaded her at the gate of the madrassa.
As per Pakistani media, one of the accused in a statement made by her at the police station said that some religious personality appeared in the dream of a relative- who is a 13-year-old girl- and said the teacher had “committed blasphemy against Islam against which the religious personality gave directions (in the dream) for beheading.”
The reason that Pakistan continues to grapple with extremist ideology is the fact that all the leaderships from past to present have been mollycoddling the fanatics of the town for political gains. Madrassas and mosque culture have pushed the country several centuries behind, rather into the world of jahiliya (ignorance), an International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS) report said.
Although there are no official estimates of madrassas in Pakistan, various scholars give a figure ranging from 32,000 to 70,000 madrassas, where around 2.5 million students get religious education. The Pakistan Education Statistics 2017-18 Annual Report published by the Academy of Educational Planning and Management reports around 31,000 registered Deeni Madaris, the report said.
Around 2,000 of these are all-female madrassas. These madrassas have the objective of protecting women from getting “morally corrupted”, the report said, adding that, there is an emergence of a conservative value system that promotes conventional roles for women in society with the religious organisations taking the onus upon themselves to “protect” women from the influences of liberal western values eroding society.
One of the pamphlets from a Jamiat-i-Islami madrassa says, “the responsibility for promoting an Islamic society is upon women as some women have steeped in ignorance and have wandered too far from their religious duties. Hence, female madrassas will ensure high moral values,” the report said.
The Al Huda International Institute along with the Jamia-e-Hafsa are the propagators of the female Islamic education movement, apart from a few others like Minhajul Quran and Mawrid. They are pulling women to join Islamic education and remind them of their social purpose, the report said, adding that Jamia Hafsa has been standing in support of Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) and had even hoisted the Taliban flag and sang ‘Salam Taliban’ in 2021.
Prior to this, there have been instances where the female scholars of Jamia Hafsa have vocally supported Daesh and asked Pakistan militants to join Islamic State fighters.
This kind of female radicalisation has gone unchecked most of the time, and has become firmly rooted in society–as a result, Pakistan has emerged as a regressive and orthodox society, causing harm to those leading a progressive life by killing and punishment under the draconian blasphemy laws of Pakistan’s constitution, the report said.
For Imran Khan, who is busy saving his political career, this problem of radicalisation and extremism does not figure as a challenge, as compared to the so-called foreign conspiracy’ to unseat him, which has made Pakistan an object of ridicule internationally. But for the rest of the region, this is a real issue as it has the potential to cause violence and instability, the report concluded.