Pakistan: Kohistan clerics say NGO women won’t be allowed to mingle with ‘na mahram’ men

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A group of clerics in Pakistan’s Kohistan on Saturday announced that women working with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) would not be allowed to mingle with “na mahram” men in public and that doing so would require them to follow specific directives, depending upon their marital status, Dawn reported.

In Islam “na mahram” stands for the women/men that you are allowed to marry. It includes all women/men other than mahram( including cousins).

The clerics, a group of 12, said that if a married woman was found accompanying a na mahram man, she would be expelled from the area. If a woman is single, the accompanying man must enter into a marriage with her.

Kohistan’s Pattan area’s Assistant Commissioner, Muhammad Bilal, dismissed the “announcement” and pledged that it would not be permitted to be enforced.

On the other hand, a cleric, calling himself Maulana Karimdad, also posted the same “decision” on his Facebook account and claimed that a local station house officer had also been informed about the decision, as per Dawn.

Karimdad on speaking to Dawn said, “We cannot endorse non-religious activities in Kohistan, and these NGO women are in breach of our customs by participating in such activities.”

“If they were to operate under religious laws, we would safeguard and back them, but transgressing our customs, which are not permitted by Sharia, cannot be tolerated,” he added.

“NGO women who disregard our directives should consider leaving Kohistan voluntarily; otherwise, we may take measures to either remove them or facilitate their marriages with the colleagues they are seen with.”

Another religious leader, Maulana Fazal Wahab, claimed that the decision was unanimous among all the ulema of Kohistan.

Speaking to Dawn, the assistant commissioner insisted that the clerics had made this decision for their own “vested interests”.

He pointed out that the non-profits had been operating in the area for eight months and the clerics never complained. “It appears to be a form of blackmail and nothing else,” he said. (Dawn)