kahkashankhan

(Photo by Yawar Nazir/Getty Images) Qazi, also known as a judge or magistrate, is an important role in Islam. They are appointed to judge all disputes on the basis of justice in a timely manner without prejudice, to maintain the smooth functioning of a society. Not only that, a Qazi acts as a judge in both weddings and divorces. In short, a Qazi in a Muslim society does more than just dispensation of justice. Traditionally only men have been appointed as Qazis in Islamic courts and the appointment of women as a Qazi has been frowned upon. Many even consider the idea of a woman Qazi as being strictly forbidden in Islam. However, with the passage of time, things have slowly changed in this regard. Recently, 16 women completed their training as a Qazi from Darul Uloom Niswan, a centre for Islamic learning and theology in India. The move has drawn strict criticism from conservative Muslim community in India who believe a woman is not fit to work as a Qazi. The Muslim community in India see...

Yesterday, on Saturday, July 30th 2016, I got an opportunity to become part of a thought-provoking conference in Hyderabad, the second largest city in Sindh.  The conference was titled as Interfaith Youth Dialogue and Festival, arranged by a young social activist and past Pak-US exchange alumni, Dr. Rajesh Kumar. The session was led by some of the prominent personalities in the Sindh covering intellectuals, mystic poets, human right activists and academia. The conference put lights on many important issues of religious intolerance and religious supremacy prevailing in the Sindh and Pakistan, in general. During the conference, by listening to the panelists and with my own thought pattern, I summarized some of my thoughts on the issues and what I think we can do to curb them. Here is a conflict now. If you pick a currency coin or any bill in Pakistan, it says the name of our country as “Islamic Republic of Pakistan”. This causes an inherent flaw in our so called democratic form of th...

File photo of slain governor of Punjab Salman Taseer. On 4th January 2011, the highly influential former governor Punjab Salman Taseer was killed by his own security guard, Mumtaz Qadri. The killer took a plea that he killed Taseer out of love of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Mr. Qadri alleged that Taseer had dishonoured the Prophet and that is why it was his religious obligation to kill him. In a country like Pakistan, the reaction to this murder was not unexpected. All the liberal and secular groups condemned Mumtaz Qadri while the Mullahs, majority of whom consider Muhammad Ali Jinnah an infidel and Bait-u-llah Mahsood a martyr, declared Mumtaz qadri the biggest lover of the Prophet. They came on roads in his favour and broke not only the laws of the country but also the laws of Islam. It looked like the religion was completely hijacked by these fanatic Mullahs, which is not true. Pakistan has immensely talented religious scholars such as Dr. Tahir ul Qadri, Tariq Jameel, Javeed Ahmed Gh...