Press Statement
SAY NO TO POLYGAMY;
WE REJECT SHARIA AND COUNCIL OF ISLAMIC IDEOLOGY
Awami Workers Party strongly condemn the yesterday’s decision of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) declaring the law seeking consent from first [second or third] wife for another marriage as un-Islamic, declaring that Sharia does not bind a husband to seek permission from any of his wives before contracting another marriage.
The CII is acting as a superstate as it nullifies/over rules the little constitutional and legal gains the working classes, women and non-Muslims have made so far. It nullified the land reforms of the 1970s, it dismissed forensic tests for evidence in criminal/voilence cases against women, and now it started attacking the meager civil rights of women in Pakistan.
The CII must be abolished as it attacks the entire democratic system, the constitution and the legislature. We also reject polygamy, as it is more demeaning and oppressive for women in our society as compared to monogamy.
AWP sees a close link between increasing talibanization and the space given to the terrorists by the PMLN government and the military, and the CII’s attack on rights of the working classes, women and non-Muslims, and the CII’s drive for further islamization/talibanization of the state.
We demand abolishing the CII and for the establishment of a secular and democratic state.
Farooq Tariq
General Secretary
Awami Workers Party