Hug it Out
This article comes from The Times Online. The source and link to the article are at the end of the article.
Pakistan Minister Resigns Over "Immoral" Hug
Pakistan's woman tourism minister tendered her resignation today after hardline Islamic clerics accused her of obscenity for hugging her instructor after a charity parachute jump.
Nilofar Bakhtiar, the Federal Minister for Tourism, was pictured wearing a brightly coloured jumpsuit and hugging her instructor after a tandem jump to raise money for child victims of the earthquake that struck Pakistan in October 2005.
The images provoked the wrath of clerics in Islamabad, who accused Ms Bakhtiar of posing in an obscene manner and violating the Islamic moral norms.
A religious court set up by the clerics at a radical mosque in Islamabad issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against Ms Bakhtiar when the photographs first appeared in local newspapers last month.
As she announced her intention to resign today, Ms Bakhtiar complained of a campaign of intimidation against her.
Earlier this month she was sacked as head of the womens' wing of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.
Ms Bakhtiar dismissed the fatwa against her, saying it had no legal, religious or moral authority. She said that the photographs showed her being congratulated for making the jump at a charity event in France and that the allegations of immoral behaviour were baseless. She said she had no regrets and would do it again happily if it helped the people of Pakistan.
Her resignation was the latest blow to women politicians in Pakistan. Less than two months ago a Punjab provincial minister was shot dead by an Islamic cleric in the eastern city of Gujranwala because she was not wearing a veil.
Ms Bakhtiar told a Senate Standing Committee that her life was under threat. Human rights and political activists and many other Pakistanis had condemned the campaign against her and expressed support for the minister.
But the Government did not take any action against the clerics, who are campaigning for the establishment of a Taleban-style conservative Islamic rule in the capital, and instead urged her to resign. The clerics have already set up a parallel justice system and openly promote vigilantes in the city.
In a newspaper interview published today Ms Bakhtiar said she was disappointed by her Cabinet colleagues who had failed to stand by her, and that she was hurt by the way her parachute jump had been sensationalised.
The chief cleric of Lal Mosque in Islamabad, Maulana Abdul Aziz, is leading the campaign to establish a hardline sharia regime with his brother, Abdur Rashid Ghazi. The brothers have made headlines in recent months for openly challenging the Government and for encouraging religious vigilantes to patrol the streets of the capital.
The mosque's baton-wielding devotees have set up so-called morality patrols telling local shops not to sell "un-Islamic" music and movies. Followers have become a common sight at traffic lights where they warn women to stop driving as it is a "sin" against Islam.
Shrouded from head to toe in black burqas, women students of a seminary known as Madrassa Hafza attached to the mosque regularly raid houses which they claim are being used as brothels.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1820247.ece
This article just got me going:
Reminds me of some of the stupid christian rules i've heard at churches and camps and that sort of thing dictating that the "proper" way to hug a woman, even an older one who could be your mom or one who could just be your best friend is a "side hug" because anything more than that would be leading to sex which would lead to dancing...
We aren't that different from them in some ways, in those areas where our religion neuters love and restrains the ability of a body of Christ-followers to touch like Jesus did, sharing friendship and healing...
Maybe one day we'll be able to learn to love without caring what religious people care about and instead look to see Jesus in the eyes of all we come in contact with, recognizing that they are we and we were all touched and hugged... It reminded me of Bradley Hathaway's "The Hug Poem" and I went back and relistened to it and I am hopeful even more of a change in our society. Hathaway says:
I read about how you touched them and they were healed
Or even if someone just touched your cloak they were forever changed
You let a broken women bathe your feet in her tears
And you washed your best friend's feet
I am just wondering though did you just ever hug people
I mean I know that it is a silly question and all I am sure you would have why wouldn't you
But its one of those things that was never mentioned that got me thinking about it
And how whenever there was a touch from you sins were forgiven and sickness fell
I think I'm caught up in my sins last time I checked all my body parts were properly working,
nothing special here
I am just a kid with a heavy heart these passing sunrises and sunsets
I don't think our encounter would have ended up in the gospels or anything
Because all I really need is a hug
That is ok for me to imagine right
That's not going to be conflicting with any sort of theology is it
Ok good, then hug me
But not one of these side ways one arm around the neck type hugs
Or the ghetto right hand clasp fists elbows to chest pit pat on the back back
Or you put your right arm over my right arm and I put my left arm over your left arm and we
make this weird sort of diagonal thing
Nah none of those
BEAR HUG ME MAN
Take your old school carpenter arms and throw them over my upper body leaving my arms
dangling underneath yours somewhere and I can barely move them because your squeezing
Pakistan Minister Resigns Over "Immoral" Hug
Pakistan's woman tourism minister tendered her resignation today after hardline Islamic clerics accused her of obscenity for hugging her instructor after a charity parachute jump.
Nilofar Bakhtiar, the Federal Minister for Tourism, was pictured wearing a brightly coloured jumpsuit and hugging her instructor after a tandem jump to raise money for child victims of the earthquake that struck Pakistan in October 2005.
The images provoked the wrath of clerics in Islamabad, who accused Ms Bakhtiar of posing in an obscene manner and violating the Islamic moral norms.
A religious court set up by the clerics at a radical mosque in Islamabad issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against Ms Bakhtiar when the photographs first appeared in local newspapers last month.
As she announced her intention to resign today, Ms Bakhtiar complained of a campaign of intimidation against her.
Earlier this month she was sacked as head of the womens' wing of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League.
Ms Bakhtiar dismissed the fatwa against her, saying it had no legal, religious or moral authority. She said that the photographs showed her being congratulated for making the jump at a charity event in France and that the allegations of immoral behaviour were baseless. She said she had no regrets and would do it again happily if it helped the people of Pakistan.
Her resignation was the latest blow to women politicians in Pakistan. Less than two months ago a Punjab provincial minister was shot dead by an Islamic cleric in the eastern city of Gujranwala because she was not wearing a veil.
Ms Bakhtiar told a Senate Standing Committee that her life was under threat. Human rights and political activists and many other Pakistanis had condemned the campaign against her and expressed support for the minister.
But the Government did not take any action against the clerics, who are campaigning for the establishment of a Taleban-style conservative Islamic rule in the capital, and instead urged her to resign. The clerics have already set up a parallel justice system and openly promote vigilantes in the city.
In a newspaper interview published today Ms Bakhtiar said she was disappointed by her Cabinet colleagues who had failed to stand by her, and that she was hurt by the way her parachute jump had been sensationalised.
The chief cleric of Lal Mosque in Islamabad, Maulana Abdul Aziz, is leading the campaign to establish a hardline sharia regime with his brother, Abdur Rashid Ghazi. The brothers have made headlines in recent months for openly challenging the Government and for encouraging religious vigilantes to patrol the streets of the capital.
The mosque's baton-wielding devotees have set up so-called morality patrols telling local shops not to sell "un-Islamic" music and movies. Followers have become a common sight at traffic lights where they warn women to stop driving as it is a "sin" against Islam.
Shrouded from head to toe in black burqas, women students of a seminary known as Madrassa Hafza attached to the mosque regularly raid houses which they claim are being used as brothels.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1820247.ece
This article just got me going:
Reminds me of some of the stupid christian rules i've heard at churches and camps and that sort of thing dictating that the "proper" way to hug a woman, even an older one who could be your mom or one who could just be your best friend is a "side hug" because anything more than that would be leading to sex which would lead to dancing...
We aren't that different from them in some ways, in those areas where our religion neuters love and restrains the ability of a body of Christ-followers to touch like Jesus did, sharing friendship and healing...
Maybe one day we'll be able to learn to love without caring what religious people care about and instead look to see Jesus in the eyes of all we come in contact with, recognizing that they are we and we were all touched and hugged... It reminded me of Bradley Hathaway's "The Hug Poem" and I went back and relistened to it and I am hopeful even more of a change in our society. Hathaway says:
I read about how you touched them and they were healed
Or even if someone just touched your cloak they were forever changed
You let a broken women bathe your feet in her tears
And you washed your best friend's feet
I am just wondering though did you just ever hug people
I mean I know that it is a silly question and all I am sure you would have why wouldn't you
But its one of those things that was never mentioned that got me thinking about it
And how whenever there was a touch from you sins were forgiven and sickness fell
I think I'm caught up in my sins last time I checked all my body parts were properly working,
nothing special here
I am just a kid with a heavy heart these passing sunrises and sunsets
I don't think our encounter would have ended up in the gospels or anything
Because all I really need is a hug
That is ok for me to imagine right
That's not going to be conflicting with any sort of theology is it
Ok good, then hug me
But not one of these side ways one arm around the neck type hugs
Or the ghetto right hand clasp fists elbows to chest pit pat on the back back
Or you put your right arm over my right arm and I put my left arm over your left arm and we
make this weird sort of diagonal thing
Nah none of those
BEAR HUG ME MAN
Take your old school carpenter arms and throw them over my upper body leaving my arms
dangling underneath yours somewhere and I can barely move them because your squeezing
so hard...
__________
Makes sense reading it like that, doesn't it???
__________
Makes sense reading it like that, doesn't it???
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