ZINA

In Pakistan, it is nearly impossible for a woman to successfully accuse and prosecute her rapist due to laws against extramarital sex or “zina” as expressed in the Qur’an. Since rape is extremely common in Pakistan, it is devastating that rape is difficult to prosecute. A 1979 rape law referred to as the 1979 Ordinance on Zina actually made it easier for men rape women. The law rules that extramarital sex whether coerced (rape) or not cannot be prosecuted without four eyewitnesses. Due to this law, rape is even more challenging to prosecute. If four eyewitnesses are required, then the majority of rapists will not be prosecuted since the majority of rapes occur behind closed doors. In addition, all the witnesses must be male and approved by the court and if less than four people come forward about the rape then all will be punished. Since potential punishment is an outcome of coming forward, there is less incentive for someone to speak up about the injustice witnessed. Especially since women do not have the power to come forward, there is low chance of justice. Although the concept of zina comes from the Qur’an, the law was created due to a misinterpretation of Sharia law, “the fundamental religious concept of Islam, namely its law, systematized during the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Muslim era (8th–9th centuries CE)”. The Qur’an is often blamed for the customs and culture in Pakistan but in this case, the Qur’an did not present the unjust treatment of rape. Both the Qur’an and Sharia law influenced the 1979 Ordinance on Zina but neither directly presented the idea that became the Ordinance. When the creators of the law read Sharia law, they misinterpreted the text and created the 1979 Ordinance on Zina incorrectly based on Sharia. Sharia law did not respond to rape the same way modern law does. Rape was treated as bodily harm instead of extramarital sex and did not require four witnesses. The ancient law was, in reality, a more just law than the one instilled in Pakistan today. In addition, Sharia law would provide a sum of money to the victim for the physical violence they endured. In past times, they were stricter on rape and pitied the victim instead of blaming them. The Sharia law never classified rape as a form of zina but instead as a violent act. “Pakistan’s 1979 Ordinance on Zina, however, does not draw from this islamic legal heritage of hirabah (violent acts) and jirah (wounds). Instead it subsumes rape as a type of zina, resulting in a misapplication of the stringent Islamic evidentiary rules for zina to a category of crime never meant to be included under it”. Rape has become desensitized since the enactment of the 1979 Ordinance on Zina and has, in fact, worsened Pakistan’s issue of domestic violence instead of improved it.

​

​

Sources: Coulson & Quaraishi 1-29