UNITED NATIONS: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday opened a Pakistan-sponsored conference on ‘Women in Islam’, with a spirited call to Islamic countries to lead the way in building a common future for humanity where the empowerment of women and gender parity underwrite a new peaceful, prosperous, and inclusive world order.

“We have convened this conference to dispel the deep misperceptions that exist about the rights, roles and identity of women in Islam,” he told ministers and senior officials from around the world participating in the conference being held on the sidelines of the Commission on Status of Women (CSW) at the UN headquarters in New York.

The foreign minister said that the caricature that dominates the perception of women in Islam and Muslim society was one painted on the ignorance of the Islamic history and roles that women had played. “This caricature is a result that the perception of our religion has largely been hijacked after 9/11 by extremists who do not represent our faith and I feel a special responsibility to counter this propaganda and perception.

“It offends me as a Muslim and a Pakistani to the core of my heart that the face of Islam unfortunately in much of western public perception are the likes of Osama Bin Laden and not of the likes of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto,” he added. For a fuller understanding, FM Bilawal said, it was essential to distinguish between Islamic principles and law, and social practices espoused by some patriarchal societies. It was a distinction that xenophobes, Islamophobes and obscurantists would not like to make because “they believe in discrimination, a first step towards tyranny”. He said, “Islam forbids injustice against people, nations, women. It shuns race, colour and gender as a basis of distinction among persons.” “Islam treats women as human beings in their own right, not as chattel,” FM Bilawal said as the world celebrated International Women’s Day. Under Islamic law and tradition – the Sharia, he said a woman had an independent social and legal identity and enjoys civil, political, economic, and cultural rights as well as inherit, divorce, receive alimony and child custody. During the opening session, the President of the UN General Assembly, Csaba Korosi, made his opening remarks followed by the Executive Director of the UN-Women, Sima Bahous, the Chairperson of the CSW, Ambassador Mathu Joyini and Ambassador Hameed Ajibaiye Opeloyeru, OIC Observer Mission to the UN, who delivered a message on behalf of Secretary-General of OIC, Ambassador Hissein Braham Taha. A recorded message of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed was also played.

She conveyed her greetings to the conference on behalf of herself and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Published in The Daily National Courier, March, 09 2023

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