Women at forefront of "Talibanization" in Pakistan

Last month Aziz threatened suicide attacks if the government used force to quell his campaign. Umm-e-Hassan says her female followers will not lag behind.

"If the government does not enforce Islamic shariah, then we will resist," she told Reuters.

"We don't want to come to power but we want to correct the system (of government) in Pakistan and that can't be done without shariah."

Umm-e-Hassan heads Jamia Hafsa, a religious school or madrasa for women affiliated with the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, where her husband is chief cleric.

A standoff with civil authorities erupted in January after she and her students seized a municipal library adjoining the madrasa to protest at the demolition of illegally built mosques in the capital.

They made international news in March after they raided a brothel in the heart of Islamabad and held three women hostage in their madrasa for three days.

Prostitution is illegal in Muslim Pakistan, but many women and girls are involved in the business across the country.

The brothel raid was seen as a sign of the growing influence of Islamists across the country, commonly known as "Talibanisation," and posed a direct challenge to the government's authority.

Pakistan is constitutionally an Islamic Republic, operating parallel Islamic and civil legal systems, but liberals and Islamists have long wrangled over the direction of society.

While radicals like Umm-e-Hassan and Aziz want enforcement of a Taliban-style puritanical version of Islam, liberals want a progressive and modern country.

HEAD-TO-TOE BURQA

Sitting in the midst of a dozen teachers and students clad in head-to-toe burqas, Umm-e-Hassan did not rule out raiding other brothels if the government failed to do so.

More
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/04/18/women_at_forefront_of_talibanization_in_pakistan/