LAHORE: About 200 women religious scholars declared here on Sunday that honour killing is not allowed in Islam.

Assembled at the Sheikhatul Hadith conference organised by the Tanzeem Ittehad-i-Ummat, the scholars had come from Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Kasur and Sialkot besides Lahore and a number of them from Karachi, Hyderabad and Rawalpindi.

A declaration issued at the end of the conference said Islam does not allow killing of a mother, sister, daughter or any other woman in the name of honour.

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It condemned the acid attacks as the worst sin and heinous crime and said that Islam does not allow even slapping a woman in the face.

The conference saw no harm in a marriage between a boy and a girl of their own free will, but declared marriage of a woman to Quran as haraam. It denounced the tradition of vani as a practice of the Dark Ages and said God does not create woman to be handed over or forcibly married to someone as compensation for the sins of her male relative(s).

The scholars also criticised extremists for stopping girls from getting education and said Islam has made it mandatory for both men and women to get education and that in certain cases a woman may get education from a male teacher.

The conference also declared as lawful for women to drive cars unlike in Saudi Arabia where they are not allowed to do so.

The conference called upon the government to declare as offence the act of giving three divorces by a husband in one go and also urged it to take appropriate measures for ensuring women’s share in inheritance.

The scholars declared killing of women health workers as a great sin and demanded qisas (eye for an eye) for those indulging in manslaughter.

They praised the Zarb-i-Azb Operation against terrorists and said those laying their lives while fighting against terrorists are true martyrs and not those fighting against the army.

They urged the womenfolk to keep an eye on their brothers and sons so that they might not fall into the trap of those misleading the youth to join terrorist groups in the name of religion or for other reasons.

The conference was presided over by Ume Abdullah Naeemi of Jamia Sirajia Naeemia, Lahore.

Maulana Ziaul Haq Naqshbandi read out the declaration.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2015

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