SAY NO TO HONOR KILLINGS!
"Human Rights, Women's Rights,
and Street Theatre in Pakistan"
Professor
Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Department
of English
Montclair State
University
Prof. Afzal-Khan will trace
the genealogy of so-called “honor killings” in pre-Islamic tribal customary
practice of Baluchistan (a province of Pakistan), which have now become
an endemic practice in all of Pakistan (sometimes even occurring in urban
centers) ever since the introduction of the infamous Hudood Ordinances enacted
in the name of "Sharia Law (Islamic law)," by General Zia ul Haque in the
1980's. Prof. Afzal-Khan will conclude with an excerpt from Ajoka Theatre
Group's play, "Barri"--playing all four parts of the women who are in jail
in the play--all of them victims of the above mentioned discriminatory laws.
The talk aims to show how civil society institutions in Pakistan, like alternative
theatre groups, are, and have been, "fighting back" ever since the 1980's,
against these type of regressive ordinances and societal practices, which
are not, in any way, representative of a just Islam.
Saturday,
April 5th
Letts Formal Lounge
(American University)
7:00 – 8:30 PM
Sponsored by Progressive Muslims
Network-Washington, DC (PMN-DC) and SC Women’s Initiative