Yes / In 1979, General Zia ul-Haq promulgated the Hudood Ordinances to provide Islamic
punishments for several offenses, but the prosecution for extra-marital sex (zin.) has
been disproportionately higher. Based on the analysis of reported judgments, I argue
that the higher rate of prosecutions for zin. was a direct result of new laws. Despite
carrying the name “Hudood”, these Ordinances specified several ta.z.r offenses with
the objective of ensuring prosecutions. By incorporating .add and ta.z.r offenses for
zin., the Zina Ordinance blurred the distinction between consensual sex and rape,
and thus exposed victim women, who reported rape, to prosecution for consensual
sex. The Qazf Ordinance, which might have curbed the filing of false accusations of
zin., encouraged them by providing the complainants the defense of good faith. The
number of zin. cases has decreased after the reform of the Zina Ordinance and the
Qazf Ordinance under the Protection of Women Act, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19293 |
| Date | 17 December 2022 |
| Creators | Abbasi, Muhammad Z. |
| Publisher | Islamic Law and Society |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted manuscript |
| Rights | © 2021 Brill. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy., Unspecified |
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