Lahore, Pakistan - After the flirtation came the fatwa.
With some overly friendly comments to Gov. Sarah Palin at the United Nations, Asif Ali Zardari has succeeded in uniting one of Pakistanâs hard-line mosques and its feminists after a few weeks in office.
A radical Muslim prayer leader said the president shamed the nation for âindecent gestures, filthy remarks, and repeated praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt.â
Feminists charged that once again a male Pakistani leader has embarrassed the country with sexist remarks. And across the board, the Pakistani press has shown disapproval.
What did President Zardari do to draw such scorn? It might have been the âgorgeousâ compliment he gave Ms. Palin when the two met at the UN last week during her meet-and-greet with foreign leaders ahead of Thursdayâs vice presidential debate with opponent Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
But the comments from Zardari didnât end there. He went on to tell Palin: âNow I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.â
âYou are so nice,â replied the Republican vice presidential hopeful, smiling. âThank you.â
But what may have really caused Pakistanâs radical religious leaders to stew was his comment that he might âhugâ Palin if his handler insisted.
Though the fatwa, issued days after the Sept. 24 exchange, carries little weight among most Pakistanis, itâs indicative of the anger felt by Pakistanâs increasingly assertive conservatives who consider physical contact and flattery between a man and woman who arenât married to each other distasteful. Though fatwas, or religious edicts, can range from advice on daily life to death sentences, this one does not call for any action or violence.
Last year, the mosque that issued the fatwa, Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, condemned the former tourism minister, Nilofar Bahktiar, after she was photographed being hugged by a male parachuting coach in France.
Clerics declared the act a âgreat sinâ and, though less vocal about it, similar sentiments were shared by many among Pakistaniâs middle classes. The Red Mosque gained international infamy in July 2007 after becoming the focal point of a Pakistan Army operation.
For the feminists itâs less about cozying up to a non-Muslim woman and more about the sexist remarks by Zardari.
âAs a Pakistani and as a woman, it was shameful and unacceptable. He was looking upon her merely as a woman and not as a politician in her own right,â says Tahira Abdullah, a member of the Womenâs Action Forum.
Dismissing the mosqueâs concerns as âranting,â she, however, adds: âHe should show some decorum â if he loved his wife so much as to press for a United Nations investigation into her death, he should behave like a mourning widower,â in reference to former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto, a feminist icon for millions of Pakistani women.
The theme of decorum was picked up by English daily Dawn, whose editorial asked: âWhy do our presidents always end up embarrassing us internationally by making sexist remarks?â
The incident bears some resemblance to yet another charm offensive by a senior Pakistani politician. Marcus Mabryâs biography of Condoleezza Rice includes a passage in which he relates a meeting between former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Ms. Rice, in which Mr. Aziz was said to have stared deeply into the secretary of Stateâs eyes and to have told her he could âconquer any woman in two minutes.â
There are some, however, who see things as having been blown out of proportion.
âIt was a sweet and innocuous exchange played as an international incident on Pakistani and rascally Indian front-pages with one English daily [writing] it in a scarlet box, half-implying Mrs. Palin would ditch Alaskaâs First Dude and become Pakistanâs First Babe. As if,â wrote columnist Fasih Ahmed in the Daily Times.
For most, it will soon be forgotten in a country dealing with terrorism, rising food prices, and a struggling economy. âWe donât care that much how they [politicians] behave â what really matters is keeping prices down,â says Nazeera Bibi, a maid in Lahore.
