Month: March 2004

A curriculum of hatred

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

The religious parties in Pakistan are at loggerheads with the government on yet another issue: the so-called “exclusion” of some Quranic verses from the biology textbook for Intermediate classes. What has annoyed the MMA?

It all began three weeks ago when in reply to a question in the National Assembly, the federal education minister explained that the inclusion of Quranic verses is not a requirement of the curriculum.
Continue reading “A curriculum of hatred”

The death of two little girls

By Zubeida Mustafa
Source: Dawn

About four weeks ago, two little girls – Hajra (8) and Sassi (5) – went missing in Murad Memon Goth on the outskirts of Karachi. They had gone to gather firewood for their homes. Two days later their mutilated bodies were recovered from the premises of a veterinary hospital in the possession of the Gadap police station.

This heinous crime, which sent a shiver down most people’s spine, was not the first one of its kind in this megacity which has become so unsafe and insecure not just for our children but for all of us as well.

What is shocking is that the incident failed to overly shock the people of Karachi, so desensitized have they become to violence. The kidnapping and killing seemed such a routine affair that no paper reported it until the bodies were found two days later and the people of Memon Goth attacked the police station in anger. The attack on the thana, rather than the killings, made news.
Continue reading “The death of two little girls”