It is possible, to a certain extent, to judge an ideology, whether that be a religious or a secular one, by what happens in the territory that it controls of administers. Britain, the USA and the rest of the liberal democratic Anglosphere are what they are because of the broadly Christian ideology that they were based on. It’s a similar case with Israel, it is an island of democracy in a sea of dictatorships and failed states and a nation which has robust and open discussions about politics, because it is a nation founded on Judaism in varying shapes and forms. None of these nations are perfect, in many cases far from it, all of them have their own problems that are often unique to them based on their history and the underlying ideology that they are based on.

Where Islam is the dominant ideology, such as in Pakistan, we get a good look at the sort of society that Islam has created since independence from Britain in the late 1940’s. Compared to the sort of societies that we have created in the West, Pakistan is an absolute basket case where individuals rights depend on that person’s religion or gender. Pakistan is well known for discriminating against Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and heterodox Muslims such as the Ahmediyya and the position of women and children is particularly dire. What is worse is that attempts by those of a more liberal persuasion to tackle such discrimination are all too often blocked by religious conservatives.

Because of the power of the ideology of Islam in Pakistan, Islamic scholars can block the sort of reforms that might be needed to protect those Pakistanis who need protecting. This is the case with legal reforms that could protect those women who face domestic violence in Pakistan.

According to a report on the ANI news website (h/t ROP) a bill to protect women from domestic violence, a bill that had passed the Pakistani Senate, was referred by the Prime Minister Imran Khan to a body of Islamic scholars following pressure from Muslim groups. These groups say that some of the provisions of the bill are ‘unislamic’ and this bill is for the moment blocked.

The report does not say specifically what is considered as ‘unislamic’ about the bill but I suspect that the objections have their roots in the Islam-derived misogyny that makes women second or third class citizens in Pakistan.

Pakistan is home to and to a significant degree run by some of the worst forms of Islam on the planet. Therefore we should not be surprised that the representatives of this ideology want to continue to allow women to be treated like dirt and have no ability to free themselves from abusive husbands.

Pakistan is not so much a functioning nation and a member of the family of nations, but instead a cautionary tale of what happens when extreme forms of Islam take control. In nations that have equal rights for men and women we have the luxury of pointing and laughing or recoiling in disgust at Pakistan. The women of Pakistan have no such luxury, all they have is suffering.