One of the most prominent clerics of Pakistan, Maulana Tariq Jameel has said that the COVID-19 pandemic has been unleashed on humanity because of the “wrongdoing of women”. The cleric made this comment in the presence of Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan during a live fund-raising event that happened on Thursday, April 23rd.
“Who has torn honour to pieces in my country? Who makes my country’s daughters dance? Who is asking them to wear skimpier clothes? Whom should I hold accountable for this sin?” he said.
Later Maulana Jameel blamed the media for misinterpreting his statement and apologized by saying that it was just a slip of tongue. However, he didn’t apologize for his offensive remarks on women. Even the Prime Minister also didn’t say anything about it.
Later the human rights commission of Pakistan condemned the comment of Maulana. In the tweet, the commission said, “HRCP is appalled at Maulana Tariq Jameel’s recent statement inexplicably correlating women’s modesty to the coronavirus pandemic. Such blatant objectification is unacceptable and, when aired on public television, only compounds the misogyny entrenched in society”
Dawn, one of Pakistan’s widely read newspaper, has said that it is a “shame” that the cleric was not corrected by anyone when he made such derogatory comments in public.
However, Later when his statement took a controversial turn and women of Pakistan started protesting against such comment, Maulana Tariq Jameel apologized the next day. He spoke as a guest at a talk show hosted by a famous anchor Muhammad Maalik, Maulana Tariq acknowledged that his “His tongue has slipped” towards the end of Telethon. He said to Mr. Maalik, “This Happens, as I speak a lot”.
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