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Searching for Freedom, Chained by the Law
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"Even if a woman is finally acquitted," Mirza said, "the price she pays through social retribution and honor is heavy."
'I Should Have Choices'
Farazana Zahir, a 20-year-old woman from Lahore, said she was forced to marry her cousin -- a common traditional practice -- and now wants a divorce.
"I strongly believe I should have choices -- of whom I marry, how I spend my time," she said in an interview.
After seeing a television ad placed by a local female legislator offering help to women, she called the woman's office and was put in touch with legal aid attorneys.
Zahir needed a lawyer because her family told police she was "abducted" for sex by a man she met at a family party.
Zahir calls the charge a sham, retribution for her asking for a divorce, something women are traditionally not supposed to demand.
Men are allowed four wives in Pakistan, but women can have only one husband. Getting a divorce is harder for women. A wife must petition the court while a husband can end his marriage by simply saying "I divorce thee" three times.
"If I were a boy, this wouldn't be happening," Zahir said, an olive-colored head scarf pulled over her young, determined face. "But I am going to divorce."
As she sat in the busy Lahore law offices of Jilani and her sister, Asma Jahangir, two dozen other women waited in the corridor. Many were seeking divorces; others were fighting criminal cases they said arose from conflicts with husbands or parents. Some were older and wore black veils; most were young and wore head scarves in bright oranges, reds or floral patterns.
Women interviewed there said men complain they are being influenced by promiscuous Western ideas. But the women say they are hardly looking for the lifestyle depicted in Hollywood movies. One young woman mentioned "Sex and the City" -- available on the black market here -- with obvious horror.
"Why can't I talk to a boy?" asked Rashida Khan, 17, a student interviewed in Islamabad. "Why are my brothers allowed outside in the evenings and I am not? All I want is more freedom."
Traditional Laws
The Muslim clerics and conservative politicians who most vocally support Pakistan's laws governing sexual morality argue that they are protecting traditions and guarding against what they call the "free sex" culture of unwed mothers and widespread divorce in the United States, Britain and other countries.
