I wonder how one goes about proving a rape case in an islamic court . . . Specifically, can you use DNA evidence? If it is a just a case of a man's word against a woman's, this might be hard case to prove.

Thank you for posting this. I need good news every once in a while.

Please, please let the American press notice this... Islam gets a bad rap over here and this is just more evidence that one-fifth of the world's population is not monolithically inclined to oppress women and kill Americans.......

This is all (surprisingly) very good, and I find myself strangely feeling weird about the death penalty here. I usually oppose it without a second thought, but here I'm having that second thought.

I've become less and less enthused about the death penalty over the years. Considering the ineptitude the Indian government has in most matters, I do not trust them with a death penalty. But this case, IMHO, is another example of the need for uniform civil code.

Dukakis stumbled on the rape question but here's my answer:
Yes. Kill the rapist. I'm all for killing rapists and murderers, but only if you can at the same time bring back the dignity of the women who were raped and lives of those who were killed.

Ain't no reason to kill any man.

Just so everyone understands -- this isn't a Personal Law Vs Uniform Civil Code issue. This is a criminal matter -- and the same laws (and will, evidently) do apply to everyone.

The coment from the Muslim law board is just to say -- look, don't let this guy hide behind religion, we would rather have him dead. That's different from actually sentencing him to death (or to anything else). They would much rather stay out of it and let the police handle it.

KXB wrote:
But this case, IMHO, is another example of the need for uniform civil code.

It ought to be a very humble opnion indeed. The All India Personal Law Board has no jurisdiction in criminal matters. The problem here is idiotic Indian village justice by self-proclaimed elders. How does this case show the need for a uniform civil code?

What needs to happen is the Indian police and courts system bring the perpetrators to justice. Either that, or a Maoist campaign to smash the 'olds'.

Kidding, kidding...

Sharp contrast to Pakistan's take on the other story, where the woman has effectively been kidnapped by the police and is being intimidated.

B4 u condemn all criticism of Islam, do remember that according to Sharia Law a woman has to produce 4 witnesses to prove she was raped by a guy. So if u r not raped in front of a crowd then u r not raped.

I am not sure if the punishment for rape is death penalty according to Sharia though. In India the punishment for rape is not the death penalty. Btw, BJP and Advani want to make rape punishable by death.

The death penalty is hardly ever used in India except in rare cases almost all of which are those of treason, assassination of top political leaders etc. I think Texas executes more people each year than India executed since 1947 :)

The death penalty is hardly ever used in India except in rare cases almost all of which are those of treason, assassination of top political leaders etc.

The death penalty probably isn't used often in India because they're more than comfortable sending their police officers to kill people in the streets.

Rape should be punishable by death. Rape is murder lasting a lifetime.

The Rapist should be killed,no doubt,or atleast tried accor. to indian criminal code procedures.The villagers are saying about a period called IDDAH,mentioned in quran between divorce.But its truly astonishing that these shariat laws are applied "marry the rapist then he'll divorce and then if the previoyus husband wants then after iddah she can come back".laws should be made that you are equal in the front of law,every citizen be of every sex religion caste creed .In India you are divided every caste religion has there own laws.The accused gets free .In India you can't question these because it will hurt the sentiments,truly disgusting.
Jai Hind

Proponents of Uniform Civil Code shy away from explaining the 'uniform' values of Indians. The Indian Criminal and Civil Law is almost entirely based on the English Common Law and laws enacted in the pre partition days.
In the US every state has its own family law. In India the only law that is not Uniform is family law. Would India be adopting (gasp!)western laws on divorce, marriage etc.?

I don't think the AIMPLB has any jurisdiction. It's just a wee bit more than a pompous, 'guiding' body, and quite rightly offlate there has been a lot of debate about their role -- which forced them to come out with a 'model nikahnama'. But atleast Zafrayab Jilani is right here. AFAIK, any Muslim in India, can approach courts and expect same treatment as a person of any other faith. I think, it's only the marriage/divorce/inhertiance laws where Personal Law comes into picture.
And btw, shallabh: you are confusing two things. Iddah is not some convenient arrangement - which unfortunately some Muslims have reduced it to -- to return to your former spouse..and this is not the post for me to get into detail abt it. Iddah and rape are no way related. In short, take this for a fact, that there is no concept of rapist marrying victim either for Iddah sake as you wrongly mentioned, or to 'redeem' victim's honour(as one judge recently offered to a Delhi nurse). Your quote/unquote statement attributed to shariah is blatant libel, and if you disagree, I request you to please point out your sources.(you do know quotes are sacred, right?)

In my opinion death penalty in rape cases is ineffective; it's easy on the rapist, and it fails in its role as a deterrent. Even though it goes against modern civic societal norms, I'd take an exception here and ask for a torture in a chowk/square of the rapist by one and all, be it stoning, lashing..whatever. The rapist should breathe every moment of his humiliation, until he dies of it. Period. (For the few doubting Thomases, who will track me down to my blog for my surname; chill out! I am not a practising Kazi either)

rape is the triump of one mental state on another...and it is so short that one cannot reason correctly as to what iginites such a state.coz i belive that the man raping is as helpless as the one getting raped ..albeit not if the rapist is a power abuser or compulsive maniac. discussing rape and in context of religion and its prescription of retribution for it is not a wise man's idea

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