Cnn article
Pakistani mullas
POSTED: April 29, 2007
SWAT VALLEY, Pakistan (CNN) -- Along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, the popularity of Maulana Fazlullah has soared since he began broadcasting his ultra-conservative beliefs.
The maulana isn't alone. He and other conservative religious leaders are finding a new pulpit to preach their ideas: the radio. The illegal use of FM radio by conservative religious leaders in the rugged tribal areas of Pakistan, where at least 138 stations operate, is becoming entrenched, analysts say.
"They preach Wahhabi Islamic faith, anti-American and at times anti-(Pakistan) government propaganda," says Altaf Khan, assistant journalism professor at Peshawar University, who has extensively researched the issue.
Wahhabism is a form of Islam preached in Saudi Arabia stressing the literal interpretation of the Quran. Wahhabis oppose listening to music and the depiction of people.
Women appear to be among the devoted listeners of Maulana Fazlullah.
A social worker in Mingora, speaking on the condition of anonymity, estimated that half of the population of the city and more than 90 percent in rural areas listen to the sermons by Fazlullah, who preaches in the city of Mingora near the Afghan border.
Another woman, a 26-year-old living in an area near the city and also speaking on condition of anonymity, says she listens to Fazlullah almost every morning.
"It is as if he is trying to awake us. He makes you think," she says, smiling from behind a black shawl that covers her hair and body.
The woman started wearing a burqa and does not even allow her brother-in-law to see her without it, which contradicts family tradition. She finds pictures un-Islamic, rarely leaves her home and vigorously studies the Koran. Formerly a nurse-trainee in 2001, she says she has forsaken all other education.
"He [Fazlullah] says only men need worldly education, to get jobs. Otherwise education doesn't give you much. It doesn't tell you about life after death."
Many girls have dropped out of school after hearing Fazlullah's sermons, says the social worker. "In the past six months I heard of two to three girls dropping out per week."
Such stories underscore sobering statistics. The national average literacy rates in Pakistan are low: 65 percent for men and 40 percent for women, according to the government.
The woman's uncle, a teacher, sadly shakes his head. "I am really sad that these mullahs are against female education," he said, having four English-speaking daughters.
Fear of extermination
Dozens of "Black Turbans," as the maulana's male followers are locally referred to, have used a little yellow cable cart to cross the idyllic Swat River to attend Friday prayers. They are joined by people traveling on foot and in cars and rowboats to be at the ceremony. Fazlullah himself arrived on a brown horse; the only attendant dozing off in the bright afternoon sun.
Fazlullah repeatedly calls for unity among Muslims and asks his disciples to refuse polio-drops, because, he claims, they are part of a Western conspiracy to wipe out the Muslims.
"How can people kill people in Afghanistan and be our well-wishers at the same time," Fazlullah's voice asks through a live broadcast hampered by cracks and squeaks.
It is as close as we can get; despite repeated requests for an interview, the maulana refused to meet a Western female journalist.
Fear of extermination by the United States is deep in Swat Valley.
"They are right next to us. Before you know it, it is our turn," says the well-off Qasim Shah, whose wife donated money for the maulana to build a new $50,000 religious school.
Underscoring the regional bond many people feel, Khan points to the ethnic homogeneity of the region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Pakistanis in the NWFP and many Afghans near the Pakistan border are Pakhtoons.
"People from the same ethnic group are killed. Most of them have relatives on both sides of the border."
To preserve the society the way he sees fit, the maulana orders CD shops to be closed and television sets to be burned; such devices promote Western ideas, the maulana believes, says 38-year old Karim in Mingora.
The burning of TV sets led to the arrests of 25 people in the region in 2005, says Jamal Nazir Khan, administrative head of Swat. It was the only incident so far, Nazir said.
But Karim is concerned that the current peaceful sermons may some day lead to violence. "We know that this is just the beginning," he says looking out on the devotees from across the river.
Fazlullah's father-in-law, Maulana Sufi Mohammad, is the founder of the banned Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM). Mohammad has been in prison since 2001 for fighting the Americans in Afghanistan. Some locals believe that Fazlullah is TNSM's new leader.
Women empowerment
For women, however, the maulana means empowerment.
"Before, I had only heard about men's rights," says a 28-year old college student and mother of three children. "But the maulana talks of equal rights for men and women. If men go outside they should ask their wives just as wives have to ask their husbands."
In socially conservative Pakistan, persuading her brother of this right is difficult, she says. "I tried to let him listen to this part of women's rights. He listened to the part of men's rights but when women's rights began, he stood up and left," she said, shrugging her shoulders while sitting on a bed on the large balcony of her house.
The maulana also emphasizes doing chores as a path to Allah's heaven. "He says that we should not do our house chores to make others happy, but for God," says the mother.
One woman, sitting inside her house's boundary walls, says she stopped gossiping after listening to the maulana. "Women didn't do anything, just sitting idle and backbiting. Now they listen," says the illiterate, gray-haired 55-year-old with enthusiastic verve.
Uneducated women are attracted to conservative ideas because of a lack of competing ideologies, says Robina Khilji, chairperson of the gender study department at Peshawar University. Educated women, Khilji says, use the conservative ideas to explain the social controls imposed on them.
Since women are generally not allowed in mosques in Pakistan, the radio broadcasts offer the opportunity to hear a religious leader. For women such as the 26-year-old, it is an exhilarating experience.
"He talks to us as if he is sitting in front of us," she says triumphantly.
