Pakistan: Placard-waving women, protesting against the "Talibanisation" of Pakistan, demonstrated outside the national parliament yesterday after a mob attacked women taking part in a mini-marathon. The attack has spurred worries about the growing influence of Islamic extremists.
A week ago, baton-wielding men threw petrol bombs and burned vehicles at a mini-marathon in Gujranwala, 216km (134 miles) south of Islamabad. The race - one of the first to allow female participation - ended with police firing tear gas and making more than 50 arrests.
The threat of further violence forced the cancellation of other mini-marathons at the weekend in a direct challenge to President Pervez Musharraf's policy of "enlightened moderation".
"This has got to stop," said a protester, Aisha Shaukat, outside parliament yesterday. "These mullahs want us to just stay home, have children and God knows what else." She stood before a placard that read: "The obscenity is in your mind."
Others handed out leaflets saying: "We the citizens condemn this Talibanisation".
Newspaper columnists and other critics have made frequent comparisons between the social agenda of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a powerful alliance of Islamic political parties spearheading the rise of the religious right in Pakistan, and the Taliban.
The Gujranwala race was attacked by supporters of the MMA. Since gaining control of the provincial government in North West Frontier Province two years ago, the MMA has banned music and dancing in public, torn down advertising billboards featuring women, and introduced gender segregation on college campuses. More recently they shifted their conservative crusade to the relatively liberal Punjab province.
"Marathons are not objectionable - as long as the menfolk and womenfolk run separately," said Syed Munawar Hassan, an MMA leader. - (Guardian service)