In 1989, Nafisa Hoodbhoy, a journalist, investigated the rapes of three on duty nurses in a hospital. One of the nurses was jailed, while the attackers were never tried. Since Hoodbhoy reported the story, two attempts have been made on her life.

ISLAM AND FEMINISM examines the inequities in Pakistan's Islamic law, which does not distinguish among rape, adultery, and "fornication." Under this law, a woman and a man arrested for fornicating were sentenced to 100 lashes and death by stoning. In Pakistani courts, the testimony of two women is valued as equal to that of one man. And, although some of Pakistan's most prominent leaders are women, a rape victim can be charged under Islamic law with having had extramarital sex.

This report examines these contradictions, and introduces the efforts of such organizations as the urban Women's Action Forum and the rural Sindihani Tahreeq to battle the severe discrimination which Pakistani women, as women in many Islamic countries, must endure.

Part of the SOUTH series.

"An inspiration to all those fighting fundamentalism everywhere."—Everywoman Magazine