Mick Hartley

In Pakistan, sisters are doin’ it for themselves:

Female students at an Islamic school in the Pakistani capital freed an alleged brothel owner Thursday after the woman donned a burqa (a Muslim woman’s head-to-toe robe) and promised to shun “immoral acts.”

The students at the madrassa (Islamic school) in Islamabad had kidnapped the woman, identified only as Shamim, along with her daughter and a daughter-in-law Tuesday, sparking a standoff with the government.

Clad in an identical black burqa to the ones worn by the students, the woman was brought before the media at the Jamia Hafsa school and read out a confession.

“I seek forgiveness for the sins that I have committed and declare I will live like a true Muslim and preacher of religion,” Shamim said in the signed statement.

“I do confess getting involved in certain acts, which are considered moral crimes, with my house being misused for the purpose,” she said.

She denied that she had been forced to sign the statement, but said that there were “several men, who tied and tortured me before I arrived here. But the attitude of the female students was exemplary.” […]

The case has raised questions about the Pakistani government’s willingness to tackle the hardline school in the center of the capital, following a series of incidents.

Many of the school’s female students are still occupying a nearby government-run children’s library after launching a protest in January against plans to demolish a mosque in the capital.

But deputy information minister Tariq Azeem denied the government had showed weakness in its handling of the school, saying it was in talks to remove the protesters from the library.

“No one will be allowed to take the law into their own hands in the name of Islam,” he told Geo television.