The protests in Pakistan held this past Sunday against a Sharia school have continued, though the protests have actually gotten a bit larger in scope.  Protestors in Lahore are demonstrating against religious extremism (purple sign at the bottom left in the picture seen at right) and the ‘Talibanization’ of Pakistan.

Thousands of people rallied in several Pakistani cities on Thursday to protest against what they refer to as the ‘terrorism’ of citizens by members linked to a radical mosque in the capital Islamabad. Reports say that the protestors, which included women’s groups and human rights organisations chanted anti-extremism slogans and called for government action against the administration of the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque who have called for a Taliban-style law to be enforced in Islamabad.

On the other hand, women play an instrumental role in the attempt to force Sharia upon all of Pakistan.  It is women who are students at the radical madrassa Jamia Hafsa.  It is women who raided brothels because they were un-Islamic.  It is also women who are threatening suicide bombing campaigns if Pakistan does not bow to their wishes, through the words of cleric Abdul Aziz who is a symbollic pimp himself ordering his women to do his deeds.

Sitting in the midst of a dozen teachers and students clad in head-to-toe burqas, Umm-e-Hassan did not rule out raiding other brothels if the government failed to do so.

“If people compel us to take action then we will think. We are asking the government to enforce Islamic shariah so that we are not forced to take such actions.”

“The government should change its attitude towards clerics and madrasas. They should implement the Islamic shariah, then we will never come to the streets,” she said as 10 young girls, wearing blue scarves, shouted “jihad is our way.”

“Your extremism has forced us to stand up against you … It’s a tit-for-tat,” Umm-e-Hassan said. (source)

Meanwhile in Iran, women at Tehran Polytechnic University stood against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the law coming into effect April 21 that would make it criminal for women not to wear a headscarf.  The women protested Ahmadinejad’s visit to the university by throwing firecrackers at the stage and calling out, ‘dictator go away.’

A group of 700 female students organized a rally on campus and signed a letter to the dean calling the new rules “an offence to the dignity of women” and accusing him of “wanting to extend to academia the sexual apartheid imposed by the government on Iranian society.”

For protesting, the female students had their university ID cards taken away and “will now have to face a disciplinary commission” which will judge on whether or not they can continue to be enrolled.