Qisas & Diyat: Islamic Feminism or Just Revenge?

In the weeks to come, the Supreme Court of Pakistan is set to reconsider the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance of 1990. As Bahrami’s case illustrates, a number of complex and vexing issues are implicated in determining the breadth of the law’s application and enforcement. In the case of Bahrami, the Iranian court found a way to allow the wronged victim to enact what would undoubtedly have been a cruel punishment. Bahrami’s insistence on bringing the case, and her refusal to settle for monetary compensation for years as the case languished, could also be interpreted as a feminist subversion. Here was a woman insisting that a man who had wronged her be made to suffer just as she had, using Islamic injunctions to make her case. On the other side, sceptics could similarly allege the possibility of yet another woman cornered into ‘forgiving’ her assailant.