The recently proposed changes by the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) -- state structured and nominated recommendatory body of Islamic clerics -- to the divorce law has sparked such a heated debate that clerics have started criticising CII instead of debating the real issue. However, the federal law ministry has asked the CII to prepare a draft on the basis of these recommendations.

The CII is a constitutional body that advises the legislature whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam, namely the Quran and Sunnah. It was established as Advisory Council of Islamic Ideology on Aug 1, 1962 and re-designated as Council of Islamic Ideology in the Article 228 of the 1973 Constitution with provisions for its composition (Article 228 231).

Some Islamic circles of the country believe this recommendation -- which is also recognised in the Nikah Nama (Wedding form) but not compulsorily -- can have "far reaching" implications. The opponents call this recommendation -- which according to legal and civil society is a guaranteed right in the Holy Quran and the Constitution of Islamic Republic Pakistan -- a "parallel Shariah."

The CII, in its recently held 71st meeting, has recommended a law under which it will be mandatory for a husband to divorce his wife within 90 days if she submits a written demand for divorce. The recommendation further reads that if the husband fails to do so, the Nikah would automatically stand cancelled after the 90-day term, except if the wife withdraws her demand. "If the husband gives his wife assets and property and demands them back at the time of divorce, the wife will have to return the assets except for dower and maintenance or else approach a court of law for the resolution of the conflict (of return of assets/valuables)," the recommendation further reads. The council has also proposed a Talaq Nama (Divorce Form) form on the pattern of the Nikah Nama. It also recommends the registration of divorce and an issuance of a divorce certificate.

The issue has sparked controversy at a time when the divorce rate in a city like Lahore has doubled since last year. According to a recent report, there are 793 cases of divorce and separation moved from women in District Courts of Lahore. The number of such cases registered in 2007 was 350. This 171 percent increase in the ratio of separation cases includes 243 cases filed on the basis of alleged doubtful character of the husband, 239 cases are based on family disputes and 311 suits are filed on the complaints of not fulfilling living means and abusing and torturing the wife on asking for money.

The current procedure of divorce or separation for woman is to move Family Court under Family Laws of 1939 -- The Anglo Muhammadan laws introduced with special input of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi. Men can divorce wife in one go; verbally and in writing, while women has to move court for divorce or separation. There are also some optional authorities given at union council level to Nazims to register divorce cases.

CII officials believe that the right of woman to divorce is guaranteed in Islam and is mentioned in Sura Nisa. Shia school of thought, however, liberally recognises and accepts this right. The objective to propose the recommendation, officials say, is to ensure equality of women and recognise their rights which is also exercisable privately.

They add, clear examples were prevalent in the time of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), who recognised a woman's right to divorce merely on the basis of the wife's dislike with her partner.

Furthermore, the section 18 of the official Nikah Nama, according to the Family Laws (1939) of Pakistan clearly reads: "Whether the husband has delegated the right of divorce to the wife? If so, under what conditions?" Clerics, however, define it as an optional right of the husband.

CII officials told TNS that the current family law was vague about woman's right to divorce. Giving an example, a CII official said, "We have been receiving calls from places like Malakand where a woman was divorced and needed to change her Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) but could not prove any piece of paper before the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) local office as prove of divorce."

Chairman CII Dr Muhammad Khalid Masud told TNS that they had been discussing the issue with CII members and sub-committees of the council for the past several months. He said this was a unanimous recommendation of the council to the federal government and the parliament has the absolute right to accept or defer it through debate. "The federal law ministry has asked us to prepare a draft on this basis and we expect this will be debated in the parliament," he added. He said they had not pressed the government to approve the demand but to debate it.

Dr Masud further told TNS that the CII has also studied and discussed the cases of Islamic countries where this right has been guaranteed. He said Morocco has recognised and legally implemented this right since 2003, Egypt in 2000, Malaysia is about to implement it, and in Indonesia, the matter is under discussion. In Iran, he added, this is a non issue because the dominant school of thought acknowledges this right.

Asma Jahangir, Chairwoman Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) told TNS that the recognition of the right already existed in the law and the Nikah Nama and if a wife moves court, divorce automatically becomes effective. "CII has taken up an old issue with positive intentions that a woman can divorce her husband," she said, adding, "This is the problem of clerics and fundamentalists of the society who should accept and apply this right."

Former judge of Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice (r) Nasira Javed Iqbal, told TNS that she appreciated the CII recommendation and urged that the recommendation should be debated in the parliament. "There is another easy way to do it," she said, adding, "The section 18 of Nikah Nama asks the husband whether he is giving his wife the right of divorce? The government should amend this section and make it mandatory for the husband to recognise his wife's right to divorce, which is also clearly guaranteed in the Holy Quran."

She said civil society organisations like Women Action Forum (WAF) have been demanding the implementation of section 18 of Nikah Nama. She added there was need for this balance and equality of women in their married life. "My personal experience as a lawyer and a judge is that men of the society do not want to recognise this right and continue to exploit their wives if they opt for divorce." Justice (r) Nasira further suggested that, if the government does not want to make section 18 compulsory, it should give the union council Nazim/chairman authority of Qazi at local level to decide the case within 90 days otherwise the divorce will become effective automatically. "This is unfortunate that religious clerics of our society do not want to empower women and recognise their rights." She added, the clerics criticism on the council's recommendations is an agenda to defame the council and ruin the true image of Islam.

Another retired judge of LHC, Justice (r) Fakhrunisa Khokhar, now a PPP MNA, however, disagreed with the CII recommendations. "The section 10 of Family Court law explains how women can seek separation. The CII recommendations are not according to the Act," she said, adding, "The recommendations are not according to Quran, Sunnah and Islamic jurisprudence."

President Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Sami-ul-Haq said, "President Pervez Musharraf, according to his theory of enlightenment, had appointed such persons in the CII who were not capable of issuing religious decrees."

Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, prominent religious cleric terms it "totally illogical." He is of the view that this is totally against Quran and Sunnah. He accused CII of violating its mandate to guide the government on the implementation of Shariah. "The council can recommend on issues to the president or the federal government in accordance with Shariah but it has no authority to raise settled issues and create disintegration in society."

CII has presented as many as 84 reports on various Islamic issues to the government on various occasions in time. No government, however, took these reports seriously, according to the CII officials. In a recent meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, Dr Masud requested the prior to take up the matter. In result, President Zardari formed a committee headed by Federal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Senator Babar Awan to study the CII reports and present a final and consolidated report to the head of the state. Dr Masud is hopeful that the new recommendations would be debated in the parliament instead of handing over the matter to a non-parliamentary committee. "There are religious scholars, thinkers, professors and technocrats of all schools of thought in the parliament and they can debate the issue very well on the relevant floor," said Dr Masud.

It was a sad day for the country when three bomb blasts rocked the site of the World Performing Arts Festival (WPAF) organised by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop (RPTW) on its second last day. The only relief was that there were no major casualties -- only a few injuries and that too of a minor nature. But it was equally sad that when the highest office bearer in the province in a meeting convened over law and order, as reported, gave the impression that it was in defense of the festival, being an arena not fostering obscenity and vulgarity, thereby taking the attention away from it as a law and order issue. The impression that one carried after reading the report was that art and the performing arts in particular are obscene, if not carefully monitored and diligently controlled.

But as the blasts were reported in the national media, the fears of many inside and outside the country appeared to have been well-founded. All along, in the last many years, it had been feared that such a tragic occurrence could take place in an event where artistes from across the world participate. The news has tremendous potential of coverage all over the world because of the participation of these international delegates.

In a country where one of the main concerns is to "cleanse society of all evil", the starting point appearing to be the burning up of the CD shops and the Girls Schools, a WPAF is like brandishing red rag to a bull. When low intensity bomb blasts exploded in the internet cafes of Garhi Shahu last month, the acts of violence were condemned with a lingering caveat as to what was happening at those cafes. The following day thousands of CDs were burnt and destroyed publicly by the traders on Hall Road, as an act of confession and a public announcement of joining the crusade against obscenity and vulgarity. Similarly as the vigilantes were raiding houses and holding up people including a Chinese national in Islamabad last year, the inviolability of private space was being sacrificed on the alter of crusading self certainty.

All through, there have been lingering doubts about the performing arts, music, dance drama and film seen as glorification of the baser and animal side of humankind. Most children in our society grow up with an instilled bias against the arts in general and the performing arts in particular. And when they do mature and find the artistic talent wanting to break through their nurtured barriers, they fight against this bias, offering justification every minute the rest of their lives.

In the last few years, there has been a crusade against theatre. No one is holding a brief for the manner in which theatre is being staged at the various venues but the action taken by the authorities was surely condemnable. There are so many options open to the authorities if a performance is considered to be obscene. A warning can be issued and then the production can be banned from display. Arresting artists and taking them in police custody in full view of the public and the media is unheard of and in the final analysis counter productive.

The message was loud and clear. The authorities through terror wanted the artists and the production unit to comply with the legislated moral code and in the bargain win the support of the public on this decisive action for the sake of righteousness. But besides humiliating a few actors and show business personalities, it has not been replaced by a cleaner sanitised theatre. If anything, the entire theatre activity is gradually slowing down with a safe prediction that it will die a quiet death in due course.

Actions like banning a play have been sporadic but in spurts. Then censorship is exercised with great rigidity both on moral and political grounds. The best recourse for the producer is to get a listless script approved and let the actors improvise on stage. This has augmented the trend of adlibbing and the worth of an actor with the ability to improvise increased manifold. Script and direction are placed on the backburner and the actor, with his sharpened tools of wit, became the crucial factor in deciding the fate of a production.

Despite all the apprehensions till the bomb blasts the WPAF had progressed at a satisfactory pace. The large number of delegates had braved all odds and warnings and had performed to a Lahori public not really deterred by apprehensions. The major problem was that there were no sponsors this time around and with the partial support of the Norwegian government the organisers had decided to take the plunge. It has been seen that over the years the Norwegians have helped in establishing institutions on art, culture and other forums of freedom of expression. Due to the presence of citizens of Pakistani heritage the Norwegians have been bending backwards to establish such bridges while the government of Pakistan is pulling itself out of such commitments. The impression being created that our culture thrives better if left in the hands of foreigners.

RPTW had a reputation to defend. What it has achieved in the last sixteen years, since the 1992, no one has been able to even get near it. These festivals, twenty five in number, have been some of the biggest in the world, and have introduced to the local audiences some of the big names in music, theatre and puppetry. Many of these delegates have gone back with a very different image of the country to the one which they had before setting foot here. And then these relationships have been forged as they came back time and again to become a regular feature of the festival as such. It also gave the local groups to be invited to festivals abroad and expose a face of Pakistan that is hidden behind the veil of stereotyping.

It was very courageous of RPTW to proceed with the festival even after the blasts. By holding a press conference they displayed the resolve that they will not cower under threats for something they hold very dear while the activity truly fulfils people's aesthetic needs.

Several years back, a young Pakistani architect visiting Turkey was amazed at what she saw in Konya, the city of Rumi. She found Turkish women wore head scarves but did not cover their legs. She commented on this practice or duality by saying: "Do they think their hair are more enticing than their legs?"

Like the architect, most men and women raised in our culture believe legs are extremely attractive and thus need to be hidden from the gaze of men. This is why girls in our culture are taught not to move their legs; they must sit with their legs crossed, both in public and private. Of course there are other instructions like covering the upper half of their bodies. No wonder a lot of young girls slouch as they are growing up.

To associate sensuous appeal with legs in surroundings where these are usually hidden behind clothes may appear exaggerated to some. In fact, the code of conduct related to legs is just a form of prohibition and a scheme of discouraging young women to have control over their own flesh, in the name of etiquettes or 'proper' behaviour.

Amna Ilyas's work focuses on the joys of becoming aware of one's body and not being embarrassed about it. In her one person exhibition at Rohtas 2 between Nov 25-29, she depicted certain portions of body, mainly legs. Groups of three or two legs are shown either crossed or with hands in the middle; in one of the compositions, hands are filled with flower petals.

In her previous pieces too, executed in wax and plaster, Amna Ilyas explored female body in its naked state. Women in her sculptures are not only nude, they have a sensuous, rather erotic, posture and position. Addition of small pieces of cloth cast in the same material, instead of hiding the body highlights its contours and invites the male eye/imagination.

Nudity has been a regular subject in art, primarily in academic circles outside Pakistan. But for a young female sculptor to choose this as her subject is a commendable feat. It is clear that Ilyas is not reluctant to express her concepts through forms normally considered forbidden in society and even in art circles.

Yet Amna has decided to continue with her form, despite its apparently indecent exposure. This decision is remarkable because it defies the self-imposed censorship that has become a trait and habit of many creative personalities in our midst. Amna appears to be moving away from this conditioning.

Her brave approach and clarity of thought about exploring the female nude -- with its sensuous and sinuous potential -- may have turned into a trap for the artist. For her, the mere fact of choosing her subject and corresponding visual vocabulary may have become more important than concentrating on formal concerns and technical problems. Thus the pictorial presence of nude figures has substituted for the overall impact of the work; which also includes skill of execution and sophistication in developing ideas.

Hence, her exhibits show lack of finesse and profundity both in execution and in extending her ideas. Legs and torsos placed on the ground, or raised to the walls and corners were not cast in a precise manner. Since some parts were not sharply crafted; nor the issue of areas next to hands and hairs was convincingly resolved. Probably the artist, after realising her major breakthrough of venturing into nude, now needs to concentrate on other elements of visual practice.

Among other elements visible in the display, Amna tried to treat the whole gallery as one continuous and seamless space. Thus various pieces were scattered all over the gallery to create an overall effect. White legs were joined to the plain walls as if these were emerging out of the construction. The blend of figure and space was most effective due to the careful usage of white on her fibreglass sculptures -- a shade that conveniently united exhibits to the gallery environment.

What one witnessed in the gallery like a single, complete work, could be interpreted as a personal voyage of the artist. Her pieces conveyed the idea of a female coming out of her circumstances. If this view could be stretched into a metaphor for her art practice, the new work of Amna Ilyas is to be understood as an artist's attempt to move beyond the mere representation or replication of female nude -- into some other complex concepts.

Why does an installation done by a miniaturist become more interesting than those done by other artists? For the theorist, it provides important groundwork and access to engage with Neo Miniature and understand its critical and conceptual framework. Outside its traditional frame, it prompts one to ask why and at what point Miniature breaks off the umbilical chord with the haashia, and jumps out into the 'real' world.

Neo Miniature made a statement when it brought a contemporary idiom to an art form of the past. Images of figures in Nike T shirts and bottles of Coca Cola, Madonna and Musharraf in the 1990s created an initial stir, in breaking what was essentially perceived as a medium of princely ateliers, and brought it into the realm of contemporary issues and subject matter. Ridding Miniature of a certain amount of sacredness or reverence attached to it, the new art form was in many ways provoking traditional sensibilities of taste. And yet, a sustained engagement with its aesthetics of subtle color nuances, gold leaf and the use of wasli by many of its practitioners, whose subject matter is, for want of a better word, 'ordinary', continues due to the high market returns. Gold leaf and wasli, no matter how deceiving, lend an air of authenticity and of austerity.

Miniaturist Safdar Qureshi's works, on show at Karachi's Gandhara Art this November, strip the traditional practice of its embellishment into a minimalist language. It engages the mark of the bare pencil, fine point pen replacing the qalam, or brush into a conversation with objects such as thread and needles. There is an instinctive revelation that the work is beyond miniature. What has happened in that transformation, from Miniature to something other, also reveals the artist's maturity in not being overwhelmed by technique or material to take a path of discovery and surprise.

In the current show titled 'The Webs We Weave', Qureshi embarks on a journey with line. Line as form that stands as a metaphor for continuity with the past and into eternity. Through it, the artist navigates his content and uses it as content. In the two dimensional works, the directions of linear marks divide the larger square into smaller squares. Some of linear notes that appear like gibberish are actually text comprising colloquial abuses, as we are informed in the exhibition catalogue. Amna Naqvi, in her curatorial note, briefly discusses the relationship of the artist's experience at a tailor's workshop and the artist's 'desire to recreate the running stitch on paper'. The vocabulary of line expands into the process of the hand-crafted; thread and

yarn extend the same notion of hand-stitched, as well as a visual reference to the line itself.

Webs of thread and black polyester yarn convey urban complexities. Quite literally, they reference the electricity poles and jumble of wires and kundas, which web our skies. Though the literal narrative is too stark, it does serve as a take off on the disjointed and chaotic narrative of the third world. The webs that thread the needles are then meticulously covered in clear plexiglas boxes, as specimens for study, not objects to enjoy in the traditional sense. It's a clinical presentation that reaffirms the gallery as a sacred space for observation and study. I wonder if the artist is aware of this strong impact, and how much of it has been done to appropriate displays along Western models of the gallery as a white cube. The work speaks on more than one level. It is, however, the space and display that completes the work in a particular curatorial context. This show provides us with an opportunity of looking at the gallery as a space, and that space can project or navigate in reading a work.

Within the monochrome of the black and white, the presence of vermillion, ochre and indigo seem like a deliberate choice to control the extent of colour allowed in the work. The result is a certain amount of tension within the starkness and nudity of the white rooms and spaces of the gallery. One enters and leaves the Gandhara by confronting a cube with 300 metres of polyster thread in it. Whether it is the unravelled thread of a burqa (veil), or just a void, it presents the viewer with more than a simple answer. Miniature becomes something other than what we assume it to be. It is this unease that lends the exhibition something more than a show of just Miniature.

The new James Bond film was not something our rather female-dominated household was much bothered about, but spouse was quite keen to see it so we recently traipsed along to the cinema for another dose of Bond.

Two winters ago, spouse had bought the whole box set of the Bond films and we had a jolly good time viewing all the films -- from the Sean Connery Bond through to the Piers Brosnan. I think we agreed to miss out the (single) George Lazenby altogether and had divided views on who was the best of the Bonds. Surprisingly, the only one that looks very dated and does not stand the test of time well is the Roger Moore Bond. Part of the reason could, of course, be the dreadful 1970s fashion with Moore rushing around in wide collars, flares, chunky heels and strange colours…

My favourite Bond is the delightfully charming Piers Brosnan, and I am still offended that they replaced him with the unattractive, stony faced Daniel Craig. Meanwhile, spouse tends to favour Connery, but is also partial to Moore.

Anyhow, about the film: it could be that I am becoming old and cranky, but I found it fairly disappointing. The title is ridiculously obscure -- Quantum of Solace -- and the whole thing is a series of chases, explosions, fights, people falling through roofs and smashing through window panes. Lots of action and lots and lots of shattered glass. And it is not just Daniel Craig's face that seems to be made of stone -- his action-man-doll-body seems to be of some strange unbreakable material. It survives all sorts of acrobatics and even when he falls from a very great height into a stone ravine, he seems unaffected. Any normal human being would probably not have survived or else would at least have broken their back!!!

The plot itself is fairly interesting, and provides a nice easy-to-digest story of the expediencies and lack of principles that govern global politics. However, what is slightly disconcerting is the level of violence and people being killed left, right and centre.

But what really irritated me about the film was that so many of the typical Bond features were missing. The Bond films have always had wonderful opening songs and distinctive graphics (usually sexy female silhouettes) to go with the graphics. This one has an absolutely dreadful opening number, and silhouettes of Bond himself. Just as I was thinking, that perhaps this was some sort of politically correct shift, the female silhouettes appeared, dozens of them all gyrating and looking like swarms of insects.

So, horrid opening, and not enough of the distinctive Bond theme music. Then the awful steely Daniel Craig version of Bond which is completely devoid of charm and wit, and more in the Arnold Schwarznegger Terminator mould than in the Fleming Bond mould. And all the men seemed to have awful haircuts (aesthetically most displeasing), but at least the women are extremely good looking -- tall and fit.

Spouse has explained to me that the change in the style of the new films is to make them more like the recent Matt Damon as Jason Bourne films, however that seems so absurd: why should we make Bond into Bourne?? To my mind: Bourne is Bourne and Bond is Bond, and it's better not to get the two mixed up.

Finally, I am just annoyed by the way action movies today seem to be glorified versions of computer games. You set out on the game and are met with attackers, disasters, fights, explosions etc. at nearly every turn. Lots of sound effects like glass shattering, things exploding and so on are to be heard. The new Indiana Jones movie was like that as well -- a formulaic series of action sequences strung together with a plot line and punctuated by the occasional clever one-liner.

Oh, and my daughter Shallal has just pointed out to me that throughout the film, Bond hardly says anything -- he is so terse he probably has less lines than anybody else in the film!!!!

Ah well, I suppose I should just go off and watch an old Brosnan-as-Bond film to reassure myself that the film version of that suave, womanising, extremely quick witted secret agent is still there somewhere!!

I think I should just clarify here that I really did not like the new James Bond film. Just in case you were wondering.

Best Wishes