A video of a mullah named “Mohammad Kazim Behjati” ranting and preaching against Afghan refugees, particularly women and girls in a mosque in Quetta Pakistan has recently gone viral.
In the video, he urges people not to remain silent and stand up against refugees. He also addressed refugee girls and women saying “Our people do not wear the clothes you are wearing. We don’t have such a dirty culture that you have, don’t bring your dirty culture from Kabul to Pakistan. You don’t have the right to wear the clothes you were wearing in Kabul’s alleys and streets.”
“The veil you wear only covers half of your hair, we don’t have that kind of dress here. The same thing that happened to you (i.e. escaping and expelling from Kabul) can happen here as well,” he says.
“You girls and women have sold our honor”, he said, urging people to wake up and stand up against the Women and girls refugees.
Behjati is the religious leader (Imam) of Golpayegani Mosque and the head of the Golpaigani Madrassa (a religious training center) where he also teaches religious subjects. This religious training center is a charitable organization allegedly funded by national as well as international extremist groups.
Video link of Mohammad Kazim Behjati’s speech at Golpaigani Mosque in Quetta, Pakistan:
Following Behjati’s statement, another video went viral in which an extreme and fundamentalist Muslim man in the same city warns Afghan refugee women and girls that if they do not dress appropriately, they will be attacked with acid.
Video link of the threatening to spray acid on migrant girls and women:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1203584893414619/permalink/1403625620077211/
This is not the first time that Behjati and his group have done this. They had previously threatened women, secularists, human rights and civil society activists. The last time, on May 21, 2022, they accused a young man by name of Arif Hussain Chngezi to blasphemy for writing just a comment on a Facebook post . He was introduced to a Pakistani court. According to Pakistani law, this young man must be killed.
The mullah’s anti-refugees’ sentiment, as well as the release of a video by an extremist man threatening women and girls with acid attacks, have sparked public outrage on social media.
Poet and writer Mohammad Hussain Fayyaz condemned these two videos on his Facebook account and wrote: “The sheikh (a religious scholar) and all suchlike should know that women and girls who were marching through the streets of Kabul for justice and freedom were all wearing Mantos (a type of Islamic female dress) and headscarves which is perfectly in line with Islamic values. some of these women even sacrificed their lives for justice.
Who are the girls and women he is targeting in his speech that have not had the Islamic hijab of his choice?”
All these women are wearing the common dress and headscarves which is perfectly in accordance with Islamic norms and values. what do this sheikh and other extremist sheikhs want from people’s lives?”
where are we heading to? Are Islam and religious rituals only about women’s clothes and hair? You should not follow the footsteps of the Taliban extremist group and make people tired of Islam and make a monster out of religion” Fayyaz wrote in another post.
(Mohammad Hussain Fayyaz’s Facebook post)
Speaking to the Afghanistan Women’s Voice, law professor Ali Rezaei said: “Behjati’s speech is pro
;moting xenophobia and anti- refugee’s sentiments. promoting xenophobia, anti- immigrant’s anti-refugee sentiments is a crime and the perpetrators are persecuted by law in France, Germany, and many other European countries. but I do not know about Pakistan’s laws.
Although Pakistani law may not be explicit on this, using the “concept of interpretive rights,” it is possible to interpret the law in a way that he is held accountable for his extremist preaching, threats against women, and acts of psychological violence against women and refugee.
His misogynistic propaganda should be shared with the media, human rights organizations, women’s rights organizations, and immigrant advocacy organizations, particularly with the UNHCR’s office in Pakistan, so that they can investigate the matter.”
Mohammad Hussain Sarwari said: ” refugee women have normal clothes that are not in conflict with Pakistan’s customary and religious culture. Behjati has said that these women’s hair is partially uncovered and is seen from under their veils; therefore, it is a disgrace to our people. Well, I suggest to Behjati to have a look at Pakistan’s society. There are many women and girls including politicians, cultural figures, artists, songwriters, journalists, and human rights activists who don’t even have veils. You can see in Pakistan’s mainstream media and television; that the majority of journalists don’t have any veil. If you have a glance at the country’s parliament, the majority of women politicians have no veils. Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar was Pakistan’s foreign minister for a long time and had appeared in many circles without a veil”.
(photo of Ms. Hina Rabbani Khar)
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s family members from Nusrat Begum to Benazir Bhutto, and Fatima to Bakhtawar, all appeared in important places and large gatherings without any veil. Many of their pictures are showing that they don’t wear veils. many female singers from Quetta have sung without any veil and their heads and necks are not covered in their videos.
Although women and girls who just came from Afghanistan are all wearing proper hijab, not even one of them is without headscarves, yet they are being harassed and assaulted by extremist groups. hijab is just an excuse. The main problem is Xenophobia and the fact that they do not like refugees.
(photo of former Pakistani Prime Minister Ms. Benazir Bhutto who was killed in a 2007 terrorist attack.)
(The photo of Nusrat Bhutto, the wife of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and the mother of Benazir Bhutto.)
Leyaqad Ali Rahmani says “Mullah Behjati and other extremist groups in Pakistan have ties with foreign extremist groups and have networks that work across Pakistan. Behjati is always traveling between Iran and Pakistan. He traveled to Iran just about a month ago. He receives money and other facilities from foreign countries, including Iran, to promote extremist ideologies in Pakistan. He is active in the Golpaigani Madrasa which is belonged to Iran. The government of Pakistan should stop such people from spreading extremism and hatred endangering and women and girls lives”.
Another social media user named Yazdan Hatami has also writes “I have been living in Quetta for about a year. Here, the extremist mullahs and illiterate elderlies dominate the fate of these people. They believe that one of the main causes behind the fall of the previous government in Afghanistan is the type of hijab, secularism, Human rights, following Western culture and cloth that women and girls were wearing there! I often hear them talking rubbish about Afghan women and girls. they usually use hateful language while referring to these women, girls and Other immigrants”.
Mahdi says” This is not the first time that Behjati and other extremist groups have threatened immigrants. They have raised the issue several times before in their meetings against Afghan journalists, human rights activists and women rights activists. This man has repeatedly stated on social media that he has a problem with Pakistani and Afghanistan’s secularists. The Pakistani government and the UNHCR must stop such people”.
A refugee girl who currently lives in Pakistan and did not want her name to be mentioned told the Afghanistan Women’s Voice: “we fled Afghanistan and came to Pakistan to be safe, but here is no different from Afghanistan. here too is unsafe for us, it is all because of the extremists and mullahs who always preach against us. I am terrified after seeing Behajati’s speech and the other video in which a man is threatening women with an acid attack. I usually have bad dreams since then. A few days ago people were talking about a girl who was beaten in an area called Mary Abad. People say the girl was so severely injured that many hospitals refused to admit her. she survived death but has been paralyzed”.
Another girl Maryam(pseudonym) said: “Many extremist groups are operating in Pakistan. Many girls have been killed and many other have been beaten and attacked. The most famous is Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Extremist groups attacked her, but luckily, she survived even though she was seriously wounded. Pakistan is not a safe place for girls, especially for refugee women and girls. After watching videos of Behjati’s speech and the other video of an extremist man threatening to spray acid on our faces, I am extremely terrified. I urge the Pakistan government and all the human rights organizations, women’s rights organizations, and UNHCHR to take action and stop such extremists. Now, whatever happens to these girls and women, Behjati is responsible and should be held accountable by Pakistan’s constitution”.
