Finally, the Hudood Ordinance has been struck down in Pakistan. Pervez Musharraf signed in an amendment getting rid of the necessity of a woman producing four male witnesses to a rape.

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, has signed into law an amendment to the country's controversial rape statute to make it easier to prosecute sexual assault cases.

Musharraf signed the bill, called the Protection of Women bill, on Friday. The changes take effect immediately, Sher Afghan, federal minister for parliamentary affairs, said.

"It has been done to safeguard the rights of women," Afghan said.

Under the new law, judges can choose whether a rape case should be tried in a criminal court, where the four-witness rule - or known as the Hudood Ordinance under the old Islamic law - would not apply

It also drops the death penalty for sex outside of marriage. The offence would now be punishable with five years in prison or a fine equivalent to $165.

It's still not perfect, but for a backwards-ass country like Pakistan, it is a huge step forward. Unlike the spoiled women of Western countries, I'm sure Pakistani women know better than to push for an all-or-nothing approach. In years to come this will make a huge impact on women who have been traded as property, or who have been punished for the sins of their brothers.

International and local calls for change in Pakistan's rape laws intensified after the 2002 gang-rape of a woman, Mukhtar Mai.

Mai was assaulted after a tribal council in her eastern Punjab village ordered that she be raped as punishment for her 13-year-old brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher caste.

But of course, since Islam truly degrades and supresses women as a main point of the religion, the hard-liners are not happy. Not that they're ever happy...

Opposition leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, head of a six-party coalition of Islamic groups known as the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, said Musharraf was encouraging an alien culture at the behest of America and Western Europe.

"I call on all people to prevent Musharraf and his team from wrecking Muslim society," Ahmed told nearly 1,000 demonstrators in Rawalpindi.

Labels: Islamic Terror