Adam-Eve pictures create furor in PakSpirituality

Publication of "half-naked" photographs of Hazrat Adam and Amma Hawwa, considered the first creations of the god, by a Pakistani magazine has attracted the ire of a section of the clergy who has demanded death to its owners and publishers.

A fatwa was issued against the publication by Maulana Abdul Aziz of the Lal Masjid here who has in the recent past hit headlines for the capture of a girls’ seminary run in his complex for several weeks and an edict against the country’s Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar.

Aziz alleged in his Friday sermon said the owners and publishers of the monthly magazine Octane had committed blasphemy of the first prophet of Allah Almighty - Hazrat Adam and Amma Hawwa - by publishing their half naked images in its latest issue.

The edict was latest in a series of measures from a section of the clergy against liberal mores.

Earlier, Bakhtiar was forced to resign after clerics raised hue and cry over a photograph showing her allegedly hugging her male coach at the end of a para-jump in France that she carried out for collecting funds for the victims of the October 2005 earthquake.

Meanwhile, at Lakki Marwat in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), shopkeepers selling garments and cosmetics for women have received letters in which they have been warned of dire consequences if they don’t close down their businesses immediately.

A shopkeeper said he had received the letter Saturday morning containing "a word from the Taliban".

The province has been home to sypmathisers of the Taliban fugitives from neighbouring Afghanistan who too espouse extremist ideas against art, music and want women confined to their homes.

"The visit of women to the cloth market and other business centres is harmful and against the norms and principles of Sharia. This practice is one of the main causes promoting obscenity and vulgarity in the society," the letter said.

It alleged that shops had been turned into brothels where women were being sexually abused, Dawn reported Sunday.

The letter asked shopkeepers to refrain from selling such items to women and warned that failure to comply with the advice could result in loss of their lives and businesses.