Utenfra er det latterlig og kuriøst: En fatwa mot turistministeren fordi hun klemte en fremmed mann offentlig. Men for Nilofar Bakhtiar er det neppe så morsomt. Mennene som usteder fatwaen smiler ikke.

Islamic clerics at a radical mosque in Pakistan’s capital have demanded the tourism minister be fired for hugging a foreign man, saying she committed a «great sin.»

Minister of Tourism Nilofar Bakhtiar rejected the Taliban-style edict Monday and said her family and friends were concerned for her safety.

De to brødrene Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz og Abdul Rashid Ghazi truet før helgen med selvmordsbombere hvis ikke regjeringen forbyr bordeller og videoer innen en måned.

Photos in the Pakistani media have shown Bakhtiar being helped by a male instructor during a charity parachute jump in France last month to raise money for victims of the devastating October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Another picture shows a woman — apparently Bakhtiar — hugging the instructor.

This was «an illegitimate and forbidden act,» the clerics said in their edict, or fatwa.

«Without any doubt, she has committed a great sin,» the fatwa said. It declared that Muslim women must stay at home and must not venture out uncovered.

The fatwa demanded that Bakhtiar be fired, given another unspecified punishment and that her family «force her to ask for forgiveness so that she does not repeat this un-Islamic act.»

Bakhtiar called the edict «baseless» and accused Pakistani newspapers of publishing «distorted» captions with the pictures. She said she had jumped without any previous training and her French instructor had just given her a pat.

«It was just a pat because he felt so proud of me,» Bakhtiar said. «I felt very happy also because it was affectionate and very encouraging.»

Det sier noe om kvinnens stilling i Pakistan at en statsråd må ta slikt sprøyt alvorlig. Umoral-kampanjen er en kjepp islamistene bruker for å utbre sin lære, skremme folk og presse regjeringen.

Det er utrolig å lese at Musharraf-regjeringen i helgen var i forhandlinger med de to brødrene.

Clerics: Pakistan official’s hug a ‘sin’