Male-Female Race Run in Pakistan
Defying a ban on men and women running together in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, about 300 people of both sexes took part in a road race Saturday that was more about politics than athletics.
A week earlier, baton-wielding police beat runners and arrested dozens almost as soon as they crossed the starting line. But Saturday, riot police armed with tear gas were deployed to protect the race participants against Islamist hard-liners.
Several hundred activists from conservative Islamic groups were herded behind barricades to prevent them from disrupting the event.
Authorities in Lahore banned the race after coming under pressure from an alliance of conservative Islamic parties. But President Pervez Musharraf has publicly backed women’s right to participate in sports alongside men.
“Down with mullahism” and “No to the military-mullah alliance,” chanted supporters of the race.
“We will not allow 1% mullahs to rule 99% of our people,” Iqbal Haider, secretary-general of the nongovernmental Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said at a rally after the race.
Some runners wore track suits or T-shirts and long pants, but several women wore long cotton tunics and baggy pants, a traditional outfit known as shalwar kameez.
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