The acquittal of a woman convicted of adultery under Pakistan's religious law has given rights activists something to cheer about, but they say their fight is not over until this discriminatory law is finally repealed.

Zafran Bibi, 28, was released from jail last Friday after an 18-month ordeal, thanks to the efforts of rights campaigners who appealed her case before the top religious court of the country, the Federal Shariah Court (FSC).

Aasim Akhtar, an activist who had been briefly detained twice by the police for protesting against a lower court's verdict, said the whole campaign focused on getting Bibi released, so on that count, they have succeeded.

Tasneem Azhar, of the non-government organisation Action Aid, said the case of having a woman wrongly accused is not new. "But this is rather a classical case of turning a rape victim into a criminal, and then acquitting her of adultery."

"We are forced," she said, "not to reopen the initial complaint made by Zafran against her brother-in-law as the poor lady had already suffered a lot," she told IPS .

"But although we are happy that Zafran is released, our fight against women discriminatory hudud ordinance continues as it was not passed by any democratic government but by a draconian usurper.

Women victimised

The law itself was conceived to target some immoral people but ended in only victimising the poor and vulnerable women," Azhar said.

Early records of the case show that Bibi, from a village near northern Kohat city, complained to the police that she had been raped by her brother-in-law at a time her husband was in prison for murder.

She was found to be eight weeks pregnant after a medical examination.

A lower trial court took up the case under the controversial hudud laws enacted by former dictator Zia ul Haq in 1979 to enforce a strict code of morality. Under the law, she had to produce four witnesses to support her allegations. To qualify as witness, one has to be Muslim male.

Because she could not produce the required witnesses, the court concluded that since she was impregnated while her husband was in jail, she engaged in an illicit relationship with her brother-in-law.

It convicted her of adultery and ordered that she be stoned to death while ordering the release of the accused brother-in-law.

The sentence sparked an outcry from rights activists who launched an alliance for the repeal of hudud laws, a country-wide protest campaign to save Zafran Bibi from the discriminatory laws.

Their efforts led to Bibi's acquittal. And although the activists say that the latest alibi had been fabricated by her husband to save the skin of his brother, they do no longer want to reopen the case because they do not want Bibi to suffer more.

During the hearing at the FSC, Zafran Bibi and her husband submitted that the baby girl in question was their daughter, paving the way for the court's ruling: "Since Zafran Bibi and her husband have denied the commission of the offence the question doesn't arise of their conviction."

Calling for amending the laws, she said: "It is my understanding that the hudud ordinance is one such law and needs to be amended. Further problems were created because the hudud ordinance lacks codification and has become an instrument of discrimination and exploitation of women."

The National Commission on Status of Women has been reviewing all laws that are discriminatory against women. Its recommendations would then be submitted to the government for the necessary amendments.

But critics say it is not the first time that hudud law is being reviewed but the recommendations have never been implemented.

'Derogatory and biased'

In 1997, the hudud law was reviewed by the Commission of Inquiry for Women. In its recommendations, it asked for the repeal of the hudud laws, calling them "derogatory and biased".

"The Commission is convinced that all the hudud laws were conceived and drafted in haste. They are not in conformity with the injunctions of Islam," the recommendations said.

"Secondly, these laws have come into direct conflict both with the country's constitution and its international commitments (made at the World Conference at Beijing and under the UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women)."

The commission's investigation showed that soon after its inception, the law became a tool in the hands of males to punish allegedly "erring" females as 80 percent of the total cases registered against women were under this law.

According to former chief justice Muhammad Afzal Zullah, 95 percent of all hudud cases in the superior courts have been decided in favour of women. This low conviction rate indicates that an extremely large number of allegations of immorality against the women are either false or based on suspicion, he said.

However, Safi Malik, a lawyer working with Aurat (Women) Foundation, agrees that the majority of the women are ultimately acquitted but the whole process take three to four years. And even if they are exonerated of allegations they cannot go back to their families.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates that out of around 2,000 women in jails, 70 percent are convicted under hudud laws.

Lending its voice to the calls for the repeal of the law, the English daily Dawn said: "The hudud ordinances of 1979 are so heavily loaded against female and minority witnesses that they make a mockery of justice and the principle of equality before law. This bias is so pronounced that a woman's and a non-Muslim's evidence is simply not admissible against a Muslim man accused of rape. "

"Is it any wonder then," it said in an editorial on Saturday, "that women who are unable to prove rape are convicted on charges of adultery while their alleged rapists go scot-free?"