Dr Zakir Naik under fire for trying to belittle Pashtun woman in reply to question

Religious scholar Dr Zakir Naik, who is on a tour of Pakistan, was slammed by social media after a video showing him rudely answering a Pashtun woman’s question in a public appearance held in the Governor House went viral.

The event was hosted by Governor Sindh, Kamran Tessori.

Dr Zakir Naik’s attitude was perceived as belittling and arrogant while responding to a question that seemed to have a contradiction, according to him.

The girl introduced herself as Palwasha from Lakki Marwat, a conservative town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In her question, she asked about the society she comes from, saying that the people there are very religious; the women don’t go outside the house unless they are required to, while the men offer all five prayers inside the mosque. However, her area has a rampant problem of “drug addiction, paedophilia and adultery”. She asked Dr Naik about his assessment of the situation. “Why is the society collapsing there, and why do our scholars don’t call these people out, especially the paedophiles,” she asked.

In response, Dr Zakir Naik first joked that just like women in her society, “he himself doesn’t get out of the house, if not needed,” adding, “Men should also not leave the house if there is no need for it.”

He then went on to elaborate that the girl is wrong in asking the question as it is self contradictory given she is saying it is an Islamic society yet saying that these practices are common there. “You should seek forgiveness for that,” he told her.

Palwasha tried interjecting that these so-called paedophiles are the same people who go to mosques, but Dr Naik kept insisting that her question was wrong. At one point, he became downright rude, asking her to let him speak.

The clip of the interaction was shared by Dr Naik on his X (formerly Twitter) account with the caption, “Pathan Girl asks Dr Zakir Naik a contradictory question about pakistani society.” Netizens lambasted him for his attitude in the responses.

Veteran journalist Abbas Nasir called out Zakir Naik for putting “pathan girl” in the caption and for his “self-righteous mullaism.”

Another Twitter user by the name of Nazrana Yousufzai called it “deflection, insult and bullying a young student.”

Faran Manj posted, “Dr. Sahab answered the question in such a way that it not only discouraged her from asking similar questions in the future but also insulted her.”

A user by the name of Dr Maryam called it bullying by Dr Naik because he had no answer for her question.

Hassan Saeed called the question a “brilliant” one and called out Dr Naik for belittling and insulting her.