Women Rights

Women Rights — Comments Off
29
Mar 11

Can legal reforms protect Pakistani women?

Women of Pakistan

As Pakistan is moving towards being an economically sound country, the situation for the 52 percent of the country’s population which compromises of women is not catching up with the speed. One of the recent improvement efforts is the introduction of Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill 2009, the first legislative step of its kind in the history of the country, which covers effective legal measures, civil remedies and compensatory provisions for the aggrieved persons. Stories like that of 17-year-old Mafia Bibi from Sahiwal city keep plunging us back into the dark realities of where our society actually stands today. Mafia’s brother brutally chopped off her head, ears and nose in the name of ‘honour.’ According to the local newspaper, Mafia had allegedly eloped with the man she loved. The family hunted the couple down and brought them back.  It was decided that the two would be married off but in the meantime her brother indulged in the cold-blooded act.  Many cases of this nature go un-reported. In most reported cases, like that of Mafia’s, the police and the judiciary manage to develop a soft spot in their hearts for the abuser, as the victims are thought to have provoked the abuser to do this. Women are confined to the house, which is considered to be the safest place for them. The same home has the potential to become the deadliest place to be, if as a woman she fails to comply with the archaic social and cultural norms.

Honour killing is an extreme form of domestic violence, executed by male family members when they feel that the woman has stepped out of the moral boundaries and freedom allotted to her. Honour, in this case is always related to the actions of the women. People go to extremes in order to ‘preserve’ the family honour. According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), 647 out of the 1404 women murdered were honour killings in the year 2009. In the sub-continent culture, it is of utmost importance that the female sexuality remains under the control of men. A woman challenges the inherent superiority of the males in her family when she chooses her own marriage partner. This is an act that does not go un-punished. Punishment becomes a necessity so that other women do not follow the same footsteps. The family honour is traditionally associated with the nose in the sub-continent region’s local traditions. An old proverb implies ‘cutting the nose’ with bringing shame to the family by one’s actions.  This is why punishment for women in most cases has been the age-old ritual of literally cutting off the nose of the victim as seen in Mafia’s case. Continue reading →

IT & Social Media / Women Rights — Comments Off
1
Mar 11

ICTs and the case of young Pakistani women

A close friend, 19 year old Nazira, wore her best dress one evening. She came to show me her outfit before she went out to see someone ‘special’. Three hours later, she returned devastated; she could hardly speak. She wore a ‘burqa’ on top of what was left of her dress. Her rosy cheeks looked pale and eyes were sore. She was gang raped by the person she went to see and his friends. A male member from her family had seen her in that condition. I gave her clothes and asked her mother to pick her up. She was not allowed to leave her house following that incident. Nazira got into a ‘relationship’ with the person, a complete stranger, after a few casual chats via mobile phone with him. He had pressurized her into seeing him. It is still ambiguous how the call started.

By December 2010, the cellular subscribers reached at 102,777,387 according to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) statistics putting the cellular teledensity to 61.7 percent. It is a frequent practice to spam mobile phone inboxes with random contact numbers ‘available to chat.’ It has been an epidemic how SMS asking for ‘friendship’ circulate and how young people start interacting. The Pakistani youth seemed to have brought it to the level of instant chat messaging on the internet, not realizing the consequences of making your personal number public. This however, is more intrusive than the latter.

The responsibility lies on the inability of the young people to interact freely with the opposite sex due to the social and cultural norms. This has taken a toll on the Pakistani society. The behaviour of young people has changed significantly over the past decade with the advent of modern tools of communication. It almost seems inevitable that the so called ‘friendship’ will be an intimate one as no other opportunities exist for socializing. But the unwary young women like Nazira learned the harsh way how this practice is putting them in danger of exploitation and violence. Continue reading →