 Pakistan is the third most dangerous country for women in the world,

according to the study conducted last year by Thomson Reuters Foundation

 MORE than 1,000 women are killed in the name of honourin this country
every year, according to official figures. But the actual numbers are
believed to be much higher.
 Tina Mufford of the International Republican Institute writes in her report on The Role
of Women in Political Parties that women are seen as less corrupt, are more keyed into
the problems and issues of social communities, and are seen as effective money
managers.

 It reminds me of Margaret Thatcher’s words at the unprecedented legislative efforts
carried forward by the women parliamentarians hence I quote:
“If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.”
 Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Quaid of Pakistan: “No struggle can ever succeed without
women participating side by side with men.”

 As Dr. James Swagger said

“If you educate a man,you educate an individual,but if you educate
a woman you educate a family”
Young age marriages continue to be a challenge for female empowerment
in Pakistan. 40% girls are married by age 18, and 13% by age 15. One
woman dies in very 20 minutes during childbirth because of early age
marriages.

Pakistan is the third most dangerous country for women in the world, according
to the study conducted last year by Thomson Reuters Foundation

The data collected by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reveals,

"A woman is raped after every two hours and gang-raped after every eight
hour.
Outline

1. Introduction
2. Historical background
3. Women rights in the light of Islam
4. Women rights in the light of Constitution
5. . Causes of violation of women rights in Pakistan
6. A. Cultural and traditional causes
• Patriarchal society
• Feudal system
• Tribal culture
• Parallel justice system
• Heinous customs
a. Honour Killing (Karo-Kari)
b. Exchange Marriage (Watta-Satta)
c. Marriage with Quran
d. Swara and vanni
e. Acid throwing
B. Social causes
 High Illiteracy
 Deplorable health level
 Early age marriages
 Inheritance
C. Economic causes
• Dependence on male
• Female unemployment
D. Legal causes
• Discriminatory law
a. Hudood ordinance 1979
c. Qisas and Diyat ordinance 1990
E. Religious causes
• Narrow view hold by Ulmas
• Lack of understanding of Islam
 F. Political cause
• Weak governance
7. 5. Impact of the causes
A. On the image of the country
B. On the future generation
8. Recent efforts of the successive governments
1. National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW)
• Protection of Women Rights Bill
a. b. Protection of women under PPc
c. Intervention of session court
2. • Prevention of Anti-women Practices Bill
a. Prevention of Vanni and Swara
b. Prevention of deprivation of inheritance
c. Prevention of forced marriage
d. Prevention of marriage with Quran
• Prevention of Harassment of women at Work Place Bill
3. B. Efforts of NGOs
4. 1. Aurat Foundation
5. 2. Women Action Forum
6. 7. Suggestions
A. Land reforms
B. Education reforms
C. Abolition of parallel justice system
D. Women empowerment
E. Adherence to constitutional and Quranic provisions
F. Annulment of misogynistic laws
G. Proper enforcement of new laws
8. Conclusion
Condescending(having or showing an attitude of patronizing superiority."she thought the
teachers were arrogant and condescending") attitudes lead only to provocation and
hardening of stances. Inappropriate methods adopted to create awareness about
rights can in fact alienate intended beneficiaries from their own families and the
society. Even education and economic empowerment seem suspect goals if
activists stress that poor or illiterate people are more prone to violence against
women.
We live in a conflict-ridden world, where the powerful exploit the weak and the
weak take their anger out on whoever is more vulnerable than them. Women
unfortunately face the brunt of this vicious cycle. The position of women in
society is the true index of its cultural and spiritual attainment.It was
impossible to bring about any social change without the ‘feminine upheaval’.
To right the wrong of society,the most disturbed,victimized segment will have to
spearhead the movement of social justice and equality.
Women who constitute about the half the population of the world are receiving
from men, a treatment that is humiliating, intolerable and barbarous in some part
of the world. They are deprived of enough nutrition, education, and health
facilities in most parts of the worldWomen in conservative societies find their
freedom restricted, barriers on their behavior and activities and limited mobility.
In some parts of the world, the only objective of female life is to produce children
and remain busy in looking after them and also in the drudgery of domestic work.
Ironically, the hierarchy of gender has been constructed in such a way so as to
legitimize the male authority over women. This social construction has conversely
provided the basis for gender-based violence, inequality and discrimination in
various ways in the callous patriarchal society of Pakistan.
To prove women’s inferiority , it is argued that a women is physically weaker than
a man, accepting this connotation, every physically stronger person is superior to
less stronger person, and thus, instead of human beings, the lion or alligator
should rule the world.To mitigate, and perhaps one day eliminate the
wanton(vicious, wicked) discrimination against women, the natural first step is to
understand the genesis of discriminatory attitudes towards women.
THE old stereotype of woman as the mother of generations and nations, as a
junior partner of and a second fiddle to the more empowered man, is coming
under increasing pressure.

Historical Background
Some historians believe that the history of violence against women is tied to the
history of women being viewed as property and a gender role assigned to be
subservient to men and also other women.

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) states

that "violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power
relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and
discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of the full
advancement of women, and that violence against women is one of the crucial
social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position
compared with men.”

In the 1870s courts in the United States stopped recognizing the common-law
principle that a husband had the right to "physically chastise an errant(aberrant,
deviant) wife".

Women rights in the light of Islam:

Islam is such a religion in which women respect is so important that it can be

proved from the saying of Prophet Muhammad that

“PARADISE LIES UNDER MOTHER FEET”

Islam guarantees an adult woman to marry according to her will. Even parents
cannot force her to marry against her choice. Moreover, no person including
parents, husbands, in-laws have the right to judge and decide the fate of women
accused of being guilty of any crime. Courts are there in a civilized society to
decide what is right what is wrong.

Women right in the light of constitution:

In Article 25(1) of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan it is stated, "All citizens are
equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law." Article 25(2) states,
"There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone."
The founder of Pakistan,Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinah said,
“No Nation can rise to the height of its glory unless its women are side by side”

Causes of Violence against women

The historical nature of gender-based violence confirms that it is not an

unfortunate aberration but systematically entrenched in culture and society,
reinforced and powered by patriarchy.

In Pakistan, the rejection of women’s empowerment as either a Western idea, or

simply a convenient aspect of an elite lifestyle has robbed it of its liberating
power

fail without first bringing out

Efforts to empower women are doomed to
into the open all those beliefs about women’s subjugation,
subservience and inferiority that are woven and deeply
embedded in the fabric of Pakistani society.
Cultural and traditional causes:

Patriarchal society and impact of colonialism

Pakistani woman is the dark shadow of colonialism, whose unfortunate legacy has
been used to demonise(portray as wicked and threatening) women’s empowerment as a
‘foreign’ concept and glorify women’s subjugation as somehow culturally and
religiously authentic. The cultural confusion that Pakistan shares with most other
post-colonial cultures has had the catastrophic consequence of making
‘patriarchy’ a good thing simply because it is different from what is found in the
West.

Not only are they now taught to devalue ideas of female empowerment because
of their Western origin, they are duped into( deceive; trick) acceptance of
misogynistic religious interpretations

Jirga and panchayat system

Jirga and panchayat (community courts) system has a very long history in Asia,
especially in the subcontinent. Although it is the fastest medium for dispute
resolution, it has been used to protect the powerful while weak, poor people are
victims of its negative processes.

MUZAFFARGARH: The beasts nurtured in the name of prompt justice were

seen to be on the loose(having escape from confinement) again after the
surfacing on jan 30,2014 of an incident

TehminaDurrani, My Feudal Lord, caused ripples in Pakistan's male-dominated

society by describing her abusive and traumatic marriage to Ghulam Mustafa
Khar, then Chief Minister and later Governor of Punjab and her experience of a
feudal society

Rape

Rape woman were victims of a culture of impunity`The village Punchayat is so

lowest in its scruples(hesitate to do something wrong, be reluctant,) that sometimes it
orders to rape the women of the culprit family as revenge. Mukhtaran Mai is one
of such victim who had been gang-raped because her brother was guilty of some
wrong for which she was punished to be gang-raped. The law enforcement
agencies denied her "right to register an FIR" because the criminals were
influentials.

Organisations working with rape victims have pointed out a range of deterrents
including social stigma, economic dependency, and unawareness concerning their
basic rights, which compel most raped girls and women to remain silent about
what has happened to them.

Egyptian Salafist preacher Ahmad Mahmoud Abdullah said that women protesting
in Tahrir Square 'have no shame and want to be raped.'
The data collected by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reveals,
"A woman is raped after every two hours and gang-raped after every eight hour.

War rape has been considered a war crime only since 1949.
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits
wartime rape and enforced prostitution. These prohibitions
were reinforced by the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949
Geneva Conventions. Therefore during the post-war
Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Trials mass war rape was not
prosecuted as a war crime.
Karo Kari

Karo-Kari is one of those customs related to fornication. A Kari is a woman who is

alleged to have extramarital relations with a man called Karo. In a typical Birdari
and caste system of our society, especially in rural areas, if a woman marries with
her choice outside of her family relation -- a crime of violating the Biradari
unwritten rule – then she is alleged to have committed adultery. The whole
Biradari becomes willing to kill both of the husband and the wife under the
pretext of Karo-Kari.

Moreover, husbands, in-laws, and their relatives also victimize the woman with
allegation of fornication. In fact, the reason is their personal grievances and
enmity for not bringing enough dowry or not following the orders of in-laws.

Watta Satta:
cousin marriages and “wattasatta” (exchange marriage whereby one set of
brother and sister are married to one another) marriages are designed to prevent
breakup of property as the size of the land is associated with power and status.
Swara anadVanni

Not only the adult woman but also baby girls of even months
old are not spared from the clutches of retrogressive customs.
Swara and Vaani are such kind of heinous crimes that are deeply upheld by the
stone-age minded people.

In both of the customs, the minor girls are given as compensation for the
wrongdoings perpetrated by one of the members of the culprit family on the
aggrieved one
Many girls given under Vaani or Swara to the aggrieved family refused to marry
there after attaining adult age. CJ of the Supreme Court of Pakistan have taken
suomotu action in this regard. Furthermore, girls as young as ten years of age are
married with 60 years old man under such customs.

Sometimes women are stripped and forced to walk naked in the village for any
crime of their family members. If she denies marrying with a family relative or
raising her voice against her in-laws then she is subjected to mutilation of her
body by acid-throwing. For whatever reasons, her husbands could brutally beat
her any time under any pretext. Most of the time, she was beaten and even killed

for not having a male baby child. DevyaniKhobragade

Haq-E-Baqkhswana or Marriage with Holy Quran

Another such inhumane practice is the “Haq-e-bakhshwana” whereby girls are

either never married or married to Quran in order prevent the property going out
of the family.
Social causes

Literacy

Literacy rate among females is only 46 percent in Pakistan. In rural areas the situation is
more worse than that of Urban areas. These illiterate women are unaware of their rights
and are unable to contribute their share in development of the society. As Dr. James
Swagger said

“If you educate a man,you educate an individual,but if you educate a

woman you educate a family”
Health:

Garcia-Moreno pointed to recent high-profile rape cases in India and South Africa
that have put a spotlight on the treatment of women worldwide.

The brutal gang rape in December of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in

New Delhi sparked a global outcry and unprecedented protests in India
demanding better policing of sex crimes. The woman later died from her injuries.

"These kinds of cases raise awareness, which is important, and at the same time
we must remember there are hundreds of women every day who are being raped
on the streets and in their homes, but that doesn't make the headlines," Garcia-
Moreno

More than a third of all women worldwide are victims of physical or sexual
violence, posing a global health problem of epidemic proportions, a World Health
Organization report said on Thursday.

Early Age Marriages:

Young age marriages continue to be a challenge for female empowerment in Pakistan.
40% girls are married by age 18, and 13% by age 15. One woman dies in very 20 minutes
during childbirth because of early age marriages.

Inheritance:
The constitution of Pakistan gives women the legal right to own property.
However, it is the customary practice that dictates what women are allowed to
own. Their right to inheritance is easily evaded under social and family pressure.
These orthodox customary practices deprive the widow of their right to
inheritance it they remarry outside the family of the diseased husband even
though the law prescribes a prompt division of the diseased assets and women’s
right to her share.

Economic exploition Women are also exploited for the only reason of being a
woman. With a high workload from dawn to dusk, she was paid far less than what
males get doing less work.
Moreover, in our male dominant society, molestation and sometimes
attack on her pietyduring job are frequent incidents. If she reports such
crimes then as a punishment, she is rusticated from her job. Therefore, most of
the crimes against her remain unreported.

Prostitution
The traders of human flesh exploit her misery. Taking advantage of her penury( the
state of being very poor), they force some of the women on prostitution. Trafficking
of women is also a lucrative business for human traffickers. Such women after
going abroad work as domestic slaves under extremely inhuman conditions or
they are kept in brothels for the shameful business.
The shooting of MalalaYousufzai made front-page news around the world last
year, and the after-effects of that include the attention of several important and
famous figures on the state of female education in Pakistan.

In April 2013, film star Angelina Jolie initiated a fund for school girls’ education in
Pakistan. The first grant will provide funding for forty girls in the country.

But Jolie is not the only one to have shown interest – last week, pop icon and
music legend Madonna pledged money for expanding a school in a poverty-
stricken area outside Karachi.On 12 July 2013, Yousafzai's 16th
birthday, she spoke at the UN to call for worldwide access to education. The
UN dubbed the event "MalalaDay".It was her first public speech since the attack.

"The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but
nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died.
Strength, power and courage was born ... I am not against anyone, neither am I
here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban or any other
terrorist group.
I'm here to speak up for the right of education for
every child. I want education for the sons and daughters of the
Taliban and all terrorists and extremists."
Economic problem

Pakistani woman are not independent and self relying for their financial needs.They
must depend on their male relations.This aspect is another factor for their
vulnerability.Due to lack of education they are unable to get appropriate job. If
someone women have skills like hand embroidery, stitching and pot making, they are
not able to make enough revenue

Hudood ordinance
There has also not been much legal protection available to rape victims in
Pakistan. The Hudood Ordinances, promulgated in 1979, had made it nearly
impossible for victims of marital rape to seek justice. In fact, a rape victim herself
could be liable for punishment if she remained unable to adequately prove her
case in accordance to quite stringent parameters, in effect providing the benefit
of the doubt to the perpetrator instead of the victims. Besides an unsympathetic
judiciary, even medical doctors have been found to lack forensic competence to
handle evidence needed for rape prosecutions, which has led to a convoluted
focus on the virginity status and sexual history of the rape victim.

1990 Qiyas and Diyat ordinance

Most honor killings are encompassed by the 1990 Qisas and Diyat Ordinance,
which permits the individual and his or her family to retain control over a crime,
including the right to determine whether to report the crime, prosecute the
offend, or demand diyat (or compensation). This allows serious crimes such as
honor killings to become "privatized" and to escape state scrutiny, shifting
responsibility from the state to the individual.

Under Islamic Sharia law, the punishment for murder, homicide or infliction of

injury can either be in the form of qisas (equal punishment for the crime
committed) or diyat (monetary compensation payable to the victims or their legal
heirs). These concepts are applied in different ways in different Islamic systems.

On the image of the country

Violence against women has badly tarnished the image of countries like India and
Pakistan. Tourism is widely affected by this.

Pakistan is the third most dangerous country for women in the world, according
to the study conducted last year by Thomson Reuters Foundation

Recent efforts of the successive governments

Protection of women under PPC

Under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2005, section 310Awas

inserted into the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the custom of giving women for
the sake of peace was declared a crime.The bill recommends punishment for
giving female in marriage or otherwise in ‘badla-e-sulh’, wani or swara.

The bill says, “Whoever gives a female in marriage or otherwise compels her to
enter into marriage, as ‘badla-e-sulh’, wanni, or swara or any other custom or
practice under any name, in consideration of settling a civil dispute or criminal
liability, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term
which may extend to seven years but shall not be less than three years and shall
also be liable to fine of five hundred thousand rupees.”as swara or vani having
been declared illegal through a criminal law amendment in 2005 and again in a
subsequent piece of legislation in 2011.

• Protection of Women Rights Bill2006

The Women's Protection Bill which was passed by the National Assembly of
Pakistan on 15 November 2006 is an attempt to amend the heavily criticized
Hudood Ordinance laws which govern the punishment for rape and adultery in
Pakistan.

The Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill 2010”

. the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010

Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act 2011 and are two laws
Pakistani women had long been fighting
• NCSW:

Former President Asif Ali Zardari, on the International Day for Women, signed the
National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) Bill on March 8,2012 . The
President while signing the Bill expressed the hope that the Commission would
play a significant role as a watchdog of women rights and would help in bringing
positive change in policies and legislation.

Conclusion:
Though acts such as above have ameliorated the position of women and strengthened their
protection against abuses, their rights and empowering measures in Pakistan continue to fall
short of projections and promises. Pakistan ranked 123 on the gender inequality index of the
United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2013 Human Development Report This
grim picture of women’s rights in the country certainly makes it incumbent upon the
government, in particular, and international organizations, in particular, to conduct public
awareness programs among the illiterate masses in the country and amend the constitutional
provisions pertaining to women’s rights so as to safeguard them and, hence, empower the
women.
Women’s Political Participation:

IT is difficult to believe that in a country that boasts of female fighter pilots, not to mention a
twice-elected female prime minister, women and girls can still be parcelled out like chattel to
settle scores in tribal feuds. Yet that is so, despite the practice usually known

Every year we condemn the violence against women and vow to put an end to it but
unfortunately these vows never materialize.

. They have resorted to “Quiet Revolution”, a term which connotes the unexpected entry of
women in significant number into the labor market.

Similarly,

leading the thrustfor change.

In a country where discrimination against women has over time been institutionalised in legal
code, the recent laws have been described by some activists as a real leap.

Though women have shown their worth as leaders, administrators and professionals, there is
still a long way to go. Government, media, educational institutes, NGOs and other
organizations, all have to play their part in helping women shake off the age- old
shackles of slavery, fight shoddy superstitions, develop their mental caliber and
come out into the open field to share the social, economic and political
responsibilities with men shoulder to shoulder.
Government, on one hand, needs to take adequate and effective steps in order to insure the
full implementation of these laws. On the other hand, government and independent
organizations should conduct public awareness programs amongst the masses for the public
disapproval of violence against women.
The media should also play its part in this regard by discouraging the social practices which are
injurious to women. Women should be educated so as to make them aware of their due rights.
Their active participation should be encouraged for the socioeconomic development.

Above all, the effective rehabilitation programs should be introduced by the Government, in
particular, and the psychiatrists and educationists, in general, for those women who have
fallen prey to acid attacks, rape, domestic violence, forced marriages or any other form of
brutality. Such programs will help them overcome their inferiority complex and contribute
effectively to the socioeconomic and political development of society.

Political parties awarded very few tickets to women on general seats, reflecting patriarchal
trends where women are kept out of the public space .women’s political participation in the
future was at risk, female political leaders and former MPAs say society has yet to accept
women in politics. “I received threats on the phone and was told to boycott the elections,”
shared Riffat Begum, who contested as an independent candidate from PK-23 Mardan. around
150 women contested National Assembly seats – of which only 36 were awarded party tickets.
She added 313 women contested the elections at the provincial level out of which only 155 did
so on a party’s platform
The law of forgiveness
Z A H I D H US S A I N | 2/24/2016

M ORE than 1,000 women are killed in the name of honourin this country every year,
according to official figures. But the actual numbers are believed to be much higher.
Saba Qaiser, 19, would have been one of them had she not miraculously survived
drowning in a river after having been shot in the head. Unsurprisingly, those who
tried to finish her off were none other than her own relatives her father and uncle as
happens in most such cases of `honour`crime.

Sharmeen Obald Chinoy`s brilliant 40-minute documentary A Girl in the River: the
Price of Forgiveness is the story of that 19-year-old from Gujranwala. Nominated for
an Academy Award, the short film is surely a powerful portrayal of the plight of a
victim of honour crime. But it is not just the story of a brave girl who defied death
and is now living happily with the man she loved and risked her life for. She is back
to life with a scar left by the bullet that pierced her cheekbone, but is still haunted by
theincident.

It is more about the law of forgiveness that protects the killers. Saba`s father and
uncle are now free and with no remorse for what they had done.

Under the pressure of local elders and the clan she has forgiven her tormentors.
Perhaps they would have killed Saba in the second attempt and even then would
have gotten away with murder using the provision of the law that allows a family
member to forgive the perpetrator.

The problem with `honour` killing as described by Ms Chinoy is that it`s considered
to be in the domain of the home. A father kills his daughter or a brother kills his
sister and nobody files a case as they feel it would bring shame to the family. This
mindset is not just regressive, it actually provides impunity to the murderers.
F

Hopes and `honour` killings

      

   
BY R A F I A Z A K A R I A | 2/24/2016 12:00:00 AM

PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif recently watched A Girl in the River: The Price of
Forgiveness, Sharmeen Obald Chinoy`s Oscar-nominated documentary about
`honour` killings. In a statement following the screening, he told Ms Chinoy and his
audience that there is no `honour` in murder.

In the days since it has been announced that the government will move to plug holes
in laws that currently allow killers (often family members) to go unpunished. Ms
Chinoy has expressed the hope that her film would help put an end to honour
killings in Pakistan.

Reproductive violence
      

   

BY T A H I R M E H D I | 6/7/2016 12:00:00 AM

TWO things happened in Islamabad on the same day recently, one

pertaining to the Council of Islamic Ideology and the other to
Pemra, the electronic media regulator. CII sanctioned `lightly
beating` of wives and Pemra banned (and then partially withdrew)
advertisements of contraceptives.
The two seemingly unrelated events have more than their timing in
common. Their relationship is intriguing and intense and covered
by the same ignorance that so many in our society defend in the
name of religion and culture.

If these horrendous statistics could be extrapolated to the 38

million or so married women of the country, the picture becomes
extremely grave. But that`s not what one sees from the windows of
the CII office in Islamabad.

Young men entering a marriage are under pressure to produce

evidence of their male prowess and what better proof than a
pregnant wife? The young brides are thus expected to conceive
immediately and if they fail owing to any natural or healthor age-
related factor, the men take it as an affront.

Ignorance breeds ignorance

Killing women
      
   
| 6/11/2016 12:00:00 AM

HE fate suffered by 18-year-old Zeenat Rafiq burnt to death by her own mother for
marrying a man of her choice is starkly reflective of our misogynistic societal
attitudes. Without the slightest remorse, her mother justified Zeenat`s murder as
punishment for `dishonouring` the family
It was in the Senate that the anti-honour killings bill had been tabled by former
PPP senator Sughra Imam in March 2015.
Then unanimously passed, JUI-F members had shown support. But the bill lapsed
before the National Assembly could pass it. In March 2016, ironically, the same JUI-
F representatives rejected the amended bill demanding that clauses allowing
aggrieved parties to forgive perpetrators be retained. In its current form, the bill
allows impunity for killers family members often forgive perpetrators, even forcing
prosecutors to drop the most watertight case. The PML-N government must stop
burying its head in the sand and push through an amended bill in a joint parliamentary
session. In February, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took on the mantle of rights
champion, pledging amendments to address loopholes. He must be told that the latest
killing is a reminder that delays can prove fatal.
Like it or not, democratic progress depends on how the state empowers its women.

Other honour killings

      
   
BY R A F I A Z A K A R I A | 8/3/2016 12:00:00 AM

The thorny question of quotas

      
   
BY R A F I A Z A K A R I A | 9/21/2016 12:00:00 AM

According to her, the majority of women on reserved seats in the assembly did not
regularly attend the proceedings of the house. This was not in itself a particularly
surprising piece of information; after all, when many male legislators have erratic
attendance records, why indeed should women be any dif ferent? It was troubling,
however, to learn that even when the women did attend the assembly sessions they
rarely paid attention to the business of the day.

Instead, many if not most remained preoccupied with chatting and gossiping with
each other, treating the proceedings more as a social gathering than a legislative
session.

The issue, she emphasised, was not a partisan one involving one or another political
party; across the board, most of the women filling the reserved seats were relations of
important men, granted the seats on the basis of political favour. This was not an issue
particular to Punjab, she insisted; the legislatures of other provinces, to the extent the
seats had been filled at all, suffered a similar fate.

The situation at the provincial level is replicated at the national level. According to a
report, Bridging the Fault Lines? Rethinking the Gender Quota Approach in Pakistan,
authored by Dr Farzana Bari, women`s reticence to par ticipate is exacerbated by the
discriminatory treatment meted out to them. In the words of Nafisa Shah, a
parliamentarian quoted in the report, women were regularly treated as `extras` and
`relegated to the back benches` of parliament, away from the action and out of the
conversation.

In the words of Shaista Pervez, who served as secretary of the women`s caucus at the
time the report was researched, women parliamentarians also prioritised party identity
over gender identity. This prevented them from coming together in a non-partisan
way to draft and pass legislation that would improve the lot of women in the country.

Because political parties rarely keep records of party membership, it is difficult to

even know the number of women joining political parties. It is noted that even in
cases where women`s political participation is touted as a mark of success, such as
PTFs 2014 dharna, the political stage continues to be dominated by men with few
women leaders being given the opportunity to speak to the crowd.

The NGO sector has played its own role in drawing qualified women away from the
political realm and in to the non-profit one. As the report details, this redirection of
female talent has led not only to the depoliticization of the issue of women`s rights,
but also to the belief that it is technical rather than structural solutions that are key to
empowerment. In simple terms, the focus is on the provision of goods and services
via the non-profit sector rather than changing mindsets and making empowerment and
its promise central to the political agenda of one or another party.

The question of women and quotas is made even thornier because criticism of women
who fill the reserved seats stands the risk of being incorporated in the general
misogynistic tone and tenor of Pakistani politics. Pointing out the fact that the women
who fill reserved seats are not qualified or not given capacity building training to
fulfil their roles stands the risk of becoming the basis of the elimination of quotas
themselves.

This, of course, would be even worse than the present situation, an entirely male-
dominated political set-up where women are abstract entities whose lives are
legislated and controlled by those who have little idea about them. It is not a
consequence particularly difficult to imagine in an ever-conservative Pakistan; after
all, as the report documents, over a third of registered female voters in KP were
apparently not permitted to vote in the last election.

Two solutions suggested in the report seem to have the potential to rescue gender
quotas from their current ineffectual state. First, other sectors including the NGO
sector should recognise and promote the necessity of political participation and a
crucial part of empowerment. More controversially, political parties that do not hold
elections within their own structures, and consequently do not elevate women to
powerful positions within the party, should not be allowed to fill reserved seats. This
last measure would ensure that the women who fill the reserved seat quotas have
some experience of political processes and can fulfil the serious responsibilities with
which they are entrusted on behalf of Pakistan`s women. • The writer is an attomey
teaching constitutional law and political philosophy

UN session on women calls for urgent steps to meet ’30 goals

PUBLISHED MAR 26, 2016 06:26AM

NEW YORK: The 69th session on the Status of Women concluded on Thursday with UN
member states committing to the gender-responsive implementation of Agenda 2030.

The commission recognised women’s vital role as agents of development.

It acknowledged that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals at the heart of Agenda
2030 would not be possible without gender equality and the empowerment of all women and
girls.

ENTRENCHED in gender discrimination and structural inequality, child marriage

initiates a cycle of lifelong disadvantage for girls. According to a recent report by
Save the Children, Every Last Girl: Free to Live, Free to Learn, Free from Harm,
Pakistan is ranked 88 out of 144 countries where underage marriage, compounded by
discriminatory social norms, affects large segments of the girl population. In Pakistan,
because early marriage is attributed to poverty, lack of education, and tradition,
women suffer at multiple stages of their lives. Girls are prevented from completing
their education; they endure increased health risks, and face domestic violence and
abuse. That it is the state`s duty to use its power to ensure that girls are accorded an
equal chance to live, learn and be protected is forgotten. Consider the stark numbers:
one girl under the age of 15 is married every seven seconds in developing countries,
while one in three is married before the age of 18 and one in nine before the age of
15. Therefore, attention must be drawn to the suffering of child brides, including the
increased risk of death and childbirth injuries when they have babies before their
bodies are physically fit to reproduce. It is imperative for the state to institute
protective legal and policy frameworks for girls` rights.

Earlier this year, the move to increase the legal marriageable age from 16 to 18 years
was rejected outright by the Council of Islamic Ideology. Because brutal anti-women
practices from `honour` crimes to sexual violence have no acceptance in democracies
advocating women`s rights as human rights, it is inexplicable why the government
must acquiesce to the demands of conservative lobbies at the cost of women`s lives.
From the legal standpoint, the minimum marriageable age for girls must be 18 in all
related legislation. With Sindh`s child marriage legislation as a precedent, the federal
Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 and the Punjab Child Marriages Restraint
(Amendment) Act, 2015 must both be revised as they determine the marriageable age
for girls at 16 and 18 for boys. Such laws are in contravention of Pakistan`s
international obligations, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child included.
Stopping child marriage has significant bearing on women`s education and there is a
clear multiplier effect to educating girls. Thus the state must challenge discriminatory
social norms buttressing child marriage by using legal and advocacy campaigning
tools because educated girls are a development investment.

Harnessing Women’s Power By Saad Hafiz

 

Between gushing tributes to the ‘all-weather’ friendship between Pakistan and China, Prime Minister
Li Keqiang could have highlighted the contribution of women to China’s rise as a world power to his
Pakistani hosts. Pakistan can learn from the great strides that China has made in terms of women
empowerment. In sharp contrast to Pakistan, China boasts a high female literacy
rate and a rapidly closing gap between estimated female-to-male earned income. Chinese women
seem to have overcome the usual obstacles of finding work, getting an education and are being freed
of restrictive traditions faced by the women in many developing economies. During the Ming-Qing
era when the country witnessed a rapid expansion of commerce, the Chinese discovered very early
that empowering women is smart economics. In that era, both men and women (who often brought
their own funds into their husbands’ households) participated in village-level economic life. Pakistan
may also find it to be smart economics to permit women to make a larger contribution to national
economic life and wealth creation. This would be possible if women were allowed to be part of the
workforce in greater numbers. But for that to happen, society will have to lift the many burdens that
weigh down women and prevent them from contributing to the economy.

China has also made substantial progress in widening women’s political participation though the
level of which continues to rank lower than that in many other countries, especially those in the
democratic west. Achieving equality for women in the male-dominated Chinese society has not been
an easy task. A key turning point was China’s hosting of the Fourth World Conference on Women in
Beijing in 1995, which served as a catalyst in boosting women’s political involvement through
various gender-oriented regulations. In comparison, the political participation of women in Pakistan
while high in comparison to other Islamic countries continues to be bedeviled by tokenism and the
so-called biwi-beti (wife-daughter) brigade. Traditionally, many female candidates have been from
wealthy, land-owning families and have been seen more as a continuation of political dynasties than
as women entering politics in their own right. Moreover, since very few women politicians have an
independent electoral base, the uncertainty about where they will be fielded in directly-contested
seats make them even more dependent on male bosses of their party to win elections. This has
enlarged the compass of the ideology of female subservience, which is most prominent in the
domestic realm, into the public and political domain as well. While the reserved quota for women
seats ensures that the women’s representation in Pakistan’s parliament is the highest in South Asia, it
is not political representation in its truest sense, as female politicians actually enjoy limited political
power and influence. Merely three percent of directly elected seats are held by women in the
National and the Provincial assemblies. Moreover, there are reportedly 11 million fewer women
registered as voters than men in the electoral rolls. Women from poorer families remain excluded
from the political system and, at the far end of the spectrum many women are so disenfranchised that
they cannot vote.

As an aside, a quietly liberal tradition of having female imams and mosques for women is flourishing
among China’s ten million Hui Muslims, something that is a globally unique phenomenon. The
Chinese example ultimately empowers women to work within their own space and lead prayers and
manage that space on their own. This is a significant form of women asserting themselves in the
Islamic tradition. Some Islamic scholars say that female imams and women’s mosques are important
because their endurance in China offers a vision of an older form of Islam that has inclusiveness and
tolerance, and not marginalization and extremism at its core. This is in contrast to many Islamic
countries like Pakistan, where contemporary fundamentalist movements use the space provided by
the mosque to affirm patriarchic concepts of male authority over women. In these countries, gender-
based violence, segregated public spaces and social coercion are also used to keep women
subjugated.

The problem of women in Pakistan is symbolic of the problem of inequalities and injustices in a
society in general. While women’s movement in Pakistan is gaining momentum and gathering pace
and reaching one milestone after another, the ill treatment of, and atrocities against women are
recurring in regular and brutal manner. Many gender disparities remain even as the country develops
politically; something that calls for sustained and focused public action. To be effective, these
measures must target the root causes of inequality without ignoring the domestic political economy.
Political parties should promote and ensure greater inclusion of women in decision-making and
leadership positions. Corrective policies will yield substantial development payoffs if they focus on
persistent gender inequalities that matter most for welfare of women. Pakistan can benefit from
emulating China’s success in increasing female economic, social and political participation to
enhance economic growth and social harmony.
WOMEN RULE ELECTIONS

 fouziasaeed

Women voters are becoming more assertive in using the power of their votes to
demand a clear policy stance on issues that are important to them

The eyes of the whole world were on the results of the election in the United States of
America. Mr Obama’s win as a second term president was celebrated in many
countries. Mr Obama got 55 percent of all votes from women. This difference was
critical to his election because women were 53 percent of the total voters compared to
only 47 percent men, which made a big difference in his lead in the election.

Todd Atkins from Missouri, running for the House of Representatives, made a
statement to the effect that a woman cannot become pregnant if raped because her
body produces chemicals in high stress that does not let her become pregnant and if
she does get pregnant that proves that it was not a rape. This statement caused both
men and women, Republican and Democrat, to repudiate his comments. Although he
was leading in the polls before that statement, he lost heavily to a woman. Another
extreme rightwing candidate, Richard Murdock, said if there was a pregnancy after a
rape then that was God’s will. He also experienced a sudden drop in support and had a
gloomy fate on election day.

The Status Of The Average Female Pakistani

By Aneka Chohan
18 August, 2012
For a country that has had a female head of state elected twice and claims to be an ‘Islamic
Republic’ at heart, the irony is far too cruel
“A woman is like a tea bag — you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot
water” — Eleanor Roosevelt.

Rape and ordinary men

Rafia ZakariaUpdated May 10, 2017

“YOU can’t clap with one hand,” one of the rapists in the notorious Delhi gang
rape casehad famously said after being convicted of rape and murder. This
man, along with five others, had been found guilty of taking a young woman to
the back of a Delhi bus one night in December 2012.

Unlike in India, little attention has been paid to the issue of rape in Pakistan.

A border may divide India and Pakistan but this logic of ‘you can’t clap with
one hand’ unites its men.