WUNRN
March 07, 2008
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN:
Women are the main victims of the “war on terror”
According
to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan it is estimated that a woman is
raped every two hours and a gang rape occurs every eight hours and about 1,000
women die annually in honor killings.
The Women Rights bill passed in Pakistan by the National Assembly in 2006, has
not changed the state or conditions of the women in the country, particularly
in the areas where the feudal and tribal systems are prevalent and even in
Muslim fundamentalists dominated areas. Since the “war on terror” started at
the end of 2001 discrimination and violence against women has increased.
According to reports acts of violence against women in 2005 immediately
following the war on terror increased 300 hundred times as compared to previous
years. The main victims of the “war on terror” are the women of Pakistan.
According to the press reports and reports collected from different women’s
organizations, since 9/11 and the war on terror 55,379 cases of violence
against women were reported.
The newly made Women’s Protection Act has failed to deter acts of violence
against women who continue to fall victim to honour killings. State violence
also continued against women and at least 181 women were arrested under
different minor allegations and 71 women were physically tortured by the police
in the provinces. This clearly indicates that the mere making of laws does not
make any difference relating to violations of human rights including domestic
violence. The actual problem lies in the collapse of the law and the serious
defects of the law enforcement system.
According to reports published by Aurat Foundation, a women organization, least
1,317 women were victimised in the previous year in various incidents of
violence across the country, while 101 women were victimised in the month of
December alone, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. The highest
number of deaths occurred on the pretext of Karo-kari (honour killings) in
which 210 women and 117 men were murdered by their close relatives. Despite the
ban on jirgas, a private judiciary, by the Sindh High Court, they continue to
function in the tribal areas of the country.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, (“Double Jeopardy, police abuse of
women”) “more than 70 percent of women in police custody experience physical or
sexual abuse at the hands of their jailers. Reported abuses include beating and
slapping; suspension in mid-air by hands tied behind the victim’s back; the
insertion of foreign objects, including police batons and chilli peppers, into
the vagina and rectum; and gang rape. Yet despite these alarming reports, to
our knowledge not a single officer has suffered criminal penalties for such abuse,
even in cases in which incontrovertible evidence of custodial rape exists”
According to the same report, a senior police officer claimed: “in 95 percent
of the cases the women themselves are at fault.”
The Women of Pakistan bear the brunt of increasing poverty, colossal human
deprivation, poor governance; discrimination based on custom, tradition, and
civil and military strife. Women comprise 49% of the population of Pakistan.
This huge percentage is ignored or discriminated against by the political,
social and economical structures of the country. The vast numbers of poor
people in the region are starved of sustainable livelihoods and deprived of
basic needs. While both sexes suffer from poverty, the women pay the price in a
much more obvious way. Women comprise of 30% of the total labor force, but
65.7% of this female labour force is officially accounted for in the informal
sector. For many informal sector workers, perhaps the majority, working
conditions and terms of labour are exploitative, characterized by low wages and
long working hours with no protective laws. The informal sector has grown 8 to
9 times since 1978-79. One example of this problem is that of the brick kiln
workers in Pakistan. An estimated 100,000 women work in brick kilns, but they
are not "officially" employed because whole families work in a form
of bonded labour, in which only the male head of the family is registered.
Some 66.4% of the female labour force works for a living in the rural economy.
The rural women are said to work between 12 to 16 hours a day. The female
labour force has grown at an average annual rate of 16.7% over the last 15
years, although their position is becoming less secure day by day. On the other
hand, women's participation in the formal industrial labour force is 34.3%,
whether self-employed or contracted. The slavery of women is worse today than
in any other time in history.
Every year some 500,000 women die from complications arising from pregnancy and
perhaps a further 200,000 die from unprofessional and clandestine abortions.
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