WUNRN
|
Women in households across Pakistan often fall victim to
domestic abuse, but remain largely unaware of their rights |
LAHORE, 11 March 2008
(IRIN) - Shahina Imran, 30, describes her marriage as "happy". She
said she "remains busy" all day with household chores, cooking for
her husband and two children and doing other domestic tasks at her home in
Shahdra, on the outskirts of Lahore. She does not see herself as a victim of
domestic abuse.
Like so many other women in a society in which few are
aware of their rights, she accepts the regular slaps, kicks and severe verbal
abuse that she says are meted out to her by her husband, Javed Imran, a
plumber, as "what can be expected in married life".
This attitude is not surprising, given that Shahina's
two elder sisters, and many of the other women she meets at the grocery store
or near her house, face a similar fate.
Domestic violence is endemic in Pakistan. The New
York-based Human Rights Watch, in one of the most detailed reports on domestic
violence in the country published in 1999, found that up to 90 percent of women
in Pakistan were subject to verbal, sexual, emotional or physical abuse, within
their own homes.
Sadly, there is little evidence that the situation has
improved dramatically eight years on. Asma Jahangir, a leading lawyer and
rights activist, said: "Domestic violence is very widespread. It is tied
in to the lack of empowerment of women in our society."
Women's rights activists have long argued that the issue
is linked to the “second class” status of women in society.
This is a reality reinforced by laws that discriminate
against them in terms of the right to inherit property, the amount of blood
money given as compensation for physical hurt, and by the failure to eradicate
traditions such as 'vani', under which a woman is handed over in marriage to an
aggrieved party to settle a dispute, usually after a murder.
Awareness rising
Over the past decade, however, awareness of the issue
has risen.
Since 2006 the Pakistan Ministry of Women's Development
has been running at least 10 crisis centres in major cities, where victims of
domestic abuse or other violence receive legal, financial and psychological
support, and counselling regarding their options.
Domestic violence has also been discussed in both
Pakistan's provincial and national assemblies. A draft Protection Against
Domestic Violence of Women and Children Act was drawn up by the Federal Law
Ministry early in 2007, but has not yet been passed.
|
Domestic
violence remains endemic in the country |
These efforts also appear to have had some positive
impact on police efforts to curb domestic violence. In a high profile case in
January 2007, Karachi police arrested a national sporting hero, Moin Khan, a
former captain of Pakistan's cricket team, after his wife complained of being
beaten by him.
He was later released on bail, but the case focused
public attention on the issue and underscored that assault on wives was a crime
under Pakistani law. Yet despite these developments, violence remains
widespread.
Study
A study published in June 2006 in the Journal of the Pakistan
Medical Association,
At times, the violence inflicted on women takes on truly
horrendous forms. The Islamabad-based Progressive Women's Association (PWA),
headed by Shahnaz Bukhari, believes up to 4,000 women are burnt each year,
almost always by husbands or in-laws, often as “punishment” for minor
“offences” or for failure to bring in a sufficient dowry.
The PWA said it had collected details of nearly 8,000
such victims from March 1994 to March 2007, from three hospitals in the
Rawalpindi-Islamabad area alone.
Acid attack
Just recently in Karachi, Ameena Ali, 22, addressed a
press conference at which she said her husband, Muhammad Ali, had splashed acid
on her face, causing severe disfigurement and damage to her eye-sight.
|
This woman’s nose was cut off by her husband |
Ameena, a mother of two small girls, who sought help
from Madadgar, a non-governmental organisation dedicated in assisting abused
women and children in Pakistan, said her husband suspected her of having
extra-marital relations.
"He threw acid on her face and fled," wept
Ameena's distraught mother, Kaneez Fatima. Her husband is currently in police
custody, but Ameena is concerned he may attack her and his two daughters if he
is released.
"Such cases are not unusual in our society,"
I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, told IRIN.
A lack of safe shelters for women victims of domestic
violence, limited awareness of the issue and the absence of specific
legislation all compound the problem.
The result is that thousands of women are victims of
severe violence within their homes, with most cases going unreported and the
culprits consequently escaping any punishment for their crime.
================================================================
To leave the list, send your request by email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.