WUNRN
Pakistan - Guns Aimed Increasingly at Women
By Ashfaq Yusufzai
|
PESHAWAR,
Sep 30, 2011 (IPS) - Guns available in new abundance in the troubled north of
Pakistan are increasingly being used on women in ‘honour’ killings and domestic
disputes, according to local reports.
"About
65 percent of the women killed fall prey to gunfire in honour-related cases and
issues relating to domestic violence," local security analyst Brigadier
(retired) Muhammad Saad told IPS.
Citing a
study by the local Awaz Foundation, he said the problem has been caused by easy
availability of small arms. Male members of families too often just pick up
guns up over petty issues against women, and kill them, he said.
This is a
problem across
According to
Shabina Ayaz from the Aurat Foundation, figures reported in media show that 719
women were killed in 2010, including 381 in
"We
have been campaigning aggressively to frame strict laws to stop proliferation
of arms and save women," Ayaz told IPS. The elimination of illegal small
arms holds the key to ending armed violence against women, she said. A report
from the Foundation last year, ‘Situation of Violence Against Women in
Murtaza Khan
from the group Action Against Small Arms told IPS that the Taliban insurgency
in FATA and the north had put the lives of women on razor’s edge. "Cheap
availability of small arms has led to excessive usage and multiplied the
problems of women who are already marginalised in the male- dominated tribal
society," Khan said.
There have
been cases where women were killed over petty matters like serving a meal late,
or getting late ironing the men’s clothes, Khan said.
The
proliferation of arms is spreading, and the use of these weapons with that,
Khan said. "Children as young as10 years old are trained to operate AK-47
rifles in FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In some areas, the exhibition of arms is
regarded as a status symbol."
"It is
a big problem," acknowledges police officer Kareem Khan in
Three
decades of intense warfare have left the region awash with anything from
compact, James Bond- style pen pistols to Kalashnikovs and anti-aircraft guns.
Brig Saad
told IPS that such large quantities of small arms floating around directly
influence internal security and hinder development. "We need to disarm
society and to make it more secure."
Calls for
disarming the civilian population were heard after hundreds of people were
killed in ethnic warfare that raged between trigger-happy Pashtuns and equally
well-armed Urdu-speaking Mohajirs (settlers from
"The
Pashtuns’ traditional fascination for guns has been fed by the Mujahideen war
that ended the Soviet Union’s occupation of
Pashtuns
comprise roughly 17 percent of
Where the
Pashtuns once depended on a local gun-making industry that goes back to the
18th century, the advent of sophisticated weapons can be traced to the United
States arming Mujahideen fighters with small arms, rocket launchers and the
shoulder-fired, heat-seeking ‘stinger’ missiles that picked Soviet aircraft out
of the skies.