WUNRN
Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN - VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN -
LEGISLATION IMPORTANT BUT MUST BE IMPLEMENTED, ENFORCED
March
7, 2013 - Every year, International Women's Day, March 8, is a time
of reflection concerning those achievements gained, and those not yet
acquired. This year in particular, the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status
of Women has been scheduled between March 4th and 15th at the United
Nations Headquarters in New York, with the issue of the prevention and the
elimination of violence against women as the main focus area of the
session.
In many Asian countries, the status and the safety of women are still largely
affected by gender based violence and discrimination, and Pakistan still ranks
among the countries in Asia, and in the world, with one of the worst human
rights records which affects the condition of women significantly.
Pakistani women are subjected to physical and verbal offences, psychological
and sexual abuse, rape (including marital rape), assaults, forced conversions
and forced marriages, honour killings. In the majority of cases, perpetrators
are male family members. This is a result of the extremely conservative and
patriarchal mindset embedded in society and which cuts across social classes.
Abuses such as battery and murder occur among upper middle-class families as
well as among working class people. Even a comparison between the trend in
urban and rural areas, proves that numbers are not that different in big cities.
The reasons behind the perpetuation of discrimination and violence against
women of any age are to be found in the religious fundamentalism,
in the conservative sexist mindset pervading even urban areas, in the very
feeble rule of law and in the widespread corruption within the civil policing
system.
Women's freedom of speech, movement and choice is extremely restrained and
rests in the hands of fathers, uncles, brothers and cousins. Women are seen as
inferior humans, second-class citizens and mainly as a male commodity. Their
opinion is of no one's interest or concern, and the integrity of their body is
out of their control. Rape is a customary practice not only to satisfy male
instincts, but also to regulate tribal disputes: by violating the enemies'
daughters, sisters and wives, tribes "teach" their opponents a
lesson. In female chastity lies the honour of a family and raping a woman is a
powerful tool of offence and revenge. When the concept of honour is taken to
its extreme and it is combined with the custom of blaming the victim, non
consensual sexual intercourse is considered paradoxically the same as
pre-marital or non-marital sex, and this further compromises the safety of
women.
Annually, Pakistan counts hundreds of women that are victims of honour
killings, most of which occur on the simple basis of suspicion or because of a
minor event which is instead seen as an extremely shameful behavior. Women have
been and still are killed in the name of honour because they went out without
their husband's approval, because they did not agree to marry the person chosen
by their father, or because they have been suspected of being in love with a
man professing another faith. Often, behind the decision of proceeding with
such murders, there are the verdicts of the Jirga, the traditional assembly of
elders that dispenses sentences according to Islamic law, and that, although
declared illegal in 2005, people still keep consulting and trusting.
The observance of basic human rights (right to life, right to safety, freedom,
equality, health, etc) continues to be systematically violated in Pakistan. The
mentality of blame to the detriment of the victim, together with the pervading
inequality and discrimination, permeate though all spheres of societies, from
the private life to the public level. The protection of women from unequal
treatment and the prevention of violence are successful when forces from the
top and from the bottom meet at the middle ground of justice, fairness and
tolerance. In Pakistan, none of these fundamental principles seems to inspire
equality either in personal relationships, or in public relations.
Legislation is an essential factor. Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1996. Later
on, the Government issued the Protection of Women Act in 2006 and the Criminal
Law Act in 2009. The Acid Crime Prevention Bill, and the Domestic Violence
(Prevention and Protection) Act, are still pending in Parliament.
These acts are all supposed to be efficient legislative
tools to protect women from assault, rape, discrimination in the work place and
other forms of violence. However, laws are too often issued to remain in
writing only, and it is very hard to see their proper implementation.
An efficient legislation requires a strong political will which instead appears
to be lacking in Pakistan. The insubstantial enforcement of the rule of law
compromises the efficacy of many institutions, police bodies in particular,
where the lack of training and gender sensitization among the officers, the
habit of abusing the victims themselves, as well as the pandemic level of
corruption, makes it difficult for women to even have their cases filed. The
discouragement, or often the refusal, to proceed with the completion of the
First Information Report (FIR), makes the police officers complicit in the
perpetuation of violence and, together with the fear of reporting for many
victims, it is responsible for the inaccuracies in the national statistics concerning
these crimes.
If cases dealing with gender-based violence eventually come to the attention of
the Court, women have to face the impudence of judges, who often treat them
with inequality and disrespect. Listening and assisting the victims in a professional
way is not only required to efficiently support those women who have
experienced violence and discrimination, but it is also an indispensable way in
which to raise the issue, talk about the problem and stress its gravity in the
public domain.
The silence of the victims and the "invisibility" of the survivors,
together with impunity, leave women in a condition of abandonment and increase
the risk that more women – and girls- can go through the same torment.
Legislation is essential but not enough, especially if it is rarely
implemented. A cultural change must also occur.
A violence-free world is an utopia which even the most developed countries are
struggling to achieve. However, circumstances can be sensibly improved if
tolerance, understanding, acceptance, innovation and open mindedness accompany
people in their private spheres, and governments in their
mandates.