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Women’s Day

Pakistani Women’s Day Observed

The 25th anniversary of Pakistani Women’s Day was commemorated on February 12 with a demand for amendments to laws discriminating against women. The day was observed to commemorate the infamous incident of police brutality at the Lahore High Court in 1983 in which women participating in a peaceful demonstration and exercising their rights to public assembly, protest and free speech against the draft Qanoon-e-Shahadat (Law of Evidence) were tear-gassed, baton-charged and dozens of them were arrested.

Benazir’s killing condemned: The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) strongly condemned the murder of Benazir Bhutto on the occasion. The forum said that Benazir was an icon of democratic values and possessed unparalleled leadership qualities. The forum said, “Benazir’s valuable contribution to Pakistani politics would never be forgotten.” Talking on the occasion, WAF founding member Begum Shahnaz Wazir Ali on behalf of all the forum’s women called for amendments in legislations discriminating women. She said, “Although many of the terrible laws have been removed or amended, still many exist that need to be dislodged.”

Paintings exhibition: Earlier, 20 artists including Abbas Shah, Afshan Shoaib, Amna Hashmi, Anjum Ayub, Arjumand Faisal, Altaf Ahmed, Adeela Aasia, AI Qureshi, Humera, Munaf Khan, Nahid Raza, N H Kazmi, Riffat Khattak, Samina Arjumand, Tabassum Rizvi, Tasneem Abbass, Tariq Kakar, Natalia Boichenco, Zaira A Zaka and Zia Zaidi displayed their paintings at an exhibition at the Nomad Art Gallery. The artists portrayed women’s difficulties and the undue social restrictions placed on them. Afshan Shoaib in her painting titled ‘Red Beads’ beautifully depicted the country’s political situation. The painting depicts a woman wearing a red beads garland and mourning the deteriorating law and order situation that has claimed thousands of lives including Benazir Bhutto.

Meanwhile, Rozan in collaboration with the Society for the Advancement of Community Health, Education and Training (SACHET), Poda and the Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), organized National Women’s Day at the National Art Gallery (NAG). The participants of the event also called for amendments in the Hudood Ordinance and to remove lapses in the Women’s Protection Bill (WPB). Women from the quake-affected areas also depicted their works in a Women’s Art Mela.

Radio series: On this occasion, Uks in collaboration with the British High Commission (BHC) also launched a 16-programme radio series titled ‘Hamari Tarraqui, Hamaray Masael’ (our development, our problems). The series is based on women’s issues including gender equality and women’s rights. “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead,” Sofia Shahid quoted Louise May Alcott while addressing the launching ceremony of the programme. She said the radio producers’ six-member team had travelled to Jafferabad, Naseerabad, Muslim Bagh, Sukkur, Dadu, Jaccobabad, Karachi, Meerwala, Jatoi, Karawali, Lodhran, Rullanwali, Abbotabad, Haripur, Hayatabad and Risalpur. The radio producers including Maria Mushtaq, Aisha Amir, Rafia Arshad, Saadia Haq and Rukhsana Murtaza searched for talent and recorded stories about women’s issues. National Commission of Status of Women (NCSW) Chairperson Dr Arifa Sayeda Zehra said there was only physical difference between a man and a woman, adding that women had courage, bravery and spirit equal to that of men. She said that it is the lack of courage in men that resists acceptance of women as equals to them. BHC representative Mathew Foreman said the story telling method was an important tool to spread the message. Executive Producer Tasneem Ahmer said they had tried to depict old stories in new ways. She further said that we have tried to highlight the positive aspects of the lives of successful women that would encourage other women to contribute.

Women & Politics

LHC Seeks Legality of Quota for Women

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain on February 29 asked a petitioner who had challenged the provision of reserving seats for women in the national and provincial assemblies to submit on record what the original 1973 Constitution said regarding quota for women in the assemblies. Petitioner Tariq Aziz said there were 60 reserved seats for women in the National Assembly and 128 in four Provincial Assemblies. He said that 12 women had been elected directly to the previous National Assembly. He said that so far elections on the reserved seats had been made on the basis of kinship and influence and not on political considerations. He further said that according to the Article 25 of the Constitution there should be no discrimination on the basis of gender. He added that the government had to bear a burden of Rs1,006 million on election to the reserved seats and it paid Rs1,760,000,000 as salary and allowances to women elected on such seats. Instead of election on the basis of gender, technocrats from different walks of life should be brought into the legislature to make the process of legislation more meaningful. He said that in the Shereen Masood case it was said that women should be given admission to medical colleges on merit and not on quota basis. A five-member bench of the Supreme Court had done away with the quota system in medical collages in accordance with the Article 25 of the Constitution. Appearing on behalf of the Federal Government, the deputy attorney-general said the quota could not be challenged because it had been added to the Constitution through the 17th Amendment. The Chief Justice put off the hearing till next week.

Women’s Empowerment

Plan to induct more Women in Ministry

Caretaker Minister for Women Development Barrister Shahida Jamil said on February 26 that the Government plans to induct more women in the Ministry of Women Development (MoWD). She said that the process would be slow yet the objective is to bring in women at the decision-making level. She further said that the aim is not to have an all-women ministry but we would try to create gender balance.

The MoWD has always been criticized for having low representation of women among its folds especially at the top levels. The NGO representatives have highlighted the issue on several occasions. They have also taken note of the fact that male officials represent the Ministry and the country at most international forums. Interestingly, the office of ex-Minister for Women and Development Sumaira Malik had no female employee. There are about 21 people employed at the officer-level in the main administrative structure of MoWD. Among them only four are women including the Minister herself. Men head all the three departments – development, gender equality and administration. The UN CEDAW expert committee in Paragraph 32 of its concluding comments presented in response to Pakistan’s combined initial, second and third periodic report has shown concern over continuing low representation of women in the government services.

Women & HR

UN Launches Campaign to Fight Violence against Women

The United Nations launched a seven-year campaign to intensify its action to end violence against females on February 25. An announcement from the world body said that at least one out of every three women in the world is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to its estimates. One in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape, it says, adding that trafficking, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, dowry murder, honour killings and female infanticide are other widespread aspects of the problem. The campaign will aim to mobilise public opinion to ensure that policy makers at the highest level work to prevent and eradicate violence against women. A key target will be to secure political will and increased resources from governments, international institutions, UN entities, the private sector and other donors for policies and programmes to deal with the problem. The UN secretary general is calling on world leaders, men and women, to lead national campaigns to end violence against women. Running from 2008 to 2015 to coincide with the target date of the Millennium Development Goals.

Girls Sold by Parents for Domestic Labour in Nepal

According to NYOF, there are over 20,000 indentured domestic workers, also known as 'Kamlari'. The 'Kamlari' system originated nearly 50 years ago when poor families belonging to the Tharu community, an indigenous ethnic group in southern Nepal's Terai region, provided daughters as domestic servants in exchange for cash. The practice is still prevalent and activists have started to call it "internal trafficking" of girls who are literally sold off by their parents with the help of local middlemen. The young Tharu girls, aged 6-10, are taken mainly from the districts of Dang, Bardiya, Kanchanpur, Kailali and Banke, all about 600km west of the capital. Most of the girls are brought to households in Nepal's cities and towns where employers include politicians, bureaucrats, local NGO workers, teachers, journalists, human rights activists, teachers and government officials, according to NYOF. In the last eight years, NYOF and FNC have helped to rescue over 4,000 girls, all whom have now joined schools or informal education programmes.

Abused: Besides the labour exploitation, the girls also suffer from sexual abuse, rape, physical torture, starvation and neglect of education, and there are also many cases of the girls being trafficked for prostitution both in Nepal and to India, according to FNC. In addition, many girls also disappear once they are purchased by the middlemen. "It's difficult to rescue most of these young girls as their whereabouts are mostly unknown and most of the time the parents do not cooperate," said Man Bahadur Chettri from FNC. He explained that NYOF and FNC have filed court cases against the agents and the parents to successfully get them to cooperate. Nepal has laws against employing children under 16 but they are yet to be strongly implemented, said NYOF's Paneru.

Saudi Women face Systematic Discrimination: UN Report

According to a UN Report, women in Saudi Arabia are the victims of systematic and pervasive discrimination across all aspects of social life, a United Nations report said on 1 February.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged the Saudi government to take concrete steps to enforce gender equality and end violence against women. The committee overseas the application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a UN treaty regarded as a global bill of rights for women. The Committee said in its report that neither the Constitution nor other legislation embodies the principle of equality between women and men. Saudi Arabia is governed by Wahabism, a strict interpretation of Islam that -- in the name of Sharia law -- imposes almost complete separation of the sexes. As such, it is illegal for a woman to be in the company of a man who is not in her immediate family. Women suffer from domestic violence, poor healthcare provision and high levels of illiteracy, the committee said in its report. They are also shackled by the obligation to have a male "tutor" or guardian to accompany them for many daily tasks. The report said that the concept of male guardianship contributes to the prevalence of a patriarchal ideology with stereotypes and the persistence of deep-rooted cultural norms that discriminate against women. It added that the level of representation of women in public and political life, at the local, national, and international levels and in particular in decision-making positions, is very low. The committee also expressed concern about female domestic migrant workers in the kingdom, who are vulnerable to economic and sexual exploitation and do not have ready access to the law. Earlier this month, a Saudi delegation told a meeting of the committee in Geneva that Saudi society is still largely a tribal society and changes in mentality allowing new ideas to be accepted takes time.

Report on Violence against Women by CCHD

Out of a total seven categories of violence against women, 901 cases of murder of women in Punjab were recorded during the year 2007, reportedly the highest as stated in a press conference by the Citizen's Commission for Human Development. While talking to reporters at the Press Club here on February 28, Director CCHD Farah Saleh said the annual report on VAW was compiled by CCHD based on monitoring of eight national dailies, adding that murder was the most common form of violence against women in Punjab in the year 2007. She maintained that the CCHD found that inadequate and discriminatory legal framework was the only hurdle for the victims seeking redress.It was told during the briefing that in 2007 out of 901 women murder cases in Punjab, only 657 cases were registered with the police with only 122 accused arrested. Out of the total number, only 565 women were married and 336 single, whereas close relatives had killed 747 women and unknown persons murdered 154. The second most common form of VAW reported in 2007 in Punjab was kidnapping. A total of 688 women were kidnapped in the year 2007 from the province, out of which only 449 cases were registered with the police and 49 accused arrested. The data further showed that 500 women committed suicide in 2007 (Punjab) out of which 263 were married women and 237 single. A total of 457 women were raped but only 295 cases were registered with the police. Amazingly 293 women were raped by close family members and 164 by unknown persons, servants or neighbours. It was further maintained that out of the total 317 cases of physical torture and harassment in Punjab in 2007, the number of cases reported in the newspapers were 205. About 132 cases were registered with the police. Moreover, 230 women were physically tortured whereas, 87 women were sexually harassed and 100 women burnt deliberately in Punjab in 2007 over petty issues. Out of the total, 47 cases were registered with the police, but only three accused were arrested. In them, 63 were married and 37 unmarried women were burnt. Out of the total 74 domestic violence cases, only 36 were registered with the police and 11 accused were arrested. In them, some 50 were married women and 24 unmarried.