Day: March 8, 2004

BEIJING: After sending its first man into space, China now aims to put its first woman into orbit, state media said on March 7, in a report apparently timed to coincide with International Women’s Day.

“China will soon start to train its own female astronauts,” Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women’s Federation, said according to Xinhua news agency.

Gu said it was her idea to start training women for space travel, and that she put forward the suggestion after China’s first successful manned space flight in October last year.

“This suggestion has been accepted by the central authorities,” Gu said according to Xinhua.

Source: Business Recorder

Date:3/8/2004

To mark the International Women’s Day on March 8, and to give prominence to the high professionalism of women journalists, UNESCO’s Director-General, Koichiro Matsuura calls on the media worldwide to hand over editorial responsibility to women to cast the news for a day. Through this initiative UNESCO seeks to give more visibility to women journalists, to their editorial work, as well as to women as voices in the media.

Matsuura recalls that “there can be no sustainable development if the intellectual capacities, creative potential, practical resourcefulness and leadership abilities of more than half of the world’s population are ignored or suppressed.” UNESCO’s appeal to the world media is a testing ground of the progress made in the execution of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Despite the history of more than hundred years of journalism, proportional representation of women in journalism is not satisfactory. There is no easy way to measure the advancement of women in journalism. One way of doing it is to count the numbers of women in decision-making positions, another is to figure out the proportion of women and men in the newsrooms, yet another is to count the number of women journalists receiving service awards.

By creating the initiative “Women Make the News”, UNESCO’s Director General, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, emphasises that the issue of gender equality must remain at the forefront of each society’s agenda and the international community until gender balance is achieved at every level in the workplace.

UNESCO’s appeal for equality in the media – as in all other spheres – is a part of the struggle for genuine democracy in society at large and in media institutions in particular. It is a matter of human rights. As long as men and women are not given the possibility to work together on an equal basis, sharing the same rights and the same responsibilities, there is a democratic deficit in our societies.

Women make up more than a third of the world’s journalists. They work in newspapers and magazines, in broadcasting and on-line media and they cover every issue from education to, war. Although women are increasingly present in numbers in the media, they are still a long way from achieving equality with men in the newsrooms or rising to key editorial positions where decisions are made.

The UNESCO initiative aims to raise awareness about the fact that women are still underrepresented in the higher editing ranks as well as against any ingrained preconceptions that women are not fit for top managerial positions or for some work assignments in the media organizations.

There are different subtle and not so-subtle ways in which women are discriminated against in the media. For example, journalists rarely resort to women as sources for their story, even when such women are established authorities in their respective fields. Similarly, the stereotypical generic woman is often the subject of ridicule in cartoons and caricatures. Women in rural areas are for the most part ignored by the media. Both television programmes and drama often reinforce the stereotypical images of women.

“Women Make the News 2004” aims also to provide a platform for learning from each other’s experiences and collaborating for designing more effective programmes and interventions at policy level to improve the status of women journalists in the media. By bringing out the energy of professional women who will share a range of ideas and experiences within this initiative, UNESCO would like to encourage new ways to tackle old issues and to find different ways to talk about the stereotypes, developmental and social issues in the media.

Source: The News

Date:3/8/2004

There are common traditions and customs of violence against women in Pakistan. Honour killing is a common tradition in which women are killed in the name of honour. In Balochistan, it is called “Siah Kari”, in Sindh, “Karo kari” in NWFP ‘Tor Tora’ and in Punjab “Kala Kali.”

Karo Kari though has no religious base, but it is rampant in Sindh province. In a survey it is revealed that the incidents of real Karo Kari are only less than one per cent. In most of the cases, Karo Kari is done for personal gains, enmity or to snatch away a girl of personal liking for marriage in case if parents refuse to give hand of the girl in marriage. In such cases, it is easy to make a sister, wife or any other relative a ‘Karo’ or ‘kari’ and then to kill them to serve their own purpose.

In this heinous custom which has taken the shape of a crime, the women usually become the victims and men often safely run away. In the past it was considered to be a family matter, but now it has become a matter of personal gains and polygamy such as marriage of liking, acquiring of land and to write-off the loans. The cases of Karo kari are decided by the Jarga at local level and the criminals are left without punishment. Waderas and local police play an important role in Karo Kari cases.

Police often do not register the case and waderas keep the women (karis) as “Saam” in their custody or sale them on higher bids. There are many cases of ‘Saarn’ or selling of women, but these cases (an estimated 60 per cent) are not reported in police or press. In such cases police take huge money and it is a great source of their income, resulting in enhancement of Karo Kari cases.

Usually the cases of Karo Kari are decided at local jirga level and these end up in imposing the fine, taking hand of a girl in marriage or obtaining a piece of land and finally the murderers are ac­quitted from punishment. As many as 40% of the murdered women in Karo Kari cases are usually unmarried and are in the age bracket of 18 to 30 years while 60% of them are married. As a matter of fact, due to this custom, greater number of women is killed than men. They are killed by their fathers, brothers, uncles, husbands and first cousins. No post-mortem and no funeral or prayer etc are done for Kari women. Above all, at some places, there is separate graveyard or a separate place in a graveyard for Kari women.

Causes

1) Feudal system is the main cause of this evil custom of Karo Kari.
2) Illiteracy and unawareness of religion’s true teachings.
3) Revenge
4) Greed: To acquire the piece of land.
5) Loan: to avoid the payment of loans.
6) Poverty
7) Marriage of liking
8) Taunt (Talana): It is a common in rural Sindh, it is of most embarrassing and humiliating.
9) Property: To save the family’s property.
10) Progressive minded girls

Facts finding

In the Larkana district, only in March 2000, 38 women were killed while in District Jacobabad in 2002 in the Months of June, July and August 20 women were killed and only 3 men were killed. This shows the higher rate of women killings.

Recommendations

1) The laws regarding Karo kari should be implemented strongly and forcefully.
2) Police should take the matter of Kari Kari as party as it did in a case at Larkana.
3) Judgment given by the Waderas should not be accepted as legal decisions.
4) Wadera and Jirga system should be abolished
5) Awareness of the tradition that it is not religious and beneficial for society should be created.
6) Literacy rate should be increased in the rural areas and steps for alleviation of poverty should also be taken.

-The author is conducting nationwide research on Karo Kari.

Source: The News

Date:3/8/2004

KARACHI – There has been an increase in the number of women journalists in the country particularly with the introduction of private TV news channels during the past couple of years.

This was stated in a study compiled by Karachi Union of journalists (KUJ) and released on the eve of International Women’s Day being marked on March 8.

It pointed out that during the past two years or so a number of young and educated females have joined the print as well as electronic media in the country.

The report maintained that the women feel more comfortable working with the English language Press. It was it was also of the view that there are some who are underpaid with little job security or health cover.

It pointed out that women journalists have highlighted many social issues as well as Karo Kari (killing on charge of illicit relations) and other problems that exist in the society.

The report also paid rich tributes to deceased journalists Razia Bhatti, Aamne Azam Ali, Najma Babar, Maisoon Hussein and Zuleikha Ali who through their devotion, courage and high standards set examples for others to emulate.

It said Razia Bhatti symbolised the voice of truth. After resigning as editor of a leading English language monthly, she went on to found another periodical – The Newsline, which later bagged the coveted Asia-Pacific prize for journalism.

Aamne Azam Ali, Najma Babar, Maisoon Hussein and Zulaikha Ali had highlighted issues like AIDS, women prisoners, child labour, environment and violence against women.
The KUJ report said Dr Maleeha Lodhi who edited daily The Muslim and The News, is now one of the country’s key, diplomats.

Ms Sherry Rehman and Nafisa Shah have also made their mark as elected representatives.

The report also acknowledged the contributions of Siddiqua Begum, Fauzia Shaheen, Fareeda Hafeez, Sheen Farrukh, Mehnaz Rehman, Shahnaz Ahad, Shamim Akhtar, Salma Raza, Razia Fareed, Beena Sarwar.

Islamabad-based Fauzia Shahid was the only woman activist who became the Secretary­General of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and is still the Vice-President of this body.

Lalarukh Hussain had even gone behind the bars during the journalists movement for the freedom of the press in 1978.

Meanwhile, KUJ which represents 650 journalists of whom 60 are females, has called upon the newspaper owners and employers to create an environment which is conducive for women to work in.

Source: The Nation

Date:3/8/2004