Day: April 10, 2012

The police have not yet been able to identify the identity of the victim.

KARACHI: A crowd gathered and looked at the suspicious plastic bag that was lying in a garbage dump beside a school on Jahangir Road on Monday. Someone called the police. Everyone was scared to open and see what was inside.

The police arrived at the scene. They took the plastic bag and opened it… two feet, a thigh and part of the abdomen of a body emerged from it. Meanwhile, another man came to see why the people had gathered. When he saw the package, he told the police of another one he had noticed lying on the opposite street. It contained more pieces of someone’s chopped abdomen. There were a total of 10 pieces.

The parts were shifted to Civil hospital. According to the medico-legal examiner, Dr Nisar Shah, initial examination suggested that the body parts were of a woman. He said that they were cut with a sharp object not too long ago. They were “fresh.”

The police have not yet been able to identify the identity of the victim. The parts were sent to the Edhi morgue in Sohrab Goth. The police is searching for more.

The police suspect that she was killed by the same person who killed a woman he was meeting at Quaid’s mausoleum. “I think this is the job of a psychopathic serial killer,” said Soldier Bazaar SHO Khushnood Javed. “He is targeting a certain type of woman.”

Exactly a month ago on March 10, a woman’s body pieces were found scattered in four different places in Soldier Bazaar. It had taken three days to find all the parts. She was identified as Nasreen.

However, Javed said that the police had expanded their intelligence network and plain-clothes policemen were patrolling the area around Quaid’s mausoleum.

Jamshed Quarters DSP Qaiser Ali Shah said that the case was similar to the previous one. But for that they would have to find the rest of her body.

The Express Tribune

Dr Farzana Bari

Once again the Bill on Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) for the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has been deferred by the joint session of Parliament on April 4. This Bill was unanimously passed by the National Assembly in 2009. It was stuck in the Senate that referred it to the mediation committee for further deliberation. The Bill remained in the cold storage till the passage of 18th Constitutional Amendment that devolves legislative issues to the provinces.

With the drastic increase in all forms of social, economic and political insecurities under the present regime, the only feather in the cap of the present government is that it has managed to pass some pro-women statute laws. This includes Sexual Harassment at Work Place Act (2010), Acid Control and Acid Prevention Act (2011), Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Act (2011) and Women in Distress and Detention Act (2011).

Women who entered parliaments on reserved seats for women have been making efforts for the passage of a Bill on Domestic Violence since 2002. Every time the Bill on Domestic Violence is blocked by decadent, anti-women right wing forces sitting in the legislative assemblies at the national and provincial levels.

The question is why there is so much resistance to the passage of Domestic Violence Bill in our country? What is the argument of those who keep on blocking this important, urgently needed piece of legislation? What are the implications of this Bill for the family and the society? These are important questions that need to be addressed and analysed.

The JUI and the PML-N which opposed the Bill on Thursday did not refer to any particular clause of the Bill that they had objections to.Maulana Fazulur Rehman simply blasted the Bill on the ground that it was the conspiracy of the West and foreign funded NGOs which are working against Islam and trying to destroy our family system through the introduction of this Bill. He accused women rights activists as agents of the Western powers who are working on women’s rights for American dollars. The PML-N simply asked for more time to review the Bill. It was very obvious from the arguments of the representatives of both parties which blocked the Bill that none of them had even bothered to read it.

First of all, as mentioned earlier that this is the Bill that was unanimously passed by the National Assembly in 2009. The PML-N and JUI had expressed no reservation at that time then why now? The opposition to the Bill is clearly a part of political bargaining in new political alignments.

Secondly, if they had objection to some of the clauses of the Bill (the position they are taking now), why those inadequacies were not shared with the mover of the Bill and the committee that was working on the Bill, which includes the representatives from all parties, including JUI and PML-N.

If the PML-N did not bother to give their input in the drafting of the Bill over the last many months, how would they do so in the next few days? It appears a lame excuse and simply a retarding ploy to block the Bill.

The real issue here is not the technical flaws in the legislation (that might be many) but the patriarchal mindset reigning in our legislative assemblies. These men are reluctant to give up male control over the lives of their family members, especially women. Home is considered as the private domain of men where they are the in charge and can dictate their prejudices on the family. They do not want the state to intervene or challenge the private patriarchy over the kin come what may.

The criminalization of domestic violence through the Bill means that it will fundamentally change the nature of social contract between male and female citizens with the state. So far the state maintains the sexual contract where men have control over women’s sexuality and lives within the secluded arena of domestic life. The legislation on domestic violence essentially means that the state recognize that every member in the family is an ‘individual’, who has personal rights to self security, protection and choice. In case of violation of those rights by the family hierarchy through the use of violence, state will act on behalf of the individual.

Also the legislation on domestic violence means that sanctity of the family as private domain will come under public scrutiny. The notion of the family only as locus of love will be challenged as this legislation will recognize family as an institution of love and conflict. The family operates within the conflict and cooperation model where various members of family love each other, have interests in common and also in conflict.

The controversy generated on the deference of Bill has pitched civil society and rights wing political forces against each other. The severe attack on women rights activists by the JUI and the connivance of so called liberal Pakistan Peopleís Party with these right wing forces is reprehensible. While the president of Pakistan is quick to apologise to Maulana Farzalur Rehman for the opposition to his stance by women rights activists, he conveniently ignores the humiliating remarks of Maulana about the women activists and JUI’s threats to teach them a lesson for probing them. How long women’s rights will be scuppered for the larger vested interests of the political parties?

A report in ëThe Newsí on April 7 misquoted many facts and also claimed that the National Assembly speaker has banned the entry of some well-known and well respected human rights activists in Parliament (this needs to be confirmed). If this is correct, then we need to ask what is the responsibility of the state and Parliament towards ensuring the freedom of expression of citizens of this country. Itís important that the PPP government and women parliamentarians across political parties must be seen standing by human rights defenders and do not allow reactionary forces in the country to stifle the voices of sanity by humiliating, threatening or targeting them. In case of their failure, human rights activists have no recourse but to challenge this ban in the court which clearly violates the Articles 16 and 19 of the Constitution which ensure freedom of expression and citizen’s rights to attend the House of Representatives.

Human rights activists simply demand that the Bill on Domestic Violence should immediately be passed. The badly drafted Bill that certainly needs a serious review (that reflect on the lack of competence of our parliamentarians and those from the civil society who worked with them), but it should not take too long and must be re-tabled and passed in the joint-sitting of Parliament; It must be ensured by the government and Parliament that no one should be allowed to take retaliatory actions against human rights activists and civil society organizations. Failure to which will only contribute to further polarization in the society and will widen the gulf, divide and the conflict in the society. Women’s rights must not be sacrificed at the altar of politics.The writer is an activist academic and the Director, Centre of Excellence in Gender Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

The News

The suicide of Fakhra Younus, whose face had allegedly been disfigured by the acid attack on March 17 and some other stories have added to the sense of deprivation in women in the callous patriarchal society of Pakistan.

Unfortunately, we inhabit a society where the hierarchy of the gender has been constructed in such a way as to legitimise the establishment of male authority over women. This social construction has conversely provided the basis for gender – based violence in our society.

Women in Pakistan suffer all kinds of violence ranging from rape, mutilation, petrol burning, and custodial torture and abuse, to disfiguring of the face, ritual honour killing, forced marriages and marriage with the Holy Quran.

The widespread domestic violence which ranges from slapping, hitting, kicking to murder goes unnoticed in most cases as society, tribes and different clans and the police view it as a private matter.

One of the most shocking and ruthless crimes committed against women is the ‘honour killing’. In our society, honour does not really mean what it actually means. It is, however, meant as “the fundamental right of a man to possess a woman as a property”.

This form of ‘honour’ not only restricts the liberty of women under the pretext of protection against immoral acts, it has also authorised (though not legally) men to take lives of women if they defame the (so – called) family’s honour through marriages of their own choice etc.

This brutality claimed the lives of 943 women in 2011, according to the report of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Various independent reports and surveys conducted on the rights of women have shown an increase in such inhuman acts because of ineffective legislation or the failure on the part of authorities to implement the laws that protect women and punish men for perpetrating such crimes etc.

Parliament has just recently passed the Prevention of Anti – women Practices Act 2011 and the Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill 2010 with a view to strengthening women’s protection against abuses.

The government, on the one hand, needs to take adequate and effective steps to ensure full implementation of these laws.

On the other hand, the government and independent organisations should conduct public awareness programmes among the masses for the public disapproval of violence against women.

The media should also play its part in this regard by discouraging social practices which are injurious to women. Women should be educated so as to make them aware of their due rights. Their active participation should be encouraged for social and economic development.

Above all, the effective rehabilitation programmes should be introduced by the government, in particular, and the psychiatrists and educationists, in general, for those women who have fallen prey to acid attacks, rape, domestic violence, forced marriages or any other form of brutality. Such programmes will not only help them overcome their inferiority complex and contribute effectively to the society, but they will also prevent another Fakhra Younus from committing suicide.

FAZAL MUHAMMAD KHAN
Quetta

Dawn

Sadia Qasim Shah

PESHAWAR: More and more female students of University of Peshawar are veiling themselves from head to toe to evade eve-teasers, who stalk and harass them on campus without let or hindrance.

A visit to this government-run university, one of the biggest in the province and background interviews with female students has revealed to Dawn that majority of girls face harassment inside the varsity quite often but lack courage to file a complaint with police on campus for fear of stigma.

Representing a few, a student said: “We don’t know how and where to file a complaint.”

The law to protect women from harassment at workplace was enacted in March 2010. Thereafter, Higher Education Commission issued guidelines to all universities in the country to set up committees to address such complaints but many female students, who face eve-teasing on campus, call it a huge discouragement. They also lack courage to file a complaint with the campus police station.

“Eve-teasing is one of the burning issues on campus but girls do not come forward to file a complaint. They prefer to ignore such incidents,” said Inspector Abdus Salam Khalid when asked if they ever got a complaint against eve-teasers.

With the eve-teasing incidents on campus growing, use of veil by female students has grown.

“Whether a girl is pretty or not or whether she is wearing a veil or just covered her head, boys would tease her just for fun,” said a female student.

Most of female students are unaware of the existence of ethics committee, any other body or law to protect them against harassment. They say they stay quiet when someone teases them and don’t even tell their parents about it.

“We don’t tell our parents because they would get worried and stop us from coming to university,” said a veiled girl.

According to female students, in the end, it is a girl, who suffers as taunts and jeer mentally tortures her.

No girl has the courage to file a complaint with campus police station for fear of stigma.

“I don’t know if such guys have any respect for their sisters and mothers,” said another female student.

According to her, the university should make security arrangements so that at least girls feel safe on campus.

Last year, an MPA raised the issue of the female students’ alleged harassment at University of Peshawar by their teachers, including some seniors, on the floor of the House.

Ironically, only one teacher was suspended for harassment before the matter was hushed up on the pretext that the relevant female student did not file a complaint.

A source in UoP said when the inquiry into the said case of harassment began, it was held in the open so no one came forward.

Dawn