Day: October 23, 2012

RAHIM YAR KHAN: On the court orders, the Khanpur Saddr police have recovered a woman who was allegedly being tortured by her in-laws in the absence of her husband as a “healer” has declared her a possessed woman in Feroza area.

As per detail, Khanpur Civil Judge Muhammad Nawaz had issued orders to recover the girl on an application filed by her father Nazeer Ahmed. Nazeer had submitted that his daughter, Fauzia Kausar, had been tortured by her in-laws for over six months.

He said that Kausar was married to Muhammad Ramazan, a resident of Gulshan Usman Colony, in Feroza, a year and a half ago. Nazeer Ahmed said that he had gone to meet his daughter after her husband returned. “When I was there, she took me to aside and told me that her in-laws had declared her ‘possessed’ and regularly torture her,” he said.

Talking to the media, Fauzia said that Mazhar Shah, who claimed to be a spiritual healer, and his partner Nargis, asked her to develop illicit relations with him. “When I refused, they announced me a possessed by a spirit,” she alleged.

She said the family started torturing her after the announcement. The Police sent her for a medical examination at Khanpur THQ Hospital. The doctor referred her to Shaikh Zayed Hospital after the preliminary examination.

Muhammad Ramazan, her husband, told the media that he had recently returned from Saudi Arabia. He said he would support his wife against his family.

The Nation

Highlighting positive role of men for women’s rights, the experts at a research launch has emphasised on understanding the notions of masculinity to change men’s behaviour towards women. The experts were discussing at a joint research launch on “Locating Men in Women Rights Activism” jointly organised by Rozan and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday.

The seminar held to discuss involvement of men in gender activism and issues related to women’s rights. The study captured stories of 5 men who took affirmative actions against sexual violence against men, women and transgender persons in the context of Pakistan. Sadia Sahrif from SDPI moderated the proceedings while Safillulah Khan from Rozan explained research methodology with participants.

Sharing the findings of study, Maria Rasheed from Rozan said that masculinity is a complex terrain where Men’s lives and gendered experiences have exhibited contradictions. She said violence in the lives of men, both by witnessing and experiencing at the hands of another man, seems to be a common influence in shaping and motivating his actions. “The study speaks of unstable nature of masculine identities and power relationships where motivations for actions against sexual violence are not clearly pointed out,” she added.

She highlighted the Men’s behaviour that how men’s distancing from pain – physical and emotional – feeds into masculinities shaped by tribes, sectarian groups, whereby men’s role are seen as essential to protect weaker groups, identities, and land. Discussing the study, Gender expert, Dr Yasmin Zaidi, said that the study offers thought provoking insight on inner workings of real men. She said the Men are too often portrayed as sole oppressor, which silences the supportive character where men are facilitating women in socio-political and economic sphere.

Business Recorder

MULTAN: Blinded by an uncontrollable fit of rage and jealousy, a landlord is said to have buried his one-year-old daughter alive to avenge his wife’s ‘sin.’ Resident of a village in Kot Addu in Muzaffargarh district, Younus Allahditta* buried his infant daughter Abeera* after convincing himself that she was an illegitimate child of his wife Kulsoom*, locals told The Express Tribune.

Allahditta married Kulsoom around five years ago and the couple had their first child, a son, three years later. About a year ago, the two had another child whom they named Abeera. Allahditta, however, regularly fought with Kulsoom, accusing her of having an affair with another man. He would repeatedly ask his wife who the real father of Abeera was – and upon not getting an answer which satisfied him – beat her up severely, claimed an aunt of Kulsoom.

Late on Sunday night, Allahditta launched another brutal assault on Kulsoom and the infant. This time, however, he did not stop there. He took the baby with him outside the house and disappeared for the night.

After about 12 hours, Allahditta’s nephew Irfan received a call from him saying he had gotten rid of his wife’s ‘sin’ by burying her daughter alive. Allahditta told his nephew he had done so to punish his wife and that the child was buried in a nearby field.

Upon receiving the information, Allahditta’s family located the grave and informed the police. Police said the baby’s body was buried under four feet of dirt, weighing more than 22 to 25 kg. Preliminary reports from a postmortem conducted at THQ Hospital, Kot Addu, revealed that Abeera was alive when she was buried, but died four to five minutes after.

A detailed report will be submitted to the police on Tuesday morning.

SHO of Sarwa Shaheed area, Arshad Khan said Allahditta had been arrested after 16 different raids and shifted to an unknown place due to fears of a violent reaction by enraged locals and relatives of the victim.

Kulsoom’s father Nazeer Hussain said his daughter is not talking to anyone as she is still in a state of shock. He admitted Kulsoom had told him about her husband’s accusations several times in the past. (*names have been changed to protect identities)

The Express Tribune

By: Naeem Sadiq

A brutal attack on an innocent little girl has finally nudged awake our sleepy collective conscience. Will this be the long awaited moment of truth, or will Malala be remembered as just one of those endless sad events that have now come to be part of our daily existence?

Both claiming to be defenders of Islam, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the savage militants operating from what they term as Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, are locked in a bloody war of survival. What are the strengths, weaknesses, differences and commonalities of the two warring sides, and what are the chances of success for Pakistan? Let us look at a few key performance indicators.

Despite their convoluted mindset, the Taliban seem to know much more about what they are doing, who their enemy is and why they must attack a certain individual. The state, on the other hand, seems completely clueless. It was the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who announced that they had carried out the attack on Malala and that it had nothing to do with education. Their spokesperson explained with great clarity that they attacked Malala for her pioneering role in preaching secularism and moderation. On the other hand, the closest the Pakistani parliament could come was to name the enemy as some “savages and beasts”. Surely a chicken-hearted, inept and amorphous approach towards such a grave situation.

Both the Taliban and the government of Pakistan compete with each other in marketing their respective brands of Islam. The Pakistani state declares one group of people as non-Muslims, and is de facto tolerant when it comes to the killing of Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus and Christians. A notch up, the Taliban declare many more groups as non-Muslims and require them all to be killed. Pakistan would do well to withdraw from this race.

For the Taliban, use of weapons is the primary mode of conflict resolution. By distributing 1.2 million gun licenses in the last five years, Pakistan mimicked the Taliban’s ideology of prefering violence over reason. More people are now killed every day by the wannabe urban Taliban of Karachi than those killed in North Waziristan. The barbaric zealots of Waziristan are the new role models for the spoilt Pakistani ruling elite. Even when travelling on urban roads, they drive the same type of obnoxious vehicles (often stolen or smuggled), carry the same kinds of weapons, use private armies and break all traffic laws only to imitate the lifestyle of the ‘backward’ Taliban. When a federal minister of Pakistan announces head money and appeals to his Taliban ‘brothers’ to undertake the task of killing a blasphemer, one wonders if the Pakistani state is any less violent than those accused of the same crime.

Administratively, the Taliban operate with a lean hierarchy, honest leadership, no foreign bank accounts, simple lifestyle, a high level of discipline and willingness to die for their cause. Pakistan, on the other hand, suffers from a dysfunctional political and bureaucratic system that rewards the ‘status quo’ and promotes fraud, corruption and mediocrity. Pelf and power are the only two causes that the rulers believe in; their only interest in Pakistan is to siphon away its resources. Their legislative interest is limited to laws that ratify contempt, corruption, dual nationality or past crimes. For just these reasons alone, the Taliban will win hands down in any future conflict.

Abhorrence to schools is not just a Taliban specialty. If the Taliban closed down over 400 schools in Swat, the state performed far more sadistically by creating 30,000 ghost schools. The Taliban do it with explosives, and Pakistan does it with misplaced generosity. About 2.5 billion rupees are siphoned out to ghost teachers and their bosses in the education department every month. Meanwhile 2.5 million Pakistani children stay out of school, waiting to follow in the the footsteps of the Taliban.

Provision of justice may be the most crucial selling point that sets apart the two opponents. Taliban deliver justice publicly and promptly – so that it also appears to have been done. They learnt this science without getting a $350 million ADB ‘access to justice’ loan. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has simply no clue on this subject. Poorly written laws, greedy lawyers, and compromised and incompetent judges join hands to ensure that justice is delayed, as well as denied.

Even a simple comparative analysis underlines the fact that an obviously dysfunctional state, led by a morally bankrupt and intellectually handicapped leadership cannot take on the Taliban. Its only option is to first reform itself. The religious injunctions introduced in our constitution by democrats as well as dictators should be struck down. The justice system needs surgical revamping. Every child should be able to go to a decent school. No citizen, regardless of rank or status, rich or poor, religious or secular must be allowed to possess or display weapons – licensed or otherwise. The law must be visibly and equally applied to all citizens. We cannot defeat the enemy outside unless we defeat the enemy within. Like charity, the battle for Malala must begin at home.

The News

KARACHI: Of 4,585 cases of violence against women reported in the country during the first half of this year, about 1,027 incidents — nearly 22 per cent of the total number of cases — happened in Sindh, states a report released by a rights group on Monday.

The report adds that the FIRs of around 59 per cent of the cases in the province were not registered.

An overwhelming impunity granted to perpetrators of violence against women has led to a steady rise in the number of cases across Pakistan, the report says.

Prepared by Aurat Foundation, the non-governmental organisation working for women’s rights, the report finds 3,153 incidents of violence against women reported in Punjab only. While this figure makes nearly 69 per cent of the total number of cases reported in the country, the report cites better awareness level along with easy access to the media and police for the high number of reported cases in the province.

Aurat Foundation has been collecting data and releasing annual reports on violence against women over the past four years, showing alarming trends prevailing in the country. Since these reports are based on the incidents published in national dailies, it can be assumed that the actual number of violence cases is much higher.

While studying the cases district-wise, the organisation finds Lahore as the district where most cases of violence against women (272) were reported, followed by Okara (262) and Sargodha (223). The report mentions a total of 15 districts with maximum number of cases. Of these, 12 are in Punjab, one in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh, it says.

In Sindh, 90 per cent cases of violence against women are reported in Khairpur Mirs, followed by 80pc in Ghotki, and 60pc cases in Sukkur, Naushahro Feroz and Larkana.

Forms of violence

The most common form of violence against women was found to be murder, with 153 killings reported in the media, the organisation says. It was followed by abduction/ kidnapping (146), domestic violence (140), honour killings (131), custodial violence (194), vani (102), suicide (59), rape/ gang rape (54), attempt to commit suicide (36), threat to violence (35), sexual assault (33), attempted murder (30), and burning (four).

Marital status, age group

The report says that 43pc victims (437) were married and 20pc (211) unmarried, while information regarding the marital status of the remaining 37pc (379) victims is not available.

The organisation in its study says that 18pc victims (186) were less than 18 years, 16pc victims (160) were between 19 and 36 years, four per cent victims were above 36 years, while information regarding the age group of 62pc victims (642) was not available.

The report says that the only 28 per cent of the cases were registered at police stations. For 59pc incidents, no FIR was registered. The report carries no information about the registration of the rest of the 13 per cent incidents.

It says that gender discrimination is not a Pakistan-specific issue, as gender issues are prevalent across the world. However, in a country such as Pakistan that faces infrastructural problems and lacks an effective justice system, the gender issues take a much more violent shape, the report says.

It points out that women suffer by an unfair division of power and resources. Be it education, health, access to justice system, or economic empowerment, women face a discriminatory attitude and have constantly been undermined, it says, adding that these factors, along with cultural practices lead to frequent cases of violence against women.

Most incidents go unreported and thus unpunished, it says.

Dawn