December 31, 2012

Community Action Group vows to get girls’ education budget up

BHAKKAR: A group discussion revealed that merger of Masjid Maktab schools with government schools arranged by Community Action Group (CAG) – a district based budget tracking forum- at the office of Awam Dost Foundation here the other day.

The members of Community Action Groups reviewed districts education budget, especially with gender perspective. Community Action Group substantiated its stance with the help of detailed facts and figures. It was pathetic to learn that 66 per cent of education funds were allocated to the boys against a pittance of 34 per cent for the girls.

They urged the Punjab government to immediately correct imbalance between girls’ and boys’ education allocations. The group vowed to campaign for bringing girls’ budget at par with that of the boys and sought media’s support for highlighting the noble cause.

They said that the merger of Masjid Maktab Schools with government schools instead of benefitting education had actually harmed it by resulting in decrease in number of schools. Similarly, the members of community made their point that co-education introduced in middle and high schools had badly affected enrolment as the girls have begun to leave such schools in large numbers.

Not only the students but the female teachers also desist from discharging their duties in these schools due to chauvinistic attitude of their male colleagues. Almost all of the participants expressed their anger over spending of billions of rupees on Danish Schools and Laptop scheme.

The Nation

December 31, 2012

Righting a wrong

Women living in comparatively more conservative parts of the country, such as Dir and parts of Mianwali district have routinely been denied the right to vote. Sad as it is, even the major mainstream parties, the PPP and the PML-N, have been colluding with local influentials to disenfranchise women. A few brave women, who came out in Dir in a previous election supported by activists of a non-governmental organisation, were forced to turn back.

Soon after taking over as Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim promised to right that wrong, saying the Election Commission would cancel results in any constituency where the number of women casting their votes is less than ten percent of the registered woman voters.

There is need also to create conditions that encourage greater woman participation. This aspect of the issue was ignored in the PB-18 by-election for a Balochistan Assembly seat held on Monday. It should serve as an instructive example for the Election Commission to make separate arrangements for the bigger upcoming event. The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), which monitored the polling exercise, points out in a report that ECP did not set up woman polling booths in about 75 of the polling stations monitored by observers.

The provincial Election Commission chief, Sultan Bayadid, himself is reported to have acknowledged that there were no ‘women only’ polling stations, but that all 67 polling stations had separate booths for men and women. No wonder, by Bayadid’s own admission the turnout of woman voters was negligible, which he ascribed to a social trend in the province. The reason behind that ‘social trend’ of course is the same as the one in other areas where men openly refuse to let women vote in the name of old traditions. An example of how those traditions are set is that of the Kalabagh area in Mianwali district. There, a tribal jirga had decided to ban women’s voting decades ago, but now that PTI activist Ayla Malik, daughter of Nawab Allah Yar Khan, is preparing to participate in elections; a jirga met recently to overturn the old ban.

The Fafen report also notes incidents in which women were barred from voting in the said by-election, and attempts of proxy voting on behalf of women voters. That is a test case for the ECP’s resolve to ensure that no one robs the woman population of its right to vote. Towards that end, Fafen has made an important suggestion, saying that even if re-polling is not held in the entire constituency, fresh voting must be ordered in areas where women were barred from casting their votes. That would be the most effective single step to bring about a change for the better. Men will stop disenfranchising women only when they know they have to pay a price for it.

Business Recorder

December 31, 2012

Honour-killing: Girl hanged to death over suspected love affair

By: Kashif Zafar

RAHIM YAR KHAN: In the small hours of Saturday night, the family of 18-year-old Amna raised a hue and cry that the girl had died of a heart attack. The truth, however, was that Amna had been killed by her family members over a suspected ‘romantic liasion’.

Four days ago, Amna was found sitting with Siraj in a sugar-cane field near Rahim Yar Khan. Upon finding the couple together, Amna’s brother and her father Ramzan Naunari assumed that a love affair had already blossomed between the two. They hurled verbal abuse at Siraj as he scurried away from the spot.

As per tradition, a jirga was convened to decide punishment for the ‘culprits’. Relatives of Siraj and Amna, along with the Sardar of the area , were in attendance at the jirga hearing, which proceeded all night long.

The local jury deemed Amna kari and ordered her execution. Amna’s brothers hanged her to death as opposed to the custom of shooting on their own accord a few hours after the jirga hearing, which made her the sixth girl in five years to be killed in the name of honour.

After an anonymous caller related the story of Amna’s murder, the police arrived in Amna’s village only to learn that her body was already taken for burial. Police officials questioned the haste with which the body was taken for burial, and that too without an autopsy.

Union Nazim Sardar Jam Mushtaq said that authorities were welcome to carry out a postmortem as per legal requirements; however, it would prove futile as no murder had taken place. Mushtaq also swore to take personal responsibility if it was ever proved that Amna’s death was the result of a murder.

However, Station House Officer Saifullah told The Express Tribune that Amna’s brother confessed that he hanged his sister. He said than an FIR was lodged against Amna’s brother and brother-in-law for killing in the name of honour.

On the other hand, a neighbour of Amna’s said that the story about the sugar-cane field was contrived. The real story was that Amna had eloped from home to marry Siraj and was later brought back to the village. The story of her meeting with Siraj was used as a pretext to declare her punishable in the absence of evidence.

The Express Tribune

December 31, 2012

Rape culture

By: Asna Ali

A vicious gang rape case in New Delhi has brought the problem of sex crimes in India back into focus. The details of this incident are horrific. A 23-year-old woman was brutally attacked on a bus while travelling with a male friend. She was raped and beaten so badly that she couldn’t survive, despite multiple surgeries to repair her body.

The Indian public is now out on the streets, demanding justice and change. Calls are being made for swift retribution with everything, from castration to death sentence, suggested as appropriate punishment for the attackers. The clamour for justice has grown so loud that government leaders have been forced to promise sweeping measures to ensure women’s safety in New Delhi, which is also known as the ‘rape capital’ of India.

Hundreds of rape cases are reported every year in New Delhi and other parts of India and the actual figures are thought to be much higher. A culture of shaming victims still persists, which scares off most victims from reporting rape crimes. Some brave souls who do decide to seek justice are often spurned by the police and ostracised by their communities. They are often portrayed as promiscuous to weaken their testimony and must relive their ordeal under intense and merciless scrutiny. A huge backlog in the justice system means that formal prosecution can take years to come about.

If this is starting to sound familiar, it is because the situation in India mirrors the one in Pakistan. In addition to having a shared history, both countries also have a rape culture that supports and enables offenders. The misogynistic belief that a rape victim must have somehow deserved what happened to her, perhaps because she was not a woman of ‘good character’, is part of collective mindset.

Even as many South Asian women become more educated and financially independent, their success and contributions to the community have not shaken some deep-rooted conservative opinions. A woman on the street is still an unsafe woman in many parts of India and Pakistan. Her very presence outside the confines of her house exposes her to assault and subsequent mud-slinging.

There are of course always exceptions but for many South Asian women, misogyny in its many forms is still a force they have to contend with on a daily basis. For some, it is daily indignities like vile comments on their choice of dress, an occasional catcall or leer. Others are violently assaulted and then forced to stay silent for fear of being ‘slut shamed’ for raising their voices against injustice. They are viewed as broken women, whose plight casts a pall on the honour of their families.

While victims of rape are expected to hide from the world, often their attackers roam free in search of new victims, confident in the belief that the law will never catch up. They are probably right. The existence of laws such as the Hudood Ordinances in Pakistan that resulted in rape victims being incarcerated for adultery; the propensity of our media to probe into the lives of victims while conveniently ignoring the accused; and a general reluctance, on both sides of the border, to even register rape cases, are all effects of persistent misogyny.

It is therefore, not far-fetched to imagine that after the initial fervour dies down, little will actually be done to protect the women of India. Unfortunately for them, they live in a region that has progressed in many ways but as far as women’s safety and rights are concerned, is still stuck in the Dark Ages.

The News

December 31, 2012

Bodies found; woman killed in Khyber

LANDI KOTAL: Two bullet-riddled bodies were found in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency while a woman was killed when a mortar shell hit a house in the same area on Sunday.

Sources said that bodies of two persons were spotted by local people in Kohi Sher Haider area on Sunday morning but they could not pick them owing to imposition of curfew in the locality. People removed the bodies from the spot when they were allowed by security forces.

The deceased identified as Ejaz and Najeebullah had gone missing few days ago. Both of them were relatives and belonged to Malikdinkhel tribe, sources said. Nobody claimed responsibility for their killing.

Scores of families vacated their houses in Kohi Sher Haider after security forces ordered them to leave the area in anticipation of a cleanup operation. In Malikdinkhel and Sipah areas, forces demolished the houses of four suspected militants on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a woman was killed and four of her siblings received injuries when a mortar shell hit the house of Bagh Wali in Dura Nehar locality of Sipah on Sunday.

Sources said that the mortar shell, fired from an unknown direction, also damaged a portion of the house. Nearly 12 residents of Bara, mostly women and children, had fallen prey to mortar attacks during the last one week. Authorities are yet to establish as to who fire the mortar shells. In Mohmand Agency and Swabi district, two improvised explosive devices were defused on Sunday.

In Swabi, traders informed police about the device that was planted at the tower of a cellular phone company. Police and bomb disposal squad reached the spot and defused the device. The other explosive device was planted at Ghanam Shah telephone exchange in Mohmand Agency. The residents of the area informed security forces about the device. The device was defused safely.

Dawn