December 12, 2014 – Pakistan Gender News

December 12, 2014December 12, 2014

Anti-Women Practices Act: Three years on, women’s rights law remains limited to paper

KARACHI: If you are not aware of the Anti-Women Practices (AWP) Act, 2011, you need not worry. Even the parliamentarians, police officers, medico-legal officers and prosecutors have no idea about this law that was passed three years ago.

Researcher on women’s issues, Sarah Zaman, learnt of this irony while conducting her research on a paper, titled ‘Forced Marriages and Inheritance Deprivation, Exploring Substantive, Structural Gaps: Prevention of ‘Anti Women Practices Act 2011.’

The paper was launched in collaboration with the Aurat Foundation on Wednesday. The event was attended by MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League – Functional, Erum Khalid of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Karachi police chief AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo as well as other prominent figures.

Speaking on the occasion, Abbasi admitted that many parliamentarians did not even have the slightest clue regarding the laws they were passing. “We draft and amend laws and pass budgets without even realising the implications it would have on the lower levels,” she said.

Zaman said that of the 74 police personnel she had interviewed in Karachi, Hyderabad, Swat, Islamabad, Mardan and Peshawar, only four had any knowledge of the law. “The police officials have outdated versions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Pakistan Penal Code,” she said. “The police officials of Hyderabad did not even know they have a Darul Sehat in their city, where they can send the homeless or marginalised women, seeking shelter.”

Zaman said that a police officer in Mardan had revealed that his police station operated more as a ‘jirga’, where they tried to mediate between the estranged couples.

“We discourage women from pursuing such cases and warn them it will cause further trouble to them if they pursue the case,” she quoted the statement of a police officer in Mardan. “Almost 90 per cent of the women who are sent back home, revisit the police stations with the same complaint of violence,” she claimed.

Inheritance and recommendations

Zaman lamented that it was generally expected from the women in our society to voluntarily deprive themselves from the inheritance.

“If a lady refuses to give up on the property, she is usually tortured and forced to marry the Quran,” she said.

According to the law, ‘whoever by deceitful or illegal means deprives any woman from inheriting property shall be punished with imprisonment’. “The words — deceitful and illegal — create ambiguity, because if someone is not depriving a woman of her inheritance through deceitful means, they cannot be charged,” she explained.

Zaman also recommended that the law should provide for a cognisable offence as the police cannot take action until they have a warrant from the magistrate.

Express Tribune

December 12, 2014December 12, 2014

Malala hopes to serve Pakistan as prime minister

OSLO: Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai said on Thursday that she could become prime minister of Pakistan in about 20 years.

“I want to help my country, I want my country to go forward and I’m really patriotic,” said the youngest Nobel laureate ever.

“That’s why I decided that I’d join politics and maybe one day people will vote for me and I get the majority, I’ll become the prime minister,” she said.

Asked about her political aspirations during a press conference with Norway’s female Prime Minister Erna Solberg in Oslo, Malala added that “you can become prime minister when you’re 35, not before that, so (it’s) like in many years’(time)”.

The teenager became a global icon after she was shot in the head and nearly killed by Pakistani Taliban on October 9, 2012 for insisting that girls had a right to education.

She said that she was inspired by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007. “She is an example … giving this message that women can go forward because in some communities women are not supposed to go forward and become a prime minister,” said Malala, who now lives in Britain.

She is sometimes criticised by her critics in Pakistan, who have accused her of being a puppet for the West.

Meanwhile, Malala has expressed sympathy for a Mexican asylum seeker who jumped onto the stage during the Nobel awards ceremony, and said the incident didn’t frighten her.

She said young people the world over faced problems. “As (he) was from Mexico, so there are problems in Mexico,” she said after meeting the Norwegian prime minister.

“There are problems even in America, even here in Norway, and it is really important that children raise their voices.”

Oslo police said the flag-waving 21-year-old, who has applied for political asylum in Norway, was fined $2,100 for disturbing the peace and sent back to an asylum centre.

Malala told reporters she was not afraid when the intruder stepped out in front of her and co-winner Kailash Satyarthi as they were holding up their award certificates and medals in front of hundreds of guests, including Norwegian royalty and politicians.

“If I don’t get scared at anything else, why would I get scared of this,” she said, laughing.

“There was nothing to be scared of.”

The man was quickly whisked away by a security guard but police were unable to explain how he had managed to enter Oslo City Hall without an invitation amid tight security in the city.

DAWN

December 12, 2014December 12, 2014

Malala to spend Nobel prize money on education in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai said she would spend her share of the $1.1 million prize money on projects for education in Pakistan.

In an interview with the Pakistan state-run TV along with her father and mother in the United Kingdom, Malala Yousafzai said focus should be on education of girls and that she had gained enough experience to continue to advocate and urge people to invest in education.

“We have to work together as 57 million children are still out of school in Pakistan. My dream is that every Pakistani child should get good quality education,” she added.Malala Yousafzai said one of her projects from the prize money would be to set up a high quality school in Pakistan.

“When I started working for education, my first project was a school for working children in Swat,” she said while telling about Malala Fund set up by herself. The aim of Malala Fund was that children in Pakistan get education facilities, she added.

Her Malala Fund was also supporting 25 orphan kids for lifetime in a project run by an organization in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.Malala emphasized that her goal is to convince everybody to invest in education and in her meetings with global leaders like President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth, she persuaded them to invest and focus on education.

To a question, she said she had always told reality about the situation in Swat and many times pointed out that Taliban were responsible for stopping girls from going to school.To a question about her stay in United Kingdom, Malala said, “its true that I live abroad but my heart and mind are in Pakistan.”

Malala said her soul was in Swat and she was hopeful to go back to Pakistan and join politics.A resolution has been introduced at the US Senate to recognize Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi as “symbols of peace” in acknowledgement of their efforts to end the financial exploitation of children and to ensure the right of all children to education.

Introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, the resolution says Malala has promoted education for girls in Pakistan since she was 11 years old and is an advocate for worldwide access to education, and Satyarthi has personally rescued more than 82,000 children from the worst forms of child labour.

According to the resolution, which has been sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for necessary action, Satyarthi, 60, has endured threats to his life as a result of such rescue efforts; and the militants attempted to kill Malala on October 9, 2012, as a result of her efforts to encourage more girls to attend school.

The Senate resolution recognizes Nobel laureates Malala and Satyarthi as symbols of peace and advocates for ending the financial exploitation of children and for the right of all children to an education.

While commending all individuals working around the world to end the scourge of child slavery and to advance education for all children, the resolution recognizes the challenges that remain in ending the financial exploitation of children and providing access to an education for all children.

Urging all governments, civil society organizations, businesses and individuals to unite in the common purpose of protecting children from losing their childhoods as well as their futures, the resolution recognizes the dedication and commitment to freedom, the rights of children, and the endurance of the human spirit demonstrated by all individuals who make sacrifices to build a more peaceful world.

Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said on Thursday that she could see herself becoming prime minister of her country in about 20 years.“I want to help my country, I want my country to go forward and I’m really patriotic,” said 17-year-old Malala, the youngest Nobel laureate ever.

“That’s why I decided that I’d join politics and maybe one day people will vote for me and I get the majority, I’ll become the prime minister,” she said.Asked about her political aspirations during a press conference with Norway’s female premier Erna Solberg in Oslo, Malala added that “you can become prime minister when you’re 35, not before that, so (it’s) like in many years’ (time).”Malala said she was inspired by former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007.

“She is an example… giving this message that women can go forward because in some communities women are not supposed to go forward and become a prime minister,” said Malala, who now lives in Britain.

The News