Day: December 29, 2022

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Court frees rapist after deal to marry victim

PESHAWAR: A Pakistan court freed a rapist after he married his victim in a settlement brokered by a council of elders in the northwest of the country, his lawyer said Wednesday.

The decision has outraged rights activists, who say it legitimises sexual violence against women in a country where a majority of rape goes unreported. Dawlat Khan, 25, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment by a lower court in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for raping a deaf woman.

He was released from prison on Monday after the Peshawar High Court accepted an out-of-court settlement agreed by the rape survivor´s family. “The rapist and the victim are from the same extended family,” Amjad Ali, Khan’s lawyer, told AFP. “Both families have patched up after an agreement was reached with the help of local jirga (traditional council),” he added. Khan was arrested after his unmarried victim delivered a baby earlier this year, and a paternity test proved he was the child´s biological father.

According to the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell — a group providing legal assistance to vulnerable women — the conviction rate is lower than three percent of cases that go to trial. Few cases are reported because of the associated social stigma, while lapses during investigations, shoddy prosecutorial practices, and out-of-court settlements also contribute towards abysmal conviction rates. “This is effectively the court’s approval of rape and facilitation of rapists and rape mentality,” Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, a lawyer and human rights activist, said of the Peshawar court decision. “It is against the basic principles of justice and the law of the land which does not recognise such an arrangement,” she told AFP. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was “appalled” by the ruling.

“Rape is a non-compoundable offence that cannot be resolved through a feeble ‘compromise’ marriage,” the group tweeted.

In rural Pakistan, village councils known as jirgas or panchayats are formed of local elders who bypass the justice system, although their decisions have no legal value.

Source: The News, The Express Tribune

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Women’s empowerment for development emphasized

Islamabad: Women’s empowerment is imperative for national development, said senior adviser (human rights strategy) at SAP Japan Inc Achilles Michiko

“We have to show commitment to promoting women’s empowerment and economic independence to accelerate diversity and inclusion in society,” Ms. Michiko told an online briefing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan about the World Assembly for Women 2022. The event’s theme was “WAW! For Mainstreaming Gender into a New Form of Capitalism.”

The adviser highlighted the challenges and opportunities for women’s leadership and empowerment in the country and claimed that the number of working women went up by 3.4 million in the last nine years. She added that there was an increase in the proportion of women in key administrative roles with the number of female executives going up by 4.8 times since 2012.

Ms. Michiko said women’s economic independence was at the core of the ‘New Form of Capitalism’ initiative by the current Japanese government, which considered it imperative for national growth and resource distribution to create a peaceful and stable society. Director at the Gender Mainstreaming Division of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Furumoto Tatsuhiko, who was also in attendance, said the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine crisis had led to increased economic and social instability, further highlighting existing gender inequalities in the global society.

He said the WAW was held to increase momentum toward achieving gender equality and empowering women. “This conference is part of our [government’s] efforts to realise gender equality and women’s empowerment, which is one of our priority issues,” he said, adding that the event featured lively discussions on women’s as well as gender-related issues. Mr. Tatsuhiko said the New Form of Capitalism proposed by the Kishida administration was based on a “virtuous cycle of growth and distribution”. He said growth generated resources that could be distributed, while distribution increased demand, which, in turn, strengthened the growth potential of the economy and leads to the next stage of growth.

“Through gender mainstreaming, diversity will create more growth, and the resources from that growth will be distributed in consideration of the rights of all people, including women, which will lead to further growth. If such a virtuous cycle is created, it will contribute to the realisation of a peaceful and stable society in which everyone can feel a sense of fulfillment in life,” he said.

The director said the basic policy on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women 2022 advocated economic empowerment of women, the creation of a society in which women could live with dignity and pride men’s engagement in families and communities, and the appointment of women to key positions. He said Japan provided support for the education and economic empowerment of women and girls around the world, while its international agencies offered support to women in vulnerable situations such as victims of gender-based violence.

Source: The News

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‘Women now leading agenda on climate change, SDGs’

ISLAMABAD: With more women coming into the assemblies, the face of democracy has changed and women are now leading the agenda on climate change, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other important issues.

In future women will also lead the discussion on other important budgetary issues such as allocations, tracking and monitoring.

This was the consensus among the participants of a one-day national consultation on ‘Achieving Gender Equality through the implementation of SDG – 5’ held in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The convention was being held under the auspices of the project ‘JAZBA – Democracy and Empowered Women’, being implemented by Aurat Foundation (AF) and South Asia Partnership-Pakistan (SAP-PK) with the support of Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Speaker of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly and convener SDG Taskforce GB Syed Amjad Ali Zaidi said in Gilgit-Baltistan they were going to start a first-ever cadet college for girl which would further help in empowering women of the region.

He said buses and other public transport were free for women, adding that vocational training centres were spending a large amount on training and equipping the women and girls of the region with technical skills.

Former Balochistan Assembly speaker Rahila Durrani said the province was lacking implementation of laws due to poor political and reading culture.

She said she broke the barrier and became Pakistan’s first-ever female speaker of the Balochistan Assembly.

MPA from Sindh Mangla Sharma spoke about the legislative weaknesses in Pakistan and said the women were not trained in legislative matters and a majority of the first-time members did not understand and had poor capacity in that regard.

She said Sindh had passed pro-women legislation in recent times such as anti-dowry act, acid-throwing law and domestic violence prevention act.

MPA from Punjab Sabrina Javed said when people talk about gender they instantly assume that they were only talking about women whereas it also included men and transgender persons, persons with disabilities PWDs as well.

MPA from Punjab Uzma Kardar said she remained the head of gender mainstreaming committees for three years in Punjab.

Highlighting some of her works, she said during her tenure she with the help of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) formed an integrated system in order to become aware of the work done by other departments on gender mainstreaming.

Aurat Foundation Executive Director Naeem Mirza spoke about the significance of pro-women legislative agenda in Pakistan.

In his brief remarks, he said in the modern era even in corporate feminism women had become the heads of organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

He further said the first procession for women’s rights in Pakistan was taken out by Begum Jehan Ara Shahnawaz who was also the member of Pakistan’s first Constituent Assembly.

Source: Dawn

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Young woman shot in DHA

KARACHI: A young woman was shot at and wounded by armed robbers over resistance in Defence Housing Authority on Wednesday, police said.

SSP-South Syed Asad Raza said that Maneesha Khalid, 20, was waiting for a bus on Khayaban-i-Ittehad and using her cell phone when armed muggers arrived there and demanded her phone.

As she refused, the robbers fired at her and rode away. She suffered a single bullet wound in the leg. She then called her employer, who took her in his car to a hospital, he added.

“We are still investigating the incident as there were no eyewitnesses,” the SSP said.

Source: Dawn

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UNSC asks Taliban to drop restrictions on women

UNITED NATIONS: Stepping up the pressure on the Afghan Taliban, the UN Security Council has called for the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan, denouncing a ban on women attending universities or working for humanitarian aid groups.

“The members of the Security Council are deeply alarmed by reports that the Taliban have suspended access to universities for women and girls, and reiterated their deep concern of the suspension of school beyond the sixth grade…,” the 15-member body said in a unanimously agreed statement.

The council urged the Taliban “to reopen schools and swiftly reverse these policies and practices, which represent an increasing erosion for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed the Security Council’s message, calling the latest restrictions on women and girls “unjustifiable human rights violations” that “must be revoked”.

Meanwhile, Shariah justice has returned to Afghan courts.

While hundreds of millions of dollars were spent building a new judicial system after the Taliban were overthrown in 2001 — a combination of Islamic and secular law, with qualified prosecutors, defence lawyers and judges bringing more gender balance to family courts — all that has been scrapped by the Taliban, with trials, sentences and punishments now overseen by all-male clerics.

Source: Dawn

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