Perhaps, we would never know what’s buried behind those veils, which have metamorphosed into their graves now!
For years, women in Pakistan have been denied the enjoyment of a whole range of rights including economic, social, civil and political. However, they are being victimized by an overwhelming level of violence. When would they be given human status and when they would be treated equally and humanly?
If you ask this to a Pakistani woman, apparently, she would say, NEVER. The problem in Pakistan is not that women are not conscious of their rights, some of you might ponder what rights we’re talking about, it’s not that they are too meek to fight back, it’s not that they have never tried to break the chains, it’s simply because the muscles of the fundamentalist regime are too strong to consider their existence.
In the absence of democracy, women not only in this part of the world, rather anywhere, would never be able to make ends meet. The rulers, or dictators to be precise, right now have other important issues like avenging the thirst for power, rather giving heed to cries of a few lumps of fleshes down the drain.
Nearly 80% of the women folk experience domestic violence including, beatings, acid attacks and burnings by fire. In addition, hundreds of women and girls are put to death each year in the name of family ‘honor’ by their relatives for allegedly transgressing cultural norms meant for female behavior.
In addition:
1. some 4,302 cases of violence against women had been reported and more than 1,000 cases of sexual abuse, during 2004
2. more than 250 such cases were reported in 2006
3. at least eight rape cases emerges out in every 24 hours nationwide
Despite the severity of the problem, the government’s response has remained indifferent. On the contrary, it has served to exacerbate the suffering of women victims of violence and to obstruct the course of justice.
Bottom line:
Certain legislatures must be framed in where domestic violence in all its manifestations must be tagged as a criminal offense.
The giving of women in marriage against financial consideration and as a form of compensation must be banned.
In case of ‘honor killings’ police must act immediately, should register and investigate complaints. Breaching of the duty of police to register and investigate should result in sanctions such as dismissal.
Lack of education and common fallacy regarding women rights are impediments in the liberation of women, thus this bleak ignorance cultivates the seed of violence watered by suppression, chauvinism, and injustice.
The holy Quran, which is addressed to all Muslims, does not differentiate between male and female. So then why are the women treated as a ‘door mat’, a ‘puppet’ which has to live according to the man made laws and are assumed to stay within those boundaries, glued to those shackles?
