Call for changing system through advocacy to fight violence against women

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) conduct several programmes on women empowerment at five-star hotels, but when these organisations are invited to interior Sindh, even the big names get shaken up, said Women Development Minister Syeda Shehla Raza.

She was addressing a session titled ‘Aurat Pe Tashaddud Kyun’ (Why Violence Against Women) held on the concluding day of the two-day 1st Women Conference at the Arts Council on Saturday.

Speaking about the means of prevention for women, she said there are two ways: legislation and awareness. The state equips its citizens in the form of good legislation, but awareness comes from training, she added.

“The law book doesn’t travel to homes. It won’t convince your family members to come with you to court or to the police station” she said, and added that the system needs to be changed through advocacy via television programmes and different NGOs.

She regretted that she had invited NGOs while travelling to interior Sindh, and despite offering them transportation, food and assuring them of her presence, “even the big ones got shaken up”.

“I myself went to Abdullah Memon Goth and other such places,” she said, and shared how in the presence of the entire community she asked the families of a few 10- or 11-year-old boys if they sent them to the market for shopping.

She said the families responded in the affirmative, but when she asked if those boys could earn, the families responded in the negative. “It was then that I asked when these boys are married off to a 14- or 15-year-old girl, how come she becomes a mother the very next year?” she added.

“This is a question that my NGOs can surely not ask, because my acceptance there was as a leader,” she said, and added that the suicide rate in such places is increasing because when, after six or seven years, these girls and boys grasp the situation regarding their offspring they couldn’t bear with the reality.

As for population planning, she told the audience that they are criticised because the people don’t want to be dictated in matters concerning the producing of children.

“We just ask them to plan their children,” she said, and added that all the laws — be they domestic violence law, early child marriage act or harassment at the workplace act — are truly to save men. She asked men to plan their children with their wives if they can’t earn to the extent of taking care of a family of 10.

The number of acid-throwing cases in Karachi is also very much worrying for her. “Most of the cases were of pretty, educated girls who used to go to factories and a mohalla guy threw acid at her,” she said, and added that in her 12-year parliamentary career she has observed that pro-women laws are for men as well as women. For example, she said, every weakest or vulnerable person can be a victim of domestic violence. “It can be an old or handicapped person, or a member from a step-family. However, when one hears of a [law for] women, they get perturbed,” she pointed out, and said when they passed that bill under the name of domestic violence, it was easily accepted.

“In the bill we went to such an extent to explain that violence is not only hurting physically but it is how one hinted at raising a hand or stared angrily.”

No member of the provincial assembly (MPA), she shared, showed any resistance to the act. As for the child marriage restraint act, she said, it was applauded worldwide and widely accepted by all the political parties.

Even when the Council of Islamic Ideology pointed fingers at the law, one of their female MPAs introduced a resolution to dissolve the council, which was unanimously passed.

Seventy years

Nazish Brohi, a researcher and consultant working in the social sector, pointed out that it took 70 years for the legislation on the violence against women.

“These laws won’t be implemented in seven months or seven years, as this is a separate war,” she said, and added that it is, however, necessary to see how these laws were enacted and what women had to go through for their enactment.

“The implementation of the law is also the responsibility of the state first,” she pointed out, and said bureaucracy is, however, not visible or answerable for that matter, for the implementation of such laws. “We don’t have any procedure to question bureaucracy for the implementation of such laws.”

She agreed with Shehla about the role of NGOs in the advocacy of such laws, but said the problem won’t be resolved by awareness only, as there’s a segment of society that is already well aware of these laws but they’re not ready to implement them in their lives because in Pakistan people, especially women, traditionally don’t connect with the state.

“Earlier, women had a choice either to be part of their community or a citizen of their state,” she said, and added that when you adopt one you had to leave the other.

She explained that if a woman goes to court against the will of her family, she would be cut off from the family or her clan and she’s only left with the state.

“If she doesn’t go to the state organisations, such as the police or court, and stays with her community, then the state would say let the issue be resolved at community level, such as through Jirga.” However, she pointed out, there’s a change (in society) that women are asserting themselves in the community as well as appealing to the state. As for the violence against women, she said, there’s no class connection in it.

“Privacy is a class-based notion,” she said, and added that whatever violence takes place in a poor family, the entire community knows about it, “because they have thin walls or maybe just a drape in between”.

She said that the increase in the violence against women is a testimony of a change in society, adding that submissive women don’t face violence as much as women who challenge or show resistance. “The [increase in the violence] is a response to the resistance,” she said, and added that it is a blowback effect of women empowerment.

Journalist and literary figure Ghazi Salahuddin told the audience that instances of domestic violence are much more than the reported numbers. Poverty, he said, is a big reason behind domestic violence. Advocacy Adviser Asia at the Centre for Reproductive Rights Sara Malkani also spoke on the occasion.