Lip service to women’s rights was routinely paid yesterday by various political leaders from both the government and opposition on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Pakistan’s ruling parties continue to allow acts of grievous injustice against women like karo kari, wattasatta, honour killings and forced marriages to settle blood feuds continue to flourish. Women are gangraped at the orders of jirgas, raped to settle old scores with rivals, disfigured through acid attacks for rejecting a suitor and killed by in-laws through contrived accidents for bringing less than the demanded dowry. Yesterday’s unimaginable and horrific act of sheer brutality whereby a father shot dead his firstborn seven-day-old infant for being a girl rather than a boy just goes to show how deep-rooted this hatred for women is, that it would drive a father to commit such a heinous crime.
Harassment in workplaces is not unusual. Under pressure from backward elements in certain constituencies, political parties sign secret pacts to stop women from casting votes. The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) continues to oppose the bill against domestic violence while it has allowed husbands to ‘lightly beat’ wives who defy them, recommended abolition of co-education, endorsed under-age marriage and ruled out DNA as primary evidence in rape cases. It was a duty of the lawmakers during the democratic spells and of military rulers who had usurped power to make laws and ensure their application to abolish primitive customs, traditions and practices that have turned women not only into unequal citizens but also victims of heinous crimes. Major politicians have themselves been involved in misogynist remarks. Sheikh Rasheed, Khawaja Asif, Fazl-ur-Rehman and Amir Liaquat are just a handful of the lot. Women in modern history have got equal rights only through a resolute display of power. They got the right to vote through a painful and protracted struggle by the brave suffragettes in the developed democracies— 1918 in Britain, as late as 1945 in France. The ‘Aurat March’, which began in Karachi in 2018 on International Women’s Day, continues to be held each year despite opposition from the typical misogynistic regressive mindset that has been allowed to exist and grow by an unjust system.
New laws need to be passed while some old ones need to be amended to make the country a safer place for women where they have equal rights. Passing legislation however is only part of the battle, its implementation is also crucial.
