Women

Gender in Pakistan is the organizing basis of the society. The patriarchal values embedded in local traditions and cultures predetermine the status of women in Pakistan. The role of women has been stereotyped as that of a mother sister daughter or wife; hence confining her to the chardewari (the four walls of home). This has thus led to low investment in the women by the family and the state. This low investment, along with the ideology of men's honour residing with the woman's purdah (veil) has led to negative social bias, restrictions on women's mobility and internalization of patriarchy by women themselves has become the basis for gender discrimination in all spheres of life in Pakistan.

Economic status of women in Pakistan
Women in Pakistan constitute a major part of the semiskilled and unskilled labour. Employment of women in the skilled worker class is also on the rise. Women are also employed as unpaid housewives.

Women in Pakistan do not enter the labor market on equal terms as compared to men. Their occupational choices are limited due to social and educational constraints and also due to the preconceived notion of a woman as a homemaker, which thus doubles the responsibilities on her. As a result of discrimination against females, women are concentrated in the secondary sector of the labor market. They tend to be low paid workers, casually employed and immobile.

Women in Pakistan have always been the ones to bear the brunt of social costs of recession. Inflation and high unemployment and increasing poverty have put enormous pressure on women to contribute to family income.

Women lack ownership of productive resources. Despite the fact that they have legal rights to own and dispose of property the way they want to, few women in Pakistan get the opportunity or permission to access and control any productive resources.

Perhaps the immediate concerns that need to be addressed for uplifting of women's economic status are that women lack job opportunities. Gender discrimination starts at the time of employment leaving women disadvantaged. Their lack of marketable skills also keeps women lagging behind men. Women are usually offered low paid and low status jobs and these jobs tend to be casual. Working conditions tend to be exploitative and most women face sexual harassment at work that keeps them from entering the workforce. Structural problems such as the gender-role ideologies of the society also pose great hurdles to women in achieving equal economic status. The law also does not help to uplift the status of women as inadequate labour laws and male-dominated trade unions make it more difficult for women to seek equality.

Legal status of women in Pakistan
Pakistan is a country with multiple judicial systems. In most areas the constitution of Pakistan is applied but in may tribal and rural areas the tribal traditions hold precedence over the constitution.

The 1973 constitution of Pakistan has in effect failed to protect women rights. At one end it has clause that say that there shall be no discrimination based on gender and at the other end its discriminatory clauses enhance gender inequality. An example is the family laws, which give women unequal status as family members in matters of marriage, guardianship of children and divorce.

Another series of discriminatory laws were introduced by General Zia-ul haq in his islamization process. Known as the hudood ordinances, these laws equated rape with adultery. A woman's evidence was not accepted against that of a man and to prove that they had been raped and not committed fornication women had to produce four male Muslim witnesses. In most cases women ended up getting punished. The laws of evidence , qisas and diyat institutionalize compensation or blood money for murder and rape. This further derogated the status of women, as two women were equal to one man. This legislation has severely affected the status of women. In the Pakistani jails today two thirds of the women are detained due to the hudood laws. These laws also allowed many families across the country to exploit the women. Most of the cases against women have not even been brought into courts and many are still pending causing these inmates of the jail and their children to suffer.

Despite repeated demands by women movements the government has done nothing to repeal this discriminatory laws. Thus theses laws are shaping the legal status of women in Pakistan. Even though the constitution of Pakistan allows gender equality most traditional practices keep women in the roles of subordinates. Women are continually treated as commodities to buy sell and kill if the man feels his honour has been defiled.

The major problem faced by Pakistani women in attaining legal equality is their inability to seek legal redress. Participation of women in the judicial system is very less compared to their percentage in the population. There are less than five percent female lawyers in the bar councils of Pakistan and only tow percent female judges in the Supreme Court and high courts. High rates of illiteracy among women and lack of awareness of legal rights has led women to remain downtrodden by men.

Political participation of women in Pakistan
The political participation of women in politics remains low and inadequate. Even though the constitution of Pakistan does not prevent women from participating in politics, their part in the local provincial and national politics remains low.

As most of the major political parties don't maintain a proper record of membership, the data on women's political participation is sketchy and incomplete. Even though women participation has shown an increase, women have not been appointed to important positions in political parties and decision-making bodies of the government. This minimum level of representation of women in Pakistan reflects the inadequacy of the commitment of political parties and the government of any attempt to uplift the status of women.

Male dominated political parties prevent women from entering politics. Women also lack political skills due to their lower level of education. The concept of purdah and women being confined to the four walls of home further magnify the problem. Also as politics is viewed as the field of man, women are continually discouraged from entering it. Women also lack interest in politics and their negative perception of this field further keeps them away from it.

Education and training of women in Pakistan
Today Pakistan's population stands such that women constitute 48% of the population. However gender disparities are evident even in education, that, where at least half of the male population is educated, only 35% of women have acquired basic education. Gender disparities are more marked in the rural areas in education. Rural literacy has been as low as 12% for women. This includes women who only know how to write their name.

A variety of issues exist in female primary and middle school level education. Lack of schools for girls pose one of the biggest hurdles for female education, as most parents are unwilling to allow their female children to study alongside boys. Lack of female teachers is a major cause of low female education and also a major consequence of it. Another major factor for rural education is the distance from home to the school. In the rural areas of Pakistan one school caters to the need of three to four villages and thus making it difficult for many to acquire enrolment in to them. Poverty also makes women education a great problem as people are less willing to spend on daughters who are not even going to be their own after marriage. As a result of all of this, female enrollment in schools has always remained minimum in the rural areas and less than male enrollment in urban areas. Parents also feel that they cannot afford to lose the extra income female children can earn by working or being married off for a bride price.

The ideology of gender roles in the society of Pakistan, which casts men as the leader master and sole earner of the home and women as the homemakers and hence with no need for education. Cultural attitudes of people to education of women are also negative as are the reproduction of these gender biases in educational curriculum.

Low levels of literacy has had serious repercussions on the status of women in other field of life as, their economic status is also behind that of men. Apart from that lack of education has affected women's health and nutrition. Also as a result of this lower literacy most women are unaware of their legal rights. This is an added disadvantage to women who are victims of all kinds of violence.

Health and Nutrition
The health indicators of women in Pakistan are among the lowest in the world. The life expectancy of an average female here is much less than that of an average male, a condition observed in very few countries of the world. The female infant mortality rate is at 85 per 1000 births and that of male children is 82 per 1000 births. More than 40 % of women are anemic and maternal mortality rate is still very high at 1 in every 38 pregnant women. Only 20 percent of married women have access to trained doctors during delivery.

The low health status of women is a consequence of their lower social standing along with lower literacy level. Their economic dependence on men and restrictions on their mobility has been the cause of their lower health status. Early marriages, excessive childbearing at an early age has adversely affected women's health. Due to such factors the disease burden on women is greater than on men. Most women don't receive vaccinations and are also at higher of contracting HIV aids and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The rise of poverty exacerbates conditions of oppression for women. In poor households with meager incomes gender discrimination is quite pronounced. Poverty forces women from these households to work harder to earn; they suffer from nutritional deprivation as low resources and intra house bias in food distribution leads to this deficiency in female children.

Issues surrounding the status of women involve the lack of medical facilities in rural areas and the non-availability of medicines. Higher incidence of disease among women combined with high female mortality rate is another factor, which creates problems for women's health. Shortage of competent health care staff and lack of proper equipment in rural areas is also a major issue of falling women health indicators.

Health care has been apportioned a meager proportion of government budget thus causing such a decline in health status of women. Any policies implemented to improve the health status of women have been fraught and for urban based hospitals. These policies ignore the need of the rural population and hence much improvement has not been achieved.

Violence against women in Pakistan
Since independence, women in Pakistan have been severely destitute and discriminated against. They have been denied a whole range of rights - economic, social, civil and political rights. Women, who have been denied social rights including the right to education, are also often denied the right to decide in matters relating to their marriage and divorce. Their family and the society more easily abuse these women. They are more likely to be deprived of the right to legal equality. Often abuses are compounded; poor girls and women are trafficked and subject to forced marriage, forced prostitution or exploitative work situations such as bonded labor. In all of these situations they are likely to be mentally, physically and sexually abused, but without the ability to acquire justice.

Domestic violence :
Domestic violence is widespread in Pakistan; it is grounded in the conviction of the patriarchal society that treats women as men's property. The role of women is stereotyped as that of a loyal servant, obliged to fulfill men's needs and wants without question and without fail. Unfortunately for them many women accept this view without a protest; some also feel they deserve it.

In Pakistan, most women are forced to marry the men of their parents' choice. Their opinion is not asked for and if they dare to argue, they are subject to all kinds of mental and physical abuse so as to make them consent to marriage. Most are married off to men of more than twice their ages; some are just handed over for the sake of money. Married life for such women is just another term of imprisonment. The in-laws treat the woman abominably, she is relegated to most inferior status and the mother in -law makes every effort to create problems between her son and his wife which may ultimately result in the wife being subjected to physical torture. Women are also mentally tortured, as the in-laws never forget to remind them of the meager dowry they brought with them or the enormous payments the groom's family made to the bride's parents.

According to a HRCP annual report, sample surveys showed 82% of women in rural Punjab feared violence resulting from husbands' displeasure over minor matters; in the most developed urban areas 52% admitted being beaten by husbands. Burning by husbands and/or in-laws remained one extreme and widely occurring form of violence in Punjab. The reported cases in and around Lahore alone numbered 282. The official claim of deaths from burning [made by the minister for the interior before parliament] was 59 in Punjab, 71 in Sindh and one in NWFP. (1)

Newspapers have reported a few incidents of women subjected to domestic violence:

In Khairpur district, Sindh province, Haneef Jat beheaded his wife Sughran on 13 May 2000 after she failed to serve his meal in time.

On 22 October 2001, Sharif in village Goharpur, Sheikhupura district, Punjab province, tied his wife Shukria's wrists and ankles with rope, poured kerosene over her and with the help of his mother and sister set her on fire. The couple had been married for ten years; as they remained childless, Sharif wanted to marry another woman but Shukria did not agree to this. Neighbors tried to rescue Shukria but she died shortly afterwards in hospital.

On the 21 st of April 2000, Nagina was burned alive by her husband Shahbaz. Fatally injured, she told relatives in hospital that her husband and her mother-in-law had beaten her for giving birth to a baby girl after two years of marriage. She had also refused to consent to her husband marrying a second wife. Her husband claimed that Nagina sustained burns while boiling milk. Shalimar police station registered a complaint but it is not known if Shahbaz was arrested.

Whereas killing women by torching them is a common method, acid throwing is also gaining ascendancy. Acid throwing does not kill but leaves the woman horribly disfigured, thus destroying her self-esteem and banning her from society forever. 19-year-old Shaista in Lahore had acid thrown over her as she was being dressed up to be married; three other women were also injured. The assailant was a 36-year old neighbor who had apparently been turned down by Shaista's parents. The bride suffered 35% burns on her face, neck and chest, and one eye was seriously damaged.

The level of violence against women, which includes physical and mental abuse, rape, acid throwing, burning and killing, consequently continue to be high. The number of instances of violence against women is not known; different organizations provide different numbers based on reported cases. This is one of the reasons why the problem of domestic violence continues to be a predicament. Due to the social norms regarding such matters and the ineffectiveness of the judiciary, majority of the cases go unreported. Official figures are unable to construct a true picture of the magnitude of this problem, as the reported incidents are less than a quarter of the original figures.

Killings in the name of honor:
Men who assume that their wives, daughters or sisters have in some way disregarded the norms relating to the behaviour of women thereby damaging a man's 'honour' carry out 'Honour' killings. Often the grounds for such assumptions amount to nothing more than a suspicion about a woman's fidelity; but men are also known to have felt shamed if 'their' women seek divorce or become the victims of rape. Men in Pakistani society have virtually no other means of undoing a supposed breach of 'honor' than to kill the women assumed to be guilty of it. Social pressures to get rid of the 'offending' woman are great and men who would rather disregard rumors of violation of 'honor' are themselves considered dishonorable. Women, too, are known to have approved of or assisted in killings of other women in the context of 'honor'.

The victims include young girls, unmarried women and old women including grandmothers, married women and widows. The mere allegation of girls and women having entered illicit sexual associations are sufficient for their male relatives to take the law into their own hands and to kill them. The women are usually not given an opportunity to respond to such accusation. An allegation is enough to defile a man's honour, and therefore enough to kill a woman - and the man with whom she is alleged to have behaved 'improperly', if he can be found.

Originally a Baloch and Pashtun tribal custom, honour killings are now reported in NWFP as well as Sindh and Punjab. Honour killings are not only reported from remote rural areas but also from towns and cities.

Honour killing takes different names in these areas. In Sindh it is known as KaroKari. Karo meaning black man and Kari meaning black woman, the accused are chopped to pieces, in view of any implicit or explicit sanction of the society.

The exact number of honour killings is impossible to ascertain as many such killings go unrecorded and unreported. The HRCP noted hundreds of 'honour' killings in different parts of the country in the year 2000, in addition to other forms of violence against women. Of 407 murders of women in Punjab province between January and June 2000, 168 were stated in the FIR to be provoked by 'honour' while another 109 were suspected to be honour killings. The Centre for Information and Research in Karachi reported 56 men and 73 women killed on grounds of 'honour' in the first six months of the year 2001. Most belonged to the middle or lower middle class. Of the reported cases, 28 women were killed by their husbands, 12 women by their brothers, 10 by their brothers-in-law, eight by cousins, 6 by other male relatives and 5 by their sons and the rest by unidentified persons.

The problem of honor killings is accentuated by the fact that majority of the cases go unreported. As in the case of domestic violence, the social norms attached to this heinous crime allow it to escape reporting. As their own family members kill most victims, no one is ready to file complaints against the perpetrators. If the victims seek asylum no one is ready to help, afraid of the wrath of the victim's family and defilement of their own honor.

Two main factors contribute to violence against women in the name of honor: women being used as commodities and conceptions of men's honor. The end result is that right to life of women in Pakistan is conditional on their obeying social norms and traditions.

The idea of women as commodity and not as equal human beings is a deep-rooted tradition of the backward society of Pakistan. Women and girls are coerced, abducted and sold, often re-sold and repeatedly re-married without regard to their own wishes. They are traded and often forced into prostitution for the sake of money for their male relatives. Girls as young as six years old are married to much older men for monumental prices. Pakistan is a major route for women and child trafficking. It is said that women trafficking in the South East Asia originated from Pakistan. Women from Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, srilanka etc are brought illegally into Pakistan and from there through Afghanistan are supplied to the rest of the world. Many of these women have left behind their families including their own children. Some women, both trafficked and local, are killed if they refuse to earn money in prostitution into which their husbands or agents force them. Fareeda Bibi was beaten by her husband with an iron bar, had kerosene sprinkled on her and was set on fire in Sukkur. In hospital before her death she told police that her husband had forced her to lead a sinful life and that he had abused her when she refused to comply.

The concept of honour in Pakistan is such that the honour of man resides with the chastity and virginity of the women of the family. This honour is so fragile that the slightest rumour of a woman having had an illicit relation ship with another man can cause it to shatter. Men also feel dishonoured when women disobey them or are unable to comply with their commands.

According to the tribal traditions in Pakistan the woman who has allegedly been involved in an illicit relationship and is killed or is fleeing the killing is the guilty party. The man, to whom the woman, whether a wife, sister or daughter, 'belongs, has to kill to restore his honour. He is the victim as he has suffered the loss of his honour and of the woman whom he has to kill. He is the wounded person with whom everyone's sympathies lie, not the possibly innocent woman he killed. A man whose honour has been damaged must publicly demonstrate his power to safeguard it by killing those who damaged it and thereby restore it. An honour killing is not considered a crime but a valid action, seen as the appropriate punishment for those who break the code of honour. The man who kills for reasons of honour is a man possessing honour and is morally and legally supported by his tribe. He is taunted by insults that he is without honour if he fails to kill a woman of his household who has damaged his honour. Honour killings consequently are not hidden away but openly performed, often ritually and with the maximum spilling of blood. For women to choose their marriage partners, object to male violence, or seek divorce are outright acts of defiance and thereby shame the man. They require severe acts of violence to restore honour.

The role of the judiciary of Pakistan
The problem of domestic violence is accentuated by the fact that majority of the cases go unreported or are suppressed by the police acting in conjunction with the families of accused and the victims. Each day the police refuses to register dozens of complaints of rape, domestic violence and honour killings. At the same time the police continues to register complaints brought by men of abduction and fornication by their wives or daughters. Police has also been known to connive actively in covering up offences of men and have at many times sided with the criminals. In cases where the accused are well known people the police has actively participated in silencing the victims and their families. They also help to conceal evidence along with the team of investigating doctors.

The intensity of injustice in the country can be judged from the fact that almost all women are hesitant to seek redress. This is because redress for violence suffered by women is hampered not only by the disregard of the police and their collusion with the criminals but also by the judicial process and decisions which reflect insensitivity to women's problems and further enhance the possibilities of women rights violation.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's chairperson Asma Jahangir commented that courts by institutionalizing ''honour killings'' encourage murderous assaults on people on the pretext of being humiliated; instead they ''should deliver their judgments in accordance with the law rather than their perceived sense of morality. By allowing people to take the law into their own hands, the honourable courts will only promote disrespect for the law. Honour and dishonour are relative terms.''

Women in Pakistan are also confronted with the challenge that the state of Pakistan remains oblivious to the various problems women in Pakistan face. Even though Pakistan is a member of the international convention for the elimination of discrimination against women (CEDAW), the state has yet to fulfill its commitment to create a favourable social legal and political situation for women by introducing necessary and substantial changes. However as yet the government has not even been able to come up to the standards set by the CEDAW for women rights progress and it turns a deaf ear to most complains of women rights activists and NGO's.

Rape is one of the most common crimes against women in Pakistan and is unfortunately grossly unreported due to the shame attached to the victim and the hassle and harassment of the police. Added to this is the potential threat of being charged as guilty as according to the Hudood ordinances rape must be proved by four male Muslim witnesses to the crime and failure to do so results in charges of fornication. The government of Pakistan has labeled many such crimes as rumours and exaggerated stories and thus chosen to ignore these heinous acts against women. Marital rape is not even recognized as a criminal offense in Pakistan. As a result of this thousands of women suffer each year. Rape in police custody is also widespread but again extremely underreported as it involves member of the police as the main criminals.

In a recent case of rape the government has again proven its reluctance to ensure women rights protection. Dr.Shazia Khalid is a doctor at Sui Gas Company in Balochistan. A group of men broke into her room at night and gang raped her. The criminals escaped and were unidentified. Shazia and her husband have registered a Fir with the police but to no avail. As per the Hudood laws Shazia must bring forth male Muslim witnesses otherwise the case might turn into fornication case which also under the Hudood ordinances is a crime committed by the woman. The cabinet has termed this incident as 'blown out of proportion' and has paid no attention to the couple's pleas. Even though they plan to pursue justice to the end, many judicial and social hurdles stand in their way and the ways of other women who seek legal redress.

The increasing violence against women In Pakistan is matter of serious concern. A society where violence against women is deeply embedded cannot develop socially and economically. Violence in the private domain destroys a woman's confidence and her health while the fear of sexual assault in the public domain can lead to a fall in their participation in education, economics and politics. This is a high social and economic cost for the society as the essential part of human race constituted by women is underfed, underrepresented and suffering gross injustices. A society where the weak are oppressed remains underdeveloped and poor as long as it continues to oppress. Therefore establishing women as equal partners in the society is important for development.