Shelter for helpless people, Education for all, Women welfare, Availability of legal assistance |
Pakistan A Prime Target of Human Smugglers Recently, an international alien smuggling ring was dismantled by the FBI, other federal agencies, and Canadian and other foreign partners. In the course of the investigation, certain individuals who were under investigation, were determined to have provided false information in an attempt to assist their own situations. At the time this information was initially received, combined with other investigative and intelligence information, there was a heightened need to determine the whereabouts of five individuals who possibly may have entered the United States illegally. With the aid of information subsequently provided by the public, investigators were able to determine that five individuals identified did not pose an imminent threat to public safety. As a result, there is no longer need for public assistance in locating these individuals. There are ongoing investigations both here in the US and overseas that continue to uncover and dismantle alien smuggling and fraudulent document operations. For example, recently federal
prosecutors in the Southern District of New York filed a criminal
complaint charging Choudry G. Muhammad and Mohammad Rana with alien
smuggling. The complaint alleges that from at least 1997, the defendants
smuggled and assisted in the smuggling of illegal aliens from Pakistan
to the United States in exchange for fees of approximately $15,000 to
$30,000 per alien. Pakistan Human Smuggling and Bondage Pakistani men and women travel to the
Middle East in search of work and are put into situations of coerced
labor, slave-like conditions, and physical abuse. Pakistan is a
destination for women and children trafficked from Bangladesh,
Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia for purposes of commercial sexual
exploitation and labor. Women trafficked from East Asian countries and
Bangladesh to the Middle East transit through Pakistan. The Government
of Pakistan does not yet fully comply with minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to
do so despite severely limited resources and the fact that some of its
territory is beyond the control of the government. In October 2002, the government passed a law that criminalizes all aspects of trafficking, from recruitment and transporting to receiving a person. If rape or forced prostitution cases are prosecuted under the Islamic law-oriented Hudood ordinances, victims are reluctant to testify since, the woman's testimony is tantamount to an admission of adultery if prosecutors conclude that her testimony does not meet the burden of proof. Law enforcement investigates trafficking cases. The Federal Investigative Agency
(FIA) reports that 11 people have been arrested for trafficking under
the new statute and that prosecutions of those individuals are pending.
Backlogged courts slow legal proceedings. Pakistan and Iran signed an
agreement to conduct joint investigations on trafficking in persons and
narcotics. The country worked with Iranian authorities on cases
involving the trafficking of camel jockeys. The government is improving
its ability to patrol its borders through training and equipment, but
large areas of uncontrollable borders allow traffickers to bring women
and children into Pakistan. Despite the establishment of a National
Accountability Bureau and some noteworthy prosecutions of corruption
cases, corruption remains a problem throughout Pakistan. Pakistan
Government Action Violence against women: Social condition All citizens are equal before law and entitled to equal protection of law There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone (Constitution of Pakistan) Like all other developing countries in the world, Pakistan also have many colors in its society, that portrays its culture and general behavior. When we talk about social conditions of women in Pakistan then it starts from HER BIRTH, generally the birth of the girl child is not considered blessful, because Pakistan is a developing country that has much higher poverty rate, girls are expected to get married at an early age and stay at home and raise children, not to work in a trade or profession, hence she would not be able to help in supporting the family, and because of the heavy dowry, which is the tradition of our society, parents are expected to pay when their female children are married. Women are often denied the right to be HEALTHY, according to UNICEF's
'progress of nation' Report for 2000, only 26 percent of women between
15 to 49 years of age are attented to by health personnel even once
during pregnancy. Pakistan's maternal mortality rate of 350 per every
100,000 Live births stood as one of the very worst in the world. The
high birth rate, with an average of over six children per household,
exerts a major strain on the welfare of women . The GENDER DESPARITY in
term of infant mortality was also starkly visible, with 160 female
children dying with in the first years Women are often expected to do the WORKLOAD of family, they often work longdays, sometimes 18 hours, working in the field, factories, market place or as maids and then they also have to fulfill their family requirement, household work, due to their long hours of work , they are often unable to have time for relaxation or recreation. Women are also often denied their rights to EDUCATION, many families cannot afford to send all of their children to school, there is a continuing belief that there is no benefit to educating a girl child, when she could not be out working and earning money for the family, according to official data, just over 35 percent of women in the country are literate, while the government accepts entrollment rates for girls in primrary education, standing according to official estimates at 62 percent, remain low. In this context, Pakistan ranks far behind other South Asian countries and indeed remains amongst the ten lowest-ranking countries of the world in terms of education for girls. Worse still is the estimate by a number of international agencies that the female literacy rate in the country is in fact falling, with the limited capacity of the educational infra structure unable to meet the demands of a growing population. The gap between girls and boys too is widening, with 92 percent of boys now enrolled at schools.
The vast social issues of dowry also remains in place , acting as one of the reasons why families prefer the birth of a boy to that of a girl. In rural communities, families reported that one of the most acute financial pressure they faced was the MARRIAGE of their daughters. In many cases, the failure of a bride to bring in the kind of dowry her in-laws demanded led to cases of her being abused and mistreated by her husband and his family. With the hold of tribal custom still binding society in chain . Other examples also exist to protect their property from distribution, hundreds of girls each year from sindhi families are still "married" to the Holy Quran (the holy book of Islam) under this law a woman has to live without a husband throughout her life. But this law is only applied among the class of landlords. They use this only to keep and grab the land of their sisters and daughters. According to a report by an Islamabad-based NGO, there are currently over 5,000 such women in sindh. A woman's right to liberty is restricted in the name of modesty, protection and prevection of immoral activity. In rural areas 90% of women work in the fields, they work for the whole day with their male family members, but they still have to face their wrath. Male family members keep a strict eye on the female members in the name of "HONOUR". But one must understand the meaning of honour because in our society honour does not have the meaning of its true sense. Here it really means possession of women as a form of property, and they can be put to death if they lose their HONOUR. According to HRCP(2000) more women became victims of honour killings, including "karo kari" than ever before, while the rate of all forms of violance against women soared. Every second pakistani women is now believed to be a direct or indirect victim of VIOLENCE. In urban areas of Pakistan, many out-dated customs have much less of an influnce, because of the fact that women are playing a major role in the generation of family income, they do not carry out "unpaid labour" like rural women, but they are also facing daunting challenges and problems in the cities . Domastic Violence: Reports by human rights groups indicated that every second Pakistani woman is a victim of direct or indirect violence. Newspapers over the year also suggested a continuing rise in physical violence within the home, with a report from Karachi stating at least every third married woman in the city faced violence of one kind or another. It was reported that the situation was being aggravated by the increased strains placed on families as a result of growing social and economic hardships. Equally significant was the lack of awareness about domestic violence and its impact on families, including children. One of the most extreme forms of domestic violence was of course the continued occurrence of stove burnings. Newspapers reported that by the end of April 2000, at least 18 women died due to 'suspicious' burn injuries in Lahore alone. This marked an increase of 30 percent compared to the same period during the previous year. Equally significantly, FIRs were submitted in only six of the 18 cases. A shortage of adequate hospital facilities to treat burn victims also contributed in many cases to their deaths. The ease with which such murders can be disguised as 'accidents', and
in many cases the willingness of police to go along with such claims,
means arrests are made on average in well under 20 percent of stove
burning cases reported annually in the Punjab. Even in many of these
cases, the accused persons are frequently freed within days. Economic Conditions: Women in Urban Areas Women in Rular Areas All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law. There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone. Steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of women in all spheres of Every one has the right to equal access to public service in his country. In
Pakistan's economy women play an active role. The economical condition
of women is different in the various parts of the country. As more than
65% of population of Pakistan live in rural areas, where economical mode
is different than urban areas, hence rural women works mode is quite
different than urban women . In Pakistan's economy women play an active role. But their contribution has been grossly underreported in various censuses and surveys. Consequently, official labour force statistics show a very minimal participation of women. For example, the 1991-92 Labour Force Survey revealed that only about 16% of women aged 10 years and over were in the labour force and in comparison, the men's participation rate was 84%. On the contrary, the 1980 agricultural census showed that women's participation rate in agriculture was 73% and that women accounted for 25% of all full-time and 75% of all part-time workers in agricultural households. Also, the 1990-1991 Pakistan Integrated Household Survey indicated that the female labour force participation rate was 45% in rural areas and 17% the urban areas. Thus it is clear that if women's contribution to economic production is assessed accurately, a conservative estimate of women's labour force participation would be between 30% and 40% (ESCAP, 1997). According to the 1991-92 Labour Force Survey, agricultural and allied industries absorb the largest proportion of employed persons, both women and men, particularly in the rural areas. However, the proportion of the persons engaged in the agricultural sector is higher among rural women (79.4%) as compared to rural men (60.8%). The Human Development Index (HDI) rank of Pakistan is 119 th of 146 countries, indicating low life expectancy at birth, low educational attainment and low income. It demonstrates that Pakistan is faced with a difficult task in human resource development. The Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) rank of Pakistan is 120th of 146 countries. This illustrates that the human development gap is further aggravated by substantial gender disparities. The difference between HDI rank and GDI rank is -1, indicating that the country performs relatively worse on gender equality than on general achievements alone (UNDP, 1997). Agriculture Agriculture occupies a strategic place in Pakistani economy. It directly supports three-quarters of the population, employs half the labour force and accounts for one-quarter of Gross Domestic Product (EIU, 1997). Pakistani women play a major role in
agricultural production, livestock raising and cottage industries. Women
often devote more time to these tasks than men do. They participate in
all operations related to crop production such as sowing, transplanting,
weeding and harvesting, as well as in post-harvest operations such as
threshing, winnowing, drying, grinding, husking and storage (including
making mud bins for storage). Rural Women in Pakistan carry out these
tasks in addition to their normal domestic chores of cooking, taking
care of children, elderly and disabled, fetching water and fuel,
cleaning and maintaining the house as well as some of its construction. Crop production
sugarcane, etc. are the key components
of Pakistani cropping systems. Punjab Province accounts for the bulk of
agricultural output in the country. However, Baluchistan and North-West
Frontier Province are poor and backward (EIU, 1997). Endowed with
fertile lands, Sindh Province produces 30% rice, 25% of the rice cotton,
23% of the sugarcane and 18% of the wheat in the country (Baluch,
1988).) In the rainfed areas of Punjab, women
contribute to almost all of 22 identified crop tasks with the major
contribution to seed preparation, collection and application of farmyard
manure, husking maize and storage (Freedman and Wai, 1988). Men's
involvement is higher in the early stages of cultivation such as field
preparation. Men also monopolize mechanical work. For example, they
carry out mechanical threshing (with animal or fuel-powered machines),
while hand-threshing is a women's domain of task. Driving tractors and
watering the fields are also men's job. Food processing and storage is
an area where women's participation is considerably higher than men's
(Mumtaz, 1993). Forestry Forest and woodland amounted to only 4.4% of the land area in 1993
(UNDP, 1997). Many of wooded areas are severely depleted as a result of
overexploitation. Forestry production declined from 1.07 mill. cubic
metres in 1990/91 to 377,000 cu.m. in 1995/ 96 (EIU, 1997). Fisheries Marine fisheries in Pakistan engage some 90,000 people. They operate mainly from Karachi and the cost of Sindh. The export of fish and fishery products, particularly shrimp, is an important source of foreign currency (FAO, 1989). Fisheries is an area of interest to women (Paton, 1986). It has been found that traditionally, women were involved in fishing business as entrepreneurs. But presently with the expansion of fishing business into an industry, women no longer manage the business as they did in the past. Rather they are involved in peeling shrimps, weaving nets, making fish baskets, etc. as labourers (GOP, 1995). Livestock In Pakistan,
livestock is an important component of farming systems. It accounts for
26.4% of all the value of agricultural production (Mumtaz, 1993).
Livestock is raised for draft power, milk and meat. Poultry, sheep and
goats are very important to rural women for they are often the only
source of income fully under their control (ESCAP, 1996). Land, forests and pastures have been degraded by prolonged misuse. The rich soils of the Indus basin are experiencing water logging and salinity, wind and water erosion and rapidly spreading desertification. Forests are near extinction. Rangelands are being denuded. Such
ecological resource depletion has profound impact on women's basic roles
of obtaining fuel, fodder and water. Shrinking of mangrove stands
caused by scarcity of fresh water after the barrages were built, has
made coastal women walk longer for the collection of fuelwood for the
household and fodder for the livestock. The women of Baba and Bhit
islands say that it often takes them nearly half a day to gather
fuelwood. They sometimes have to bring back the young branches (GOP,
1995). Growing desertification caused by changed farming practices in
fragile ecosystems has made women walk for miles in search of water.
Women in Sindh walk up to 10 miles to fetch water (Mumtaz, 1993).
Moreover, as soils degrade due to deforestation, salinity or
waterlogging, and food and income decline, women are found to become
marginalized. They are left with the responsibility of taking care of
degraded land holdings when men migrate from the villages (GOP, 1995)
Women cotton pickers in Pakistan suffer from blisters and skin rashes
caused by the chemicals sprayed to protect cotton plants from pests
(Mumtaz, 1993). Women
generate income through various non-farm activities. Cottage industry is
one of the major areas of involvement of rural Pakistani women. Weaving
cloth and rugs, and sewing constitute important components of rural
women's non-routine tasks. Rural women in Sindh are skillful in
producing Rilee (hand-made bed sheets) and Sindhi Topees (caps), etc. of
export quality (Baluch, 1988). Women also generate cash income through
the sale of livestock products. Though to a lesser extent, rural women
also work on others' holdings outside their homes. They account for
16.1% of the total agricultural labour and 10.2% of non-agricultural
labour (Mumtaz, 1993). Nonetheless, there is significant variation by
agro-ecological zones in opportunities for wage employment. The demand
for female labour which is seasonal and limited to specific tasks, is
mainly concentrated in the southern cotton belt and irrigated regions
(GOP, 1995). Nearly 34% of the population lives below the poverty line in Pakistan (UNDP, 1997). When it comes to rural areas, this proportion becomes one-third to one-half and women disproportionately share the burden of poverty, which has a twofold impact. On one hand, the women's workload for family survival increases and on the other, their share in food and nutrition intake decreases further. A 70% of rural women does not have an adequate calorie intake in their diet, and 90% of pregnant women suffer from anemia (Hashmi, 1988). In addition to being poor and malnourished, the mass of rural women in Pakistan suffers from too many pregnancies. Women share only 20.8% of total earned income in the country (UNDP, 1997). The
divergence between economic growth and human development is greater in
Pakistan than in most other countries and the country treats it women
very poorly, with some of the lowest achievement on indicators of gender
development (Haq, 1997). In Pakistan women considerably contribute to
the food security. Women's overall involvement in crop and livestock
production has a direct bearing on household food security. They
dominate food processing thereby contributing to diversity in diet,
supplying important vitamins and minerals and reducing food losses. For
example, Sindhi women indigenously practice drying vegetables and
preparing different kinds of pickles (Baluch, 1988). Moreover, women
prepare food for their households and thus are responsible for ensuring
nutrition and healthy lives in the family. Women as wage earners provide
cash income to purchase food for the families. In the poorest families
women's earnings are critical to the subsistence of the households and
considerable number of working women are the principal income earners in
low income families (ESCAP, 1997). In order to support effective and equitable agricultural and rural development, policy makers and planners in Pakistan need to: reform land policy to ensure gender equity as well as class equality (in view of 40% of the arable land owned by large land-owners); resolve both conceptual and methodological problems and collect sex-disaggregated data so as to generate a proper estimate of women's economic participation; improve all data bases on women which are currently very inadequate; improve policy and planning processes to be participatory as well as gender-sensitive; make the extension system more equitable to cover female farmers and food crops grown by them instead of merely focussing on male farmers and commercial crops; support policy shifts to encourage rural agro-based small-scale industries, which have employment-generating potential for the vast majority of rural women. Programme focus Agricultural and rural development programmes in Pakistan need to include the following areas of intervention in order to address both women's and men's priorities: recognize women's pivotal contribution to the rural economy and include them in farming systems improvement programmes; conduct basic surveys to identify the varying problems of rural women in different agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions so that appropriate intervention needs could be identified; launch massive basic and functional literacy programmes for women so that they are able to learn and apply improved agricultural technologies; train female agriculture extension workers in order to approach women farmers more easily; provide rural women the knowledge of animal diseases, vaccination and treatment of simple ailments; train rural women in preserving and processing of various fruits, vegetables and livestock products; assist women in marketing their products though the establishment of cooperatives; improve the skills and efficiency of rural women through appropriate technology and range of extension service; develop integrated credit programme that considers all aspects of enterprise inputs; focus on lessening the workload of already overworked rural women before introducing any improved agricultural technologies which require additional time and energy to learn and ultimately use; lessen socio-cultural constraints to women's access to education, training, employment, etc. by using mass media programmes; introduce rain-fed farming/agro forestry practices to rural women in order to develop livestock and poultry. Women Education: The state shall remove
illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within
minimum possible period; make technical and professional education
generally available and higher education equally accessible to all on
the basis of merit�. Everyone has the right to
education. Education shall be free at least in the elementary and
fundamental stages. Elementary eduacation shall be compulsory. Technical
and professional education shall be made generally available and higher
education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. (Article(27)) Even in official documents, the government accepts that the education of the girl child lags far behind that of boys. Material compiled by UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank indicated that only around 40 percent of Pakistani girl children are even enrolled in schools for elementary education. This is by far the lowest amongst all South Asian nations, with India maintaining a rate of around 76 percent, Bangladesh 78 percent, Sri lanka 100 percent, the Maldives 100 percent and Nepal and Bhutan 46 percent and 47 percent respectively according to data from the same independent sources. It is worth noting that for most of these Countries, the enrollment rate for girls estimated unofficially is higher even than the government of Pakistan's own claims. At the secondary level, enrollment for girls falls to 13 percent, with only Bangladesh, among the South Asian nations lagging marginally behind with 12 percent. The ratio of female teachers in the country, as a percentage of total teachers in the public sector, is 25 percent, again the lowest amongst all South Asian nations except Bhutan, Pakistan also falls far behind Muslims nations, including Bahrain, Oman, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tunisia and the UAE in terms of female literacy, enrollment and the number of girl children in the primary age group who remain out of the classroom. This figure stands at over 55 percent for girls in the country, compared to 27 percent for Bangladesh, 28 percent for Oman, 8 percent for Indonesia, 19 percent for Malysia, 4 percent for Tunisia,1 percent for the UAE and 0 percent for Bahrain.
The government itself cites the lack of schools for girls, especially when education is sex segregated in the country, reluctance of female teachers to work in isolated rural areas or urban slums, irrelevance of primary school educational curriculums to women in terms of employment oppurtunities, demand for household labour from girls and restrictions on their physical mobility as key hurdles in the way of promoting education. The wide disparity in the literacy of girls continues to persist, despite published findings that education for girls can alone bring about a drastic improvement in the quality of life by lowering birth rates, reducing infant mortality, improving household health and in many cases also bringing about direct or indirect income generation. The non-formal sector in Pakistan has remained active in the sphere of female education, and even though it touches only a small percentage of the total population, it has in cases demonstrated that initiative, commitment and original ideas do work an example comes from Pakistan's most economically and educationally deprived province-Balochistan-with a female literacy rate of only 3 percent. There are a few NGOs active in the area, especially in the many remote communities of the province. The first real initiative in the non-formal sector came in the early 1990s, intended to offer teacher training to girls who had completed middle school, so they could act as the teachers of the future. The first Mobile Teacher Training Unit (MTTU) was set up with UNICEF support, and by 1995, had both attracted more donors and expanded significantly. It continues to play a key role today, offering basic education in communities which lack any schooling facilities, and the government of Balochistan has over the last few years also backed it by ear-making 120 posts each year specifically for teachers trained by MTTU. The state of girls' education can be gauged by the difficulties faced by NGOs active in Balochistan, The Northern Areas or interior Sindth in even finding within large communities women sufficiently educated to provide education to others. In many cases, the total lack of government planning has played a role. An example comes from a semi-rural locality based in Jaranwala , near Faisalabad, where parents complain the boys' school is based close to the village, while girls must travel by bus to reach the only secondry school available to them in the area."How can i permit my daughter to do this, in such times, though I would like her to get an education," asks one father, Mohammad Usman, whose daughter, shaista, completed her primary education this year. The government, which also faces increasing pressure from international donor organisations to adhere to its Jomtien commitment of an 'Educaion for All', has promised several initiatives in this area, as well as a continuation of ongoing projects. These include to Middle Schooling Project active in Sindth, the NWFP and Balochistan, launched in 1999, where stipends are awarded to girls students to retain them in school. During 1999-2000 the sindth implementation Unit gave out 4.370 stipends, the NWPF 3,080 and Balochistan 2,080. Under an associated programme, aimed at producing more female teachers, Sindh awarded 96 stipends to teachers under the Rural Female Teachers Stipend Programme during the last fiscal year, the NWFP 60 and Balochistan 80. The government is also involved in a motivational campaign aimed at increasing enrollment. The delivery of free school bags and text-books to poor girl students in rural areas under the community Model School Project is continuing and the launch of the Girls Primary Education Development project-2 in all four provinces is planned, under which 937 Model Schools are to be established to enhance the participation rate of girls. The government also estimates that under SAP-2, which is to run up to the year 2002,70 percent of new schools established will be for girls, compared to 30 percent for boys. Legal Conditions: All citizens are equal before Law and are entitled to equal Protection of law All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law (Universal Declaration of In constitution of our country there is no
distinction between man and woman., both have got the same rights but
certain laws have been inacted to safeguard the rights of the women
considering their weaknesses. IN FAMILY LAW ORDINANCE 1952 for
instance it has been laid down that Muslim men are forbidden to keep
another wife in the presence of first wife without the consult of the
first wife and polygamy is forbidden, and if muslim man in violation of
the above law, married to the second in the presence of the first wife
he will have to pay the full dowry to the wife as well as he shall be
punished for polygamy. There is also DOWRY LAW ORDINANCE, which states that demand and giving dowry is forbidden Prior to the coming of this ORDINANCE there was another law that called SHARIAT LAW OF 1935 where in certain Provinces of India the Muslims women were not given their share in the inhereded property, and paricularly in Punjab this was safeguarded and now Muslim women are entitled to receive property . There is also Muslim family COURT ACT where all the matters pertaining to the disputes between Muslim husband and wife are dealt related to the divorce, dowry, custody of the children, Talaq, maintenance to the wife and children and regarding to all Muslim family ordinaces. The purpose behind these acts are to safeguard the rights of women. As we seen above that there is no discrimination in the law between a man and a woman, but still signs of inadequency are visible. One example came in the hearing of a custody case in year 2000 by the Lahore High Court (LHC). Rather than deciding the matter put before it, the court in fact demanded the separated couple should unite once again to safeguard the welfare of the children. This was despite the fact that during hearings, the wife, who was seekig divorce, had complained she was subjected to repeated violence. A newspaper report looking in to the issued of women seeking release from marriage reported that on average it took a woman two years or more to obtain "KHULA". An amendment in the CITIZENSHIP ACT welcomed by several human rights groups, allowed the grant of nationality to children of Pakistani mother, though not to the women's husband. Most women across the country remained ignorant of even their most basic rights, with a newspaper survey conducted in August finding that over 80 percent of young women aged 18 and 24 in Lahore had no idea of the clauses contained in the " NIKAHNAMA". Almost 90 percent, including those educated to graduate level and beyond, did not realise they had any rights at all, such as those to divorce. The desperation of women seeking help for problems faced in various areas of life can be gauged from the fact that with in six months after they were setup in 1999, 180 women had approached the six women's crises centres established in Islamabad, Vehari, Lahore, Sahiwal, Karachi, and Peshawar, Of these, the vasts majority, 291, sought legal help, while 60 were looking for shelter and 55 for medical help. Women Murdered Women are also killed by means other than burning, with motives often linked to dispute involving their families, or in some cases an effort to protect themselves. Over 2,000 women, including minors, are estimated to have been killed over the year 2000 across the country, though no precise figures are available. Early in the year, two women were gunned down
in pari village in Sukkur, as a result of a property dispute involving
male members of their families. In other cases, deaths have occurred during dacoity or been inflicted by family members as an outcome of crime. An especially alarming case came to light in Islamabad, towards the end of the year 2000. A middle-aged woman, the mother of five children, was found to have been tortured by electric shock and then murdered in her home. Her husband initially tried to pass off the death as 'accidental' but police investigations discovered her adult son, Imtiaz, had first subjected her to torture and then murdered her before taking away her jewellery. His father had attempted to cover up his crime. Honour killings (Karo Kari) In its 'Dimensions of violence' report released in January 2000,the HRCP found that in Certainly,
there seemed to be no improvement in past patterns during the year 2000,
with a newspaper reporting a total of 407 murders of women in the
punjab by june 2000' of these killings, 168 were stated in the FIR to be
motivated by 'honour', while another 109 were committed by a close
relative of the woman, with police citing a suspected 'honour' kiiling. Voilance in custady At least three incidents of the death of womon, resulting from
maltreatment or grave abuse at the hands of law enforcers, were
reported. In May 2000, police from the Qila Gujjar Singh police station
in Lahore forcibly entered the home of Bilquis Bibi at 3.00am in the
morning, in an effort to detain her husband, who was accused of drug
pushing..Bilquis,pregnant at the time, was severely beaten. She died
hours later as a direct result During the same month, in Rawalpindi,
15-year-old shamim Akhtar died in custody. She had been held in a Hudood
case, and was released from fetters barely a day before her death .
though she had been held in a Hudood case, and was released from fetters
barely a day before her death. Though she had remained ill, suffering
possibly from tuberculosis, almost no medical help was provided to her.
The reason for keeping her in fetters was unclear. Political conditions. Pakistani women took a major political part in the history of Pakistan. Fatima Jinnah It simply shows the backwardness of our society that this thinking persists. Had there been a political awakening, then there would have been the women legislature in the provincial and central parliament and they could have had, to a great extend, the right of the women safeguard. As it is obvious we seldom here the names of the women political leaders, they are few and these few names could be quoted for the purpose. The National Commission on the Status of Women, established through an Ordinance on July 17,2000 was given the mandate to examine governmental policies relating to women. In September, the Commission also declared it would target discriminatory laws and violence against women. However no visible alteration in policy had been seen by the end of the year, while the induction of ulema into the National Commission raised concerns about what progress it would be able to make in changing deeply entrenched ground realities. Pakistan also told the 44th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in March that it was strongly committed to protecting their rights, with the government stating it was taking steps to reserve seats in legislative bodies, increase employment and fight against traditional attitudes. On International Women's Day on March 8, women were asked to resolve to work collectively to empower each other, while the country's Chief Executive promised steps to end discrimination at all levels. We can succeed in our efforts to a great extend by educating rural women about their political rights and political situation. As I mentioned earlier the situation in urban areas is quite different and much better as compared to rural areas because the women are educated and know their political rights too but still they are very few in central and provincial legislature which can be counted on finger tips. How dreams turned to slavery for Bangladesh girl KALAROA,
Bangladesh - When neighbours promised fourteen-year-old Moyna a job in
an Indian steel factory and a ticket out of poverty she jumped at the
chance. �I
cried a lot and begged for mercy. I kneeled at their feet but they did
not care,� she says, recalling the night she arrived in Mamba with the
couple. �They forced me to drink wine and pushed me into a room where an Indian man came after me.� Moyna�s
virginity had been sold for 20,000 rupees. The following day she was
sold again to a Bangladeshi woman named Parvin.�After that it was
routine. I was sent to different flats on rental basis for two or three
weeks at a time. �I was to entertain ten to twelve men a day. If I did not oblige they would beat me,� she adds, pointing to scars on her body. Widespread poverty and corruption Moyna was easy prey for the people traffickers who tricked and then forced her into the sex trade. Bangladesh
is among the world�s poorest countries where nearly half the population
survives on less than a dollar a day and millions are forced abroad
each year in search of work. The
US State Department estimates that up to 20,000 women and girls are
trafficked annually from or via Bangladesh to India, Pakistan, Bahrain
and the United Arab Emirates. The majority is from impoverished rural areas and end up working in the sex trade or as domestic helps in slave-like conditions. After being sold to Parvin, Moyna was moved constantly between different Mumbai brothels. But
every few weeks she would return to Parvin�s flat where she met a young
Bangladeshi cook named Hassan who eventually helped her to escape. Four
months after she arrived, Moyna became sick and Parvin decided to sell
her on to a brothel in a small town near the India-Pakistan border. Realizing
it would be his only chance to help her; Hussan engineered an excuse to
have Moyna sent to the market to buy vegetables. �He
gave me a mobile phone as I left and when I got to the market I got a
call from Hussan telling me to wait in front of the market main gate,�
she says. �Then
he arrived in rickshaw and whisked me away to the railway station.
�Before they could come looking for us we were on our way back home.� In
its 2005 report on trafficking, the US State Department praised the
Bangladesh government for �commendable progress� in its anti-trafficking
drive but said it still faced a �huge� problem made worse by widespread
poverty and corruption. UNICEF
says trafficking is most prevalent globally in south and Southeast Asia
and is driven by a worldwide demand for cheap labor. �We
are living in a world where people are stolen, sold and trafficked like
cargo ... where human life has no value,� says Louis-Georges Arsenault,
UNICEF�s representative in Bangladesh. �Trafficking
of women and children, especially for commercial sexual exploitation,
has become a worldwide, multi-billion-dollar industry.� In
the year to February 2005, 70 cases of trafficking were prosecuted in
Bangladesh resulting in 42 convictions, according to the State
Department report. Fertile ground for the traffickers Anti-trafficking organizations in the country however see such cases as merely the tip of the iceberg. �Yes,
there is some progress on the prosecution front, but overall the
picture remains bleak with many still being trafficked each year,� says
Mominul Islam Suruj of the Bangladesh National Women�s Lawyers
Association. The group repatriates hundreds of girls each year from Indian jails where they have ended up after working in brothels. �We
brought 86 girls home from a correction centre in (the Indian state of)
West Bengal in March. We talked to them. Some were so poor they were
sold at 1,200 taka (19 dollars) a piece,� he says. �We even found the trafficker who sent some of the girls to India. He boasts of what he has done. �Unless
the government goes after them with tough measures and shows girls how
their dreams can land them in prisons or brothels in a foreign country
there is no way that this trend will stop.� For now, Moyna is happy to be home. �I
lost my life and now I have found it again. I would not mind being
scolded or even beaten by my family for my foolishness. Such things are
nothing as to the misery I endured in that big city,� she says. �I
thank God that he sent me a rescuer. Had he not sent me Hussan I would
have passed all my life in Mumbai entertaining 10 to 12 men a day and
living off almost nothing,� she adds. But she regrets leaving her friend Baly, also from Kalaroa, behind in Parvin�s Mumbai flat. �Baly
was promised a good job in Mumbai like me, but she does not even have
any ambition to escape from Parvin. She said she did not want to come
back to Kalaroa because her family would not accept her.� Moyna is still thin and frail after her ordeal and has a low-grade fever and jaundice. But
she is determined to seek justice against those who exploited her,
convinced that her story can prevent other girls from meeting Baly�s
fate. �I
now seek justice. I may be ill and an orphan. But I want justice
against this man and his wife even though they are now threatening to
slaughter my family and me. She
has filed a case with police although officials say there is
insufficient evidence to press charges adding that a lot of girls in
Kalaroa go to India willingly �Some
of these girls are very poor. They travel to India illegally and every
now and then one of them comes back with a lot of money. We cannot say
who goes there willingly and who does not,� says Arju Miah, the police
officer-in-charge of Kalaroa. But
critics say trafficking is a way of life in Kalaroa, a sub-district of
Bangladesh�s southwestern Satkhira district close to the Indian border,
and accuse the police of sharing the proceeds with traffickers. The
US government has also urged Bangladesh to tackle what it calls the
�witting and unwitting complicity of officials in trafficking�. �Poverty
is rampant here. There are some success stories that you hear about
some girls who went to Mamba a decade ago, became rich and came back
home to build brick houses in their villages,� says K.M. Anisur, a
lecturer at Kalaroa�s Kazirhat College. �It all makes Kalaroa fertile ground for the traffickers. There is hardly a single example of a trafficker who has been punished in Kalaroa, even though they do this under everyone�s noses.� One Moyna is back but hundreds of Moynas are still waiting to be deceived.� |
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