Please tell that to the women (read 2nd class citizens) of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:
Violence Against Women Continues: Pakistan
from Interact, Summer, 2002
For years, women in Pakistan have been denied the enjoyment of a whole range of rights - economic, social, civil and political. Women are denied not only the right to education, but also the right to decide matters relating to their marriage and divorce. Those denied these rights are more likely to be deprived of the right to legal redress. 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. These deprivations are manifestations of discrimination against women and girls in Pakistan.
Domestic violence and physical abuse, which includes rape, acid throwing, burning, and “honor” killings is still widespread in Pakistan. Acid-throwing is on the increase. The government has done little to restrict the sale of acid or to punish those who use it to injure women. “Honor” killings continue to be reported daily. Pakistan is also both a country of origin and a transit country for the trafficking of women for domestic labor, forced marriage and prostitution. This form of slavery is organized by crime networks that span South Asia. Some women, both local and trafficked, are killed if they refuse to earn money in prostitution. Forced marriage of young girls continues to be reported and while slavery is illegal in Pakistan, girls and women continue to be traded to settle debts or conflicts. The open sale of girls and women in markets is reported in underdeveloped areas such as parts of Balochistan.
Physical abuse of women in custody continues to be rife in Pakistan. Despite promises of police reform, police continue to use torture to intimidate, harass and humiliate detainees to extract money or information.
Since publishing our 1999 report, Pakistan: Violence against Women in the Name of Honor", very few positive changes have taken place for women’s rights and the government in Pakistan still by and large fails to provide adequate protection for women against abuses in the custody of the state and in the family and community. In fact, the number of victims of violence appears to have risen. There is a paucity of legal remedies for women fleeing honor killing and other domestic violence, a lack of safe houses for women, or even couples at risk, an absence of reliable mediation mechanisms to interceded with parents who do not understand or accept women’s rights to freedom of choice in marriage, and an absence of reliable and prompt protection by the state.
While some progress has no doubt been made in bringing the issue of violence against women into the open, much remains to be done. Women’s awareness of their rights, thanks mainly to the dedicated efforts of Pakistani women’s rights groups, along with women’s greater participation in the workforce and resulting exposure to the human rights movement, appears to have somewhat increased. However, the killers of Samia Sarwar (see AIUSA women’s web page at www.amnestyusa.org/women) and many others remain at large. The Parliamentary act that was supposed to explicitly outlaw “honor” crimes did not pass. In one survey by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, it was reported that in 2000, almost 90 percent of women including those educated to the graduate level, did not realize they had any rights at all, such as those of divorce. 345
Amnesty International calls on the government of Pakistan to clearly, consistently and publicly condemn, prohibit investigate and punish all acts of violence against women whether by a government agent or private individual.
Amnesty
