The Horrors Faced by Pakistani Women
Pitiable Plight of Powerless Pakistani Women
By Anwaar Hussain
THERE IS A species of Homo sapiens found in large numbers in Pakistan whose plight is worse than animals. Amazingly, the male of the species hunts its own female counterpart in a deadly blood sport. The females are killed, maimed and their spirits broken by their males in a variety of ways.
They are burnt, electrocuted, tortured till death, doused with acid, starved, sentenced to life confinement, humiliated privately, paraded and dragged naked in town squares publicly. They are punched, kicked and slapped into submission. Once broken in body and spirit, some are sold like cattle and some exchanged like property items to settle old disputes.
This year alone 631 of this species was killed in the first eight months as reported by an independent Rights Commission. No statistics are available from remote areas in Pakistan where this blood sport is a favorite pastime. Like in the past, some of the favorite methods of killing remained stabbing, shooting, burning, hacking to pieces, strangulating and slitting open their throats with sharp weapons. If all goes well, the stage is set to cross the customary figure of 1000 honor killings this year.
This species is none other than the hapless Pakistani woman. This year’s badge of honor is worn by 247 husbands, 112 brothers, 54 fathers, 25 sons and two uncles. In the other cases, as there is no mention of who carried out the killing, the badge of honor can safely be awarded to the whole family. Ironically, all this while these women continued to be called as mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.
In 1998 alone, 54 cases of women being stripped and dragged through the streets of Punjab in ‘revenge’ attacks were recorded. Between 1994 and 1999, almost 4,000 cases of women being badly burned were documented in the tiny twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi alone. An abysmally low percentage survives. The rest go on to a permanently disfigured existence. It is believed to be only the tip of the iceberg.
After General Zia’s Hudood Ordinance, women have routinely become convicts in their own rapes for lack of evidence. Unable to produce four ‘pious’ male witnesses who have observed the act from close quarters, scores are now languishing in Pakistani jails with no hope of escape from their captors. Others have been publicly lashed and fined for their own rapes.
The judges alone are not having the fun. In one instance, even the village elders joined the spree. They condemned a woman on frivolous charges to be gang-raped by beastly men with the whole village in attendance. The ghastly sentence was carried out in letter and spirit. Incredibly, this year two six years old children too were found fit to be killed by their relations in the name of honor in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh. The disaster was averted only by timely intervention of local influential persons.
To escape death by hanging, four men from Mianwali district agreed to pay $130,000 and give eight of their daughters away in marriage to the victims’ families. One angel-faced child named Iqra was only 5 years old. Fourteen years old Tasleem Khan was betrothed to a 55-year-old farmer.
The Pakistani male has two expedient modes to validate all this horror. Islam and/or prevalent culture in parts of Pakistan. He conveniently switches between these modes to justify all the suffering heaped upon the luckless women. When attention is drawn to the plight of women in Pakistan, ideologues are quick to refute such charges by painting a lofty picture of the high status of women in Islam. When Quranic Ayahs dealing with the subject of women are quoted exactly to women’s benefit, the culturists are quick to come up with Pathan, Sindhi, Punjabi or Balochi culture as their second line of defense.
Every law, from God’s to man’s, grants men and women equal rights. Woman is recognized by Islam as a full and equal partner of man in the procreation of humankind. By this partnership she has an equal contribution in every facet of this process. She undertakes equal responsibilities and is, therefore, entitled to equal rights. In her are as many qualities and as much humanity as there are in her partner. God says:
And their Lord has accepted (their prayers) and answered them (saying): 'Never will I cause to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female; you are members, one of another…(3:195)
The status of woman is clearly given in the following Quranic injunction;
…And women shall have rights similar to the rights against them, according to what is equitable; but men have a degree (of advantage as in some cases of inheritance) over them (2:228).
This degree is not a license of superiority or an authorization of brutal governance over her. It is to match with the extra responsibilities of man and give him some compensation for his many responsibilities. It is these extra responsibilities that give man a degree over woman in some economic aspects. It is not a higher degree in humanity or in character. Nor is it a dominance of one over the other or suppression of one by the other.
Consider the following momentous verse, addressing men and women equally - as believers, as members of the community, with equal access to God’s “Forgiveness and great reward”:
“For Muslim men and women, For believing men and women, For devout men and women, For men and women who are patient and constant, For men and women who humble themselves, For men and women who give in charity, For men and women who fast (and deny themselves), For men and women who guard their chastity, and For men and women who engage much in God’s praise, For them has God prepared forgiveness and great reward.” (33:35)
Remarkably, all verses pertaining to Hijaab, Zina and Talaaq are almost memorized by heart by the Muslim males. While this one, so profoundly dealing with the equality of Muslim males and females is perhaps one of the lesser known. Therefore, most Muslim men, and even women, grow up believing that their religious laws place women below men and more importantly, that this is an indisputable and absolute fact.
Well, it is not. From the Quran, it is abundantly clear that both men and women are promised the same reward for good deeds and the same punishment for misconduct. The Prophet (PBUH) necessitated the pursuit of knowledge for both Muslim men and women equally. To sum it up, in Islam there is indeed absolutely no difference between men and women as far as their relationship to Allah is concerned.
Man made laws too guarantee equality of both ***es. Both the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Pakistani constitution clearly, emphatically and unambiguously guarantee equality on grounds of ***.
On the governmental level, no whole hearted attempt has ever been made to translate these into honest legislation and ensure its strict enforcement, legally and socially, to eradicate the evil root and branch. As a people, we conveniently switch between the divine and the man made laws, throwing in culture for good measures, allowing no escape to these unfortunate creatures. Vis-à-vis Pakistani male, it’s a heads-you-lose-tails-I-win situation for the Pakistani female.
To give just two examples of this convenient, but contradictory, arrangement consider the following:
There are clear injunctions in the Quran regarding women’s share in their parent’s property. A huge majority of Pathans, Sindhis, Balochis and even Punjabis in rural areas distribute their properties only among their male off-springs. The women inherit nothing. Reason given: Culture.
Yet, when Islam enjoins Hijaab on women, these very males are more than willing to even exceed the manner prescribed by God. They wrap them up in thick suffocating bolts of cloth with just two slits left open to peep out from. In parts of Muslim world, even a horse-like contraption is enforced on these women in public. Reason given: Islam.
Ironically, even while employing culture as the standard excuse, the Pakistani males are unabashedly selective. If killing has to carried out, why is there honor killing of women only? Why can’t men be killed to vindicate the same honor? Is it because the men can retaliate and the women are weak and defenseless? Some men, some honor, some double standards.
Perhaps time has come to call a spade a spade. Violence against the women of Pakistan has to be addressed forcefully and finally. The Government of Pakistan must actually honor its obligations under International law to protect women. All reports of honor killings and domestic abuse should be doggedly investigated and persistently prosecuted. Wide-ranging and sustained public awareness programs should be carried out on the state-run media to inform all Pakistanis of women’s equal rights.
The people of Pakistan too need to carry out an honest hypocrisy check. The bigots must be effectively discouraged from negative portrayals of women and prejudices against them. In the name of God and in the name of honor the Pakistani women have been harried long enough. It is time they are restored to the venerated place they actually have in Islam.
The writer is a former officer of Pakistan Air Force.
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