Women Empowerment

This blog backdates to the lecture we had just before we break-off for our term break. It was rather interesting about women empowerment in Pakistan. We had three prominent ladies to address us. One of the presenter addressed a significant development in legal terms for women, the recently introduced “"Honor Killing Bill." This bill, introduced and approved in 2004 makes Honor Killing a culpable act, essentially murder and it is dealt with as murder in the nation'’s penal code. This act, which involved killing of young women who had married or fallen in love with someone other than the mate selected for them by their parents had been dealt with as a "“grave and sudden provocation"” in the past, essentially a crime of passion, without the consequences of premeditated murder, which is what it is. Unfortunately, this act is still largely driven by cultural norms and occurs quite frequently in the less developed rural areas. At present there are approximately 2 cases per day in Pakistan. The presenter discussed the cultural practice of "“vani"” which involved giving a young girl as consideration as a compromise of a dispute or promoting child marriages -– both of these are now prohibited by law; however, cases still exist, a 7 year old girl was recently given to a 40 year old man in Balochistan to settle a dispute. Another practice, the so called, "“jirga"” is an extra-judicial, tribal form of "rough and ready"’ justice based on customary law in the rural and tribal areas. It is an Indo-Pakistan specific concept. This practice is outlawed in the Sindh and Punjab provinces, but not in Balochistan, the Northern Areas, or the NW Frontier Province. There are essentially three parallel systems of justice in the country - the jirga, the sharia, and civil/criminal. In early Islam the main thrust of jurisprudence and training of jurisprudence came from women.
Property rights of women and inheritances are also a problem in this patriarchal society. Although these rights are not denied by religion, the dogma of current culture forces women to surrender their rights or not to receive their due share. The concept of gender is Pakistan is derived from an ideology of patriarchy, compounded by a stone age tribalism and robber baron feudalism.
Key impediments to gender equality in Pakistan are:
1. Justice reform and police reform - these are essential to ensure enforcement of laws and convictions of guilty in gender-based crimes.
2. A deep rooted bias and tradition of discrimination against women - this must be challenged; remember, power in politics must be "taken"” it is never "“given."”
The lecture rounded up with an optimistic note by pointing out the forces of change is gaining momentum and people are beginning to accept these changes.
Note: Malaysians may like to link the above with our own predicament as reported in today's Malay Mail.