Pakistan
Pakistan: Statement by National Commission on the Status of Women against Supreme court verdict on gang rape case
The National Commission on the Status of Women, an official organisation, and members of Insani Huqooq Ittehad, including PODA, Mehergargh, Aurat Foundation, Rozan, Sungi, Bedari, Ethno Media, Pattan and SPO convened an emergency meeting to express deep shock and disappointment at the verdict given by the superior court in the Mukhtara Mai gang rape case today. Although the judgment did prove that Mukhtara was raped because one accused did get life imprisonment, while others were acquitted. We are surprised to see why only one accused was punished and others were acquitted on a charge of 'gang rape'.
UN Women: Bringing Widows to the Forefront in South Asia
New Delhi—UN Women has launched a three-year regional programme to address the needs of widows in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Funded jointly by UN Women’s Swiss National Committee and the Standard Chartered Bank, the programme will be implemented to reduce the social ostracism faced by widows. This will be done by collecting data and evidence to highlight the stigma widows face, working with widows’ coalitions so they can speak up and access public services, and by guaranteeing that discriminatory social practices against widows are reviewed and repealed.
Pakistan: Rape Media Coverage Sensationalized, Politicized, Insensitive
Islamabad: Senior journalists and women rights activists like any ordinary crime, at the launching ceremony of a report on the media’s role in sex crimes.
Tasneem Ahmar, director of Uks, Dr Salman Tariq, gender advisor at United Nations, Huma Khawar, senior journalist, Quatrina Hosain, director of current affairs at Express News and Tahira Abdullah, a well known rights activist, were speaking on Monday at the launching ceremony of a report titled ‘How rape is covered by the media in Pakistan’. The report has been compiled by Uks Research Centre, Islamabad in collaboration with the Global Fund for Women.
Pakistan: Women's Police Stations for Gender Violence
ISLAMABAD: A total number of 11,789 cases of violence against women have been registered in the country since January 2009.
According to the available data from Ministry of Interior: 8433 cases in Punjab, 680 cases in Sindh, 1656 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 333 cases in Balochistan, 272 cases in Islamabad Capital Territory, 362 cases in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and 62 cases in Gilgit and Baltistan have been recorded since 2009.
Pakistan: Forced marriage - 12-year-old seeks divorce from 35-year-old husband
FAISALABAD: 12-year-old Alina* wants a divorce from her 35-year-old husband to whom she was married against her will in January. Her parents and husband’s family are however insistent that the girl live with the man because divorced women are not respected in the society.
Transnational Forced Marriage: From the UK to Pakistan
We recall that ‘marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses’ (Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, Article 16(2)). Heightened media sensitivity surrounding the practice of forced marriage helped to lead to the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007, implemented in autumn 2008, incorporating the Act into a new Part 4A of the Family Law Act 1996.
Pakistan: Inter-University Film Festival ‘Violence is not our Culture’
Shirkat Gah (SG) organized an inter-university film festival on Thursday, 3rd of March 2011 at the Ali Institute of Education, as part of its campaign titled ‘Violence is not our Culture’. This event also marked 100 years of International Women’s Day (1911-2011). The event was attended by university students, Civil Society and NGO members as well as people from all walks of life.
Pakistan: Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, critic of blasphemy laws, shot dead in Islamabad
Self-described gunmen have shot dead 's minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, an advocate of reform of the country's blasphemy laws, as he left his Islamabad home.
Two assassins sprayed the Christian minister's car with gunfire, striking him at least eight times, before scattering pamphlets that described him as a "Christian infidel". The leaflets were signed "Taliban Punjab".
Pakistan: Hundreds of women die for “honour” each year
LAHORE, 27 January 2011 (IRIN) - Did 22-year-old Saima Bibi scream out as she was electrocuted at her parents’ home in their village near the southern Punjab city of Bahawalpur in Pakistan? Did she plead with her family for her life? Did she seek mercy?
The answers to these questions will never be known. In one of the most harrowing “honour” killings reported in recent months in the country, Saima was, according to media reports, murdered by her relatives.
Pakistan: Crimes of Honor and Questions on Powers of Panchayat "Courts"
TWENTY-year-old Saima was electrocuted to death Friday in Bahawalpur district on the orders of a panchayat comprised of her father and three uncles, because she had eloped with a man of her choosing. That same week, Najma Bibi was paraded around her village in Khanewal district with her hair chopped off and face blackened in accordance with a panchayat`s orders, after her in-laws accused her of having illicit relations.