Pakistan
Violence against women and attacks on religious minorities on the rise in Pakistan
The families of the victims are often afraid to use the courts for fear of reprisals. The proposals of the Justice and Peace Commission to combat the phenomenon.
Robert Fisk: The truth about 'honour' killings
The old Pakistani maulawi laid two currency bills on the table between us, one for 50 rupees, the other for 100 rupees. "Now tell me," Rahat Gul asked, "which is the more valuable?" I thought it was a trap – which it was, in a way – but he lost patience with me and seized the 100 rupee note. "Now come with me." And he stood up and led me down a narrow corridor into a small bedroom. There was a camp bed, a military radio and, at the far end, a giant British-made safe. He fiddled with the combination and hauled on the iron door. Then he placed the 100 rupee bill inside and locked the vault. "You see?" he said. "This is like a woman. She must be protected and looked after, because she is more precious than us."
Reader, this is no joke. This whole piece of entirely spontaneous theatre occurred several years ago in what was then called the North West Frontier Province. But I actually possess a videotape of the entire proceedings, in which you see me following the divine to his safe and hear him comparing the worth of the currency bill to the worth of a woman. I was supposed to be impressed by the high status which he accorded women. What struck me, of course, was that this high status appeared to accord women an exclusively economic value – she was a bank account – and that this might lie behind the whole misogynistic system which led us to the curse of "honour" crime.
Pakistan: Challenges for Domestic Violence Legislation
For more than a year, Pakistan's Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill has languished in legislative limbo, awaiting political resuscitation. The National Assembly passed the bill on August 4, 2009, but the Senate failed to do so within three months mandated by the Constitution, opting to let the bill .
Honour Crimes Shame the World - Robert Fisk
It's one of the last great taboos: the murder of at least 20,000 women a year in the name of 'honour'. Nor is the problem confined to the Middle East: the contagion is spreading rapidly.
PAKISTAN: Rapes of Christian girls reflects tactic
FAROOQABAD, Pakistan, August 16 (CDN) — The vulnerability of Christian girls to sexual assault in Pakistani society emerged again last month as a Muslim landowner allegedly targeted a 16-year-old and a gang of madrassa (Islamic school) students allegedly abused a 12-year-old in Punjab Province.
PAKISTAN: Women's Trauma of Floods & Conflict Displacement
Pakistan’s most severe monsoon floods in 80 years have more than four million people in north-western and central Pakistan, including 1.6 million in Punjab. Many people already displaced by conflict in the region have been forced to flee again. The floods now threaten Balochistan and Sindh, where more than 500,000 people have been evacuated to safer areas. The flooding has caused food prices to , while 39 per cent of houses have been destroyed or .
Pakistani couple face death by stoning threat after conviction for adultery
A couple have been sentenced to be stoned to death for alleged adultery by a tribal court in north-west , with the woman's life now considered in grave danger.
'Honour killing' suspected in murder of British couple in Pakistan
A British couple have been murdered in in a suspected "honour killing" after calling off their daughter's marriage.
A man and his wife from the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, named locally as taxi driver Gul Wazir and wife Bagum, had reportedly visited the country to resolve a dispute over a wedding.
Pakistani couple face death by stoning threat after conviction for adultery
A couple have been sentenced to be stoned to death for alleged adultery by a tribal court in north-west , with the woman's life now considered in grave danger.
The man involved, Zarkat Khan, has run away while the woman is in the custody of the court, according to residents in Kala Dhaka, a remote area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The death sentence, handed down in Manjakot village last month, will be carried out once the man is found, a member of the tribal court said.
The woman, whose name is being withheld at the request of human rights groups, is being held in a nearby village, according to campaigners. She is married and believed to have three children.
"As usual, it is the woman who is made to bear the brunt of such atrocious barbarism, injustice, and inhuman, un-Islamic sentences," said the Woman's Action Forum, a Pakistani non-governmental organisation. "Why is the provincial law enforcement system neither de jure nor de facto functional? Where are the women's protection mechanisms and institutions?"
Pakistan: The Human Rights Crisis in Northwest Pakistan
Millions of Pakistanis in the northwest tribal areas live in a human rights free zone where they have no legal protection by the government and are subject to abuses by the Taleban, Amnesty International said in a major report released on Thursday.
"Nearly 4 million people are effectively living under the Taleban in northwest Pakistan without rule of law and effectively abandoned by the Pakistani government," said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International's interim Secretary General.