Pakistan
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 .
URGENT: PAKISTAN: Shirkat Gah Appeals for Support in Relief Work
URGENT Action: Shirkat Gah Appeals for Support in Relief Work
Pakistan is facing yet another emergency situation due to severe flooding caused by heavy rainfall. According to the Pakistani government, this has affected twenty million people so far. After visiting the flood stricken areas, a visibly upset UN General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, said “This has been a heart-wrenching day for me. In the past, I have visited many natural disasters, but I have never seen anything like this.”
Shirkat Gah - Women’s Resource Centre (SG), Pakistan, is actively engaged in providing relief to those affected and coordinating efforts across Pakistan through its partner community based organizations in synchronization with all three Shirkat Gah offices in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar. We would like to appeal to all to help us in raising funds. Your contribution will be highly appreciated and will be used to set up medical camps and purchase goods necessary for immediate relief such as food items and non-food items including medicines, cooking utensils, clothing and shoes (the latter two items can also be donated through the Shirkat Gah Offices). The funds will later be used for the particular needs of communities based on a reassessment of the situation.
You can either drop off or mail us clothing and shoes donations at any of our 3 offices – please see the end of the document for postal details.
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: Outrage at Kala Dhaka Jirga's rajm "judgement"
Outrage at Kala Dhaka Jirga's Rajm “Judgement”
8 July 2010 – Khawateen Mahaz-e-Amal (Women’s Action Forum – National) is outraged at reports of yet another “judgement” (sic) of Rajm (stoning to death) for “illicit relations” (sic), pronounced by a self-styled Jirga in Kala Dhaka, on an accusation that a man and a woman were seen walking together in a field in Madakhail.
WAF strongly condemns the Jirga and its verdict; as also the fact that while the accused man, Zarkat, escaped on hearing the Jirga’s “verdict” of Rajm, the accused woman was “captured” by the Jirga members and reportedly is being held at a secret place in Manjakot, pending the Rajm punishment. As usual, it is the woman who is made to bear the brunt of such atrocious barbarism, injustice, and inhuman, unIslamic “sentences”.
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.