Domestic violence, rape, ‘honour’ killing, forced & child marriages
Systemic denial of gender equality & human rights
London & Islamabad – 29 June 2017
By Chantelle Boduel
Human Rights Adviser – Women’s Economic & Social Think Tank
Pakistan ranks 143 out of 144 nations on the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Gender Gap Index (GGI), scoring above only Yemen.
SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE:
Women’s social reality is complex and mediated by elements outside the mainstream political and state framework. The reality is that traditional governance structures often override state mechanisms of control. The patriarchal systems are complicated by kinship, tribal and ethical considerations and exasperated by the presence of militant armed groups.
Pakistani women are diverse and autonomous in their own right, so the challenges they face will differ based on region, religion and class. However, one problem across the country is the prevalence of violence against women.
Violence Against Women:
In 2014, the Aurat Foundation released some statistics about the Punjab province. It is the most populous province in Pakistan so we must assume that the numbers will vary, but it can provide a snapshot into the country as a whole.
-1866 kidnappings
-964 murders
-362 honour killings
-191 domestic battering reports
-1408 gang rapes
-53 burnings cases
-54 cases of acid throwing
In 2016, the Punjab Gender Parity Report said that of
-6505 cases of violence against women
-Only 1% were prosecuted – a total of 81 perpetrators
In 2010, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence conducted a study to investigate the reasons why Pakistani women do not report the violence perpetrated against them. Of all the study participants:
-One-third of respondents reported domestic abuse
-But only 35% ever told anyone about it
-The majority of these women had told a mother or close female relative
Focus groups revealed some of the main reasons for the lack of reporting:
-Fear of victim blaming
-Fear of bringing dishonour to the family
-Fear of the relationship ending in divorce
-Fear of losing their children in a custody battle
If handled in religious courts, women often report pressure to “forgive” their abuser.
Under-aged & forced marriages
-21% of Pakistani girls marry before they reach the age of majority
Unfortunately, legislation aimed at increasing the age of consent to 18 has been protested by all major religious groups, including the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). As a result of these protests, the 2016 Marriage Bill was withdrawn
All of the issues of violence against women are worse for women and girls from ethnic and religious minority groups or those living in occupied regions that do not have access to adequate legal services.
-Approximately 1,000 girls per year are forced to marry for the purpose of converting them to the Islamic faith.
There is a lack of transparency in reporting crimes against women.
Collecting statistics is the first step to developing adequate policies to combat these issues, but the Pakistani government is not always forth-coming with this information. It is almost impossible to conduct legitimate research in the occupied areas.
Education neglect
Too many Pakistani schools lack adequate infrastructure.
-44% don’t have electricity
-34% don’t have drinking water
-28% don’t have bathroom facilities
-Many have inadequate security
Enrolment is lower for girls across the country, but enrolment doesn’t tell us if/how often the girls are attending school and whether they graduate.
The situation is even worse in rural & occupied areas
-In some regions (like the Northwest) the enrolment rate for girls is as low as 13%
-In some regions the literacy rate for girls is as low as 25%
Barriers to education include:
-Poverty -Traditional/conservative views about girls education
-Poor accessibility
-Lack of female teachers
-Irrelevance of curriculum
-Lack of political will to find solutions
ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVE:
As previously mentioned, it is difficult to separate the issues facing Pakistani women into neat little boxes, as both violence against women and a lack of education rights could also be evaluated under economic issues.
There is a significant amount of research that shows empowering women and girls in their education impacts:
-the rate of infant mortality
-birth rates and -children’s education
-wage gap
-level of achievement in the work force
A study conducted in Pakistan from 1972 to 2010 indicated that empowering girl’s education could stimulate the economy of the entire country.
According to the 2016 Gender Gap Index:
-women make up only 22% of the labour force
-and only 3% of legislators, managers and senior officials
-There is no law against gender discrimination in hiring policies
-Wage gap issues based on gender continue to be a problem
-And there are many cases of workplace harassment (including sexual harassment)
There are also stark differences between different classes. Pakistan, like every country, has intersecting layers of discrimination. For example, an upper class, well-educated woman may not face as many of the challenges as a woman from an underprivileged, disenfranchised family. There are also stark differences between those living in urban areas and those living in rural areas.
POLITICAL & LEGAL PERSPECTIVE:
Pakistan has a very interesting political history in terms of gender representation, and in some ways there have been steps towards equality.
Before 1999:
-Women were 3% of political representatives at the national level
-President Musharraf reserved 33 seats for women in all three tiers of government
Female representation at the political level is extremely important because studies show that women legislators have distinctive legislative behaviour and raise issues for pro-women legislation.
In Pakistan, female MPs have raised issues about:
-Violence against women
-Honour killings
-Reproductive health -Human trafficking
-Sexual harassment in the work place
-Protection for burn victims
-And even called out discriminatory practice of their male MPs and the speaker of the house
In 2016 there were only 21 women compared to 79 men in the parliament and there hasn’t been any investigation into how freely they can participate. Representation continues to be an issue, because:
-Majority of the female representatives are over 43 and married
-They are highly qualified and educated
-5% are from urban areas
-1/3 have husbands or fathers in the political realm
-1/4 have husbands or fathers in the business class
The legal system in Pakistan is a combination of civil law and Islamic law, giving credence to institutionalized discrimination against women. Although interpretations of Shari’a vary between Imams and schools of Islamic law, family disputes tend to favour patriarchal norms, including the denial of custodial rights to women, a lack of options during marriage and divorce, and an undervaluing of women’s testimonies.
Empirical evidence from Pakistan shows that most people don’t actually want the imposition of religious laws; rather, they want laws that will not infringe on their ability to practice their religion. These are two very different things.
Here are some ways that women are legally disenfranchised in Pakistan:
Divorce:
-Husbands can divorce for any reason
-Women must request a divorce from a family court, which will be Islamic in nature. They must prove that she has a good reason for getting divorced, such as:
*Their husband has been absent for 4 years
* Has not fulfilled his financial duties for 2 years
*Married another wife without the first wife’s consent
*Their husband is “unduly severe” when punishing her
Child custody:
-Islamic law states that the legal guardian is the father, and after him it’s the paternal grandfather
-A mother has only physical custody of her children until they reach the “age of custodial transfer”
*7 for boys
*Puberty for girls
-If she remarries, she may also lose custody
Inheritance:
– Women are entitled to inherit but receive half the share available to men with the same degree of separation.
*Example: A daughter will receive half of what a son receives
-If a widow remarries, she will not receive, or many have to pay back, any inheritance her late husband left her.
-There are also pressures for women to voluntarily give up their inheritance to male heirs.
Domestic violence:
The Provinces of Sindh and Balochistan passed bills against domestic violence in 2013 and 2014 respectively. In 2016, the Punjab projection bill was finally passed, but there was backlash.
-Religious political parties called it “an act of conspiracy to destroy the family unit”
-The Council of Islamic Ideology called it “unIslamic” and stated the provincial assembly who passed it should be tried for treason
Statistical analysis shows that there is a correlation between countries with low gender equality in family law and violence against women.
Lastly, blasphemy laws, which impact everyone living in the country, are detrimental to the progression of women, especially as they are often used to silence anyone who disagrees with the government.
THREE RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Experts researching the best ways to reduce violence against women assert the importance of female police officers. They also suggest a revamping of the way domestic violence and rapes are reported, including placing an equal weight on female and male testimonies.
- In order to adhere to The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), legal experts have suggested that religious arbitration in family courts should be non-binding and fundamentally secondary to civil law.
- Europe has a responsibility to monitor Pakistan’s application of the 27 core conventions dictated under the GSP+ program, include CEDAW and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (which prohibits child marriages).
SOURCES:
Education
Chaudhry, I.S. (2007), “Impact of Gender Inequality in Education on Economic Growth: An Empirical Evidence from Pakistan”, The Pakistan Horizon Vol. 60, No. 4, 2007.
Chaudhry, I. & Rahman, S. (2009). “The Impact of Gender Inequality in Education on Rural Poverty in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis”. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, Issue 15, 2009.
Dr. Noureen, G. & Dr. Awan, R. (2011). “Women’s Education in Pakistan:Hidden Fences on Open Frontiers”. Asian Social Science, Vol. 7, No. 2; 2011.
Jamal, A. (2016). Why He Won’t Send His Daughter to School—Barriers to Girls’ Education in Northwest Pakistan: A Qualitative Delphi Study of Pashtun Men. SAGE Open, Vol. 6, No.3, DOI: https://doi-org.chain.kent.ac.uk/10.1177/2158244016663798.
Klasen, Stephan (1999). “Does Gender Inequality Reduce Growth and development? Evidence from Cross-Country Regressions”, Policy Research Report On Gender and Development Working Paper Series, No. 7. Development Research Group /PREMN, the World Bank.
Knowles, Stephen, Paula K. Lorgelly, and P. Dorian Owen (2002) “Are Educational Gender Gaps a Brake on Economic Development? Some Cross-Country Empirical Evidence”, Oxford Economic Papers, 54(1): 118–149.
Purewal, N., & Hashmi, N. (2014). Between returns and respectability: parental attitudes towards girls’ education in rural Punjab, Pakistan. British Journal of Sociology of Education, , 1-19 .
SADF. (2017). Education: South Asia’s foundation for the future. Brussels : South Asia Democratic Forum
Violence against women
Anderson, N., Cockcroft, A., Ansari, U., Omar, K., Ansari, N., Khan, A., et al. (2010). Barriers to Disclosing and Reporting Violence Against Women in Pakistan: Findings from a National Household Survey and Focus Group Discussions. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Vol.25, No.11, 1965–1985
HRW. 2017. “World Report 2017: Events of 2016”
CERD. 3 October 2016. “Concluding observations on the combined twenty-first to twenty-third periodic reports of Pakistan”, § 25.
Employment
Akram, N., Hamid, A., & Bashir, S. (2011). Gender Differentials in Education and their Impact on Economic Growth of Pakistan. Journal of Business & Economics, Vol.3(1), 102-122.
Shah, I. A., & Baporikar, N. (2013). Gender Discrimination: Who is Responsible? Evidence from Pakistan. Women’s Studies, Vol.42(1), 78-95.
Yasin, G., Chaudhry, I. S., & Afzal, S. (2010). The Determinants of Gender Wage Discrimination in Pakistan: Econometric Evidence from Punjab Province. Asian Social Science, Vol.6(11)
World Economic Forum. 2016. “Global Gender Gap Index 2016”. Available at: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2016/rankings/ [last accessed: 5 February 2017].
Political
Afzal, Nabeela. (1999). Women and parliament in Pakistan 1947–1977. Lahore: Pakistan Study Center, University of Punjab
Bari, F. (2010). Women parliamentarians: challenging the frontiers of politics in Pakistan. Gender, technology and development, Vol.14, No.3, 363-384.
F Shaheed, Imagined Citizenship: Women State and Politics in Pakistan, Lahore: Shirkat Gah, 2002
Shaheed, F. (2010). Contested Identities: gendered politics, gendered religion in Pakistan. Third World Quarterly, Vol.31, No.6, 851-867.
Shaheed, Farida, Warraich, Sohail Akbar, Balchin, Cassandra, & Gazdar, Aisha. (Eds). (1998). Shaping women’s lives: Laws, practices & strategies in Pakistan. Lahore, Pakistan: Shirkat Gah Women’s Resource Center.
World Economic Forum. (2015). Global Gender Gap Index 2016. http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2016/rankings/
Legal
Bari, F. (2010). Women parliamentarians: challenging the frontiers of politics in Pakistan. Gender, technology and development, Vol.14, No.3, 363-384
Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Pakistan: Women’s inheritance rights according to the Shari’a [Islamic Law], 1 May 1999, PAK31780.E, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad8624.html [accessed 8 May 2017]
Center for Strategic and Contemporary Research. (2016). Punjab Women Protection Law 2016: Research Brief. CSCR.
HG.org; Legal Resources. (n.d.). Divorce in Pakistan. Retrieved April 29, 2017, from https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=5439
Manzoor, A. (2014). Inheritance rights of women. Pakistan Today.
Pluto Journals. (2012). Legislation on Women and Family in Pakistan Trends and Approaches-IV. Policy Perspectives, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 143-171.
http://courtingthelaw.com/2015/11/09/commentary/child-custody-law-in-pakistan/
https://lawyereadia.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/custody-of-children-under-the-laws-of-pakistan/