Pakistan - The grip of violence

Over the past two weeks we have had so many positive images from Pakistan of young girls who have worked to improve their communities. With the Malala Fund inviting teenage Sindhi activist Aansoo Kohli to the launch of a documentary about Malala to honour her efforts to set up schools in one of the poorest areas of Sindh, it is easy to believe things are changing for women in the country. But this is just the surface view of events. A terrible incident in Lahore in which a father, along with his son, is alleged to have murdered his 12-year old daughter for not making proper rotis indicates the extent of violence that lurks within homes. After investigations police say the culprits have confessed to their crime. We do not know if there is a deeper angle to the matter. In another horrifying incident a father assaulted and then killed his five-year old daughter alleging that she had been ‘flirting’. There have been many other such cases in the past, recorded each year by anti-child abuse organisations, but largely ignored by the public.

At a seminar organised by several NGOs in Lahore last Wednesday, and addressed by Begum Hameeda Waheed-ud-Din, minister for women development, the figures from an Aurat Foundation report were put forward reporting 7,010 cases of domestic violence against women in 2014 and over 2,000 so far this year. These figures are horrifying. They indicate that our homes, traditionally designated places of safety for women and children, have turned into sites where they are subjected to violence. They also show how the ordinary family has been distorted at least partially as a result of the acute social and economic pressures it faces. There has been much talk about how to alter this. Creating awareness and educating people is not sufficient. We need also to examine the violence that has turned our society into so ugly a place and consider also how social movements can bring a change in this. There are many examples of how this has been achieved, in countries including India. Perhaps the time has come to emulate such efforts and also act to empower and protect the girl child by implementing the laws that already exist.