Treat her like a lady, not a baby-making machine
Kaneez* has five young children with a small age difference between them. She works full-time as a domestic maid and takes short, rushed breaks in order to nurse her youngest child, a five-month-old infant. If her break becomes longer than the expected five minutes, she is severely rebuked by her employer. Life is hard for Kaneez. Not only does her husband expect her to make ends meet, but also wants her to keep adding more children to the brood. Her children fight all the time, demand clothes and toys when she takes them grocery shopping and throw tantrums when their ...
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Husbands who beat, women who get beaten
What happens when your savior also becomes your enemy? How do you feel when the father of your child emotionally, psychologically, verbally and physically abuses you instead of giving you the respect you deserve? How do you reclaim your self-esteem when he ridicules you and your family and makes you believe every time that it is your fault, when actually it isn’t? Domestic violence causes far more pain than the visible marks of bruises and scars. It is devastating to be abused by someone that you love and who you think loves you in return, because you’ll always end up ...
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We need domestic violence legislation…now
Pakistan is considered to be the third most dangerous place for women to live in, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation poll 2011. Despite the fact that the majority population in Pakistan is female, it is still a strictly patriarchal society where women are sometimes killed for something as personal as choosing a husband. In the West, women liberation now means fighting for tax payer funded abortion; in Pakistan, we are still advocating the treatment of women as equal beings who deserve the basic rights to life, family, freedom from torture and inhuman treatment. While there is some progress on the ...
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Bella and Edward are not role models
In the United States, Pakistan, and pretty much all around the world, the Twilight series is a huge hit. In light of the release of Breaking Dawn, it’s important to analyse some detrimental aspects of this ‘love’ story. Isabella Swan, the protagonist, is an awkward and insecure young adult. Even though she embodies characteristics that are in line with pre-adolescents and teenagers, here is my problem – her decisions make her unsuitable as a role model for teenage girls. Edward, her much older vampire love interest, is obsessive. He stalks her and watches her sleep. ...
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Violence against women, no more
The Women’s Rights Bill unanimously passed by the Pakistani parliament is indeed a great achievement. For what it’s worth, it is an acknowledgement by the State that yes, indeed, there should be legislative measures to protect women. Nighat Daad, a lawyer and the social activist behind Take Back the Tech initiative hopes that the proposed Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act 2011, which now awaits passage in the Senate, doesn’t face the similar fate as the Domestic Violence Bill passed by National Assembly in 2009. Daad says: “The Senate allowed it to lapse while saying that this law will enhance ...
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Forced into marriage
We live in the twenty-first century, yet it is appalling to know that women in Pakistan still face numerous problems especially in terms of marriage. Girls are often not given the right to choose their life partners and later when they are married, they are usually victims of domestic violence. Although most women in Pakistan accept a forced marriage as their fate, and quietly sign the marriage certificate, many women stand up for their rights and refuse to do so. The video shows the fate such women face; they are brutally beaten and threatened till they succumb to the wishes of those ...
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Another women’s bill passed – so what?
So another bill was passed in the National Assembly for taking women rights forward. As a woman, and an ardent advocate of women rights, I should be happy and celebrating. But, seriously, I am not. In fact, what does this Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Act 2011 have to offer that the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Act, 2006 or the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 did not offer anyway? Women are still raped, killed for ‘honour’, thrown acid on and harassed at the workplace. Does passing a bill and making it into a ...
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The life of an abused woman
In this video a young woman by the name of Allahrakhi, from the Panah Shelter in Karachi, Pakistan, is interviewed. For her entire life, Allahrakhi has known nothing but sadness and misery. Orphaned as a very young child, her uncle took her and her siblings in, only to deprive them of their father’s wealth and make them bonded labour. On getting married, Allahrakhi was again subjected to abuse; she was beaten often and severely by her husband. Her sister-in-laws-, too were cruel. They did not allow her new clothes or food, and kept poisoning her husband against her . Later, when her child was born, ...
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Domestic violence: The scars that remain
I had met Sumaira Waseem* many times for work. Vivacious, smiling, in control – she seemed to be a confident, educated woman who had it all: a home, a comfortable lifestyle, three children, a ‘nice guy’ husband and a career she enjoyed as an HR consultant. But sometimes, just sometimes, I felt her eyes did not smile along with her lips. Over the years, slowly, we developed a friendship. This year, during one of our heart-to-hearts, Sumaira spoke out. She came out of her closet. What I heard stunned me. Waseem and she seemed like the almost perfect couple. He was quiet, ...
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How Saira learned to smile again
Saira Liaqat was a teenager when she married a relative. Both families agreed that she finish school before moving in with her husband. However, just a few months later he was demanding she drop out. One hot day in July 2003, her husband arrived at her house and doused Saira’s face with acid. Her face was entirely disfigured, her right eye was blinded and she could barely see from the left. The acid attack erased any trace of the pretty girl of the past – but it has not crushed her spirit. Fortunately, she received help from the Depilex Smile again Foundation, an organisation started ...
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