Despite tall claims of every successive government for promoting religious tolerance and termination of discrimination in Pakistan, the minorities of the country are still passing through different kinds of ordeals including sexual harassment, forced conversion, religious discriminated, lack of education, higher rates of infant mortality ratio and fewer job opportunities, a study on the minority women in Pakistan reveals.
The study was conducted by the National Commission for Justice and Peace with the help of a baseline survey conducted in 26 district of Punjab and Sindh, the two provinces where 95 percent of minorities reside. The survey team conducted interviews of 1000 women hailing from Christian and Hindu religions.
RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION: A high proportion of the women interviewed (42.5 percent) stopped short of replying to specific questions on faith-based discrimination, for fear of undesirable consequences if the issue was discussed. Nevertheless, 43.2% of the respondents said that they or a member of their family had been discriminated against while 14.3% said they never faced such discrimination. Twenty-seven per cent of the women said they had faced difficult and derogatory questions and 19 percent said that Muslim majority members had disallowed them from eating with them. A half of the women questioned said they had not come across any discrimination regarding their religious rituals, rites or wearing a symbol of their faith.
MINORITY WOMEN AND LAWS: The report criticises the Pakistani constitution for giving rights to minority members only “on paper”, saying that “religious discrimination” is part of the constitution. It states that if a person converts to another religion from Islam, he or she is considered an apostate and a blasphemer, which makes discrimination “de-facto” in the country. The report notes that while minority laws have not been reviewed since 1947, Islamic legislation such as the Hudood Laws applies to religious minorities, contradicting their personal laws and at times infringing on their freedom as well. It cites the Christian Divorce Act 1869, according to which a Christian woman is not treated equally, as still being in place.
EDUCATION: Circumstances aren’t any easier in educational institutions. When asked about instances of religious discrimination by teachers, 71 percent of the respondents chose not to reply. The 29 percent who did reply betrayed fear. They said they were often asked to convert to Islam, an experience that is common to both male and female students from minority communities.
When asked if teachers actively tried to discourage discriminatory attitudes 46 percent of the respondents said that teachers encouraged the intermingling of students from different faiths. At the time of admission, merit appears to take some precedence of religion as 47 percent of the respondents said they had faced no hurdles due to their faith at the time of seeking admissions.
WORKPLACE ATTITUDES AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: Forty-seven per cent of the interviewees said that they had been discriminated against in the workplace in the form of a refusal of a holiday, being made to work on a holiday, paid lower wages, denied increments and sudden terminations and transfers. Although the study found that the respondents were not sensitised for political participation or to rally for social change and rights, 74 percent of them were registered to vote and 65 percent had exercised that right.
“No Christian was awarded a laptop, taxi or a plot in CM Shahbaz Sharif’s schemes, what more needs to be said?”
PPP leader Napoleon Qayyum
“Muslim men are no different from general Pakistani men. I have been in situations and Muslim men, knowing that I am a Christian, didn’t hesitate to help.”
Marilyn Naeem, an MPhil student from FC College
“Muslims normally abstain from sharing their utensils with us,”
Bhai Ram, a Hindu
“The bias is not religious, men think as men first. Their religion usually becomes secondary when it comes to victimising women,”
Irha Shaukat, a feminist
“Extremism, both religious and secular kind, is rampant in Pakistan. Discrimination is part of no religion, be it Islam or Christianity or any other,”
Amna Rehman, a madrassa student
With additional inputs from Muzaffar Ali, Michelle Jacob & Tajwar Awan