ISLAMABAD: The broken criminal justice system and misrepresentation of religion, as witnessed in the ‘dharna’ last month at Faizabad, were the core issues perpetrating violence against women in the country.
This was stated by Senator Farhatullah Babar at the launching ceremony of three publications on women related issues by the National Commission on the Status of Women at a local hotel in Islamabad on Thursday.
He said that even a constitutional body like the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) had interpreted religion in ways that militate against women.
At the time of the passage of the Child Marriage Act by the Sindh Assembly, requiring a minimum age of 18 years for the marriage of girls, the then chairman of the council had asked for a ‘treason trial’ of members of the provincial assembly.
Sometimes back, the council decreed that DNA tests were not permissible in rape cases, he said. The beating of wives by husbands is also permissible according to the council but community homes for elderly are not permissible as these are against our cultural norms and traditions, he added.
If we can demand a special public prosecutor for crimes against media persons, why the same can’t be demanded 50 per cent of the population which is also very vulnerable, the senator said.
They are victims of violence in the name of honour and subjected to gang rape and acid throwing to disfigure them. The instruments of violence against them vary from area to area.
About the jirga system, he said that by excluding women from it and institutionally degrading them, the jirgas have been nothing but instruments of violence against women.
To empower and enable them to fight crimes, women must have economic rights, the right to own land, the right to inheritance and equal wages. The draft constitution of October 1950 contained clear-cut provisions for ending all forms of torture and also for equal wages for women.
But both the provisions were deleted in the draft constitution finalised in 1956, he said.
