LAHORE: South Asia Partnership (SAP) marked 16 days against gender violence, paying tribute to the three American sisters who were physically tortured when they tried to raise their voice against autocracy.
The SAP event brought together change makers, both women and men, from all districts of Punjab. It was discussed that violence against women was present at, at least, three different levels; personal, community based, and regional/national.
Shamim Malik, a lawyer, emphasised that there were a few steps that needed to be taken into consideration regarding violence, especially at home. Firstly, he said, the realisation that women made that they were being abused and secondly the decision to report this crime, were equally important.
He explained how the victim should seek help, especially in practical terms in a society which does not support the reporting of such issues. He explained that in case the police do not file an FIR, the district magistrate is a better person to go to than anyone else.
Besides this, the woman can always write an application and send it to any police official from the SHO to the IG police, provided her husband or male guardian does not allow her to get out of the house with ease.
“The fact that it is a First Information Report points to the fact that the report can be told to a concerned authority anyway. It does not always have to be in a police station. In India even writing the incident on a tree, has been considered an FIR,” he said.
SAP Executive Director Mohammad Tehseen said civil society organizations were trying to break this tradition of violence against women in the society by putting pressure on anti women and chauvinist policies and laws. He said state owned institutions should be made stronger and every issue should also be seen from the women’s point of view.
SAP Deputy Director Irfan Mufti spoke about the levels of gender violence and said that there were at least five levels; personal, family, community, national, and international level violence against women. He said half the crimes occurred because people thought it was their right to inflict violence on a woman suspected of a morally bad character.
He gave the example of Mukhtaran Mai and said that several people had believed that she had deserved to be raped because she was of a ‘loose character’. “No one has the right to abuse women in any way, or to judge them to have bad morals. If a woman is suppressed, the family, the community, in fact the whole nation suffers. This country will always lag behind if its women are not respected,” he said.
