Pakistan: Women speak up on rape
Uzma Saeed is a Legal Activist in Lahore. She is working on a legislative watch programme, urging Parliamentarians, media and political parties to raise awareness regarding the Hudood laws. Her aim is to abolish the law because it has been created keeping men on a safer alter and it would be instrumental in subjugating women as a whole. She says, ‘about 60% of women in our jails have been imprisoned as a result of Hudood laws’. Robina Nawab is a Marketing Officer in Rawalpindi. She works for a radio project called ‘Hear My Voice’. She had met and talked to the rape victims. She says, ‘Our problem is not a high incidence of rape but laws which prevent women from reporting rape without getting jailed themselves’. She believes that government is working on it and is hopeful that things will change. Sadia Suhail is an Office Administrator in Karachi. She works for legal aid organization inside the women’s prison in Karachi. She met with the downtrodden women who have been victims of Hudood laws. She says, ‘These women are totally illiterate, hardly aware of their rights, they don’t know about zina laws (sex outside marriage) and know nothing of the problems that exist for women in Pakistan. Most of them are here without any support. Sometimes, their family is the cause of their plight’. Zunaira Mehfooz is a doctor who works in Karachi. She is of the view that NGO’s publicize the issue of rape just to attract funding for themselves. Moreover, they don’t have a significant role in women upliftment in Pakistan as most of them are run by wealthy people. Mussarat Shefi works in Kohat, a women’s crises center. She is of the view that rape is not the only problem in the Province. Women do suffer from domestic violence as well. And the root cause of all the problem is poverty. Local people have little faith over NGO’s as they assume that the foreigners are running the centers. However, Shefi said that they have won their faith and told them that the organization has set up to solve their problems.
