Speakers at an interactive session have stressed the need for safeguarding reproductive health rights for elimination of violence against women.
The event was organised by the Islamabad chapter of the Pakistan Reproductive Health Network (PRHN) in collaboration with SACHET and the National Trust for Population Welfare Organizations (NATPOW), with undergraduate students of the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) in connection with the 16 days of activism to end violence against women and girls, said a press release issued by the organisers.
Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, founding president of SACHET, spoke as chief guest on the critical need for the state to provide reproductive health and family planning services to all.
He spoke against the prevalent culture of son-preference and of his pride in his two daughters, as well as his pledge and practical action not to continue having children in the desire for a son. He spoke against the evils of dowry, and endorsed the demands for reproductive health services and rights for all citizens.
A number of individual and institutional members of PRHN participated in the event.
Saliha Ramay, Project Coordinator Rozan, described the new global initiative to end violence against women and girls, titled “one billion rising”. A short documentary, produced for the global campaign, was shown to sensitize the students on the global nature of the problem.
Later, development worker and rights activist Tahira Abdullah interacted with the students in a session on the need to safeguard and enhance reproductive health rights as a pre-condition for eliminating violence against girls and women.
Quoting extensively from the 1973 Constitution, she illustrated the point that the fundamental rights and principles of policy guarantee women’s rights to reproductive health, well-being, and freedom from violence and coercion; and obligate the state to preserve, protect and promote women’s rights.
She sensitized the students on the vital nexus of demographic, economic and reproductive health rights, quoting the available data. She also demanded that the long-overdue census (pending since 2008) must be urgently undertaken, as there can be no practicable lawmaking, policymaking, planning or programming if we do not have even the most basic sex-disaggregated demographic and poverty-related data.
Dr Rakhshinda Perveen’s published report titled: “Forgotten - Dowry: A Socially Endorsed Form of Violence Against Women” was launched and distributed on the occasion.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2012.
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