To highlight this key date in the #16days of activism against gender violence, The Express Tribune speaks to courageous activists who have had to face many an uphill battle to prevent violence against women and encourage equity in gender relations.
Parliament may well be the custodian of the Constitution and a forum to protect citizens’ rights, yet it has failed to safeguard rights of 48% of the population — women. Although a number of bills relating to women’s rights have been tabled in Parliament, it has yet to pass them. Read the full story here.
The night before the domestic violence bill was to be presented in the Sindh Assembly, lawyer and human rights activist Maliha Zia Lari sat in the law department rigorously going through the final vetting process.Read the full story here.
Fauzia Viqar has spent the last 15 years of her life defending women. Not only has she done this in Pakistan – but has also had the opportunity to highlight women and women-related issues in Geneva for the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) four times, and at the Universal Periodic Review of Pakistan.Read the full story here.
It was still easier in the 90’s when she started working for women’s rights, even though the term was synonymous with ‘foreign agenda’. “I could just jump into my jeep and travel to Landikotal jail without any fear that someone would physically harass me,” recollects Rakshanda Naz. As a lawyer and rights activist from Peshawar, Naz was fighting for women who were incarcerated under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).Read the full story here.
Dressed in a colourful embroidered Balochi dress, 19-year-old Mariyam Suleman is a reflection of the deep blue sea that meets the shore of her hometown of Gwadar. Unassuming yet dynamic, the teenage social activist is making waves by creating awareness about the rights of women.Read the full story here.
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