Pakistan

Violence against women rises by 13%

The number of incidents of violence against women increased by 13 per cent in 2009.

Express June 28, 2010

The number of incidents of violence against women increased by 13 per cent in 2009, says a report by the Aurat Foundation set to be released on Wednesday.

The report states that 8,548 incidents of violence against women were reported in 2009 compared to 7,571 incidents reported in 2008. Of these, 5,722 were reported to have occurred in Punjab, followed by 1,762 in Sindh, 655 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 237 in Balochistan. Similarly, 172 cases of violence against women were reported in Islamabad, the report said.

The report chronicles incidents of violence against women occurring between January 1, 2009 and December 31 of the same year.

The Aurat Foundation is a non-profit society that works to empower women and to further citizen’s rights.

Representatives of the foundation and the organisation ‘Violence against Women Watch’ (VAW) on Monday expressed their outrage and resentment over the increase in violent crimes against women in Pakistan.

“We have no expectations from the interior ministry or the provincial governments and their departments,” they said. “But we urge the ministry of women’s development, which is under the prime minister’s authority, and the women’s parliamentary caucus, which is headed by the speaker of the National Assembly and comprises women MNAs who are strong supporters of women’s rights, and the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), which is headed by a renowned women’s rights activist, to do something to stop this terrible situation of violence against women in the country,” they said.

The data compiled by the Aurat Foundation was collected by the organisation’s offices in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta.

Despite the fact that fewer statistics were available from several districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan due to security concerns, reported incidents of violence against women are still higher than they were in 2008, the report says.

The report states that 1,384 women were murdered, 928 were raped, 683 committed suicide and 604 women were killed for ‘honour’s’ sake in 2009.

Out of 1,384 cases of murder 752 took place in the Punjab, 288 in Sindh, 266 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 39 in Balochistan and 39 in Islamabad. Out of 604 cases of ‘honour’ killing, 245 took place in the Punjab, 284 in Sindh, 14 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 59 in Balochistan, and two in Islamabad. Out of 1,987 cases of abduction, 1,698 took place in the Punjab, 160 in Sindh, 64 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 13 in Balochistan and 52 in Islamabad. Out of 928 cases of rape and gang rape 786 took place in the Punjab, 122 in Sindh, 7 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4 in Balochistan and 9 in Islamabad. A total of 1,977 cases of violence of a miscellaneous nature (vanni, sawara, custodial violence, torture, trafficking, child marriages, incest, and threats of violence, sexual harassment and attempted murder) took place in the four provinces and in Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (6)

khadija Nadeem | 14 years ago | Reply i totally agreed with my friends point of view actually our women is facing numerous problems mostly due to socio cultural norms/traditions, discriminatory policies/laws, practices and lack of commitment by policy makers. These problems are further aggravated by oppressive systems that perpetuate poverty, inequality, intra household discrimination and injustice such as feudal system, capitalism and patriarchy. Patriarchy cuts across all social, economic, political and personal issues affecting women, it enhances vulnerability, powerlessness and poverty. Under this system women and girls are often sidelined, exploited, abused, marginalized and constitute the poorest of poor so i think we cant achieve the desired objectives till we cant fight nagainst discriminatory practices prevailing in our society..

Yasir Qadeer | 14 years ago | Reply Violence has become very deep rooted in our society. Its not only against women but has taken many shapes now. We must condemn it in every shape and size whether it’s against women, religious minorities or democracy.

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Zulfiqar Haider | 14 years ago | Reply These figures are alarming and clearly depict the worsening condition of human rights, especially woman rights in our country. It is sad that those who commit such crimes are left to roam freely in the streets to commit more of such heinous crimes. It is our plea to the authorities to give special attention to such problems and the convicts must be punished severely.

Syed Mohammad Hassan | 14 years ago | Reply principles are something we speak a fine truce about as a general awareness, unfortunately we do not inspect the problem as strictly and do not look over its widening phrase for its repercussion, sense and worth. Caretaker's indolence against such issue creates more chaos. As we see the number of violence against women have increased by 13% in 2009. We first must to define values and offer the entire docks a good working definition by investing and promoting definition of values to accumulate human existence and responsibility for positive response towards humanity. This is how we can arrive at a definition in minimizing the risk of violence against woman.

fahad siddiqui | 14 years ago | Reply @ Amna ,the mindset you refer to isn't just present in some parts of our city,but such attitudes and mentality is present in our educated,liberal urban elite as well.When religous leaders openly & publicly justify beating up women,but according to the way prescribed & allowed in religion, one can't hope for anything better from the male segment of our society.A pakistani man,be it a rural or urban guy firmly believes that the women in his life are his personal property:be it sisters,daughters or wives and as such he has total authority to make all big & small decisions in their lives.Until women start to stand up for themselves instead of happily playing the traditional role of the servile,obseqious daughter or wife,their conditions won't improve.The overwhelming majority of women in our country including educated women make a concsious choice to stay with a wife beater & to take the physical beatings & the verbal taunts rather than have the courage to leave their husbands. One can see a lot of such wives,battered & bruised,wailing about the horror that is their husband,but why do these women don't leave??? a bully doesn't stop until you stand up to him.Every time after a slap you choose to remain,it solidifies the belief in his mind that this woman is totally dependent on me & is not,will not go anywhere & so the cycle of abuse continues.

Amna Zaman | 14 years ago | Reply 604 women killed in the name of honour?? This stat can tell us the mindset in some parts of the country. Even if we kill these men, their ideology will be followed by their children. It is a matter of fact we kill the ideology by promoting moderate value and secular thoughts so this barbarism is seized.

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