Women desk established in Khyber to ensure justice for women

A women's desk had been established in Khyber’s Bara police station to quickly resolve complaints of women. The desk, after being established earlier this year, has registered at least 15 cases.

The cases range from domestic violence, education, marriage, deprivation of inheritance rights, honour killing and others. The outcome of the desk can be seen positively with most case rulings in favour of women.

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The desk was formally inaugurated by IG Police Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Akhtar Hayat Khan along with the appointment of female staff including desk officer Fatima Afridi.

Fatima told Express News that cases pertaining to multiple issues were entertained but in a strange turn of events, a case of the obsolete tradition of ‘Ghag’ was also registered.

Ghag means a custom, usage, tradition or practice whereby a. person forcibly demands or claims the hand of a woman, without her own or her parents' or wali's will and free consent, by making an open declaration either by words spoken or written or by visible.

The officer added that the initiative is seen as a ray of hope for women deprived of justice which ensures satisfaction at every stage. IG Hayat Khan said that there was a need to have multiple gender desks to entertain Khyber’s women population, which numbers more than 0.6 million.

He added that awareness regarding the importance of the gender desk was also necessary to make the initiative helpful in real terms.

District Police Officer (DPO) Khyber Salim Abbas Kalachi said access to justice for every man and woman is the basic characteristic of a civilized society, adding that women seeking justice were earlier seen as untraditional.

He added that they remain committed to recruiting more women police officers to back the initiative and have more gender desks in the region.