Ministers, activists rejoice passage of bill

KARACHI:

International Women’s Day became a day of celebration for women activists and parliamentarians when the much-awaited domestic violence bill was passed in the Sindh Assembly.

Aurat Foundation activist Rubina Brohi called it a “historic day”. “We have been campaigning for the bill since 2006 and finally it has been passed.” An excited Brohi also said there were many hurdles along the way, but the women stood firmly by the legislation. “We merged all the bills that were submitted privately by women parliamentarians to make it into a single detailed one.” The law and the home departments also held up the bill by delaying its submission to the chief minister. She praised her advocate, Maliha Zia Lari, for drafting the final bill, adding that the process involved consulting people from across the country.

MPA Humera Alwani, who was the first parliamentarian to present the bill in the assembly in 2006 and then later in 2008, said, “Domestic violence is a criminal offence now. No man would be able to abuse, threaten to divorce or hit any woman.” Alwani said that she had first presented the bill with the approval of Benazir Bhutto.

“There is still a lot to be done. We have to raise awareness, appoint protection officers at the district level, and demand more women police stations where ladies can lodge their complaints easily.” Alwani would regularly be taunted by male parliamentarians who would say that the bill would increase divorce rates, but now she is relieved that her struggle has amounted to something.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2013.