Barbaric mindsets

The stories we read about injustices towards women in Pakistan would make serious plots for horror movies. It is only that we deeply pray and wish that these stories were unreal. In a recent case, a young woman in Mingora was subjected to severe physical torture by her husband. The vulnerable girl was married to a man 12 years older than her at the naïve age of seven. It is a courageous act that after taking the abuse for 11 years, she finally sought escape. Unfortunately, the escape came after she lost her nose and is now having to undergo multiple cosmetic procedures. Unfortunately, for us, this story is hardly unique, with several such cases of abuse reported on a daily basis. That the woman had been a child marriage only compounds the tragedy. It is imperative that the state and legal authorities take notice of this case for there are many lessons to be learned from it regarding child marriage and anti-woman practices.

New cases of swara and watta satta continue to arise across the country and while the Sindh Assembly passed the bill to adopt the same legal marriage age for both men and women, the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa rejected the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2013. Lobbyists must continue pressing lawmakers to address the issue of child marriage and work to eradicate it.

The overarching issue of abuse towards women is ongoing. The mentality of some men must be destroyed and replaced by teachings of equality and justice towards women. This is difficult with older generations, but we can still go into our government and private schools and work to change young mindsets. This is the need of the hour. Though injustice against women occurs the world over, for Pakistan this has become an inherent trait of our culture. Now, the state and the police must deal the blow that this violent husband and many others like him deserve.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2014.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.