Minority women’s plight: Stronger laws, strict enforcement stressed

Speakers at a conference urge govt to devise effective mechanism to ensure justice for victims of violence

ISLAMABAD:

Rural women count for a majority of the population who, beyond their household chores, are joining their male counterparts in fields and contributing to the economy of the country.

However, they are not given the due respect, recognition, status or even economic empowerment.



This was the crux of a panel discussion on rights of rural women and law in Pakistan at the concluding session of the seventh annual conference on rural women day at Lok Virsa on Thursday.

The panel comprised the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) chairperson Khawar Mumtaz, South Asia Partnership – Pakistan (SAP) programme managers Shabnam Rashid and Naseema Malik and minority women from the rural areas of Lahore, Faisalabad and Nankana Sahib. JUI-F MNA Asiya Nasir presented initiatives being taken by the parliamentarians for the protection of minorities’ rights.

The panelists maintained that the needs of rural women are not addressed anywhere, adding that no amount for rural women’s development programmes is allocated in the national budget.

This deprivation, discrimination and denial of rural women, especially those from the minorities, is pushing them into crucial situations and questioning their status as equal citizens of the country, said the speakers.

They expressed concern over the incidents of gender-based violence and condemned ‘futile’ suggestions to combat it. For example, they said, laws alone are not enough to end the menace; the government should implement effective mechanisms that ensure that victims receive justice. They also discussed various issues of minorities’ women, such as forced conversions and marriages.

They further stated that effective family laws for non-Muslims were needed to eradicate the forced marriages and gender-based violence against minority women.

Mumtaz spoke on the incentives for non-Muslim Women taken by the NCSW whereas Rashid highlighted the legal lacunas and political and social spaces, presenting relevant clauses from the Constitution on the rights of minorities and contradictions thereof.

She also gave suggestions for the betterment of minorities such as establishment of effective minorities rights commissions at provincial and national levels and constitutional amendments for an equal status of non-Muslims status at all levels, especially at government level.

Speakers also called for an end to hate material in school syllabi and agreed that beyond effective legislation and implementation, there is a need for changing social attitudes and mindsets that result in discrimination against minorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2014.