From: ali@mcclb0.med.nyu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: NEWS(old):Pakistani women suffer many indignities
Date: 15 Aug 92 18:07:31 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.indian
Organization: NYU Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, USA

In article <Aug.14.20.29.12.1992.9912@ruhets.rutgers.edu>, myadav@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Mahesh Yadav) writes:
> 
> 
> 		PAKISTANI WOMEN SUFFER MANY INDIGNITIES
> 	        =======================================
> 
> Times of India Aug,5,1992
> The Times of India News Service
> NEW DELHI, Aug 4:
> 
> 	Women of Indian subcontinent suffer disrespect and indignity, 
> Ms  Asma Jhangir, secretary-general of the Human Rights Association of 
> Pakistan said here yesterday.
> 
> 	Delevering a lecture on the "Role and position of women of Pakistan",
> she said the women there have suffered by not being active in politics. But, 
> expressing hope, she said they have major contribution in stopping the complete
> Islamisation of Pakistan, and with the world changing, they would not lay 
> behind, she added. The lecture was organised by India-Pakistan friendship 
> society.
> 
> 	Ms Jahangir said women the world over faced the difficulty of having to
> prove the offence of rape. But in Pakistan, if the police thought the woman had
> agreed to the sexual act, she became a co-accused , and so very few rape cases
> are reported.
> 
>	Giving an instance, she said a blind girl, Safiya Bibi, was raped by 
> her employer and his son. She concieved. After the child was born, the doctor
> at the hospital urged her father to file a case. But little did he realise that
> she would be sent to prison for three years and subjected to 75 lashes as 
> punishment while the accused went free.
> 
> 	The most tragic case is of a 13 year old orphan, Jhamina. She was raped
> by her uncle and his son. A distant relation filed a case. The court held her
> guilty and gave her 100 lashes in public. The case went in the apeal to the
> federal shariat court. The judges said: " For the sake of mercy",the sentence
> was reduced to 20 lashes and three years imprisonment. After completing her 
> sentence, she went back to her village. But said Ms Jahangir, she has not 
> spoken a word since then to anybody, she pretends to be deaf
>   
      All these cases are very tragic and sad and it is a crime that 
Pakistani Government does not protect its weakest population, poor
village women.  But it should be stressed that this is the unfortunate
fate of poor women the world over and although not helped by sharia
law, the outcomes in the lives of many women in South American
Countries are not very different from their counterparts in Pakistan.  
Raping of women by uncles and older male relatives is not uncommon in
extended family situations where those are the only males in contact
with the women.  What is new is the idea of reporting it as a crime.
For centuries (probably before Islam came to our land) women have
taken such intrusions over their bodies as a normal course of their
lives.  Hopefully as more women come forward and scream against this, 
laws will be altered to recognize rape as a crime.  It is something
that women in this country are still struggling to get across to the
public, and there is no sharia law here.
jahanara
 
> 	There have been instances of policemen raping women and then arresting
> them for running a brothel. In another case, a 60-year-old woman was raped by 
> a policeman. He was not convicted . But the woman had to fight two years to 
> defend her honour.
> 	
> 	The law is open to exploitation. But as it exists in the name of 
> religion, it cannot be changed, she said.
> >
   	
> 		* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian