In 2002, Mukhtaran Mai, a 28 year old woman in Punjab, was gang-raped in front of her village by decision of the Jirga (court of village elders) for the alleged wrong-doing of her 12 year old brother.
In her blog for BBC in 2006, Mukhtaran tells the story of yet another rape victim in Punjab, a very poor woman, Shamshad Bibi, who was reportedly gang-raped during a visit to the famous shrine town of Uch Shareef. The police declared it to be a case of consensual sex.2
To add insult to injury, the then Pakistan President and dictator Pervez Musharraf complained that his country was unfairly portrayed as a place where women were subjected to violence. The Washington Post, reports an interview with General Musharraf in which he said, “A lot of people say if you want to go abroad and get a visa for Canada or citizenship and be a millionaire, get yourself raped.”3
According to the same paper the human rights activists and Canadian government declared General Musharraf’s assertion as outrageous lie: only one known rape victim, a doctor assaulted by a military officer had moved to Canada.
That lady doctor was Shazia Khalid, a Sindhi doctor working for Pakistan Petroleum in Sui, Balochistan. She was rapped in January 2005 by an army Captain. The incident outraged the local Bugti clan, for whom such outrageous acts against women were against their norms. Consequently, they attacked the gas field. But instead of addressing the rape issue, Pervez Musharraf sent more arms and soldiers to guard the installation.
Balouch leadership too was adamant to get justice for the rape victim. Nawab Akbar Bugti said, “As long as the perpetrators of this heinous crime are not dealt with, there can be no talks.”4
Musharraf’s regime ultimately killed Nawab Bugti, an eighty years old leader fighting for his country, Balochistan, in August 2006.
It can be said that the above cases happened during the military or semi military regimes. But the fact of the matter is that nothing has changed ever since the current civilian government was elected in February 2008.
In 2005 Zarina Marri, 23, a school teacher from Balouchistan was arrested and held incommunicado in an army torture cell at Karachi. She has been repeatedly raped by the military officers so as to get her sign the state-concocted confessions. Nobody knew about Zarina Marri until a man, who was arrested by a state agency and kept in military torture cell told her story to Reporters without Borders and the International Red Cross. Zarina’s whereabouts are still not known.
In July 2008, 5 women were burnt alive in Balochistan, in village Baba Kot in Jafferabad district, one of the areas where Umrani tribe is settled, allegedly by Abdul Sattar Umrani, younger brother of Sadiq Umrani, the provincial Minister for Housing and Construction and a leader of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.
The five women were Fatima, wife of Umeed Ali Umrani, Jannat Bibi, wife of Qaiser Khan, Fauzia, daughter of Ata Mohammad Umrani, and two young girls, aged 16-18, whose names could not be ascertained due to strong tribal control. They were planning to marry the young girls in a civil court. To prevent that, Abdul Sattar Umrani and his gang abducted them at gun points and took them in a government vehicle to a remote area in the vicinity of Baba Kot. They beat the three younger women before allegedly opening fire. The girls were seriously injured but were still alive. The abductors then hurled them into a wide ditch and covered them with earth and stones. When the two older women–one the mother of a young lady–protested, the attackers also pushed them into the ditch and buried all alive. The police did not register the case nor did the government take the minister to task.
Civil society protested. In Senate, Parliament’s Upper House, a woman Senator Bibi Yasmin Shah raised the issue. Only three Senators supported her, while one Senator Mir Israr Ullah Zehri defended the above violence by saying that those were the centuries-old traditions and helped stop obscenity. The government rewarded Mr Zehri by appointing him as a Minister in the next Cabinet expansion in 2008.
In the same Cabinet expansion, Asif Zardari’s government took Hazar Khan Bijarani as the Education Minister, who was sentenced by the Supreme Court in 2005 for a jirga that handed over five minor girls in marriage to settle a dispute. His sentence was never carried out.
In the Sindh cabinet there are at least three ministers who have been involved in organising jirgas against women. They are: Abid Hussain Jatoi, Nadir Khan Magsi and Abdul Haque Bhurt, the minister of livestock.
Mr Jatoi ordered the death of a couple Saira Jatoi and Mr Mohammad Ismail Jatoi, who married against the wishes of Jatoi elders. The couple went into hiding and AHRC released an urgent appeal on their behalf in February 2008.5
In Punjab too, where Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Sharif group (PML-N) is in power, hardly any action has been taken against the people in power, who abuse women’s rights.
In October 2008, Miss Sajida Bibi, who married Mohammad Arshad against the wishes of her family, went reportedly missing, along with her husband’s father and brother. Shortly before that Arshad was arrested on the charges of kidnapping Sajida, whose family include an influential first cousin Major Zia Ullah. Arshad’s mother Zetoon Bibi has written many letters to authorities, but did not receive a reply.
In May 2009, due to the love marriage of Miss Kulsoom with Fazal Abbas, seven women of a family were arrested and tortured. One girl, Shazia, (16), went missing as a result of her abduction allegedly by Mr Iftekhar Ahmed Khan, a member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly (MPA) from PML-N and Parliamentary Secretary in the government. The family members of the girl went into hiding whilst others were imprisoned on false charges of abduction. It is said that Iftekhar instructed the police to take Fazal and Kulsoom’s relatives as hostages for Kulsoom’s production. No action was taken against Mr Khan.6
Coming to the Swat Valley, the government entered into an accord with the Talibans in Swat and Malakand in February 2009, which allowed the Talibans to impose their version of Shariah in the said areas. That made women more vulnerable. One of the most outrageous cases is that of public flogging of a 17 year old girl. No body knows for sure the girl’s crime. One version is that she went out of her house without a male escort. Another is that she refused to marry a local Taliban commander. 7
Women activists in Pakistan are in serious trouble and have to pay the price for their activism every now and again.
Recently, in July three people tried to kidnap Rehana Channar in Hyderabad, Sindh, but she resisted and saved herself. Ms Channar is a leader of the Women Action Forum, a Sindhi poetess and an activist.
Addressing a news conference at the Hyderabad Press Club, WAF leader Amar Sindhu expressed grave concern over harassment of women in public places and around girls’ colleges. She said such incidents were a result of inaction of the state and silence of progressive forces on hostile ideologies against women.
To protest against the said kidnap attempt, WAF took out a procession in Hyderabad, on 30th July. A resolution was adopted, which condemned the failure of the area police to arrest the accused despite registration of an FIR (Photo).
It’s not only the fundamentalists, who use blasphemy as an excuse for violence against women, but the state apparatus is also responsible for the same.
In August 2009, police in Sanghar district of Sindh arrested a 60 year old woman for allegedly disrespecting the holy Quran. A city shop keeper reported to the police that taking Quran with him, he went to recover loan from the woman as she had refused to pay back. He told media woman kissed and embraced the Quran and after arguments, allegedly put it down. It is said the issue was loan. Yet the police took the poor lady in custody without verifying the facts.
The above incidents show that the state either remains silent at atrocities against women, rewards the culprits or is itself actively involved in such acts. It is high time the international community and the human rights and women’s organisations took a stock of the situation and impressed upon the Pakistan government to address women’s issues in the real sense of the word.
–Suraiya Makhdoom is a Sindh human rights activist