Pakistan is notorious for violence and discrimination against women. Violence takes many forms, including sexual violence by family members, strangers, and state agents; domestic abuse, including spousal murder and being burned, disfigured with acid, beaten, and threatened; ritual honor killings; and custodial abuse and torture. The wo

rst victims are women of the poor and middle classes. Their remorselessness not only makes them the primary target of the police and the criminals, it also renders them more vulnerable to oppressive customs and mores inside homes and outside.

The most endemic form of violence faced by women is violence in the home. Estimates of the percentage of women who experience domestic violence in Pakistan range from 70 to upwards of 90 percent. Sexual assault is also alarmingly common. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) estimated that in 2005 at least eight women, more than half of them minors, were raped every twenty-four hours nationwide. As many as 366 women in the country suffered gang-rape or rape between November 2004 to August 2005. The same year the Lahore press reported an average of more than four local cases of women being burnt weekly, three of the four fatally. Police follow-up on these cases was negligible, with only six suspects taken into custody out of the 215 cases reported in Lahore newspapers during the year. There was not a single conviction in a "stove-death" case in the country. The Lahore press also reported 265 homicides against women in the local area resulting from other forms of intra-family violence. The practice of summary killing of a woman suspected of an illicit liaison, known as karo kari in Sindh and Balochistan, is known to occur in all parts of the country.  The HRCP Report cites official government statistics according to which about 1,000 women were murdered in honor killings during 2005.

Women, as a daily practical matter, are also far outside the mainstream of the legal, political, economic, and social life of the country. Politically, Islamic Penal Laws like the "Hadood Ordinance,"  "Qasas" and “Diyat” have turned women into third class citizens. Women's access to health and education is severely limited, and their levels of economic and political participation are very low. The literacy rate for Pakistani women is only 25 percent; the maternal mortality rate is disturbingly high at 600 per 100,000 births. Every year 135,000 women die during childbirth in Pakistan. According to one study, health and education (especially for women) have been consistently receiving diminishing allocations in the budget (among the lowest in the third world) and much of what is to be distributed disappears through institutionalized corruption. Women's participation in the economic arena is disproportionately low, with women constituting only 28 percent of the country's labor force yet they generate 40% of production. Not surprisingly, in 1997 Pakistan slid back to 120th out of 146 places in the United Nations Development Program's gender-related development index (107 out of 137 in 1996) and occupied the ninety-second of ninety-four places with regard to women's progressive empowerment.

Ending Violence Against Women

In Balochistan situation is worse, the tribal society is essentially patriarchal, with strictly defined gender roles. Within these, men traditionally occupy the public sphere, while women’s roles are confined within the reproductive sphere of the home. This creates conditions where women’s mobility is restricted The unequal power relations result in relegating women to a subordinate and subservient position, thereby excluding them from serious decision-making at several levels. In the ultimate analysis, all these factors impact women’s own perceptions, as well as their knowledge base and confidence in the area of public affairs.

SEHER’s project on Ending Violence against Women and Gender based Discrimination, from its very inception focused the most vulnerable segment of society, the women. The project was initially started in Tehsil Karkh in District Khuzdar, a very remote and under developed area with very conservative tribal traditions. As SEHER started establishing its roots and developed links with the community particularly with the most vulnerable segment of society, the project staff faced immense security threats. They were detained and immensely forced by henchman of the tribal chiefs and influential personalities to leave the area. Hence SEHER shifted its project to Sibi District.  

District Sibi drives influence from the adjoining districts i.e. Naseerabad, Jaffarabad and Jal Magsi which shares border with province Sindh known for its exploitative and violent customs against women.  On other hand Sibi also sustains the strong tribal influences of the districts Dera Bugti and Kohlu which are completely under the control of the tribal chiefs with hardly any state intervention. SEHER conducted baseline survey and identified five villages with poor socioeconomic indicators with women facing worst forms of discriminations and violence.

Violence and poverty had strong nexus, violence was more visible in those areas/villages/households where poverty was more. Therefore, the project kept in view to address the social, political, economic and Gender issues in the selected areas. To achieve the desired result two fold strategies were applied. Firstly direct intervention with communities, lawyers, journalists, police force and civil society organizations and secondly linkages building of village groups with line departments. i.e. Government departments, banks and umbrella organization etc. In this regard following activities were carried out in the span of three years. (Read More)

We Can End Violence Against Women Campaign

SEHER’s rich work on ending violence against women with the tribal women in the rural setting or with women prisoners or Dar-ul-aman’s inmates underscored the need to broaden its work and involving broad based key actors and stake holders who are instrumental in facilitating the women to lead better, secure and violence free lives. In this context SEHER strategized its efforts and developed partnership with OXFAM GB and took the charge of We Can Campaign.

To achieve the desired results of the “We Can Campaign” to end violence against women, two fold strategy is adopted i.e. direct intervention of the campaign (DIC) and Campaign’s Intervention through Partnership (CIP). (Read More)

Gender Justice Through Musalhati Anjuman

SEHER Legal Aid Program created so much space for vulnerable and needy communities to address their issue particularly the cases of violence and conflicts in the court of Law. The lengthy procedural issues of judiciary put a great number of people helpless. IN the face of such a situation UNDP conceptualized an intervention with the Government of Balochistan to reinforce implementation of ordinance 2001 that integrates Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) through Musalihati Anjuman.

This conceptualization pave the way for SEHER to negotiate and make partnership with UNDP-PPU-GTMAP and Balochistan Local Government Department to play its role in enabling the union council to resolve the related issues at their Union Council level. The intervention met dual objectives of SEHER, on one hand it provided ample opportunity of reaching to hundreds of Union Councils and enabling the UC's duty bearers and Musalhiat e Anjman (MA) for ensuring Gender Justice in their respective vicinities through ADR and on the other hand it contributed in lessoning the heavy burden of Legal cases on SEHER Legal Empowerment. (Read More)

Ending Torture Against Women in Police Custody

Torture  is becoming alarmingly common in our society. Although very little authentic data is available, some of the broader forms of torture are identifiable such as making the accused to walk or sit on a sharp object, pulling the teeth and nails with forceps, be dragged by hairs, simultaneously beating of both ears with the palms, chopping off ears, nose and fingers. In some cases victims are forced to walk naked and sometimes are also sexualyl abused . ‘Third Degree’ is common in Police Stations, Judicial lock ups, jails and cells, which means use of the worst forms of torture to extract information from the accused.
Torture, physical violence, and negligence of Rule of Law are the matter of grave concern for the global community, which indeed led the United Nations to draft and subsequently pass the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials. United Nations has also urged the state parties to devolve Code of Conduct for Law enforcement officials, along the lines of the UN Code, in their respective countries . A Convention Against Torture (CAT) has also been passed.
Pakistan has not yet ratified CAT, However the constitution of Pakistan does not permit any form of turture. Law enforcement agencies needed to realize their role and responsibilities in this regard. SEHER with the financial and technical support of the OXFAM GB embarked on a pilot project of Torture on women in police custody  (TWPC) with the intention and hope that based on learning from the pilot phase long term and full-fledged intervention would be initiated in all those districts of Balochistan , where torture incidences are most frequent. (Read More)