New laws* in Pakistan should make a difference to women. In late December 2011 the President gave assent to two bills which provide for greater punishment for offences against women, including forced marriage.
“December 2011 is of monumental importance for the women of Pakistan. New bills protecting women’s rights were passed by the Senate,” says Shmyalla Jawad, Associate Gender Advisor, Plan in Pakistan.
“These bills protect women from losing their inheritance and being forced to marry to settle disputes within families and tribes. They also establish tougher punishments for those responsible for inhumane acts of violence against them, including acid attacks, with up to life imprisonment and payment of Rs1 million to the victim.
“This is a very important step towards gender equality in Pakistan and we welcome that. However much more needs to be done.To transform this de jure equality for women into a de facto equality, the major challenge is to ensure the effective implementation of these laws. Emphasis needs to be shifted towards the enforcement and enactment of such laws,” continues Jawad.
“Plan in Pakistan continues to focus its programmes on the rights of women and girls especially advocating for the end to the trends of early and forced marriages. Women rights have been historically an uphill task in South Asia but now civil society is rallying to protect women against violence and for their empowerment,” says Javed Rashid, Plan’s Country Director in Pakistan.
17 year old Pathani lives in a fishing village in Pakistan’s Sindh Province with her husband and two-year-old daughter Saima. She got married when she was 14 to a 14-year-old boy called Manzoor.
“In my village it is common for girls and boys to marry young,” explains Pathani. “My mother got married when she was young. She was 13 or 14. She never went to school because my grandparents couldn’t afford to pay the expenses. Her parents decided it was time for her to get married and to have a husband look after her”.
A childhood over all too soon
Pathani says that her childhood was over early, “Four years before my wedding I remember how much I liked to play pretend wedding games with my dolls. It was a fun time in my life that passed very quickly. It’s strange to think that a few years later I would become a bride myself and then a mother”.
And Pathani explains how hard things are for her, “My baby girl Saima is only two years old. Being a mother is a big thing for me and when Saima cries I don’t know what to do with her and I have to ask my own mother for help”.
Manzoor works as a fisherman like many of the other men in the area. “Families here worry about work, money and their livelihoods and want to see all their children looked after. So as soon their daughters become old enough they marry them off so their husbands will carry the responsibility of looking after them”.
Plan is campaigning to eliminate early and forced marriage. Last November we hosted a debate on the pros and cons of making early and forced marriage a criminal offence. Our view is that prevention is better than prosecution and that the focus needs to be on educating girls and communities about the negative impact and about girls rights.
* The Laws are: the Prevention of Anti Women Practices Bill 2011, the Acid Control and Acid Crimes Prevention 2011 Bill, and the Women in Distress and Detention Fund ( Amendment) Bill 2011.