Violence against Women Leaders
Alzabeth Ayaz, a school teacher, confronted widespread discrimination as one of the first women to serve on her village’s council in the conservative Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. Six out of nineteen seats were reserved for women by law, but only five women, including Ayaz, dared to fill the positions after threats of harassment and discrimination. Ayaz received death threats and her political enemies quickly spread rumors that she had affairs with male counselors on the onset of her election campaign in October 2002. Ayaz demands government protection and says she will not give up working to improve the conditions of women.
Nasim Akhtar, a female counselor of the village “Sadra Badra” in Pakistan, was beaten for hours and paraded naked through the streets by along-time political rival and his supporters in December 2002. Her abusers threatened to kill her if she reported the events to the police and attempted to prevent her from going to the hospital. Akhtar alleged that the police were bribed and initially refused to register a case. Finally, days after the incident, police arrested the political rival and his two sons.
Women participating in the public sphere face abuse and discrimination designed to intimidate them back to traditional subservient roles. Many female candidates must resist strong social pressures, especially in the conservative Northwest Frontier Province where, in some parts, women are discouraged even from voting. In October 2002, a jirga encouraged the harassment and repression of women bypassing a law that permitted houses of women voters to be demolished.
Persecution of Women Advocates
Shahnaz Bokhari¸ a clinical psychologist and president of the Progressive Women’s Association (PWA), has been an active campaigner for women’s rights. In October 2000 she aided a destitute twenty-six-year-old woman seeking refuge from physical violence at the hands of her husband and harassment from her family by first using her own home as a safe house and then setting up a shelter. Soon, Bokhari was summoned to court for an unspecified reason which turned out to be a hearing for "abetting a woman in attempt to commit adultery" under the Hudood Ordinances. The Federal Sharia Court exonerated Bokhariin February 2003, after two-and-a-half years of pressure and support from partner NGOs, media and foreign diplomatic missions. Police have continued to raid Bokhari’s home repeatedly, in search of other missing women, but despite these threats and invasion of her privacy, she remains dedicated to fighting for women’s rights in Pakistan and runs PWA from her private residence.
Asma Jehangir & Hina Jilani are prominent human rights lawyers and founders of AGHS-Legal Aid Cell, the first all-women law firm in Pakistan. They receive continuous death threats and religious conservatives have issued fatwas (religious decrees) against them, labeling them as “kafirs” (non-believers) and misguided women. In April 1999, the parents of a client, Samia Imran, attacked their daughter in Jilani’s office for attempting to obtain a divorce with the help of Jilani and Jehangir. Jilani was not injured, but Samia was shot and killed. No arrests have been made in this murder case, despite Samia’s father’s public announcement that this was an honor killing in accordance with custom. Both Jehangir and Jilani continue to be active in human rights work. Jehangir was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Killings in 1998 and Jilani is the current Secretary-General of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
For more information click here UN Executions Envoy Threatened With Death
Women advocates play a critical role in advancing women’s human rights in Pakistan. However, they confront risks to their own lives and safety for helping other women. For example, an NGO committed to providing health care and education to women was significantly damaged by two rockets in April 2003. The same organization witnessed protests in 2001 for recruiting female employees. In order to effectively fight violence and other human rights abuses against women in Pakistan, harassment and intimidation of women’s advocates and organizations must end.
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