Tif Jamil Pagaan

NGO Report on the Situation of Discrimination against Women in Pakistan

Presented at the 38th Session of the Committee for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

By Catherine Maria Nawab, rjm for UNANIMA International

In relation to the 6th periodic report of the government of Pakistan as a State Party to CEDAW

7-25 August 2006, New York

This report was prepared with the assistance of the Human Development Centre, Toba Tek Singh. Efforts for the Elimination of Stereotypes (Article 5 CEDAW)

Stereotypes against women are deeply rooted in the social, political, economic and religious life of the common person in Pakistan. The feudal culture has used religion as a main tool to keep the stereotypes alive within the society. Some specific examples of the stereotypes regarding women and their social roles are

1. Women are mentally unbalanced and biased so they are not to be included in decision-making; 2. All the non-domestic matters are related to men and women must follow the men in every matter whether personal or social; 3. Women are only responsible for obeying the rule of the men; 4. Women are restricted to few professions; and 5. Tolerating violence from a husband, brother or father is a woman’s duty.

While these are only some examples of stereotypes of women, Pakistani society has many other stereotypes which are supported by feudalism and religion. Since these stereotypes regarding women prevail in all sectors of life, a clear, comprehensive, concrete and practical strategy with tome-bound targets is required to systematically strive to eliminate these stereotypes. We see that the report submitted by the Government of Pakistan to the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women only talks about the representation of women in the censor boards of films, dramas and private productions, puppet shows on the state controlled media.

On the one hand, government is taking these random steps to prove that it is serious with regard to the recognition of rights of women and at the same time the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reports that an average 1100 women were killed in the name of honor in each of the years 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The police and other law enforcement agencies have the same attitude as they had in past in the cases of rape and killing of women. The mid-level and field officers of the police and other law enforcement agencies represent the traditional culture in Pakistani society which insists on restricting women to the will of men and only benefiting the interests of men. Contrary to claims, the modules and lessons developed by the Ministry of Women for the elimination of stereotypes of women have never been made part of the syllabus for their training. Rather extremist groups were able to make the syllabus more Islamic.

A study conducted regarding the work environment for the female workers in the city of Faisalabad, the home of the country’s textile industry showed that 40.7 % of the women workers reported harassment in the form of sexual remarks, 78 % women workers faced harassment in the form of cat calls while the same percentage experienced harassment in the form of suggestive gestures. 12 % women workers face harassment in the form of unwanted sexual overtures. Men exhibit such behaviour only because those men at the workplace consider women as easy "target" who have no voice.

The government has developed no Code of Conduct for the work place to free it form the discrimination and sexual harassment against women. More than 2500 women workers are working in this industry.

It is still the case in Pakistan that women are being divorced and even killed for giving birth to baby girls. It is the man's choice to have baby boys. In a survey conducted by Women Helping Women, a women's human rights organization, 72 % of the women can not even make the final decision regarding the medical treatment of their children and purchases for the household.

Conclusion We have chosen to provide information on article 5 because it covers the root cause of the discriminatory attitude and practices towards women in society. In practice, much of the legislation, the promulgation and implementation of laws and development of governmental priorities reinforce male stereotypes regarding the women and their social role and do not recognize women’s rights as equal citizens. This challenge is basic to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and remains one of the biggest hurdles still facing Pakistan in this regard.

Recommendations: 1. That the government develop and implement a clear, comprehensive, concrete and practical strategy with time-bound targets to systematically eliminate the discriminatory stereotypes of women. Such a plan should be developed in partnership among government bodies (Women’s ministry), civil society, non-governmental organizations and should take into account specifically those feudal and religious structures that support discrimination against women.

2. That the training for the police, judges and other members of the law enforcement and judicial system include the modules and lessons developed by the Ministry of Women for the elimination of stereotypes of women. Where current training syllabi discriminate against women, these modules should be dropped and replaced with non-discriminatory materials.