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Posts tagged with: Violence against Women

A predominant, ‘one-sex’ nation!

You can never really expect a ‘good’ morning in Pakistan.

After waking up from the sleep last morning, I logged into my facebook account to just get a daily dose of news updates. As I scrolled down my home page, a link shared by a friend caught my eyes that completely bewildered me. The news headline read, “Pakistan ranked as THIRD most dangerous country in the world for women.” I tried to ignore the news ‘labelling’ it a false, rumor story but then I thought to undergo a process of research and thinking on the it.

The process that I did was just a track down of past few years of Pakistan where extremism, radicalization and terrorism had dominated the image of the nation, and where poor-stricken and underprivileged women were often seen as innocent victims of the disease of extremism and terrorism. I recalled how women in Pakistan are just not ‘equally’ treated like men; how they are deprived of their basic rights to live with freedom – free from all sorts of impositions; how they are less accessible to education; how they are less accessible to different sectors in Pakistan when it comes to employment; and how they are treated when what they do is just ‘defend’ their rights or ‘voice’ their concerns.
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Pakistan ranked as THIRD most Dangerous country in the World for Women

Thomson Reuters Foundation under its Trust Law for Women initiative conducted a global research polling over 200 gender experts across five continents to deduce the five most dangerous countries in the world for women. The study ranked the countries in the following order.

  1. Afghanistan
  2. Democratic Republic of Congo
  3. Pakistan
  4. India
  5. Somalia

While the Highest-ranked countries for each risk factor the evaluated were

  • Health: Afghanistan
  • Economic / Discrimination : Afghanistan
  • Cultural/tribal/religious : Pakistan
  • Sexual violence : Congo
  • Non-sexual violence : Afghanistan
  • Trafficking : India


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Samar Minallah Responds to Fake Flogging Video

Daily Times published today a detailed response by Samar Minallah on the fake flogging video she wraps up the article with some very touching words,” I will continue to challenge those who misuse Islam for power and politics. I will continue to raise my voice against individuals and political parties who use my religion to spread hatred. I will continue to expose and challenge the ‘conspiracy’ and ‘propaganda’ theories that try to befool the people of this country.” I give her my utmost support for the brilliant work she continues to do, and I believe the sentiments her article will be reflected in the same manner in an column I wrote for the upcoming launch of Express Tribune which set to launch this week, a link for which I shall share after its published


Faking a Flogging Video for Military Advancements?

Almost a year back the political circus in Pakistan was up in arms at having watched a video of woman being flogged publicly. The video was released after verification by some human rights activists. Only recently The News carried a report claiming that this video was a fabrication and alleging that it was funded by an Islamabad based NGO which tried to implicate Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the perpetrators of this women’s abuse

The News 29th March 2010: A resident of Swat, who claims to have prepared the fake video of flogging of a girl in Swat, has termed it drama and revealed that he received Rs 0.5 million for doing so before the launch of military operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’.

The uproar this video generated particularly among secular elements feared that the Swat peace deal would in effect hand over Swat to the Taliban who would carry out similar brutal punishments in the garb of Islam.
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Update on possible Quetta Karo Kari Incident

Ever since the first email at 10 am a lot has been achieved in an effort to provide security and protection to the couple in Quetta, all this mobilization has been done to prevent a possible disaster, there were no confirmed reports on this but the couple was threatened enough to alert Human rights activists in Pakistan. It is my belief that every effort must be done to prevent a disaster when a person is willing to reach out and ask for help.

If we succeed and this couple becomes a living example to have withstood these heinous traditions, it might possibly encourage other such people facing such similar threats to reach out and also ask for help. I share with you Tahira Abdullah’s email just receive moments ago
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An Evening of Colors and Deep Thoughts rejecting Violence Against Women

A Poster and Debate competition for students organized by SWO held at KATI

The message was loud and clear. With their texts and textures, boys and girls from the city of lights expressed in clear terms that they reject Violence Against Women (VAW) in the society and are motivated to stop it.

More than sixty young artists and speakers made this commitment on Sunday, December 6, 2009 at a ‘Poster and Debate Competition’ for school children organized by Sunshine Welfare Organization (SWO)
in collaboration with UNIFEM. It was held at the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI),Karachi.
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TEDIndia: Business of Sexual Slavery must stop – Sunita Krishnan

I share with you a very moving speech delivered by Sunitha Krishnan at TEDIndia in Mysore, Bangalore this November. Sunita speech was probably the most moving talk of the three days session at the Infosys campus. Sunita Krishan herself was a victim of sexual slavery but has now dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.


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