By: Nayab Iqbal
Despite the increasing cases of rape, murder, and abuse, authorities failed to reach any plausible solution for ensuring the protection of women.
Violence against women is a severe violation of basic human rights, which remains a major hurdle in ensuring equality, and socio-economic development. The existing discrimination and violence against women the roots in the historically unequal distribution of power between men and women. While violence against women is more prominent in some social contexts, it remains a global phenomenon. Women living in different parts of the world remain vulnerable to encountering discrimination, harassment, physical, and sexual violence irrespective of their education level, social and economic background.
However, women belonging to special groups like minorities, refugees, migrants, and those living in remote communities are more at risk of experiencing a severe form of gender-based violence. Besides, due to the pandemic, the existing gender gap between men and women in terms of access to employment and economic opportunities has also increased manifolds resulting in hindering women’s chances of achieving socio-economic development and empowerment.
Numerous cases of violence against women have been reported from Pakistan this year. Domestic violence surged due to the lockdown restrictions as many women were forced to live with their abusers. In addition to being overworked, and exhausted, women remained vulnerable to encountering different forms of physical and sexual abuse within their homes with nowhere to escape after workplaces and educational institutes remained closed for a couple of months.
Despite the increasing cases of rape, murder, and abuse, authorities failed to reach any plausible solution for ensuring the protection of women. After the motorway gang-rape case sparked national outrage, the police officials and the relevant authorities pledged to take serious actions against the culprit, however, atrocities against women continued across the country. A two-year-old child was raped, and brutally murdered in Charsadda, while a woman in Sargodha was gang-raped in front of her children and husband. In Rawalpindi, a young girl was stripped and filmed by three men, and another young girl in Darra Adam Khel was murdered by her family in the name of honor.
While the government in Pakistan has recently taken measures for eliminating violence against women after introducing an ordinance whereby rapists would be chemically castrated, real change and reforms are far from being identified and implemented. The same is the case with our neighboring country, India, where violence against women remains a common phenomenon. However, the recent murder case of a Muslim woman who was burned to death by a Hindu man after she refused to marry him has shaken the world. Many women rights activists and human rights organizations in India demanded immediate arrest and punishment of the accused, however, such instances of violence against women shall continue until a holistic approach is taken to identify the root cause of the issue and address the existing loopholes in the law and order mechanisms.
The situation of women belonging to socially lower class such as Dalit is far from worse. According to a study, Dalit women in northern India are raped by upper-caste men who use it as a weapon to reinforce the existing caste and gender hierarchy.
Nevertheless, violence against women is not only limited to the developing nations, but it exists as a global phenomenon where even women belonging to advanced societies remain at risk of undergoing severe forms of violence and abuse. The first report on Femicide Census published in the UK reveals that every three days, a woman is killed by a man in the country.
Considering the severity of the crimes committed against women, there exists a dire need for collective and consistent efforts by the world governments to address and solve the issue of gender-based violence. The governments must allocate a separate budget for eliminating violence against women. Massive awareness campaigns highlighting the vulnerable living conditions of women in detention, or those belonging to minorities and refugee’s communities remains the need of the hour. Gender sensitization training of the police and other officials involved in handling the cases of violence against women is yet another crucial step that must be taken so that women are no more reluctant to report any form of abuse.
The culture of blaming and shaming the victims needs to be completely eradicated where women are no more questioned, and blamed for horrific incidents like rape and domestic violence. It is high time that real efforts are made at all levels for ensuring the safety, protection, and development of women across the world.
The writer is a Ph.D. scholar and an educationist by profession. Currently, she works as an English Lecturer and a Freelance Writer. She can be reached on Twitter @NayabIqbal12.