Daily Times

Sir: Understanding violence against women is as complex as the concept itself that manifests itself in many ways, many of which may be physical or psychological. The first kind is easy to acknowledge as it can be seen and therefore be remedied. The second, however, comes in various forms and not many would consider it as an offence in Pakistani society. Gender discrimination and hegemonic trends in relationships and institutions are still very rigid and unbending just like in olden times. The question arises as to why our society never arose from an ignorant state of existence to an exalted one, where women may be looked upon as fellow human beings, who can experience an equal degree of happiness, pain, humiliation, anger, etc, instead of being a gender-specific entity that is categorised, or rather sub-categorised, as a human of an inferior variety.

In Pakistan, domestic violence is considered a private matter, as it occurs in the family and, therefore, is not deemed an appropriate focus for assessment or intervention. Women have to face discrimination and violence on a daily basis due to the cultural and religious norms that Pakistani society embraces. According to an estimate, approximately 70 to 90 percent of Pakistani women are subjected to domestic violence. Some common types of violence include honour killing, spousal abuse including marital rape, acid attack and being burned alive. Spousal abuse is rarely considered a crime socially, unless it takes the extreme form of murder or attempted murder, which could range from driving a woman to suicide or engineering an accident.
The entire scenario clearly reflects that violence against women is an enormous public health and social problem in Pakistan, which has never been appropriately responded to or dealt with by the government. According to experts, the reason why violence against women is still on the rise is because the social environment shapes the behaviour of an individual human being. It must be noted that nothing will change until women are seen as anything other than subservient and compliant victims. A woman is still looked upon as inferior by the man and thus she always stands as second to the man. Change needs to arrive not only at the individual level but also at the societal level so that it changes the entire culture where the status of a woman should be based on humanitarian and Islamic grounds and not on male-dependent conventions. It is my belief that if a woman is respected in a culture, she is less likely to be abused.
AMNA MALIK
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